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!
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Today’s highlights
CORONAVIRUS: Five years ago, China announced its first death from atypical pneumonia, subsequently named coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). The virus has officially infected 777 million people around the world and caused more than seven million deaths – many more in reality – according to the World Health Organization (WHO). SARS-CoV-2 still kills (more than 3,000 deaths from October to November 2024 in 27 countries, according to the WHO), but the overwhelming majority of deaths were recorded between 2020 and 2022. It has not , so far, no specific season, but seems to be gradually becoming endemic, with regular resurgences, a bit like the flu, according to experts.
France: The funeral of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the co-founder of the French far-right National Front party, is being held on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in La Trinité-sur-Mer, Brittany, “in family privacy”. The finalist in the 2002 French presidential election died Tuesday at the age of 96 in the Paris region in an establishment where he had been admitted several weeks ago. After the announcement of his death, opponents celebrated his death in several cities in France, demonstrations which provoked very diverse reactions.
GERMANY: The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) meets in congress on Saturday to officially nominate its candidate for chancellor for the anticipated legislative elections at the end of February and to present its program. The delegates must validate the candidacy of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz, appointed at the end of November by the party leadership to represent him. The same day, the far-right AfD party also met in congress to present its program.
ALPINE SKIING: The men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup stops on Saturday and Sunday in Adelboden (BE), where the weather forecast forced the organizers to reverse the program. At the top of the slalom rankings, Swiss Loïc Meillard will aim for his first success of the winter on Saturday. The skier from Hérémence will be one of the great rivals of another Swiss, Marco Odermatt, on Sunday as a giant. The women are competing in St-Anton, Austria, for a downhill on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday. At ease during the only downhill training, Lara Gut-Behrami carries the main Swiss hopes. The Ticino is still looking for her first success of the season.
Seen in the press
UKRAINE: Switzerland is prepared to host a summit between American Presidents Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin if they request it, declared Nicolas Bideau, head of communications at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, in Saturday’s “Le Temps”. “Following the Bürgenstock summit, Ukraine, Russia and the United States were regularly informed of our availability to support any diplomatic effort to establish peace,” he adds. On Thursday, US President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20, indicated that he was preparing a meeting with Vladimir Putin to “finish” the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin announced the next day that the Russian president was “open to contact” without preconditions.
THE CENTER: The resigning president of the Center, Gerhard Pfister, defends the party’s general secretary, Gianna Luzio, on Saturday in “Schweiz am Wochenende”, accused of creating a “climate of fear”. The allegations made against him are “false rumors and untruths damaging to the personality”, believes the Zougois national councilor. The president of the center sees these as attacks against himself in the context of power struggles in the party. The first criticisms of Ms. Luzio’s leadership style were made in 2023 anonymously by former collaborators. Reports from an external mediation body indicate that there are no management problems under Ms. Luzio, writes the newspaper, which was able to consult them. The Center has set up a commission tasked with clarifying the concerns of party members and initiating surveys on the working atmosphere.
WEF: The World Economic Forum (WEF) expects a record turnout from business and politics this year in Davos (GR), says its president Børge Brende in Saturday’s “Blick”. Representatives of the future administration of the next American president Donald Trump are notably expected. For reasons of confidentiality, Mr. Brende cannot name names, but he promises “one surprise or another”. The WEF is taking place this year in a difficult geopolitical context, notes its president, who nevertheless emphasizes that the world economy is robust, with growth of 3% expected this year. The WEF takes place from January 20 to 24 in the Graubünden resort.
EXPLOSIONS: The Restraint Measures Court (TMC) on Friday refused the provisional release of the defendant detained in Sion since December 18 in connection with the parcel bomb affair in Geneva, the Tribune de Genève reported on Saturday. The detainee’s younger brother, also involved in the procedure, was released on December 24. Suspected of being linked to the explosion of two packages targeting employees of the luxury watchmaker Patek Philippe in November and August in Geneva, the two men are accused of attempted extortion and blackmail, attempted murder, endangering the lives of others and using explosives. The explosions left two people injured, including a 12-year-old girl who was seriously affected.
Birthdays and jubilees
– 5 years ago (2020): China announces the first death from atypical pneumonia which will later be named Covid-19.
– 10 years ago (2015): death of Swedish actress Anita Ekberg (“La dolce vita”). She was born in 1931.
– 130 years ago (1895): birth of American engineer Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ. He died in 1973.
Saying of the day
“Between January 10 and 20, the happiest are the drapers.”
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