Switzerland Today
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“History is at a turning point... This is really the moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world,” a man wearing an olive-green army T-shirt told a packed hall of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss resort of Davos earlier today.
The bloody Russia-Ukraine war has caused multiple shockwaves these past three months. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has given dozens of speeches in the past. But his much-anticipated video address today to the besuited WEF elite, ahead of champagne and foie gras, was another stark reminder of the dramatic events taking place just 2,000 kilometres away.
Follow SWI reporters Jessica Davis-Pluess @JPluess and Dominque Soguel-dit-Picard @DSoguel who are in Davos covering the WEF this week #SWIatWEF22.
In the news: monkeypox, Swiss-German collaboration on gas supplies, and Swiss women and Covid-19 restrictions.
- Switzerland confirmed its first case of monkeypox (photo above) in canton Bern, on Saturday. Meanwhile, the antiviral drug tecovirimat and the latest generation smallpox vaccine – which both help against monkeypox and are authorised in the European Union – are not available in Switzerland, it has been reported.
- Swiss and Germanministers have agreed to negotiate a solidarityagreement to help each other with gas supply issues in an emergency. Gas makes up roughly 15% of Switzerland’s final energy consumption and is mostly used for heating and cooking. Around half of this comes from Russia, mainly via Germany.
- Low-paidwomen were particularly badly affected by Swiss Covid-19 restrictions, a “gender” study published by the Federal Commission for Women’s Issues foundExternal link.
All eyes are on the WEF in Davos where Ukraine is the focus.
In a virtual keynote speech at the WEF today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (photo above) called for “maximum” sanctions against Russia. He also urged “all countries” to come forward with offers for reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.
The Ukraine president said sanctions needed to gofurther to stop Russia’s aggression, including an oil embargo, all of its banks blocked and cutting off trade with Russia completely.
He also thankedSwitzerland for hosting the fifth UkraineReformConference in Lugano on July 4-5. The meeting is being organised jointly with Kyiv and will focus on the reconstruction of the country. Forty states and 18 international organisations are expected in Lugano.
Zelensky received a standing ovation from the WEF participants. While Ukraine has fielded a large official delegation in Davos this year, no Russians were present.
The annual WEF meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos is taking place from May 22-25 for the first time in over two years due to Covid-19. The gathering brings together over 2,000 leaders and experts from around the world, somewhat smaller than some past meetings.
Swiss herbal sweet company Ricola faces a US class action lawsuit for allegedly misleading buyers.
According to the 15-page complaintExternal link filed on May 8 by a woman in the US state of Illinois, the packaging for Ricola’s“Original Herb Cough Drops” ismisleading. The distinctive yellow packets feature images of ten herbs along with statements such as “Made with Swiss Alpine herbs”, “cough suppressant”, “oral anesthetic” and “effective relief”.
According to the lawsuit, a drug facts panel has revealed that the herbs are all inactive ingredients, and that menthol is the only active ingredient in each cough drop.
The plaintiff is seeking damages of $5 million (CHF4.8 million). Ricola refused to comment on the case but toldExternal link the Basler Zeitung today that it had “had correctly complied with all regulations at all times”.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Swiss firms that renovate and upgrade nuclear shelters have been swamped by requests.
Switzerland has had a unique ‘shelters for all’ policy since 1963, the height of the Cold War. Every person in the country must have a spot in a bunker in case of some kind of catastrophe. Bunkers either have to be built underneath homes and blocks of flats, or the building owner has to pay the local authorities for a spot in a public shelter.
With the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and concerns about possible Russian nuclear strikes, the order book of shelter installer Abriprotect has risen by 30% since early March, Swiss public television, RTS, reportsExternal link. Throughout French-speaking Switzerland, municipalities and individuals have been contacting director Christian Sinigaglia to carry out renovationwork.
“I have been doing this job for 30 years. Until now, we were not welcome, because there were other priorities. But today, we see that people are really afraid and that they realise it is a chance to have shelter and to be protected in the event of war,” he told RTS.
One of the last three Swiss manufacturers of shelter materials is based at Elgg in canton Zurich. Since the Russian invasion, the Mengeu factory has been overwhelmed with requests.
“Here, we have orders that are going to be sent to Switzerland: dry toilets and beds. Currently, we also have a lot of requests from abroad, for the construction of new shelters, mainly from Germany, but as far as Ukraine. But it’s difficult to build a shelter overnight,” notes Christoph Singer, the company’s director.
Today the country of 8.6 million people counts nearly nine million spaces across 365,000 private and public shelters.
How did 500kg of cocaine end up at a Nespresso factory in Switzerland?
Earlier this month, Swisspoliceseized more than 500 kilograms ofcocaine which were concealed in a container shipped from Brazil to the Nespressofactory in the town of Romont in western Switzerland.
The drugs, worth over CHF50 million ($51.8 million), were discovered by workers unloading bags of coffeebeans and the police were informed immediately.
A reportExternal link by Swiss public TV, RTS, has investigated the likelyorigin and journey the drugs took by boat from Brazil to the port of Anvers in Belgium, before being transported to Switzerland.
The RTS report suggests that the cocaine haul, the second biggest in Swiss history, was the result of mistake by drug dealers who should have intercepted the container between Belgium and Switzerland. A police investigation is ongoing.
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