The Twint payment app is set to introduce direct debit from 2027. The new service is supported by Switzerland’s largest banks and is intended to offer an alternative to the traditional LSV+ direct debit scheme, which is due to be phased out at the ...

Three people were rescued by helicopter from the Joli Gorge near Niedergesteln in southwestern Switzerland on Friday. To carry out the rescue, a rescue specialist was lowered on a 50-metre rope into the gorge, which is up to two metres wide in places...

The Swiss hotel industry recorded a small increase in overnight stays in July mainly due to stronger domestic demand. The number of overnight stays rose by 0.3% compared with the same month last year, according to a preliminary estimate released on M...

A suspected hacker denied charges of developing ransomware at Zurich District Court on Monday, as prosecutors sought a lengthy prison sentence for the 52-year-old defendant. He told the court that he had never developed malware or taken part in any a...

Switzerland's wage negotiations for 2027 are shaping up to be tense. Trade union umbrella group Travail.Suisse on Monday called for a general wage increase of 2% next year. The Swiss Employers' Union (UPS), however, said an average pay rise of around...

All major Swiss political parties except the right-wing Swiss People's Party oppose the neutrality initiative ahead of the September 27 vote, arguing that it would weaken Switzerland's security and foreign policy flexibility. The popular initiative â...

Nestlé risks losing control of part of its Russian business after a local logistics company reportedly asked President Vladimir Putin to place five of the Swiss group's subsidiaries under temporary state administration. According to the Russian news...

Swiss inspectors found faults in more than one in four electrical appliances examined last year, with 65 products banned from sale. Among the 1,001 electrical appliances examined last year, 281 products had formal or technical defects, representing m...

Pupils in French-speaking Switzerland and canton Zurich return to school on Monday, while classes have already resumed in most German-speaking cantons. This is the case in cantons Vaud, Neuchâtel, Geneva and Jura, as well as in Upper Valais and the ...

Switzerland's grape harvest is set to be exceptionally early this year as prolonged drought and high temperatures accelerate ripening. In some regions, picking has already begun, an unprecedented development for mid-August. "As strange as it may seem...

Sandoz has signed a multi-million-dollar agreement with Chinese biotech company Shanghai Henlius Biotech, stepping up its expansion in biosimilars, the generic versions of complex biological medicines. The deal covers the development and commercialis...

The heatwaves and drought are taking a growing toll on Swiss cheese makers. Cows are producing less milk and farmers are running short of fodder, forcing many to incur additional costs. The situation for dairy farmers is currently "very tense", Chris...

Preventing electricity shortages over the next two decades will cost Swiss consumers about CHF4 billion ($4.9 billion), according to an estimate by business federation economiesuisse cited by NZZ am Sonntag. Electricity reserves cost Swiss consumers ...

A 73-year-old woman was killed and 12 others injured, including two seriously, in an accident involving a horse-drawn tourist carriage in Val Roseg, near Pontresina, on Saturday. The fatal accident occurred when a group of 40 tourists were returning ...

Switzerland will provide CHF600,000 ($737,000) to help secure and restore the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a historic 11th-century UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kyiv, Ukraine, damaged in a recent Russian air strike. The funding was announced in Kyiv on Satur...

The head of the Swiss Cities Association has called for a national strategy to help municipalities adapt to climate change, warning that many urban areas were designed for weather conditions that no longer exist. "Adapting to climate change is a task...

The film Nu e locul tau aici [You Don’t Belong Here], by Romanian director Florin Serban, won the Golden Leopard, the top prize in the international competition, on Saturday at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. The film tells the story of the relatio...

The Swiss air rescue service Rega carried out 323 missions linked to mountain accidents between the start of the year and mid-August, 39 more than during the same period in 2025. The increase may be partly due to growing numbers of people heading int...

Switzerland’s Audrey Werro held off Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to win the 800 metres title at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Friday, just a day after a heavy fall in the semi-finals. The 22-year-old from Fribourg pulle...

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has warned banks and insurers about the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence and cyber threats. Cyber attacks have risen significantly, according to Marlene Amstad, chair of the FINMA...

With drought-related losses in agriculture expected to reach record levels, Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin has defended the government's response. He argues that existing laws provide sufficient tools to support farmers and that there is no ne...

Three years after the Gotthard Base Tunnel accident, European authorities and the rail industry have agreed to tighten safety checks for freight wagons, requiring more frequent inspections. The new rules were prompted by a Swiss initiative. "This sho...

Plans to relocate residents from the landslide-threatened Swiss village of Brienz to nearby Vazerol have been halted by a reluctance of locals to sell their land. The authorities had asked the landowners in Vazerol to sell some land to resettle the n...

A Swiss ski tour leader has been convicted of multiple counts of manslaughter through negligence after two teenagers died in an avalanche. He was for the ski tour during which two teenagers were caught in an avalanche in Meiringen in 2023. A court fo...

Two mountaineers have died in an accident on the Schalihorn mountain in the Upper Valais region of Switzerland. The two missing climbers were found dead on Thursday during a search flight. Relatives had not heard from the two mountaineers since Wedne...

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have invented small drones that use sound waves as fuel to power through air and on water. Researchers achieved this by equipping the vehicles with cavities that convert soun...

One in four new lorries registered in Switzerland is now fitted with electric transmission. This makes the Alpine state a European leader in electrified road haulage, reports L’Agefi. According to figures for the first half of 2026, zero or low-emi...

The first fuselage section and wing of a fleet of F-35 fighter jets has been assembled in Italy, according to Swiss defence procurement body Armasuisse. The factory in in Cameri, Piedmont, is the only F-35 final assembly line in Europe and forms part...

The start of the new school year in Geneva is likely to be disrupted by a public sector strike announced at the beginning of July. However, all schools will remain open and lessons will be delivered by staff who are not on strike. A minimum level of ...

The Swiss economy grew at a surprisingly healthy rate in the second quarter of 2026, driven by the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. In the second quarter, Switzerland’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.5% in real terms on a seasonally adj...