Switzerland swiss
no notes 4/16
an 11 25
Swiss lawmakers file bribery complaint after gifts to Trump reduced tariffs
---}:
AN 11 25
When Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) had his home raided over an alleged bribery scheme, investigators found gold bars. Now, a gold bar has been handed to President Donald Trump by Swiss billionaires visiting the White House. Not long after, tariffs on Switzerland were cut.
The engraved gold bar, coupled with a $130,000 Rolex desk clock, may not be the reason Trump “decided to slash 39 percent tariffs on Swiss imports to 15 percent,” but it is raising questions.
The Guardian reported Friday that Pasquale Tridico, an Italian MEP, was “disgusted” by the move.
“This is really awful,” he said. It seems to be a case of “making foreign policy the policy of individuals."
Swiss Green Party president, Lisa Mazzone, called out "the Swiss elite" for being "poisoned" by Trump's "corrupt logic."
“It is unacceptable that the federal council is relying on the help of an economic elite that represents private interests and lacks democratic legitimacy in its negotiations with the US president,” she added.
None of the items were reported until “internet sleuths” began tracing the origins of the new clock on Trump’s Oval Office desk, the report said. They pored over photos and ultimately found the one showing seven Swiss billionaires.
The billionaires called it “a modest, refined expression of traditional Swiss watchmaking," said The Guardian.
“Trump loves being fawned over by billionaires. It’s terrible that one has to shower the US president with gold to get Switzerland back on his agenda," deputy editor-in-chief of CH Media, Doris Kleck, told radio station "bz Basel."
The White House claimed that the gold bar and Rolex had nothing to do with the tariff cuts. Instead, Trump's staff said that the deal came about after the Swiss pledged “$200 billion to make and hire in America."
Under U.S. rules, such gifts become the property of the government and are placed in the National Archives unless the president buys them or has them displayed in a museum or presidential library.
---
===
guk
Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled.
In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such rulings by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.
The court’s top bench ruled that Switzerland had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life, but threw out a French mayor’s case against France and that of a group of young Portuguese people against 32 European countries.
“It feels like a mixed result because two of the cases were inadmissible,” said Corina Heri, a law researcher at the University of Zürich. “But actually it’s a huge success.”
The court, which calls itself “the conscience of Europe”, found that Switzerland had failed to comply with its duties to stop climate change. It also set out a path for organisations to bring further cases on behalf of applicants.
The Swiss verdict opens up all 46 members of the Council of Europe to similar cases in national courts that they are likely to lose.
Joie Chowdhury, an attorney at the Centre for International Environmental Law campaign group, said the judgment left no doubt that the climate crisis was a human rights crisis. “We expect this ruling to influence climate action and climate litigation across Europe and far beyond,” she said.
The facts of the three cases varied widely, but they all hinged on the question of whether government inaction on climate change violated fundamental human rights. Some of the governments argued that the cases should not be admitted, and that climate policy should be the subject of national governments rather than international courts.
0:58
'Only the beginning': Greta Thunberg reacts to court ruling on Swiss climate inaction – video
The plaintiffs attending the hearing in the court in Strasbourg, some as young as 12, celebrated after a member of a panel of 17 judges read out the verdicts. The climate activist Greta Thunberg joined a gathering outside the court before the hearing to encourage faster action.
Anton Foley, who with Thunberg was representing Aurora, a youth group that filed a climate lawsuit against Sweden, said it was “unjust” that responsibility for stopping the climate crisis fell on young people, and praised the Swiss women for stepping up. “We don’t want to be the hope for the older generation. We want them to do this, because we don’t want to fight this fight.”
Thunberg thanked Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, co-president of the KlimaSeniorinnen, for what she had done, as they met outside the courtroom.
The KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of 2,400 older Swiss women, told the court that several of their rights were being violated. Because older women are more likely to die in heatwaves – which have become hotter and more common because of fossil fuels – they argued that Switzerland should do its share to stop the planet heating by the Paris agreement target of 1.5C (2.7F) above preindustrial levels.
The court ruled that Swiss authorities had not acted in time to come up with a good enough strategy to cut emissions. It also found the applicants had not had appropriate access to justice in Switzerland.
But it also rejected the cases of four individual applicants who had joined the KlimaSeniorinnen.
“I’m very happy,” said Nicole Barbry, 70, a member of the KlimaSeniorinnen who had come to Strasbourg. “It’s good that they’re finally listening to us.”
The Portuguese children and young people – who because of their age will see greater climate damage than previous generations – argued that climate-fuelled disasters such as wildfires and smoke threatened their right to life and discriminated against them based on their age.
The court did not admit the case, deciding that the applicants could not bring cases against countries other than Portugal and adding that they had not pursued legal avenues in Portugal against the government.
“Their [the Swiss] win is a win for us, too,” said Sofia Oliveira, a 19-year-old applicant in the Portuguese case. “And a win for everyone.”
The French case, brought by the MEP Damien Carême, argued that France’s failure to do enough to stop climate change violated his rights to life and privacy and family life. Carême filed the case when he was the mayor of Grand-Synthe, a coastal town vulnerable to flooding. The court did not admit the case because Carême no longer lives there.
The ECHR rejects about 90% of all applications it receives as inadmissible but fast-tracked the three climate cases to its top bench because of their urgency. It delayed hearings on six more climate cases to get a result on the rulings on Tuesday.
The rulings will influence three other international courts that are examining the role of government climate policy on human rights.
Charlotte Blattner, a researcher at the University of Berne who specialises in climate law, said the court had delivered a bold judgment in favour of a viable future. “The nature and gravity of the threat of climate change – and the urgency to effectively respond to it – require that governments can and will have to be held accountable for their lack of adequate action,” she said.
The court said that keeping global heating to 1.5C was a key part of protecting human rights, rather than the higher 2C limit that courts had used for rulings on cases in Germany and the Netherlands.
Gerry Liston, a lawyer for the Portuguese children, said the recognition that Switzerland’s policies were not science-based was “by far” the most significant aspect of the ruling. “No European government’s climate policies are aligned with anything near 1.5C, so it will be clear to those working on climate litigation in those countries that there is now a clear basis to bring a case in their national courts.”
ggl 4 24
Thunberg and 600 other young activists in a group called Aurora sued the Swedish state in November, claiming it had to do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) in order to live up to the European Convention on Human Rights.Mar 21, 2023
Greta Thunberg, climate activists greenlighted to sue Sweden
Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com › news › greta-thunberg-cli...
Greta Thunberg, climate activists get court nod to sue ...
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com › world › europe › greta-thun...
Mar 21, 2023 — Thunberg, and 600 other young activists in a group called Aurora, sued the Swedish state in November, claiming it had to do more to limit global ...
Swedish court OKs activists to sue state over climate policy
AP News
https://apnews.com › article › sweden-climate-lawsuit-a...
Mar 21, 2023 — ... , including Greta Thunberg, to file a lawsuit against the Swedish state for what they say is insufficient action on the climate.
Greta Thunberg defiant after court fines her
CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com › World
Jul 24, 2023 — A Swedish court on Monday fined climate activist Greta Thunberg for disobeying police during an environmental protest at an oil facility ...
U.K. Judge Acquits Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Over ...
Time Magazine
https://time.com › World › United Kingdom
Feb 2, 2024 — LONDON — Climate activist Greta Thunberg was acquitted Friday of refusing to follow a police order to leave a protest blocking the entrance ...
'Now we sue the state': Greta Thunberg joins activists in ...
Euronews.com
https://www.euronews.com › Green › Climate
Mar 22, 2023 — Environmental activists, including Greta Thunberg, are suing the Swedish state for insufficient action on the climate crisis.
UK court dismisses case against Greta Thunberg over ...
Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com › news › uk-court-dismisses-...
Feb 2, 2024 — Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been cleared of a public order offence over a protest outside an oil and gas conference last year, ...
Judge throws out case against Greta Thunberg and other ...
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › environment › feb › ju...
Feb 2, 2024 — Greta Thunberg and four others charged with public order offences over a protest in London have been cleared after a judge ruled that they had ...
Court Rules Greta Thunberg, Others Can Sue Sweden for ' ...
Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org › News › sweden
Mar 21, 2023 — The country's climate action "constitutes a violation of human rights," argues one Swedish group.
Greta Thunberg says remember 'the real enemy' as oil ...
Reuters
https://www.reuters.com › business › environment › gre...
Feb 2, 2024 — Greta Thunberg said on Thursday people should remember who "the real enemy is" after she and four other environmental activists appeared in ...
Emma Thompson and Greta Thunberg among critics of ...
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com › business › apr › public-...
Apr 1, 2024 — The writer and chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, one of the signatories, said the lawsuit “beggars belief”. “Shell boasts constantly of its ...
6 23
glacier swiss new law
https://www.rawstory.com/amid-melting-glaciers-swiss-to-vote-on-new-climate-law/
2 22 an common dr
A whistleblower leak to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and other media led to reporting on Sunday revealing that Credit Suisse—one of the world’s biggest private banks—knowingly accepted “corrupt autocrats, suspected war criminals and human traffickers, drug dealers and other criminals” as customers.
Data on more than 18,000 bank accounts, holding more than $100 billion was leaked. The accounts included personal, shared and corporate accounts with opened as far back as the 1940s.
Nearly 50 media outlets have spent months investigating the data.
The German daily said it received the leaked data anonymously through a secure digital mailbox over a year ago. The newspaper says it didn’t make any payment or promises for the leak.
The newspaper said it evaluated the data with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and media partners including The New York Times and The Guardian.
The Guardian reported:
We can reveal how Credit Suisse repeatedly either opened or maintained bank accounts for a panoramic array of high-risk clients across the world.
They include a human trafficker in the Philippines, a Hong Kong stock exchange boss jailed for bribery, a billionaire who ordered the murder of his Lebanese pop star girlfriend and executives who looted Venezuela’s state oil company, as well as corrupt politicians from Egypt to Ukraine.
:{
}:
One Vatican-owned account in the data was used to spend €350m (£290m) in an allegedly fraudulent investment in London property that is at the center of an ongoing criminal trial of several defendants, including a cardinal.
The New York Times reported:
:{
}:
Among the people listed as holding amounts worth millions of dollars in Credit Suisse accounts were King Abdullah II of Jordan and the two sons of the former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak.Other account holders included sons of a Pakistani intelligence chief who helped funnel billions of dollars from the United States and other countries to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s and Venezuelan officials ensnared in a long-running corruption scandal.
The leak shows that Credit Suisse opened accounts for and continued to serve not only the ultrawealthy but also people whose problematic backgrounds would have been obvious to anyone who ran their names through a search engine.
A statement published by German newspaper from the anonymous source explained their motivation for the leaks:
"I believe that Swiss banking secrecy laws are immoral.The pretext of protecting financial privacy is merely a fig leaf covering the shameful role of Swiss banks as collaborators of tax evaders."
“This situation enables corruption and starves developing countries of much-needed tax revenue. These countries are the ones that therefore suffer most from Switzerland’s reverse-Robin-Hood stunt.”
“I am aware that having an offshore Swiss bank account does not necessarily imply tax evasion or any other financial crime. However, it is likely that a significant number of these accounts were opened with the sole purpose of hiding their holder’s wealth from fiscal institutions and/or avoiding the payment of taxes on capital gains.”
Caterpillar, for example, saved $2.4 billion between 2000 and 2012 by funneling its global parts business through a Swiss subsidiary (a ruse so audacious that one of its tax consultants warned Caterpillar executives to “get ready to do some dancing” when called before Congress to justify it).
https://www.ecowatch.com/switzerland-vote-renewables-2417662439.html
==
Switzerland First Country to Submit Pledge for UN Climate Pact
(AP)
Switzerland has become the first country to submit a pledge to the United Nations for a new global climate deal, vowing to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.
The Swiss government said Friday that at least 30 percent of the reduction would be achieved at home and the remainder through projects abroad.
==
As a huge documents leak turns a spotlight on the global tax evasion industry, a Swiss company in hot water for similar activity is responsible for the greatest amount of known foreign-connected money in U.S. elections so far this cycle.
News outlets brought together by the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists this week began publishing numerous reports, called the Panama Papers, linking the names of the world’s most rich and powerful individuals to secret shell companies in offshore tax havens. The journalists used as source material documents from “the biggest leak in whistleblower history,” according to Wired, which came from a Panamanian law firm that has for decades helped conceal vast amounts of wealth in tax shelters.
But ICIJ had been tracking tax evasion long before helping bring the Panama Papers to light, and in February wrote on the findings of an investigative report by the French newspaper Le Monde on UBS AG. The report showed the Swiss bank “knowingly helped French citizens hide their money from the taxman,” according to ICIJ.
Click here to read the full article.
==