Finland’s education system, basic income experiment, appeal as a travel destination and possible membership in Nato were the most dominant themes in global media reports about the country in 2016, finds a survey conducted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

China's President Xi Jinping, on the way to his eagerly awaited first encounter with Donald Trump, met his Finnish counterpart in Helsinki Wednesday, extending Beijing's famed "panda diplomacy" to Finland. The two sides agreed to carry out "cooperative panda research" and "make the pandas messengers of friendship between our two countries," Xi said at a joint press conference in Helsinki.

A key component of this initiative is the plan to increase the number of female mediators in peace processes. The government is trying, among other means, to achieve this by creating a network of female mediators. In addition, Sweden is part of the network of Nordic Women Mediators, a network of women from the Nordic countries with professional mediation and negotiations experience.

Earlier this month saw the world’s first celebration of all things emoji, Emojicon. The brainchild of Jennifer 8. Lee and designer Yiying Lu, founders of Emojination, and produced by Jeanne Brooks, the convention aimed to promote diversity and representation within emoji. It also brought together designers, enthusiasts, and members of the Unicode consortium.

Finland became the first country in the world to unveil a collection of national emojis in December, 2015. Finland is set to become the first country in the world to have its own country-themed emojis added to the Unicode Standard. [...] are likely to be introduced to the emoji keyboards of smart devices around the world next June.