News and saying of the day: Effect of a bomb: Philippe Nantermod angers retirees

Keystone-ATS gives you a first overview of the news, with the latest news unearthed in the press. Without forgetting birthdays and the saying of the day!

Today’s highlights

MURDER: The trial in the case of the Egyptian diplomat assassinated in Geneva in 1995 resumes Wednesday in Bellinzona. The Federal Criminal Court (TPF) will hear the indictment of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Confederation (MPC) against a car salesman and a beautician, accused of murder, respectively of complicity. The lawyers of two former companions of the accused, who filed a complaint of rape, will then speak.

UNITED STATES : Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, prosecuted for fabricating corruption charges in Ukraine against US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday. Arrested in February 2024, the 44-year-old man, born in the Soviet Union and naturalized American in 2015, pleaded guilty. He faces between four and six years in prison. His false accusations leaked into the public sphere and fueled accusations from Republicans, whose investigation opened in Congress in September 2023 to try to impeach Joe Biden fizzled.

ALPINE SKIING : The Italian resort of Madonna di Campiglio hosts the fifth of twelve slaloms of the Alpine Ski World Cup on Wednesday evening. Swiss slalom riders are still looking for a first victory in the discipline this season. The best of them, Loïc Meillard, however, managed to get on the podium three times and is in 2nd place in the discipline rankings.

Seen in the press

HEALTH : The intervention filed in December by national councilor Philippe Nantermod (PLR/VS) and asking the Federal Council what would be the impact of the introduction of an age class for those over 65 in the federal law on Health insurance (LAMal) has the effect of a bomb, write the Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures on Wednesday. Denouncing a “punitive bonus” and “deeply unfair”, the Federation of Associations of Retirees and Mutual Aid in Switzerland (FARES) is opposed to it. A “surtax on premiums for the elderly” would violate the principle of solidarity, she adds in a press release relayed by the newspapers. The current law includes three premium categories: children, young adults and adults.

ACCOMMODATION : The abolition of the rental value decided in December by Parliament risks encouraging undeclared work, warns in the Basler Zeitung, the Berner Zeitung, the Bund and the Tages-Anzeiger on Wednesday Marius Brülhart, professor of economics at the university from Lausanne. “If the owner no longer has anything to gain by receiving an invoice, but the craftsman can save taxes and social charges by not presenting an invoice, the economic incentives are clear,” the professor explains in the newspapers. He expects the underground economy to increase by 450 to 650 million francs per year due to the elimination of tax deductions.

VAUD: Amended following a disagreement with a police officer a few years ago, a professor from the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne has developed training which transposes hospitality practices from the hospitality world to the police, reports Wednesday Le Temps. He provided a first course to around twenty employees of the Vaud cantonal police at the end of 2024. The pilot project should continue in 2025. “We have not identified any shortcomings, but that is not a reason to “do not try to improve the skills of our employees,” explains Jean-Christophe Sauterel, spokesperson for the Vaud cantonal police, in the newspaper. “The parallel with the hotel industry is very interesting because the citizens are our customers and we are at their service,” he adds.

Birthdays and jubilees

– 5 years ago (2020): Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 is shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran. The plane was heading towards kyiv. All 176 occupants of the aircraft lost their lives.

– 10 years ago (2015): a heavily armed man, Amedy Coulibaly, kills a municipal police officer and seriously injures a municipal agent in Montrouge, France. The next day, he took customers of Hyper Casher in Paris hostage, killing four people.

– 25 years ago (2000): birth of American actress and singer Noah Cyrus, the sister of Miley Cyrus.

– 90 years ago (1935): birth of American singer and actor Elvis Presley, nicknamed “The King of rock and roll” or simply the “King”. He died in 1977.

– 125 years ago (1900): birth of the Russian painter Serge Poliakoff, one of the main representatives of the new school of Paris. he died in 1969.

Saying of the day

“On the day of Sainte-Gudule, the day grows, but the cold does not recede.”