Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
If you were to buy a new washing machine, would you choose the one that scored 7/10 in specialist tests or the one with a measly 1/10? For the Federal Armaments Office, Armasuisse, the question concerned not washing machines but the army’s new service pistol – and it opted for the worst-rated option.
After explaining why, we bring you instructions – tested yesterday by CERN – on how to transport antimatter in a truck, because you never know when you might find yourself in the next Dan Brown novel.
Happy reading!
The new service pistol the army plans to purchase, the P320 manufactured by SIG Sauer’s US subsidiary, performed poorly in tests conducted by specialists commissioned by the armed forces and the Federal Armaments Office, Armasuisse. But the evaluations were ignored.
This was revealed by Watson, which obtained internal documents under the Transparency Act. Of the three models considered, the one chosen by Armasuisse scored the lowest, with 1 out of 10 compared with 7 for the best-performing Glock.
“Complicated, unwieldy, inaccurate” – the list of criticisms is long. The shortcomings affected virtually every technical aspect of the weapon intended to replace the SIG P220, which has been in service for 50 years.
Urs Loher, director of Armasuisse, nevertheless opted for the P320. According to Watson, the significantly lower price weighed heavily, as did considerations of Swiss industrial sovereignty. The version destined for the army would be produced in Switzerland rather than the United States. Adaptations, however, “will be kept to a minimum”, armasuisse’s communications manager told the online portal.
Parliament will have to examine the choice during debates on the army budget.
After four years of renovation, the Swiss Cultural Centre in Paris (CCS) has reopened to the public in modernised premises.
Established in 1985 in a 17th-century building in the heart of the city, the CCS has become a leading showcase for contemporary Swiss art in France, offering artists a space not only for exhibitions but also for meetings and experimentation. This mission of the first venue opened abroad by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia remains unchanged.
“The CCS contributes to promoting a Swiss art scene that is recognised not only for its diversity but also for its independence,” said Culture Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider during a visit to the French capital.
“Unlike most foreign cultural centres in Paris, we are not dependent on the diplomatic network,” CCS director Jean-Marc Diébold told Swissinfo. No “soft power”, no flags, no cheese and no chocolate. In other words, the centre reflects a Switzerland that is “open, diverse and far removed from clichés – a freedom that many other institutions envy”, he added.
For the first time in the world, antimatter has been transported in a lorry. The milestone was achieved by CERN in Geneva.
The particles that make up matter and antimatter have opposite electric charges. When they come into contact, they annihilate each other, converting into energy. Given that matter makes up virtually everything, transporting antimatter is far from straightforward.
For the first time, however, 92 antiprotons travelled for half an hour in a trailer across the Geneva laboratory site, inside a special one-tonne container that trapped them in a vacuum using magnetic fields and temperatures close to absolute zero.
If a malfunction had occurred during transport, CERN noted, there would have been no consequences: the energy released would have been about one millionth of a joule – roughly the amount needed to press a key on a computer keyboard.
CERN is currently the only place in the world where antiprotons are produced. However, many measurements cannot be carried out on site with sufficient precision because of magnetic fluctuations generated by the machines. The ability to transport antiprotons therefore opens the door to experiments in more suitable locations.
A cargo of Roman artefacts in excellent condition has been discovered in Lake Neuchâtel – a unique find north of the Alps and described as “exceptional” by cantonal authorities.
The cargo, dating from the first century AD, was transported by a civilian merchant vessel under military escort. It is thought to have included weapons (possibly for gladiators), along with several hundred ceramic vessels – bowls, plates, glasses and trays produced on the Swiss Plateau, as well as olive oil containers imported from Spain.
The discovery was made thanks to an aerial photograph taken in November 2024 as part of a seabed survey conducted by the cantonal archaeological office.
For archaeologists, the material is an invaluable source of information that could shed light on trade networks, technical skills and product distribution at the time.
Except for the most fragile items, most objects remain underwater for now and must be protected from threats such as seabed erosion, anchoring by boats and, not least, vandalism and looting.
Translated using AI/amva/ts
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