BRUSSELS/ANKARA/BERLIN (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end nearly two years of war in Gaza has received the backing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while the plan has been shared with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Here are some reactions to the peace plan.
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU”I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims.
It will bring back to Israel all our hostages, dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities, end its political rule, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.”
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY STATEMENT CARRIED ON STATE NEWS AGENCY WAFA
“The State of Palestine welcomes the sincere and determined efforts of President Donald J. Trump to end the war on Gaza and affirms its confidence in his ability to find a path toward peace.”
ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER BEZALEL SMOTRICH
“It is a historic missed opportunity … and in my estimation it will end in tears. Our children will be forced to fight in Gaza again.
We will consult, consider and decide, God willing. But the celebrations since yesterday are simply absurd.”
EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF KAJA KALLAS
“President Trump’s Gaza plan is an opportunity for lasting peace. It offers the best immediate chance to end the war. The EU is ready to help it succeed. Israel has signed on to the plan. Hamas must now accept it without delay, starting with the immediate release of hostages.”
JOINT STATEMENT BY FOREIGN MINISTERS OF UAE, SAUDI ARABIA, QATAR, EGYPT, JORDAN, INDONESIA, PAKISTAN, TURKEY
“The ministers affirm their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalising the agreement and ensuring its implementation, in a manner that ensures peace, security, and stability for the peoples of the region.
They reaffirm their joint commitment to work with the United States to end the war in Gaza through a comprehensive deal that ensures unrestricted delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza, no displacement of the Palestinians, the release of hostages, a security mechanism that guarantees the security of all sides, full Israeli withdrawal, rebuilds Gaza and creates a path for just peace on the basis of the two state solution, under which Gaza is fully integrated with the West Bank in a Palestinian state.”
UN SPOKESPERSON IN GENEVA, ALESSANDRA VELLUCCI
“We are also continuing to be in touch with the parties, with the various parties, about the peace efforts. For indeed, we welcome all the mediation efforts. And of course, we stand ready to support any peace plan with everything we can do, including the provision of humanitarian assistance.”
TURKISH PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN
“I commend US President Donald Trump’s efforts and leadership aimed at halting the bloodshed in Gaza and achieving a ceasefire. Türkiye will continue to contribute to the process with a view to establishing a just and lasting peace acceptable to all parties.”
GERMAN CHANCELLOR FRIEDRICH MERZ:
“We welcome the peace plan for Gaza presented yesterday by President Trump. This plan is the best plan to end the war.
The fact that Israel supports this plan is a significant step forward. Now Hamas must agree and clear the way for peace.”
FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON
“I welcome President @realDonaldTrump’s commitment to ending the war in Gaza and securing the release of all hostages.
I expect Israel to engage resolutely on this basis. Hamas has no choice but to immediately release all hostages and follow this plan. These elements must pave the way for in-depth discussions with all relevant partners to build a lasting peace in the region, based on the two-state solution and on the principles endorsed by 142 UN member states, at the initiative of France and Saudi Arabia.”
UK PRIME MINISTER SIR KEIR STARMER
“The new U.S. initiative to deliver an end to the war in Gaza is profoundly welcome and I am grateful for President Trump’s leadership.
We strongly support his efforts to end the fighting, release the hostages and ensure the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza. This is our top priority and should happen immediately.” ITALIAN GOVERNMENT
“The proposal presented today by U.S. President Donald Trump could mark a turning point, enabling a permanent cessation of hostilities, the immediate release of all hostages, and full and secure humanitarian access for the civilian population.
Hamas, in particular – having initiated this war with the barbaric terrorist attack of October 7, 2023 – now has the opportunity to end it by releasing the hostages, agreeing to have no role in Gaza’s future, and fully disarming.”
SPANISH PRIME MINISTER PEDRO SANCHEZ:
“Spain welcomes the US-backed peace proposal for Gaza.
We must put an end to so much suffering.
It is time for the violence to cease, for all hostages to be released immediately and for humanitarian aid to be allowed access to the civilian population.
The two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security, is the only possible solution.”
(Reporting by Steven Scheer, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Gavin Jones, Madeline Chambers, Sabine Wollrab, Alexander Cornwell, Emma Farge and Tuvan GumrukcuWriting by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
“La roue = c’est tout” with works from Jean Tinguely: Fatamorgana, Méta-Harmonie IV, 1985 (in the back), Klamauk, 1979 (in the front). 2022 (c) foto daniel spehr
With his chaotic absurdist performances of motorized machines, Swiss artist Jean Tinguely embraced both the principle of entropy and the noise of contemporary society to create a disruptive form of artistic expression that parodied automation, consumer culture and the art world itself. A pioneer of multimedia and multidisciplinary approaches, Tinguely worked with scrap metal, discarded materials and industrial parts, aligning with Dadaist traditions while pushing them into more radically experimental territory. His work dissolved the boundaries between material, language and public interaction, anticipating both contemporary media art and relational practices. The climax of his oeuvre, Homage to New York (1960), famously self-destructed—partially exploding in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art. It was an explicit attack on the mechanization of labor, institutional authority and the commodification of art, rejecting permanence and objectification in favor of process, failure and spectacle.
This year, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of his birth—a milestone certain to prompt renewed interest in his multifaceted practice through exhibitions, retrospectives and critical reassessments. Since its opening in 1996, Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, has played a central role in preserving and promoting the artist’s legacy while becoming a fixture of the annual art world pilgrimage to Basel, thanks to its progressive programming and ambitious commissions. Located on the banks of the Rhine, the museum houses the world’s largest collection of Tinguely’s kinetic works—218 sculptures spanning from his early reliefs and 1960s collaborations to the darker, more monumental machines of the 1970s. More than half of these works are regularly on view and kept in working order, sustaining the spirit of movement, instability and joyful collapse that defined his vision.
Jean Tinguely in front of Dernière Collaboration avec Yves Klein, 1988. Photo Credit: Vera Isler
For the centennial of Jean Tinguely’s revolutionary legacy, Observer spoke with Museum Tinguely director Roland Wetzel about how the artist’s disarmingly playful, radically innovative and still strikingly relevant work continues to meet contemporary societal needs and how the museum’s program keeps it alive by engaging artists who share his boundary-blurring, multimedia spirit.
For Wetzel, two perspectives connect the museum’s exhibition program with Tinguely’s legacy. “One reaches back to Dadaism and Marcel Duchamp, where fundamental questions about what art is were absolutely vital to a younger generation of artists,” he explains. “The other is that we’re still living in a time comparable to the 1960s. I’d say we are in a new epoch that began around that time, when artists started asking themselves what role they could and should play in society.”
Tinguely was never a classical modernist bound by the fixed framework of modern art. “He constantly tried to reach beyond it—to connect with people, to expand his audience and to make his work relevant to everyday life,” Wetzel says. That impulse feels especially resonant today, when many artists are again considering where we stand, how we live and how art can meaningfully enter that conversation. “Tinguely always opened his art to daily life, and I think that’s something essential in his practice.”
Tinguely also embraced accident and chance. He rejected the idea of a pre-established script or fixed concept, choosing instead to surrender to possibilities that emerged in the process itself—as the work interacted with its surroundings, its context and the world at large. He welcomed this dialectical relationship between the work and the world. In that sense, his practice anticipated what we now call relational art: it invited participation not only from viewers but also from the environment, always seeking dialogue with its context. His art was never a static object—it was alive, contingent, responsive.
Wetzel also points out how deeply collaborative Tinguely’s process was. “A lot of his work didn’t come out of a studio in isolation—it came out of interactions with friends, other artists, curators,” he explains. “He was involved in organizing, curating and building ideas together. That was a core part of his practice.”
For the centenary, the museum recreated Tinguely’s art ghost train, reimagined as a large-scale dynamic installation designed by British artist Rebecca Moss and Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez. In a nostalgic return to traditional lunapark attractions, Scream Machines takes visitors on a haunting journey through demons, monsters and other eerie figures designed by the artists, paying homage to Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce, the 1977 work Tinguely created with Bernhard Luginbühl, Daniel Spoerri and Niki de Saint Phalle for the opening of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. That historic project was spearheaded by Pontus Hultén, the legendary museum director who championed Tinguely throughout his career. An exhibition currently on at the Grand Palais in Paris explores the creative partnership between Hultén, Tinguely and de Saint Phalle.
In researching this installation, Wetzel was struck by the extent of Tinguely’s involvement in the original Pompidou project. “He wasn’t just one of the participating artists—he helped coordinate people, manage finances, source materials,” Wetzel explains. “His role went far beyond that of a traditional artist. He was always crossing boundaries, thinking beyond the usual frameworks, reaching into new territories.”
The installation has been a major success with audiences of all ages, showing that Tinguely’s playful chaotic spirit still resonates in an era often numbed by media overstimulation, societal alienation and both emotional and intellectual disaffection. “With this project, we’ve been able to reach an even broader audience,” Wetzel notes. “While our museum already draws a diverse public, the Ghost Train connects on another level. It’s playful, it’s accessible—you don’t need any prior knowledge to have a meaningful art experience.” For Wetzel, this kind of crossover is exactly what Tinguely envisioned—especially in his desire to reach children. “Tinguely always said children were his most important critics. If it works for them, it can work for many others, too. His art was meant to operate on multiple levels, and we’ve really tried to carry that thinking forward.”
Interaction with the broader public—and with public life itself—was central to Tinguely’s practice. Accessibility and engagement, even beyond the confines of the art world, remain priorities for the museum’s programming today. Part of its identity lies in creating spaces where people of all ages can encounter art in playful, open-ended ways. “We believe it’s just as important to be welcoming to older audiences and to offer meaningful experiences to people of all generations,” Wetzel says. “That openness is something we care deeply about.”
One earlier project at Museum Tinguely involved collaborating with window-front designers. “When you do an exhibition in a shop window, you reach a completely different audience—and it’s visible 24/7 in the public space,” he explains. “These might seem like small interventions, but they’re incredibly effective ways to expand access. And that’s something Tinguely always tried to do.”
Today, the museum serves several publics—it’s not just one audience, Wetzel clarifies. As he notes, the museum is often a place where people—especially children—experience art for the first time. “That was important to Tinguely, and we’ve really built on that,” he says, adding how programming for young children begins as early as age two. “They can come in, be active, play, explore—and leave with a positive, hands-on experience of what art can be. That kind of accessibility, that invitation to engage through the senses, is something quite unique. I don’t know many other museums that offer the same potential for early connection.”
The museum’s dedicated Art Education Department is one of the central pillars of its mission. It collaborates not only with local schools but also with institutions such as the High School for the Arts and the High School for Music, fostering a dense and long-standing network across Basel’s educational and cultural ecosystems.
Set to be unveiled at the end of September, the museum’s next exhibition will feature Scenes from the Invention of Democracy, a poignant video installation by Austrian artist Oliver Ressler that interrogates what democracy still means in a world where the term is increasingly emptied of substance. A work and a question that feel more urgent than ever, as democratic rights and civil liberties are steadily eroded across multiple countries, with national politics veering toward authoritarianism dressed up as conservatism and protectionism.
Opening in December is an extensive survey dedicated to the underrecognized yet quietly brilliant Chinese American artist Carl Cheng, “Nature Never Loses.” Spanning six decades of work, the exhibition highlights Cheng’s pioneering investigations into the intersection of art and ecology, his questioning of institutional relevance and his prescient explorations of technology’s role in society. Organized by The Contemporary Austin in partnership with Museum Tinguely, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania and Bonnefanten in Maastricht, the show underscores the international reach of the museum’s program. In recent years, this model of cross-institutional collaboration—pooling resources and cutting costs while mounting ambitious projects—has become a strategic hallmark of Museum Tinguely’s approach.
“When I started here 16 years ago, we focused more on Tinguely’s role models and his historical context,” Wetzel explains. “But increasingly, we’ve been engaging with contemporary artists who reflect on and respond to Tinguely’s practice from today’s perspective. That feels more relevant—and more compelling—for a younger generation.”
Jean Tinguely looking for materials in 1960. Photo Credit: Photographer unknown
Yet despite Tinguely’s pioneering and playful use of technology, Museum Tinguely remains focused on more materially and sensorially anchored forms of artistic expression. While the museum doesn’t reject digital work entirely, it isn’t a central focus for now, the director explains. For Wetzel, it remains crucial to create moments of real presence—tactile, embodied encounters that happen in and around the museum. “As so much of life is already spent in front of screens, it feels even more vital to offer a more comprehensive, embodied experience,” he says. “Whether it’s through Tinguely’s kinetic works or our special exhibitions, we want visitors to engage physically, emotionally and socially.”
Today, the museum plays multiple roles within Basel’s art ecosystem, Wetzel notes. It can be a place to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon, but it also aims to be politically and socially relevant—whether through exhibitions or a year-round calendar of talks, panels and performances. “Our programming is quite wide-ranging,” he says. “We don’t focus on blockbuster shows. We focus on education, accessibility and making art approachable.”
Asked about the evolving role of museums in society, Wetzel stresses the importance of a clear ethical compass. For him, the idea that we can live together in a better way is a crucial starting point. “It’s not about making grand gestures, but about taking small, meaningful steps: creating space for people to come in, learn, reflect on their own lives and share those reflections with others,” he explains. “That’s how communities are formed—and I believe that’s something museums can and should help facilitate.”
In Wetzel’s vision, the museum must function as a public platform—a space for genuine exchange. In recent years, that commitment has expanded into talks, performances, concerts and events that deepen and broaden the exhibition experience. “Over time, our role has evolved,” Wetzel says. “Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, it was just about putting on exhibitions. Today, museums need to operate as public platforms—even at a grassroots level—to foster participation, welcome diverse communities and enable open dialogue,” he adds. This includes making room for different political perspectives while also being willing to take a stance. “In times like these, I think it’s essential that we speak up, stay relevant and above all, create spaces where people can come together.”
Tinguely’s kinetic art embraced chaos, chance and humor to critique automation, consumer culture and the institutions of modern art. Photo; Nanda Lanfranco
Much more than just its namesake cheese, Gruyères is a charming Swiss village filled with quaint cobblestone streets, delicious food, and a museum filled with unexpectedly daring art. Located in the canton of Fribourg, it’s an ideal day trip from cities like Bern, Zurich and Geneva via train. But if you really want to dive into Swiss traditions and the striking surrounding landscape, it’s worth staying in the village and exploring Gruyères for a day or two.
The Gruyères region entices throughout the seasons; in the colder months, you can enjoy the museums and hearty cuisine, while in the summer, you can hike and enjoy outdoor dining in the town square.
History fans will love Chateau de Gruyères, an impossibly photogenic medieval castle with lush gardens and sweeping views of the alps. Here, you’ll find stained glass windows, knight’s armor and period furnishings, as well as contemporary art exhibitions. Looking for a sweet treat? Chocolate lovers will thoroughly enjoy spending time at Switzerland’s oldest chocolate factory, where you can learn about the history and production of chocolate and explore the various shops in town, including Chocolaterie de Gruyères. Of course, you’ll also have to indulge in ample cheese eating—after all, you’re right where one of the world’s most renowned cheeses is produced, with must-see cheese shops like La Maison du Gruyère and La Chaudière Fromagerie Crèmerie. And if you find yourself in Gruyères in late September, you’ll witness one of the most adorable cow parades in Switzerland, filled with live music and centuries-old traditions.
Much more than just a fairytale alpine village, Gruyères is a place where Swiss history collides with sci-fi realism, where traditional fondue meets daring culinary sophistication, and where cows in floral headdresses walk steps away from contemporary chic hotels. It’s Switzerland with a twist, where historic customs and futuristic imagination live side by side.
For months on the campaign trail and after taking office, President Donald Trump promised that his tariff policies would be based on a simple principle: reciprocity.
“Whatever they tax us, we will tax them,” Trump told a joint session of Congress in March, outlining plans for higher tariffs on imports from much of the world. When some of those tariff rates were unveiled in early April—before being paused, amended, altered, and in some cases finally imposed—the president reiterated that point. “They’re reciprocal—so whatever they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said.
The White House has dropped that talking point in recent months. Even so, the executive order that invoked emergency powers to impose those tariffs still promises that they will be “reciprocal.” And in courts where the Trump administration is defending the president’s use of those expansive (and possibly unconstitutional) powers, the administration’s attorneys continue to refer to that set of tariffs as the “reciprocal” tariffs—to distinguish them from tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico that were imposed in February for different reasons.
So are the tariffs actually reciprocal? Not even close.
Consider Switzerland. Last year, the average Swiss tariff on U.S. goods was a minuscule 0.2 percent, while the U.S. charged an average tariff of 1.4 percent on goods imported from Switzerland.
To make trade with Switzerland “reciprocal,” then, Trump would have had to lower American tariffs on Swiss goods. In fact, he’d have to lower them even more, because in January the Swiss government abolished all of its tariffs on industrial goods from America—an arrangement that Swiss officials said would allow more than 99 percent of American items into the country duty-free.
Trump responded to that by imposing a staggering 39 percent tariff on imports from Switzerland. This is reciprocity?
The Swiss tariffs are where the Trump administration’s claim of reciprocity is most disconnected from reality, but it is hardly the only example.
Singapore does not charge any tariffs on imports from the United States. Nevertheless, Trump’s 10 percent baseline tariff applies to anything that Americans want to purchase from individuals or businesses in Singapore. The average tariff charged by the European Union on American goods is a scant 1.7 percent, but imports from there will now face a 15 percent tariff here. Vietnam charges an average tariff of less than 3 percent on American goods, but Vietnamese goods will face a 20 percent tariff when coming into the U.S.—and that’s after Vietnam negotiated with Trump to lower what had been a 46 percent rate announced in April.
In all, about 80 percent of the Trump administration’s supposedly “reciprocal” tariffs are higher than the tariffs charged by those countries on American goods, according to a new analysis from the Cato Institute.
“This revelation is more than just a rhetorical gotcha: tariff advocates, including Trump himself, have long justified new US tariffs on the grounds that they were needed to balance foreign tariffs, which are supposedly quite high, on American goods,” write Scott Lincicome and Alfredo Carrillo Obregon, the co-authors of the Cato analysis. “Overall, the data further demonstrate that US tariffs today are about protectionism, with ‘fairness’ and other buzzwords simply a cover for achieving it.”
There’s nothing fair about charging Americans higher taxes in an attempt to restrict global trade. And there’s nothing reciprocal about it at all.
Swiss pilot Raphael Domjan beat the altitude record for a solar-powered electric plane in a flight that took him soaring to 9,521 meters, or 31,237 feet, his team announced Wednesday.
The SolarStratos plane made the landmark flight from Sion airport in southwest Switzerland on Tuesday, taking advantage of warm air thermals to go beyond the record that has stood for 15 years.
The certified altitude record for a solar plane stands at 9,235 meters, or 30,298 feet.
The achievement is “one of those unforgettable peaks that define great human and technological adventures,” the SolarStratos mission said in a statement.
Solar-powered plane SolarStratos piloted by Swiss pilot Raphael Domjan is seen taking off at the Sion airport, on Aug. 8, 2025, during his first attempt of the season at setting a new aviation record by reaching an altitude of 10,000 meters.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
At cruising altitude, Domjan actually crossed paths with a commercial airliner, SolarStratos said, calling the moment “a powerful symbol of what the decarbonized aviation of tomorrow might look like.”
Domjan’s flight lasted five hours and nine minutes.
“I share this moment of joy with all the people who have been preparing for this achievement for years,” the 53-year-old said.
The data will be sent to the World Air Sports Federation governing body, which will decide whether to validate the new record.
“It is the pressure altitude corrected to standard density altitude that is recognized as the official reference for aviation altitude records,” the SolarStratos team said.
Domjan — whose company bio describes him as a “eco-adventurer” and lecturer who pilots planes, gliders and helicopters — is aiming to be the first to take a solar-powered plane above 10,000 meters, flying at the same altitude as airliners. If that barrier is broken, the team hopes to go on and make a first manned solar-powered flight into the stratosphere, which at Switzerland’s latitude begins at around 12,000 meters.
“This achievement marks a major milestone on the path toward reaching the stratosphere using only solar power — and already fulfils the mission’s goal: to capture imaginations with emblematic, spectacular challenges that promote solar energy and the protection of our biosphere and planet,” SolarStratos said.
The front-mounted single propeller plane, registration HB-SXA, is made of carbon fiber to ensure lightness and strength. SolarStratos is 9.6 meters long, and its huge wingspan of 24.8 meters accommodates the 22 square meters of high-spec solar panels topping the wings, and allows for flying at low speeds.
The plane, which SolarStartos calls “daring and finely engineered,” can take off at low speeds, from 50 kilometers per hour upwards. Its maximum speed is 140 kph, while its cruising speed is around 80 kph.
“Tomorrow can be better than what we have today”
In 2012, the pioneering Domjan became the first person to sail around the world in a fully solar-powered boat, a journey that began in Miami in 2010.
“It’s important to demonstrate what we can achieve with solar energy,” the adventurer told AFP.
“The dream of flight is probably the oldest dream of mankind,” he said.
“My goal is to show to the young generation of today and tomorrow that tomorrow it will still be possible to fly without burning any fossil energies,” he said.
“This is what we want to achieve: it’s really to show that the world of tomorrow can be better than what we have today,” he added.
A warm-up flight on July 31 got to 6,589 meters, surpassing the plane’s previous best in 2024.
Swiss pilot Raphael Domjan gives a thumbs up prior to takeoff in his first attempt of the season at setting an aviation record by reaching an altitude of 10,000 meters onboard the solar-powered plane SolarStratos at the Sion airport, in Sion, southwestern Switzerland on Aug. 8, 2025.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
A first attempt on Friday was quickly abandoned when the forecast thermals failed to materialize, saving the batteries for Sunday when the plane got to 8,224 meters.
During the first phase of record attempts, the aircraft has to make maximum use of rising warm air currents to climb to around 4,000-5,000 meters. It then has to recharge its batteries at this altitude before climbing again.
Before takeoff, the batteries must be fully charged using solar energy, and the plane has to land under its own power — it cannot glide back in on zero charge — and have at least 16% charge in the batteries.
If the flight is to be certified as a record, all the energy used during the flight must have been produced by the solar cells. The current record was set in 2010 by the Solar Impulse experimental plane, with Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg at the controls.
GENEVA — The Swiss city of Basel will host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest from May 13 to 17, organizers announced Friday.
The mostly German-speaking city on the Rhine River bordering both France and Germany was selected over Geneva in a faceoff that generated buzz and anticipation across Switzerland.
“The government council is delighted with the decision and sees hosting the world’s largest music competition as a great opportunity,” Basel’s city council said in a statement. “Basel will do everything in its power to be a good host.”
The Alpine country won the right to host the annual glitzy song-and-dance extravaganza, which draws hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, after Swiss singer Nemo won the contest’s 68th edition in May in Sweden.
Swiss public broadcaster SSR-SRG said the selection of Basel and the St. Jakobshalle indoor arena was made based on criteria including the hall’s suitability to host the event, sustainability and safety issues, funds made available and “creative ideas for the side events.”
Nemo was the first Swiss winner since 1988, when Canada’s Celine Dion competed under the Swiss flag.
The song contest is organized each year by the European Broadcasting Union, which is based in Geneva, with dozens of participating broadcasters.
Basel’s city council cited an EBU study that found this year’s contest in the Swedish city of Malmö reached more than 160 million TV viewers and over 80 million YouTube users around the world. It said the advertising value of the event was estimated to be 805 million euros ($892 million).
Switzerland hosted and won the first edition in the southern city of Lugano in 1956.
THREE people have fallen to their deaths in the same week after attempting to climb an infamous 14,700ft mountain.
The Swiss Matterhorn attracts thousands every year, but a recent spate of tragic accidents has hit the alpine spot with cops launching an investigation.
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The Matterhorn in the Alps is one of the tallest mountains in EuropeCredit: Alamy
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Almost 600 people have died trying to climb the infamous peakCredit: Alamy
Each of the three people died within just days of each other, with none of them yet identified.
One of them, a man, died on Friday with cops saying he was likely alone on the enormous mountain.
He made it a whopping 13,000ft up the Matterhorn before losing his footing and falling 2,600ft to a glacier below.
The other two left a hut on the mountain on Wednesday morning to make the climb down the summit.
When they failed to come back as planned, a search and rescue operation was launched.
They were later found dead by a rescue helicopter on the north face of the enormous mountain, having fallen 3,200ft.
Tragically the owner of the accommodation they were staying in said a thunderstorm had struck a few hours after they left.
He added: “It probably caught them.”
They had left to climb the Hornli ridge – the most popular Matterhorn route on its Swiss side.
The Matterhorn straddles the Alps border between Italy and Switzerland.
It’s summit is an incredible 14,692ft above sea level, making it one of the tallest in Europe.
It has four steep faces, towering above fields of glaciers below and edged by steep ridges.
Almost 600 people have died while climbing the mountain.
Between 2,500 and 3,000 people try to hike it every year.
There is a reason, at the very moment Gareth Southgate and his players were having obscenities and plastic cups hurled at them in Cologne on Tuesday, every leading UK bookmaker was slashing the odds on England winning Euro 2024.
It had nothing to do with a sudden surge of optimism or a flurry of betting activity. After all, who would lump any money on an England triumph after that?
It was because of the way the tournament has begun to take shape: the odds for England were cut along with Italy, Austria and Switzerland. The odds on French, Spanish, German or Portuguese glory drifted accordingly.
If it was a free draw after the group stage, as what happens in European club competition, it would be hard to look beyond Spain, Germany, Portugal and — as poorly as they have played so far — pre-tournament favourites France.
But the path was pre-determined. The knockout bracket looked unbalanced before a ball was kicked. It has been unbalanced further by France’s failure to win their group, meaning they join Spain, Germany, Portugal and Denmark in the top half of the bracket. Belgium, should they finish second or third in Group E, could end up there too.
GO DEEPER
What is England’s route to Euro 2024 final?
On paper, the bottom quarter of the bracket looks reasonably strong: Switzerland facing Italy in Berlin on Saturday; England facing a third-placed team (quite feasibly the Netherlands) on Sunday. But Switzerland, Italy and England won one game each in the group stage. Add the Netherlands (or whoever finishes third in Group E — Romania, Belgium, Slovakia or Ukraine) and it becomes four wins from a possible 12.
To spell this out, in the bottom quarter of the draw, a team that has won just once in the group stage will reach the semi-final — where the worst-case scenario would mean facing Austria, Belgium or the Netherlands. The most likely semi-final permutations in the other half of the draw might be Spain or Germany vs Portugal or France.
It was put to Southgate on Tuesday, after a dire 0-0 draw with Slovenia, that England might have got lucky with how the knockout stage is shaping up. “We shouldn’t be seduced by which half of the draw,” the manager told ITV Sport. “We have to take a step at a time. Tonight was an improvement. We’ve got to improve to win the next round.”
In his post-match news conference, it was spelt out to him that England had ended up on the opposite side of the bracket to Germany, France, Spain and Portugal. “We have huge respect for all of the teams you’ve mentioned but equally, there are some very good teams on our side of the draw,” he said.
Not equally, though. As at the 2018 World Cup, fortune has smiled on England and on all the other teams who have ended up on that side of the bracket — not least Austria, who are entitled to claim that, by finishing ahead of France and the Netherlands, they have made their own luck.
In 2018, five of the six top-ranked teams in the knockout stage (Brazil, Belgium, Portugal, Argentina and France) ended up on one side of the draw, while the other half consisted of Spain (who had won only one of their three group games), Russia, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Colombia and England.
That World Cup was widely regarded as Belgium’s best chance of winning a major tournament, with so many of their ‘golden generation’ of players at or around the peak of their powers. But they paid a heavy price for winning Group G, beating Japan and Brazil but then falling to France in the semi-final. England’s prize for finishing second to Belgium in their group was a place in the gentler side of the draw, which led to them beating Colombia and Sweden before defeat by Croatia in the semi-final.
Euro 2016 brought a similar imbalance. Italy, under Antonio Conte, excelled in the group stage, but their prize for winning Group E was to be placed on the tougher side of the draw. They beat Spain 2-0 but lost to Germany on penalties in the quarter-final. Germany in turn lost to hosts France in the semi-final. On the other side, Portugal — who had scraped third place in Group F by drawing with Iceland, Austria and Hungary — reached the final by beating Croatia in the round of 16, Poland in the quarter-final and Wales in the semi-final.
Some competitions are based on a free draw, such as the FA Cup. Others, such as the NFL or NBA, see teams ranked on their regular-season record, which should theoretically ensure the two strongest teams in either conference end up on opposite sides of the draw.
International football competitions — including the World Cup, European Championship, Copa America, Africa Cup of Nations and Asian Cup — do not work like that. It is pre-determined from the moment the draw is made: the winner of Group A will play the runner-up of Group B, the winner of Group C will play the runner-up of Group D and so on.
The group-stage draw is seeded, but teams are allocated to each group by a random draw, which raises the possibility of the knockout bracket ending up lop-sided. Because the tournaments are condensed into a four-week or five-week period, with matches played in a host nation, it is felt beneficial to have a pre-determined structure for planning, travel and ensuring each team has enough rest between matches.
There are still inconsistencies. Austria will have a seven-day break between the end of their group matches on Tuesday and their first knockout round next Tuesday, whereas Spain’s opponents in the round of 16 (still to be determined) will have had just four days’ rest.
Everything about knockout football lends itself to variance. But it can be predicted with some confidence that a team that has performed miserably at Euro 2024 will reach the semi-final or feasibly the final. After a difficult group stage, England, Switzerland, Italy and others have had a soft landing. For one of them, it might even prove a springboard.
(Top photo: Andreas Gora/Picture Alliance via Getty Images))
The Credit Suisse Group AG headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A group of Credit Suisse bondholders filed a lawsuit against the Swiss government, seeking full compensation over the contentious decision to write down the failed bank’s Additional Tier 1 (AT1) debt.
As part of Credit Suisse’s emergency sale to UBS last year, which was orchestrated by the Swiss government, Swiss regulator Finma wiped out roughly $17 billion of the bank’s AT1s, writing them down to to zero.
The bank’s common shareholders received payouts when the sale was completed.
The move angered bondholders and was seen to have upended the usual European hierarchy of restitution in the event of a bank failure under the post-financial crisis Basel III framework, which typically places AT1 bondholders above stock investors.
Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents the plaintiffs, said Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It described Switzerland’s decision to write down the plaintiffs’ AT1 value to zero as “an unlawful encroachment on the property rights of the AT1 Bondholders.”
A spokesperson for the Swiss Finance Ministry declined to comment.
Finma previously defended its decision to instruct Credit Suisse to write down its AT1 bonds in March last year as a “viability event.”
“Through its actions, Switzerland needlessly wiped out $17 billion in AT1 instruments, unjustly violating the property rights of the holders of those instruments,” Dennis Hranitzky, partner and head of Quinn Emanuel’s Sovereign Litigation practice, said in a statement.
The face value of the AT1 bonds held by the plaintiffs in the suit was over $82 million, Reuters reported, citing the filing.
This photograph taken on March 24, 2023 in Geneva, shows a sign of Credit Suisse bank.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
AT1s are bank bonds that are considered a relatively risky form of junior debt. They date back to the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, when regulators tried to shift risk away from taxpayers and increase the capital held by financial institutions to protect them against future crises.
One of the key attributes of AT1 bonds is that they are designed to absorb losses. This happens automatically when the capital ratio falls below the previously agreed threshold, and AT1s are converted into equity.
— CNBC’s Sophie Kiderlin contributed to this report.
Swiss singer Nemo won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest early Sunday with “The Code,” an operatic pop-rap ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing a nongender identity.
Switzerland’s contestant beat Croatian rocker Baby Lasagna to the title by winning the most points from a combination of national juries and viewers around the world. Nemo, 24, is the first nonbinary winner of the contest that has long been embraced as a safe haven by the LGBT community. Nemo is also the first Swiss winner since 1988, when Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion competed under the Swiss flag.
“Thank you so much,” Nemo said after the result from Saturday’s final was announced soon after midnight. “I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person.”
At a post-victory news conference, Nemo expressed pride in accepting the trophy for “people that are daring to be themselves and people that need to be heard and need to be understood. We need more compassion, we need more empathy.”
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Nemo of Switzerland, who performed the song The Code, celebrates after winning the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden, Saturday, May 11, 2024.
(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Nemo, representing Switzerland, wins the final of the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest at the Malmö Arena, in Malmö, Sweden, Saturday, May 11, 2024.
(Jessica Gow/TT News Agency via AP)
Nemo’s victory in the Swedish city of Malmo followed a turbulent year for the pan-continental pop contest that saw large street protests against the participation of Israel that tipped the feelgood musical celebration into a chaotic pressure cooker overshadowed by the war in Gaza.
Hours before the final, Dutch competitor Joost Klein was expelled from the contest over a backstage altercation that was being investigated by police.
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Nemo — full name Nemo Mettler — bested finalists from 24 other countries, who all performed in front of a live audience of thousands and an estimated 180 million viewers around the world. Each contestant had three minutes to meld catchy tunes and eye-popping spectacle into performances capable of winning the hearts of viewers. Musical styles ranged across rock, disco, techno and rap — sometimes a mashup of more than one.
Israeli singer Eden Golan, who spent Eurovision week in Malmo under tight security, took the stage to a wall of sound — boos mixed with cheers — to perform the power ballad “Hurricane.” Golan shot up the odds table through the week, despite the protests that her appearance drew, and ended in fifth place behind Nemo, Baby Lasagna, Ukrainian duo alyona alyona & Jerry Heil, and French singer Slimane.
Eurovision organizers ordered a change to the original title of her song, “October Rain” — an apparent reference to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and triggered the war in Gaza.
The show was typically eclectic Eurovision fare, ranging from the pop-zombie folk hybrid of Estonia’s 5Miinust x Puuluup to the folk-inflected power pop of Greece’s Marina Satti and Armenia’s Ladaniva and the goofy 1990s nostalgia of Finland’s Windows95man, who emerged from a giant onstage egg wearing very little clothing.
Britain’s Olly Alexander offered upbeat dance track “Dizzy,” while Ireland’s gothic Bambie Thug summoned a demon onstage and brought a scream coach to Malmo, and Spain’s Nebulossa boldly reclaimed a term used as a slur on women in “Zorra.”
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Canadian remix: Popular ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ headed to Canada
Nemo had been a favorite going into the contest, alongside Baby Lasagna, whose song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” is a rollicking rock number that tackles the issue of young Croatians leaving the country in search of a better life.
The contest returned to Sweden, home of last year’s winner, Loreen, half a century after ABBA won Eurovision with “Waterloo” — Eurovision’s most iconic moment. ABBA did not appear in person in Malmo, though their digital “ABBA-tars” from the “ABBA Voyage” stage show did.
A trio of former Eurovision winners — Charlotte Perrelli, Carola and Conchita Wurst — performed “Waterloo” in tribute.
Though Eurovision’s motto is “united by music,” this year’s event has proven divisive. Protests and dissent overshadowed a competition that has become a campy celebration of Europe’s varied — and sometimes baffling — musical tastes and a forum for inclusiveness and diversity.
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Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched for the second time in a week on Saturday through Sweden’s third-largest city, which has a large Muslim population, to demand a boycott of Israel and a cease-fire in the seven-month Gaza war that has killed almost 35,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Several hundred gathered outside the Malmo Arena before the final, with some shouting “shame” at arriving music fans, and facing off with police blocking their path. Climate activist Greta Thunberg was among those escorted away by police.
Klein, the Dutch performer, was ejected from the competition after a female member of the production crew made a complaint, competition organizer the European Broadcasting Union said. The 26-year-old Dutch singer and rapper had been a favorite of both bookmakers and fans with his song “Europapa.”
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, one of dozens of public broadcasters that collectively fund and broadcast the contest, said that as Klein came offstage after Thursday’s semifinal, he was filmed without his consent and in turn made a “threatening movement” toward the camera.
The broadcaster said Klein didn’t touch the camera or the camera operator, and called his expulsion “disproportionate.”
Tensions and nerves were palpable in the hours before the final. Several artists were absent from the Olympics-style artists’ entrance at the start of the final dress rehearsal, though all appeared at the final.
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Several competitors made reference to peace or love at the end of their performances, including France’s Slimane, who said: “United by music for love and peace.”
Nemo said the Eurovision experience had been “really intense and not just pleasant all the way.”
“There were a lot of things that didn’t seem like it was all about love and unity, and that made me really sad,” Nemo said. “I really hope that Eurovision continues and can continue to stand for peace and love in the future. I think that needs a lot of work still.”
Swiss singer Nemo won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with “The Code,” an operatic ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing their nongender identity.
Nemo beat Croatia’s Baby Lasagna to the title by winning the most points from a combination of national juries and viewers around the world.
“Thank you so much,” Nemo said after the result was announced. “I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person.”
Nemo of Switzerland on stage after winning the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final at Malmo Arena on May 11, 2024, in Malmo, Sweden.
Martin Sylvest / Getty Images
The victory in the Swedish city of Malmo followed a turbulent year for the pan-continental pop contest that saw large street protests against the participation of Israel that tipped the feelgood musical celebration into a chaotic pressure cooker overshadowed by the war in Gaza.
Hours before the final, Dutch competitor Joost Klein was expelled from the contest over a backstage altercation that was being investigated by police.
Nemo bested finalists from 24 other countries, who all performed in front of a live audience of thousands and an estimated 180 million viewers around the world. Each contestant had three minutes to meld catchy tunes and eye-popping spectacle into performances capable of winning the hearts of viewers. Musical styles ranged across rock, disco, techno and rap — sometimes a mashup of more than one.
Though Eurovision’s motto is “united by music,” this year’s event has proven divisive. Protests and dissent overshadowed a competition that has become a campy celebration of Europe’s varied — and sometimes baffling — musical tastes and a forum for inclusiveness and diversity with a huge LGBT following.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched for the second time in a week on Saturday through Sweden’s third-largest city, which has a large Muslim population, to demand a boycott of Israel and a cease-fire in the seven-month Gaza war that has killed almost 35,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Several hundred gathered outside the Malmo Arena before the final, with some shouting “shame” at arriving music fans, and facing off with police blocking their path. Climate activist Greta Thunberg was among those escorted away by police.
The contest returned to Sweden, home of last year’s winner, Loreen, a half century after ABBA won Eurovision with “Waterloo” — Eurovision’s most iconic moment. ABBA did not appear in person in Malmo, though their digital “ABBA-tars” from the “ABBA Voyage” stage show did.
A trio of former Eurovision winners — Charlotte Perrelli, Carola and Conchita Wurst — came onstage to sing “Waterloo” as votes were being cast and counted.
Sweden’s entry, identical twins Marcus and Martinus, opened the competition with their optimistically named song “Unforgettable,” followed by Ukrainian duo alyona alyona & Jerry Heil with “Teresa & Maria,” a powerful tribute to their war-battered country.
Eurovision organizers ordered a change to the original title of her song, “October Rain” — an apparent reference to the Oct. 7 attack by the militant group Hamas that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and triggered the war in Gaza.
The show was typically eclectic Eurovision fare: Lithuania’s Silvester Belt was an affable young crooner, while Estonia’s 5Miinust x Puuluup offered a pop-zombie folk hybrid featuring the talharpa, a traditional stringed instrument. Greek singer Marina Satti and Armenia’s Ladaniva both merged folk song and dance elements with power pop, while Britain’s Olly Alexander offered upbeat dance track “Dizzy.”
Contenders also included the goofy 1990s nostalgia of Finland’s Windows95man, who emerged from a giant onstage egg wearing very little clothing. Ireland’s gothic Bambie Thug summoned a demon onstage and brought a scream coach to Malmo, while Spain’s Nebulossa boldly reclaimed a term used as a slur on women in “Zorra.”
Nemo had been a favorite going into the contest, alongside Baby Lasagna, whose song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” is a rollicking rock number that tackles the issue of young Croatians leaving the country in search of a better life.
Klein, the Dutch performer, was ejected from the competition after a female member of the production crew made a complaint, competition organizer the European Broadcasting Union said. The 26-year-old Dutch singer and rapper had been a favorite of both bookmakers and fans with his song “Europapa.”
Singer Joost Klein representing Netherlands with the song “Europe” poses during a press conference before the final.
Jessica Gow via Getty Images
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, one of dozens of public broadcasters that collectively fund and broadcast the contest, said that as Klein came offstage after Thursday’s semifinal, he was filmed without his consent and in turn made a “threatening movement” toward the camera.
The broadcaster said Klein didn’t touch the camera or the camera operator, and called his expulsion “disproportionate.”
Tensions and nerves were palpable in the hours before the final. Several artists were absent from the Olympics-style artists’ entrance at the start of the final dress rehearsal, though all appeared at the final.
Powerhouse French singer Slimane cut short his ballad “Mon Amour” at the dress rehearsal to give a speech urging people to be “united by music, yes — but with love, for peace.” He did not repeat the speech during the evening final.
Several competitors made reference to peace or love at the end of their performances.
Loreen, last year’s Eurovision champion, said world events were “traumatizing,” but urged people not to shut down the “community of love” that is Eurovision.
“What heals trauma … Does trauma heal trauma? Does negativity heal negativity? It doesn’t work like that,” she told The Associated Press. “The only thing that heals trauma for real — this is science — is love.”
Deutsche Bank shares were 6% higher on Thursday afternoon after the German lender reported a 10% rise in first-quarter profit, beating expectations amid an ongoing recovery in its investment banking unit.
Net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.275 billion euros ($1.365 billion) for the period, ahead of an aggregate analyst forecast of 1.23 billion euros for the period, according to LSEG data.
Deutsche Bank said this was its highest first-quarter profit since 2013. It also marks the bank’s 15th straight quarterly profit.
Group revenue rose 1% year-on-year to 7.8 billion euros, which the bank attributed to growth in commissions and fee income, along with strength in fixed income and currencies. The revenue print also came in ahead of an analyst forecast of 7.73 billion euros, according to LSEG.
Revenues at its investment bank increased 13% to 3 billion euros, following a 9% slump through full-year 2023 which had dragged down overall profit. The performance restores the division as Deutsche Bank’s highest-earning unit on growth in financing and credit trading revenue.
Other first-quarter highlights included:
Net inflows of 19 billion euros across the Private Bank and Asset Management divisions.
Credit loss provision was 439 million euros, down from 488 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Common equity tier one (CET1) capital ratio — a measure of bank solvency — was 13.4%, compared to 13.6% at the same time last year.
“There’s momentum in the businesses, actually across all four businesses, and we do think it’s sustainable,” Deutsche Bank Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach on Thursday.
“We’re delivering on our commitments on costs and capital returns in the quarter.”
Germany’s biggest lender reported net profit of 1.3 billion euros in the prior quarter and of 1.16 billion euros in the first quarter last year.
In 2023, the bank announced it would cut 3,500 jobs over the coming years, as it targets 2.5 billion euros in operational efficiencies to boost profitability and increase shareholder returns.
Researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland recently published a study on April 2 to analyze how medical cannabis legalization in the U.S. has affected the country and its patients’ well-being.
Entitled “Medical marijuana laws and mental health in the United States,” researchers wanted to determine the effects of medical cannabis policies on patients over time. “The consequences of legal access to medical marijuana for individuals’ well-being are controversially assessed,” researchers wrote. “We contribute to the discussion by evaluating the impact of the introduction of medical marijuana laws across U.S. states on self-reported mental health considering different motives for cannabis consumption.”
Researchers analyzed the responses of 7.9 million people who participated in phone surveys between 1993-2018. This information was collected through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which focuses on data collection regarding “mental well-being.” In addition to this, researchers also utilized data collected by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Participants were placed in specific groups, such as those who were “highly likely to abstain from using marijuana, to use marijuana as a recreational drug, or to use it for medical reasons” in order to determine the overall affect of medical cannabis legalization on their mental health. Additionally, researchers took into account the use of cannabis specifically for overall chronic pain.
Mental health was measured by asking participants to self-assess themselves by recording how many days they encountered mental health problems during the month prior to the assessment.
Ultimately, researchers found that medical cannabis legalization had no effect on either recreational consumers or youth. “We find weak evidence of positive effects on mental health due to the liberalisation of medical marijuana for the U.S. population overall,” researchers wrote in their conclusion. “While the estimated overall reduction in poor mental health days is not statistically significant, the result still implies an absence of evidence for the critical perspectives that highlight the risk of aggravated mental health problems due to MML [medical marijuana laws] introductions.”
“Easier access improves the mental health of individuals who use marijuana for medical reasons,” stated a University of Basel press article. “The same applies to people who are very likely to suffer from pain. The study authors estimate that these two groups spend 0.3 days less per month in poor mental health due to the change in the law.”
Professor Alois Stutzer summarized these findings in his own statement as well. “Overall, our results show that medical cannabis legislation in the USA benefits the people it is intended for without harming other groups,” Stutzer said. He explained that recreational cannabis consumers aren’t worse off after legalization, either, and ultimately there is “a clear relationship between liberalization and mental well-being.”
Both the U.S. and Switzerland both share a federal government structure. While Stutzer calls the most recent study an “experimental article” because it can help pave the way toward more studies that analyze Switzerland’s future cannabis industry.
The most recent study only extended to data collected prior to 2018, so it would be interesting to see a future study analyze even more recent data that accompanies the many other states that have legalized medical and/or adult-use cannabis within the past five years.
Switzerland has been conducting isolated cannabis pilot programs to analyze consumer trends, sales patterns, and more. Recently at the end of March, the first data connected to one of these programs was released.
The ZüriCan study includes 1,928 people who have been approved to purchase cannabis for the study (a total of 2,100 individuals can participate). The newest data shared that of current participants, 80.7% are men, 18% are women, and 1% are nonbinary people. The demographic disparity was not a surprise, however, as researchers expected there to be a vast difference in gender-related consumers.
Additionally, researchers found that participants between the ages of 28-32 represented the highest percentage among all age groups (the average age of consumers is currently 35 years old). “Participation in the study seems to be particularly attractive for people who consume frequently,” researchers wrote. “However, people who only use cannabis a few times a month also take part in the study. This will allow us to compare people with different consumption habits in our study.”
The program data also showed that 6,500 sales have been made so far, with approximately 309 pounds of cannabis sold (individual packs were available only in five gram amounts).
Tobias Viegener, the head of marketing Cannavigia, a company that is working directly with the Swiss Federal Office on Public Health, told Forbes about the significance of this early data. “The initial data from the ‘ZüriCan’ pilot, published this month, reveals promising insights into the regulated cannabis market’s functionality and its acceptance among participants,” Viegener said. “This level of engagement indicates a positive reception and an effective distribution system, setting a solid foundation for informing future cannabis policy and regulation.”
Swiss police say a 32-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker was killed by police after he used an axe and a knife to seize more than a dozen hostages for several hours on a train in western Switzerland. No passengers were injured and authorities do not suspect terrorism.
The man took the hostages early Thursday evening and police, alerted by passengers, sealed off the area while the train was stopped in the town of Essert-sous-Champvert, police in the French-speaking Vaud region said Friday.
The man, speaking Farsi and English, demanded that the train engineer join the 15 hostages. Officials negotiated with the suspect on WhatsApp with the help of a Farsi translator.
Nearly four hours after the incident began, police stormed the train. More than 60 police were involved, police said in a statement.
“The hostages were all freed safe and sound,” police said. “The hostage-taker was mortally injured during the operation.”
Vincent Derouand, a spokesperson for the Vaud prosecutors’ office, said an investigation was underway in part to determine the man’s motive.
“Nothing points us towards a terrorist act or a jihadist act,” police spokesperson Jean-Christophe Sauterel told Swiss press.
AFP contributed to this report.
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Deutsche Bank on Thursday smashed fourth-quarter earnings expectations, reporting net profit of 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) and announcing a further 1.6 billion euros in shareholder returns for 2024.
Shares were 4.6% higher in morning trade in Europe.
The German lender also announced plans to hike share buybacks and dividends by 50%, returning a total of 1.6 billion euros to shareholders.
Deutsche said it is planning an additional share buyback of 675 million euros, which it aims to complete in the first half of the year. This follows 450 million euros of repurchases in 2023. It also plans to recommend 900 million euros in shareholder dividends for 2023 at its Annual General Meeting in May.
For the year as a whole, the bank reported 4.2 billion euros in net income attributable to shareholders — beating expectations of 3.685 billion euros expected by analysts.
“Pre-tax profit at 5.7 billion is at a high, we grew year-on-year despite some items that in this year created some noise, but what’s really exciting is the momentum we see in the business,” Deutsche Bank CFO James von Moltke told CNBC on Thursday.
“We had a 10% year-on-year growth in our investment bank in the fourth quarter, and admittedly in a year that was still retracing the very strong performances of 2021 and 22, so 9% down for the full year, but we see momentum especially now going into ’24 in origination advisory and very strong, I think consistent, performance in our FIC [fixed income and currencies] franchise.”
As part of a 2.5 billion euro operational efficiency program, Deutsche Bank said it expects to cut 3,500 jobs, mainly in “non-client-facing areas.”
Deutsche Bank shares
As of the end of 2023, savings either realized or expected from completed measures under the efficiency program grew to 1.3 billion euros, the bank estimated. The program’s goal is to reduce the quarterly run-rate of adjusted costs to 5 billion euros, with total costs falling to around 20 billion in 2025.
In a statement Thursday, Sewing said the bank’s 2023 performance “underlines the strength of our Global Hausbank strategy as we help our clients navigate an uncertain environment.”
“We have achieved our highest profit before tax in 16 years, delivered growth well ahead of target and maintained our focus on cost discipline while investing in key areas,” Sewing said.
“Our strong capital generation enables us to accelerate distributions to shareholders. This gives us firm confidence that we will deliver on our 2025 targets.”
Other fourth-quarter highlights included:
Net revenues grew 5% year-on-year to 6.7 billion euros, bringing the annual total to 28.9 billion.
Net inflows of 18 billion euros across the Private Bank and Asset Management divisions.
Credit loss provision was 488 million euros, compared to 351 million in the same period of 2022.
Common equity tier one (CET1) capital ratio — a measure of bank solvency — was 13.7% at the end of 2023, compared to 13.4% at the end of the previous year.
Amid concerns about bank profitability and reports that the German government is considering a sale of some of its company holdings, including its 15% stake in Commerzbank, Deutsche has emerged as the subject of merger speculation in recent months.
However, CEO Christian Sewing told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that acquisitions were not a “priority” for Germany’s largest bank.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Deutsche Bank’s results were released on Thursday.
Michael Sonnenshein at the 2022 Forbes Iconoclast Summit at New York Historical Society on Nov. 3, 2022.
Arturo Holmes | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
DAVOS, Switzerland — Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein told CNBC that most of the approved bitcoin exchange-traded funds won’t survive, while defending the highest fees in the market for the company’s own product.
When the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a swathe of spot bitcoin ETFs earlier this month, much focus was on the management fees that firms from BlackRock to Fidelity were charging.
Many of the ETF issuers were charging 0% fees for a limited amount of time before raising them slightly. Most of the approved ETFs have fees of between 0.2% and 0.4%.
But the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF charges a 1.5% fee.
Sonnenshein laid out several reasons why it is charging that fee, including the fact it is the largest bitcoin fund, has a 10-year track record of “operating successfully” and has a diversified investor base.
“Investors are weighing heavily things like liquidity and track record and who the actual issuer is behind the product. Grayscale is a crypto specialist. And it has really paved the way for a lot of these products coming through,” Sonnenshein told CNBC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.
Sonnenshein said the reason other ETFs have lower fees is that the products “don’t have a track record” and the issuers are trying to attract investors with fee incentives.
“I think from our standpoint, it may at times call into question their long-term commitment to the asset class,” Sonnenshein said.
The Grayscale CEO said two to three of the spot Bitcoin ETFs “will maybe obtain some kind of critical mass” of assets under management, but that the others may be pulled from the market.
“I don’t ultimately think that the marketplace will have ultimately these 11 spot products we find ourselves having,” Sonnenshein said.
DAVOS, Switzerland — Ukrainian leaders made no secret of wanting to meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland this week but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has headed home without the desired encounter in a blow to Kyiv.
In the end, Ukraine made no headway on getting China to commit to negotiations, and Zelenskyy and Li failed to speak.
It’s the latest sign China has no intention of pushing for an end to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war on Ukraine. It has instead sided with Russia, providing its forces with materials for military use which have sustained Moscow’s war effort despite Western pressure and sanctions. Ukraine and its supporters argue halting that pipeline would further derail the Kremlin’s plans.
China’s decision not to meet with Ukrainians appeared intentional and not the result of a scheduling problem. One senior U.S. official said Beijing rejected Kyiv’s request for a meeting at some point during their mutual Swiss visits. Another senior U.S. official said China has refused any gatherings after Russia urged it to cease diplomatic encounters with Ukraine. Both officials, like others referred to in this story, were granted anonymity to detail a sensitive dynamic.
A Ukrainian official disputed the characterization, saying there was no meeting with Chinese officials on the delegation’s schedule and that Kyiv never requested one. Chinese officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A senior European Union official said the bloc has urged China to renew direct contact with Zelenskyy, noting a meeting with Li in Switzerland would have been a positive step.
Both countries have engaged in some diplomacy since Russia’s renewed and expanded invasion. Zelenskyy and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke on the phone last April and China’s Ukraine envoy traveled to Kyiv the following month. Relations have gotten far less personal since, though Ukraine maintains hope both sides can restart talks.
Zelenskyy and Li, a close confidant of Xi, were in Davos to meet with foreign counterparts and address the forum’s well-heeled audience.
They delivered very different messages: Li presented China as a safe place to invest despite its economic woes — throwing in a few digs at the United States along the way — while Zelenskyy bashed Putin and rallied allies to Ukraine’s cause.
“Anyone thinks this is only about us, this is only about Ukraine, they are fundamentally mistaken,” he said on WEF’s main stage Tuesday.
Without a Chinese meeting on his schedule, Zelenskyy spent time coordinating with key partners, namely U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Without a Chinese meeting on his schedule, Zelenskyy spent time coordinating with key partners, namely U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken | Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
The meetings came at a crucial moment for Zelenskyy and his country, especially as the ground battle had come to a near halt, leaving both sides locked in attritional artillery bombardments along the massive front line.
The U.S. Congress is struggling to pass $61 billion in military aid for Ukraine as Republicans recoil further from sustaining a war with no end in sight, preferring instead to funnel resources toward securing the southern border with Mexico as migrants arrive in large numbers. President Joe Biden has called lawmakers to the White House to break the deadlock.
Despite Western sanctions pressure, Russia’s defense-manufacturing operation continues to hum, allowing Putin’s forces to keep fighting despite hundreds of thousands of troops being killed or injured.
China’s cold shoulder notwithstanding, the Ukrainian leader was greeted by the forum’s attendees with rock-star feverishness.
A large crowd gathered outside a meeting room just to catch a glimpse of Zelenskyy heading to his next session. He ignored questions from the press, including one on Ukraine’s relationship with China, walking away as if he hadn’t heard it.
Stuart Lau and Veronika Melkozerova contributed reporting.
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Suzanne Lynch, Nahal Toosi, John F. Harris and Alexander Ward
BRUSSELS — Western leaders are grappling with how to handle two era-defining wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. But there’s another issue, one far closer to home, that’s derailing governments in Europe and America: migration.
In recent days, U.S. President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak all hit trouble amid intense domestic pressure to tackle immigration; all three emerged weakened as a result. The stakes are high as American, British and European voters head to the polls in 2024.
“There is a temptation to hunt for quick fixes,” said Rashmin Sagoo, director of the international law program at the Chatham House think tank in London. “But irregular migration is a hugely challenging issue. And solving it requires long-term policy thinking beyond national boundaries.”
With election campaigning already under way, long-term plans may be hard to find. Far-right, anti-migrant populists promising sharp answers are gaining support in many Western democracies, leaving mainstream parties to count the costs. Less than a month ago in the Netherlands, pragmatic Dutch centrists lost to an anti-migrant radical.
Who will be next?
Rishi Sunak, United Kingdom
In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from members of his own ruling Conservative party who fear voters will punish them over the government’s failure to get a grip on migration.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference in Dover on June 5, 2023 in Dover, England | Pool photo by Yui Mok/WPA via Getty Images
Seven years ago, voters backed Brexit because euroskeptic campaigners promised to “Take Back Control” of the U.K.’s borders. Instead, the picture is now more chaotic than ever. The U.K. chalked up record net migration figures last month, and the government has failed so far to stop small boats packed with asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
Sunak is now in the firing line. He made a pledge to “Stop the Boats” central to his premiership. In the process, he ignited a war in his already divided party about just how far Britain should go.
Under Sunak’s deal with Rwanda, the central African nation agreed to resettle asylum seekers who arrived on British shores in small boats. The PM says the policy will deter migrants from making sea crossings to the U.K. in the first place. But the plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in London, and Sunak’s Tories now can’t agree on what to do next.
Having survived what threatened to be a catastrophic rebellion in parliament on Tuesday, the British premier still faces a brutal battle in the legislature over his proposed Rwanda law early next year.
Time is running out for Sunak to find a fix. An election is expected next fall.
Emmanuel Macron, France
The French president suffered an unexpected body blow when the lower house of parliament rejected his flagship immigration bill this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on June 21, 2023 | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
After losing parliamentary elections last year, getting legislation through the National Assembly has been a fraught process for Macron. He has been forced to rely on votes from the right-wing Les Républicains party on more than one occasion.
Macron’s draft law on immigration was meant to please both the conservatives and the center-left with a carefully designed mix of repressive and liberal measures. But in a dramatic upset, the National Assembly, which is split between centrists, the left and the far right, voted against the legislation on day one of debates.
Now Macron is searching for a compromise. The government has tasked a joint committee of senators and MPs with seeking a deal. But it’s likely their text will be harsher than the initial draft, given that the Senate is dominated by the centre right — and this will be a problem for Macron’s left-leaning lawmakers.
If a compromise is not found, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally will be able to capitalize on Macron’s failure ahead of the European Parliament elections next June.
But even if the French president does manage to muddle through, the episode is likely to mark the end of his “neither left nor right” political offer. It also raises serious doubts about his ability to legislate on controversial topics.
Joe Biden, United States
The immigration crisis is one of the most vexing and longest-running domestic challenges for President Joe Biden. He came into office vowing to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, and build a “fair and humane” system, only to see Congress sit on his plan for comprehensive immigration reform.
U.S. President Joe Biden pauses as he gives a speech in Des Moines, Iowa on July 15, 2019 | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The White House has seen a deluge of migrants at the nation’s southern border, strained by a decades-old system unable to handle modern migration patterns.
Ahead of next year’s presidential election, Republicans have seized on the issue. GOP state leaders have filed lawsuits against the administration and sent busloads of migrants to Democrat-led cities, while in Washington, Republicans in Congress have tied foreign aid to sweeping changes to border policy, putting the White House in a tight spot as Biden officials now consider a slate of policies they once forcefully rejected.
The political pressure has spilled into the other aisle. States and cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, are pressuring Washington leaders to do more in terms of providing additional federal aid and revamping southern border policies to limit the flow of asylum seekers into the United States.
New York City has had more than 150,000 new arrivals over the past year and a half — forcing cuts to new police recruits, cutting library hours and limiting sanitation duties. Similar problems are playing out in cities like Chicago, which had migrants sleeping in buses or police stations.
The pressure from Democrats is straining their relationship with the White House. New York City Mayor Eric Adams runs the largest city in the nation, but hasn’t spoken with Biden in nearly a year. “We just need help, and we’re not getting that help,” Adams told reporters Tuesday.
Olaf Scholz, Germany
Migration has been at the top of the political agenda in Germany for months, with asylum applications rising to their highest levels since the 2015 refugee crisis triggered by Syria’s civil war.
The latest influx has posed a daunting challenge to national and local governments alike, which have struggled to find housing and other services for the migrants, not to mention the necessary funds.
The inability to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
The inability — in a country that ranks among the most coveted destinations for asylum seekers — to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure. In the hope of stemming the flow, Germany recently reinstated border checks with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, hoping to turn back the refugees before they hit German soil.
Even with border controls, refugee numbers remain high, which has been a boon to the far right. Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party has reached record support in national polls.
Since overtaking Scholz’s Social Democrats in June, the AfD has widened its lead further, recording 22 percent in recent polls, second only to the center-right Christian Democrats.
The AfD is expected to sweep three state elections next September in eastern Germany, where support for the party and its reactionary anti-foreigner policies is particularly strong.
The center-right, meanwhile, is hardening its position on migration and turning its back on the open-border policies championed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among the new priorities is a plan to follow the U.K.’s Rwanda model for processing refugees in third countries.
Karl Nehammer, Austria
Like Scholz, the Austrian leader’s approval ratings have taken a nosedive thanks to concerns over migration. Austria has taken steps to tighten controls at its southern and eastern borders.
Though the tactic has led to a drop in arrivals by asylum seekers, it also means Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades.
Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades | Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images
The far-right Freedom Party has had a commanding lead for more than a year, topping the ruling center-right in polls by 10 points. That puts the party in a position to win national elections scheduled for next fall, which would mark an unprecedented rightward tilt in a country whose politics have been dominated by the center since World War II.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made her name in opposition, campaigning on a radical far-right agenda. Since winning power in last year’s election, she has shifted to more moderate positions on Ukraine and Europe.
Meloni now needs to appease her base on migration, a topic that has dominated Italian debate for years. Instead, however, she has been forced to grant visas to hundreds of thousands of legal migrants to cover labor shortages. Complicating matters, boat landings in Italy are up by about 50 per cent year-on-year despite some headline-grabbling policies and deals to stop arrivals.
While Meloni has ordered the construction of detention centers where migrants will be held pending repatriation, in reality local conditions in African countries and a lack of repatriation agreements present serious impediments.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni at a press conference on March 9, 2023 | Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
Although she won the support of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her cause, a potential EU naval mission to block departures from Africa would risk breaching international law.
Meloni has tried other options, including a deal with Tunisia to help stop migrant smuggling, but the plan fell apart before it began. A deal with Albania to offshore some migrant detention centers also ran into trouble.
Now Meloni is in a bind. The migration issue has brought her into conflict with France and Germany as she attempts to create a reputation as a moderate conservative.
If she fails to get to grips with the issue, she is likely to lose political ground. Her coalition partner Matteo Salvini is known as a hardliner on migration, and while they’re officially allies for now, they will be rivals again later.
Geert Wilders, the Netherlands
The government of long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was toppled over migration talks in July, after which he announced his exit from politics. In subsequent elections, in which different parties vied to fill Rutte’s void, far-right firebrand Geert Wilders secured a shock win. On election night he promised to curb the “asylum tsunami.”
Wilders is now seeking to prop up a center-right coalition with three other parties that have urged getting migration under control. One of them is Rutte’s old group, now led by Dilan Yeşilgöz.
Geert Wilders attends a meeting in the Dutch parliament with party leaders to discuss the formation of a coalition government, on November 24, 2023 | Carl Court/Getty Images
A former refugee, Yeşilgöz turned migration into one of the main topics of her campaign. She was criticized after the elections for paving the way for Wilders to win — not only by focusing on migration, but also by opening the door to potentially governing with Wilders.
Now, though, coalition talks are stuck, and it could take months to form a new cabinet. If Wilders, who clearly has a mandate from voters, can stitch a coalition together, the political trajectory of the Netherlands — generally known as a pragmatic nation — will shift significantly to the right. A crackdown on migration is as certain as anything can be.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland
Even in Ireland, an economically open country long used to exporting its own people worldwide, an immigration-friendly and pro-business government has been forced by rising anti-foreigner sentiment to introduce new migration deterrence measures that would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
Ireland’s hardening policies reflect both a chronic housing crisis and the growing reluctance of some property owners to keep providing state-funded emergency shelter in the wake of November riots in Dublin triggered by a North African immigrant’s stabbing of young schoolchildren.
A nation already housing more than 100,000 newcomers, mostly from Ukraine, Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia, according to the most recent Department of Integration statistics.
Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia | Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images
Even newly arrived families face an increasing risk of being kept in military-style tents despite winter temperatures.
Ukrainians, who since Russia’s 2022 invasion of their country have received much stronger welfare support than other refugees, will see that welcome mat partially retracted in draft legislation approved this week by the three-party coalition government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Once enacted by parliament next month, the law will limit new Ukrainian arrivals to three months of state-paid housing, while welfare payments – currently among the most generous in Europe for people fleeing Russia’s war – will be slashed for all those in state-paid housing.
Justin Trudeau, Canada
A pessimistic public mood dragged down by cost-of-living woes has made immigration a multidimensional challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A housing crunch felt across the country has cooled support for immigration, with people looking for scapegoats for affordability pains. The situation has fueled antipathy for Trudeau and his re-election campaign.
Trudeau has treated immigration as a multipurpose solution for Canada’s aging population and slowing economy. And while today’s record-high population growth reflects well on Canada’s reputation as a desirable place to relocate, political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals.
Political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals | Andrej Ivanov/AFP
Since Trudeau came to power eight years ago, at least 1.3 million people have immigrated to Canada, mostly from India, the Philippines, China and Syria. Handling diaspora politics — and foreign interference — has become more consequential, as seen by Trudeau’s clash with India and Canada’s recent break with Israel.
Canada will double its 40 million population in 25 years if the current growth rate holds, enlarging the political challenges of leading what Trudeau calls the world’s “first postnational state”.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe from the south: Once they make it across the land border, the Continent can easily be accessed by ferry.
Transit via the land border that separates the European territory from Morocco is normally kept in check with security measures like high, razor-topped fences, with border control officers from both countries working together to keep undocumented migrants out.
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe | Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP
But in recent years authorities in Morocco have expressed displeasure with their Spanish counterparts by standing down their officers and allowing hundreds of migrants to pass, overwhelming border stations and forcing Spanish officers to repel the migrants, with scores dying in the process.
The headaches caused by these incidents are believed to be a major factor in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to change the Spanish government’s position on the disputed Western Sahara territory and express support for Rabat’s plan to formalize its nearly 50-year occupation of the area.
The pivot angered Sánchez’s leftist allies and worsened Spain’s relationship with Algeria, a long-standing champion of Western Saharan independence. But the measures have stopped the flow of migrants — for now.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece
Greece has been at the forefront of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people entered Europe via the Aegean islands. Migration and border security have been key issues in the country’s political debate.
Human rights organizations, as well as the European Parliament and the European Commission, have accused the Greek conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis of illegal “pushbacks” of migrants who have made it to Greek territory — and of deporting migrants without due process. Greece’s government denies those accusations, arguing that independent investigations haven’t found any proof.
Mitsotakis insists that Greece follows a “tough but fair” policy, but the numerous in-depth investigations belie the moderate profile the conservative leader wants to maintain.
In June, a migrant boat sank in what some called “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean Sea. Hundreds lost their lives, refocusing Europe’s attention on the issue. Official investigations have yet to discover whether failures by Greek authorities contributed to the shipwreck, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In the meantime, Greece is in desperate need of thousands of workers to buttress the country’s understaffed agriculture, tourism and construction sectors. Despite pledges by the migration and agriculture ministers of imminent legislation bringing migrants to tackle the labor shortage, the government was forced to retreat amid pressure from within its own ranks.
Nikos Christodoulides, Cyprus
Cyprus is braced for an increase in migrant arrivals on its shores amid renewed conflict in the Middle East. Earlier in December, Greece sent humanitarian aid to the island to deal with an anticipated increase in flows.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management, and is contending with a surge in violence against migrants in Cyprus. Analysts blame xenophobia, which has become mainstream in Cypriot politics and media, as well as state mismanagement of migration flows. Last year the country recorded the EU’s highest proportion of first-time asylum seekers relative to its population.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Legal and staffing challenges have delayed efforts to create a deputy ministry for migration, deemed an important step in helping Cyprus to deal with the surge in arrivals.
The island’s geography — it’s close to both Lebanon and Turkey — makes it a prime target for migrants wanting to enter EU territory from the Middle East. Its complex history as a divided country also makes it harder to regulate migrant inflows.
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Tim Ross, Annabelle Dickson, Clea Caulcutt, Myah Ward, Matthew Karnitschnig, Hannah Roberts, Pieter Haeck, Shawn Pogatchnik, Zi-Ann Lum, Aitor Hernández-Morales and Nektaria Stamouli
BERLIN — At its summit this week, the European Union is threatening to name and shame more than a dozen Chinese companies that, it claims, are supplying critical technology to equip Russia’s war machine.
But what about the Western companies that make dual-use and other advanced gear that is subject to sanctions and yet, according to an analysis of wreckage found on the Ukrainian battlefield, is used in Russian Kalibr missiles, Orlan drones and Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopters?
Radio silence.
So here’s a trivia question for you: Which company is the leading maker of the so-called “high-priority battlefield items” trafficked to Russia that the Western coalition wants to interdict?
If you said Intel, then go to the top of the class: According to the sanctions team at the Kyiv School of Economics, the U.S. semiconductor giant again leads the pack this year. It’s followed by Huawei of China. Then come Analog Devices, AMD, Texas Instruments and IBM — all of which are American.
Russian imports of microelectronics, wireless and satellite navigation systems and other critical parts subject to sanctions have recovered to near pre-war levels with a monthly run rate of $900 million in the first nine months of this year, according to a forthcoming report from the Kyiv School’s analytical center, the KSE Institute.
All of this indicates that, while Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, had a temporary impact, Moscow and its helpers have largely succeeded in reconfiguring supply chains — with the help of China, Hong Kong and countries in Russia’s backyard like Kazakhstan and NATO member Turkey.
That in turn begs the question as to whether, as the EU strives to deliver a 12th package of sanctions against Russia in time for a leaders’ summit on Thursday, the bloc is serving up yet another case study for the definition of insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
For Elina Ribakova, director of the international program at the KSE Institute, the Western private sector must also be held to account. It should, she argues, be required to track its products along the entire value chain to their final destination — just as banks were forced to tighten anti-money laundering controls and customer checks after the 2008 crash.
“We have a policy in a void. We have put it on paper but we don’t have any infrastructure for the private sector to comply — or for us to check,” Ribakova told POLITICO. “We need to have the private sector enforce and implement this.”
Intel, responding to a request for comment, said it had suspended all shipments to Russia and Belarus, its ally, and that it was compliant with sanctions and export controls against both countries issued by the U.S. and its allies.
“While we do not always know nor can we control what products our customers create or the applications end-users may develop, Intel does not support or tolerate our products being used to violate human rights,” the company said in a statement. “Where we become aware of a concern that Intel products are being used by a business partner in connection with abuses of human rights, we will restrict or cease business with the third party until and unless we have high confidence that Intel’s products are not being used to violate human rights.”
As for Europe, while its companies may not feature among the top makers of critical technology sold to Russia, its industrial businesses are facing growing scrutiny over the supply of machinery and spare parts — often via third countries like Kazakhstan that have seen suspicious surges in imports.
It’s here, also, that Europe has fallen down.
In imposing sanctions, it’s a case of “all for one” — the bloc has jointly agreed on and implemented measures affecting everything from energy to banking.
But enforcement is a matter for individual member countries. Some are on board with the program. Others, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, overtly sympathize with Russia. And others, still, are conflicted — as when it emerged that the husband of hawkish Estonian premier Kaja Kallas owned a stake in a freight firm that still did business in Russia.
Then there are countries like neutral Austria, with historical ties to the Soviet military-industrial complex that have left politicians and law enforcement with a huge blind spot.
That’s important because, as independent researcher Kamil Galeev put it to POLITICO, Russia today still upholds an organizing principle dating back to the early Soviet era that civilian industry should “be able to switch 100 percent to military production should the need arise.”
Justice delayed
Despite evidence of widespread breaches, only a handful of sanctions cases are being pursued by European law enforcement. Among them, German prosecutors have secured the arrest of a businessman suspected of supplying precision lathes to two Russian companies that make sniper rifles.
But the wheels of justice turn slowly: The arrest in August of Ulli S. — prosecutors, following German tradition, have not published his full name — relates to the initial imposition of Western sanctions over Russia’s occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The press had already cracked the case by the time the suspect appeared in court, naming DMG Mori — a Japanese-German joint venture — as the supplier. One customer was Kalashnikov, maker of the famed AK-47 rifle. The other was Promtekhnologia, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. and featured in POLITICO’s sniper bullets investigation. Promtekhnologia makes the Orsis sniper rifle promoted by action movie actor Steven Seagal — now a Russian citizen — and used by President Vladimir Putin’s men in Ukraine.
DMG Mori, formerly called Gildemeister, suspended sales to Russia after the full-scale invasion. But, because it has closed down its operations in the country, it says it is no longer able to keep control over its machines made there (although an internal probe did find that they were being used for civilian purposes). The German Federal Prosecutor did not respond to a request for comment.
The real bad actors
It’s not just in stopping imports to Russia that sanctions are falling short of their stated intention.
Vladimir Putin’s former wife, Lyudmila (left), and her new partner have splashed the cash on luxury property investments in Spain, Switzerland and France a POLITICO investigation found | Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Russians with close ties to Putin — and their money — continue to be more than welcome in Europe despite the death and destruction his regime has unleashed. His former wife, Lyudmila, and her new partner have splashed the cash on luxury property investments in Spain, Switzerland and France, as a POLITICO investigation found at the start of the year.
And when the European Council — the intergovernmental branch of the EU — does sanction Russian business leaders suspected of aiding and abetting the Putin regime, it has often relied on slipshod evidence that makes the decisions easy to challenge in court, POLITICO has also found.
Nearly 1,600 Western multinationals continue, meanwhile, to do business in Russia. Many that announced they would pull out have struggled to do so, as POLITICO discovered when it investigated Western liquor companies that said they had quit Russia — only to find that their booze was still freely available. And some companies that did stay, like Danone and Carlsberg, have been shaken down by Putin and his cronies — a case of Russian roulette, if ever there was one.
With the EU apparently lacking the means, or the political will, to do more to economically isolate Russia, the bloc is sending its sanctions envoy, David O’Sullivan, on a mission to apply moral suasion to countries that are, as he diplomatically puts it, “not aligned” on sanctions.
On the high-priority battlefield technology, Sullivan told POLITICO’s EU Confidential podcast last month that the EU has had “a limited success — but in an area which is absolutely critical to the defense of Ukraine.”
More broadly, he said: “The sanctions are a sort of slow puncture of the Russian economy. Perhaps not the blowout that some people initially predicted, but … the air is escaping from the tire and sooner or later the vehicle is going to become impossible to drive.”
To be fair, O’Sullivan isn’t overselling the efficacy of sanctions. And he may ultimately be proven right.
But he only will be vindicated if Western governments do a better job of holding their own businesses to account in stemming the flows of technology, equipment and spare parts that sustain Putin and his war of aggression.
That will come down to whether they have the will to enforce their decisions. And the evidence so far is that they don’t.
On December 5, 2023, Lugano, a Swiss City, announced the incorporation of the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) for tax and other municipal fee payments.
This makes part of Lugano’s collaborative plans with Tether, Plan B, fashioned to revitalize the City’s financial system using Bitcoin tech.
Lugano Dives into the World of Crypto
Before the latest developments, Lugano only allowed crypto payments to be made directly on the City’s official online portal. However, the release extends the possibility to every invoice, regardless of the nature or amount.
According to the statement, Lugano citizens and companies can now pay their expenses by scanning the invoice QR code and leveraging their favorite mobile wallets. The two assets accepted based on the statement are Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT), behemoths in their respective asset classes.
The statement by Bitcoin Suisse notes that the latest update is part of Lugano’s Plan B, a collaboration with Tether, to integrate BTC into daily life.
This release also points out the role of Bitcoin Suisse in Lugano’s Plan B. Bitcoin Suisse will handle the technical part of the payment solution to offer a convenient option for accepting payments with BTC and USDT.
The Chief Product Officer at Bitcoin Suisse, Armin Schmid, expresses his delight in backing Lugano in its mission to accelerate the use of Blockchain tech. He said:
“It is great to see that more and more Swiss municipalities are offering payments in cryptocurrencies as an option available to both citizens and companies, complementing traditional payment methods such as post-office counters and e-banking platforms.”
Bitcoin Suisse stresses its pleasure in providing technical infrastructure for crypto payments. Moreover, it boasts of providing crypto payments to other Swiss Cantons, municipalities, and cities.
Switzerland Going All-In with Crypto
Lugano is not the first Swiss City to take this path. As early as 2021, Zug City had already begun accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum for tax settlements. The Canton of Zug and the municipality of Zermatt have already implemented the system.
Switzerland has been ahead of the curve in adopting crypto assets for some time.
Last month, one of the largest Swiss cantonal banks, St. Galler Kantonalbank, announced the official dawn of Bitcoin and Ethereum trading and custody services for several clients.
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