Switzerland today
Hello from Bern!
We are not out of the Covid woods, according to Swiss health officials. The virus situation has improved over the past few months in Switzerland as the vaccination rollout continues across the country and restrictions have been progressively lifted. But in the last couple of days the number of new cases has started to creep up again, mostly among young people.
The daily epidemiological situation is still “very good” with low hospitalisations and few deaths, but Switzerland is not “out of the danger zone”, health officials said at a briefing in Bern today. The months ahead will depend a great deal on how many people get vaccinated – currently 36% are double-jabbed.
In the news: Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis is touring the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
Switzerland’s European policy is high on the agenda. His visit comes after the government’s decision on May 26 to unilaterally walk away from talks with the EU on a framework agreement aimed at cementing long-term ties.
Long Covid: four out of ten people still report symptoms of Covid-19 more than seven months after infection, according to a study by the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE).
Trials of e-voting systems, which are important for the Swiss Abroad, have been ongoing for years in Switzerland, with limited success. Two years ago, Swiss Post scrapped its e-voting system when bugs were found in the source code. At the time, the government also said it was temporarily abandoning efforts to instate e-voting. Now, after several cantons have said they are keen to pursue e-voting trials, the government said today that it plans to launch an “independent examination” of the latest Swiss Post system.
Culture corner: A downsized version of the Montreux Jazz Festival is underway.
Most big outdoor summer music festivals had to cancel this year due to the Covid pandemic. But a downsized version of theMontreux Jazz Festival is going ahead. The “Small is beautiful” 55th edition of the festival is taking place in the Lake Geneva town from July 2-17. On Monday night French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf gave back-to-back showsExternal link, performing on a floating stage built specially on Lake Geneva for a limited number of fans.
What’s trending in Switzerland: The discovery of hundreds of remains of children in unmarked graves at former indigenous schools in Canada continues to send shockwaves – even as far as Switzerland.
In an interview on Monday in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, the head abbot at Einsiedeln Monastery, Urban Federer, expressed his shock at the news that almost 1,000 unmarked graves were found at former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan that were mainly run by the Catholic Church and funded by the Canadian government. Today, Lucerne historian Manuel Menrath told Le Temps newspaper how monks from Einsiedeln, Nidwalden and Geneva had assisted European missionaries to help eradicate indigenous culture in the 19th century.
There is more analysis out today about the mining and commodities trading giant Glencore and the post-Glasenberg era. The Financial Times explains why his handpicked successor Gary Nagle and new chair Kalidas Madhavpeddi need to hit the ground running.
Have you ever heard of Nils Melzer? The Swiss human rights lawyer is a busy man investigating torture allegations around the world on behalf of the United Nations. Even the Swiss authorities have come in for criticism from the Zurich native. Read more about him in this portrait in the NZZ.External link
Weigh in: Join the discussion on the recognition of Swiss diplomas abroad
Swiss vocational qualifications suffer from a lack of recognition abroad. But this could change if Switzerland introduces Bachelor’s and Master’s titles for professionals. Is this a good idea? What are your experiences with getting qualifications recognised abroad?
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Word from the street: The latest edition of our Inside Geneva podcast on nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons were banned under an international treaty that came into force at the start of 2021. But the treaty doesn’t apply to any of the nuclear powers since none of them signed it. Experts discuss the implications of all this in the latest edition of the Inside Geneva podcast.
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The Swiss Connection Podcast: Hear Swiss science stories for the world
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