Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
are you going away on holiday this summer? Do you prefer well-known sights or would rather avoid such places?
The Swiss mountain village of Lauterbrunnen is struggling with the consequences of its popularity and is now looking for ways to better manage the flow of visitors.
Warm greetings from Bern
Tourism is pushing Lauterbrunnen to its limits. Now the mountain village is looking for solutions to better direct the flow of visitors.
To see the 300-metre-high Staubbach Falls, thousands of tourists from all over the world will travel to the valley in the Bernese Oberland again this year. The Berner Zeitung reports on the village’s efforts to manage the rush of visitors. An entrance fee for day tourists like in Venice is out of the question for legal reasons, mayor Karl Näpflin notes with resignation.
“We just want to better manage day tourism,” he says. Many travelers come by car, the parking situation is confusing. An underground car park is meant to remedy the situation and the cantonal road in the village is to be widened. The railway station square is also to be adapted to the flow of travellers.
The marketing organisation “Made in Bern” does not use the word overtourism but prefers “unbalanced tourism”. However, the director emphasises that the goal is not to attract even more guests to the canton. One solution is to redistribute tourists are to be distributed to other seasons with new offers. But this takes time and there is no “universal concept” for the traffic problem.
The army wants to invest billions in a new air defence system, but at the same time old tanks are out of service again.
Switzerland is currently helpless when it comes to defending against drones, writes 20 Minuten. The “Skyranger” air defence system is intended to remedy the situation.
It is one of the most modern of its kind in the world, manufactured by the arms company Rheinmetall Air Defence in Zurich Oerlikon. As the newspaper reports, Defence Minister Martin Pfister wants to buy 32 of them and requested a budget of CHF800 million.
At the same time, Blick reported that the Swiss fleet of 50-year-old M113 armoured personnel carriers are once again causing problems. The army had to “ground” the entire fleet of 238 vehicles. For safety reasons, they can only drive at walking pace at the moment. In certain exercises, a different vehicle is used and the soldiers are asked to use their imagination, according to Blick. Due to the Ukraine war, repairs will be delayed until autumn 2027.
Guy Parmelin speaks to the astronauts on the International Space Station and asks a cheeky question.
Many wonder if extraterrestrial life exists. However, Swiss President Guy Parmelin had a special question for the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS): “Does it have wine on board?,” Parmelin asked them.
Parmelin was able to talk to the crew during a visit to NASA in Houston and asked them questions in English and French. The French astronaut Sophie Adenot then had to disappoint the politician and winemaker by revealing that there is no alcohol on the ISS. The reason for this is that the drinking water and the air are constantly recycled and certain molecules from the alcohol cannot be processed by the filter.
The timing of Parmelin’s trip to North America had originally been chosen because of the Soccer World Cup. At Switzerland’s last match against Algeria, he caused a stir with a cap bearing the inscription “Switzerland, Great Since 1291”. It is unclear whether the cap will make another appearance in the stadium tonight. According to X, Parmelin is currently in Mexico – but the game is taking place in Canada.
Bad news for the national team before the round of 16: Top scorer Johan Manzambi is out and other players are also injured..
The national football team will play its next game at the World Cup tonight. The round of 16 against Colombia will take place in Vancouver, like the last two games.
The anticipation for the game, which will not kick off until 10pm Swiss time, is palpable. But this morning there was bad news from the training camp: Top scorer Johan Manzambi injured his knee in training and will not be able to play. Rubén Vargas and Djibril Sow also stopped the last training session due to injury, as a visibly tense Murat Yakin announced at the press conference. “I hope that I’ll be in a better mood in a few hours,” said the coach.
The injury-related absences bring back unpleasant memories, as the Tages-Anzeiger writes. At the 2022 World Cup, Yakin had to replace several players who were ill at short notice. Switzerland lost 6-1 to Portugal. Let’s hope that this time it will be better.
Translated from German, sub-edited by Anand Chandrasekhar
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