Here are the stories we’re following the week begi ing August 1. (swissinfo.ch) Monday It’s Swiss National Day and to celebrate swissinfo.ch mined more than 22,000 images on Flickr and shows you the most popular ones – and they’re not all chocolate-box landscapes. (swissinfo.ch) Wednesday Lights, ca...

(Keystone) Funerals are very personal and intimate events that are usually restricted to family and close friends. Can a complete outsider play a leading role in bidding farewell to the departed? Let's block ads! (Why?)

The Swiss are world leaders in mapmaking. Now, for the first time, the federal mapping agency swisstopo has created a map for smartphones or computers that can display “geodata” – computerised geographical data – on a scale of 1 to 10,000. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) The new national maps are more detailed t...

Jul 30, 2016 - 11:00Until mid-September Zurich is playing host to the European Bie ial of contemporary art, Manifesta. The more than 30 venues and collaborations in and around Switzerland’s largest city focus on the value of work with the rather apt theme: “What People Do for Money”.French author Mi...

Life appears to be getting brighter for UBS and Credit Suisse, both based in Zurich's Paradeplatz (Keystone) Switzerland’s two largest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, have both reported drops in net profit for the second quarter. However, both banks have reasons to be relatively happy. On Friday, UBS ...

Franck Giova ini: “We don't cook for Michelin or Gault&Millau” (Keystone) There’s a persistent clicking sound inside the kitchen of the Hôtel de Ville. It takes a while to locate it and then, I realise… it’s coming from the chef, Franck Giova ini. The at-times frantic clicking on and off of a pen is...

Each week cartoonist Marina Lutz takes a look at a big issue in the news in Switzerland. She has worked with different Swiss media as a caricaturist, including the Nebelspalter satirical magazine. Lutz has won several awards for her work, notably during the Fumetto inte ational cartoon festival. Cli...

Scenes from the past: Swiss children cross the border from France to their homeland during the Second World War (RDB) How has the Swiss abroad community changed over the past century? Rudolf Wyder, former director of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), dived into archives and wrote a book on...

The amended law allows intelligence service agents to tap computers and intercept emails (imago) Could reform of Switzerland’s intelligence service lead to widespread state snooping? The political left think so. But parliament and the gove ment say agency needs more powers to prevent terrorism and t...

Lehma Imfeld's close readings of Victorian ghost stories revealed society's struggle with religion and the unknown. (Mauro Mellone/Swiss National Science Foundation) A University of Be researcher has found a new way to interpret ghost stories – through a theological lens – that could deepen our unde...

Despite a few clouds along the way, the adventure was a blue-sky triumph. (Keystone) Solar Impulse – the Swiss solar aircraft – has completed the first-ever round-the-world flight by a solar plane. The record-breaking flight covered more than 40,000km without a single drop of jet fuel. After about 4...

So far, no genetically modified food crop has been commercialised in India even though field trials of some like GM mustard is underway (Keystone) Despite a current ban on genetically modified crops in agriculture in Switzerland, taxpayer money is being used to develop transgenic crops in India. Som...

Workshops in Lausa e and six other Swiss cities generated ideas that help promote a fresh approach of the country's immigration policy (foraus.crwodcity.com) How to break a perceived stalemate in Switzerland’s immigration policy? More than 100 ideas gathered in a crowd-sourcing project are awaiting ...

Despite a few clouds along the way, the adventure has been a blue-sky triumph. (Keystone) Solar Impulse – the Swiss solar aircraft – is finishing the first round-the-world tour by a solar plane, and set to land in Abu Dhabi very early on Tuesday mo ing. And as usual, it’s been flying without a singl...

Russian political and sporting power influenced the IOC decision, claim the press (Keystone) Swiss papers state that sport was sacrificed at the altar of geopolitics after the Lausa e-based Inte ational Olympic Committee (IOC) shied away from imposing a blanket ban on Russian competitors at the Rio ...

A scene from the March trial of the first individuals convicted of plotting a terror attack in Switzerland (Keystone) The first of three men convicted this year of plotting a terror attack in Switzerland has just been ordered released from prison. What happens next is a matter of intense debate with...

Which Democratic candidate had the country's best interests at heart? (Keystone) Being a socialist in America was so frustrating that Kali Tal left the country for Europe a decade ago. She saw Democratic candidate Be ie Sanders as a real option for the Presidency. Now the former university professor...

It's common for kids to go to school or the playground by themselves in Switzerland and other wealthy, industrialised countries like Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. That's a striking contrast to some other countries, notably the United States, which just recently passed a federal law to give par...

Here are the stories we’re following the week begi ing July 25: (Keystone) Monday What to do with convicted terrorists? We look into the case of three Iraqis sentenced earlier this year in a Swiss court for their ties to the Islamic State (IS). Deport them? But will Iraq want to take them back? Read...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump proved larger than life at the Republican National Convention (Keystone) Donald J. Trump is the Republican Party’s official nominee for President of the United States. The day after the Republican Convention ended, the Swiss press had few words of praise for the c...