According to Swiss broadcaster RTS, Swiss retailer Coop, along with five other members of AgeCore SA, a Geneva-based purchasing alliance, have decided to boycott a large number of Nestlé products in the hope of striking a better deal on price. Sales to AgeCore SA members, which include Coop in Switzerland, Intermarché in France, Edeka in […]
Archives for 2018
High Swiss emissions – the impact of imports and population growth
Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office has come up with a new greenhouse gas emissions figure for Switzerland, which includes emissions from imports. The idea is that emissions related to a computer made in China but bought by someone in Switzerland belong to Switzerland rather than China. Adding this in takes Swiss per capita emissions from 4.9 […]
Roger Federer becomes oldest world number one
The 36-year-old Swiss tennis player beat Robin Haase in the Rotterdam Open to replace 31-year-old Rafael Nadal at the top of the ranking. .@rogerfederer rewrites history in Rotterdam: With his victory today, Federer has now surpassed Andre Agassi to become the oldest World No. 1 in ATP history! ?????1️⃣ ?: #USOpen pic.twitter.com/3ROFU0wfao — US Open […]
Get ready for this year’s Geneva Writers’ Conference
The 2018 Geneva Writers’ Conference (GWC) takes place from 2-4 March 2018 at Webster University, Bellevue, Geneva. Founded more than 20 years ago to bring together creative writers, the group brings writers together from across Switzerland. This season marks the 11th biennial Conference. The GWC will host writer/instructors who range from the best-selling author in […]
Vaud – vote on divisive dental tax and care plan
On 4 March 2018, voters in Vaud will vote on a plan to provide basic universal dental care funded by a tax on salaries. The initiative entitled: Reimbursement of dental care, Pour le remboursement des soins dentaires in French, claims that 10% of the population avoid the dentist because of the cost. They also claim links […]
Geneva – new technology for catching illegally parked cars now active
The new system for catching cars parking illegally is a specially equipped car that can automatically identify 500 to 1,000 illegally parked cars an hour, compared to 10 by an agent, according to RTS. Tested in 2016, the Scan Car swung into operation across the city last week. A new model of the vehicle will […]
Switzerland tops latest financial secrecy index
While Switzerland isn’t the most financially secretive nation in the Tax Justice Network’s recently published report, its combination of size and secrecy pushed it into first place, the worst rank in the Financial Secrecy Index 2018. Size is factored in because it measures the damage a nation’s financial secrecy has on the world, says The Tax […]
Ticket cheats in Switzerland soon to be listed in a national register
Tickets cannot be bought on public transport in Switzerland. Passengers are required to have a ticket before commencing their journey. Those caught on public transport without one will soon have their names put into a national register. This will ensure progressively higher fines are issued to repeat offenders. The new database will be rolled out […]
FILM: PHANTOM THREAD – with the inimitable Daniel Day-Lewis. Not to be missed
PHANTOM THREAD **** Any film with the inimitable Daniel Day-Lewis should not be missed. Remember MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE, MY LEFT FOOT, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, LINCOLN? This versatile actor has won three Oscars and may win his fourth with this film by Paul Thomas Anderson, with whom he also collaborated in THERE WILL BE […]
Switzerland’s most unhappy political parties unhappy for the same reason
Overall little changed in a year. 36% of the more than 22,000 surveyed in a poll recently published by Vimentis, said they were either satisfied or fairly satisfied with Swiss politics. On the flip side, 45% were dissatisfied or fairly dissatisfied and 19% were non-comital. The year before, 36% said they were either satisfied or […]
