Switzerland has suspended repatriations to Afghanistan “until further notice owing to the changed situation in the country”, according to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). No new deportations of rejected asylum-seekers will be ordered, ...

The Swiss government says it is too soon to lift remaining pandemic restrictions, such as the compulsory wearing of masks in public spaces. At the same time, the government cranked up pressure on people who refuse to get vaccinated. It wants to stop...

Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga has presented government plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. She said the proposal was a counter-project to a people’s initiative handed in by a broad alliance of climate organisations...

Open Doors, a project of the Locarno Film Festival that “shines a light on emerging filmmaking countries and helps them grow”, is moving its three-year focus from Southeast Asia and Mongolia to Latin America and the Caribbean. The 2022-2024 peri...

Switzerland’s budget will face a record shortfall of CHF17.4 billion ($18.9 billion) this year, according to early estimates. This follows a CHF14.2 billion deficit in 2020. Parliament has approved CHF21 billion in extraordinary expenditure to tac...

The Swiss government, keen to improve its strained relationship with the European Union, has adopted a dispatch to be brought before parliament “at the earliest opportunity” to release an EU cohesion payment. The cohesion contribution, a CHF1.2 ...

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity involving Swiss companies leapt 70% in the first half of the year, demonstrating that business is returning to normal after the Covid-19 pandemic. Consultancy firm KPMG reports that 256 deals were struck in the ...

Wolf attacks on farm animals on Alpine pastures have taken on a “new dimension”, according to the Swiss Farmers’ Union, which is calling for “new solutions to contain the growing wolf population”. The union said in a statement on Tuesday i...

A report by the leading Swiss bank UBS has found an increased risk of a real estate bubble forming in Switzerland’s housing market. The UBS Swiss real estate bubble index has risen from 1.78 to 1.90 points, in the second quarter of 2021, remaining...

Opponents of a proposal to introduce a capital gains tax in Switzerland have launched their campaigns ahead of a nationwide vote on September 26. Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said the initiative by the left-wing Young Socialists was creating uncerta...

There was a big jump in the number of coronavirus infections and hospitalisations in Switzerland on Tuesday. There were 1,910 new cases, up 80% on last Tuesday, according to Federal Office of Public Health statistics. Hospitalisations totalled 287, ...

The summer tourism season in Switzerland is “just as bad” this year as in 2020, the national marketing body Switzerland Tourism says. The reasons: Covid-19 and the weather. A season-end survey of sector members showed that summer 2021 had been c...

A Swiss man has been kidnapped in southwestern Nigeria. Gunmen opened fire on his police escort. The Swiss foreign ministry on Monday confirmed reports about the abduction last week, also involving a Nigerian driver, on a road linking the towns of I...

A Swiss fraudster and his French accomplice, who together cheated Swiss pharma giant Roche out of €8.35 million (CHF11.7 million), have been sentenced to prison. The Basel City criminal court on Monday handed down prison terms of 39 months and 51 ...

The Swiss medical regulator has extended an authorisation of Moderna’s anti-Covid-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12-17. Swissmedic said it reviewed an application for the Moderna vaccine, Spikevax, based on an ongoing study with 3,732 children. ...

Extreme weather events are set to become more frequent in Switzerland as well as globally, say the Swiss scientists who contributed to the United Nation’s latest climate report, published on Monday. Switzerland runs the risk of experiencing more h...

Murat Yakin has been named the new manager of Switzerland, replacing Vladimir Petkovic, who left after taking the team to the European Championship quarterfinals in July. The 46-year-old Yakin signed a contract until the end of World Cup qualificati...

Special prosecutor Stefan Keller, who was removed from an investigation into FIFA president Gianni Infantino, has said various aspects of the Swiss justice system had an interest in seeing him “sidelined”. In May, Keller stepped aside from the i...

Around 500 people have protested in front of a Swiss appeals court that last month reduced the prison sentence of a rapist. The judge argued that the rape lasted only 11 minutes and that the victim had been “playing with fire” and had not been se...

The alleged murderer of a 57-year-old Swiss woman found dead on the Thai island of Phuket has confessed to the crime. He has been charged with murder and robbery resulting in death. The 27-year-old Thai told a press conference, which he attended by ...

If the Covid-19 pandemic develops favourably in Switzerland, Health Minister Alain Berset has mentioned the possibility of relaxing restrictions soon. However, the government’s main aim is to avoid another lockdown. “If things go well, further r...

A criminal investigation of alleged wrongdoing by staff at European football’s governing body UEFA led to police raids at the organisation’s headquarters in Switzerland. Two people were arrested in April and detained until this week, canton Vaud...

US President Joe Biden has nominated LGBTQ rights activist and philanthropist Scott Miller to serve as his administration’s envoy to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Miller, a former account vice president at UBS Wealth Management in Denver, and his...

Switzerland has responded to a call for international firefighting assistance from Greece, which has been hit by major wildfires. The blazes have been threatening populated areas, electricity installations and historic sites. Thousands of people hav...

Switzerland has pledged medical aid worth CHF5 million ($5.5 million) to Vietnam, which is battling a severe coronavirus outbreak. The delivery of Swiss humanitarian aid will include 13 tons of medical material, including respirators, as well as ant...

Around 1,500 people gathered in the Swiss capital Bern on Friday to protest the Swiss National Bank’s investments in fossil fuels. The demonstration was the culmination of a week of action by Rise Up for Change, a group bringing together activist ...

Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga and John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, have called for a rapid phase-out of coal energy and ambitious efforts by the G20 countries to reduce climate-damaging emissions. In a virtual ex...

Thai authorities are looking into the death of a 57-year-old Swiss tourist after her body was found near a waterfall on the resort island of Phuket, with signs she had died of unnatural causes, officials said on Friday. The woman was visiting under ...

Geneva will be the first Swiss canton to require workers in the health and social care sector to have a valid Covid-19 certificate or undertake regular testing. The decision was made by local authorities on Thursday and goes into effect from August ...

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has reported an operating loss of CHF398 million ($440 million) for the first six months of the year. The global coronavirus pandemic, which had devastating effects on air transport, continues to hurt the compan...