Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

The dark, cold evenings have arrived in Bern. But we are apparently lucky to have sun. There are several places in Switzerland where the sun doesn’t shine for months.

Swiss public television, SRF, has compiled a list of several places in Switzerland that are in the dark because the mountains block the low-lying sun in winter. In one town in St. Gallen, the so-called “shadow hole” says goodbye to the sun on October 17 and won’t see it again until February 26.

We hope today's briefing sheds some light in the shadow holes or wherever you are.

© Keystone / Michael Buholzer

In the news: Swiss satisfied with the schools, a new tool to predict earthquakes, and a spotlight on commodity trading.The secret ingredient at the centre of a diplomatic crisis over a chocolate recipeThe federal court makes a controversial decision on rape

• Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Metrology (Metas) have discovered a fiber optic network that can be used to predict earthquakes and tsunamis. The researchers tested the method on the 123-kilometre-long fiber optic cable between Basel and Bern during a magnitude 3.9 earthquake and found the results were very similar to measurements by the seismological service.
• The Swiss government said that it will start collecting data from commodity trading companies as the war in Ukraine highlights the importance of the sector both domestically and for foreign policy. The move comes as Switzerland is juggling the implementation of Western sanctions against Russian resources with its status as a major hub for trading the country’s energy, grains and metals.
• A clear majority of Swiss are satisfied with the country’s education system, according to a representative survey. The majority of those questioned (84%) consider the dual training system, where young people can choose between secondary school and a vocational apprenticeship, to be satisfactory. What do you think about the school system? Does it prepare you for life? Join our dialogue.
• Vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella and polio are in short supply in Switzerland. According to the Federal Office for National Economic Supply, several other shortages of medicines have not yet been overcome.

To add milk or not to add milk? That’s the question occupying many people in the Piedmont region of Italy. According to a reportExternal link in the NZZ, various chocolate manufacturers in Piedmont are trying to obtain protected origin designation for the chocolate treat Gianduiotto.

Apparently, the Gianduiotto application is stalled because the Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli wants to see milk added to the list of ingredients – a demand that has been rejected by other Gianduiotto purists in the region. The original chocolate treat was made in 1865 with only three ingredients – hazelnuts, cocoa mass, and sugar.

However, production processes have evolved. In 1998 Lindt & Sprüngli acquired Caffarel company – the very producer who invented the Gianduiotto – and decided to add milk powder to the recipe. Other ingredients such as lecithin have also been added over the years.

So now all fingers are being pointed at “colosso svizzero” writes the NZZ. “It cannot be the case that our project is wrecked because of a Swiss company,” said Antonio Borra, who heads the Gianduiotto consortium.

Switzerland knows how sensitive such talks can be. After all, its still fighting for the origins of Gruyère cheese.

A few years ago, the Basel court of appeals reduced the sentence for a rapist and justified this by stating, among other things, that the crime had only lasted 11 minutes. This triggered protests in several cities across Switzerland. Around 500 people gathered in front of the court in Basel and held their arms up in silence for 11 minutes.

Two years later, the Federal Court has weighed in on the case. The court disagreed with some aspects of the Basel court ruling, specifically that the behavior of the woman prior to the rape, shouldn’t be used to justify a lower sentence. However, it did agree that the “relatively short duration of the rape” should be taken into account when sentencing the perpetrator.

Nearly six months after the Swiss parliament agreed on a new definition of rape, this latest decision is baffling to many.

“This case is particularly serious and in this respect I don’t think the duration of the rape should play a role,” parliamentarian and lawyer Barbara Steinemann told Swiss public television, SRF.