Hackers have carried out a cyber attack against databases belonging to the Montreux authorities in southwestern Switzerland. This follows a similar hack earlier this year against the Rolle municipal authorities, also in canton Vaud. It is unclear wh...

Swiss Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga wants to simplify the approval of dams and wind turbines by putting an end to the flood of appeals. In future, only one appeal should be possible per project. By 2050 the government wants to further inc...

The Swiss government has hesitated about a third “booster” vaccination against Covid-19, but the president of the Federal Vaccination Commission predicts it should be available in Switzerland “in the November, December, January range”. “So...

Cabinet ministers and parliamentarians are increasingly exposed to threats on social media. However, these cases are just the tip of the iceberg, according to a newspaper report. Pressure for social media regulation is growing. Statistics from the F...

Some 6,000 people have taken to the streets in Geneva and Basel, demonstrating against the government’s efforts to combat Covid-19. In Geneva a demonstration against the Covid certificate and “restrictions on freedoms” brought together nearly ...

The three-day Fantasy Basel festival for fans of films, games, comics, cosplay and manga has re-opened its doors after a two-year break. Fantasy Basel, also known as the Swiss Comic Con, is one of the biggest events of its kind in Switzerland. Fans ...

An international team with representatives from Switzerland and with participation of Armasuisse, the federal office for defence procurement, has won the three-year Subterranean Challenge robotics competition. The contest is funded by DARPA (the Def...

After the OECD said on Friday it had finalised the details of a historic global corporate tax deal, Switzerland said it needed more time and clarifications before a full implementation. The deal, which includes a global minimum tax rate of 15% for b...

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday backed a Swiss-sponsored resolution to recognise a new fundamental right: access to “a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment”. The text, proposed by Switzerland, Costa Rica, the Maldives, Morocco ...

Since the start of the vine harvest in September, around 1.5 tonnes of grapes have been stolen in the winegrowing canton of Valais, police say. Police spokesman Stève Léger told public broadcaster RTS on Friday that seven grape thefts have been re...

Hundreds of fake Covid certificates have been issued in Geneva and in the western Swiss canton of Vaud, authorities said on Friday. Vaud police have opened an investigation, estimating that about 100 fakes were given to people who were neither vacci...

For the fifth time in a row, the Swiss postal system has been deemed the world’s best by the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The German and Austrian postal services came in second and third in 2021, said the UPU, which will present the award at its ...

The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to further accelerate Swiss industry’s move towards specialisation in a small group of high added-value sectors, says a new report. Out of every ten francs of Swiss industrial revenue in 2019, four came from just tw...

Some 500 opponents of government anti-Covid measures held a new unauthorised protest in the federal capital Bern on Thursday evening, with police using water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators. The demonstrators repeatedly ignored polic...

For the third year running, the Geneva International Motor Show will not take place in 2022 due to ongoing health concerns as well as supply shortages in the automotive sector. The decision comes just a week after organisers had in fact given the al...

Ransomware attacks by hackers continue to increase sharply, with some 2,700 Swiss firms falling victim over the past year, Beobachter magazine has reported. The figure for the period August 2020 to August 2021 was arrived at by American cybersecurit...

Switzerland is still number one in terms of wealth management internationally, despite the growth in new assets slowing in 2020, according to consulting firm Deloitte. The company found that overall, “the leading centres of international wealth ma...

United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised concerns about Beijing’s actions in a meeting with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Zurich on Wednesday. The closed-door talks at an airport hotel in the Swiss city were aimed at sm...

Ladislaus Löb, a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who fled to Switzerland before leading a career as a professor, author and translator, has died aged 88. Löb passed away on October 2, according to Anita Winter of the Gamaraal Foundation, a Swiss ...

Several Swiss cantons have objected to a government proposal to offer CHF50 ($54) vouchers to people who persuade others to take a Covid-19 vaccination. The idea was presented last week as part of a package of measures to boost vaccination rates in ...

A cross-party group has handed in signatures opposing a support package for the media passed by parliament in June. The “no to state media” group handed in some 113,000 signatures on Wednesday, more than double the amount needed to force a refer...

The Covid-19 pandemic has diminished the earnings of 11.3% of the Swiss population, according to official statistics. The negative impact on wages has been particularly severe for low-income workers (20%) and foreigners living in Switzerland (17%). ...

Six people have had their convictions upheld for detaining and attacking two other worshippers at a controversial mosque, which has since been shut down. The attack took place in the An’Nur mosque in the northeastern Swiss city of Winterthur in 20...

Top American and Chinese diplomats are meeting in Switzerland on Wednesday in talks aimed at smoothing tensions between the two powers. The meeting between US national security advisor Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi comes at a ti...

Non-claustrophobic passengers will soon be able to dive up to 100 metres into Lake Lucerne in a submarine. Two shipwrecks will be visited during the dives, which will start at the end of the year, explained Philippe Epelbaum, founder of the company ...

The Swiss hotel industry can look back on a good summer season despite frequent downpours. Many more beds were filled than last year, especially in the cities, and foreign tourists are returning. In June, July and August a good ten million guests st...

Left-wing political parties and trade unions have gathered enough public support to forge ahead with a challenge to the proposed partial abolition of tax on financial transactions. A referendum with 70,000 votes was handed in to the authorities on T...

Covid, the weather and the pig market were kind to farmers in 2020, with income increasing 6.7% compared with 2019. But this year is looking much bleaker. The average income last year was CHF79,200 ($85,500) per farm, CHF5,000 more than the year bef...

Swiss National Bank (SNB) vice-chairman Fritz Zurbrügg is due to undergo planned heart surgery this week, the central bank has announced. This follows a cardiac procedure performed on chairman Thomas Jordan in August. The SNB said on Tuesday that Z...

Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion blocked three junctions in the centre of Zurich on Monday, demanding the government declare a state of climate emergency. Police moved in to break up the unauthorised demonstration. The Swiss News Agency K...