Switzerland Today

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Keystone

In the news: Torture allegations, refugee smuggling and loans for power company.

• The Swiss government has rushed out its financial safety net for the power sector to secure the liquidity of the country’s leading energy company. Axpo will receive up to CHF4 billion in loans to cover the collateral requirements of long-term international power supply contracts. The government has already lined up a safety net worth CHF10 billion for the three main power companies and parliament is due to approve the scheme in its autumn session due to begin next week.
• Swiss police have arrested a man for suspected human trafficking, after they found 23 refugees in a van in central Switzerland. The refugees from Afghanistan, India, Syria and Bangladesh were very tightly packed together but alive, police said on Tuesday. The refugees were found during a check on heavy goods traffic outside the city of Lucerne. The Italian-registered van was travelling from northern Italy to France.
• The Swiss authorities are facing renewed criticism by the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture. The expert body said that staff carrying out the forced removals were generally professional and respectful, but that returnees were partially restrained transfers at airports.

© Keystone / Michael Buholzer

Energy crunch: advice and threats

It’s been virtually impossible to ignore the issue of potential energy shortages in the Swiss media over the past few weeks. The Swiss government has just announced on a CHF4 billion bail-out package for the energy sector (see news above) and the economics minister met representatives from the industry and the 26 cantons to discuss potential restrictions or in emergency cases.

News programmes and newspapers have been running stories with advice for people and consumers to reduce energy consumption and keep electricity and gas bills in check by lowering temperatures in buildings, switching off electric appliances overnight, taking showers instead of a bath (and only every other day or together with your partner…), to name just a few.

The top story in Tuesday’s edition of the Blick newspaper stoked the fire, saying the authorities could hand down prison sentence of up to three years or hefty fines to offenders who refuse to lower heating.

Keystone / Sandro Campardo

Seeing red because of climate change

Temperature issues of a very different kind is what weather experts are trying to tackle for the TV audience in Switzerland. Faced with a series of heat waves and dry spells, designers of weather maps feel they are too limited to use the simply the colour red to show high temperatures.

Philippe Jeanneret of RTS public television is quoted as saying that the weather team saw its maps going from red to more red and even more red, but could not indicate rising temperatures adequately for TV viewers.

And what’s the solution? “We need more colour diversity”, says Jeanneret. His team is considering adding purple and black to its colour code. Another suggestion includes the introduction of additional shades of the colours currently in use.

Like many other countries in Europe, Switzerland this year registered its second hottest summer since 1864 when official weather records began.