Latest news with #Switzerland
Malay Mail
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Say woof! A unique Swiss theme park reopens — and its St Bernards are ready for their close-up
MARTIGNY (Switzerland), June 28 — Syrah walks slowly and deliberately on a treadmill submerged in a large water tank, as two therapists help keep her steady, and a crowd looks on in awe. The eight-year-old St. Bernard is receiving her regular hydrotherapy session, while visitors to the newly reopened Barryland theme park in the Swiss Alpine valley town of Martigny follow every move. 'We give hydrotherapy to older dogs or dogs that have undergone surgery,' Barryland director Melanie Glassey-Roth told AFP. 'Everything here is conceived for the wellbeing of our dogs.' Revamped from a smaller, 'living museum' focused on St. Bernards, after two years of work Barryland has morphed into a large, interactive theme park fully dedicated to Switzerland's national dog. Built in the shape of a paw print, the main building offers interactive experiences and virtual reality tours of the history and myths surround the St. Bernard, as well as the chance to interact with the big dogs themselves. The park is hoping to see its visitor numbers soar to potentially 200,000 a year, up from 83,000 before the renovation. A St. Bernard dog receives care during a press visit ahead of the inauguration of the Barryland museum and park in Martigny, in the Swiss Alps, June 26, 2025. The Barry Foundation is opening a unique venue dedicated to the rescue dog, Switzerland's national emblem. — AFP pic 'Emblematic' The St. Bernard breed, which reached a new level of stardom when it figured in the 1992 blockbuster Hollywood comedy film Beethoven, was cross-bred into existence centuries ago in the Swiss Alps, not too far from where today's theme park lies. It was originally bred from farm dogs indigenous to the region by a hospice monastery, perched 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) above sea level, to use for rescue work in the perilous Great St. Bernard Pass between Switzerland and Italy. 'This is an emblematic dog that represents the entire region,' said Jean-Maurice Tornay, head of the Barry Foundation, which runs Barryland. Barryland got its name from the most famous and heroic St. Bernard of all. An old picture of a St. Bernard dog and a priest taken at the Great Saint Bernard pass is displayed at the Barryland museum and park in Martigny, in the Swiss Alps, June 26, 2025. — AFP pic Local lore holds that Barry, who lived from 1800 to 1814 and was credited with more than 40 rescues in his lifetime, carried a little barrel of alcohol around his collar, a welcome drink for weary travellers. In his honour, the monastery always had one dog named Barry — a tradition that continues at Barryland today. The park's current Barry, a towering 7.5-year-old male weighing around 80 kilograms (176 pounds), is the largest and most decorated of its dogs. The Barry Foundation has 36 St. Bernards in all who live at a nearby kennel in Martigny. Some dogs spend whole summers up at the Great St. Bernard Pass. But with the reopening of Barryland, 16 dogs from the Martigny kennel will crowd into a large van each morning and be driven across to the theme park, ready to play stars. Visitors watch with virtual reality headsets next to a display featuring a model of a St Bernard dog at the Barryland museum and park in Martigny, in the Swiss Alps, June 26, 2025. — AFP pic New mission At Barryland, the giant dogs, with their dark-ringed eyes and fur covered in reddish-brown patches, run around in spacious, grassy parks, lounge in large indoor enclosures and submit to grooming, massages and treatments. For Thursday's reopening, the park presented two new puppies, Xcell and Xaver, who tumbled enthusiastically around their mother Lio, nudging her until she sat down to let them nurse. Nearby, dog handler Sahel Robette encouraged Tosca, an eight-year-old female, to climb onto a large weighing scale. 'Sixty-five kilos (143 pounds)!' he exclaimed, as he began brushing her down, searching her fur for tics and inspecting her ears and nails. A woman takes a picture of a St. Bernard dog during a press visit ahead of the inauguration of the Barryland museum and park in Martigny, in the Swiss Alps, June 26, 2025. — AFP pic Once the heroes of the Swiss Alps, St. Bernards today are doing heroic work in other settings, Tornay said. With helicopters having taken over their rescue role, the St. Bernard has 'found a new social mission', he told AFP. The foundation's dogs make hundreds of visits each year to hospitals, nursing homes and prisons, where they are used for therapy and social training, 'sharing a little bit of kindness', he said. The St. Bernard is perfect for these missions, Glassey-Roth said, as one of the dogs laid its giant head on her lap. 'It has a quiet force; it is calm and very social.' — AFP
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Alexia Putellas: ‘The cruciate, the meniscus: you've closed that cycle. Done. I felt free'
'It wasn't my knee that hurt, it was my soul,' the Queen says, but now she is back. There is a look in Alexia Putellas's eye, a light. 'You know that feeling, that sense of security when it's like you're capable of anything?' the double Ballon d'Or winner says, leaning forward on a sofa at Spain's Las Rozas HQ. 'At that moment, I felt it. And now I've got that feeling once again. I'm happy; the desire for these Euros is huge. I can't wait to start, to go and give my everything.' And Alexia Putellas's everything is everything. These are her third Euros – she scored a 94th-minute winner against England on competitive debut in 2013, aged 19, although she does not remember if she was given the goal – an indicator of how far she has come. Not only since 2013 but since the last time too. Switzerland stands as a kind of redemption, a reclaiming of her place after an English summer, and so much more, was taken from her by a torn cruciate suffered at Bisham Abbey a day before Euro 22 began. It was, she says, an hostia, the worst of blows. 'I had felt really good, and then … I knew the moment it happened. I heard a sound like a branch breaking. 'No, not now.' You never expect it, but at that moment. It's the day before.' Putellas had arrived as the world's best player, the tournament's greatest icon, but when the selección kicked off in Milton Keynes she sat by the touchline in a baseball cap and Virginia Torrecilla's shirt, crutches at her side. Two hundred and ninety-nine days would pass until she played again. Two years passed, two more operations – a World Cup, two league titles and a Champions League, attention and affection turned elsewhere – before Putellas was Putellas again, not just physically but emotionally. 'People don't know that with injuries you train more than when you're healthy but you don't get the reward of playing,' she says. 'I'm competitive and you set yourself challenges: 'When can I start walking?' 'A month.' 'OK, in three weeks, I'll be there.' But at first there's nothing. Just pain. And I felt a lot of pain. I couldn't sleep. I didn't have any appetite. It was a vicious circle. To even move, you have to …' Putellas hauls her leg on to the sofa, a demonstration of the dead weight. 'Post-op I had a very bad time,' she says, and it is not as if what followed was much easier either. 'You go from playing at a stratospheric level to not being able to walk, not knowing how, learning aged 27, 28. 'You get to the gym, which is at least your habitat. Then the pitch, where you think you're progressing but frustration comes because your last memory playing was like that and now you can't play a pass, can't turn, can't control. There are times you wonder [if you ever will].' 'They warn you that the day you get the medical all-clear, play again, it's still not done: you need time, adaptation, competition. Don't think you'll be the same; that's just not real. You still have three, six months. You have to try to give yourself that margin, control your emotions. And right in the middle of that period is a World Cup.' Putellas returned in late April 2023, after 10 months out. But given the final minute of the Champions League final, reward after her rehabilitation, she arrived at the World Cup having made six appearances, all as a substitute, and those warnings are not always easy to hear. 'You don't go thinking: 'I'm in that three-to-six month period'; you go thinking: 'I'll give my best.' 'Two years later, I see it: my level is completely different, even if at the time you don't realise. You're not the same physically as before. There are things going on, too. I arrived feeling confident; then came [defeat to] Japan and I was the head cut.' Did she feel singled out? 'No, not singled out. I understand that if things aren't working the coach has to change someone and it was me, and that's that.' That wasn't that, however. Putellas played an hour in the semi-final and a minute in the final. Spain's historic win, secured by a squad including only three of 15 players who had pulled out demanding improvements, was overshadowed by the Spain federation's president Luis Rubiales's unsolicited kiss of Jenni Hermoso. Again, Putellas took the lead, which was not to say it was welcome, rather that responsibility demanded it. 'I wish it hadn't happened,' she says. 'You try to tell yourself: 'It's great, we've just won the World Cup,' but you see the press, people, everything, and the focus isn't there. It was a shit situation, unpleasant, a burden.' In November Putellas underwent another operation, this time on her meniscus, a common consequence of cruciate tears. She missed 21 matches through to March, the doubts increasing, people saying her moment had passed, that she wouldn't ever be the same. 'I'm not going to lie: it gets to you,' she says. 'There are those close to you going through it, suffering, thinking you won't make it. I understand because the reality is there are cases where players don't get back, and it's not personal. [But] people don't know.' In part that goes with being Putellas: the world's best player, a footballer of huge symbolic significance, subjected to an exposure unimaginable before. A leader in the fight for professionalisation. A Ballon d'Or winner too, The Queen. 'It's been hard for me to come to understand that,' she says. 'I see football collectively, everybody equal. At first, it was difficult to manage the attention. I was very introverted. And when the individual awards started arriving it was like: 'I don't understand this'. With time, I came to feel: 'Well, they've put you there, fate wanted you there: use it.' A lot of what I did wasn't for me, but to make the game grow. 'Take the Prime documentary: I didn't want to do it. I said no four times. I watch a lot of sports documentaries and one day I was looking for one about a sportswoman. I only found Carolina Marín, the badminton player. That was the click. And I said: 'Do it'.' Did you like it? Putellas smiles. 'They might kill me for this, but I haven't seen it. I mean, I saw it, but before it was finished. I know how I am. I don't have the ego to watch myself. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion 'It's not that I'm saying I'm nothing, but there have been many times I've felt like wearing No 11, being Alexia, is different and it [shouldn't be]. Starting with the management of this injury, the management of expectation, the management of the pressure and everything. But for better or worse, I'm Alexia. 'Now I handle that better. I don't focus on the [eulogies] or those who want to kill me. A friend said: 'I don't know how you do it but they either love you or hate you.' I try not to focus on either.' Well, most of the time, motivation found in those who doubted she would return. 'To tell the truth, that was also fuel, petrol. A challenge,' Putellas says. 'Like: 'You'll see.'' Oh, they see. Putellas arrives at the Euros as one of the continent's outstanding players, scorer of 22 goals last season and provider of 17 assists, directly involved in a goal (score, assist) every 44 minutes for Barcelona. Voted player of the season in Liga F, she has created more chances than anyone in Europe's top five leagues. AS summed it up: 'The best Alexia is back, or maybe even better.' When she returned to a struggling Spain side in February, six months later, she led a hammering of Portugal, a glorious roulette drawing a standing ovation from Vigo's Balaídos stadium. Defeat to Arsenal in the Champions League final hurt – it still does – but en route she had scored or assisted against every European opponent. It has been coming a year since the previous season's final, a refound consistency positioning her as a Ballon d'Or candidate again at 31. 'There's a moment I feel liberated and that's Bilbao,' she says. With five minutes remaining in the 2024 Champions League final against Lyon, she was sent on to protect a one-goal lead; instead she scored the goal that secured the title. Barcelona were European champions again and she was bowing before fans, 697 days after her cruciate tore. 'Physically you can be good, but if mentally you're not there, you're tense, you can't control yourself as you did. It's not that I came off the pitch that day thinking: 'I can do it,' so much as: 'That's it,' 'time's come.' The cruciate, the meniscus, the whole injury: you've closed that cycle. Done. I felt free. And from there, I've felt super good.' So here she is, 12 years on from her first Euros, three from what should have been her last, a legacy already left and more to leave. She gestures towards the end of the corridor, to the dressing room. Their dressing room now, their own place. Small details, she says, but ones that matter. 'I remember the first time [in 2013] perfectly. There's a goal that hit my pony tail and we won 3-2,' Putellas recalls. 'I picture myself as a girl, I hardly knew where I was. Everything has grown. I've developed as a woman too. That day, I would never have imagined how things are now, for me or women's football. 'That was a moment of transition, and I lived both eras. However much I wanted to be a footballer, if everything isn't [in place], you won't be; you couldn't plan this career. I like this sport so much I'm enjoying it being professional. It's nothing like then. It's a joy now here; I hadn't lived this, ever.' 'I think these Euros will be unique. It's the trophy we're missing, and we feel it could be now, but we're facing very good teams and we know it's a hard, hard journey,' Putellas says. 'The cruciate was one day before it started last time, which was very tough to take. And on top of that just when I had felt really good, too. It's been a long time, and people really have no idea what you go through but this year I have that feeling again. The challenge for me now is to keep going or even get better in these Euros. I just want to play football.'
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Aptiv to Release Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results
SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, June 27, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aptiv PLC (NYSE: APTV) will release its second quarter 2025 financial results on July 31, 2025 and will hold an investor call the same day at 8:00 a.m. ET. The call will be hosted by Aptiv's Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Clark, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Varun Laroyia. A link to the live webcast and presentation materials will be available on the Aptiv Investor Relations website at A replay will be available two hours following the conference call. To participate by telephone, please dial 800-239-9838 (U.S.) or +1 323-994-2093 (international) 15 minutes prior to the start of the call and ask to be connected to the Aptiv PLC conference call. The conference ID number is 6663508. About Aptiv Aptiv is a global technology company focused on enabling a more safe, green and connected future. Visit View source version on Contacts Investor Relations Betsy Corporate Communications Lisa
The Sun
5 hours ago
- Sport
- The Sun
FA chief shares thoughts on Sarina Wiegman's England future ahead of Lionesses' Euros title defence
FA CHIEF Mark Bullingham expects Sarina Wiegman to carry on as England boss - even if her team endured a Euros group stage exit. And the Football Association's top exec thinks the women's game will continue to grow no matter where the Lionesses finish in the tournament. 4 4 4 Holders England are just seven days away from commencing the defence of the Euros title they won at Wembley three years ago. They will battle it out for knockout place with an in-form France who they play in Zurich, Switzerland on July 5 before duels with the Netherlands and Wales. Last January Wiegman, 55, extended her contract, which was due to expire after this summer's Euros, until after the 2027 World Cup. The Dutch coach is regarded as one of the most successful England managers having guided the team to Euros glory and their first ever World Cup final. On whether a group-stage exit would force the FA to consider her position, Bullingham said: "I don't see any scenario changing that. "We're delighted that Sarina's in place until 2027 On whether Wiegman's reign could go beyond the next Women's World Cup, he added: "We haven't looked beyond that time scale yet or engaged in those conversations. "We feel we have us locked into this tournament and the next and that feels very good for us. "That's not to say we wouldn't have a conversation at some point in the future but it's too early for that really." England's group D opener with France comes nine days after new research revealed a decrease in average broadcast audiences for Women's Super League games. A Women's Sport Trust study found the average UK broadcast audience for the WSL had declined by 35% year on year. However with England World Cup final clash with Spain being the most-watched women's sport event on TV in 2023, Bullingham believes the game will continue to grow and attract large audiences He said: "We see every international tournament as an opportunity to accelerate growth rather than it being a negative. "If you look at the last World Cup being in Australia - the challenge with the time zones made it difficult for teams in Europe to achieve really high figures. "But actually, we were still, despite that, achieving good figures so we're really confident that we'll achieve good figures this time around." 4 Plans to build a statue of England's Women's team are still ongoing according to the FA. The football authority entered into discussions about its design following the last Women's World Cup. The FA says it is "completely committed" to the project with the commissioning process currently at an advanced stage with an update likely to be provided after the summer.
Bloomberg
7 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Roger Federer Becomes a Tennis Billionaire
Roger Federer's long-term deals and sharp investments have made him a tennis billionaire - with a net worth of around $1.3 billion. Alex Morgan explains. (Source: Bloomberg)
