Switzerland needs to invest CHF13 billion a year ($14 billion), the equivalent of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), over the next three decades to meet its 2050 carbon-zero goal, a study has found. The joint study by the Swiss Bankers Association ...

Generic drugs are now two and a half times more expensive in Switzerland than in other European countries, according to the Swiss price watchdog. Price supervisor Stefan Meierhans has demanded that parliament vote in favour of a proposal to introduc...

A Swiss doctors’ association has warned of a “very steep” rise in the number of seriously ill Covid-19 patients - mostly unvaccinated - in intensive care in the past few days. Many of them are young people. “Health teams in intensive care un...

Several Swiss cities have added their voice to growing demands for Switzerland to open its doors to refugees from Afghanistan. On Wednesday, government ministers said they were concentrating on evacuating Swiss nationals and around 230 locals who wo...

Twelve months after Switzerland's top federal prosecutor left under a cloud, a parliamentary commission has proposed Stefan Blättler, the current head of Bern’s cantonal police, as Switzerland's new attorney general. Parliament will vote on his ca...

Switzerland has sent a team of seven specialists to Haiti as the death toll from a recent earthquake tops the 2,000 mark. The 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit the southwestern part of the country on Saturday has also injured around 12,000 people an...

From 2024, large Swiss firms will be legally bound to report on their climate-related risks. The government has now published guidelines on which companies and which risks will be involved. The rules will apply to public and private companies with o...

The government has agreed to take in about 230 people from war-torn Afghanistan but has no plans for now to accept larger groups of refugees. Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said she understood the concerns of many Afghans worried about the Tal...

The government wants to widen its Covid-19 vaccination programme to include Swiss citizens living abroad and their families, as well as cross-border workers commuting to Switzerland. On Wednesday the government launched a consultation procedure to a...

The government has decided against introducing state-run training courses for imams as a way of preventing the potential radicalisation of extremist preachers. A religious neutrality clause in the Swiss constitution and an international comparison l...

The Swiss government and several Swiss humanitarian aid organisations have sent or are planning to send money and help to Haiti following last Saturday’s earthquake. The government will send around CHF1 million ($1.09 million), the foreign ministr...

There are still 28 registered Swiss nationals in Afghanistan, where the situation remains uncertain after the Taliban seized control of capital Kabul. The Swiss embassy in neighbouring Pakistan is in contact with the remaining Swiss nationals, accor...

Daily new Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Switzerland, although hospital admissions and intensive care numbers are still manageable, officials said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately things are going in a direction we didn’t hope for,” said Patrick...

Citizens can benefit from the growing importance of digital media to make their voices heard in Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, but the risks of abuse must not be underestimated, find three new studies. TA Swiss, an independent advisory ...

A committee worried that e-payments will lead to financial surveillance or systemic malfunctions in Switzerland has launched an initiative to prevent any future phasing-out of cash. At the campaign launch on Tuesday, the Swiss Freedom Movement said ...

The Federal Office of Public Health has launched a new Covid vaccination campaign to boost the flagging inoculation rate in Switzerland. Just under 50% of the population have been double-jabbed. Owing to the slowdown in people willing to get a jab a...

The first large-scale studies since a new pay equality law was introduced last year have shown that a huge majority of firms do not discriminate in paying men and women. The analyses, reported by the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, come a year a...

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer is set to undergo surgery on his right knee for the third time and will be sidelined for many months, missing the upcoming US Open. In a video posted on Instagram on Sunday, Federer said doctors told him that in order...

Swiss helicopters and crews have successfully completed their emergency firefighting mission in Greece. The three Super Puma helicopters together with the Swiss Humanitarian Aid rapid repsonse team answered a call for help from the Greek authorities...

Laboratories that process Covid-19 tests in Switzerland have criticised a proposal to have them weed out cheats. On Wednesday, the government said that intensive testing will continue to be a crucial pillar of future pandemic strategy. This include...

Health Minister Alain Berset has urged companies to back the government’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign, arguing it is in the economy's interest to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Speaking to the SonntagsBlick newspaper on Sunday, Berse...

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash has been named the best movie at the 74th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The film by Indonesian director Edwin, based on the novel of the same title by Eka Kurniawan, was awarded the Golden Leopard prize...

Switzerland says it will withdraw its remaining Swiss staff in Afghanistan, given the worsening security situation there. At a press conference arranged in the Swiss capital Bern on Friday evening, State Secretary Livia Leu said that all Swiss Feder...

Switzerland has imposed sanctions on eight more top Nicaraguan officials, including vice-president Rosario Maria Murillo Zambrana – in line with a decision by the European Union. The move comes at a time of international isolation of President Dan...

Work has started on dismantling the Tamoil refinery in southwestern Switzerland after efforts to find a new buyer came to nothing. The Collombey site, which once employed 238 people in the region processing 55,000 barrels of oil a day, announced it ...

Italian director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino (La Grande Bellezza) will receive an honorary award for his work at the 17th Zurich Film Festival (ZFF). The “A Tribute to... Award” will be presented to the auteur filmmaker at the premiere of ...

Natural catastrophes cost the insurance industry $40 billion (CHF37 billion) in the first half of 2021, according to preliminary figures published by reinsurer Swiss Re on Thursday. Economic losses caused by natural and human-caused disasters have...

Swiss trade unions are demanding an increase of wages in 2022 across sectors, with bigger boosts for workers in sectors that helped weather the pandemic and are driving economic recovery. The trade union umbrella organisation Travail Suisse and the...

The Swiss government has announced further economic sanctions against Belarus, including trade prohibitions as well as restrictions in the financial sector. Western governments have been ramping up the pressure on the country’s authoritarian regim...

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, ...