Switzerland

The new hydroelectric power plant in Rheinfelden - testament to a long-standing cooperation between Germany and Switzerland.

Water can be a source of conflict between states, but it can also encourage cooperation. Switzerland sees water diplomacy as a long-term, incremental strategy for peace.

Will there be wars over water in the future? Dystopias evoke this as a possible scenario. After all, water is a limited resource facing mounting pressure around the world from population growth, pollution and climate change.

Water knows no borders. As well as international lakes, there are more than 280 cross-border rivers worldwide. Underground water reserves do not observe borders either. So cross-border water management is often a key issue in cooperation between states – and historically also one of the oldest.

As Europe’s water tower, Switzerland has a lot of experience with this: 6% of Europe's drinking-water resources are located in the country, as are the sources of the rivers Rhone, Rhine and Inn, which flow from there through several countries. Switzerland negotiated the joint use of water bodies with its neighbours a long time ago – in 1890 it agreed with Germany, for example, to build the Rheinfelden hydroelectric power plant along the Rhine river, not far from Basel in northern Switzerland.

Lengthy processes with no guarantee of success The Alpine nation has experience with water in another international context – that of international cooperation. Agriculture and water are traditional areas of activity for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

"When we started work in this area 60 years ago, there were only half as many people in the world," says Simon Zbinden, who is in charge of water matters at the agency. While the focus in the past was mainly on building sanitary facilities such as latrines, it has since changed, he says: "Today, it's mainly about protecting water sustainably."

Water diplomacy is an integrated approach that aims to use diplomatic means and international cooperation to secure peace. "The goal is clear – to seal deals that ensure the peaceful use of resources for the benefit of all," Zbinden says. Even if dystopias give a different picture, water is rarely the cause of interstate problems, even if it can exacerbate them, he adds.

But this also means that the will to cooperate is a prerequisite for diplomacy to come into play. Central Asia shows what can go wrong. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, five new states emerged that had to regulate water management. Although there were agreements from the Soviet era on how the resource should be distributed between them, there were also a number of inherited problems. The Aral Sea, which has almost completely dried up, serves as an example of how the problematic handling of water reserves can be damaging. On top of that comes the impact of climate change.

In 2014, Switzerland was asked by these states to support their dialogue on cross-border cooperation. This came in part because it already had development aid projects in some of the countries concerned for some time; and in part because of its experience in multilateral forums dealing with water issues, such as in West Africa and the Middle East, where it had helped to establish similar platforms.

Unlike classic development aid – for example, building latrines, which is visible with measurable results – water diplomacy is a long-term process that does not produce quick, high-profile results.

“You have to be realistic,” says Zbinden. “Natural resource management is a sovereign matter that doesn’t work if the parties involved are not willing to cooperate.” This was the case in Central Asia: Islam Karimov, the long-time authoritarian ruler of Uzbekistan, was opposed to closer cooperation. Momentum has come only since the partial opening of the country after his death in 2016.

Municipalities in canton Bern must provide 1,200 additional places for asylum seekers by the end of September, the integration and social assistance office said on Friday.

Where exactly the additional places will be created has not yet been established. Bern has commissioned six of ten city mayors to find suitable accommodations.

The locations will be distributed among the administrative districts in proportion to the size of the population and would also take into consideration the places already available, the office stated.

The affected districts will have to create 50 to 300 new places.

Since the spring of 2022, the canton has commissioned around 30 new housing facilities with a capacity of 3,500 places, the integration and social assistance office indicated. The real estate market for properties suitable for group housing has now been largely exhausted.

Based on a ruling by the government at the beginning of July, municipalities can be obliged to provide suitable places that are available at short notice and for a maximum of two years.

Last week the cantonal office had made the decision to prepare emergency shelters. Currently, a total of 42 collective shelters are available in canton Bern. Six of these facilities are for people requesting special protection status, 22 for regular asylum seekers and 14 for unaccompanied minors. As reported at the beginning of August, there are currently 7,801 protection seekers, 6,157 regular asylum seekers and 507 unaccompanied minors being cared for in canton Bern.

On Friday, Switzerland’s interior minister, Alain Berset, and the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, signed an agreement to keep a copy of the archives of the Colombian Truth Commission in Switzerland.

The agreement, which was approved by the Federal Council on June 21, gives Switzerland a digital copy of the documents of the Colombian Truth Commission for the preservation of the files. The digital files contain, among other things, sensitive audio and video recordings of testimonies.

The Colombian Truth Commission was set up after the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels. Switzerland has provided support to the Commission.

The Swiss delegation will not leave Colombia with the hard drive at the end of the visit, but it will be transported in the coming months and kept in a safe in Bern. It will not be connected to the internet and so there is no concern of hacking of the sensitive data. The reason that the archives are not available to the public is because Colombia did not want that, Simon Geissbühler, head of the Peace and Human Rights Division of the Swiss foreign ministry, told Swiss public radio, RTS, on Friday.

The peace process in Colombia required the security of the original documents and their copies. This is to be upheld by keeping a second copy of the archives in Switzerland. Geissbühler said this request is a “sign of confidence in Switzerland and in our peace policy”.

Berset, who currently holds the rotating Swiss presidency, and Petro spoke in particular about the peace process in Colombia, President Petro told the media on Thursday evening. However, no questions were allowed at the media conference and only a few journalists were admitted to the reception following the meeting.

That morning, Berset met negotiating parties of the 2016 peace treaty between the Colombian government and the guerrilla group FARC. Berset also met with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla organisation.

Switzerland, together with Germany, Sweden and Spain, continues its support of the peace efforts between these parties. Switzerland is also involved in Colombia within the framework of the UN Security Council. "One of the goals of this trip was to get a picture of the situation in Colombia," said Berset.

Berset expressed cautious optimism about Colombia's future. "I was very impressed by the will to move forward," Berset told the news agency Keystone-SDA. However, Berset said, peace negotiations are not only about the people who take part in the negotiations, but about groups that are everywhere in the country. "It is not a given that it will be accepted," Berset said.

At the beginning of August, the negotiations between the Colombian government and the ELN showed first signs of progress. A six-month ceasefire began on August 3. Besides the ELN and the FARC, however, other armed groups are also active in Colombia.

I just wanted to post some Info for those interested:

• A cargo train of around 50 carriages derailed in the tunnel going North in one of the Gottard tunnels.
• A few carriages passed the interchange between the two tunnels when something on a carriage caused damage to the interchange and then caused the separation of the train sending part of it through the protective door between the two tunnels. The door was closed at the time as it should be.
• The train was ok when it passed the scan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwx_rumXUAw) before it entered the tunnel. The track was also 100% so that is why the investigators are looking very closely at the moment.
• The door stopped the carriages from damaging the N->S side but the door was heavily damaged as well as the rail infrastructure on the S->N side. Picture of the door: https://news.sbb.ch/_file/23661/_r1280x689cc you can see the carriage on its side which was covered and filled with pallets.
• The hazardous materials where in carriages behind the accident and did not derail. Those could be safely removed without any incident. The hazardous material carriages were traveling empty however regulations require them to be declared as hazardous no mater if full or empty.
• No rail traffic can go through either side even the undamaged N -> S side until the door is either fixed or a temporary solution is found. The door is custom made and will take a long time to get a new one.
• All rail possible is diverted along the scenic route however double-deckers can not pass through the tunnels as well as some cargo as they don't fit.
• They expect 30% less seating capacity.
• At this time the investigators (SUST) are still investigating. Until it's given free only then they can see the total damage at which point they start with repairs.

Sources:

• https://news.sbb.ch/artikel/124073/bahnverkehr-im-gotthard-basistunnel-unterbrochen
• https://www.blick.ch/schweiz/tessin/die-wichtigsten-fragen-und-antworten-das-ist-bisher-zum-gotthard-unglueck-bekannt-id18831453.html

The leaked document was reported by the Tamedia newspapers on Friday. The authenticity of the document was confirmed by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA.

The document was regarding language regulation on questions of the re-export of war materiel in connection with Ukraine. The document was published on the Russian hacker group Joker DPR messaging channel on the Telegram communication application on Wednesday night.

The internal document references possible plans for a swap of Swiss-made tanks to support Ukraine in the war against Russia. According to the document, Denmark could supply the Piranhas to a Baltic state. The latter would then pass on its own military vehicles to Ukraine. However, SECO has not received a formal application request for such swapping process, a SECO spokesperson said to Keystone-SDA.

According to SECO, the document was made available to several federal administration departments and embassies abroad. The SECO spokesperson said the contents of the leaked document were not considered to be problematic. The document version is dated as early 2023 and the information it contains is already known to the public.

However, how the document got into the hands of the hackers is currently unclear. The hackers claim they had found the document in an email from a member of the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainians had received the document from the US secret service.

In a statement made to the Swiss public television, SRF, the head of the security ministry, Werner Salzmann, said he considered the incident "very worrying" and that the possible swap outlined in the document bothered him. "We had always criticised that such deals via ring swaps were a violation of neutrality," he said.

SECO has initiated an investigation. A spokesperson said the matter was being taken "very seriously".

Malaysia's government said on Thursday that anyone found wearing a product of the Swiss watchmaker Swatch’s Pride Collection could be jailed for up to three years.

All Swatch products containing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer elements are banned in Malaysia and those found with them now face up to three years in jail or a fine of up to 20,000 ringgit (CHF3,828).

The ban has been published in the Federal Gazette as part of a law that includes distribution and possession. The Home Ministry statement said the products are “detrimental, or possibly detrimental, to morality, public interest and national interest by promoting, supporting and normalising the LGBTQ movement which is not accepted by the general public."

Last May, Malaysian authorities had raided Swatch stores and confiscated more than 160 watches from its Pride Collection, which featured rainbow flag colours and messages of love and peace. In July, Swatch Group filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian government for confiscating the watches, saying the act had damaged the company’s reputation.

“Without a doubt, the seized watches did not and are not in any way capable of causing any disruption to public order or morality or any violations of the law,” Swatch said in the lawsuit.

Malaysia, which is predominantly Muslim, already criminalises same-sex relationships, with punishments ranging from caning under Islamic laws to 20 years in prison for sodomy under colonial-era civil laws. Last year, 18 people were detained at a Halloween party attended by members of the LGBTQ community.

Swatch is not the first international entity to fall foul of the Malaysian government. Last July, authorities cut short a music festival in Kuala Lumpur after the lead singer of British band The 1975 kissed a male bandmate during their performance in protest of the country's anti-gay laws.

The footage of the kiss was posted on social media, leading Malaysia to blacklist the group.

A freight train derailed in the Gotthard Base Tunnel on Thursday. The Swiss Federal Railways said the tunnel would remain closed until August 16 at the earliest.

Until then, train passengers between German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino will be diverted via the Gotthard panorama route, which takes about an hour longer.

Cancellations are also possible, the federal railways said. This could disrupt the traffic of people returning form their holidays and going to the Zurich Street Parade, which is taking place over the weekend.

The train derailed at a multifunction point in Faido, in canton Ticino. This multifunction station is one of two emergency stops of the tunnel.

Cantonal police announced that several wagons had derailed, some of which contained dangerous goods. However, these did not pose any danger and nobody was injured.

The federal railways said the causes of the derailment and the extent of the damage were still unknown. "The damage is considerable," spokeswoman Roberta Trevisan told Swiss public broadcaster, RSI.

As far as passenger transport was concerned, she recommended travellers find out more before driving through the separate Gotthard Road Tunnel.

Experts will now examine the damage and check for possible damage to the roadway. The Swiss Safety Investigation Centre is also looking into the matter.

The Swiss government and taxpayers will no longer bear any risks from guarantees made to preserve financial stability after the collapse of Credit Suisse.

On Friday UBS voluntarily terminated the loss guarantee agreement with the Swiss government and the Swiss National Bank (SNB).

The agreement will terminate with immediate effect, as UBS says it no longer need the CHF9 billion ($10.2 billion) guarantee. But the government said that it still intended to submit a bill to parliament to introduce a public liquidity backstop under ordinary law and is still conducting a comprehensive review of too-big-to-fail regulatory framework.

The contract was officially signed on June 9, when the Swiss government earmarked CHF9 billion of taxpayer funds to plug potential losses arising from the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse.

These measures were created under an emergency law, to facilitate the takeover brokered by the government in March as Credit Suisse hurtled toward bankruptcy. Under the terms, UBS was to assume the first CHF5 billion of losses, with the government stepping up to take on the next CHF9 billion.

But, "all extraordinary liquidity assistance based on the emergency law of March 19 has been repaid”, UBS said in a statement. Credit Suisse has also fully repaid the loans of CHF50 billion to the SNB as of August 10, the bank continues.

The finance ministry added that the guarantees have not resulted in any losses for the government, but rather brought around CHF200 million in revenues.

In total, UBS paid some CHF730 million in commitment fees and risk premiums to Swiss authorities, made up of CHF200 million to the government and CHF530 million to the SNB.

Since the end of the pandemic, mobile phone thefts have starkly increased in Switzerland. The frequency of incidents varies depends on the canton and also on the time of year.

Thefts of mobile phones in 2022 increased by 40% compared to the previous year, insurer Axa Switzerland stated in a report on Thursday. In the first half of 2023, claims of mobile phone thefts increased by 20% when compared to the same period last year.

Thefts at crowded events have the most reported theft occurrences, according to the statistics released by Axa. Additionally, most pickpocket incidences are reported in the summer. According to the report, almost a quarter of all reported mobile phone thefts occur in July and August.

There are also differences between cantons. Geneva, for example, receives about five times more reports of mobile phone theft than the Swiss average. Smartphones thefts were more often reported to insurance from cantons Basel-Stadt and Bern.

Over 128,000 signatures were handed in to the Federal Chancellery demanding a reduction of the mandatory licence fee. This is levied annually to fund the public broadcaster’s offerings.

The initiative “CHF200 is enough!” wants to reduce the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) licence fee from CHF335 ($384) per household per year to CHF200.

On Thursday the initiative committee submitted more than 128,000 signatures to the Federal Chancellery in Bern; 100,000 are needed for a valid people’s initiative.

This means that following parliamentary debates on the proposal, it will in all likelihood be put to Swiss voters in the coming years. After the “No Billag” initiative, rejected by citizens in 2018, it is the second such campaign against SBC fees to emerge in recent years.

The supporters of the initiative argue that Switzerland levies some of the highest fees in the world. Additionally, the supporters of the initiative state that media offerings and personal usage have changed considerably over time.

In a written response, the SBC – the parent company of SWI swissinfo.ch – said the initiative is radical and that with a reduced budget, it would no longer be financially viable in its current decentralised structure. The consequence of a more centralised structure would come at the expense of regional reporting and linguistic and cultural diversity of programming, the SBC writes. The SBC states that it will continue to prove its value to society.

After accusations that the national weather service deliberately tinkered with temperature forecasts, a senior meteorologist took the unusual step of apologising on television on Wednesday.

Thomas Bucheli said he and his team were “extremely sorry” for the inaccurately high temperature measurements reported for some southern European locations over the past weeks.

However, he “vehemently rejected” allegations by some media and political circles that the temperatures had been deliberately inflated in an effort to spur climate change debates.

Conservative weekly magazine Weltwoche was the first to notice that temperatures on the SRF weather app and website for southern destinations abroad were often too high – even by up to 8°C.

According to Bucheli, forecasts for non-Swiss destinations are calculated automatically by a “complicated” algorithm. In recent weeks, a heat wave in the Mediterranean region prompted this algorithm to show temperatures – particularly in coastal areas – higher than they actually were.

Bucheli said he and his team are working “flat-out” to correct the errors.

The manually-checked forecasts were only broadcasted through radio. TV weather broadcasts were not affected, Bucheli added. Although the app and website were noted to have been affected by the algorithm, Swiss weather temperatures online and in the app were not affected.

The death of a Pakistani porter on the mountain at the end of July “could and should have been prevented”, Evelyne Binsack has told Swiss newspaper Blick.

Binsack was commenting on the death of Muhammad Hassan, a Pakistani man employed as a porter who died after an accident last month on the second highest mountain in the world.

Reports suggest that while Hassan lay alive on the ground, many other climbers simply passed around him on their ascent.

“On the mountain, tourists become animals,” Binsack told Blick. “There is no reason for somebody to die”.

The problem is societal, she says: more and more trophy-hunters and people thinking only of their egos are tackling the Himalayan peaks, which have become a “tourism Eldorado”.

Many tourists pay huge sums of money to be flown into base camps before they climb to the summit with the help of Sherpas and porters like Hassan – without whose support most of them wouldn’t get far, Binsack said.

The Swiss mountaineer, who has reached the summit of Mount Everest three times, says the “decaying values” in the climbing world are one reason she is no longer interested in taking on any more “eight-thousanders” in the Himalayas.

The exact circumstances surrounding Hassan’s death are still unclear, Blick writes. Regional authorities in Pakistan have since opened an investigation, SRF public broadcaster says.

Public awareness campaigns have not stemmed sexual harassment at Swiss universities. A new generation of women are taking matters into their own hands. SWI swissinfo.ch met three of them.

Sexual harassment persists in academia despite growing awareness from the #metoo movement.

A new generation of women is tackling the issue head-on, determined to make a difference. They are launching awareness-raising campaigns, creating telephone hotlines and online platforms for potential victims, and offering workshops on soft skills and becoming actors in the political discussion for more inclusive campuses.

We met three Swiss women who want to make a difference inside their learning institutions and beyond.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia’s double taxation agreements with over 30 “unfriendly countries” – those that have imposed sanctions on Moscow – including Switzerland, news agencies have reported.

The Russian agencies Tass and Interfax reported the information on Tuesday following the publication of a document on an official Russian legal portal. The information was relayed by the Italian press agency Ansa and the German agency DPA. The measure had been proposed by Russia’s finance and foreign ministries in March, Reuters reported.

The presidential decree suspends certain provisions of tax treaties aimed at avoiding double taxation and tax evasion, notably with the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Switzerland.

Moscow justifies this measure on the grounds of alleged “violations of the economic and other legitimate interests of the Russian Federation”. Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to draft a corresponding bill and present it to parliament.

The Swiss authorities said they had not been officially informed of the presidential decree. The double-taxation agreement dated November 15, 1995, concluded between Switzerland and Russia, is one of the affected treaties.

As Bern has not received any official notification regarding this change, it assumes that the current treaty remains applicable, the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Western countries have imposed successive waves of economic sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine in February last year, which it calls a “special military operation”.

Moscow has classified 50 countries and entities as “unfriendly”, including Switzerland, the EU, the US and Australia.

A bull elephant known as Tusker was euthanised on Wednesday at Basel Zoo after a battle with tuberculosis. The elephant had become a social media star.

Veterinarians at Basel Zoo were forced to put the animal to sleep on Wednesday morning because of tuberculosis, officials told reporters.

Tusker, a 6,610 kg bull elephant, had been loaned to Basel from the Netherlands in spring 2021 in the hope that he would provide an offspring to Basel Zoo’s three females.

On Monday the suspicion of severe tuberculosis was confirmed, said veterinarian Fabia Wyss. The elephant had been inactive for a long time, but the disease has not been clearly diagnosed.

Her colleague, Christian Wenker, said tuberculosis is common in elephants in the wild too. She said transmission to humans could be ruled out, but it was uncertain about the three female elephants.

The authorities in canton Basel City in northwest Switzerland plan to introduce “green” asphalt containing biochar, made from organic waste, to surface local roads to “considerably” reduce their carbon footprint.

This "high-quality" road surfacing has been tested and the results are "extremely positive", Esther Keller, head of the Basel City’s department of public works and transport, told reporters on Tuesday.

As part of a trial last year, a surface area of recycled construction materials was covered with a layer of asphalt which contained 50% recycled asphalt and 2-3% biochar.

The authorities calculated that the 450m2 area was able to capture 1.5 tonnes of CO2 more than was emitted during the extraction, manufacture, transport and tarmac-laying processes.

The canton, which aims to become carbon neutral by 2037, plans to use the environmentally friendly asphalt “as widely as possible” when repairing roads. This should enable it to store 1,250 tonnes of CO2 every year, i.e., 450 tonnes more than the CO2 emitted in the production of the asphalt.

This kind “CO2 negative” process is slightly more expensive than conventional asphalt, said Dominik Born, who developed the project at Basel-City’s industrial services (IWB). IWB produces biochar from organic waste such as trees.

The “CO2-negative” asphalt was developed in collaboration with the materials technology institute ViaTec Basel.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis signed a declaration of intent with his counterpart Mona Ainu’u on Wednesday in New Zealand at the end of a week-long trip to the region.

Niue – a tiny island northeast of New Zealand with less than 2,000 inhabitants – is the only self-governing territory in the Pacific with which Switzerland has yet to establish diplomatic relations, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Establishing ties will notably allow Switzerland to enhance its role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Cassis said: by raising Niue’s case at the UN, Switzerland can give voice to one of its priority themes – climate change.

Niue, which along with the rest of its Pacific region is highly affected by climate change, is also geographically interesting: located at the centre of a triangle formed by the Tonga, Samoa and Cook Islands, it is at a spot where the US and France have been reinforcing their presence against a backdrop of tensions with China.

Indeed, geopolitical concerns were part of the strategy for the entire Asia-Pacific trip, Cassis said on Monday at a previous press briefing in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong.

He affirmed that Switzerland was “a country that counts” and which “assumes its responsibilities” by cooperating with various actors.

Experts however consider Swiss influence to be limited in the region. “Relations are good and polite, but that’s it,” said Carl Ungerer, former programme manager at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and former senior adviser to the Australian foreign minister.

Apart from the declaration of intent with Niue, no formal agreement was came out of the week-long trip, which began in Indonesia before continuing to Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Cassis also took advantage of his trip to meet Swiss Abroad living in the region. With around 26,000 people, the Swiss community in Australia is the largest in the entire Asia-Pacific region; some 7,200 live in New Zealand.

Switzerland needs to combat money laundering quickly by setting up a register of beneficial owners of trusts and similar structures, Transparency International says.

The Swiss government tasked the finance ministry last autumn to come up with a draft bill to this effect to be ready by mid-2023 – at which point it would go out to consultation.

In a report published on Wednesday, the Transparency International NGO says the creation of such a list should happen without delay due to new international standards.

The international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requires transparency when it comes to beneficial ownership of opaque structures such as shell companies and trusts, the NGO said.

As a member of FATF, Switzerland needs to comply with the stricter standards. It is already lagging behind European Union (EU) countries, most of whom already operate such a register, Transparency International says.

The NGO claims that numerous corruption and money laundering cases have shown that criminals have hidden illegal assets behind convoluted structures, shell companies, trusts and other opaque entities in Switzerland.

The current legal situation favours such criminality and make it more difficult to implement sanctions, the group said.

A centralised government register of beneficial ownership would be an essential element in tackling this, but only if it is comprehensive, up-to-date, and open to the public – this last parameter was not planned in the government’s initial idea for a closed register.

Alain Berset highlighted Swiss support for humanitarian and peace projects during a visit to conflict-affected districts of the Pacific port city of Buenaventura.

Interior Minister Berset, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency for 2023, is the first foreign head of state to visit the disadvantaged areas of the city, the Keystone-SDA news agency reported on Tuesday.

During the tour, he spoke to locals impacted by violence, including a woman who lost her son in a massacre 18 years ago. He also met a bishop who with Swiss support is trying to mediate between criminal gangs in the city.

Little progress towards peace has however been made in the conflict-affected areas.

Berset told Keystone-SDA that this in turn affects the humanitarian situation, notably the displacement of people. Colombia is one of the countries with the most internally displaced people in the world – in 2022 alone, some 83,000.

Human rights defenders are also regularly killed in the country. Particularly in rural areas, various armed groups have replaced the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), such as former guerrilla dissidents, paramilitary groups as well as criminal organisations.

Berset said that Switzerland has for years backed projects to strengthen the structures of civil society, protect the population and promote political participation in Colombia. At the same time, it is also involved in international efforts in collaboration with the World Food Programme, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Red Cross.

However, latest plans for Swiss development aid will see Colombia disappear from the list of “priority” countries by 2028. Regions taking precedence will be sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe – notably Ukraine.

Britain on Tuesday sanctioned individuals and businesses in Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Slovakia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Switzerland for supporting the war in Ukraine.

“Today's landmark sanctions will further diminish Russia’s arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up (President) Putin's now struggling defence industry,” British foreign minister James Cleverly said.

Iranian drone maker Paravar Pars and seven of its executives, already subject to US sanctions announced in February, and two Turkey-based exporters of microelectronics were among those targeted by Britain. Three Russian companies importing electronic equipment used on the battlefield in Ukraine were also targeted.

Swiss national Anselm Oskar Schmucki was also sanctioned by the UK “for his role in Russia’s financial services sector, including through working as Chief of the Moscow office of DuLac Capital Ltd”. Schmucki and DuLac Capital had already been sanctionedExternal link by the US authorities in May 2023 for similar charges.

The sanctions prohibit UK entities from providing trust services – the creation of a trust or similar arrangement – to those sanctioned and impose asset freezes, which block their assets held in the UK.

Britain, the US and the European Union have imposed a range of sanctions since last February to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.

After some initial hesitation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Switzerland has followed the EU and introduced a series of sanctions against Russia.

Although in June, the European Union recognised Switzerland as a partner country in the implementation of Russian sanctions over its war in Ukraine, some have criticised the Swiss for not doing enough. For example, former Attorney General Lauber recently said that Switzerland is “too passive and too hesitant” when it comes to the implementation of Russian sanctions.

Switzerland has consistently rejected criticism of its sanctions efforts.

Ignazio Cassis met his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, in Canberra on Monday as part of diplomatic efforts to consolidate ties between the two nations. The Swiss minister is currently in New Zealand on the last leg of his week-long Asia-Pacific trip.

Mutual understanding between Australia and Switzerland was “good”, said Cassis at a press event on Monday. No new formal agreements were announced.

Switzerland is seeking to strengthen its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is "necessary" to reinforce ties with like-minded states, including Australia, in an "increasingly polarised" world, said Cassis. "We are a country that counts and that assumes its responsibilities by cooperating with the various players,” he added.

The two foreign ministers also discussed the climate crisis. Australia is keen to organise the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31), after Switzerland withdrew its bid last year.

The last visit to Australia and New Zealand by a Swiss cabinet minister was ten years ago. Relations have warmed since then, with Canberra opening an embassy in the Swiss capital, Bern, last year.

Australia, the world’s twelfth largest economy, is an important business partner for the Alpine country. Bilateral trade reached CHF3.7 billion ($3.9 billion) in 2021. According to Australian statistics, Switzerland is the eleventh largest investor in Australia. Over 250 Swiss companies in Australia had invested CHF10.1 billion in the country up to the end of 2020.

Switzerland exports watches, pharmaceuticals and precision technology to Australia, whereas Australia exports gold, medicines, meat and silver to Switzerland.

Ignazio Cassis is currently in New Zealand, the last stop on his diplomatic trip, where he is due to meet New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, and his counterpart from Niue, a Pacific island affiliated to Wellington, Mona Ainu'u.

In a speech given on Tuesday to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and New Zealand, Cassis stressed the similarities between the two countries.

“Besides the beautiful nature that we both want to protect, we are like-minded partners in terms of democracy, our stance on multilateralism and a rules-based international order,” he commented.

For the first part of his Asia-Pacific tour, Cassis visited Singapore and Indonesia. Both countries are at the centre of the Federal Council's new South East Asia Strategy 2023–26, which envisages consolidating and deepening ties with the world's fastest growing region.

Some 1,400 Swiss scouts have been relocated from the site of the world's largest scout camp in South Korea after typhoon warnings.

“Apart from a few team leaders and other adults, most of the participants have left the camp and are on their way by bus to Seoul,” Barbara Hochuli, spokeswoman for the Swiss scout delegation, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Tuesday.

Switzerland has one of the largest delegations of the 25th World Scout Jamboree, which was scheduled to take place in the coastal region of Saemangeum, some 180 km southwest of the capital, from August 1 to 12.

South Korean authorities announced on Tuesday that it had mobilised around 1,000 buses to transport some 40,000 scouts to Seoul and other inland regions after the weather service said a powerful typhoon was headed toward the country.

According to Hochuli, the Swiss scouts will be lodged in student residences across eight sites in the capital Seoul. “The event will not be cancelled and the closing party will take place as planned on August 11, but certainly in Seoul,” she told Swiss public television SRF on Monday.

She regretted, however, that participants didn’t learn of the programme change until after the media did. “People are running after information.”

The Swiss scouts will return to Switzerland as originally planned on August 12 and 13.

Internet use among the over-65s in Switzerland rose sharply over the past two years, according to a national survey of online media behaviour.

The number of people who regularly use the internet in Switzerland continues to grow steadily. The latest study by WEMF AG found that 93.9% of the population aged 14 and over are now online. This is seven percentage points more than ten years ago.

The over-65s made a significant contribution to this growth: this year 77.6% regularly use the internet and online applications, researchers found. Two years ago, the figure stood at 72.5%.

In general, most people access the internet via a smartphone (93.6%). This is followed by the laptop (75.4%) and tablet/iPad (50.2%).

A breakdown by gender reveals that more men use the internet than women. But the percentage of women online continues to rise: from 90.4% in 2021 to 92% this year.

Zug-based mining and commodity giant Glencore reported a steep drop in first-half profit and slashed returns to its shareholders as disappointing Chinese demand weighs on commodity prices, while the volatility that its traders thrive on has eased dramatically since last year.

Glencore reported first-half core earnings of $9.4 billion (CHF8.22 billion), half the record number it posted a year ago, though still one of its best-ever performances. The commodity trader and miner saw profits soar last year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices to records and dislocated global trade flows, but many of those pressures have now eased, while a sputtering economic recovery in top consumer China has hurt prices, knocking profitability across the mining sector.

The company’s sprawling commodity trading business also reported a sharp drop in first half earnings, in the latest sign that the blockbuster returns seen across the industry last year have begun to fade. Its trading profit of $1.8 billion was down 52% year-on-year, but still above the $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion per half year that Glencore aims for.

“Following 2022, a year characterised by extreme global geopolitical and economic turbulence, generating extraordinary energy market dislocation, volatility, supply disruption and record prices for many coal and gas benchmarks, 2023 has, for the most part, seen energy trade flows rebalance and normalise,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Nagle said in a statement.

Glencore said it would top up its dividend by $1 billion and buy back a further $1.2 billion of its own stock — also sharply lower than a year earlier, in part because the company says it’s holding back cash while it bids to buy Teck Resources Ltd.’s coal business.

The two companies spent much of this year in a bruising fight after Teck publicly and repeatedly rejected a takeover offer from Glencore, which said it wanted to create two new, more specialised companies from their combined coal and metals businesses respectively.

The latest twist in the saga came in June, when Glencore proposed buying Teck’s steelmaking coal business for about $8 billion as an alternative to its full takeover bid. The company is holding back $2 billion in cash in case it is successful in the bid, Glencore said on Tuesday.

At its own mines, Glencore said profit was hurt by lower prices for coal and cobalt in particular, as well as cost inflation around the world and lower production levels at some operations.

Two climate activists from the group Renovate Switzerland glued themselves to the stage during an awards ceremony at the Locarno Film Festival on Monday evening.

A video broadcast on social media showed the activists taking the stage to plead for greater climate action.

“We're not happy to be here, but if we are here, it's because we know what climate change means for us and for you and it's fucking scary. We’re here because governments don’t take action to protect us, to protect millions of lives, animals and human lives,” said one activist in English in the video broadcast. Both applause and booing were heard in the audience.

In a statement, Renovate Switzerland said the two activists stepped on stage, interrupting the presentation of an award to French director and ecologist Luc Jacquet, known for films on the environment. After a few minutes the festival's artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro, handed them the microphone and said “we are here for the same cause”.

The ceremony took place before the screening of Jacquet's film Journey to the South Pole, on the Piazza Grande in Locarno.

The Renovate Switzerland activists were escorted off the stage around 9:45pm and handed over to the Ticino cantonal police, the statement added.

Renovate has a core group of around 100 activists in Switzerland who engage in non-violent civil resistance. In April, the group made headlines when several activists glued themselves to the motorway in front of the north entrance to the Gotthard tunnel in an attempt to draw attention to the climate emergency.