Almost 1,000 people gathered in the northern Swiss town of Schaffhausen to protest against government measures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The demonstration was peaceful, local police say. The demonstration, which was not authorised by the autho...

Switzerland would like to host a possible upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his United States counterpart Joe Biden, according to reports in the Swiss media. Overtures have already been made through diplomatic avenues, the...

Canada has been placed on Switzerland’s list of countries with an increased risk of infection by the coronavirus. Those arriving from Canada must go into quarantine. Announcing the move, which came into force on Friday evening, the Swiss Federal O...

Scientists in Lausanne have found that streams and rivers – or “running waters” – emit on average four times more carbon dioxide (CO2) at night than during the day. The results have implications for how the global carbon cycle is calculated. ...

The United States has removed Switzerland from its list of currency manipulators despite the Swiss National Bank (SNB) spending CHF110 billion ($119 billion) in the foreign exchange market last year. Reporting to Congress on Friday, the US Treasury ...

An investigation has confirmed cases of sexual harassment at French-language Swiss public radio and television, RTS. Two perpetrators have been sanctioned, it was revealed on Friday. The wide-ranging probe was launched last year by RTS (and SWI swis...

Business, tourism and trade union leaders have put forward an action plan to get Swiss air transport back in action as the coronavirus pandemic drags on. The “Back in the Air” plan was presented to Swiss President Guy Parmelin at Zurich airport ...

The European Commission (EC) has accused Switzerland of time-wasting and of failing to take responsibility for finding a solution to finalise an institutional “framework agreement” aimed at simplifying future ties between the two sides. The damn...

Swiss courts dealt with 52 major cases of economic crime last year that amounted to CHF355 million ($384 million) in losses, the consultancy firm KPMG said on Thursday. Public institutions were especially targeted by fraudsters. The total number of ...

Roughly half of Swiss workers want their employer to play an active role in encouraging staff to take the jab against the coronavirus, a new survey shows. Of the 1,500 people polled by the consulting firm Deloitte, 49% believed vaccination was a pri...

Pharmaceutical companies are currently among the most innovative firms in the world alongside tech and software giants such as Apple and Alphabet, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). But Swiss pharma companies rank low in their latest Top...

The Swiss media have reacted with surprise, relief and concern following yesterday’s government decision to further relax Covid restrictions despite the country falling short on pre-determined benchmarks. The step taken by the Federal Council (exe...

A Zurich study supports findings by OECD experts that school closures do more harm than good and should be avoided if possible as a response to Covid-19. The two separate studies were unveiled in parallel on Wednesday. Speaking at a virtual event to...

The Swiss government has approved an agreement with Britain on mutual recognition of companies with “AEO” customs security approval, designed to facilitate trade. This agreement is “intended to reduce technical barriers to trade and facilita...

The Swiss government has run up a deficit of CHF14.2 billion ($15.4 billion), according to its consolidated financial statement for last year. This negative result is largely due to the impact of the crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, accord...

The Swiss government has defended a new anti-terrorism law that will be put to a nationwide referendum in June and that includes restrictive measures on child suspects. Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy a committee collected signature...

Switzerland allocated CHF3.34 billion ($3.62 billion) in official development assistance in 2020, accounting for 0.48% of gross national income (GNI). This was CHF263 million more than in 2019, largely because of financial assistance linked to the ...

The Solar Impulse Foundation has identified 1,000 “clean and profitable” solutions to address sustainability challenges while enabling economic growth. These technologies and products will be brought together in a guide for individuals, businesse...

In March, the economy temporarily reached the pre-crisis levels of the fourth quarter of 2019 before shrinking again. On Tuesday, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) shared the results of its weekly economic activity index (WEA), whi...

Switzerland holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s smallest commemorative coin and oldest coin still in circulation. The quarter-franc gold coin issued by the Federal Mint has been recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world’s...

The youth wings of Switzerland’s major political parties saw a significant increase in membership in 2020. The trend can be seen on both the left and the right of the political spectrum, according to data published on Tuesday by the Tamedia media...

Swiss voters look set to have the last word on a historic same-sex marriage law after opponents on Monday handed in signatures demanding a national referendum. Around 59,000 verified signatures were handed in by a committee in Bern, two days after t...

Greenhouse gas emissions fell slightly in Switzerland in 2019 but not enough for the country to meet its 2020 targets. Switzerland was responsible for the emission of 46.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2019, the Federal Office for the Environm...

Pressure is building on the Swiss government to ease restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises on Monday called for a review of the current situation, saying the governm...

The pandemic and measures taken by authorities to fight it have exacerbated feelings of loneliness, sadness and anxiety among children, says the chief psychologist at Zurich Children’s Hospital, where more than twice as many suicide attempts by you...

The PCR tests, bought last spring by the Swiss government as part of an emergency reserve, have expired, costing the authorities millions of francs in losses. In 2020 over a million coronavirus tests were purchased by the Swiss army pharmacy on beha...

The Swiss foreign affairs minister Ignazio Cassis believes he should accompany the president Guy Parmelin to the European capital for final negotiations on a proposed institutional framework deal that has stalled over Swiss misgivings. “No other F...

Officers fired teargas at a group of protestors who defied a cantonal ban on demonstrations in Altdorf on Saturday afternoon, as other Swiss cities remained relatively calm despite social media calls for large protests this weekend. Around 500 oppon...

Elderly participants who trained regularly on a fitness device developed by a Swiss company showed improvements in cognitive skills, such as attention, concentration, memory and orientation. The study, carried out by an international team in two Bel...

The Swiss pharmaceutical company is recruiting workers to join its new plant in southern Switzerland, where three production lines have been set up to manufacture an active ingredient of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. So far the firm has hired 650 ne...