Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Swiss social media and news feeds are littered with the word “apocalyptic”. They’re describing a five-minute storm that hit the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds in canton Neuchâtel yesterday.
Is it a case of watching too many Hollywood movies or has northwestern Switzerland become a new tornado alley?
Storm in a teacup or The Perfect Storm?
A violent storm swept through the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds in northwestern Switzerland yesterday, killing one person and injuring around 15 people.
The storm lasted only five minutes but the strong gusts of up to 217km/h caused considerable damage. Vehicles were damaged, roofs torn off and trees uprooted. The rail network and bus services were also affected. Rescue and clearing operations are continuing.
According to MeteoSwissExternal link, the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, the storm cannot be described as a tornado. Rather, it was a case of “very violent swirling gusts of wind”, possibly reinforced by the town’s urban layout. Such a phenomenon is very difficult to predict, according to the meteorologists.
The topography of the La Chaux-de-Fonds region and the town’s “American-style” grid structure may have increased the violence of the phenomenon. This may have created a ‘Venturi effect’, meaning that the gusts of wind are channelled and compressed between the buildings, so that their effect is stronger.
Gay men welcome: End of two standards in blood donations
Homosexual men in Switzerland will be treated on par with heterosexuals when it comes to the mandatory waiting period prior to donating blood.
Until 2017, gay men were completely excluded from donating blood. Since then, they have been eligible to donate blood only if they have not had sex with men in the past 12 months. From November 1, the same rules will applyExternal link to heterosexual as well as homosexual contacts, making every blood donor beholden to the same rules.
Cannabis possession: When are you in trouble with the Swiss police?
The possession of small quantities of weed, if for personal use rather than re-sale, is not treated as a criminal offence in Switzerland. However, sometimes the law is not clear enough and precedents are set by how the courts interpret them.
Yesterday Switzerland’s highest court ruled that the police do not have the unconditional right to confiscate and destroy cannabis quantities of less than ten grams.
Judges were ruling specifically on the case of a man who had been caught with several grams of weed and hash in canton St Gallen in 2019. Police took the drugs, suspecting the man of having brought them in from Austria. However, as no proof of this was found, the man should be entitled to get the drugs back, the Federal Court ruled.
However, Swiss residents do not have a free pass to consume cannabis as long as it is under ten grams. They can still be fined if they are caught consuming – in which case the drugs can also still be confiscated.
Swiss private bank says no to Russians
Russian money is getting too hot to handleExternal link, even for Swiss private banks. Julius Bär will end all business with clients based in Russia, it told them in a letter seen by Reuters today. The bank will cease business with clients domiciled in Russia by December 31, the letter said, while wealth management activities such as mandates managing clients’ investments, credit agreements and credit card contracts would be terminated by the end of September.
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