The Swiss government is looking to seize over CHF100 million ($104 million) in assets from an associate of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich. The “administrative confiscation proceedings” concern assets of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and his...

If Switzerland is successfully voted onto the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term, the government wants to focus its diplomatic efforts on peace and climate change. On Wednesday the executive published a list of four priorities if Sw...

Over a fifth of bee colonies in Switzerland did not survive the winter of 2021-2022, the national umbrella organisation for beekeepers reported on Wednesday. The 1,384 beekeepers surveyed by apisuisse reported total colony losses of 21.4% over the w...

The number of confirmed cases of the monkeypox virus in Switzerland has risen to two. The second case was detected in a person in Geneva, who was contaminated during a trip abroad. The infected person is currently in isolation and “his general con...

Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer has spoken out against government support for consumers affected by higher energy prices. “Petrol prices are affordable in wealthy Switzerland,” he told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Wednesday. The governmen...

The Swiss government’s reaction to the arrival of Covid-19 in spring 2020 was too passive, a parliamentary audit committee has said. But it concluded that the handling of the first pandemic wave was generally “satisfactory”. “The government ...

A Russian diplomat at the country’s permanent mission at the United Nations in Geneva has said he is leaving his post because of his disagreement with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. He hopes the Swiss government will help him. “I went to the mi...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for “maximum” sanctions against Russia in a speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. He also urged “all countries” to come forward with offers for reconstruction in Ukraine. In a vi...

Swiss and German ministers have agreed to negotiate a solidarity agreement to help each other with gas supply issues in an emergency. The announcement was made on the side lines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting taking place in Davos. “We ...

Switzerland’s Health Minister Alain Berset has opened the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva with a call for healthcare access to be guaranteed in conflicts, as the war in Ukraine unfolds. The WHA is the top decision-making body of the wor...

The antiviral drug tecovirimat and the latest generation smallpox vaccine – which both help against monkeypox and are authorised in the European Union – are not available in Switzerland, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper has reported. The news comes ...

A top meteorologist has told the SonntagsZeitung that new summer heat records are “very likely” in Switzerland. This might cost the country hundreds of millions of Swiss francs in productivity in the long-run, the newspapers warns. “The chance...

Switzerland has detected its first case of monkeypox in canton Bern, health officials said on Saturday evening. The case has been confirmed by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in a tweet. "Currently, an accumulation of monkeypox infection...

University of Geneva Rector Yves Flückiger has been elected chair of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). The move comes at a time of uncertainty over Switzerland's future in the European research funding programme Horizon Europe. "...

Dolphins are rubbing up against certain types of coral to help alleviate skin conditions, research by a Swiss and German team suggests. The findings, published in the iScience journal this week, have shown that these corals have medicinal properties...

Electricity prices are expected to leap by as much as 20% for many Swiss households and businesses this year, according to a survey of power providers. The ongoing war in Ukraine is expected to heap further pressure on costs, said the Swiss Associat...

Swiss prosecutors have launched a money laundering investigation against a refugee who claims to have made millions from cryptocurrency trading. Dadvan Yousuf, 22, generated media headlines last year with his rags-to-riches story since fleeing to Sw...

Zurich Insurance Group and Julius Bär bank have announced plans to abandon their Moscow offices amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Zurich said on Friday that it would sell its Russian subsidiary in a management buyout. “Under its new owners, the bu...

Michelle Bachelet will become the first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit China since 2005 during a six-day official mission that starts on May 23. Bachelet will visit Guangzhou, Kashgar and Urumqi, the capital city of the X...

New regulations for doctors dealing with euthanasia cases have been criticised as too harsh and difficult to implement by assisted suicide organisations. The guidelines agreed yesterday by the Swiss Medical Association notably state that “assisted...

The US ambassador to Switzerland has praised the “immense progress” made by Switzerland in the search for Russian funds in Swiss banks. The United States is very pleased with the efforts Switzerland has made so far to find the funds of Russians ...

Switzerland is re-opening its embassy in Kyiv, with five staff members set to return to the Ukrainian capital, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. The embassy was closed at the end of February, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to fears o...

The Swiss government has proposed letting its spy agency penetrate the country’s famous banking secrecy to snoop on financial transactions that it suspects are funding terrorism, espionage or violent extremism. Unveiling a draft amendment of the i...

The Swiss government wants to finalise the purchase of new US-built fighter jets before March 2023, without waiting for a possible public vote on the issue. The seven-member body said on Wednesday that the “deteriorating security situation” call...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will be among the leaders at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, which starts on Sunday after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 50 heads...

The Swiss government has outlined its plans to boost gas storage capacity in neighbouring countries to secure supplies ahead of winter. Gas makes up roughly 15% of Switzerland’s final energy consumption and is mostly used for heating and cooking. ...

A Paris appeals court has confirmed that the cement firm Lafarge must face charges of complicity in crimes against humanity over alleged payoffs to Islamic State group and other jihadist groups during Syria's civil war. Lafarge is now part of the Swi...

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has filed an indictment against a Swiss woman who attacked two people with a knife in a department store in the Swiss city of Lugano in 2020. The 29-year-old, who lives in canton Ticino in Ita...

Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss has been given a special award for his generosity and support to Swiss science. The 86-year-old business tycoon and philanthropist, who lives in the United States, was awarded the 2022 Gallatin Award by the Swiss-Ame...

Switzerland has moved from third to second in an annual ranking of the worst global tax havens. Overall however, the country is going in the right direction, reports the Tax Justice Network. Despite coming second behind the United States in this yea...