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Switzerland

New Dolphin Rules In Switzerland After Heroin Overdose Scandal

ROMANDIE.COM, LE TEMPS (Switzerland)

BERN – Switzerland seems to know its priorities. While economic storm clouds continue to gather over Europe, lawmakers in the landlocked country were busy this week negotiating what to do about marine mammals.

The western world is undergoing one of its worst crises ever, but Switzerland "is taking all the time in the world to worry about a motion supplementing the law on animal protection," a Le Tempsopinion piece reads. "This is a law that already states how goldfish should be killed as delicately as possible because mute animals suffer as much as others."

The motion approved by the Swiss Parliament stipulates a ban on imports of live dolphins and whales. The import ban also covers whale and dolphin sperm.

As a reminder, there are no whales in Switzerland. The country does have four dolphins – in Switzerland's only dolphinarium in Lipperswil, Thurgovia.

The controversy over the detention of dolphins in Switzerland is closely related to Conny-Land, a marine park where eight animals died over the past three years, Romandie reports. Two of the dolphins are believed to have overdosed on heroin following a rave party held just a few meters from the pool where the animals were kept.

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Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

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