Tribune de Genève You arrive very late at the airport. You run to the security check area lucky enough to find there is no queue. Unfortunately the time it takes to remove your shoes, have them scanned, and put them on again, is enough to make you miss your flight. Or, the person in front […]
Geneva unveils big tax changes
Le Matin. After nearly ten years of European Union opposition to preferential company tax deals, Switzerland’s government agreed in 2014 to do away with such arrangements. Under current rules Swiss cantons can offer preferential tax rates to certain companies, mostly multinationals with most of their activity abroad. In Geneva, these special rates mean certain companies pay tax […]
International Geneva gets a new magazine in English
A new English-language magazine for international Geneva, called Global Geneva, launches its pilot issue this week. Le News interviewed the magazine’s co-founder and editor, former Le News editor, Edward Girardet, to find out why he started it and what it’s all about. Over a coffee with Edward in the UN cafeteria, he points out the window at […]
A pilgrimage to Geneva’s cemetery of Kings, with artist and writer John Berger
British writer and artist John Berger – 90 years-old on 5 November, 2016 – has lived in the nearby French Haute-Savoie since the 1970s and has made a name celebrating the vanishing culture and life of European peasants. But as Peter Hulm points out, Berger is also a surpising fan of bourgeois Geneva, and of […]
Author of false bomb alert at Geneva airport gets huge bill
Le Matin. On 14 October, the author of a false bomb alert was sentenced to six months prison after arriving at Geneva airport the day before, and declaring there was a bomb on board an Aeroflot aircraft he was trying to catch to Moscow. The flight connected to another from Moscow to India, where the man […]
Swiss against recognising islam as an official religion
20 Minutes. According to a poll taken by the newspapers Matin Dimanche and SonntagsZeitung, only 38% of those polled thought it would be a good idea to give islam the same status as christianity and judaism in Switzerland. Of those in support, 18% said yes, while 20% were somewhat in favour. The remaining 62% were against or […]
Swiss-based man to climb the equivalent of Mount Everest to get his message out
In 2014, Australian forester Scott Poynton used a cartoon to convince the head of the world’s largest palm oil company to stop destroying tropical forest to produce its product. This month he’s putting on his lime-green hiking boots and hitting the trail to keep men alive. Starting from Lake Geneva, Scott will climb the Jura peak, La Dole, […]
Geneva airport false alert costs culprit 90,000 francs
20 Minutes. In July, sparked by jealousy, a woman living near Annecy in France, falsely warned that someone was carrying a bomb in the French sector of Geneva’s airport. Her motive? To prevent her husband’s mistress departing on holiday to Turkey. In response to the call, the airport was put on maximum alert, and police […]
Swiss say they underestimated Easyjet in Geneva
Tribune de Genève. The managing director of french-speaking Switzerland for the airline Swiss, Lorenzo Stoll, admits to errors in their strategy to win back Geneva. “We should not hide it, we attempted to move too fast” he said. Adding “We clearly underestimated the challenges of taking on Easyjet”. Easyjet is by far the largest operator at […]
Wearing burkinis is against social cohesion and integration, says Geneva councilor
Tribune de Genève. This autumn Geneva’s leaders will have their say on three projects proposing new laws related to Geneva’s system of religious neutrality or laicism. Burka and burkini bans will be among the topics debated. Laïcité or secularism is something fundamental to the the way the canton, or republic, of Geneva operates. It dates from […]
