Bitesize News

The nuclear power plant in canton Aargau, Beznau, is the oldest operating plant in the world and it will now run until 2033.

More are exploring the possibility of becoming compost after their death, but it’s proving to be a legal quagmire.

The popular Bioparc in Geneva will be closed for the next few days as the canton has said the trees are dangerous and have ordered some felling.

We will spend CHF 300 on average on Christmas preset this year - the same as last year – but still down from 2022, when we spent closer to CHF 350.

Switzerland wants to spend more money on the army – and it’s international aid that will take the hit.

The economy is growing faster than expected – according to the latest figures from the OECD.

The French government has abandoned plans to cut the amount of unemployment benefits to be paid to out of work frontaliers.

Last year, nearly a 1,000 same sex couples married, according to government numbers. That down from 1,700 during the first year after the law changed in 2022.

Parliament has voted to pay the 13th month pension payment once a year in December from 2026.

Last weekend, the French speaking cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Fribourg got together to run the Saturday Sharing programme – and collected a record amount of food.

Black Friday sales have been a disappointment – but sales during the week were up.

Swiss inflation rose less than expected in November, raising hopes of an interest rate cut by the Swiss National Bank next week.

Geneva shops will not be open on Sunday 22nd December.

The woman hit by a tram in Servette on Monday evening has died.

A pilot project has been launched in Neuchâtel to help elderly victims of fraud.

The Escalade races are on in Geneva this weekend. Organisers hope a slightly modified schedule will mean a more relaxed and better spread-out weekend – and new rules will also make it more environmentally friendly.

The commodity trading company Trafigura and three executives are on trial for alleged corruption.

A trial has started relating to a murder of an Egyptian diplomat in Geneva in 1995.

A woman was seriously inured last night after being hit by a tram in Servette in Geneva.

Five years after the launch of the Léman Express, there’s a clear impact on the number of commuters using their car to get to work.

Doctors at the Geneva University Hospital are urging more people to come forward and give blood – especially those under 30.

More and more electricity used in Switzerland is coming from solar power.

Swiss law enforcement agencies are demanding more resources to fight the smuggling of cocaine.

A man was killed by a gun shot during a hunting trip in canton Vaud on Friday.

Swiss homeowners are returning to oil and gas heating and turning away from heat pumps, discouraged by the rise in electricity prices.

Unexchanged old bank bills means the Swiss National Bank can distribute CHF 1bn to the cantons.

Bluetongue disease is spreading through bison in Switzerland.

France has ended an agreement with Switzerland that allowed highly paid executives in big French companies not to pay into the French healthcare system, but could optout and pay for Swiss Insurance instead.

Judges may have the final say about the new Geneva vehicle tax which has shocked some car owners.

Following moves in Australia to bring in a minimum age for social media, support for the same policy in Switzerland is strong.

The Green Party says the half price fare card for the trains should be abolished and all prices should be set at the current half price level.

The main construction work on Geneva’s tallest tower has finished.

There are plans for a new Park and Ride car park close to the airport.

A planning snafu means a block of luxury apartments will not now be built – but students will get new accommodation.

The Federal Council is urging voters to reject the initiative on neutrality launched by the Swiss People’s Party.

Geneva paediatricians working in hospital emergency rooms are threatening to start an open-ended strike from December in protest at the removal of an emergency allowance to compensate for weekend and overnight call outs.

The government is considering a tax on bicycles.

Up to 30 drilling sites have been identified for checking to see if the ground will be suitable for the CERN Future Circular Collider.

For those who need to get to the airport early in the morning in the run up to Christmas, Swiss Federal Railways will be running overnight services to Geneva airport.

The Geneva Cantonal Vehicle Office has raised CHF 118,000 by auctioning off licence plates.

Parliament is about to discuss budgets – and many on the right-wing say there has to be more for defence in the wake of the Ukraine invasion.

The watch maker, Patek Philippe, is warning its employees to be careful after a second explosion seems to have targeted its staff.

After a three-year investigation, prosecutors in canton Vaud have determined the police officer who shot dead a man at Morges train station in 2021 was acting in self-defence.

The new 2025 train timetable comes into force on the 15th December.

The so called ‘morning after pill’ will continue to be sold only in pharmacies.

After the vote in Lancy to ban advertising in public spaces – authorities are now trying to figure out what comes next.

A parcel bomb exploded in a letter box in Grange-Canal yesterday afternoon. Geneva police sealed off a large section of the area.

A major debate is raging on what to do with the money that would have used to expand the autoroute network.

It seems it was the cost which sank the idea of the pedestrian bridge running next to the Pont du Mont Blanc.

A valuable cello stolen in Geneva a couple of months ago has been recovered, undamaged.

A kebab shop owner in canton Sankt Gallen has been fined after customers fell ill due to infected meat.

A national parliamentarian is preparing a motion that would make all car owners fit winter tyres.

The A1 won’t be getting a new lane between Geneva and Nyon, landlords won’t have more power to evict tenants – but healthcare will be reformed.

In Geneva, unsurprisingly, the voters agreed to have a tax cut. It will work out at an average of 8.7% - but middle earners could be paying 11% less.

Back to the federal votes – the political battle lines are already being drawn up on what to do with the CHF 5bn that would have been used on the roads.

Trains are running normally from Cornavin this morning after the station was closed to all traffic over the weekend.

Bomb disposal teams worked over the weekend to make safe a British World War II device that had been discovered on a construction site in Annecy last month.

Gamekeepers in canton Valais have shot many of the wrong wolves.

Heavy snowfall across central parts of the country brought chaos, cancelled trains, blocked roads and children building snowmen on the autoroute.

Although it wasn’t on the agenda for last night’s meeting of the Geneva Grand Council, the issue of the new vehicle tax dominated proceedings.

It’s good news for cross border shopping and frontaliers – the franc has reached its highest level against the Euro.

Are the days numbered for public service broadcasting?

A new survey suggests public opinion towards nuclear power has changed dramatically.

Four million people last year chose to forgo the sticky mess of a vignette on their car and bought an electronic one instead.

Asian hornets are decimating bee hives.

The Geneva government has been blindsided by the effect of the new car tax and are now scrabbling to explain why.

The Federal Council has come down firmly on the issue of foie gras.

The Geneva luxury Fairmont Hotel on the Quai Wilson will close its doors for renovation next month. The work could last for up to three years.

The time frames are immense – but plans have been revealed on a new nuclear waste storage site, which, by law, has to be viable for a million years.

A section of the A12 autoroute running between Vevey and Châtel-St-Denis was closed over night following a multicar pile up, caused by the snow.

A young woman in Geneva has launched a search for the woman who saved her life when she was swept away by the Rhone last spring.

The political fallout of the new Geneva car tax is continuing.

The price watchdog is criticising the price of generic medicines – noting the cost in Switzerland is far more than any other European country.

Prosecutors in Bern have taken the unusual step of releasing unpixellated images of two men suspected of being involved in a brutal attack in the city last April.

The Foreign Minister, Ignazio Cassis, has pulled out of an event at the University of Fribourg after pro-Palestinian students called for a demonstration aimed at disrupting the event.

Swiss Federal Railways have unveiled the carriages of the future.

Despite voters agreeing to the move in March – some Geneva car owners are shocked at the new tax they will have to pay next year.

The Russian Permanent Mission in Geneva seems to be strengthening its electronic eavesdropping.

There’ll be a few legal changes from the 1st December.

Some right-wing politicians hope that the new Trump Whitehouse will restart talks on a free trade agreement with Switzerland.

The Swiss People’s Party is raising concern that a small Italian company is making life easy for thousands of Brazilians to obtain an Italian passport.

The Federal Meteorological Office is closing down the blog it’s been running on its website at the end of the month.

Religion is of little importance in Switzerland – and becoming more irrelevant.

French police in Thonon were placed on high alert after messages were posted on Snapchat suggesting the Jean-Jacques Rousseau School was to be attacked with bombs and threatening the principal with kidnapping.

It was supposed to be one of the biggest international e-sport tournaments in the country – but now it’s been cancelled because of a controversial abortion comment.

Switzerland has had the lowest wheat harvest for the last 25 years.

The Swiss army is planning to have its own satellite network in the next few years – the first is due to be launched in January.

Fans of the sport Padel swill have more courts they can play on in Geneva.

Residents in the threatened village of Brienz in Graubünden were allowed to visit their homes briefly yesterday.

Courtesy of the Interlaken tourist office, you can win 2 nights for two people at the Hotel Metropole in Interlaken with fantastic views of the Jungfrau.

WRS normal programming back in January