Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Where the Swiss, French, and British weather services all agree that it’s currently 25°C – a good sign in an era in which even forecasters are getting dragged into fake news debates. More on this after Wednesday’s news in brief from Switzerland.

This content was published on August 9, 2023 - 18:00

4 minutes

Originally from Ireland, Domhnall worked in research and writing in a couple of European countries before joining swissinfo.ch in 2017. He covers direct democracy and politics and is usually in Bern.

view of the kremlin in moscow — Keystone / Yuri Kochetkov

In the news: frosty relations with Russia, new ones with Niue.

Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia’s double taxation agreements with over 30 “unfriendly nations”, including Switzerland. The decree suspends certain provisions of treaties aimed at avoiding double taxation and tax evasion. Other countries involved include the US, UK, and Canada. Swiss authorities said on Wednesday they had not received official notice of the decree.
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis signed a declaration of intent today to initiate diplomatic relations with the tiny Pacific island of Niue. Home to less than 2,000 inhabitants, Niue is the only self-governing territory in the Pacific with which Switzerland has yet to establish such relations, the foreign ministry said. Cassis was in the Asia-Pacific region for a week-long diplomatic jaunt.
After 1,400 Swiss scouts were evacuated yesterday from the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea – due to typhoon warnings – today a bus carrying 38 of them crashed en route to Seoul. Ten people were slightly injured, none of them young scouts themselves, SRF reportedExternal link, but rather accompanying members of the trip. The injured are expected to already leave hospital on Wednesday.

Hot air? SRF under attack for dodgy weather forecasts.

According to SRF weatherExternal link, it’s going to be 40°C in Madrid tomorrow; according to the Spanish broadcaster, it’s going to be 39°C. For SRF, it’s going to be 32°C in the Mediterranean city of Marseille on Saturday; for the French weather wonks, 29°C. What’s going on?? Climate fakery and fearmongering, says Thomas Matter from the Swiss People’s Party! The Luzerner Zeitung reports todayExternal link that Matter has accused SRF weather of deliberately and consistently exaggerating temperatures in southern Europe in order to stir up – even further – the “climate panic” gripping left-wing minds.

Is this the case? Not according to SRF weatherman Thomas Bucheli, who says foreign temperatures on the extremely popular Swiss weather app are generated completely automatically. As such, the reporters themselves have no influence on them, he says: “the accusation of deliberate manipulation is completely absurd”. Another left-wing politician denounced Matter’s comments as political “bluster” in light of upcoming national elections in autumn (and in light of an impending campaign to cut the budget of the public broadcaster, of which the weather service is a part).

So what’s the truth? For now, it remains murky. But to its credit, SRF weather can also get it wrong in the other direction: it reckons it’s going to be 25°C in London tomorrow; the BBC says 26°C.

Google in Zurich: not yet kicked the bucket.

“Google is dying,” wrote theExternal linkTages-Anzeiger yesterday, using exactly the sort of catchy headline that Google’s SEO-driven algorithm no doubt loves. The gist of the piece is that various online trends – mainly, the advent of AI and how Google plans to use it to change from “search engine” to “answer engine” – is set to upend the very architecture of the web: the internet will become split between a wild west of AI-generated clickbait and more civilised, curated corners where enlightened users will bypass classic search engines to find quality info, the article predicts.

But if the mothership is dying, the hordes of Google employees in Zurich don’t seem to know about it. Le Temps today reports onExternal link the odd breed of ‘Zooglers’ who have colonised Switzerland’s biggest city in recent years: by now, some 5,000 of them, which is nice for the city’s tax intake, but which has also led to issues with gentrification and rent prices, as we also reported recently. It’s hard to describe a typical Zoogler, Le Temps explains, but they are largely non-Swiss, well-paid, and seemingly very cliquey – they “work together, eat together, work out together”. And they don’t even have to Google where to best have dinner: their company operates a network of a dozen restaurants in the city, just for them.