One of Helsingin Sanomat's most-read articles on Monday morning features an interview with Aisha Mahmood (SDP), who HS notes is the capital's "youngest politician".

Born in Finland of Pakistani descent, the 19-year-old is a deputy councillor on the city's Education Committee after receiving over 500 votes in last spring's local election.

Having only graduated from high school last year, Mahmood has a fresh perspective on Finland's recent move to ban mobile phones from classrooms and tells HS she wants to speak for young people on this issue.

"School should not be a prison," she says. "Recess breaks are an opportunity for children to take a breather, to have their own time. Even if phones are banned, the same applications can anyway be opened on a laptop."

Her comments follow recent debate in Finland over whether kids should be given their phones back at breaktimes, or if a full-day ban is more effective.

Mahmood notes further that, in her view, children used to be more active and far less screen-reliant — but the Covid pandemic changed all that.

"Chief physicians and educators are horrified at how young people are constantly on their mobile phones and have so much screen time. But hey, during the coronavirus period, young people were forced into remote learning, isolation and onto computers and mobile phones," she says, adding that the apps offered an escape.

"TikTok was a fun place to make dance videos and try to forget about world events. And that's where we've stayed."

Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Agony and ecstasy

Tabloid Iltalehti's sports pages cover all the thrills and spills of the past weekend, with a big win for Finland on the basketball court but a disappointing defeat on the football field.

Starting with the bad news, Finland's men's football team and their opponents Poland went into Sunday evening's game in Chorzów tied on seven points apiece in World Cup qualifying group G.

A win, or even a draw, would have been a huge boost to Finland's efforts to qualify for a world cup finals tournament for the very first time — but a 3-1 defeat means that dream is "no longer realistic", IL writes.

"Finland needs a completely bizarre set of results to have any chance of qualifying for the World Cup," the paper quotes Yle's commentator Matti Härkönen as saying.

There is better news for fans of Finnish basketball however, as Finland's "wolf pack" advanced to the quarter finals of the European basketball championship with a thrilling 92-86 win over Serbia on Saturday evening.

IL reports that Finland's opponents for that tie were confirmed late on Sunday evening: Lauri Markkanen and his teammates will face Georgia, who beat France 80-70 in their Round of 16 game.

Finland v Georgia will be played in Riga at 5pm Finnish time on Wednesday, IL adds.

Moon magic

Many newspapers also carry photo galleries of the total lunar eclipse that was in the skies over some parts of Finland on Sunday evening.

Ilta-Sanomat writes that the rare "blood moon" phenomenon was at least partially visible from every continent, and it collected photos from readers around Finland.

This effect occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow and takes on a deep red hue.

IS adds that a total lunar eclipse is quite rare, and the last time it was visible over Finland was in January 2019.