The Swiss government has confirmed that it vetoed the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition used in Gepard anti-aircraft tanks that Germany plans to send to Ukraine. Switzerland has cited its policy of neutrality, which forbids it from sending war mater...

A political campaign has been launched to reform the Swiss militia system to include both men and women in a community service. The compulsory “citizens service” would benefit society and the environment, according to the promoters. “The curr...

The crisis management of the Swiss health authorities has been given generally good marks by a panel of experts. But their report criticises the country's level of preparedness and certain restrictive measures during the pandemic. The expert report ...

Structural biologist Nicolas Thomä has been awarded this year’s Otto Naegeli Prize for medical research, considered one of the most prestigious scientific awards in Switzerland. German-born Thomä, from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomed...

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s charity has collected more than CHF115 million ($120 million) for the victims of the war in Ukraine. Swiss Solidarity said on Tuesday that the public had donated CHF115,132,116 since March. The money is to be ...

The Böögg, an exploding snowman with a famed but erratic ability to predict the weather, has returned to Sechseläutenplatz in central Zurich. Last year the effigy was forced to undertake a pandemic-related outing to a gorge in central Switzerland....

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, will meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in London on Thursday. The visit will focus on ways of deepening political, economic a...

Authorities in Bern have rejected – on the basis of neutrality – two recent requests by Germany to re-export Swiss-made ammunition to Kyiv, the SonntagsZeitung paper reports. “Both Germany’s inquiries were answered in the negative, with refe...

A leading Swiss research institution has signed an agreement to hand over retired lab rats for adoption to private individuals. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) has signed a contract with animal welfare association Swiss An...

French President Emmanuel Macron received strong support from French voters in Switzerland in the run-off of the French presidential election. He won 81.27% of the vote cast by French citizens in French-speaking Switzerland, according to provisional ...

Several interviews in the Sunday press are critical of the Swiss government’s response to the Ukraine war, just a few days after a parliamentary audit committee said the executive had been “unprepared”. After Russia invaded Ukraine on February...

A record number of cases of racial discrimination were recorded in Switzerland in 2021, with schools and other education centres seeing a notable increase. The most-cited places where discrimination was flagged were the workplace and the education s...

Of the 40,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Switzerland over the past two months, some are already starting to return home, says a top Swiss migration official. Christine Schraner Burgener, the head of the State Secretariat for Migration (S...

Opponents of the decision to boost Switzerland’s financial contribution to the European border agency Frontex staged a demonstration in the capital on Saturday, ahead of a nationwide vote on May 15. The rally was called by around 80 different grou...

Despite high demand, the machinery, electrical engineering and metal (MEM) sector is still hampered by disruption to global supply chains, says a top sector representative. Martin Hirzel, the president of the Swissmem industry association, told SRF ...

A total of 39,258 refugees from Ukraine have been registered in Switzerland since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24, according to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). That is 919 more than on Thursday. Of the total so far, 32,208 hav...

Finance authorities in low-tax business location Zug say their investigations have found no individuals or firms on the Swiss/EU Russian sanctions list operating in the canton. After criticism that the region wasn’t doing enough to chase down olig...

CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research on the Swiss-French border, on Friday restarted the world’s largest particle accelerator in a bid to find out more about the origins of the universe. The 27-kilometre Large Hadron Collider has been ou...

On Monday May 2 Switzerland will lift all remaining Covid-related entry requirements for travellers entering the country, regardless of their country of origin. As of May 2, the “usual rules” for entering Switzerland will again apply, writes the...

The Swiss authorities are planning to return to a regular reallocation of refugees from Ukraine in a bid to reduce the burden notably for some cities. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said the aim was to house registered Ukrainian refugees ...

Switzerland and Japan have agreed closer cooperation on research during the visit of President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis to the east Asian country. The agreement on joint scientific research projects was signed during a three-day president...

Switzerland is among 33 countries currently participating in an annual international cyber defence exercise designed to simulate a large-scale cyberattack on critical infrastructure. Twenty-four members of Switzerland’s Cyber Battalion 42 are repr...

The contribution of Switzerland’s finance industry to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased over the past ten years. The share of GDP accounted for by financial and insurance services was 9% last year, down from 10% in 2011, t...

Trade unions say middle- and lower-income workers in Switzerland are facing a “shock” in 2022, with wages unable to offset rising inflation and health insurance costs. With inflation currently over 2% in Switzerland, the cost of living is going ...

A proposed new online voting system in Switzerland still needs technical improvements, according to a report by independent experts. The Federal Chancellery, which oversees e-voting on behalf of the government, said the system being developed by the...

The trend towards digitalisation in Switzerland appears to be stagnating, a survey has found. About 50% of respondents in this year’s poll say they used streaming services, down 10% on last year. “A certain fatigue is evident in the everyday us...

Swiss tourist resorts appear to have coped well despite the Covid pandemic over the winter season. A spokesman for Switzerland Tourism said resorts were running at 85% capacity compared with pre-pandemic figures. “The positive trend continued int...

Switzerland will decide case by case whether to curtail traders' purchases from Russia's state-controlled companies under European Union sanctions. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) which is in charge sanctions confirmed the Swiss po...

The city of Basel is the first to be given the green light by the Swiss authorities to sell cannabis for recreational use. The Federal Office of Public Health said it had approved a request for a pilot on the regulated sale of cannabis through local...

The Swiss justice authorities have opened criminal proceedings in connection with alleged smuggling of gasoil belonging to a Libyan state-owned company. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) on Thursday confirmed that it had launched formal inves...