Switzerland is bracing for another heatwave; Geneva’s housing shortage is worst in 15 years; plus more news in our roundup this Tuesday.
Switzerland is bracing for another heatwave from tomorrow
The heatwave forecast calls for high temperatures until next Monday.
According to Mickhael Schwander, a weather expert at MeteoSwiss, peaks of 38C to 39C are to be expected.
It is not yet certain how long the new wave of extremely hot weather will last, but MeteoSwiss does not rule out another peak at the end of the week.
Meanwhile, due to the continued drought, fire danger has reached its highest level in several Alpine regions and remains high across most of the country.
Authorities have therefore banned open fires and are focusing on prevention – a strategy that reduces the number of wildfires despite the more challenging weather conditions.
Geneva’s housing shortage is worst in 15 years
Geneva currently has fewer than 800 vacant apartments, worsening the already-existing shortages.
The vacancy rate fell to 0.31 percent – its lowest level since 2011.
In total, 793 residential properties were vacant on June 1st, compared to 858 the previous year.
The situation is particularly dire in several of the canton’s municipalities, with vacancy rates of only 0.12 percent in Lancy, 0.14 percent in Onex, 0.18 percent in Thônex, 0.20 percent in Meyrin, 0.25 percent in Carouge, and 0.29 percent in Vernier.
Swiss Post is warning about a new scam circulating in Zurich
Concretely, this particular fraud involves deceptively realistic postal delivery notifications with a QR code that are left in mailboxes.
The logo, layout, and design strongly resemble an official postal slip, except that anyone who scans the QR code on it will find themselves on a fake website asking for the advance payment for an alleged delivery.
“Anyone who scans the QR code will fall straight into the scammers’ trap,” the Swiss Post spokesperson warned, adding that “such unexpected requests for payment should raise suspicion.”
Therefore, a QR code that leads to an internet address that is not an official postal address should be tossed away.
Basel-City police are recruiting German nationals with a B permit
Staff shortages have forced Basel’s police department to take an unprecedented step of training German B-permit holders for its force.
Previously, only Swiss citizens or C-permit holders were allowed to become police officers in the canton.
This fall four such applicants will begin their training with the Basel-City cantonal police.
Not everyone, however, supports this new hiring policy.
The Association of Swiss Police Officers is critical of the new practice, demanding that Swiss citizenship should be a requirement for this kind of work.
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