Latest news with #Zürich
Associated Press
7 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Happypot Launches as Switzerland's First Fully Localized Platform for Online Money Pots and Crowdfunding
'We'd like to thank you for the ease of use and reliability of your online Pot system. We've received your transfer! A first experience that convinced us!'— Anouk T ZüRICH, ZüRICH, SWITZERLAND, May 25, 2025 / / -- ZURICH, Switzerland, A new Swiss platform is transforming how individuals and communities across Switzerland come together to fund gifts, causes, and collective events. Happy pot, a Zurich based fintech startup, has officially launched as the country's first online money pot and local crowdfunding solution fully built around Swiss cultural, linguistic, and financial norms. Unlike international platforms that often overlook the nuances of local users, has been developed specifically for the Swiss market. From seamless integration with preferred local payment systems like Twint and direct IBAN transfers to a multilingual interface supporting French, German, Italian, and English, the platform reflects how people in Switzerland actually give and celebrate together. Since its launch, has experienced over 25% growth, signaling strong demand for a platform that reflects the values of Swiss users. Unlike global crowdfunding tools to be use often miss local nuances, was purpose built for the Swiss public from integration with preferred local payment systems like Twint and direct IBAN transfers to a multilingual interface in French, German, Italian, and English. By combining the convenience of digital gifting with the precision of Swiss design, is quickly becoming the go to platform for those looking to invest in a Swiss fintech solution that prioritizes trust, transparency, and community first innovation. As Switzerland continues to see increasing demand for trusted digital solutions in the financial and social space, early traction has attracted attention from local investors and institutions. The platform's scalable design and compliance with GDPR and Swiss data privacy laws have made it a promising contender in the European fintech and community giving landscape. The company is currently expanding its partnerships with schools, non profit organizations, and employers. It also plans to explore strategic growth into culturally similar regions, including Austria, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Future updates will include AI powered personalization and deeper integrations with Swiss civic and financial ecosystems. About Headquartered in Zurich, is Switzerland's leading online platform for creating money pots and managing collective contributions. Built entirely in Switzerland, the platform combines trust, elegance, and emotional simplicity to redefine crowdfunding Switzerland for everyday people, institutions, and organizations. For Switzerland's fintech scene, the emergence of signals a shift toward more culturally conscious innovation where digital tools are not only functional but thoughtfully aligned with national values and day-to-day traditions. +41 78 480 61 69 email us here Visit us on social media: LinkedIn Instagram Facebook YouTube Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
The Hindu
22-05-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
The earth hath no fury like cyclones disrupted, new studies say
Cyclones are among the earth's most powerful storms. Like forest fires and lightning strikes, they are natural — yet their effects are becoming more destructive thanks to climate change. In a new study published by researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the world's cyclones can be expected to wreak more havoc in new ways if global warming follows a future climate scenario called SSP5-8.5. This is both due to the cyclones' intensity and their occurring in places where they didn't occur before. Climate change has many moving parts. To make sense of its impact on various sectors and ecosystems, experts often use the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). Each SSP describes a world affected in a particular way by climate change. SSP3 describes a politically fragmented world in which environmental protection is not a priority. The SSP5 world is rapidly burning fossil fuels and depleting a great amount of resources. SSP5-8.5 is the SSP5 pathway plus a radiative forcing — the amount of extra energy being added to the planet's surface — of 8.5 W/m2. Currently this figure is 2.7 W/m2 over the value in 1750. (A radiative forcing of 2.6 W/m2 is required to keep global warming by 2100 under 2° C, as suggested by the Paris Agreement.) 'Based on the data, SSP5 is already gaining momentum,' said Chahan Kropf, a scientist specialising in weather and climate risk studies at ETH Zürich and a coauthor of both studies. 'But we still need broader agreement on that.' A follow-up study published by the same team plus two more researchers also reported that roughly half of the world's mangroves will be at high to severe risk by 2100. Coastal ecosystems protect inland areas from storms, reduce soil erosion, and store carbon. Mangroves in particular can also store four- to five-times more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests. The two studies show the effects of climate change on tropical cyclones could have far-reaching and multifaceted consequences around the world, not just in the tropics. Cyclones in an SSP5-8.5 world In the first study, the researchers used the CLIMADA (CLIMate ADAptation) open-source risk modelling platform to check how specific ecoregions around the world responded to shifts in tropical cyclone patterns between 1980-2017 and to projected shifts for 2015-2050. They assumed that the world would be in the SSP5-8.5 scenario in the latter period. For the analysis, the researchers used the STORM-B and STORM-C datasets, which are based on synthetic probabilistic cyclone tracks, and the Holland model to simulate wind fields. First they classified each terrestrial ecoregion in the following way: resilient (historically oft-exposed to cyclones and able to recover quickly); dependent (regularly disturbed by cyclones that also shape the area's ecosystem dynamics); and vulnerable (rarely disturbed by cyclones and recovering slowly when exposed to one). They also grouped the cyclones into three categories based on the intensity of wind speed: low, medium, and high. For each ecoregion, the researchers estimated the average time between cyclones. Finally, they were able to determine the ecosystem risk under climate change by the projected shifts in these return periods and the corresponding ability — or lack thereof — of ecosystems to recover. According to Philip Ward, climate researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 'The authors used state-of-the-art data and models to provide valuable insights.' He wasn't involved in the study. Modelling mangroves In the second study, the team used a probabilistic spatially explicit risk index — a number that simultaneously measures the odds of an event and its expected spatial distribution — to assess how mangroves worldwide will be affected by changes in tropical cyclone frequency and sea-level rise by 2100. For this, the researchers used a tropical cyclone model based on the most up-to-date climate model data and used it to simulate three scenarios: SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5. Each of these scenarios quantified three kinds of risk. (i) 'Hazard' modelled the wind speeds and frequencies of tropical cyclones. (ii) Vulnerability modelled the capacity of mangroves to adapt to sea-level rise. (iii) Exposure modelled the how much the areas covered with mangroves overlapped with areas of higher hazard. To this end, the team grouped tropical cyclone wind speeds into three ranges: 33-49 m/s, 50-70 m/s, and more than 70 m/s. Similarly, they grouped sea-level rise into low (0-4 mm/year), medium (4-7 mm/year), and high (>7 mm/year) ranges. Mangroves were considered to be at risk if the frequency of intense cyclones doubled or if they were newly exposed to such storms. The team also considered ecosystem services to be at risk — including mangroves' ability to sequester carbon, protect coasts, and improve fish stock — based on rankings from previous studies. New places, new perils The models found that of the world's 844 ecoregions, 290 are already affected by tropical cyclones. The models revealed 200 more can be considered vulnerable and 26 to be resilient. However, in the resilient ecoregions, the models showed that the time available to recover between storms could drop from 19 years in the 1980-2017 period to 12 years in the 2015-2050 period for high-intensity storms. The bulk of these shifts are expected to occur in East Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean because these places are abundant in resilient or dependent ecoregions. The models also found that Madagascar and parts of Oceania are increasingly at risk. Some areas including the Philippines could experience cyclone frequencies that exceed anything experienced so far in recorded history. In the SSP5-8.5 scenario, up to 56% of mangrove areas worldwide could be at high to severe risk by 2100. Southeast Asia is expected to be the most affected, with 52-78% of its mangrove areas at such risk. But the models also showed that even in the less destructive SSP3-7.0 scenario, 97-98% of mangroves that protect people and property in Southeast Asia could be at high to severe risk. The researchers also warned that some of the affected ecosystems could shift into entirely different states from which they may not recover. The models also concluded that tropical cyclone belts could shift away from the equator, bringing new cyclone activity to higher-latitude regions and exposing ecosystems there to threats to which they have not adapted. According to Kropf, whether the world ends up in the SSP5-8.5 scenario hinges on how long it banks on fossil fuels and how committed countries remain to the Paris Agreement. In the meantime, the authors suggest including long-term recovery time in risk assessments in addition to damage caused by cyclones and risk-sensitive conservation planning, including decision-making processes that explicitly consider shifting disturbance regimes. 'We're underestimating the scale of what's coming,' Kropf said. 'The changing cyclone patterns could have enormous consequences.' Madhurima Pattanayak is a freelance science writer and journalist based in Kolkata.
Reuters
21-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Swiss price watchdog orders Booking.com to lower prices
ZURICH, May 21 (Reuters) - Switzerland's price watchdog has ordered (BKNG.O), opens new tab to lower its prices in the country, finding that the online travel agency's commission rates for hotels are "abusively high," the supervisory body said on Wednesday. In accordance with the order, must reduce its commission rates for Swiss hotels by almost a quarter, the watchdog said in a statement. vowed to appeal the decision and said its rates would not change until the appeal process was resolved. "We don't agree with a forced reduction in the cost of a product that is entirely optional," it said in a statement. The Swiss watchdog said the cost reduction must be implemented three months after the ruling becomes legally binding, and would remain in effect for three years. Earlier this week the Spanish government ordered Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab to withdraw over 65,000 listings for holiday rentals which it said violated existing rules from its platform. The step was part of a broader Spanish crackdown on tourism rentals via sites such as Airbnb and which critics blame for contributing to a housing crisis in the country.
Washington Post
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
FIFA pledges to help create Afghan refugee team in women's soccer for friendly games
ZURICH — FIFA has pledged to help create an Afghanistan refugee team in women's soccer that can play friendly games outside of competitions during a sports ban by the Taliban on women in the country. The move on Friday does not yet meet exiled players' wish to be a recognized Afghanistan women's national team playing qualifying games for the Women's World Cup and Asian championships.
Associated Press
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
FIFA pledges to help create Afghan refugee team in women's soccer for friendly games
ZURICH (AP) — FIFA has pledged to help create an Afghanistan refugee team in women's soccer that can play friendly games outside of competitions during a sports ban by the Taliban on women in the country. The move on Friday does not yet meet exiled players' wish to be a recognized Afghanistan women's national team playing qualifying games for the Women's World Cup and Asian championships. Afghanistan has not played an official women's competitive game since 2018, and the return to power of the Taliban regime in 2021 shut down women's sport. As one of FIFA's 211 national members, the Afghanistan soccer federation has a statutory obligation 'to prevent and fight against any kind of discrimination ... (and) promote the development of women's football and the full participation of women at all levels.' The Afghan federation has not fulfilled its obligations but has not been suspended by FIFA. FIFA said its ruling council approved a strategy for Afghan women's soccer that 'foresees the establishment of the Afghan women's refugee team.' 'FIFA is engaging directly with the relevant players,' the soccer body said, and will 'organize and facilitate its operations to start its activities as soon as possible.' ___ AP soccer:
