blue News and Keystone-ATS give you a first glimpse of the news, with the latest news unearthed in the press. Without forgetting birthdays and the saying of the day!
KEYSTONE
Today’s highlights
PEASANTS: The Swiss Farmers’ Union (USP) is holding its traditional New Year press briefing late Friday morning on a farm in the canton of Bern. This will be an opportunity for her to reiterate her demands and give the latest figures on agricultural income. The organization will also position itself on the initiative for environmental responsibility, on which the population must vote on February 9.
SKI: Switzerland Tourism and the Swiss Ski Lifts publish their first figures for the ski season on Friday. They promise to be encouraging: in recent days, for the holidays, resorts and hotels have recorded very high attendance, even records, as shown by a Keystone-ATS survey.
UNITED STATES: The US House of Representatives votes on Friday to elect its president, the “speaker”. But faced with open opposition from elected officials from his own camp, Republican Mike Johnson is not guaranteed to retain this key position, and Congress could once again plunge into turmoil.
FRANCE: French President Emmanuel Macron brings together the new government of his centrist ally François Bayrou at the Elysée on Friday. Like every new year, members of the government will first go to the Ministry of the Interior for the traditional back-to-school breakfast, then they will present their wishes at the Elysée. “Reconciliation, action, stability” are the three wishes formulated by the new Prime Minister François Bayrou.
Seen in the press
PARKING: In ten years, the five largest cities in Switzerland have eliminated 11,000 public parking spaces. Since 2015, Zurich and Geneva have each eliminated more than 3,000 places, Lausanne more than 2,500, Basel and Bern around 1,500 each, according to the Tamedia group’s newspapers. In percentage terms, the drop is greatest in Geneva and Lausanne, with more than 10% of parking spaces eliminated.
This trend is expected to continue, the newspapers predict, with a elimination or reallocation of half of all parking spaces on public property by 2040. The reduction in supply is explained by the drop in individual traffic motorized in cities, according to experts. For its part, the automobile lobby denounces perverse effects and goes to the front to try to slow down or even stop this movement.
SANCTIONS: A 38-year-old Iranian circumvented US sanctions by importing electronic components into Iran via Switzerland. To do this, Mohammed Abedini used the company “Illumove SA” which he himself founded and whose headquarters is at the EPFL Innovation Park, reported the newspapers of the Tamedia group and the NZZ. According to an American investigation, the components in question were used in an Iranian Shahed drone responsible for an attack that caused the death of three American soldiers in the border area between Jordan and Syria in January 2024.
The former EPFL post-doctoral student was arrested in Italy in December, at the request of Washington, which is calling for his extradition. The director of the EPFL innovation park, Stéphane Dufour, told Tamedia newspapers that control mechanisms will be strengthened. The university has also decided to strengthen the surveillance of certain foreign researchers.
SWITZERLAND-EU: Former socialist Federal Councilor Ruth Dreifuss is critical of the Federal Council on the European issue. The government “does not play its educational role” and does not display “the leadership that is expected of it” on this issue, she declared in an interview published Friday in Le Temps.
“At the time of bilaterals I and II, there was strong leadership from the Federal Council to have them accepted,” according to Ms. Dreifuss. “I wouldn’t say that I have the same impression today,” she adds, affirming that she “deeply regrets” this situation.
Birthdays and jubilees
– 75 years ago (1950): Birth of American actress Victoria Principal (“Dallas”).
– 80 years ago (1945): Birth of American musician Stephen Stills, member of the group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
– 230 years ago (1795): The Frenchman Nicolas-Jacques Conté invented the pencil as we know it today, consisting of a graphite and clay lead inserted in a cedar wood body.
Saying of the day
“Saint Geneviève does not go out if Saint Marcel does not join her”
