Switzerland

July’s hailstorm in canton Valais, southwestern Switzerland, caused an estimated loss of CHF17.5 million ($19.6 million) in the fruit and vegetable sector. The canton estimates the total amount of aid at just under CHF 4 million.

The cantonal government has decided to use the cantonal fund for victims of uninsurable damage caused by the forces of nature to grant “specific and targeted” aid, Christophe Darbellay, head of the department of the economy and education, told the cantonal parliament.

This aid will be granted to professionals in the fruit and vegetable sector who cultivate at least three hectares of crops and who have suffered a harvest loss of at least 50%.

“At this stage, around 50 to 75 farms could be affected,” the canton said in a press release.

Apples most affected

The hail that hit Valais on July 24 caused damage between Evionnaz and Bramois. “Apple production was the hardest hit, with an estimated loss of just over 13,000 tonnes, or around half of the canton’s production for 2023, which corresponds to CHF12 million,” the canton said.

Some 40% of the pear harvest has also been affected: 1,650 tonnes worth CHF2 million. For apricots, the estimated loss is lower (765 tonnes) because the harvest was “fortunately well advanced”; the economic damage amounts to around CHF2 million. Half the volume of plums and prunes (around 500 tonnes) has been lost, at a cost of CHF1 million.

The urgent inter-party motion was not opposed and has been forwarded to the cantonal government for implementation.

Tests with recycled asphalt on Swiss roads show promising results. In Uster, canton Zurich, and on the Lukmanier Pass in canton Graubünden, the proportion of recycled asphalt could be increased without any loss of performance, it was announced on Thursday.

With a joint project of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), the Federal Roads Office (ASTRA), the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU), the cantons of Zurich and Graubünden and several industry partners, the researchers said they aimed to increase the proportion of recycled asphalt in roads.

Until now, much more asphalt waste has been produced in Switzerland than can be reused, EMPA said. Every year, 750,000 tonnes of asphalt from the Swiss road network end up in landfills.

One obstacle to more asphalt recycling has been that the binder in asphalt ages and becomes stiff over time. This leads to a susceptibility to cracking. In addition, the material is sometimes very heterogeneous.

The EMPA researchers have therefore developed calculation models that can be used to calculate the perfect mixture for a specific application. With one model, the permissible variability can be calculated depending on future use. Another model calculates the dosage of the rejuvenating agents to be added. These are oily substances that soften the old binder in the reclaimed asphalt and thus make it usable again.

On the Aathalstrasse in Uster, 30% recycled asphalt was added to the surface course. Typically, recycled material is not used in the surface course of such a heavily trafficked road, according to EMPA. Nevertheless, there were no cracks.

On the stretch over the Lukmanier Pass, the climatic conditions are considered difficult for the use of recycled asphalt. In EMPA’s report, however, the material proved resistant to cracking despite temperature fluctuations.

Over the next two years, however, the two test stretches will continue to be monitored, EMPA wrote.

Swiss Post is planning additional savings of around CHF42 million ($47 million). For the time being, the company is leaving it open how exactly the savings program is to be implemented.

Swiss Post spokeswoman Silvana Grellmann told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Thursday that the company was working consistently on its own costs and was stepping up its efforts in view of inflation and the gloomy consumer mood. The Blick newspaper first reported on the savings program.

Swiss Post would not confirm information from Blick according to which around 300 people are likely to lose their jobs as a result of the cost-cutting measures. This figure is “purely speculative”, Grellmann said.

The areas affected by the cuts are reportedly finance, human resources, communications and information/technology, as well as the staff of Swiss Post CEO Roberto Cirillo.

The Pro Juventute Foundation, a charity dedicated to children and youth, has noted a significant increase in the number of calls to its support hotline from young people in Switzerland. The average length of calls has doubled, while consultations concerning self-harming behavior are on the rise.

The number “147” is Pro Juventute's free and confidential helpline for young people to call with concerns or questions. The duration of calls to the hotline has increased in the last couple of years. In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, a call lasted around 5 minutes on average, compared with almost 10 minutes in the first half of 2023.

Almost half of these calls concern mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Among the more serious cases, 7 to 8 young people a day call 147 for suicidal thoughts. Pro Juventute also reports that cases of self-harm have particularly increased in early 2023.

Increasingly complex situations

For Anne-Florence Débois, Head of Policy and Media at Pro Juventute, the increase in call duration is due to increasingly complex situations. “When a young person calls us, he or she is experiencing multiple problems. It takes time for the counsellor to prioritise them and help them find possible solutions,” she explains to Swiss public television, RTS.

Among the most common complaints, young people cite “anxieties, fears, concerns and a great apprehension about connecting with others after the Covid. They have a lot of questions about their future. The subject of the climate crisis has also come up recently,” says Débois. “Some 15-year-old girls are calling to say they know they don't want to have children.”

Sometimes, the seriousness of the situation of young people calling 147 requires immediate action. In the first half of 2023, 74 interventions were recorded, 35 of them in French-speaking Switzerland.

“These are times when the young person is in crisis or there is a risk of endangerment. Cases of self-injury are also on the rise, so there's a certain amount of self-harm involved.” In these delicate situations, the person on 147 calls the police or ambulance directly to intervene at home.

According to Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), work to evacuate the freight train that crashed in the Gotthard base tunnel on August 10 will continue until the end of September. The media were able to visit the site for the first time on Wednesday.

Almost a month ago, a 30-wagon freight train derailed near the multifunctional site at Faido in canton Ticino, 15 kilometres after entering the tunnel from the south. Sixteen wagons went off the rails. Some of them ended up against a portal separating the two tunnel tubes. They had been rushed there when they shifted on a changeover track, towards a switch.

Wagons to be dismantled

“The damage is immense,” admitted Peter Kummer, SBB's Director of Infrastructure, to journalists during a visit to the site. It will take months for trains to return to the damaged east tube.

Every day, up to 50 people work in the tube to remove wagons and debris. Twenty-two wagons and two locomotives have already been transported. And yet, the multifunctional site in Faido still presents an image of destruction. Eight wagons that came off the tracks are still there. They were either compressed or torn apart in the accident.

20,000 sleepers to replace

Evacuating them is all the more complex. They have to be taken apart, as they can no longer roll. To do this, the personnel on site first have to secure them so that they don't topple over during dismantling.

The accident was probably caused by a broken axle. Before derailing, the freight train damaged 7 km of track. As a result, some 20,000 concrete sleepers will have to be replaced.

Difficult working conditions

To evacuate the damaged rolling stock, SBB had to install a temporary track. The workers are working in shifts under difficult conditions: it's up to 40 degrees Celsius in the heart of the mountain, and the air is dense and sometimes dusty. Every 45 minutes, workers take a 15-minute break in a refrigerated area.

On Wednesday, journalists invited to the site had to equip themselves with a hard hat and protective clothing, as well as goggles, a dust mask, gloves and earplugs. Everyone was also required to carry an oxygen self-rescuer, in case of fire.

Penne and canned tomatoes

The wrecked convoy originated in Italy and was heading north. It was loaded with Italian foodstuffs, ranging from pasta and canned tomatoes to rice and wine. Entire cartons of penne are still stacked on the platform of the tunnel's emergency station. Tin cans are piled up near the switch.

Once the last wagon has been removed at the end of September, the workers will have to dismantle the temporary track and install a new one. Two points will also have to be replaced, along with cables and the contact line.

SBB is not yet forecasting the duration of the repair work. However, the company expects to be able to start partial passenger operations from the beginning of 2024.

Freight traffic in the other tube

Freight traffic has been running again since August 23 in the undamaged tube, in convoys of four trains at a time. A total of 90 freight trains a day currently pass through the Gotthard base tunnel. Around 15 of these, like the passenger trains, travel via the ridge route.

Passenger trains cannot pass through the west tube of the base tunnel for safety reasons. In the event of an accident, passengers would have to be evacuated through the damaged tube.

Solutions for passengers under discussion

SBB is working with the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) to develop an evacuation concept. Their aim is to run passenger trains through the undamaged tube as soon as possible, at weekends when demand is highest. But safety remains the top priority, the company stresses,

Opened in 2016, the Gotthard base tunnel is the longest railway tunnel in the world. It stretches 57.1 kilometres between Erstfeld n canton uri and Bodio (TI). It shaves an hour off the journey time between German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, compared with the Gotthard ridge/panorama line.

An affluent Argentinian entrepreneur objected to information on assets he held in Switzerland being sent to Buenos Aires. The automatic exchange of financial data is designed to combat tax evasion. Switzerland’s Federal Court, in its first decision on this issue, rejected his request.

Alfredo Alberto Román, 80, is one of Argentina’s wealthiest citizens, and he holds assets in Switzerland in a family trust. When a Swiss-Argentinian treaty on automatic transmission of financial data came into force in 2018, Román attempted to prevent information about his trust being sent to Argentina.

The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) rejected his request to block the data transmission, and in 2020 Román lost on appeal at the Federal Administrative Court. He then decided to file an appeal with the Federal Court, the country’s highest judicial authority.

The Federal Court considered the case sufficiently important to grant it a public hearing on June 6, 2023. Gotham City was in attendance. The Court published its decision on July 14, making it clear that the plaintiff had lost the argument. The ‘crane tsar’

Known in Argentina as the “crane tsar”, Román built the largest cargo port in Buenos Aires as part of his logistics empire. When he sold the majority of his company in 2008, he became the 11th-wealthiest person in Argentina. According to Forbes, his fortune amounts to $800 million (CHF705 million).

Román claims to be in good standing with the Argentinian tax authorities. In his Swiss legal case, he maintained that “the absence of the rule of law in Argentina compromises data security and therefore jeopardises the life, liberty, and assets of people subjected to the automatic exchange”. Román’s defence lawyers emphasised that their client and his family risked being kidnapped or extorted.

The defence team also denounced the “Argentinian authorities’ disregard for personal-data protection, […] the endemic corruption among Argentinian officials, the increasing activity of criminal groups, and the Argentinian government’s lack of integrity”.

This argument did not convince the Federal Court. The judges concluded that the “alleged risk to [the Román family’s] security […] is linked to their fortune, which is, based on the evidence, already public knowledge in Argentina, so we do not believe that the automatic exchange of information would expose them to additional risk in this regard”.

For years the Argentinian press has suggested that the $800 million attributed to Román is a significant underestimate. In 2020 the magazine La Política Online claimed that the patriarch held at least that amount abroad.

According to revelations published in 2016, Román was close to the former Argentinian president Mauricio Macri, who led the country from 2015 to 2019. Román allegedly supported Macri’s campaigns.

‘Technical error’

The FTA had agreed not to transmit information about the Román family trust until the legal proceedings in Switzerland were concluded. However, the Federal Court ruling acknowledges that the data were nonetheless sent to Argentina in 2020.

“The Federal Tax Administration indicated that the denounced transmission had occurred due to a technical error, but that it had proceeded with the cancellation of the corresponding transmission dated September 1, 2022”, the Federal Court wrote.

Román is represented by David Wilson and Ksenia Iliyash at Schellenberg Wittmer.

Wilson responded to a Gotham City inquiry with the following statement:

“Once bitten, twice shy – our clients, like many Argentinian citizens, were unfortunately victims of abusive practices by the Argentinian authorities in the past. Several Argentinian officials have been charged with abuse of power, violation of tax secrecy, and perjury, and the director of the Argentinian tax administration was even charged. We therefore regret that the Federal Court chose to ignore the legitimate concerns of tax-compliant Argentinian citizens regarding the risk of misappropriation of data transmitted by Switzerland under the automatic exchange system.”

A more right-wing parliament – the result of the rise of conservatives and the decline of environmentalists – is likely to emerge from the ballot boxes in federal elections on October 22.

The green wave seems to have subsided, according to the penultimate election poll by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), carried out by the Sotomo research institute and published on Wednesday.

The Green Party is now 2.5 percentage points down on the previous federal election in 2019. Until now, the Liberal Green Party had held its own and managed to offset some of these losses. This is no longer the case: for the first time the party has lost ground (-0.5 percentage points).

“In 2019, the Liberal Greens benefited from the progressive spirit that prevailed. The climate is now more favourable to the conservatives,” said Sotomo political scientist Michael Hermann.

At the other end of the spectrum, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party is looking more and more like the winner on October 22, with a gain of two percentage points. As a result, Switzerland’s largest party could win 27.6% of the vote, its third-highest tally.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has charged a 45-year-old Romanian national with exploding two ATMs in the cantons of St. Gallen and Zurich. The events date back to December 2019. On each occasion, he allegedly stole more than CHF100,000.

The bombings took place in Sevelen in canton St Gallen and Neftenbach in canton Zurich a few days apart, the OAG stated on Wednesday. The man is believed to have used highly explosive substances that are difficult to handle safely.

In both cases, the damage caused amounted to more than CHF100,000. The suspect was arrested in Denmark and extradited to Switzerland. He has been in detention since March.

The authorities in canton Vaud killed two wolves northwest of Lausanne on Monday as part of “wolf control” measures. They are the fifth and sixth wolves to be shot in the canton in western Switzerland since March 2022.

Wildlife supervisors shot two young male wolves belonging to a pack in the Mont Tendre region near the village of Montricher.

The two wolf cubs "were shot shortly before 9pm on an Alpine pasture located on the territory of the municipality of Montricher. The shots were carried out while an adult wolf preceded the three wolf cubs of the pack", said the Vaud authorities in a statement on Tuesday.

The operation took place in accordance with the conditions set by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), it said. The animal remains were sent to the Institute of Animal Pathology (FIWI) of the University of Bern.

On August 28, the federal authorities had authorised Vaud to shoot the two young wolves from this new pack installed in the Vaud Jura region in view of attacks perpetrated on young cattle in the region. The authorisation ran until March 31, 2024.

Dozen attacks

Since June, a dozen attacks on young cattle have been perpetrated in the Mont Tendre region, where a couple of wolves settled last spring.

Monitoring carried out using camera traps had also made it possible to establish during the month of August that this couple had since given birth to at least three cubs. The new pack in the Vaud Jura follows others in the Risoud and Marchairuz regions.

The authorised killings had only been authorised within a perimeter corresponding to the presumed territory of the pack, near mountain pastures or inhabited areas, and in the presence of adult wolves.

The Vaud authorities had sent their request to the FOEN "in view of the significant damage recorded in the region, and after having been able to certify the birth of cubs, as required by the federal legal framework", the statement said.

Six wolves killed so far

Vaud recalls that the regulation is part of a series of measures adopted as part of the Vaud Wolf Plan 2023 to better manage the coexistence between human activities and the wolf. It intervenes in addition to the reinforcement of aid for the protection of herds and monitoring.

To date, six regulation shots have already been carried out on Vaud territory. The two carried out in March 2022 and the other two in November 2022 targeted the Marchairuz pack. For the fourth, wildlife wardens had shot the wrong wolf, an adult male instead of a wolf cub.

On Tuesday, the Swiss government launched its new climate strategy for agriculture, which aims to make the food system more sustainable and strengthen food security by 2050. It concerns the entire chain, from farmers to consumers, via the processing sectors.

The aim of the 2050 Climate Strategy for Agriculture and Food is twofold: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and to help agriculture adapt to climate change, the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) said in a press release on Tuesday.

In concrete terms, according to the guidelines developed by the FOAG in conjunction with the Federal Office for Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs (FOSV) and the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Swiss agriculture must produce in a way that is "adapted to the climate and local conditions". One of the aims is to achieve a self-sufficiency rate of at least 50% by 2050.

In addition, the greenhouse gases emitted to produce food must be reduced by two-thirds per capita by 2020. Greenhouse gas emissions from domestic agricultural production must be reduced by at least 40% compared to 1990 levels.

Less meat

A range of measures should help achieve these targets. These include reducing food waste throughout the supply chain, managing water sparingly and reducing the sector's energy consumption by using renewable energies. As far as consumers are concerned, the key is to raise awareness.

A change in behaviour is needed, Michael Beer of the FOSV emphasised to the media, particularly with regard to meat consumption. "Two to three portions of meat a week is a maximum from a health point of view. We are eating three times too much," said Beer.

An "overestimated" effect

Although the Swiss Farmers' Union considers it "very positive" that the strategy deals with adapting agriculture to global warming, it believes that limiting livestock production and meat consumption is "problematic". In its view, the effect that such a measure would have on the climate is overestimated. What's more, the reality of the market is that people are demanding meat from Switzerland.

The Union is also critical of the fact that the strategy is not accompanied by the financial resources needed to achieve the objectives set. In its view, current resources are insufficient to implement the planned measures.

The umbrella organisation for organic farming, Bio Suisse, welcomes the new strategy, which will enable "significant developments" from which organic farming will benefit. However, it deplores the delay in launching it. It is regrettable that parliament has systematically refused to debate the 2022-2030 agricultural policy, it criticised.

No strict guidelines

The Agrarian Alliance, which brings together 18 consumer, environmental and animal protection organisations, also welcomed the new strategy, in particular the close collaboration between the FOAG, the OSAV and the FOEN. "From now on, the right hand knows what the left hand is doing".

The strategy also makes both consumers and producers responsible, without imposing strict directives. Farmers can now prove that they are producing what consumers want.

The new strategy, which is aimed primarily at the administration and politicians, will be used for the short- and medium-term development of policies relating to the food system, according to the FOAG. It is part of the framework set by the Federal Council's Sustainable Development Strategy 2030. It replaces the FOAG's agriculture strategy of 2011.

The Swiss government should consistently expel Russian and other foreign spies from the country, says a motion passed by a foreign affairs parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

The foreign affairs committee of the House of Representatives passed the motion by 11 votes to 9 with one abstention. If both the House and the Senate approve the motion, the government will be forced to consistently expel all foreign persons who endanger Switzerland's internal or external security or the role of Switzerland as a host state by engaging in prohibited intelligence activities, if they cannot be prosecuted for these activities.

The committee said that spying activities compromise not just sensitive information and secrets of the country, of citizens or of companies but also freedom of opinion and assembly of certain communities. Switzerland's reputation as a safe host state would also be jeopardised.

A small number of committee members, however, support the current practice of the government, which has been reluctant to expel or convict employees of foreign intelligence services as long as their espionage activities do not threaten Switzerland's internal security.

Since the outbreak of the war against Ukraine, Russia's espionage activities in Switzerland have increased, according to the Federal Intelligence Service. Prohibited intelligence service is punishable in Switzerland. However, persons who belong to a diplomatic corps often invoke diplomatic immunity in connection with prohibited intelligence.

Rejection of G7 task force

On Tuesday the foreign affairs committee also rejected by 13 votes to 10 with one abstention a motion calling for Switzerland to join the Group of Seven's Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs Task Force. The committee sided with the government on the opinion that cooperation with the task force is working well at the technical level and that joining would not bring any added value.

Children who play sports become stressed less quickly, as they produce less cortisol during a stressful task, a new study by the University of Basel shows.

For the study, 110 children between the ages of 10 and 13 had to master the so-called Trier Social Stress Test, the University of Basel revealed on Tuesday.

This test is designed to put participants in a stressful situation. The children had to recite something to a jury after a brief preparation period. They also had to complete a mathematics test in which the task started all over again after each mistake.

Those children who said they exercised for more than half an hour a day were found to produce less cortisol, the stress hormone, during this task compared to less active children. The more active children also reported a lower feeling of stress after the test. These results were published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. Positive association

The researchers explained that cortisol levels increase during physical activity. When children exercise regularly, the body learns to associate cortisol with a positive feeling. This positive association also prevents the concentration of the stress hormone from rising to too high a level during the stress test.

The Basel researchers now want to find out whether physical activity also influences the cognitive consequences of exam stress: in other words, whether children who exercise less struggle more with blockages.

These findings are relevant not only for school-aged children, say the study authors: a stronger reaction to psychosocial stress in childhood increases the risk of developing psychological and physiological disorders later in life.

On Tuesday, the Swiss government launched its new climate strategy for agriculture. The document aims to make the food system more sustainable and strengthen food security by 2050.

The aim of the strategy is twofold: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector and to help the sector adapt to climate change, the Federal Office for Agriculture said in a press release on Tuesday.

More concretely, the sector will need to produce in a way that is "adapted to the climate and local conditions" and achieve a self-sufficiency rate of at least 50%.

In addition, any greenhouse gas emissions arising from the production of food for consumption by the Swiss population will have to be reduced by two-thirds per person compared to emissions levels in 2020. Greenhouse gas emissions from domestic agricultural production are to be reduced by at least 40% compared to 1990 levels.

The new strategy replaces the 2011 climate strategy of the federal agriculture office.

An appeal will be lodged with the Constitutional Court of Vaud against a decision to ban political debates in schools in the canton before the federal elections.

It has been initiated by left-wing parties, which intend to cast their net as wide as possible.

The appeal is expected to be filed on Wednesday, said Romain Pilloud, President of the Vaudois Socialist Party, on Monday evening, confirming to Keystone-SDA information revealed by the Le Temps newspaper.

The Vaud Constitutional Court will hear the appeal if it is supported by at least a tenth of the deputies of the Grand Council (at least 15), Pilloud noted. “We are largely there. We will also try to obtain the support of more centrist MPs like the Green Liberals,” he added.

However, the approach is intended to be as “encompassing” as possible, and not just linked to political bodies, Pilloud said. In particular, students and teachers will be involved in the appeal.

The Swiss Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SBV) has called for the immediate introduction of electronic voting to eliminate discrimination against the blind in exercising voting and election rights.

The lack of digital accessibility excludes hundreds of thousands of handicapped people, the association said in Bern on Tuesday.

Digitalisation has arrived in almost all areas of life and is developing rapidly, the SBV added at the media conference on Tuesday. Digital products and content must be just as accessible as physical ones.

Due to the lack of accessibility, many products, websites, apps and everyday services such as the use of ticket machines cannot be used independently, or only with difficulty. This contradicts both the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Switzerland in 2014, and the 2004 Disability Equality Act, and makes it enormously difficult for those affected to participate.

“One of the most objectionable deficits is the lack of accessibility for blind people and people with visual impairments in terms of exercising their right to vote and to be elected, as well as the protection of their voting secrecy,” said Roland Studer, President of the association. Here, politicians and authorities would have to seize the opportunities and remedy this serious deficiency with accessible digital solutions, such as e-voting.

The 2023 parliamentary elections must be the last elections that are not barrier-free, the SBV president added. The same also applies to signature collections, which should also be made possible electronically, according to the SBV.

Under the title “Digital Accessibility. Now”, the association is also launching an awareness campaign for the population. The focus will be on business and politics. Only if accessibility is considered from the outset can it succeed.

International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) Director-General Robert Mardini has decided not to run for a new term at the head of the humanitarian organisation.

The information, revealed Monday by the Le Temps newspaper, was confirmed to Keystone-ATS by the institution's press service.

Robert Mardini will remain in office until the end of his mandate, which ends in March. He led the ICRC for four years. ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric and the organisation’s assembly accepted Mardini’s decision.

The current ICRC executive has had to manage the institution during a difficult period, “characterised by the Covid pandemic, the worsening of conflicts around the world and budgetary shortfalls”. The process of recruiting a new director general will be launched in the coming weeks, specifies the ICRC press service.

Developments on the financial markets took their toll on Swiss banks last year. According to the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), the profits of the local financial institutions clearly declined.

But thanks to the turnaround in interest rates banks are looking ahead with confidence.

Specifically, aggregate annual profits fell by 16.3% to CHF6.5 billion ($7.3 billion) in 2022, according to the SBA Banking Barometer. By contrast, aggregate operating profit declined only slightly, by -0.9% to CHF70.3 billion.

“Considering the circumstances, this is a solid result,” is how Martin Hess, Head of Economic Policy at the SBA, sums up the 2022 banking year.

The lower profit figures were due to the turnaround in interest rates, negative developments on the stock markets and the shifting of client funds in the run-up to the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, according to the report published on Tuesday.

The aggregate balance sheets of banks declined (-6.9% to CHF3,340 billion) and assets under management (-11.2% to CHF7,847 billion) also fell in the same period compared with the previous year.

Meanwhile, staffing levels at financial institutions increased in size. The number of employees rose for the third year in a row, by 1.6% to more than 92,000 full-time equivalents: “This is highest figure since 2017,” said Hess. In addition, the unemployment rate in the financial sector is slightly below that of the overall economy at 2%, he added.

But the trend of “bank deaths” continues, leaving the Swiss financial centre with 235 banks at the end of 2022. However, Hess explained that the declining number of banks has not impacted business performance over the years. Moreover, this is not a Swiss phenomenon, but can be observed worldwide.

For the current year, banks expect that the interest rate turnaround, leading to significantly higher rates, will have a clearly positive impact on profits, according to the SBA survey of members.

The recovery on a broad front is “in full swing”, said Hess, but there is “still a long way to go before we reach the significantly higher margins we once enjoyed.”

According to Hess, banks see some risks, for example, in the cost of IT systems and regulatory measures. In addition, there are possible reputational risks that could pose a “potential threat” to customer confidence.

• The original article was updated at 1100 to include more detail

Swiss Federal Railways reported record passenger numbers in the first half of this year. With 1.33 million passengers each day, the railway company returned to profit for the first time since 2019.

In the first six months of the year, the Swiss Federal Railways made a net profit of CHF99 million ($112 million), compared with a net loss of CHF142.3 million in the first half of 2022, it reported on Monday.

In March, passenger numbers exceeded pre-Covid 19 levels for the first time. Over the whole period under review, it jumped by 21.4% year-on-year and 3.04% relative to 2019, reaching a level never before recorded.

The company also notes the positive trend in international passenger traffic, with 5.7 million people carried in the first half, 20% more than the previous record for 2019.

The mountains in canton Valais, southwestern Switzerland, have seen a record number of deaths this year: 20 climbers and seven hikers have lost their lives. As a result, the cantonal police have decided to reinforce their rescue unit.

This unit is responsible for going out into the field to investigate and then notifying the families of the deaths.

Pascal Gaspoz, a rescue guide, is the new head of this intervention group, the Groupe Montagne. He told Swiss public television, RTS, about the consequences of rapid temperature changes: “In the space of a few days, we go from an isotherm at an altitude of more than 5,000 metres to snowfall at an altitude of 2,000 metres. This means that hikers and mountaineers have to adapt to the conditions they encounter.”

But Pierre Matthey, Secretary General of the Swiss Mountain Guides Association and a guide for 30 years, also points the finger at a lack of preparation.

For him, the primary danger lies with the people themselves, who either overestimate themselves or underestimate the conditions and therefore have no control over the situation. The key is to “adapt to the conditions of the day”.

Mountain professionals stress the importance of telling those around you before setting off on a hike, as well as bringing the right equipment and enough food and water.

Stève Léger, spokesman for the Valais cantonal police, deplores the fact that over the past 15 years, the canton has suffered the deaths of an average of 14 mountaineers and ten hikers each year.

Asbestos removal is progressing slowly in Switzerland, with the carcinogenic substance still present in almost three out of four Swiss buildings.

More than 30 years after Switzerland introduced the ban on asbestos, the substance is still a problem for the country and asbestos-related deaths have not yet reached their peak.

Asbestos is still widespread, particularly in unsuspected materials such as tile adhesives, Peter Kunzendorf, asbestos expert at the GSAS, a company based in Dübendorf, Zurich, that specialises in the study and analysis of pollutants, told Keystone-SDA. This is despite the fact that many remediation projects have already been completed.

According to the Swiss occupational health insurer, Suva, all buildings constructed before 1990 are likely to contain asbestos. Up to 2020, Suva recorded 2,700 deaths from illnesses resulting from exposure to this material in the workplace.

Since it can take up to 40 years from exposure to asbestos for the first symptoms to appear, the country's leading accident insurer expects a further 3,300 cases by 2040.

Around 1,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Delémont in canton Jura on Saturday afternoon, repeating demands made at a similar protest last May that the experiment be halted.

Opposition to the deep geothermal energy project at Haute-Sorne, just west of Delémont in canton Jura, continues unabated. Demonstrators had answered a call to protest by the association Citoyens responsables Jura (Association of Responsible Jurassic Citizens, CRJ). They loudly demanded that the project, which they believe poses a danger to the population and the environment, be abandoned.

"Democracy scorned", the crowd chanted.

"We want to show the government that there are more and more people against this project and that they must be heard," CRJ president Jack Aubry told news agency Keystone-SDA. The speakers vehemently denounced the government's attitude before the crowd broke into the Rauracienne, the anthem of canton Jura.

The aim of the project is to extract heat from underground to provide renewable energy that is available all year round. This energy could be produced by 2028-2029, and provide electricity for some 6,000 households.

The Swiss Army is helping Greece to fight forest fires in the border area with Bulgaria and Turkey. On Saturday morning, three Super Puma helicopters took off from Locarno, in southern canton Ticino, towards Greece.

The Federal Department of Defence published a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that over 20 members of the Swiss armed forces flew on board the large helicopters to the southeastern European country. They are fire-fighting specialists.

The Dadia national park in eastern Greece has been burning for almost two weeks. According to some estimates from Brussels, this is the largest forest fire ever recorded in the European Union (EU). Since mid-August 20 people have died in the fires near the Turkish border.

Numerous fire-fighting planes from EU countries, as well as hundreds of firefighters and volunteers are on the job. The biggest problem is that the fires are now raging in impassable terrain and the flames can be fought almost exclusively from the air, a fire brigade officer told Greek radio last Wednesday.

The evacuated residents of the village of Schwanden in canton Glarus, which suffered a landslide, cannot return home until further notice.

The situation in the area affected by the landslide above the village in central Switzerland is "very critical and unstable", the municipality of South Glarus announced on Friday.

On Friday night, more debris rolled downhill in the Wagenrunse, just above Schwanden. Several thousand cubic metres of debris slid into the valley: this is equivalent to the volume of several single-family houses. No new damage was caused, but experts from the municipality expect further landslides in the short term.

"The evacuated population will not be able to return to their homes until further notice," the municipality wrote. Currently, 97 people are affected.

Pet owners were given one hour on Friday afternoon to rescue their animals or to take care of them. In addition, the crisis team is constantly checking whether and when at least part of the evacuated population can be granted access to their homes. The evacuees should be able to collect personal effects.

Nationwide solidarity

In the meantime, South Glarus is receiving numerous offers of support from individuals, organisations and other municipalities. "The nationwide solidarity gives us strength in coping with the challenging situation," the municipality said in a statement. The offers of support are being coordinated by the social counselling service for the victims of the landslide.

The service also helps the affected population to find suitable housing. As the mayor of the municipality, Hansruedi Forrer had already explained on Wednesday, the municipality also contacted the Glarus tourism organisation.

"Most of the evacuees have been accommodated privately," Forrer explained to the Keystone-SDA news agency. Other people have been accommodated in hotels and restaurants that offer rooms. No one had to spend the night in a civil defence facility, not even during the night of the major landslide, Forrer explained.

The “Swift” drone developed at the University of Zurich has outshone its human competitors in a physical drone race in Dübendorf for the first time.

Co-developer Leonard Bauersfeld said this is a milestone because the AI-trained autonomous drone managed the fastest lap overall, half a second ahead of the best time of a human pilot.

The competition organised by the university's robotics department was a fair contest between man and machine, co-developer Leonard Bauersfeld told Swiss public television SRF. For the first time, an autonomous robot defeated a human in physical competition in the real world.

The drone did not rely on a computer centre on the ground or navigation systems such as GPS but only used sensor technology with a camera on board. "All the calculations run in real time on the drone, on a smartphone-sized computer that flies along," Bauersfeld explained.

However, the artificial intelligence of the drone was mainly trained in simulation, based on an image of the racetrack and the track layout. After a month of simulated flight time, which corresponds to around an hour of computing time, the drone was ready to take part in the competition.

Then it was off to the real racetrack to measure effects that cannot be simulated - such as turbulence and lighting conditions. Based on all this data, they then trained in the simulation for another 20 to 30 minutes before the competition began.

Bauersfeld sees the potential applications of the small and agile drones primarily in camera-based flights for inspections of bridges or buildings in danger of collapsing or burning, for example.

He also sees possible applications in the area of ships, which is currently being investigated by a new EU project. "Flying autonomous drones through such situations would indeed be a great vision for the future. That's what our group in Zurich is researching." Drones: opportunity and danger

As far as the military use of drones is concerned, Bauersfeld admits that autonomous drones represent both an opportunity and a danger. Agile navigation in confined buildings without connection to the outside world, however, is a very different field of application than using drones for surveillance or as a weapon against slow and stationary targets on the ground. "I am convinced that the benefits of our drone research in civilian terms outweigh the risks."

Algeria has criticised the indictment of its former Defence Minister Khaled Nezzar by Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for crimes against humanity.

Algeria said this case has reached the "limits of the inadmissible and intolerable".

The former minister, who is now 85, is suspected of having approved and coordinated torture during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s.

On Tuesday, the OAG in Bern announced that it had indicted Nezzar before the Federal Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is accused of having placed confidants in key positions and knowingly and willingly created structures aimed at destroying the Islamist opposition.

In a phone conversation with his counterpart, Ignazio Cassis, on Thursday, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf expressed the view that "the independence of the judiciary does not justify irresponsibility and that any judicial system whatsoever arrogates to itself the absolute right to judge the policies of a sovereign and independent state".

Attaf said he hoped that "everything possible would be done to prevent this case from leading relations between Algeria and Switzerland down the path of the undesirable and irreparable".

Algeria experienced a civil war in the 1990s after the military interrupted parliamentary elections that promised victory to the Islamists of the banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). According to official estimates, around 200,000 people lost their lives in this conflict.

Nezzar was arrested in Geneva in October 2011, when he was living in Switzerland, following a complaint by a Swiss NGO. He was later released and left Switzerland.

In 2017, the OAG closed the case on the grounds that there was no armed conflict in Algeria in the early 1990s. In 2018, the Federal Criminal Court announced its decision to overturn the closure of the case and the OAG reopened the investigation.