Things are hoting up in China as people are demonstrating against the harsh Covid-19 restrictions. A Swiss journalist was surrounded by policemen whilst he was doing a live segment for the Swiss news from Shanghai and was arrested for “not following orders” right after he went off air. He was released after having been taken to the police station and the cameraman had all of his equipment confiscated and searched before being returned.
A series of cantonal votes took place this weekend. Nidwalden refused the building of a new road to help with the traffic congestion on the highway near Stans, in the Wallis 75% of the voters accepted allowing assisted dying in care homes, and Basel City approved a net zero carbon emission policy by 2037.
For the longest time the canton Tessin was known as a cheap fuel and diesel destination for Italians who would cross the border just to fill up their tanks. This created over 1000 jobs for Swiss workers. However since March of this year, it is now much cheaper to buy fuel in Italy (up to 30 rappen difference per litre) meaning that the Italians have stopped coming to the Tessin to fill their tanks, and now those jobs are in jeopardy. In 2022 it is estimated that “only” 170 million liters of fuel will have been sold versus 360 million the previous year, this will probably lead to 40 stations closing and 250 people losing their jobs.
Marco Sieber is the name of the Swiss astronaut who was selected out of 22 500 candidates from Europe to take part in the European Space Agency’s projects. He is a doctor by profession and will take part in the training programme from April next year before joining one of the many missions being planned. The focus seems to be missions to the moon to set up a station there and have people living and working there in preparation for a possible expedition to Mars.
This week expect the weather to be grey and rainy with temperatures rarely going above 5° Celsius, this means that there will be more snow in the mountains.
