A people’s initiative calling for an end to the practice of taxing married couples as a single unit has been handed in and validated by authorities for a possible future vote. The initiative, “for an individual taxation independent of civil stat...

Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin has wrapped up a two-day visit to India where he hoped to spark “a new impulse” for negotiations on a free trade agreement. Regarding the long-running noises about a trade deal, Parmelin told SRF public radi...

Agricultural income in Switzerland grew slightly in 2021 to reach an average of CHF80,700 ($81,765) per farm, according to latest statistics. The 1.9% average rise in 2021 came despite a “mixed year” for farmers and farming in Switzerland, said ...

A federal court has ruled that Swiss authorities should no longer provide legal assistance to Russia in an ongoing probe into embezzlement. Assets linked to the case, frozen in Geneva, are also to be released. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports in it...

The world’s steepest cog-wheel railway, leading up to the Pilatus mountain peak in central Switzerland, has been kitted out with new railcars. The eight new cars, built by Stadler, will replace the previous ones dating from the 1930s and 1960s, th...

Chief financial officers (CFOs) are more pessimistic about the economic outlook for Switzerland than they were six months ago, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte for the second half of 2022. However, a majority of the 127 managers surveyed ...

Millions of old but functioning electronic objects are lying around Swiss households – many of which are eventually dumped instead of being reused, according to a survey by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). In the study published o...

The Swiss Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council has said that an expert report criticising structural racism in the country included “misunderstandings”. Jürg Lauber said on Monday that while the fight against racism was urgent, a more deta...

The year the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the number of suicides in the country fell below 1,000 for the first time since 1964, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on Monday. The long-term trend is thus very much downwards: since a peak in the early...

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) remains the largest film festival in Switzerland, attracting 137,000 entries for the 18th edition. This is an increase of 15% on pre-Covid 2019. The 1,200-seat congress hall, which was used for all 11 festival days for...

Geneva police had to intervene on Sunday to separate supporters of right-wing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The supporters of the two politicians, who are battling it out in a presidential elect...

Every seventh person over the age of 65 in Switzerland does not have enough money make ends meet, according to a study on the financial health of the elderly. Some 46,000 Swiss pensioners have already fallen into the poverty trap and a further 295,0...

Landlords and tenants are opposing government calls to reduce household heating to 19 degrees Celsius, warning it might spark a flurry of lawsuits. The Swiss Real Estate Association, which represents landlords, warns that turning down the heating in...

More than 1,000 people have taken to the streets in Switzerland to protest the death of a young woman in Iranian police custody last month. Some 200 people gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Bern calling for the removal of the Islamic governmen...

Swiss food manufacturer Nestlé will cut out palm oil from controversial Indonesian company Astra Agro Lestari (AAL) by the end of this year. Nestlé did not explain in detail the reasons behind its decision, but AAL has been criticised by environme...

Electricity consumption in Switzerland remained at normal levels last month despite a government appeal for households and industry to make savings. On August 31, ministers urged the population to voluntarily reduce consumption ahead of anticipated ...

Outgoing Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer managed to push the boundaries of government collegiality without fully breaching the time-honoured code of conduct, according to the media. After serving 14 years in Switzerland’s executive cabinet, Mau...

Infertility is more likely caused by coronavirus infection than mRNA Covid-19 vaccinations, said the Swiss federal drugs regulator, Swissmedic. Swissmedic compared data with counterparts in 10 other countries, covering a population of 800 million pe...

The Swiss government has condemned Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, saying it is a serious violation of international law. “It violates the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Ukraine,” said the government in a pres...

The Swiss government on Friday laid out responsibilities in case of a nuclear attack or nuclear disaster linked to the war in Ukraine. While the defence ministry currently considers this unlikely, the government says it is necessary to be prepared a...

The Swiss government plans to temporarily ease water use rules to allow a number of hydropower plants to boost capacity ahead of possible power shortages this winter. A certain number of hydroelectric power plants will benefit from access to increas...

In a final vote on Friday, the Swiss parliament rejected a proposal that would have allowed Switzerland to unilaterally sanction countries and individuals. The House of Representatives rejected it by 118 votes to 70 on the last day of parliament’s...

Several professional football clubs in Switzerland that received extra funds for Covid-related losses during the pandemic must reimburse CHF4 million to the federal authorities. The Federal Office of Sport said this summer that top clubs had receive...

The University of Geneva has decided to remove the name of “Carl Vogt”, a 19th-century naturalist accused of holding racist and sexist views, from a university building. The name will be erased from the university building located on Carl-Vogt b...

Bern Minster, the Swiss capital’s 101-metre high cathedral, will be illuminated again with immediate effect so planes don’t crash into it. This reverses a measure taken last week to save energy. The city of Bern announced the decision on Thursda...

Pilots at Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) have marched through Kloten, home of Zurich Airport, in the fight for a better collective labour agreement. “Quality needs good working conditions,” read one protest sign on Thursday. “Saving on ...

The Swiss are more open than expected to aligning themselves closer with the European Union via measures that go beyond the current bilateral agreements – provided they are accompanied by safeguards, according to a study. Even an updated agreement...

Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli’s foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies deserve protection from copycat products, Switzerland’s highest court has ruled. It ordered German discounter Lidl to stop selling a similar product in Switzerland and to de...

Switzerland’s greenhouse gas footprint decreased by 10% between 2019 and 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Between 2000 and 2019 it fell by only 2%. In 2020, the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere totalled 103 million ...

While the number of birds is declining rapidly worldwide, the situation for endangered or threatened species in Switzerland is even more striking, a report finds. Some 1,409 bird species, or 13% of the total around the world, are endangered or threa...