Switzerland Today
Hello from canton Zurich,
The weather situation continues to cause concern in Switzerland. Here in canton Zurich my phone has pinged several times today with alerts from MeteoSwiss, the national weather service. The area where I live has a Flood Level 4 severe hazard warning for Lake Zurich.
Elsewhere though, the situation is even more serious: Lakes Lucerne, Biel and Thun have the top level 5 warning. And there’s more bad weather ahead.
In the news: the weather, more Federer and asylum
As mentioned above, the risk of flooding is high in Switzerland, particularly in the central part of the country. This includes the capital Bern and surrounding areas, as you can see in the photo. We have been following the latest developments here. Up to 100 millimetres of rain is predicted locally for Thursday and Friday; water levels are expected to peak on Saturday.
Swiss tennis superstar Roger Federer is back in the news. A Christie’s auction of his rackets, T-shirts, sports shoes and other historic tennis equipment has raised £3.4 million (CHF4.3 million). The money will go towards his charity, the Roger Federer Foundation, which supports educational projects in southern Africa and Switzerland. The auction comes a day after the tennis legend announced that he was pulling outExternal link of this year’s Tokyo Olympics due to a recurring knee injury.
Swiss asylum requests to keep rising. The number of asylum requests in Switzerland this year is due to surpass the pre-Covid level, the authorities said on Thursday. The easing of pandemic measures and the economic pressure due to the Covid pandemic are factors in the rise. Further increases are expected over the next few years.
Deep dive: WTO tries to stop fishing subsidies to protect the oceans
The Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) has been holding a ministerial conference today to seek an agreement on banning harmful fisheries subsidies, a main factor in overfishing (still ongoing at the time of writing).
Every year, governments pay billions of dollars to their fishing industries to carry on fishing even though stocks are seriously depleted. But WTO members remain divided on what to do – a situation that has been going on for 20 years.
As we explain in our article, any agreement would be far more than just an agreement on trade policy; there is the social and environment impact as well. Landlocked Switzerland “supports the meaningful conclusion of the negotiation on fisheries subsidies” in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the country’s WTO ambassador has said.
Word from the streets: The latest newsletter from Matthew Allen, SWI business correspondent and expert on all things blockchain, is out.
Matt takes a look at how “Crypto Nation” Switzerland is supporting African blockchain ambitions, through a public-private partnership. The collaboration is seen as an example of how Switzerland can spread its influence around the world. The country is currently home to nearly 1,000 blockchain start-ups, supporting around 5,000 jobs.
Matt will be moderating an event staged by CV VC/CV Labs and supported by the Swiss Blockchain FederationExternal link on Thursday evening, that will examine the scope and depth of the digital assets industry in Switzerland.
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