Switzerland Today
Have you got a Chuchichäschtli? What do you keep in it? Can you pronounce it? Why’s it in the news?
In the news: An alpaca massacre, a space rainbow, and a fossil with an unpronounceable name.
A wolf has killed three alpacas in canton Thurgau, northeastern Switzerland. The canton is considering issuing a licence to shoot the wolf, saying the legal requirements for this have been met.
The Swiss space telescope CHEOPS has found a type of rainbow on a planet 637 light years away. The observation of a so-called “glory” is likely the first evidence of this phenomenon outside our solar system.
Researchers in Zurich have discovered fossils of a previously unknown species of squid from Ticino, which they have christened “Chuchichäschtli”. The name refers to the fossil, which is around 242 million years old, having lain in a “Chuchichäschtli” – a Swiss-German word for a cupboard, often a kitchen cupboard – for a long period before its significance was recognised. Chuchichäschtli is also a sort of shibboleth, testing a person’s pronunciation of Swiss German.
Last summer Switzerland had its first professional American football team, but now the Helvetic Guards have called it a day, just two years after coming together.
The semi-professional European League of Football (ELF) said yesterday the team’s owners had informed them they were ceasing operations.
However, this does not mean the end of a football team from Switzerland. The ELF has already signed a contract with a new ownership group that will provide a new team with a new name. Details are yet to be announced. The fourth season of the ELF, which was founded in 2020, will therefore begin as planned on the weekend of May 25/26 with 17 teams.
The Helvetic Guards, who played their home games in Wil in canton St Gallen, contested their first season in the ELF in 2023. After three wins from 12 games, they finished in 12th place.
While Swiss American footballers have rarely bothered the game in the United States, older readers in the US will certainly remember the “Heidi Bowl”, one of the most infamous fumbles in sports broadcasting history.
Healthcare costs: should Swiss hospitals clamp down on expenses? Join the discussion.
Many Swiss hospitals are making considerable losses, require millions in government aid and have to cut services. Read up on the topic and have your say on the multilingual debate platform “dialogue”.
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