SWI swissinfo

The canton of Zug is to provide CHF55 million ($68.5 million) for the establishment of a joint leaing and research centre run by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich and representatives of Zug’s business community. The facility is intended to combine academic education with professional practice on the Tech Cluster Zug AG site in the Göbli area of Zug. According to a report to Parliament, students from ETH Zurich, researchers, lecturers and apprentices from Zug-based companies ...

The war in Iran took its toll on the Jungfrau Railways in the first half of 2026. As a result, significantly fewer travellers from Asia visited the Jungfraujoch. Tuover and profit fell sharply as a consequence. Operating revenue fell by 9% to CHF137 million ($170 million), the Beese Oberland mountain railway operator aounced on Friday. The bottom line was a profit of CHF29 million, 22% less than in the previous year, when the Jungfraubahn Group had posted a record profit. The weaker demand...

Swiss voters will decide on September 27 on a popular initiative on neutrality, which was launched to denounce Switzerland’s economic sanctions against Russia. But what is the true scope of these sanctions? And is Switzerland implementing them effectively? What sanctions is Switzerland imposing on Russia? Due to Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council, there is currently no comprehensive UN sanctions regime against Moscow. Following the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Switzerland’s ma...

A corruption case involving senior figures in the Swiss financial sector is to be heard in court: Pierre Mirabaud, former president of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), is due to stand trial at the begiing of September before the Federal Criminal Court. He is accused of bribing a senior Kuwaiti official in order to secure control of substantial public funds. According to the indictment, a copy of which was obtained by the Swiss News Agency Keystone-ATS, the criminal investigation was launch...

Supporters and opponents of the two initiatives being put to a vote on September 27 have aounced campaign budgets totalling CHF7.86 million ($9.75 million), the Swiss Federal Audit Office said on Friday. Some CHF5.51 million was declared for the neutrality initiative, which seeks to enshrine stricter rules on neutrality in the Swiss constitution. The “Preserving Swiss Neutrality” committee spent CHF3.84 million to campaign in favour of the text. Opponents spent CHF1.67 million, the vast majori...

Switzerland is performing relatively well in Europe when it comes to the energy transition. It ranks fifth in terms of renewable electricity generation per capita, thanks in particular to rapid growth in solar power. Wind power, on the other hand, is struggling to keep pace. The energy transition is making progress in Switzerland, and at a fairly good pace by European standards. This is the conclusion of an analysis published on Friday by the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES), which compared Switzer...

This year’s drought has placed Swiss agriculture under severe pressure. In canton Be, a new 90-kilometre network of underground pipes is expected to secure water supplies for almost 200 farms. The Beese Seeland region in the northwest of the country is preparing for one of Switzerland’s largest irrigation projects. Costing around CHF15 million ($18.6 million), it will combine underground pipelines with electric pumps to deliver water across some 1,700 hectares of farmland. The region’s exist...

Swiss citizens living abroad could be excluded from the new 13th state pension payment under a proposal from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party. A year ahead of the federal elections, the People’s Party is proposing new restrictions on the Swiss diaspora. In a motion, parliamentarian Didier Calame has called for “the 13th pension [payment] to be restricted to beneficiaries who are resident in Switzerland”. Calame told Swissinfo: “Pensioners abroad are entitled to the OASI [Swiss old-age and sur...

A former councillor for the municipality of Crans-Montana, who was responsible for building matters between 2017 and 2024, was also charged on Friday in coection with the fatal fire at the “Le Constellation” bar. The woman is now the 17th person to be charged in coection with the tragedy, in which 41 people died and 115 were injured on New Year’s Eve. The former municipal councillor was being interviewed on Friday in her capacity as a person required to provide information when her status ch...

Swiss historian Sacha Zala is the new president of the Inteational Council of Historical Sciences (CISH). The professor of history and director of the Dodis research centre was elected at the congress marking the 100th aiversary of the CISH. Zala, bo in Val Poschiavo in southeaste Switzerland in 1968, will succeed Catherine Horel of France, the CISH aounced on Friday. He has been a member of the world organisation’s executive board since 2017. In a statement the council said Zala had b...

A bicycle courier brings food to people in lockdown during the Covid-19 outbreak in Lausae, Switzerland Keystone / Laurent Gillieron The so-called “gig economy” has taken off around the ...

Some 700,000 people die every year from antimicrobial resistance. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally More than 20 major pharmaceutical companies are investing nearly $1 billion (CHF940 million) in ...

American Christine Worrell, a Swiss resident, has experienced discrimination in both countries she’s called home. She lays out the origins and manifestations of the problem in both places, arguing tha...

All of a sudden, everyone is talking about it: the 2019 Nobel Prize won by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz has reminded the Swiss that the country’s astrophysicists are at the forefront of the hunt for...

In this episode of Inside Geneva,exteal link we go behind the scenes at the world's most important gathering on human rights, now underway in Geneva.It's the UN Human Rights Council, where...

Switzerland is one of the ten countries most affected by the coronavirus worldwide, with more than 200 current cases and one confirmed death. Here is an overview of the situation and official res...

An exhibition of René Burri's more explorative work showcases the Swiss photojoualist’s obsession with pushing the boundaries of photography. Since 2013, the Musée de l'Elysée’s René Burri's pr...

Gredig wants to defend the interest of future generations in parliament.(Thomas Ke/swissinfo.ch) Switz...

(Keystone) Here’s a look back at some memorable statistics from swissinfo.ch stories over the past year,...

How much do “ordinary” Swiss ea, how much money do they spend, and what does it go on? Money diaries gives us an insight. The average gross wage for a full-time job in Switzerland is CHF6,...