Sunday, September 08, 2024
Published: Sunday, Sep 8th 2024, 05:10
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More child pornography on the internet, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs does not submit a request for legal assistance to the Vatican in connection with the abuse allegations and the car lobby wants to finance professorships: This and more can be found in the Sunday papers. The headlines in unverified reports:
"SonntagsZeitung":
Last year, the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) received over 14,400 suspicious activity reports from the US Center for Missing and Exploited Children. According to the SonntagsZeitung, this was twice as many as in 2021. Fedpol forwards the cases that fall under Swiss criminal law to the cantons. In 2023, there were just under 2,000 cases. The increase is partly due to the more precise software that searches internet platforms. On the other hand, there has been more illegal pornography. According to a study by the University of Fribourg, 54% of parents in Switzerland post images of their children online. The newspaper wrote that paedo-criminals are taking advantage of this.
"SonntagsBlick":
The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has rejected a request for legal assistance from the Vatican to support historians in their research into the Catholic abuse complex. The historians Monika Dommann and Marietta Meier suspect that there are files in the embassy of the Papal States in Bern and in the Vatican, the originals of which were destroyed by Swiss bishops. This was revealed in a letter from the two researchers to Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis. "Each state regulates the issue of access to files in accordance with its national regulations," replied the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). The Swiss ambassador to the Vatican is available for talks at any time, the FDFA told the newspaper.
"NZZ am Sonntag":
The car lobby wants to fund transport professorships at Swiss universities. Research should remain independent, as the NZZ am Sonntag wrote. However, the sponsors would have a say in the selection of staff. A contract is currently ready to be signed, the newspaper wrote, without giving further details. The banks, which have been doing the same thing for years, would serve as a model for the sponsored chairs. It is a measure of the car lobby, which is planning a new appearance. Talks are underway between importers, trade associations and suppliers about closer cooperation in the run-up to the vote on the highway expansion in November.
"SonntagsBlick":
As part of its investigation into Credit Suisse, the Parliamentary Investigation Committee (PUK) has summoned the Chairwoman of Finma, Marlene Amstad, for a second time. The members of the commission wanted to clarify open points in greater depth with the head of the Financial Market Authority (Finma), as "SonntagsBlick" wrote. The reason for this was the "regulatory filter", an exemption granted to the bank when calculating its own funds. It allowed CS to hold less equity than it should have. Finma declined to comment, as the newspaper wrote. The PUK's report should be available in November.
"SonntagsZeitung" / "SonntagsBlick" / "NZZ am Sonntag":
The collection company Incop, which has come under criticism, has received backing from one of its initiators. Franziska Herren relied on the services of Incop for the current initiative for safe food, as she told the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. She had strictly monitored the head of Incop, Franck Tessemo, and had had good experiences. The allegations are pure speculation. The Office of the Attorney General had discovered a single suspected forged signature. Former Federal Council spokesman Oswald Sigg defended Tessemo in "SonntagsBlick". He had purchased signatures for two initiatives. They both failed at the signature stage. Initiators contacted by the "NZZ am Sonntag" criticized the intrusive approach of various collection companies.
"SonntagsBlick":
Twelve percent of participants in a survey of SBB employees reported discrimination in the workplace. Seven percent of participants mentioned bullying and four percent sexual harassment, as SonntagsBlick wrote based on an internal SBB memo. The company conducted a survey of all 35,000 employees at the end of 2023. Around half of the employees responded. Women had experienced discrimination and sexual harassment more frequently. There was no discernible gender difference when it came to bullying. The detailed survey results are also not accessible to employees. "I condemn such behavior in the strongest possible terms", said SBB Head of Human Resources Markus Jordi. If the allegations are confirmed, measures will be taken.
"NZZ am Sonntag":
The head of the group of experts for the Confederation's savings proposals has seen his work vindicated by the criticism. He has heard criticism from all camps, said Serge Gaillard in an interview with "NZZ am Sonntag". "This shows that the proposals are relatively balanced." He could not predict how many of the more than 60 recommendations would actually be implemented. The group of experts reviewed over 300 individual loans. The good news is: "The Confederation is doing a lot of things sensibly, a lot of the expenditure is well justified and effective," said the former head of the Federal Finance Administration. The proposals also showed that Switzerland could make savings "without the world coming to an end".
"SonntagsZeitung"/ "Le Matin Dimanche":
Many Swiss hospitals have not reached the recommended minimum number of surgical procedures. This was revealed by a new analysis by the health insurance association Santésuisse using data from 2022, as reported by the SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche. According to the analysis, less than half of the hospitals achieved the recommended minimum number of cases for some of the 21 procedures examined. For example, 76 hospitals performed specialized spinal surgery. However, only 30 clinics performed as many operations in this area as the minimum number of cases would require. The director of Santésuisse, Verena Nold Sorgen, criticized the fact that hospitals were offering too wide a range of services instead of specializing. She spoke out in favor of national hospital planning.
"SonntagsZeitung":
Flowbank from Geneva has filed a lawsuit against the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) with the Federal Administrative Court. Finma declared the online bank bankrupt due to insufficient equity capital, as the SonntagsZeitung wrote. According to its own statements, the bank fulfilled all of Finma's requirements. It had raised the required sum of 25 million francs within the set deadline. The authority did not approve the capital increase because the loan originated from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. The founder of Binance had been sentenced to four months in prison in the USA. In Switzerland, it is rare for the supervisory authority to close a bank, the newspaper wrote.
"Le Matin Dimanche":
The Federal Supreme Court has definitively confirmed the sentence against the former president of the Association for the Support and Promotion of the Patrouille des Glaciers (ASPdG). He had previously been sentenced to a fine of ten daily rates, suspended for two years, for defaming a whistleblower, as "Le Matin Dimanche" wrote. The association had hit the headlines because board members had paid each other several million francs in income - even though the Patrouille de Glaciers is organized by the army. According to the newspaper, the case is currently the subject of a police investigation commissioned by the Valais public prosecutor's office.
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