Tag Archives: 3.) Swiss Info

Sixth formers use Lego Mindstorms to make robots at a school in Glarus, Switzerland, on May 17, 2018. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally The Alpine nation has slipped one place to sixth in the “World Digital Competitiveness ranking” compiled by the Lausanne-based IMD business school. The United States and Singapore came first and second in the ranking, which analyses how well economies employ digital technologies. They were followed by Denmark, Sweden and Hong Kong, IMD said...

The data comes just days after Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan signalled that even larger interventions may be on the cards in the future. Keystone / Anthony Anex The Swiss National Bank (SNB) spent CHF90 billion ($97.8 billion) in the first half of the year, more than it has spent in the past three years combined, to hold down artificially the value of the wealthy alpine state’s currency. In official data released for the first time on Wednesday, the...

Greenland’s glaciers are melting at an alarming rate and the Alpine Initiative says Manor’s “Berg” water contributes to global warming. Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. A mineral water from Greenland glaciers sold by Swiss retail chain Manor has been dubbed worst climate offender in this year’s “Devil’s Stone” award by the Swiss Alpine Initiative. Every year the Alpine Initiative asks people to vote on three candidates for the most absurd...

Millions of litres of radioactively contaminated water are stored in water tanks at the tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima, in Japan. Keystone / Kimimasa Mayama Researchers in Zurich have developed a filter membrane made of whey proteins and activated carbon that can clean contaminated radioactive water. They hope to deploy their invention at the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Four years ago, scientists at the federal...

A childhood pastime – playing the Maggi aviator board game. swissinfo.ch Switzerland is the home of many major multinational companies, many of which date back to the late 19th century, the high tide of colonialism. But is there a link between the rise of great Swiss corporate names and European colonial expansion? The issue turns out to be a complex one. I found a board game a few weeks ago in the apartment that belonged to my grandmother. I vaguely remembered it...

Zurich Airport is reportedly looking into pre-boarding tests Keystone German airline Lufthansa will introduce rapid tests before certain flights to detect Covid-19 in passengers. If the trial, set to start in October, is successful, it will be expanded to Lufthansa subsidiaries Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) and Edelweiss. The tests are being developed by the Basel-based pharmaceutical company Roche, according to reports in the NZZ am Sonntag and...

A worker stacks goods at a warehouse belonging to the pharmaceutical industry service provider Alloga in Burgdorf, canton Bern, on March 4, 2020. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Government economists say the impact of the pandemic in Switzerland is slightly less severe than previously feared. This is partly thanks to the mix of industries in Switzerland and the decision to rapidly lift coronavirus restrictions, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs...

When the Belle-Idée project is fully up and running, three shuttle buses will offer a 24-hour on-demand door-to-door service at the Geneva hospital site. swissinfo.ch Over the past five years, various kinds of autonomous vehicles, including buses, have popped up on Swiss roads. But though testing continues, a driverless future might yet be some years away. On a crisp autumn morning in the Geneva countryside, a bright orange-and-white electric bus is winding through...

FINMA described the bank’s money laundering processes as “inadequate” and reprimanded it for a breach of its duty of due diligence in relation to anti-money laundering rules. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally The Swiss financial market regulator FINMA has reprimanded Bank Syz for breaching money laundering rules involving a business relationship with an Angolan client. “FINMA found that the bank did not make sufficient efforts to investigate the substantial growth in the...

Some countries like India have made rapid antigen tests a key part of their strategy for containing the coronavirus. Keystone / Str Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche plans to launch a test that can detect the coronavirus in 15 minutes. Could tests like this become the norm? With no vaccine in sight for at least a few months, testing is becoming a more important part of containing the coronavirus. Antigen tests, which detect the presence of a specific viral antigen...