Новости за 17.04.2024

The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has appointed Miroslav Lajcák as the EU's future ambassador to Switzerland. As the host country, the Swiss authorities still need to formalise the appointment of the Slovakian. Lajcák is set to start his four-year term in Bern in September 2024, said Borrell's spokesperson. He will be the fifth EU ambassador to Switzerland. Lajcák currently serves as the EU's Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina... Читать дальше...

So far, Switzerland has recorded more than twice as many cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) compared to the same period last year. Experts suggest that ticks are becoming more active due to climate change and mild winters. As of the end of March 2024, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) had recorded over twice as many cases of tick-borne disease TBE compared to the same period in 2023. According to the FOPH, there has been an increase in the disease's incidence over the past five years. Читать дальше...

Chatbots are gaining popularity in Switzerland. A growing number of people now favour being helped online by such digital assistants over human beings. Specifically, 80% of the Swiss population now knows what a chatbot is, compared to just 57% three years ago. Additionally, 63% of respondents to a representative survey by Comparis have already interacted with a chatbot at least once. The use of services such as ChatGPT or Gemini has already reached half of the population, according to a press release... Читать дальше...

The Switzerland-based milk processor Emmi is acquiring a majority stake in the Brazilian dairy company Verde Campo. The stake is being purchased from Coca-Cola at an undisclosed price, as outlined in a press release issued on Tuesday. With the purchase of Verde Campo, the Swiss company is strengthening its “existing market position in the strategic market of Brazil”, the largest for dairy products in Latin America. Emmi sees further potential in the country, where it already operates the subsidiary Laticínios Porto Alegre. Читать дальше...

The Swiss parliament wants to ban extremist symbols. Following the approval by the Senate, the House of Representatives also approved a motion for a ban on Wednesday. The ban primarily targets Nazi symbols, but it extends beyond that. However, a swastika ban is a priority for the House of Representatives. It approved two parliamentary initiatives with this demand. The concerns raised by the House of Representatives’ Legal Affairs Committee and Social Democrat Angelo Barrile call for a special legal ban on the public use of Nazi symbols. Читать дальше...

Swiss Nestlé, the world’s largest infant food company, takes pride in not adding sugar to its baby formulas distributed in Europe. However, in many low-income countries, its products do contain added sugar on a very large scale. In South Africa, Cerelac baby cereal, a Nestlé product for children aged six months and older, contains six grams of sugar per portion—equivalent to approximately one and a half sugar cubes per meal. However, on the packaging of the equivalent product in Switzerland, the... Читать дальше...

The Swiss steel industry faces a severe crisis. An investigation by Swiss public television, RTS, reveals that Switzerland's last two steelworks are encountering significant financial challenges. Despite repeated appeals to the Confederation for assistance, the Swiss government remains unresponsive to requests for support. In canton Solothurn, Stahl Gerlafingen has recently announced the closure of one of its two production lines, jeopardising around a hundred jobs. Upon leaving the factory, workers expressed little surprise. Читать дальше...

Multimillionaires around the world could see some bargain prices for luxury Alpine chalets in Switzerland this year, according to UBS bank. “We expect a slight decline in prices in the luxury segment, in the low single-digit percentage range,” UBS says in its Luxury Property Focus 2024 report. The reasons behind this are a flagging global economy, the rise in value of the Swiss franc against other currencies and an increase in domestic mortgage interest rates, following central bank rate hikes from... Читать дальше...

Organised crime has infiltrated Switzerland’s justice system, and police resources are insufficient to effectively combat it, warns Nicoletta della Valle, director of the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol). Approximately 60 investigations are currently underway in Switzerland, thanks to the encrypted communication service for criminals, Sky ECC. This service was cracked by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) in 2021. According to Fedpol chief, these investigations involve matters related to “cocaine... Читать дальше...

Switzerland’s long history of cartography stretches back to an era of military nation-building efforts. But since then it’s been interest in mountaineering, tourism, and – more recently – digitalisation – that has brought the world-famous Swiss maps to a wider public.

Switzerland is projected to deplete its domestic energy resources on Wednesday, as calculated by the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES). Starting from Thursday, the country will rely on imports of oil, gas, and uranium. This means that more than 70% of the energy used in Switzerland is imported, costing more than CHF11 billion ($12 billion) a year, the SES said in a press release. Compared to other countries from the European Union, Switzerland ranks relatively low in terms of energy independence. According to Eurostat... Читать дальше...

Few people know that behind Google Maps lies a Swiss entrepreneur’s intuition and Switzerland's extensive experience in cartography. This is how Switzerland contributed to the success of the world's most-used mapping platform. “Everyone in Switzerland loves maps,” declares Zurich engineer Samuel Widmann. Long before his time, Swiss cartographers were depicting every detail of the landscape, from paths to country roads, from peaks to valleys, and from rocks to trees. That was until digital images came along... Читать дальше...

Should the Swiss Abroad have their own electoral constituency? The House of Representatives doesn’t think so. On Monday it rejected a motion by Jean-Luc Addor from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party calling for the creation of such a constituency, an idea championed by the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad. The government was also against the proposal, which was rejected by 152votes to 30. It pointed out that its introduction would require an amendment to the Constitution and would call into question... Читать дальше...