Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

a stabbing attack has sent shockwaves through peaceful Switzerland. The public is all the more outraged because the victims are children and the assailant's motive is as yet unknown.

The crisis in the Middle East, and in particular the escalation of violence in Lebanon, is of concern to the Swiss authorities, who are calling for a cessation of hostilities.

Happy reading.

Keystone / Michael Buholzer

On Tuesday afternoon, a 23-year-old Chinese man stabbed children at a day nursery in the street north of Zurich. Three were injured, one of them seriously.

The young man threw himself at a group of children on their way from the kindergarten to the nearby nursery. Their carer reacted immediately and, with the help of a passer-by, managed to subdue the assailant.

They held him until the police arrived. The alleged perpetrator, a student at the University of Zurich, offered no resistance when arrested. The injured children were taken to hospital. No information has yet been released about their condition.

A large police presence was deployed in the area, among other things to ensure that the assailant had acted alone. Forensic specialists were on site to collect evidence.

The authorities have not revealed the motive of the alleged perpetrator. However, the Tages-Anzeiger believes that the investigation should take into account the increase in knife attacks on schoolchildren in China in recent years.

The story in Tages-AnzeigerExternal link

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Right Reserved

Following Israel’s strikes on Lebanon in recent days, Switzerland calls for dialogue and de-escalation. No Swiss citizens have been injured so far.

Switzerland is “deeply concerned” by the situation in Lebanon. International law, including humanitarian law, must be respected, said the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). For several days, the Israeli army has been carrying out bombings and ground raids targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

No injuries have been reported among the 1,200 Swiss nationals registered with the Swiss embassy in Lebanon. Around 90 people have also registered on the Travel Admin application for a stay in the region. For now, Swiss citizens wanting to leave the country have to do so by their own means.

Switzerland, which has just begun its second presidency of the UN Security Council, has scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl said she was monitoring the situation very closely.

Israel’s ambassador to Switzerland told the RTS news programme on Tuesday that her country did not want “a large-scale regional war, but we are concentrating on eliminating militants and terrorists who represent a direct threat”. According to him, the attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon were mandated and supported by Hamas and Iran.

The interviewExternal link given by the Israeli ambassador on RTS

The articleExternal link in La Liberté on the Security Council meeting

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Despite heavy snowfall last winter, glaciers have suffered a significant loss of volume this year. These are the conclusions of the 2024 assessment by the Glamos network of Swiss glaciological surveys.

The thick layer of snow that covered Swiss glaciers at the end of the winter of 2023/2024 was unable to compensate for the effect of the high summer temperatures. They lost the equivalent of 2.5% of their volume, or 1.2 kilometres of ice that will not return.

“In the current climate, summers are simply too hot for glaciers, even when they have benefited from a very snowy winter,” laments Matthias Huss, Professor of Glaciology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Director of Glamos.

What’s more, there was no snowfall during the summer. Generally, a few cooler periods allow a few centimetres to accumulate on the glaciers, protecting them from melting for several days. This is still a rare phenomenon, but it is happening more and more often.
This year’s loss is less than in the two previous years, when 10% of the total volume of Swiss glaciers vanished.

The articleExternal link in Le Temps (paywall)

Keystone / Michael Buholzer

UBS is standing in for Credit Suisse before the Federal Criminal Court in a money laundering case. Unusually, the trial is public.

In June 2022, Credit Suisse was found guilty at first instance of aggravated money laundering for having harboured money from the clan of Evelin Banev, a member of the Bulgarian mafia. It was fined CHF2 million and ordered to pay compensation of CHF19 million.

Now that Credit Suisse has been taken over by UBS, it is the latter that is picking up the pieces. The bank appealed and tried to have the proceedings dismissed, arguing that the disappearance of Credit Suisse should have meant the end of the criminal proceedings.

But the Court of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court did not see it that way. This is because, in addition to Credit Suisse’s capital under management, staff and premises, the merger agreement between the two institutions provided for the takeover of Credit Suisse’s ‘position in all judicial, arbitration and administrative proceedings’.

This is only the second time that a Swiss bank has appeared before the Federal Criminal Court. UBS faces a fine of up to CHF5 million and compensation claims of up to CHF41 million.

You can find the details on RSIExternal link

Keystone / Anthony Anex

Photo of the day

The committee that tabled the referendum against the motorway extensions launched its campaign on Wednesday, with a view to the vote of November 24.

The Federal Council and Parliament have approved six motorway extension projects worth almost five billion Swiss francs. Denouncing these ‘giant motorways’, the Association for Transport and the Environment and the organisation actif-trafiC are leading the campaign. Supported by the Greens, the Social Democrats and the Liberal Greens, as well as around fifty other organisations and associations, they believe that the planned extension is oversized, that it is based on an outdated transport policy and that the costs are excessive.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac