The Swiss sniff 5 tonnes of cocaine per year and four Swiss cities are among the top 10 European cities for cocaine consumption (St Gallen -3., Zurich -4., Basel -6. and Geneva -9.). This according to an analysis of the water in Swiss cities. The justice department was able to hack into a online drug criminal ring and found over 3000 profiles of people active in Switzerland. One of the main protagonists claimed in messages to be making somewhere between CHF 10 000.- and CHF 50 000.- per day. It was estimated that the man sold around 115 kilos of cocaine over seven years for around 8 million francs.
The situation in emergency wards is becoming particularly accute because of the combination of patients seriously sick with either corona, flu or RSV. On the good news front, a study of our water shows that the traces of these three diseases are decreasing.
73 000 people died in Switzerland last year, that is about 10% more than average. It was the over 65 segment which was concerned and most of it was due to complications from the corona virus. The last time numbers were this high was in 1940 and 1900. The highest number ever recording was in 1918 during the Spanish Flu, when numbers went up by 50%.
People arriving from China into Switzerland will not have to do a corona test; this goes against the European concensus. The Swiss reasoning is that the population here is well protected and the Omicron variant is not particularly dangerous.
100 climate activists walked to Davos ahead of the WEF which will begin there on Monday. They are hoping to raise awareness about the necessity to take steps to curb climate change.
The lottery Swisslos company was making an average of two people millionaires per month, with the largest handout in March for over 43 million francs. Overall the Swiss lottery handed out a bit more than 200 million francs in winning. It makes 400 millions francs per year with which they also fund not for profit organisations in the fields of social work, cultural or sport activities.
The Kick Ass Award celebrates local musicians and this year the main prize went to a young singer/composer from Ruswil Losus Reynoso for her song “Flowers”. She won CHF 3000.-
