In December last year, Le News’ former editor, the Swiss-American journalist Edward Girardet, wrote an article entitled “Why the Swiss need to value their foreigners”. After being rejected by a number of Swiss newspapers, it was published by swissinfo.ch, part of Switzerland’s national broadcaster, before being taken down six hours later. Le News interviewed Edward yesterday to challenge some […]
Archives for 2015
Paris Hilton wants to become Swiss
20 Minuten. Paris Hilton feels right at home in Switzerland. She even wants a Swiss passport. On 9 December 2015, Paris Hilton went in person to the Schindellegi commune office, in the canton of Schwyz, to announce her residency. Speaking to the newspaper Blick she said “I just love everything about this country…the people are so […]
School teacher bans traditional Swiss shirts in class
Tribune de Genève. The traditional Swiss shirt, blue with small edelweiss flower motifs, has again created conflict at a Swiss school in the canton of Zurich. Last week ten young people arrived at Gossau secondary school wearing the shirts. According to the newspaper Sonntags Zeitung, their teacher demanded they change their clothing. Why? She considered their […]
UKIP leader Farage to meet Swiss People’s Party member in Bern
Tribune de Genève. Nigel Farage, the leader of the eurosceptic UK independence party (UKIP), will visit Bern this Friday. The former commodity broker and member of the European Union (EU) parliament, co-chairs the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group (EFDD) in Brussels. Farage and his EFDD colleagues will meet Yves Nidegger, a member of the Swiss People’s […]
Geneva’s striking teachers could kill some kids’ chances of making it to university
Geneva’s teachers continue to strike over increased hours, larger classes and potential job losses. Many parents and students have supported teachers in their efforts to preserve the quality of their teaching environment. New developments however are posing questions on the effect of extended strike action on the children. Students recently voiced their discontent when the […]
Switzerland slides to 14th place in climate change performance
Last week while climate talks were going on in Paris, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) of Switzerland published a note lamenting Switzerland’s slide from 10th to 14th place in the Climate Change Performance Index. Switzerland however, had lower emissions than all but one of the countries ahead of it in the ranking. Luxembourg, one place […]
Two Syrians arrested by Geneva police
Tribune de Genève. Geneva police arrested two individuals of Syrian origin on Friday afternoon. Traces of explosives were found in their car according to the newspaper’s sources. At this stage there has been no official confirmation and it is not yet known if this arrest is linked to the terrorism threat. Full Tribune de Genève […]
English bridges Switzerland’s language-divide to a surprising extent
A recent survey by Pro Linguis demonstrates the importance of English in Switzerland. The notional line, known as the röstigraben, that marks the border between French and German speaking Swiss does not confine Switzerland’s English speakers. To test each language group’s mastery of the world’s lingua franca, they selected difficult to translate words, like the […]
Swiss people’s party (UDC) gains extra seat in Swiss cabinet
The suspense is over. After the Swiss people’s party’s (UDC/SVP) success at the recent Federal election many expected the party to get an extra seat in the Swiss Federal council, the seven member body that makes up the Swiss executive. On 9 December 2015 it was announced that the new UDC member to join the […]
The Holy Quran experiment and its surprising twist
Two young men in the Netherlands conducted an experiment and made a short video about it that has now been viewed over 6 million times. They took a Bible, disguised it as a Holy Quran, and read passages of it to passersby in the street. The passages They chose passages from the old testament including: […]