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Eight years after the Federal Assembly's vote which ended Christoph Blocher's mandate as a member of the Federal council, and after the Swiss parliamentary elections of October 2015, it seems that time is ripe to take provisional stock of the "concordance system, i. e. the typically Swiss way of ruling the Executive. Does the concordance system which has applied ever since 1959 still match to twenty-first century Swiss democracy? To answer this question, we first present the political situation that led to the October 2015 elections. We then highlight the key elements of Christoph Blocher's four-year mandate as a member of the Federal council, showing how his stay in the government and above all the circumstances of his departure have drastically changed the balance of political forces in Switzerland. Finally we focus our attention on the role played by the weekly Weltwoche in this process of change. ; Huit ans après le vote de l'Assemblée Fédérale qui a mis fin prématurément aux fonctions de Christoph Blocher comme conseiller fédéral et alors que les Suisses ont renouvelé à la mi-octobre 2015 leurs instances législatives, le moment semble venu de dresser un bilan, au moins provisoire, de la «concordance», cette façon typiquement suisse de faire de la politique. Indissociable du système politique depuis 1959, ce concept est-il encore adapté au fonctionnement de la démocratie helvétique en ce début de XXIème siècle? Pour répondre à cette question, nous commençons par dresser un bref tableau de la situation qui a conduit à cette élection, puis nous mettons en avant les éléments significatifs qui ont parsemé les quatre ans de mandat de Christoph Blocher comme conseiller fédéral afin de montrer de quelle façon ce passage au gouvernement, et surtout les circonstances de son départ ont modifié en profondeur l'équilibre entre les forces politiques. Nous nous interrogeons pour terminer sur le rôle qu'a joué l'hebdomadaire Die Weltwoche dans ce processus politique.

Eight years after the Federal Assembly's vote which ended Christoph Blocher's mandate as a member of the Federal council, and after the Swiss parliamentary elections of October 2015, it seems that time is ripe to take provisional stock of the "concordance system, i. e. the typically Swiss way of ruling the Executive. Does the concordance system which has applied ever since 1959 still match to twenty-first century Swiss democracy? To answer this question, we first present the political situation that led to the October 2015 elections. We then highlight the key elements of Christoph Blocher's four-year mandate as a member of the Federal council, showing how his stay in the government and above all the circumstances of his departure have drastically changed the balance of political forces in Switzerland. Finally we focus our attention on the role played by the weekly Weltwoche in this process of change. ; Huit ans après le vote de l'Assemblée Fédérale qui a mis fin prématurément aux fonctions de Christoph Blocher comme conseiller fédéral et alors que les Suisses ont renouvelé à la mi-octobre 2015 leurs instances législatives, le moment semble venu de dresser un bilan, au moins provisoire, de la «concordance», cette façon typiquement suisse de faire de la politique. Indissociable du système politique depuis 1959, ce concept est-il encore adapté au fonctionnement de la démocratie helvétique en ce début de XXIème siècle? Pour répondre à cette question, nous commençons par dresser un bref tableau de la situation qui a conduit à cette élection, puis nous mettons en avant les éléments significatifs qui ont parsemé les quatre ans de mandat de Christoph Blocher comme conseiller fédéral afin de montrer de quelle façon ce passage au gouvernement, et surtout les circonstances de son départ ont modifié en profondeur l'équilibre entre les forces politiques. Nous nous interrogeons pour terminer sur le rôle qu'a joué l'hebdomadaire Die Weltwoche dans ce processus politique.

Eight years after the Federal Assembly's vote which ended Christoph Blocher's mandate as a member of the Federal council, and after the Swiss parliamentary elections of October 2015, it seems that time is ripe to take provisional stock of the "concordance system, i. e. the typically Swiss way of ruling the Executive. Does the concordance system which has applied ever since 1959 still match to twenty-first century Swiss democracy? To answer this question, we first present the political situation that led to the October 2015 elections. We then highlight the key elements of Christoph Blocher's four-year mandate as a member of the Federal council, showing how his stay in the government and above all the circumstances of his departure have drastically changed the balance of political forces in Switzerland. Finally we focus our attention on the role played by the weekly Weltwoche in this process of change. ; Huit ans après le vote de l'Assemblée Fédérale qui a mis fin prématurément aux fonctions de Christoph Blocher comme conseiller fédéral et alors que les Suisses ont renouvelé à la mi-octobre 2015 leurs instances législatives, le moment semble venu de dresser un bilan, au moins provisoire, de la «concordance», cette façon typiquement suisse de faire de la politique. Indissociable du système politique depuis 1959, ce concept est-il encore adapté au fonctionnement de la démocratie helvétique en ce début de XXIème siècle? Pour répondre à cette question, nous commençons par dresser un bref tableau de la situation qui a conduit à cette élection, puis nous mettons en avant les éléments significatifs qui ont parsemé les quatre ans de mandat de Christoph Blocher comme conseiller fédéral afin de montrer de quelle façon ce passage au gouvernement, et surtout les circonstances de son départ ont modifié en profondeur l'équilibre entre les forces politiques. Nous nous interrogeons pour terminer sur le rôle qu'a joué l'hebdomadaire Die Weltwoche dans ce processus politique.

Asteroid (2) Pallas is the largest main-belt object not yet visited by a spacecraft, making its surface geology largely unknown and limiting our understanding of its origin and collisional evolution. Previous ground-based observational campaigns returned different estimates of its bulk density that are inconsistent with one another, one measurement1 being compatible within error bars with the icy Ceres (2.16 ± 0.01 g cm−3)2 and the other3 compatible within error bars with the rocky Vesta (3.46 ± 0.03 g cm−3)4. Here we report high-angular-resolution observations of Pallas performed with the extreme adaptive optics-fed SPHERE imager5 on the Very Large Telescope. Pallas records a violent collisional history, with numerous craters larger than 30 km in diameter populating its surface and two large impact basins that could be related to a family-forming impact. Monte Carlo simulations of the collisional evolution of the main belt correlate this cratering record to the high average impact velocity of ~11.5 km s−1 on Pallas—compared with an average of ~5.8 km s−1 for the asteroid belt—induced by Pallas's high orbital inclination (i = 34.8°) and orbital eccentricity (e = 0.23). Compositionally, Pallas's derived bulk density of 2.89 ± 0.08 g cm−3 (1σ uncertainty) is fully compatible with a CM chondrite-like body, as suggested by its spectral reflectance in the 3 μm wavelength region6. A bright spot observed on its surface may indicate an enrichment in salts during an early phase of aqueous alteration, compatible with Pallas's relatively high albedo of 12–17% (refs. 7,8), although alternative origins are conceivable. ; Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme 199.C-0074 (principal investigator: P.V.). This research has made use of the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA), which is operated by the W. M. Keck Observatory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI), under contract with NASA. M.M. was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant number 80NSSC18K0849 issued through the Planetary Astronomy Program. This work was supported by the French Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) and Aix-Marseille Université (AMU). P.V., A.D. and B.C. were supported by CNRS/INSU/PNP. J.H., J.D. and P.S. were supported by the grant 18-09470S of the Czech Science Foundation and by the Charles University Research Programme number UNCE/SCI/023. M.Brož was supported by the grant 18-04514J of the Czech Science Foundation. E.J. is a F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associate. The work of T.S.-R. was carried out through grant APOSTD/2019/046 by Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 730890.

(10) Hygiea is the fourth largest main belt asteroid and the only known asteroid whose surface composition appears similar to that of the dwarf planet (1) Ceres1,2, suggesting a similar origin for these two objects. Hygiea suffered a giant impact more than 2 Gyr ago3 that is at the origin of one of the largest asteroid families. However, Hygeia has never been observed with sufficiently high resolution to resolve the details of its surface or to constrain its size and shape. Here, we report high-angular-resolution imaging observations of Hygiea with the VLT/SPHERE instrument (~20 mas at 600 nm) that reveal a basin-free nearly spherical shape with a volume-equivalent radius of 217 ± 7 km, implying a density of 1,944 ± 250 kg m−3 to 1σ. In addition, we have determined a new rotation period for Hygiea of ~13.8 h, which is half the currently accepted value. Numerical simulations of the family-forming event show that Hygiea's spherical shape and family can be explained by a collision with a large projectile (diameter ~75–150 km). By comparing Hygiea's sphericity with that of other Solar System objects, it appears that Hygiea is nearly as spherical as Ceres, opening up the possibility for this object to be reclassified as a dwarf planet. ; P.V., A.D. and B.C. were supported by CNRS/INSU/PNP. M.Brož was supported by grant 18-04514J of the Czech Science Foundation. J.H. and J.D. were supported by grant 18-09470S of the Czech Science Foundation and by the Charles University Research Programme no. UNCE/SCI/023. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmes under grant agreement nos 730890 and 687378. This material reflects only the authors' views, and the European Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liège, in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech (Morocco). TRAPPIST-South is a project funded by the Belgian Fonds (National) de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant FRFC 2.5.594.09.F. E.J. and M.G. are F.R.S.-FNRS Senior Research Associates.

Context. With an estimated diameter in the 320–350 km range, (704) Interamnia is the fifth largest main belt asteroid and one of the few bodies that fills the gap in size between the four largest bodies with D > 400 km (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea) and the numerous smaller bodies with diameter ≤200 km. However, despite its large size, little is known about the shape and spin state of Interamnia and, therefore, about its bulk composition and past collisional evolution. Aims. We aimed to test at what size and mass the shape of a small body departs from a nearly ellipsoidal equilibrium shape (as observed in the case of the four largest asteroids) to an irregular shape as routinely observed in the case of smaller (D ≤ 200 km) bodies. Methods. We observed Interamnia as part of our ESO VLT/SPHERE large program (ID: 199.C-0074) at thirteen different epochs. In addition, several new optical lightcurves were recorded. These data, along with stellar occultation data from the literature, were fed to the All-Data Asteroid Modeling algorithm to reconstruct the 3D-shape model of Interamnia and to determine its spin state. Results. Interamnia's volume-equivalent diameter of 332 ± 6 km implies a bulk density of ρ = 1.98 ± 0.68 g cm−3, which suggests that Interamnia – like Ceres and Hygiea – contains a high fraction of water ice, consistent with the paucity of apparent craters. Our observations reveal a shape that can be well approximated by an ellipsoid, and that is compatible with a fluid hydrostatic equilibrium at the 2σ level. Conclusions. The rather regular shape of Interamnia implies that the size and mass limit, under which the shapes of minor bodies with a high amount of water ice in the subsurface become irregular, has to be searched among smaller (D ≤ 300 km) less massive (m ≤ 3 × 1019 kg) bodies. ; This work has been supported by the Czech Science Foundation through grant 18-09470S (J.H., J.D.) and by the Charles University Research program No. UNCE/SCI/023. This research was supported by INTER-EXCELLENCE grant LTAUSA18093 from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (J.H. and O.P.). The research of O.P. is additionally supported by Horizon 2020 ERC Starting Grant "Cat-In-hAT" (grant agreement #803158) and award PRIMUS/SCI/17 from Charles University. P.V., A.D., and B.C. were Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. 80NSSC18K0849 issued through the Planetary Astronomy Program. This work was supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, through grant no. 2014/13/D/ST9/01818 (A.M.). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no 687378 (SBNAF). This project has been supported by the GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00003 and NKFIH K125015 grants of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) and by the Lendület grant LP2012-31 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liège, in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech (Morocco). TRAPPIST-South is a project funded by the Belgian FNRS under grant FRFC 2.5.594.09. F.E.J. is a FNRS Senior Research Associate. ASAS-SN thanks the Las Cumbres Observatory and its staff for its continuing support of the ASAS-SN project. ASAS-SN is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through grant GBMF5490 to the Ohio State University and NSF grant AST-1515927. Development of ASAS-SN has been supported by NSF grant AST-0908816, the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics at the Ohio State University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences South America Center for Astronomy (CASSACA), the Villum Foundation, and George Skestos.