Switzerland

The northern lights, aurora borealis, were spotted again in Switzerland on Sunday evening. The colourful natural spectacle was also expected on Monday night – at least where the sky was clear, according to the weather service MeteoNews.

Auroras are rare in the Alpine region, MeteoNews wrote in a statement on Sunday evening. They are usually seen in the polar regions.

The colourful phenomenon was already visible in Switzerland on the night of September 24 to 25. The reason for this was the strong solar activity, the Federal Office of Meteorology said at the time.

Auroras are caused by an interaction between charged particles from space and the Earth’s atmosphere. They are triggered by the so-called solar wind. This consists of charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, which are ejected from the sun. ...

They are demanding that President Rifa'at Lenzin clarify her position on the Swiss-Palestinian Association (SPA).

The Interreligious Working Group in Switzerland IRAS COTIS, an association of 70 religious communities, has suffered a setback. The two Jewish representatives on the committee have decided to resign from the association in protest. They are demanding that President Rifa'at Lenzin take a clear stand on the Swiss-Palestinian Association (SPA).

The Secretary General of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), Jonathan Kreutner, confirmed to the Keystone-SDA press agency on Sunday the information published in an article in the NZZ am Sonntag. He criticised Rifa'at Lenzin for her links with the Swiss-Palestinian Association. ...

Nicolas Betticher wants the Federal Council to intervene with the Pope in favour of an independent Swiss court to deal with cases of abuse in the Catholic Church.

"In my opinion, only then will we have a chance of having an independent court," says Father Nicolas Betticher. Betticher is considered a whistleblower because he initiated an investigation into alleged abuse against three bishops and an abbot with a letter to the papal nunciature in Bern.

In an interview with the SonntagsZeitung newspaper on Sunday, the former vicar general of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg and current parish priest in Bern said that he would like to obtain a Swiss special right from the Pope in order to "finally credibly" deal with the abuse scandal that came to light in September. ...

Switzerland is not doing enough to combat human trafficking, according to expert Julia Kuruc. Checks on building sites in particular leave much to be desired.

"Checks are nowhere near as strict as we would like," said Kuruc in an article published in the SonntagsBlick paper on Sunday. Until the end of October, she ran the safeguarding programme for victims of human trafficking at the Zurich Support Centre for Women Victims of Trafficking and Migration.

“Swiss construction companies are not very careful when they use subcontractors, as the pressure in the sector is massive," said Kuruc. As a result, no one takes a close look at the conditions under which construction workers actually work.

Workers from south-eastern Europe are lured to Switzerland by false promises of high wages, added the expert. "They don't get an employment contract, and in the end they are deducted huge sums for board and lodging," she says. These people can't defend themselves because they don't know the local language or Swiss laws, and they end up in debt. ...

Hundreds of people demonstrated against the state of the housing market in the city of Zurich on Saturday.

The demonstrators marched peacefully from Turbinenplatz to Helvetiaplatz. Various speeches denounced the housing shortage and rents with high profits - as well as capitalism in general.

There was no major damage to property or attacks on the police. The demonstrators only symbolically smashed a "rent shark" they had brought with them.

The police limited themselves to cordoning off the streets in the direction of the railway station and allowed the authorised demonstration to proceed through districts 4 and 5. It lasted a good three hours and broke up at Helvetiaplatz at around 6pm. Traffic and various bus and tram lines were disrupted for a long time. ...

Thousands of people demonstrated their solidarity with the Palestinians at the parliament square in Bern on Saturday.

Demonstrators travelled to Bern from all over Switzerland. The large square in front of the federal parliament filled up quickly. Because it was raining heavily and the participants were sheltering under umbrellas, it was difficult to estimate their numbers. The organisers claim around 10,000 participants.

At the pro-Palestinian rally, participants called for an end to the violence in Gaza. Speakers emphasised that they deplored the violence and civilian casualties on all sides.

Nevertheless, hardly anyone giving speeches made secret of the fact that Israel is seen as the occupying power of the Palestinian territories, which must ultimately be liberated. Speakers accused the state of Israel of operating an apartheid system and ethnic cleansing. They claimed the system only works because the US and European nations provide financial and military aid.

The rally participants chanted "Israel Terrorist" as well as the controversial slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". The slogan has been labelled anti-Semitic by Israelis, as it denies Israel's right to exist. ...

This year's potato harvest has been disappointing with growers expecting a drop of around a third compared with recent years.

Yields are still difficult to estimate at the moment. The final figures will not be known until early December, Ruedi Fischer, President of the Swiss Potato Growers' Association (USPPT), told press agency Keystone-SDA.

But it is already clear that there will be "above-average losses that we have never seen before", he added, referring to an article in the German-language agricultural information service (LID). According to current forecasts, there could be a shortfall of 100,000 tonnes, particularly of potatoes for processed products such as chips. The situation is slightly better for table potatoes. ...

A regional association has announced that it is lodging a pre-emptive objection to the new buildings intended to house the F-35 fighter jets at Payerne airfield.

"It has to be said that the applicable procedure has not yet been followed," said the regional community association of Broye (Communauté régionale de la Broye) in a press release issued on Friday. It deplores the fact that the Federal Department of Defence has put its construction project out to tender while the procedure for amending the military sectoral plan has not yet begun.

This procedure must, among other things, produce an environmental impact assessment of the new aircraft and examine the noise they will generate. It also involves consultation with the people, municipalities and cantons concerned. The local stakeholders stressed their desire to be involved in the procedure as "partners", rather than being "presented with a fait accompli". ...

All six Social Democrat candidates vying to succeed Interior Minister Alain Berset in the governing Federal Council are eligible.

This was the conclusion of the Social Democratic Party's independent review committee, which has carried out an in-depth examination of the candidatures.

The candidates were examined from the point of view of their personal and political abilities and potential security risks, the party said in a press release on Saturday.

On Monday, Matthias Aebischer, Evi Allemann, Beat Jans, Daniel Jositsch, Roger Nordmann and Jon Pult will present themselves to party members and the general public at four public hearings. ...

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is launching a people’s initiative to get Switzerland to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

ICAN plans to work on the exact content of the initiative by the end of the year in order to begin the preliminary examination by the Federal Chancellery at the beginning of 2024. According to the Geneva-based alliance, it is convinced that Switzerland can and should make an important contribution to the global abolition of nuclear weapons.

Switzerland is already a member of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This treaty includes a ban on the proliferation of nuclear weapons, a commitment to disarmament and the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Last year, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force alongside the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Switzerland is not a signatory of this treaty. The official and de facto nuclear powers as well as the NATO states, with the exception of the Netherlands, did not take part in the negotiations and did not sign the treaty. ...

The slope of the Zermatt-Cervinia men's World Cup downhill races was built outside the boundaries of the ski area.

This was the conclusion of the Valais Cantonal Construction Commission (CCC), which prohibited the use of the encroached space. The race can now be held as planned.

Only safety nets 'can exceptionally be tolerated' in this area for the occasion, writes the CCC. This is 'applying the principle of proportionality and considering the temporary nature of the event'.

After having had to postpone its trip a first time, the CCC was able to travel to the Teodulo glacier in Zermatt to ascertain the facts, accompanied by an engineering and surveying firm. The authority pointed out that the slope 'initially proposed by the organisers was entirely within the ski area'. On site, however, the groomed slope was found to be too wide along the start area of the men's race. ...

The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) has spoken out against the recent suspension of Swiss aid to 11 Palestinian and Israeli NGOs.

"This is a dangerous decision,” said ICHR Director General Anmar al-Dwaik on Friday. "We are very worried" and "we are very disappointed" by this move by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), he told correspondents accredited to the UN in Geneva. The ICHR itself receives funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), but is not affected by this decision.

The national human rights institution in Palestine also deplores the publication of the list of NGOs online by the Swiss authorities, before it was later withdrawn. These organisations, both Israeli and Palestinian, which work on the Palestinian question, have for several years been the victims of campaigns of denigration and restrictions by the Hebrew state," says al-Dwaik. He called on Switzerland to reconsider this decision. ...

The Graubünden Public Prosecutor's Office has closed the criminal proceedings opened after Gino Mäder's fatal accident during the Tour de Suisse.

Mäder had suffered a terrible fall on June 15 on the descent of the Albula pass. He died of his injuries the following day in Chur hospital.

No third party was found to be responsible for the rider's death.

Witness testimonies, the examination of the bike and the autopsy ruled out any external cause of the accident. The public prosecutor also noted that the officials responsible for safety had done their duty.

A citizen initiative to limit the use of noisy fireworks handed in over 136,000 signatures to the Federal Chancellery in Bern on Friday.

The signatures were deposited in Bern after 18 months of collection, the initiative committee said in a press release. The text still has to be discussed by the Swiss government and parliament before being put to a popular vote.

The committee said a peak in signature-collection followed the firework-friendly dates of August 1 (Swiss national day) and the New Year.

However, a great deal of work was required to inform the public about the reasons for the initiative, which was often perceived as “a pure and simple ban on fireworks”. ...

A survey of Swiss doctors this week confirmed the trends towards more stress, longer waiting times for patients, and growing concerns about staff shortages.

Switzerland has one of the world’s best – and costliest – healthcare systems. But it too has its limits, especially faced with a growing and ageing population. How do doctors deal with the pressure? The gfs.bern research institute, commissioned by the Swiss Medical Association (FMH), asked 1,700 of them. Here are some of the main findings.

The country is facing a ‘dramatic’ shortage of doctors

Around two-thirds of doctors surveyed – and 73% in psychiatric fields – say a shortage of qualified staff is a “rather serious” or “very serious” issue, and the figure is rising. After a decade of stability (the survey has been done annually since 2011), the situation since 2020 has seen two trends: on the one hand, doctors say recruitment is becoming more difficult, while on the other hand, they increasingly fear that there are no longer enough staff in hospitals and clinics to guarantee adequate care.

In a press release this week, the FMH said Switzerland currently lacks around 5,000 doctors and some 15,000 nursing staff. And while the education system aims to churn out 1,300 newly qualified doctors each year, medical specialists reckon this isn’t enough, especially given a looming wave of baby boomer retirements; more than a quarter of doctors in Switzerland are now over 60. Earlier this month, FMH director Yvonne Gilli said a “dramatic” situation was shaping up.

Hospitals are heavily reliant on foreign medical staff

But is it another luxury Swiss problem? The situation doesn’t – at least for now – look so bad on paper. In 2021, Switzerland boasted 4.4 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, placing it towards the upper end of the scale for developed nations, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. As for nurses, Switzerland has the second-highest density in the world behind Finland, at 18.4 per 1,000 inhabitants.

But to maintain this situation – faced with an ageing population and the impending retirement wave – it relies on immigrants and cross-border workers. Almost four in ten doctors are from abroad, just over half of them from Germany. As well as dependence, this can raise moral questions, Jana Siroka from the FMH told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper this week: “we can’t plug our holes with workers from abroad forever; such poaching with higher salaries is unethical,” she said. ...

Last year, some 85% of the Swiss population reported feeling healthy, and 83% happy, according to new statistics. Mental health problems are however on the rise.

According to Switzerland’s largest health survey, which is published every five years by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), 18-24-year-olds and especially young women have been particularly affected by psychological problems.

Overall, people suffering from psychological distress rose from 15% in 2017 to 18% in 2022, the survey found. The figure for young women was 29%.

The proportion of smokers meanwhile fell from 27% in 2017 to 24% in 2022. E-cigarettes and other alternatives to traditional cigarettes were mainly smoked by young adults. Alcohol consumption has halved since 1992 – when the first of these surveys was carried out – and habits have changed: people drink less, but binge more. ...

Mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox) has been circulating among humans since 2016. This discovery represents a paradigm shift, a research team with Swiss participation wrote in the “Science” journal on Thursday.

“The origin of the surprising epidemic of 2022 therefore dates back some time,” study co-author Richard Neher from the University of Basel told the Keystone-ATS news agency.

Until recently, mpox was considered a zoonotic disease, that is, transmitted by animals. After the first cases in humans were discovered in the 1970s, most subsequent episodes have been considered isolated transmissions, with only a few affected people in the human population.

But the situation changed in 2022: the fact that mpox suddenly appeared outside countries where infected animals were known indicated that the spread of the virus was no longer just a zoonotic infection.

More mutations than expected

The research team analysedExternal link the genetic sequences of the 2018 and 2022 monkeypox viruses and found that the DNA sequences differed more than expected. ...

Swiss authorities and lenders, including UBS, are discussing new measures to prevent bank runs after Credit Suisse’s last-ditch rescue earlier this year, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The talks, which have not been previously reported and are part of a broader review of the country’s banking rules, are intended for the top Swiss banks and could target mainly their wealth clients, two of the sources said.

Among measures being discussed is the option to stagger a greater portion of withdrawals over longer periods of time, one of the sources said. Imposing fees on exits is also an alternative being discussed, two of the sources said.

Rewarding clients who tie up their savings for longer with higher interest rates is being debated, one of the sources said.

Discussions are in the early stages, according to two sources. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Swiss finance ministry are part of the conversations with lenders, one source said.

A representative for the finance ministry said that the issue of bank runs is part of an overall evaluation of the too-big-to-fail regulatory framework in Switzerland. The Swiss government is due to publish a report in spring next year, he added.

The SNB said the review of too-big-to-fail rules, which focuses on so-called systemically important banks, is ongoing. The central bank declined to comment on ongoing work.

UBS declined to comment. ...

The countries on Europe's external borders face persistent challenges in terms of migration. On a visit to Greece, Justice Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider reiterated the importance of reforming the European asylum system.

The migratory pressure on Greece has repercussions for the entire Schengen area, and therefore also for Switzerland. Reforms and international support for Greece, including from Switzerland, have helped to improve its management of migratory flows, asylum procedures and reception conditions on the Aegean islands in recent years.

On Thursday, Baume-Schneider and the Greek Minister for Asylum and Migration, Dimitris Kairidis, discussed border protection and respect for human rights. The Swiss minister reaffirmed Switzerland's commitment to the reform of the European asylum system.

Vulnerable women and minors

The working visit was an opportunity to take part in the launch of the joint project Athens Solidarity Center. This structure, run by a local organisation, helps refugees and asylum seekers by providing them with social assistance, legal advice or psychological support, and by acting as an intermediary with potential employers.

Switzerland is funding the project with a total of CHF2.37 million over three years. ...

Seven Swiss nationals have left the Gaza Strip for Egypt as for Thursday afternoon. Six of them are dual nationals, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis announced on X (formerly Twitter). He expressed relief.

At the Rafah border crossing, staff members of the Swiss embassy in Cairo met the seven citizens, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The embassy staff looked after them as part of their role providing consular protection.

As far as the foreign ministry is aware, there is still one Palestinian with Swiss citizenship in the Gaza Strip who is waiting to leave. Four dual nationals have decided to stay temporarily.

According to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, 400 foreigners and Palestinians with dual citizenship left Rafah on Thursday and another 200 people with foreign passports were scheduled to leave the same day.

In addition to Swiss nationals, the majority of those who had already left on Thursday were Americans. There were also people from Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Croatia, Mexico, South Korea and other countries.

In the transit area, they completed formalities for entry into Egypt, said Raed Abdel Nasser, Secretary General of the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai. The Palestinian border authority had asked them to wait at the border crossing. ...

The Russian "hacktivists" who attacked Swiss government websites last spring, notably around the time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Swiss parliament, were politically motivated, says the National Centre for Cyber Security (NCSC).

A first cyber attack in June followed a decision by the Senate on the Federal Law on War Materiel. The Senate wanted to authorise the re-export of war materiel purchased in Switzerland, subject to certain conditions. In response, Russian "hacktivists" launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the parliamentary website, with the aim of overloading it with requests and making it unavailable to users, the NCSC said on Thursday in its half-yearly report.

The trigger for a second attack in June was the announcement of Zelensky's virtual address to the Swiss parliament. The hackers broadened their targets: some sites of the federal administration, former federal agencies such as the Swiss Federal Railways and Swiss Post, major companies, banks, a number of airports and towns and cantons were hit on June 12 or the following days. ...

A record 50% of workers in Switzerland are not afraid of losing their jobs. Nevertheless, burnout is at an all-time high, says the Working Conditions Barometer 2023.

More than 820,000 people are considering changing jobs because of stress and psychological strain at work, compared to 650,000 in 2022, says the barometer, published on Thursday by Travail.Suisse, an independent umbrella organisation for employees, and the Bern University of Applied Sciences.

More than one in three workers say they are often or very often too exhausted to look after their private affairs, a record proportion that has already been rising in recent years. ...

The damage caused by the freight train accident in the Gotthard Base Tunnel on August 10 was “much greater than expected”, estimated at CHF100 million-130 million. A normal rail service will not resume before September 2024.

“The railway line must be completely replaced over 7 km,” Swiss Federal Railways SBB/CFF said on Thursday. The repair work “will take much longer than expected.”

SBB/CFF had initially hoped to complete repair work by the end of this year. But after clearing the damaged freight trains and track, the company says it will have to wait until September 2024 for passenger and freight trains to be able to run again without restrictions.

Total damage to the tunnel and rail infrastructure is estimated at CHF100million-130 million, including loss of income. SBB/CFF says it is insured for this kind of event.

The company is looking at how to speed up the work. Goods traffic was able to gradually resume in the eastern tube of the tunnel, which remained intact, on August 23. And since September 30, certain passenger trains have circulated in the base tunnel - the longest in the world - at reduced speed.

As soon as the timetable changes on December 10, the SBB/CFF intends to run more faster passenger trains in the tunnel. Around 80 SBB/CFF workers and third-party companies are working around the clock to complete the repairs. ...

Swiss inflation stalled in October, delaying an anticipated rebound and strengthening the case for Swiss National Bank (SNB) officials to hold interest rates steady when they meet next month.

Consumer prices rose 1.7% from a year earlier, matching both the September reading and the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Heating oil and air transport were the main drivers, with women’s coats and imported wine also contributing. At the same time falling costs for hotels, gasoline and vegetables kept price increases in check. Underlying inflation, which strips out volatile elements like energy, jumped to 1.5% from 1.3%, Switzerland’s statistics agency said on Thursday.

After slowing over the summer, the central bank and most economists expect price pressures to amplify over the coming months, setting up the gauge to again touch or even cross the 2% ceiling limiting the range the SNB equates with price stability.

The central bank’s interest-rate aggression might have temporarily damped prices, yet higher costs of electricity, rents and public transport, combined with a boost in value-added tax are driving inflation. Power prices alone are set to rise an average 18% in January. ...

The Swiss government says the current strength of Switzerland’s army must not decrease in view of the current geopolitical situation.

On Wednesday, the Federal Council instructed the Federal Department of Defence to present a project to enable it to temporarily increase the maximum strength of the army as prescribed in the law.

The Swiss army currently has 147,000 soldiers in service. But under Swiss law, the regular workforce is set at 100,000, up to a maximum of 140,000. Thanks to a transitional provision, these numbers ​​could be exceeded until the end of 2022.

But to ensure it conforms with the law, the army has been forced to release certain soldiers who have completed their military training. ...