Tag Archives: 3.) Swiss Info

23% of monitored children were found to be engaged in “unacceptable” tasks. (Keystone / Christine Nesbitt) As part of its monitoring programme, Swiss multinational Nestlé has identified 18,283 children performing “unacceptable” tasks at cocoa farms that supply beans to the company. Over half have been rehabilitated following company intervention. In 2012, Nestlé established a Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) in partnership with the International...

The Swiss “office” at COP25 (swissinfo.ch) This year, the signal from the scientific community has been loud and clear on climate change: something needs to be done, and soon. But leadership at the United Nations’ annual climate conference appears less clear-cut, and the head of the Swiss delegation is frustrated by hesitation to move ahead. At the vast congress center in the outskirts of the Spanish capital where this year’s UN climate talks are taking place,...

Austria is still investigating massive corruption scandals involving far-right politicians, including Heinz-Christian Strache (Left) and the late Jörg Haider (Right), seen here in 2008. (Keystone) Swiss asset managers are involved in some of Austria’s biggest corruption scandals, according to the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. The paper writes that in ongoing cases involving far-right politicians Jörg Haider, Karl-Heinz Grasser and Heinz-Christian Strache, the trail...

Pascal Jaussi presents the Swiss Space Systems vision in 2013. (Keystone / Sandro Campardo) The company Swiss Space Systems (S3) received financial backing from a fictitious bank as it unsuccessfully fought against bankruptcy, according to media reports. S3, which promised simulated space flights to the public, collapsed in 2017 amid much controversy. The Tages Anzeigerexternal link and 24 Heuresexternal link newspapers reported on Thursday that S3 was given fake...

On Thursday, only one return trip from Paris to Basel is planned (Keystone) A national strike in France is causing severe disruptions to high-speed TGV rail traffic between Paris and Switzerland. Swiss Federal Railways issued an advisory discouraging travel along this route from December 5 to 8. Only one TGV train will operate between France and Switzerland on Thursday. The disruption began on Wednesday afternoon with several trains from Paris cancelled, including...

Spending on biodiversity was modest compared with expenditure on waste treatment and waste water management. (Keystone) Swiss spending on environmental protection has increased 45% in the last eighteen years, while the number of people employed in the sector has almost doubled. Environmental protection spending rose from CHF8.5 billion ($8.6 billion) in 2000 to CHF12.4 billion in 2018, according to the Federal Statistical Officeexternal link. As a percentage of GDP,...

Julius Bär has been hit with two large write-downs in a matter of weeks. (Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella) Swiss bank Julius Bär has been ordered to pay CHF153 million ($155 million) to settle a claim that one of its subsidiaries pilfered money from Germany during the reunification of the country in the 1990s. A Swiss court on Wednesday overturned a previous verdict that Julius Bär should not he held responsible. The Swiss wealth manager has been pursued for...

(© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) With 10,329 registrations so far this year, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have more new electric passenger cars than ever before. This is the first time the total hit the five-figure mark. The numbers reflect a 136.6% increase over last year’s fleet of new, completely electric passenger cars. What’s more, now e-cars represent 3.7% of all new cars in Switzerland and the principality next door, reported importer association Auto-Schweiz on...

A miner in the Lutugina coal mine near the city of Torez in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, August 2019 Pro-Russian separatists are financing their war in Ukraine with coal deliveries to the West. Now the role of Swiss companies in Zug and Geneva is being investigated, according to a reportexternal link in the SonntagsZeitung. Fontus AGexternal link describes itself on its website as a “reliable and responsible supplier of high-grade solid fuels”, selling “coal of...

An aircraft from Swiss International Air Lines at Zurich Airport in summer 2019 (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Flughafen Zürich AG, the operator of Zurich airport, has been selected to design, develop and operate a new airport near the Indian capital after outbidding local companies. The companyexternal link said in a statement on Fridayexternal link it would develop and operate the new Noida International Airport at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh state under a 40-year...