The Swiss President Guy Parmelin has added his voice to the growing list of countries paying respects to the British royal family following the death of Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Parmelin, who this year holds the rotating Swiss p...

There have been several cases of “vaccine tourists” - foreigners who are not domiciled in Switzerland - getting their Covid-19 jabs in cantons Valais and Graubünden. Both cantons have tightened their checks as a result. Fewer than ten tourists ...

Swiss police are bracing themselves for renewed anti-lockdown demonstrations this weekend. This follows scenes of violence at a protest march in the eastern city of St Gallen a week ago. Social media posts suggest that demonstrators are planning to ...

Swiss-Argentine artist Vivian Suter is one of three recipients of this year’s Swiss Grand Award for Art/Prix Meret Oppenheim. Also honoured are architect Georges Descombes and the curator Esther Eppstein. The award, which is worth CHF40,000 ($43,0...

Coronavirus conspiracy theories have gained traction with around a third of people who responded to an academic survey in Switzerland and Germany. Researchers at the University of Basel asked the sample group of more than 1,600 people whether they b...

Switzerland has remained an attractive location for foreign firms, creating more jobs last year than in 2019 - despite the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Swiss public television SRF and RTS have reported. Foreign firms accounted for 1...

Today’s human brain was born 1.7 million years ago when our ancestors started using more complex tools and were developing language, say Zurich scientists. Researchers at the University of Zurich used a digital imaging technique called tomography ...

Switzerland refuses to be drawn into a growing international row over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. The United States and 13 other countries have condemned the findings of a recent World Health Organization (WHO) visit to China. They have...

Inspirational Swiss composer Rudolf Kelterborn has died at the age of 89. In addition to his compositions, Kelterborn was a conductor, taught music in Switzerland and abroad and helped form an influential academy. Born in Basel in 1931, Kelterborn c...

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has chosen a quartet of artists and architects from Geneva to present their work on political and spatial borders at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. Material collected in the participative project, Orae –...

Swiss researchers have developed a unique method to reduce the use of antibiotics in calves while still maintaining the profitability of farms. Farmers in Switzerland rely heavily on antibiotics in the process of fattening calves, even though effort...

Car-sharing company Mobility says it will electrify its entire fleet of 3,000 vehicles and build a network of e-charging stations by 2030. On Thursday, the company said its first 300 e-charging stations should be operational within three years. Mobi...

The warming trend observed in permafrost over the last two decades continued in 2019-2020, the warmest hydrological year on record in Switzerland, the monitoring network PERMOS said on Thursday. Scientists have now observed an increase in permafrost...

Nicola Ruffo is the new director of SWISS FILMS, the national film promotion agency tasked with boosting the visibility of Swiss movies abroad. “The cinematic landscape is in transition. In times of change, I am very happy to give, together with m...

Health authorities have called for an extra effort from the Swiss population to keep Covid-19 infections as low as possible in the next few months. “We’re approaching the finishing line,” said Martin Ackermann, president of the government’s ...

The Swiss response to the Covid-19 pandemic has received good marks from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, it said there was still work to be done, in addition to addressing pensions, the environment and relations with the European Unio...

A former representative for Switzerland-based commodities giant Gunvor has pleaded guilty to helping channel more than $22 million (CHF20.4 million) in bribes to high-level officials in Ecuador in exchange for lucrative contracts with the state-run o...

Switzerland has been criticised by human rights organisation Amnesty International for showing too little solidarity with poorer countries, for adopting “draconian” anti-terrorism laws and for its rights-limiting response to Covid-19. “Between...

Swiss theologian Hans Küng, one of the most outspoken critics of the Roman Catholic church, has died aged 93. Küng passed away in the German town of Tübingen, where he had lived and lectured since the 1960s, his Global Ethic Foundation announced ...

A total of 8,667,100 people lived in Switzerland at the end of 2020 – an increase of 61,100 or 0.7% on the previous year. Although there were 8,200 (12.1%) more deaths than the year before and fewer births, net migration caused the population to i...

The Switzerland-Palestine Society has submitted a petition in favour of the former head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. The letter calls on the government to restore the public reputation of Pierre Krähenbühl. A delegation from the Swit...

The quantity of natural uranium that Switzerland stocks abroad passed the one-million-kilogram mark in 2020. The bounty is double the weight recorded in 2019 – mainly as a result of acquisition, as well as processing of uranium into useable fuel ...

In response to the coronavirus pandemic and the riots in St Gallen, the youth branches of five Swiss political parties are calling on the government to provide better prospects. On Monday they published an open letter [pictured below] demanding that...

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis is visiting three Middle Eastern countries this week as part of a national strategy to promote stability in the region. This was the first time since 1979 that a Swiss cabinet minister had visited Iraq. Cassis m...

Lakes, the source of 20% of global natural methane emissions, could also be the source of much of the world’s energy, if treated correctly, Swiss researchers have argued. In a paper published this week, researchers from Basel and Zurich suggest a ...

As of this week, Switzerland can no longer import Covid vaccines from the European Union (EU) without a special license. Officials in Bern have asked to be granted an exception to the stricter conditions. According to the SonntagsBlick newspaper, at...

Switzerland, along with its European neighbours, could develop an industrial strategy to reduce its dependence on other markets for essential medical goods, President Guy Parmelin has said. “The pandemic has shown us that we are very dependent, ma...

Border checks over the past two months have found around 700 people entering Switzerland without the necessary negative Covid-19 test, the customs administration has confirmed. According to figures published in the Schweiz am Wochenende newspaper on...

Groups of young people attacked police on Friday night in the eastern Swiss city of St Gallen. A petrol bomb, rubber bullets, and tear gas were used, and 21 people were questioned. The unrest came a week after similar violence when police broke up a...

Protecting Swiss glaciers with white tarpaulins reduces ice and snow melt by around 60%, a new study shows. But this method cannot be applied on a large scale for reasons of cost. Just 0.02% of the country’s total glacier area is currently covered...