Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis and his counterpart from Kazakhstan, Mukhtar Tileuberdi, have signed accords on diplomatic staff. They also discussed bilateral issues, including long-standing cooperation in their common voting constituencies o...

Swiss children and adolescents have significantly stepped up their physical activities between 2014 and early 2020, according to a government study. The Swiss Sport 2020 study also found the gender gap has narrowed and that the urban-rural divide w...

A group that hacked a Swiss town’s database and posted sensitive information on the Darknet has threatened to target other municipalities, companies or hospitals. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported on Monday that it had established contact with...

The Swiss authorities have granted a third canton permission to cull a problematic wolf pack responsible for attacks on sheep. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) decided on Monday that three young wolves from the Beverin pack in the sout...

Canton Glarus’s traditional open-air assembly (Landsgemeinde), the oldest form of direct democracy in Switzerland, resumed on Sunday after a long hiatus on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Voters gathered in the ring on Zaunplatz at the canton...

Switzerland is carrying out its largest ever aid operation in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine, the government announced Sunday. Switzerland is providing 2,300 tonnes of aid including water treatment chemicals, hospital equipment and medical mat...

Swiss climate experts propose the introduction of an individual CO2 budget so Switzerland can reach its goal of “net zero greenhouse gas emissions” by 2050. The radical proposal for Swiss climate policy was presented in the Sunday weekly newspap...

Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has reservations on the use of a mandatory heath certificate for daily life in Switzerland. In an interview with the SonntagsBlick newspaper published on Sunday, he said it would be “difficult” to require the populat...

Schools in German-speaking Switzerland registered a spike in the number of people infected with the coronavirus after the summer vacations. The weekly SonntagsZeitung conducted a survey of the 13 German-speaking cantons and found almost all register...

Defence Minister Viola Amherd is standing by the government’s decision to buy F-35A jets despite pushback from a left-wing coalition. "I am convinced of the decision because we made a very serious, good evaluation," the defence minister told Swiss...

Switzerland plans to repatriate around 80 people currently suffering from Covid-19, a health official confirmed on Saturday. The Armed Forces Medical Service informed the cantons about the plan on Friday. About half of those affected fell ill while ...

Learning strategies and teaching models trigger fierce debates among educators. Researchers at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich have concluded that tackling a problem independently before receiving instruction delivers the best outcomes. T...

Music lovers are paying tribute to Swiss conductor and choirmaster Michel Corboz who has died at 87. The charismatic musician, specialized in the vocal arts and sacred music, died on Thursday of heart failure following an operation, his wife said on...

A dispute over reforms to the Swiss old-age pension scheme continues. Trade unions have rejected recent proposals and call for a national demonstration in Bern on September 18. Reforms of the state old-age pension scheme that are on the table are an...

The Federal Court, Switzerland’s highest court, on Friday ruled that a 15-person limit on political gatherings in Bern during the pandemic was unconstitutional, but it admitted a limit of 300, introduced by canton Uri. The Federal Court was ruling...

Yields from organic farming are more than 20% lower than with conventional methods, but organic farming is twice as environmentally friendly, a Swiss study has found. A field that is farmed organically has 230% more plant species diversity than a c...

Rail passengers were put in “the greatest” danger after a Swiss Federal Railways (CFF/SBB) technician tampered with hundreds of brake controls last year, it has been revealed. A ruling by the Federal Administrative Court, published on Friday by ...

Almost half of Swiss workers would like to continue spending part of their working week at home, slightly below the global average, a new survey shows. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a shift to remote working. Firms are now grappling with their back-t...

Former US Vice President Mike Pence has spoken in favour of a free-trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Switzerland. The idea of reviving FTA talks has been rumbling on for several years. “If the Trump administration had been able t...

An official celebration has been held in the Swiss parliament building to mark 50 years since women gained the right to vote in Switzerland. Tribute has been paid to the pioneers of the women’s movement. Some 150 people from politics, business, sc...

Zurich choreographer and performer Martin Zimmermann has been awarded the country’s top prize for the performing arts. Zimmermann will receive the Swiss Grand Award for the Performing Arts/Hans Reinhart Ring 2021, worth CHF100,000 ($109,000), the ...

Switzerland’s economy grew by 1.8% in the second quarter thanks to stronger household consumption as the easing of Covid-19 restrictions helped reverse earlier declines. “In the second quarter, total GDP [gross domestic product] was only 0.5% lo...

International rail traffic, including connections between Germany and Switzerland, have been disrupted by striking German train drivers. Various Deutsche Bahn trains, including Swiss connections, have been cancelled from Thursday September 2 at 2am ...

The federal technology institute ETH Zurich has performed strongly again in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2022. Seven Swiss universities feature in the top 200. ETH Zurich dropped one place in the ranking to 15th, but it...

The government is beefing up its defences against cyberattacks, focusing on a command centre comprising 575 members of the armed forces who will be trained over the coming years. “Not a day goes by without a cyberattack,” Defence Minister Viola ...

Trainers for the Swiss Gymnastics Federation’s (STV) women’s team have resigned en masse following an ethics investigation that upheld athletes’ complaints of psychological abuse and a series of poor performances. The ethics committee’s repo...

The president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, has called on Kosovars in Switzerland to get vaccinated. Everyone must assume their responsibility in the pandemic, she said. Speaking at the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF), which opened in Interlaken on Wed...

The government has announced a CHF60 million ($65.6 million) programme to help Swiss tourism recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said the funds could help attract foreign guests back to Switzerland and boost business ...

Switzerland has come under pressure from Syria and Turkey after Syrian Kurds opened a “representation office” in Geneva. Damascus has sent a letter of protest to Bern, and in Ankara the Swiss embassy’s chief of mission has been summoned to the ...

The resident population of Switzerland grew by 64,300 people to 8,670,300 last year, an increase of 0.7%, despite the sharp increase in deaths caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The population grew in all 26 cantons apart from Neuchâtel, Appenzell Ou...