The Swiss government has set out plans to contain the impact of a potential new wave of Covid-19 infections later this year. At the same time, it said it will donate four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Covax global distribution allia...

The Swiss government wants to upgrade the country’s air defence system by buying 36 F-35A fighter aircraft from United States manufacturer Lockheed Martin and five Patriot surface-to-air missile units from another US firm Raytheon. The Federal Cou...

A new type of Covid-19 certificate will be available in Switzerland from next month that hides personal health data from prying eyes. The “light” certificate will be an electronic copy of the original Covid-19 document. It will prove that the or...

The Swiss justice authorities have opened a criminal probe into a suspected kickback scheme in Ecuador involving commodity trading companies in Geneva. The proceedings are aimed at clarifying “whether in relation to this complex of facts any offen...

Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has ruled out massive spending cuts to cope with the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland. In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper, Maurer said it should be possible to reduce the debt...

“Dad full-time, mum part-time” is the employment model in Switzerland for 53% of families with children aged under 25. This is followed by “dad earns the bread, mum bakes it”, according to latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office. ...

The operators of Germany's main stock exchange have paid more than CHF100 million ($108 million) for a majority stake in Swiss cryptocurrency service provider Crypto Finance. The move reflects a growing trend of traditional financial institutions ge...

Opponents of the planned partial abolition of a tax on financial transactions in Switzerland are seeking to challenge it to a nationwide vote. Left-wing parties including the Social Democrats and the Greens as well as trade unions on Tuesday launche...

While the Covid-19 pandemic has caused existential hardship for many employees, CEOs and shareholders have “shamelessly helped themselves”, according to a union study. “The pay gap remains wide open at a very high level,” trade union Unia wr...

The Swiss national football team has reached the quarterfinals of a major tournament for the first time since 1954 with a dramatic victory against France. Switzerland beat the reigning world champions 5-4 on penalties after the two sides traded thre...

The United States has extended its requests for Swiss banks to disclose full details of client accounts held by US citizens. Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration on Monday published a list of 40 banks, fiduciary firms and insurance companies. ...

A French court has rejected a challenge filed by Swiss bank UBS linked to constitutional aspects of its French tax case. This confirms that judges will rule in September on the bank’s appeal against a €4.5 billion (CHF4.9 billion) fine. UBS is l...

Official figures have confirmed the economic shock to Swiss tourism caused by the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Revenue from international tourism fell by almost 48% to CHF9.4 billion ($10.3 billion), reaching the same level seen in the early 1990s, ...

Convictions for drug abuse among minors dropped last year in Switzerland, but young people committed more violent crimes, according to official statistics. The authorities recorded a 23% increase in violent crimes. The 7,944 verdicts included assaul...

Swiss banks have some catching up to do when it comes to structural change and digitalisation, says Ralph Hamers, CEO of Swiss bank UBS. In his opinion structural change has taken place much faster in other countries and industries than in Switzerlan...

Swiss volunteer fire brigades are finding it difficult to cope with the rise in extreme weather events in the country. On Sunday, news agency Keystone-SDA reported that at least 200 army personnel were being deployed to the village of Cressier in ...

Ahead of the Swiss government’s decision on a major fighter jet contract, Airbus has made an appeal to the Swiss government to choose a European firm after leaked information from the government revealed US firm Lockheed Martin was out ahead of com...

Switzerland plans to boost its Covid-19 vaccination campaign over the summer with the aim to reach 80% of the population according to the Sunday papers. This comes amid growing concerns about the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant. To date, a...

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer plans to reassess whether he will compete at the Tokyo Olympics after Wimbledon, which begins on Monday. During a press conference on Saturday, Federer told reporters that he wanted to wait and see how the tournamen...

Swiss immunology experts estimate mRNA vaccination could provide more than two times the length of protection against severe Covid-19 infection than natural infection. In a policy brief published on Friday, the Swiss National Covid Science Task Forc...

In an interview in the Schweiz am Wochenende newspaper, Guy Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency, said that it would be “very unfortunate” but not surprising if Switzerland were classified as a third country in Europe’s flagship Ho...

The Swiss Federal Court has rejected foreign sex workers’ access to compensation for lost pay due to the coronavirus pandemic. Switzerland’s highest court said on Friday that temporary workers were barred from short-time work payouts because of ...

The blind and visually impaired should have better access to regular education and training courses, campaigners have argued. “Professional integration is a book with seven seals. One of the seven seals concerns education,” Daniela Moser from th...

Researchers in Switzerland can participate in calls for project proposals under Horizon Europe, despite the country not being officially associated to the European research-funding programme, Swiss officials say. But there will be limitations. Switz...

The Montreux Jazz Festival has cancelled the concerts of four British artists. It did this to comply with current conditions of entry into Switzerland from the UK for travellers who are not fully vaccinated. Soul singer Rag’n’Bone Man, one of th...

Switzerland profited from the free movement of people with the EU/EFTA states during the Covid-19 crisis, a government report has concluded. The healthcare sector in particular benefited from the free movement of people and the recruitment opportuni...

After rejecting the framework agreement with the European Union last month, Switzerland must now choose the model for interacting with the bloc’s internal market, says the EU ambassador to Switzerland. In an opinion piece published in Le Temps new...

A contact tracing system that alerts users of proximity to people infected with coronavirus was the most downloaded app in Switzerland last year. The SwissCovid app has been downloaded by 3,180,000 people since June 25, 2020. It has been declared a ...

Begging in the streets of the Swiss city of Basel will again be subject to strict rules amid months of public controversy. The parliament of canton Basel City agreed on a set of restrictions just short of a blanket ban on begging. It specifies areas...

Swiss scientists have developed a method for extracting water out of the air for use in countries that experience high humidity but suffer from a scarcity of groundwater. The federal technology institute ETH Zurich has designed a cone that self-cool...