Switzerland

The use of video on demand (VoD) on streaming platforms such as Netflix remained virtually unchanged between 2022 and 2021.

The pandemic represented a boom period for watching films at home: growth rates were over 50% in 2019 and 2020, and 19% in 2021. With a strong presence on VoD platforms, European and American films account for 39% and 41% respectively of the total supply in 2022, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Friday.

Compared with 2019, the proportion of European films has risen by 40%, to almost 14,400 films.

American films still rule the roost

Between 2019 and 2020, the number of American films increased by 16%, and has since stabilised at around 15,000. However, on the demand side, American productions are still predominant, with a share of usage of up to 79%, depending on the type of VoD.

Swiss films accounted for less than 3% of the supply. They generated up to 1% of usage.

Animation not documentaries

While animated films represented only 4% of the total VoD offer last year, they generated 14% of film purchases, 12% of rentals and 11% of viewings via subscription and streaming services.

The opposite trend can be observed for documentaries: they represented between 8% and 10% of the VoD offering but generated only between 1% and 4% of usage.

A people’s initiative, which aims to reduce compulsory radio and television licence fees has won over 61% of Swiss citizens, a survey revealed on Friday.

Only 36% of those questioned rejected it, while 3% had no opinion, according to the survey conducted by the Tamedia group and 20 Minutes news outlet in collaboration with the LeeWas institute and published on Friday.

The divide between genders and ages is not very marked, but political party affiliations showed strong disparities. While 87% of UDC respondents and 75% of PLR respondents support the text, only 35% of Socialists and 29% of Greens support it.

The survey was conducted between September 19 and 20 and polled 29,081 people. The margin of error is plus or minus 1%.

Following on from the "No licence fee" initiative widely rejected in 2018 by 71.6% of voters, the new initiative by the Swiss People’s Party, the Swiss Union of Arts and Crafts (usam) and the young Radicals calls for the licence fee to be reduced from CHF335 to CHF200 per year. The initiative also calls for the abolition of company fees. The date of the vote has not yet been set.

The watchmaking giant Swatch Group has acquired a building in central London for CHF90 million ($98.5 million).

The property, described by the Swiss horological giant as "prestigious", is located at 171 New Bond Street, one of the most luxurious thoroughfares in the English capital, just a stone's throw from Piccadilly Circus.

Since 2006, the building has housed a boutique belonging to the American watch and jewellery brand Harry Winston, which was acquired by the Swatch Group in 2013. The building, which dates back to 1856, has a surface area of 562 square metres spread over five floors, the world's number one watchmaker said on Friday.

“In the first half of this year, the Group had already acquired a prime 1347 m2 property at 32 to 33 Old Bond Street for around CHF 120 million, and a store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris,” stated the company’s press release.

For the time being, there is no agreement in the dispute over tourism posters on the fence of the Polish ambassador’s residence in Bern. Poland sees this as a contribution to international understanding, while the city of Bern sees it as a violation of the law.

"Poland is a beautiful country, which I have already visited several times and which I can only recommend to others," city council member Reto Nause told the press agency Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday. "Nevertheless, the city's advertising regulations and the cantonal regulations also apply to embassies."

The legal situation is clear, he said. "Billboards for this type of advertising on the fence are not eligible for approval. We will communicate this to the Polish embassy".

The posters had become a public issue through a report by public radio SRF. The Polish embassy stated that the posters had been hanging on the outer fence of the residence for a year.

The images of beautiful landscapes were intended to bring Poland closer to the local population and build new bridges between the two countries, according to the embassy. But the "exhibition" is also a gesture to the residents of the neighbourhood. It serves as an inspiration and invitation to Poland.

It has met with an extremely positive response from the people of Bern. If a building permit is required for the posters, the Polish state will apply for it at a later date.

Switzerland is no role model

Polish Ambassador Iwona Kozlowska says she was inspired by the Swiss Embassy in Warsaw. The embassy has put up Swiss advertising posters on the fence in a prime location.

The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) admitted that it had not obtained permission from the Warsaw authorities to do so. "Attaching posters to embassy fences is practised by numerous embassies in Warsaw," said a FDFA spokesperson. So far, there has been no objection from the city of Warsaw.

According to SRF, there are other embassies in Bern that have installed posters on their fences. If the city becomes aware of further cases, "we will proceed in the same way and inform these embassies of the applicable regulations", said city councillor Nause.

A stable situation in the Balkans is important for Switzerland, stated Alain Berset shortly before the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) in Granada, Spain.

An attack by Serbian paramilitaries on Kosovar police officers was at the root of the recent tensions between Serbia and Kosovo. Serbia has also deployed troops on the border with Kosovo.

However, the situation between Serbia and Kosovo has been tense for a long time: "This is nothing new," Alain Berset told press agency Keystone-SDA in Granada on Thursday.

Switzerland's only summit in Europe

In recent weeks, Berset has held talks with both Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Attempts at diplomatic mediation between Serbia and Kosovo are also planned on the sidelines of the Granada summit.

The Swiss president also stressed the importance of such summits for maintaining contacts with other European heads of state and government. He has a number of bilateral meetings planned, and is trying as far as possible to speak with each of them. This is the only summit in Europe to which Switzerland has been invited at the level of both head of state and government.

At the end of 2022, there will be around four million private households in Switzerland. More than a third of them are inhabited by just one person.

Just under 30% of households each comprise couples without children and couples with at least one child under 25. The average household has 2.18 persons.

Thus, 17% of the resident population lives in one-person households, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday. Since 1970, the number of these households has more than tripled. Over the same period, the number of households with children under 25 has remained stable.

In the vast majority of households with children under 25, parents live together as a couple. Single-parent households account for about one-sixth of households with children.

In 73% of couple households with children, the parents are married couples. In one-tenth, the parents live in a consensual partnership. Same-sex couples with children account for 0.1%.

The traditional household form of the married couple with one or more children is most widespread in central Switzerland. Non-traditional household forms are more common in western Switzerland and in the urban canton of Basel City. The cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel and Vaud have the highest number of single-parent households.

The recovery of the Swiss hotel industry continued in August. The industry can therefore look back on successful summer business and remains on record this year.

In August, the number of overnight stays increased by 2.4% to 4.6 million compared to the same month last year, as the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) announced on Thursday. This is also an increase of 2.6% compared to August of the last pre-Corona year 2019.

The increase is due to foreign tourists. The number of overnight stays by guests from abroad increased by 9.4% to 2.5 million compared to August 2022.

However, bookings among Swiss guests declined. The decline was 4.8% to 2.1 million overnight stays, as the FSO figures show. This confirms what local tourism experts feared: Mr and Mrs Swiss increasingly moved away again, especially in the summer.

Nevertheless, the Swiss hotel industry is still on course for records. Overall, overnight stays from January to August increased by 10.2% to 28.8 million compared to 2022. Above all, there has been an increase of 3.4% so far compared to the record year of 2019.

The exodus of the Swiss faithful accelerated further following the sexual abuse scandal. In Fribourg alone, no less than 500 people have left the Catholic Church in the last three weeks. The institution, which depends on ecclesiastical taxes, is worried about its future.

“For personal reasons, I no longer wish to be subject to church tax.” Jérémy Stauffacher, an independent lawyer, no longer wishes to pay for the Catholic Church, which he made known last week in a letter addressed to his parish.

If the lawyer had already been thinking about it for some time, the latest cases of sexual abuse pushed him to give up the services of the institution.

“The letter had been ready for a while, I had typed it on my computer,” he told Swiss public broadcaster RTS. “And ultimately, the events that took place served as a trigger for me, without it necessarily being a vendetta against the Church.”

And Jérémy Stauffacher is not the only one to distance himself from the institution. Over the last three weeks, 500 baptized people have left the Church, in the canton of Friborg alone. This is a record, since it represents a third of annual releases.

Widespread disatisfaction

Hundreds of faithful also left the Church in the cities of St Gallen, Lucerne, Basel and Zurich. In Valais, there are 15 for the current year, including 12 in recent weeks.

This erosion has accelerated, but it has been eating away at the institution for a long time. In ten years, departures have really jumped in Switzerland, going from 13,809 in 2011 to 34,182 in 2021.

The general secretary of the Catholic Ecclesiastical Corporation of the canton of Fribourg, David Neuhaus, regrets that the acceleration of these departures occurs while the Catholic Church is trying to shed all light on its past.

The University of Zurich study documenting more than 1,000 cases of sexual abuse was indeed commissioned by three Catholic bodies, including the Swiss Bishops' Conference. Sad feeling

“It is at a time when the Catholic Church, by commissioning this study, is in search of the truth that people are massively leaving the Church,” he laments. “And for us, it’s a very sad feeling.”

The Church, which depends on ecclesiastical taxes, is worried about its future. According to David Neuhaus, without the revenue from these taxes, many services can no longer be provided.

“We have many tasks linked to solidarity, to diaconia, therefore helping others, the fight against precariousness, at the level of chaplaincies, helping people at the end of their lives,” he lists. “This is all that we preterite when we leave the Church.”

According to a projection from the Ecoplan research office, the Swiss Catholic Church will no longer be able to compensate for the reduction in taxes from 2030 if it does not take measures.

Last week the Swiss Post said it had sent out more than five million voting envelopes for the federal elections on October 22.

This amounted to around 2,000 tonnes of material, which was distributed around the country by almost 400 lorry loads.

In almost all cantons the envelope weighed 500g, Swiss Post wrote in a statement on Wednesday. Because uniform delivery deadlines apply throughout Switzerland for the elections, Swiss Post had to process the material within a week. The sorting machines were in operation almost non-stop for a fortnight. After that, the distribution was carried out by the postal workers.

Because about half of voters cast their ballots by post, there will be a large return of envelopes, which the Swiss Post employees will have to process again. Swiss Post assumes that more than one million envelopes with completed ballot papers will be returned to the municipalities by post, depending on the turnout.

To ensure that the ballots reach the polling stations on time, Swiss Post recommends sending the ballot papers either by A Mail no later than October 19 or by B Mail no later than October 17. B Mail items posted on Wednesday October 18 or later will not arrive at the municipality until after the election weekend and will therefore not be counted.

Researchers in Switzerland have developed a method for predicting the reaction of individual cells to certain active substances.

This knowledge of the individual reaction of individual cells is a key to more effective cancer therapies, the federal technology institute ETH Zurich said in a statement on Wednesday.

The new method, which is based on machine learning, was presented by researchers from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich in the scientific journal Nature Methods.

According to the paper, the predictions of the reactions of individual cells are made on the basis of cell samples. They ultimately indicate how well a patient’s cells respond to a drug.

“Instead of relying on average values of an entire cell population, our method can precisely describe and even predict how individual cells react to a disturbance, such as by an active substance,” study leader Gunnar Rätsch from ETH Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich explained. This makes more precise therapies and diagnoses possible.

However, comprehensive clinical studies are still necessary before the method can be used in clinical practice. So far, the researchers have proven that the method provides accurate predictions. In addition, according to the university, the researchers were able to show that the cancer cells also work with other disease-causing cells. For example, in the autoimmune disease lupus erythematosus.

The EU Parliament in Strasbourg has adopted a report on Switzerland calling for “more trust between the EU and Switzerland based on greater transparency”.

On Wednesday the European parliamentarians (MEPs) approved the report by 538 votes to 42 with 43 abstentions and regretted that the Swiss government would not decide on a negotiating mandate until the end of 2023 and referred to “the short window of opportunity” because of the European elections in mid-2024. They called on both sides to reach an agreement by then.

However, as long as there is no agreement on the deal package, numerous bilateral agreements between the EU and Switzerland are “at risk of being undermined”, they continued, referring to the Swiss medical technology industry.

In addition to the new deal package, however, the free-trade agreement also needs to be modernised, as does a modern investment protection agreement. Adoption of EU sanctions

With regard to Russia’s war of aggression, the EU Parliament welcomed Switzerland’s joining the EU sanctions and called on it to adopt them systematically. It also praised the cooperation in military areas and the Swiss wish to participate in the European air defence system Sky Shield.

On the other hand, it regretted that Switzerland “prohibits the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition and war materiel from EU member states to Ukraine”.

At the same time, the EU Parliament encouraged the Swiss government to allow the “confiscation of Russian assets” and called for Swiss participation in the G7 taskforce.

In the area of trade, the relationship with Switzerland is so close that it goes beyond mere “economic integration”. Therefore, “the smooth functioning of the internal market must be ensured”, which is not the case with the free movement of people, the MEPs criticised.

However, they also took note of Switzerland’s concerns. The EU is also committed to “combating abusive working conditions”. One could therefore “consider the application of temporary, fixed-term or security measures, based on EU law, for a certain period of time”.

Technical solution for energy

In their report on Switzerland, the MEPs also expressed concern about the lack of an electricity agreement between Switzerland and the EU. This poses risks for the European electricity grid. They therefore called for “technical solutions at the level of transmission system operators and the inclusion of Switzerland in the EU’s capacity calculation”.

In the area of research, the EU Parliament called for transitional rules for Swiss participation in the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme after the adoption of the negotiating mandate.

EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola is now called upon to forward the report to the other EU institutions as well as to the Swiss parliament.

Swiss cities are adapting their drug policies in the face of new forms of drug use. Thirty years after the open drug scene in Zurich, experts say it is time to act.

New ways of acting must also be developed because of new types of drugs, according to the organisation Addiction Switzerland. The arrival of ready-to-consume “crack rocks” in Geneva two years ago broke the relative stability of the drug landscape and consumption patterns in that canton, Addiction Switzerland deputy director Frank Zobel said on Wednesday.

In addition, drug use in public spaces is on the rise again throughout Switzerland – from Geneva to Basel, Lausanne, Chur and Zurich. Mini-drug scenes are the result. This is related to the very high availability of cocaine and a general social insecurity as a result of Covid, Zobel said.

Zobel notes that federalism has made it possible to find locally tailored solutions. Cities are once again providing resources to address the problems caused by drugs. This is good news, even if there is “no magic solution” that can be applied everywhere, he said.

The city of Chur is holding a press conference on Thursday to announce new measures to combat drugs after an open drug scene with more than 100 drug addicts has become established in the city in recent months. New type of consumption

Crack cocaine already existed in Switzerland before it spread to Geneva, but in a different form. Users in German-speaking Switzerland or Vaud used to make this “smoking cocaine” themselves by mixing coke and ammonia or soda to make “freebase” or crack.

In Geneva, according to the Quai 9 drug contact centre, crack has become popular in the form of small, ready-made stones sold for CHF10 ($10.90) or less which have a devastating effect. The drug is easily accessible and cheap in this form, smoked in 20 seconds and has a strong and extremely addictive effect, according to Thomas Herquel of Quai 9. This type of crack was imported from France by Senegalese drug traffickers.

Many people go begging, and as soon as they have CHF10, they start smoking again – a vicious circle, Herquel continued.

Exponential growth

In canton Geneva there are about 60 social workers and employees who take care of drug addicts. “The exponential growth of crack has drastically changed the milieu,” Herquel said. The compulsive use of crack creates an emergency situation that requires different care than that of heroin addicts, for example. The latter would take much more time for consumption.

Nevertheless, Switzerland is still far from the nightmare that made the open drug scenes in Zurich famous throughout Europe in the 1990s: thousands of heroin addicts and syringes were visible for all to see. At that time, according to Zobel, 300 to 400 drug addicts died of overdoses every year. The number of victims rises to 700 if one adds the AIDS deaths.

Today, according to Zobel, 100 to 120 drug addicts die directly from their addiction every year. Many of them are 50- or 60-year-olds who survived the scene in Zurich.

Addicts have learned to protect themselves better, he said. Care has also been strengthened and the circles concerned (hospitals, social workers, police, doctors) now act in a more concerted manner.

But the problem remains acute and the accommodation of addicts is one of the main concerns. Today’s drug addicts are marginalised, have no roof over their heads and no work, he said. In addition, there is the stress of searching for the drugs. The experts therefore plead for structures like dormitories or other shelters where addicts can rest.

The CHF5 million ($5.44 million) will help to tackle a difficult humanitarian situation which has led to more than 5.3 million people fleeing their homes.

Following clashes in Sudan which began on April 15, the already precarious humanitarian situation has further deteriorated, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Fighting has spread from capital city Khartoum to other regions.

Those who fled to neighbouring countries mainly went to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.

The additional CHF5 million made available by Switzerland must be used to respond to the massive increase in humanitarian needs in Sudan and in the neighbouring countries concerned, the ministry said.

This budget will particularly enable the financing of up to CHF500,000 for the activities of the Norwegian Refugee Council NGO in Sudan. In addition, CHF1 million will go to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to finance projects by local and international NGOs as well as UN organisations.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will each benefit from CHF1 million for their projects in South Sudan.

In Chad, Switzerland is contributing CHF1.5 million to activities carried out by various UN organisations.

In total, Switzerland’s 2023 financial contribution to tackling the crisis in Sudan and the neighbouring countries currently amounts to more than CHF45 million.

A majority of Swiss would support the creation of a single health insurer, rather than the multiple options currently available, a survey in the Le Temps newspaper said on Wednesday.

The survey comes a week after the announcement of an average increase of 8.7% in health insurance premiums for 2024.

According to the online poll by the Ipsos Switzerland institute between September 27 and 29, 61.2% of the 800 respondents said they were in favour of a single health insurer. Some 21.1% were opposed and 17.7% had no opinion. The proportion of “yes” votes reached 68.1% in French-speaking Switzerland and 58.1% in the German-speaking part of the country.

A majority of 58% also approved the idea of adjusting premiums according to income levels. Here too, favourable opinions were found across the country: 67.6% in French-speaking Switzerland and 53.8% in German-speaking parts. Just over a quarter of Swiss were against such an adjustment of premiums based on income and 16.5% had no opinion.

While respondents supported changes in the financing of compulsory health insurance, they rejected the idea of limit benefits in exchange for paying a lower premium. This proposal only received 37.8% support, compared to 42.9% who opposed it. Rejection was more marked in French-speaking Switzerland (56.4%) than in German-speaking Switzerland (37.1%), where the idea appealed to 42.7%.

The Swiss have already twice refused the creation of a single national health insurer in popular votes.

As for tackling costs, the left-wing Social Democrats have launched an initiative demanding that no insured person should pay more than 10% of their income on health insurance premiums. The text demands that federal and cantonal authorities contribute more to reducing premiums.

Generic medicines specialist Sandoz is to be listed on the SIX Swiss stock exchange as a fully independent entity on Wednesday after being spun-off by pharma giant Novartis.

Novartis took the decision to spin off its subsidiary in August 2022, as part of its own transformation towards becoming a more focused pharmaceutical company.

Novartis shareholders get one Sandoz title for every five shares. The same breakdown applies to American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). A total of 431 million shares will be issued, and Sandoz will be listed from the start in the Swiss Leader Index (SLI), which includes the 30 biggest listings on the Zurich stock exchange.

Based on initial pre-market indications, Sandoz’s market capitalisation is likely to be a little under CHF20 billion ($21.7 billion). Novartis was worth CHF209 billion on Tuesday evening.

“Today marks the beginning of a new era for Sandoz as an independent company, but our goal remains unchanged: to be a pioneer in access to medicines for patients,” Sandoz chairman Gilbert Ghostine said in a press release.

Sandoz was founded in 1886, while the pharmaceutical company Novartis was created in 1996 via a merger with Ciba-Geigy. Initially just part of a division, Sandoz became an independent reporting unit in 2005.

A Swiss court is weighing whether to grant Credit Suisse investors access to more documents on a CHF16 billion ($17.6 billion) writedown of the bank’s bonds, a move the lender has opposed, filings seen by Reuters show.

Hundreds of bondholders have sued Swiss regulator FINMA in an effort to recoup their losses from the writedown that helped pave the way for Credit Suisse’s government-orchestrated takeover by UBS in March.

In the battle for disclosure, investors scored an early win in May when the St. Gallen court, in northeast Switzerland, ordered the release of FINMA’s decrees on the writedown.

Credit Suisse, which is opposing the disclosure requests, argues that handing over documents such as private communications between the bank and the regulator could reveal confidential information and business secrets, according to a May 31 letter seen by Reuters.

If made public, the documents could shed further light on the financial health of the bank in the days before its collapse.

The Swiss parliament is holding an investigative commission on the rescue, but proceedings will be held behind closed doors and documentation on the deal has not been subject to the country’s Freedom of Information Act.

A representative for the Swiss Federal Administrative court in St Gallen declined to comment on ongoing proceedings. FINMA said the AT1 writedown in March was a necessary part of the overall package to enable the merger of the two banks.

A spokesperson at Credit Suisse declined to comment.

Overriding interests in secrecy should ensure investors don’t gain access to the records, a lawyer for Credit Suisse said in the May 31 letter to the Swiss court seen by Reuters.

Credit Suisse argues that financial institutions are required to disclose all relevant information to FINMA.

Should banks not be able to rely on such information being used only for supervision, it could undermine effective oversight, the letter stated.

The court said it would decide whether, and to what extent, files relating to the case can be shared with the complainants, a letter dated June 8 shows.

Dario Item, senior partner at I&P Law Office in Lugano and legal consultant to a group of Credit Suisse’s AT1 investors, told Reuters that bondholders have not heard from the court yet and a decision could come in coming weeks.

“Accessing those documents is key for bondholders who have borne the brunt of this unprecedented and unacceptable FINMA’s order,” Item said.

“To restore trust within Swiss and foreign investors, we need transparency,” he added.

UBS is expected to present its own position in mid-October, according to one person familiar with the situation.

The bond writedown shocked the market and upended a long-established practice of granting bondholders priority over shareholders in a debt recovery.

Credit Suisse ceased to exist as a standalone legal entity in June when it was taken over by UBS.

House prices in Switzerland have soared over the past 20 years, a new study shows. Between 2000 and 2021, the prices of apartments increased by 94%, while those of individual homes rose by 80% and average rents went up by 30% over this period.

The study by CIFI and the University of Bern on behalf of the Federal Housing Office and cantonal planners analysed 600,000 real estate transactions and over one million rental contracts in Switzerland. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States also participated.

There are various factors behind the increase in house prices and rents, the researchers say.

According to the study, the cost of housing in Switzerland reflects high incomes and demand for more space. In the Alpine nation, the average living space per person increased from 44 square metres in 2000 to 46 m2 in 2020.

In municipalities where per capita income is high, housing costs are systematically high.

Differences in local tax levels are also reflected in housing costs, with higher demand in municipalities where taxes are low. This effect is further reinforced by progressive tax levels. Residents in low-tax municipalities are willing to pay more for housing, leading to upward pressure on prices. On the other hand, low-tax municipalities have more high earners, which further increases housing costs.

Demographics also have an impact on housing costs. These rise when the population grows faster than supply. This dynamic explains 50% of the variance in housing costs in Switzerland between 1982 and 2013.

On the supply side, falling interest rates lead to lower rents and higher prices. Other factors, such as the availability of building land, the rate of ownership or the distance from an urban centre also influence housing prices, the study said.

Switzerland has pledged CHF1.5 million in humanitarian aid for people in need in the Nagorno-Karabakh, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said on Tuesday.

One-third of this amount will be allocated to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the FDFA said in a press release on Tuesday. The remainder will be divided between the main United Nations agencies active the ground.

This money is on top of CHF1 million already allocated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to the ICRC for its operations in the region in 2023.

Nearly 600 people have died following the recent offensive by Azerbaijani forces, who took control of the enclave on its territory populated by ethnic Armenians, triggering an exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians.

Over 100,000 refugees, out of the 120,000 inhabitants officially living in the enclave, have fled to Armenia for fear of reprisals from Azerbaijan.

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) remains present in Nagorno-Karabakh and patrols the capital to assist stranded residents.

“It’s a surreal scene,” ICRC team lead Marco Succi told reporters on Tuesday.

“The city is rather deserted” but there are still humanitarian needs,” he explained from the region.

Only a few hundred people remain in the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

“We are trying to find those who are in extreme need of care,” either in terms of medicines or mental health, he added.

Electricity still works and people have access to water, although it is difficult to assess its quality. The ICRC is to provide 300 portions of food available from the Armenian town of Goris.

Azerbaijani police are already patrolling the region, which was previously populated almost entirely by Armenians. “We are not currently facing any significant security problems,” said Succi, who oversees 20 to 25 people in the region.

The ICRC carries out medical evacuations and is also ready to play its role as intermediary if requested to guarantee safe passage for other people.

But Succi refuses to comment on possible ICRC visits to detainees. The president of the separatist Armenian republic of Nagorno-Karabakh was arrested after the capitulation to Azerbaijan. “All observations on people and their conditions are shared confidentially with the authorities,” the ICRC official said.

On the Armenian side, over 100,000 people have arrived in recent days in Goris and the surrounding region.

An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) commented that “the extent of the crisis is too great” for the Armenian government. The Geneva-based institution has extended its assistance for a week and its regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, is due to arrive in Yerevan on Wednesday to assess the situation.

Victims of clerical abuse have travelled to Geneva to urge the United Nations to force the Vatican to honour its international obligations.

“It's a pandemic and it has to stop,” Adalberto Mendez, founder of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. “It's a huge problem, a human rights problem, not just in Europe, but all over the world.”

In Geneva, members of ECA and victims are due to hold talks on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council. The aim is to have a first meeting with representatives of states on how to hold the Vatican accountable for breaches of its international obligations.

Talks are also planned with the Committees on the Rights of the Child and against Torture. ECA wants to know whether the Holy See has officially replied to a request made almost ten years ago in reports by the independent experts of these two bodies for the Vatican to honour its international obligations.

The ECA plans to continue its work in The Hague. It wants to request the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an analysis of the legal status of the Holy See. It also wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take up certain cases.

Canada involved

“Genocide and crimes against humanity are not exclusively perpetrated during wars,” said Mendez. "In the case of clergy abuse in Canada, it is clearly genocide," he said. "And in Colombia, we have seen perhaps the first solid case of crimes against humanity by a church agency and a group of priests.”

The ECA leaders were accompanied to Geneva by several survivors of abuse from different countries. “I ask Pope Francis to stop covering up certain perpetrators,” said Diego Perez from Argentina. His abuser committed suicide, but Perez is pursuing the man who protected the priest, Victor Fernandez.

He was one of the new cardinals appointed a few days ago by the Pope, alongside Emil Paul Tscherrig from canton Valais in Switzerland.

Another victim, Canadian Evelyn Korkmaz, called on the Catholic Church in her country to open its archives following the revelation two years ago of mass graves involving more than 200 indigenous children in Canada. “I will continue to speak out until there is zero tolerance,” she says.

These children were forcibly removed from their families and educated in a Catholic establishment from the end of the 19th century until the end of the 1960s. The site was then taken over by the government in the 1970s and closed in the mid-1990s.

On Monday, ECA unveiled a proposal for a “zero tolerance” law in Rome, which it wants the Vatican to enforce. According to the NGO, priests responsible for abuse and those who cover up should be stripped of all religious titles.

Catholic Church since 1950

In Switzerland a recent University of Zurich study reported that over 1,000 acts of sexual abuse had been perpetrated by Catholic clerics and members of the Order since 1950 in Switzerland.

“The case of Switzerland shows the scale of the problem,” said Mendez. The total number of victims worldwide is uncertain. Officially, it is estimated at around 100,000. But this figure could be three times higher in some countries alone, says the ECA founder.

Nearly 60% of medicines displayed in pharmacy windows in Switzerland have no medically proven efficacy, a study has found.

The study, conducted by a team of doctors at Biel Hospital Centre and published on Monday, analysed photos of shop windows from 68 randomly selected pharmacies in Switzerland. The team found that of the 970 medicines examined, only 418 (or 43.1%) had proven efficacy.

The data on the remaining 556 medicines (or 56.9%) are too thin to draw any reliable conclusions about their effectiveness.

These results can be explained in part by the fact that pharmacies are not allowed to advertise prescription medicines like antibiotics in their windows, notes the study published in the British Medical Journal Open.

"Most of them are homeopathic medicines that have never proved effective in any study. So you can drink gallons of them and you'll probably have neither primary effects nor side effects," explained Professor Daniel Genné, who directed the study.

But he told Swiss public broadcaster RTS that this proportion is still problematic. "These are still surprising results, which could also have consequences for patients," he said.

While the drugs on display are not dangerous to health, Genné points out that they are sold to people with symptoms. "It could just be anxiety, but it could also be a serious illness for which effective treatment needs to be given. So it could delay a diagnosis."

Genné's team regrets the presence of so many drugs with no proven efficacy in shop windows. By giving them this visibility, pharmacies are indirectly recommending them to the public, who are increasingly resorting to self-medication. However, some patients are unaware that non-prescription drugs can interact with other medicines.

The researchers are therefore proposing to introduce a label on all non-prescription medicines indicating their level of efficacy, "just as electrical appliances have been classified from A to F according to their level of energy efficiency". This would enable patients to make informed decisions about the medicines they choose to buy.

Swiss inflation accelerated in September, marking a turnaround and likely introducing an expected rebound set to last into 2024.

Consumer prices rose 1.7% from a year earlier, up from 1.6% the previous month, Switzerland’s statistics agency said on Tuesday. The increase isn’t as pronounced as predicted in a Bloomberg survey, which had seen a median estimate of 1.8%.

The speedup was mainly due to leisure-time courses, fuel and heating oil and clothing and footwear. Underlying inflation, which strips out volatile elements like energy, slowed to 1.3% from 1.5%.

After subsiding over the summer, the Swiss National Bank and most economists expect price pressures to amplify over the coming months, setting up the gauge to touch or even cross SNB’s 2% ceiling again.

Although the central bank significantly lifted borrowing costs since last year, higher costs of electricity, rents and public transport, alongside a boost of value-added tax make for the rebound. Power prices alone are set to raise an average 18% in January.

Economists expect inflation to peak at 2% in the fourth quarter, while rate setters see it rising to as much as 2.2% in mid-2024. After surprisingly pausing its rate hikes last month, the SNB could therefore opt for another increase in December.

Still, Swiss consumer-price growth remains the among the lowest of any advanced economy, showcasing how for a key part Switzerland’s strong currency has sheltered it from the ravages of inflation elsewhere.

Euro-area data last week showed price growth above 4%, while based on the European Union’s harmonized measure, Swiss inflation was 2% in September.

Federal parliamentarians standing for re-election in just under three weeks' time are more transparent about their income than they were four years ago, says Lobbywatch.

According to the transparency platform, 56% of them have declared how much they earn, compared with 33% in 2019.

Out of 208 candidates standing for re-election, 117 declared their income to Lobbywatch. This includes income linked to mandates on boards of directors, association committees or advisory councils, Lobbywatch said on Tuesday.

Lobbywatch concludes that the Green and Social Democratic parties are the most transparent, with 94% and 92% respectively of elected representatives declaring their income. They are followed by the Liberal Green, Centre and Radical Liberal parties. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party comes last, with 29%.

Members of the House of Representatives are more open than those of the Senate, as are women, young people and those elected for just one term. Elected representatives from French-speaking Switzerland and northern Switzerland are also more open, Lobbywatch found.

After a record warm September, numerous temperature records fell on Monday. By 5 p.m. on October 2, no fewer than 20 MeteoSwiss stations had recorded new record highs since measurements began.

the Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) said on Monday evening that some of the records were decades old. In Buffalora on the Ofen Pass in canton Graubünden - otherwise known as a place of cold records - the temperature climbed to 21.3 degrees, beating the October record set on Sunday by one degree.

The October records from Sunday on the Chasseral (19.9 degrees), Piz Corvatsch (8.1) and Jungfraujoch (6.9) were also only one day old.

The oldest record for an October day fell in Samedan, canton Graubünden, with 21.1 degrees. The previous record dating from October 3, 1962 was 21 degrees. The Weiussfluhjoch recorded 16.7 degrees, significantly more than the previous high of 15.1 degrees on October 11, 1978.

Also decades old was the October record in Fahy, canton Jura, at 27.3 degrees on October 3, 1985, or that at Grimsel Hospiz at 18.5 degrees on October 4 1985. Monday dethroned them with 27.6 and 19.5 degrees respectively.

So far this year, significantly more companies have filed for bankruptcy in Switzerland than last year. In total, around 10,000 companies are expected to go bankrupt in 2023.

In the first nine months of 2023, the 700 bankruptcies per month mark was reached or exceeded three times, creditors' association Creditreform said on Tuesday. These are levels that have never been reached before.

Compared to the previous year, the number of company bankruptcies (insolvencies) increased by as much as 11% to 5,466. In September alone, the increase was almost 20%, with 700 bankruptcies.

For the whole of 2023, Creditreform expects just under 10,000 bankruptcies this year, which would be slightly below the previous year's figure (10,095). If one compares this figure with the average of 2018 and 2019, the period before the Corona crisis, it means an increase of almost a quarter.

The sector most affected by the bankruptcies is construction, with a share of 15.1%, followed by wholesale and retail (14.2%), management consultancies (11.6%) and the hospitality industry (10.5%).

In the first nine months of 2023, 38,302 new company names were entered in the commercial register, 3.3% more than a year earlier. The net balance, however, is likely to be slightly negative (-1.1%).