Switzerland Today
Greetings from Zurich!
“Der April macht was er will”. And indeed, the April weather has played havoc with sporting events, tradition and gardeners. Media outlets are laying odds on how long the snow will last in Alpine regions.
Amidst the chill, we bring you the main talking points of the day.
In the news: Russia snubs Switzerland (again), the Patrouille des Glaciers race is postponed (again) and Raiffeisen bank cleared of anti-Semitism.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has labeled Switzerland an “openly hostile country” as he told the state media why Russia has no time for Swiss-sponsored peace talks.
- Friday’s Patrouille des Glaciers ski race has been postponed to the weekend due to persistently bad weather.
- Raiffeisen Switzerland has been cleared by a company commissioned report of prejudice against Jewish customers despite the anti-Semtitic beliefs of the banking cooperative’s German founder.
- Swiss filmmaker and film critic Ulrike Koch, who directed the documentary The Salt Men of Tibet, has died at the age of 73.
- Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, including SWISS International Air Lines, cancelled all flights to Israel on Friday following an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
Gaming children radicalised
Islamic State has found a new, and extremely disturbing, way of radicalising young people – computer games.
The Blick newspaper says two Swiss teenagers, who are in custody accused of planning violent attacks, were enthusiasts of a computer game favoured by jihadist recruiters.
Many games contain a large element of violence, which attract extremists looking to subvert young gamers into real bloodshed.
The German expert on extremism Linda Schlegel told Blick: “Extremist groups use gaming platforms to spread their propaganda to the widest possible audience and to attract new members.”
Extremists often get into children’s minds via the chat function on games. “Most of the time it’s about everyday things. Then slowly extremist comments or jokes start to appear.”
“After a few weeks or months, the player is lured to chat platforms such as Discord or Whatsapp. Like-minded people meet there to play games and share extremist content.”
The Swiss teenagers were devotees of a Roblox game. Blick reporters joined into a game that set users the mission of killing “opponents of the Prophet Mohammed”.
Böögg escapes from the wind
The ongoing saga of the Böögg weather predictor in Zurich has taken another twist. On Monday, strong winds prevented the annual burning of the snowman effigy.
Given the poor forecast ahead of us, it has been decided to switch the burning Böögg ceremony from Zurich to canton Appenzell Outer Rhodes. A date has yet to be set for the burning.
This leaves Zurich inhabitants unsure of the weather prognosis for the summer. It all depends on how quickly the flames explode the Böögg’s head.
The ceremony has only once before left Zurich. In 2021, the Böögg was burned in the remote Schöllenen Gorge, canton Uri, near to the spectacular Devil’s Bridge. The reason on that occasion was to dissuade crowds from attending during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
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