Switzerland today

Greetings from Bern,

Hiking season is upon us and the mountains beckon. Easy to forget that around 200 million years ago the Swiss Alps were under the sea with prehistoric creatures swimming among them.

Keystone / Andy Rain

In the news: Frosty EU, new round of Russia sanctions, and Cassis meets Boris

• Switzerland’s chief negotiator Livia Leu met with the European Commission’s Juraj Nociar in a bid to find a way forward after the Swiss broke off negotiations on an overarching framework deal almost exactly a year ago. Relations remain frosty External linkwith little margin for maneuver. 
• No more Russian coal or caviar. Switzerland has followed EU’s lead in imposing a new round of sanctionsExternal link against Russia and Belarus. 
• Swiss president Ignazio Cassis is meeting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. If he’s lucky he might even be invited for tea with the Queen. On the cards are discussions on the war in Ukraine and bilateral External linkties. The two countries want to strengthen financial cooperation to ensure their banking sectors remain competitive. Research is another area for partnerships given both countries are now outside the European Union’s research umbrella. 

Marcello Perillo/ University of Bonn

Science corner: Triassic Park Swiss style

A team of researchers determined that a 10cm long tooth discovered in the Swiss AlpsExternal link belonged to a giant marine reptile called the Ichthyosaur. The incomplete tooth is part of a fossil find of three different Ichthyosaurs that roamed the Graubünden Alps in eastern Switzerland between 1976 and 1990. According to researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Zurich, one of them could have been up to15 metres in length. The creatures also had vertebrae and some ribs.