One in five young sportsmen and women in the western French-speaking part of Switzerland has suffered some form of violence, according to a survey by the University of Lausanne. While psychological abuse, including denigration, threats and punishmen...

The Jungfraubahn lift company, which carries people to the top destination in the Bernese Alps, recorded a drop of more than 65% in visitors last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its visitors totalled only 362,800 people in 2020, compared wi...

Some 28 people in seven Swiss cantons have tested positive for mutated strains of the Covid-19 virus. This is not enough to recommend tightened measures against the pandemic, but experts are concerned that a minority of cases have had no contact with...

A Swiss fund that supports small businesses in alpine regions bailed out 100 firms last year that were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Schweizer Berghilfe (Swiss Mountain Aid) doled out an extra CHF2 million ($2.26 million) to support Covid-hit...

Women’s organisation Alliance F has launched a first Swiss App to track and counter hate speech on the Internet with the help of a volunteer community. The platform, launched on Tuesday, uses technology developed by the Federal Institute of Techn...

The Swiss automobile industry registered its worst result in over 40 years, as the number of new cars hitting the road in 2020 fell by a quarter compared to the previous year. A total of 236,828 new cars were sold last year, the import association A...

The radio industry has reached an agreement on turning off its analogue FM transmitters, with the public broadcaster expected to make the definitive switch to digital in mid-2022. Private radio stations will follow suit by January 2023. The end of v...

Many pupils in Switzerland are returning to school after the holidays on Monday, unlike in some neighbouring countries, which have delayed return over fears of worsening outbreaks. Concerns are that more contact among friends and family over the Chr...

The coronavirus pandemic failed to halt a decade-long steady growth in entrepreneurs, who last year founded more new companies than ever in Switzerland. A total of 46,842 new firms were added to the Swiss Commercial Register in 2020: an increase of ...

Switzerland has been criticised for its “hesitant” vaccine purchase strategy and slow vaccine rollout. “Switzerland has been playing too tactically and has only ordered from potential manufacturers a fraction of the vaccine it really needs,”...

Health officials in Italian-speaking Switzerland have reported their first case of the South African mutation of the coronavirus. Switzerland has documented at least three cases of the South African variant and ten cases of the variant from Britain, ...

Former Swiss National Bank Chairman Philipp Hildebrand, who has been nominated to lead the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), says the Paris-based organisation can play a key role in the area of green investment. In his fi...

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has announced a new national initiative to better protect women against sexual and domestic violence. “I want a roadmap to prevent violence against women that shows where the federal government and the cantons ...

The European chub, or squalius cephalus, has been crowned Switzerland’s Fish of the Year for 2021. The Swiss Fishing Federation said on Saturday that it had chosen the freshwater fish species as “encouraging proof of the resilience of nature”....

After a difficult year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, Switzerland’s new president, Guy Parmelin, has called for national unity to help overcome the many uncertainties ahead. “Our country, like so many others, has had a dark year. The hea...

The Swiss said goodbye to 2020 in a quieter, more intimate fashion. Measures taken to contain the pandemic curtailed celebrations, with official events and fireworks cancelled and large gatherings banned. This New Year’s Eve was celebrated like no...

The Swiss government has instructed the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to examine and approve the suspended export applications for encryption devices and modules in connection with the Crypto spying affair, provided the relevant requi...

The Federal Council photo for 2021 shows the seven cabinet members and the Federal Chancellor as a unit. The parliament building in Bern can be seen in the background. “It is important to me that in these difficult times we take a new look at seem...

Luigi Snozzi, considered the leader of the so-called new Ticino school of architecture, has died aged 88 in Minusio, southern Switzerland. Snozzi died on Tuesday at the Casa Rea old people’s home in Minusio, according to Swiss public radio, RSI. T...

Swiss cantons are still trying to identify tourists from the UK and South Africa who are staying in their resorts or who fled to escape Covid quarantine. Canton Valais, home to many popular ski resorts such as Verbier and Zermatt, is struggling. At ...

The government says the epidemiological situation in Switzerland remains worrying, but it believes the measures taken on December 18 are appropriate and do not need to be tightened. In a statement on Wednesday it said would continue to monitor devel...

The Swiss Air Force will be on standby 24/7 from Thursday, when two F/A-18 fighter jets will be ready to take off, fully armed, within 15 minutes. The pilots spent nearly a month practising night-time aerial manoeuvres in Britain. Calls for greater ...

The Swiss government’s Covid-19 scientific taskforce has called for an immediate reduction in the “sad” number of cases and for widespread testing of the population. “With 80 deaths a day, we rank seventh in the world. It is essential to get...

Digitalisation is increasing pressure on state authorities, with almost three-quarters of Swiss expecting more digital services from the authorities, according to a survey by consultants Deloitte. Whether it’s paying parking fines or obtaining mot...

In one of the biggest fraud cases in recent US economic history, Switzerland is handing over around $200 million (CHF178 million) to the United States. The money is to be returned to the injured parties, the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said in a...

Hundreds of “furious” tourists from the UK have absconded from obligatory quarantine in the Swiss resort of Verbier. They face fines of up to CHF10,000 ($11,280). “Hoteliers noticed that breakfast trays placed outside room doors had not been t...

Incoming Swiss president Guy Parmelin has in principle welcomed the deal reached between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom. In Switzerland, attention will now turn to the country’s own negotiations on a framework agreement with Brussel...

Several Swiss scientists have also signed the appeal calling for better European coordination to avoid pandemic efforts by some countries being undermined by others. To prevent “a ping-pong effect of importing and reimporting” Covid cases, an ef...

The first cases of patients with the new strain of coronavirus have been confirmed in Switzerland. According to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the novel Covid-19 variant VOC-202012/01 has been identified in three samples. Two patients ...

In an interview with Swiss public television, SRF, Health Minister Alain Berset has acknowledged that Switzerland made mistakes in managing the coronavirus outbreak. “We were too lax,” Berset said, pointing out that in the summer – after the f...