The Swiss aviation sector, which includes Swiss International Air Lines and Zurich Airport, has pledged to slash CO2 emissions and make flying net zero by 2050. On Tuesday, Zurich, Geneva and Basel airports, together with SWISS, Easyjet, and the umb...

Top health officials are optimistic about the steadily improving Covid-19 situation in Switzerland. With case numbers dropping and vaccinations growing, next week should see the launch of the Covid certificate. A day after the latest set of easings ...

The internet giant continues to grow in the Swiss city – its most important research and development location outside the United States. Google has agreed to rent new offices extending over 15,000 square metres at Müllerstrasse in the Kreis 4 dis...

A downsized Montreux Jazz Festival is set to go ahead in July thanks to the easing of Covid restrictions. Woodkid, Rag'n'Bone Man, Zucchero and Fatoumata Diawara are among the headliners, the organisers said on Tuesday. The “Small is beautiful” ...

The number of people working in the culture sector fell by almost 5% last year in Switzerland – a similar drop to that seen in the hotel and accommodation sector. Figures published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) showed a total of 298,000 ...

Swiss gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 3.2% in 2021, upgraded from 2.2% in the previous forecast, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The organisation predicts GDP growth of 2.2% in 2022 ...

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) announced on Monday that it will require major banks and insurance companies to report transparently on climate-related financial risks in the future. Separately, a study ranking Swiss banks’...

The Swiss Federal Audit Office says it is worried by a surge in fraud cases linked to the short-time working system, a key pillar of the country’s economic response to Covid-19. The office’s director Michel Huissoud told public radio SRF on Mond...

After a slow start, the rate of vaccinations against Covid-19 in Switzerland is now among the best in the world, reports the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. At the start of the year, the Swiss authorities were criticised for dragging their heels on vacci...

It is not in the European Union’s interests to punish Switzerland following the collapse of talks on the future of bilateral relations, the Swiss president has warned. “The EU would harm itself by torpedoing trade relations with one of its most ...

Switzerland has agreed in principle to offset part of its carbon emissions reduction target by supporting green projects in Thailand. The official joint statement with the Thai authorities marks the fourth country that Switzerland has identified as ...

Several thousand cyclists took police by surprise by attending a mass demonstration in Zurich to highlight the dangers posed by motorised traffic. Two people were slightly injured during the demonstration on Friday evening. Zurich police said they h...

The debris from a crashed Swiss army fighter jet was partially removed from a mountain by helicopters on Saturday – three days after the accident. The wreckage of the Tiger F-5 jet was cut into three parts before being lifted off the mountain to b...

The Swiss authorities have launched a criminal probe into the leak of confidential documents concerning the now failed negotiations with the European Union over future political relations. “I can confirm that the Federal Council [government] has f...

The coronavirus pandemic is subsiding, Swiss government experts say. Pregnant women in the second trimester may now get vaccinated against the virus. All the important coronavirus indicators are going in the right direction, said Patrick Mathys, hea...

The outlook for the Swiss economy for the middle of 2021 can be regarded as “very positive”, provided that the containment of the virus continues to progress, the KOF Swiss Economic Institute says. The KOF Economic Barometer for May stands at 14...

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has approved the establishment of a national genomic surveillance programme for new Covid-19 variants. The nationwide surveillance programme will help to monitor the evolution of the various variants...

Installing wind turbines and solar panels in Alpine regions is the most effective way for Switzerland to become carbon neutral and energy self-sufficient, a study has concluded. The “optimal scenario” suggests adding new capacity in a ratio of 7...

Swiss bank Julius Bär has agreed to pay $79.7 million (CHF71.5 million) in a settlement with the US Department of Justice after being implicated in a sprawling corruption probe surrounding FIFA, world football’s governing body. Julius Bär has en...

From Thursday evening, people entering Switzerland from the United Kingdom must fill out an electronic entry form, provide a negative coronavirus test and go into ten-day quarantine after arrival. The amended quarantine list was updated on Thursday....

More young men tend to be overweight than young women, according to a study of schoolchildren in Basel, Bern and Zurich. Some 14,000 children and teenagers were put on the scales during the 2019-2020 school year, with 17.1% of them recorded as overw...

Switzerland spent CHF22.9 billion ($25.5 billion) on research and development in 2019. At 3.15% of GDP, this is above the OECD average of 2.38%. Switzerland is currently ranked sixth in the 38-member OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and ...

The price of medical drugs in Switzerland remains higher than in other major European markets, especially for generic drugs, which are almost twice as expensive. Patented drugs also cost more. The reason for the increased price difference for patent...

The Swiss government has announced further steps to ease Covid-19 restrictions as the average number of new daily infections drops below 1,000 for the first time since October. Restaurants will be allowed to serve guests indoors as of next Monday an...

The Swiss foreign ministry says it has no knowledge of a bomb threat issued from Switzerland concerning a plane forced to land in Belarus on Sunday. “The Swiss authorities have no knowledge of a bomb threat on the Ryanair Athens-Vilnius flight,”...

A Swiss F-5 Tiger fighter jet has crashed in the Swiss Alps, but the pilot managed to escape unhurt. The defence ministry said the incident happened in an uninhabited area near the resort of Melchsee-Frutt in central Switzerland on Wednesday. The p...

United States President Joe Biden will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the neutral ground of Geneva next month in an attempt to patch up deteriorating relations between the two super-powers. “The leaders will discuss the full range ...

A working group led by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has called for better detection and support for potential victims of trafficking within the Swiss asylum system. “The discovery and recognition of potential victims of human traffick...

Valais, the southwestern canton home to industrial, pharmaceutical and watchmaking firms, has been named the least expensive place for families with children to live in Switzerland. Expat workers love Switzerland’s high wages and landscape but fre...

The Covid-19 pandemic cost Switzerland CHF11 billion ($12.3 billion) in short-time working payments last year, with around 20% of the money helping to prop up the hard-hit gastronomy sector. The figures were revealed by the State Secretariat for Eco...