Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Where the biggest national story on Tuesday is an ongoing forest fire in canton Valais, and the biggest international story is the end of the Black Sea grain deal. Read on for these and the rest of the day’s news and updates.
Forest fire, demining aid, and landscape progress.
In the news
- Several Swiss mountain villages were evacuated yesterday due to a 100-hectare forest fire in the country’s southern Valais region. Overnight, two helicopters worked to douse the flames above the municipality of Bitsch but by this morning had not been successful in bringing it under control. Weaker winds have since helped, but efforts to tame the blaze are ongoing.
- Switzerland has pledged to continue to assist Ukraine in demining its territory throughout the ongoing Russian war. The foreign and defence ministries and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development said yesterday that they would continue financial support for such efforts for another four years. This will amount to some CHF15 million ($17.4 million) this year.
- The Swiss Foundation for Landscape Conservation has warned that recent political decisions to promote renewable energy could undercut progress in preserving the landscape. It was referring to parliament’s “solar offensive” decided last autumn, as well as the more recent “wind offensive”. Nevertheless, the group said landscape protection had been strengthened overall in recent years.
War again threatens to disrupt global food security.
Ukraine
The Black Sea grain deal expired last night. The agreement, brokered in July 2022 by the UN and Turkey, had allowed both Ukraine and Russia to continue exporting grain and fertiliser, despite the war. Notably, it included a Russian guarantee of safe passage for ships from Ukraine passing through the Black Sea. What does the end of the deal mean? Our International Geneva correspondent today outlines what the deal involved, which regions are now likely to be affected, and what the chances are of an alternative. As for Switzerland, the impact is likely to be “minimal” – imports for animal feed are most likely to be affected, a representative of cereal producers told Swiss public radio, RTS, today.
booming, but still in need of help.
Swiss music festivals
It’s very much festival and party season in Switzerland. Over the past few weeks, two million people piled into Zurich for the “Züri Fäscht”, Bern’s Gurten festival saw a record attendance of 100,000, the same amount flocked to see Coldplay in Zurich, plenty more saw Muse, Rammstein, and Guns N’ Roses in Bern, the Montreux Jazz Festival was a hit as usual, the Lake Parade brought a techno rave to Geneva, the Verbier classical festival is ongoing, and the six-day(!) Paléo starts near Nyon today. And that’s not to mention the many smaller festivals taking place across the country.
Hardly surprising that, as SRF reportsExternal link this week, event organisers are struggling to find staff. One issue is apparently similar to that facing the restaurant and hotel sector: during the cultural glut of the pandemic, many staff (or “helpers”, as they are called in the article) moved to work in another sector. How are the big events filling the gaps? SRF writes that a form of “solidarity” has sprung up within the sector – venues across the country now work together more, for example by sharing “helpers” where they are needed. Hopefully the helpers are also helped by half-decent wages.
Former Swiss health official in the Dnieper.
Still current
For those who followed the Covid-19 press conferences in Bern in spring 2020, the name Daniel Koch will ring a bell. “Mister Corona” was the top Swiss health official during the first wave of the pandemic and became a household face – largely thanks to his calm demeanour, which helped many at the time not to lose their heads. Koch also had a sense of humour: upon retiring in April 2020, he jumped into the River Aare in Bern in suit and tie, fulfilling a promise he had made that the river would again be “ready for swimming” after the lockdown.
Three years later Koch is still at it, the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA reports today: but this time, the river is in Kyiv. An Instagram videoExternal link shows Koch plunging into the Dnieper in suit and tie, in an effort to highlight the ongoing war and to spur the Swiss parliament to provide support to the country. As a rich country and a guarantor of humanitarian law, Switzerland could do more to help Ukraine, says the 68-year-old doctor. Koch made similar pleasExternal link for Switzerland “not to forget about the war” to a local Bern TV station in April.
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