The Swiss foreign ministry has called on the Iranian government to protect Iranians’ right to freedom of expression amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests that erupted after the death of a young Iranian woman. In a statement released...

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) and the pilots' union Aeropers have agreed to launch the planned negotiations, waiving the conditions previously set. A first round of negotiations will take place next Friday, according to the statement on Wedn...

Drivers for the American ride-hailing firm Uber in the Swiss city of Geneva have rejected a proposal to settle a dispute over working conditions. Trade union groups continue to insist on an intervention by the cantonal and national governments to en...

The Swiss health authorities have forced a delay of a trial with cannabis in Switzerland's largest city, due to start in the next few weeks. The Zurich city council and the university of Zurich announced that the sale of cannabis products from pharm...

A team of researchers from the Swiss university hospital of Bern, together with Australian scientists, has come up with the basis for tests for a disease of the female reproductive system. The researchers identified cells that are predominantly foun...

Zurich's local government has proposed to increase by CHF100,000 ($101,412) public subsidies to the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF). The proposal, published on Wednesday, is valid for the years 2023 to 2026. The city of Zurich has been supporting the ZFF...

Health premium comparison websites promise to help policyholders find the best premium. But some sites provide truncated information, while others do not provide any comparisons at all. Changing health insurers, deductibles or insurance models are t...

Swiss authorities want to prolong the more lenient rules for controlled heroin distribution which were put in place during the pandemic. A spokesman from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) confirmed on Wednesday that procedures introduced in...

The KOF economic institute has joined other forecasting agencies to lower its predictions for the Swiss economy. However, the experts do not expect a recession for the time being. The Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research at the Federal Instit...

Swiss voters will not decide on the glacier initiative following a decision by campaigners to withdraw their proposal in favour of the indirect counter-proposal. The initiative committee wrote of a conditional withdrawal. They are confident that th...

A people’s initiative calling for an end to the practice of taxing married couples as a single unit has been handed in and validated by authorities for a possible future vote. The initiative, “for an individual taxation independent of civil stat...

Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin has wrapped up a two-day visit to India where he hoped to spark “a new impulse” for negotiations on a free trade agreement. Regarding the long-running noises about a trade deal, Parmelin told SRF public radi...

Agricultural income in Switzerland grew slightly in 2021 to reach an average of CHF80,700 ($81,765) per farm, according to latest statistics. The 1.9% average rise in 2021 came despite a “mixed year” for farmers and farming in Switzerland, said ...

A federal court has ruled that Swiss authorities should no longer provide legal assistance to Russia in an ongoing probe into embezzlement. Assets linked to the case, frozen in Geneva, are also to be released. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports in it...

The world’s steepest cog-wheel railway, leading up to the Pilatus mountain peak in central Switzerland, has been kitted out with new railcars. The eight new cars, built by Stadler, will replace the previous ones dating from the 1930s and 1960s, th...

Chief financial officers (CFOs) are more pessimistic about the economic outlook for Switzerland than they were six months ago, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte for the second half of 2022. However, a majority of the 127 managers surveyed ...

Millions of old but functioning electronic objects are lying around Swiss households – many of which are eventually dumped instead of being reused, according to a survey by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). In the study published o...

The Swiss Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council has said that an expert report criticising structural racism in the country included “misunderstandings”. Jürg Lauber said on Monday that while the fight against racism was urgent, a more deta...

The year the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the number of suicides in the country fell below 1,000 for the first time since 1964, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on Monday. The long-term trend is thus very much downwards: since a peak in the early...

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) remains the largest film festival in Switzerland, attracting 137,000 entries for the 18th edition. This is an increase of 15% on pre-Covid 2019. The 1,200-seat congress hall, which was used for all 11 festival days for...

Geneva police had to intervene on Sunday to separate supporters of right-wing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The supporters of the two politicians, who are battling it out in a presidential elect...

Every seventh person over the age of 65 in Switzerland does not have enough money make ends meet, according to a study on the financial health of the elderly. Some 46,000 Swiss pensioners have already fallen into the poverty trap and a further 295,0...

Landlords and tenants are opposing government calls to reduce household heating to 19 degrees Celsius, warning it might spark a flurry of lawsuits. The Swiss Real Estate Association, which represents landlords, warns that turning down the heating in...

More than 1,000 people have taken to the streets in Switzerland to protest the death of a young woman in Iranian police custody last month. Some 200 people gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Bern calling for the removal of the Islamic governmen...

Swiss food manufacturer Nestlé will cut out palm oil from controversial Indonesian company Astra Agro Lestari (AAL) by the end of this year. Nestlé did not explain in detail the reasons behind its decision, but AAL has been criticised by environme...

Electricity consumption in Switzerland remained at normal levels last month despite a government appeal for households and industry to make savings. On August 31, ministers urged the population to voluntarily reduce consumption ahead of anticipated ...

Outgoing Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer managed to push the boundaries of government collegiality without fully breaching the time-honoured code of conduct, according to the media. After serving 14 years in Switzerland’s executive cabinet, Mau...

Infertility is more likely caused by coronavirus infection than mRNA Covid-19 vaccinations, said the Swiss federal drugs regulator, Swissmedic. Swissmedic compared data with counterparts in 10 other countries, covering a population of 800 million pe...

The Swiss government has condemned Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, saying it is a serious violation of international law. “It violates the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Ukraine,” said the government in a pres...

The Swiss government on Friday laid out responsibilities in case of a nuclear attack or nuclear disaster linked to the war in Ukraine. While the defence ministry currently considers this unlikely, the government says it is necessary to be prepared a...