One year after a devastating explosion in Beirut, the humanitarian charity Swiss Solidarity has given CHF6 million ($6.6 million) to relief projects. In total, the organisation received CHF7.6 million in donations. On August 4, 2020, ammonium nitrat...

With inoculation rates slowing, Swiss health officials have launched a campaign asking non-vaccinated travellers to get tested after returning from their summer trips. “Even if you don’t have symptoms, get tested after the holidays”: this is t...

A majority (70%) of Swiss believe it’s important to avoid emissions in their everyday lives, although fewer are likely to back up their views with action, according to a survey. There were no significant differences between women and men, but the ...

While the Swiss government wants to make amends with the EU by releasing the so-called “cohesion billions” as soon as possible, the Senate is in no hurry. The cohesion contribution, a CHF1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) payment to be made to the Europ...

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis concluded on Monday a two-day visit to Thailand. High-level talks focused on boosting bilateral cooperation and the possibility of a free trade agreement. Both nations have expressed interest in starting negotia...

A Swiss-Bulgarian journalist denied information about his inclusion on the Schengen Information System (SIS) has been partially vindicated by a Federal Court decision. According to the decision published on Monday, the journalist’s query over his ...

Some 200 climate activists blocked the entrances to major UBS and Credit Suisse branches in central Zurich on Monday morning, protesting the banks' investments in fossil fuel projects. The activists occupied the front of the Credit Suisse headquarte...

A former Swiss government official is facing trial in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals to have hit the public sector in recent years. The trial of the former civil servant accused of corruption in the purchase of computer equi...

The Swiss government hopes to meet part of its climate goals by burying CO2 in Iceland, according to a report on Monday by Swiss public broadcaster RTS. A driver of climate change, CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. ...

Guy Parmelin is against coercing Swiss residents to get vaccinated against Covid-19 but warns they will face restrictions and costs. In an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag paper published on Sunday, Parmelin said that he respected the decision of ...

A demonstration against the restrictions linked to the coronavirus saw almost 5,000 people gather in central Swiss city of Lucerne. A counter-demonstration also took place. On Saturday, critics of the government’s coronavirus policy marched throug...

For the first time, data on the percentage of vaccinated health personnel in a hospital or medical facility will be made publicly available. The figures will be shared from Sunday in an anonymised manner in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino follow...

A Swiss dog team specialised in searching for cadavers will be deployed in Germany following the devastating floods. On Saturday, a dog team left for the German town of Dernau in the Ahr Valley, where floods caused enormous devastation two weeks ag...

The Swiss Fawn Rescue organisation has saved 2,569 baby deer from being killed by mowers this year, almost twice as many as last year. This was made possible by drones and thermal-imaging cameras, which helped not only to track down baby deer, but a...

Fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, online commerce in Switzerland has continued to grow steadily in the first six months of the year. Teleshopping grew by 15% in the first half of 2021 after already gaining 30% in 2020, says a report published on Fri...

Strong mobilisation against agricultural initiatives contributed to Swiss voters’ narrow rejection last month of a CO2 law central to government environmental policy, according to an analysis. Those who voted against the law also thought its cost-...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has announced a profit of CHF43.5 billion ($48 billion) for the first half of 2021, representing a record 55.6% increase on the same period last year. This came mostly from gains (CHF44.5 billion) on its foreign currenc...

Jean-Pierre Hocké, a Swiss humanitarian official who headed the United Nations’ refugee agency in the late 1980s, has died. He was 83. Hocké died in Lausanne on Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Thursday. The current ...

A German court has ruled that the golden colour of the foil wrap on Swiss firm Lindt & Sprüngli’s popular chocolate Easter Bunny enjoys protected status. The Federal Court of Justice delivered its verdict on Thursday in a battle between Lindt and...

A Swiss court has rejected world football body FIFA’s bid to revive a criminal probe against its former president, Sepp Blatter, over a 2005 deal with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to sell World Cup broadcasting rights. The Swiss Office of th...

The ancient beech forests on the Bettlachstock in the Solothurn Jura and in the Val di Lodano in Ticino are now World Heritage sites. UNESCO, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, included them along with nine other forests i...

The Swiss government has put on ice any further loosening of Covid-19 restrictions, preferring to wait until after the summer holidays to make a decision on next steps. The government was due on Thursday to send to cantons its proposed steps for the...

After the fanfare of the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva in June, discreet follow-up talks between high-level officials have been taking place in the Swiss city. The US State department described Wednesday's talks at the US diplomatic mission in Geneva...

Switzerland has sent around CHF9 million ($9.8 million) worth of anti-Covid-19 equipment to Thailand, which is facing its worst wave yet of the pandemic. The aid includes around 100 respirators and more than one million antigen tests, according to t...

People with foreign-sounding names are less likely to be elected in Switzerland, according to a study by the universities of Lucerne and Geneva. The authors of the study analysed 600,000 ballots from the 2015 federal parliament elections. These cont...

Wilson’s provisional ban for an anti-doping violation, which had been suspended by Swiss Olympic, has been reinstated with immediate effect, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Wednesday. Jamaica-born Wilson, who is registered to comp...

Swiss living in non-EU countries who have received a Covid vaccine not approved in Switzerland – that of AstraZeneca, for example – are not eligible for a valid Covid Certificate here. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) confirmed on Wedn...

Vladimir Petkovic has left the national football team to join French club Bordeaux. Petkovic was the most successful coach in the country’s history. Following a few days of media speculation, the Swiss Football Association confirmed the departure ...

Older people who decide to get vaccinated against Covid-19 mainly want to protect their own health, while younger ones want to travel and live again, as well as protecting the more vulnerable in society. That is according to an online survey of som...

Swiss federal prosecutors have dropped a controversial decade-long investigation into alleged Russian money-laundering in a case that has been linked to the 2009 death in jail of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The Office of the Attorney General ...