An international eye on Swiss news collated by NuseReal
Tourism events in Switzerland — myswitzerland — (LINK)
News events in Switzerland — swissinfo — (LINK)
Moving away? swissinfo's guide
Swiss cut key interest rate by a quarter percentage point, putting its target now at 0% (LINK) 19 June 2025
Swiss exports to the US plummeted in May (LINK) 19 June 2025
— Exports to North America dropped by 39.6%. This is the lowest figure recorded since the end of 2020. As recently as March, exports to the US had doubled and reached a record level. Goods were shipped quickly before the feared tariff hammer took effect. By April, exports to the US had already fallen by around a third.
— The decline in exports was widespread across all sectors. The chemical-pharmaceutical industry, which accounts for more than half of total Swiss exports, made a particularly large contribution (-19%). Meanwhile, exports stagnated in the hard-hit Swiss machinery and electronics industry. Imports increased by 0.8% in May (real: +0.5%) to CHF19.02 billion. The export surplus thus shrank to CHF1.98 billion.
Climate study warns of more heavy summer storms in the Alps (LINK) 19 June 2025
— If the climate warms by two degrees, a Swiss-Italian research team expects a doubling of short, heavy summer rainfall in the Alps. Researchers from the University of Lausanne (Unil) and the University of Padua (Italy) analysed data from almost 300 mountain weather stations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and France.
UBS: Switzerland is still the richest country in the world: average per-capita wealth in Switzerland rose last year to $687,000 (CHF561,000), an increase of 3% compared to the previous year, followed by the United States (LINK) 18 June 2025
— "Many new millionaires have become millionaires simply because the value of their own property has risen." Eastern Europe recorded the largest asset growth with an increase of 12%. This was closely followed by North America with 11.98%.
Blatten damages estimated at CHF320 million, payments already started (LINK in French) 17 June 2025
— CHF260 millions for buildings and goods, CHF60 million in lost earnings and vehicles. Insurance companies have started payouts. A 2023 hailstorm caused comparable damage in Locarno in 2023 in a few minutes.
Blue-Chip works by Rothko, Richter, and Picasso headline Art Basel (19-22 June), where dealers cast wide range of price points and styles against market uncertainty (LINK) 17 June 2025
12 things not to miss at Art Basel 2025 — (LINK)
The best large-scale works at Art Basel Unlimited 2025 — (LINK)
Geneva Graduate Institute to welcome record number of new students in September: up 21.2% compared to 2024 (LINK) 16 June 2025
— 502 new students: 34 doctoral students — up 6% compared to 2024. 165 disciplinary MA students — up 16% compared to 2024. 305 International and Development Studies (MINT) students — up 27% compared to 2024. With 2104 candidates for the 2025-2026 academic year, up 32.3% from 2024-25, this is the highest number of candidates in the history of the Institute. The number of applicants to competitive doctoral programmes was 602, nearly double that of 2024-2025.
Irène Zurkinden (1909–1987), rebel artist and friend of Meret Oppenheim, finally has her day in the Swiss spotlight at Basel's H. Geiger Kulturstiftung till 7 September (LINK, long article) 14 June 2025
— The ambitious show, years in the making, attempts to reclaim Zurdinken's legacy from the margins of art history and position her as an artistic rebel, a daring woman who remained untethered to conventions, and whose outlook on the world around her was honest, unflinching, and dazzlingly inclusive. Last year, at Art Basel, New York's Meredith Rosen Gallery devoted its booth to Zurkinden, with Rosen calling her "truly… one of the greatest artists". That presentation followed the gallery's exhibition of her work in "The Paris Years" in the summer and fall of 2023, back in New York.
Swiss insurance to continue covering acupuncture and homeopathy (LINK) 12 June 2025
Geneva is the canton taxed most to support other Swiss cantons because of receipts on businesses: CHF378m, or CHF738 per inhabitant. (LINK) 13 June 2025
— Zug, home of crypto Switzerland, contributes CHF3571 per inhabitant. Bern receives CHF1.5 bn. Valais gets the record per inhabitant: CHF2396.
Switzerland 24th of 28 European nations in development of solar and wind energy: 11% as against 28.3% average, 75% in Denmark (LINK in French) 12 June 2025
The 77th Swiss Gymnastics Festival in Lausanne 12-21 June: 65,000 gymnasts for the event held every 6 years (LINK)
Eurostar plans direct link between London and Geneva (LINK) 10 June 2025
Lake Léman surface water temperature at Geneva falls from 19 to 11 degrees because of almost annual upwelling (LINK in French) 10 June 2025
— Record was on end of June 2017 from 23 to 8 in two days at Bain des Pâquis.
Swiss property prices continue to rise: compared to May of the previous year, condominiums rose by 3.8%. For detached houses, asking prices even rose by 5.8%. Single-family homes in particular rose in price in the greater Zurich region by a whopping 3.9% compared to the previous month. The Lake Geneva region offers the greatest supply of homes, especially for condominiums (LINK) 6 June 2025
Swiss central bank rejects US currency manipulation claims (LINK) 6 June 2025
Switzerland faces growing drought risks: Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) report to 2060 (LINK) 5 June 2025
UBS faces $26 billion capital demand from Swiss bank reforms (LINK) 6 June 2025
Zurich reports measles outbreak: 21 cases since the beginning of the year, twice as many as this time last year, but 97% of people have been vaccinated (LINK) 6 June 2025
Swiss Statistics Office to shed 40 staff and cut output (LINK) 6 June 2025
Switzerland to ban single-use e-cigarettes (vapes) (LINK) 4 June 2025
Switzerland says Geneva branch of US-backed Gaza aid group GHF "inactive, noncompliant" (LINK) 3 June 2025
— Swiss Foreign Ministry has responded to key issues raised in an open letter signed by 55 former Swiss diplomats, reiterating its stance on the Gaza crisis and confirming that it is reviewing the legal status of the controversial Geneva branch of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The GHF mechanism was opposed by the international community and the UN, which comes as an alternative attempt by Israel to bypass the aid distribution through UN channels.
Bitget, leading cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 company, partners with University of Zurich Blockchain Center, providing opportunities and scholarships for students — (LINK) 4 June 2025
§— The three-week program offers an immersive, interdisciplinary exploration of blockchain from academic, technological, legal, and economic perspectives.
Switzerland is setting tough new capital rules for UBS to avoid future financial disruptions like the 2023 Credit Suisse collapse — (LINK) 3 June 2025
PR: Microsoft deepens Switzerland's digital future with strategic $400 million investment in cloud and AI infrastructure, startups, skilling and innovation (LINK) 2 June 2025
Swiss assisted suicide campaigner died at 47 in Germany on 5 May: Florian Willet was co-president of the assisted suicide organisation The Last Resort (LINK) 2 June 2025
Willet committed suicide — (LINK in French)
Raclette or raclonette? Swiss and French bury the hatchet in terminological dispute with 600 eating together at French/Swiss village Saint-Gingolph (LINK in French) 1 June 2025
Swiss Bauhaus-trained artist Silvia Heyden wove tapestries in the woods for decades. Now, her legacy comes into focus in New York (LINK) 31 May 2025
— If Silvia Heyden had had her way, she would have been a violin maker. Violin makers said, 'Oh, this is nothing for a girl or a woman. It's too rough on your hands.' She accepted it. From Switzerland to Durham, North Carolina, where she moved with her family in 1966 (her husband was hired as a professor at Duke), Heyden found the manipulating of tensile threads an experience akin to the manipulating of strings on a violin.
Guardian Long Read: Why does Switzerland have more nuclear bunkers than any other country? More than 370,000 nuclear bunkers — enough to shelter every member of the population. But if the worst should happen, would they actually work? — (LINK) 29 May 2025
— Ventilation systems have a shelf life of about 40 years, and neutralise the effects of radiation, nuclear fallout and chemical and biological weapons. Historically, the price per spot is about 1,400 Swiss francs in bunkers with a capacity of 50 to 200, or about 3,000 Swiss francs for smaller ones. In peacetime, most Swiss use them as wine cellars, storage facilities or saunas. In the 1990s, as cold war tensions relaxed, bunkers even played host to paintball and band practice, or served as community centres.
Three of 5 Swiss avalanche victims from weekend are identified (LINK) 27 May 2025
— The avalanche victims are two men aged 38 and 35, and a 34-year-old woman. All of the identified people are Swiss nationals. According to initial investigations, the five climbers left the Britannia hut in the Saas-Fee region at around 4.30am on Saturday with the aim of climbing the Rimpfischhorn.
Charted: the world's most educated countries: Switzerland No 2 behind Ireland for % with degree, China last (LINK) 27 May 2025
No SWISS flights to Tel Aviv until June 15 (LINK) 26 May 2025
Loetschental's Blatten glacier fractures increase sharply (LINK) 27 May 2025
swissinfo: Behind the scenes of Swiss diplomacy: salaries, facts and neutrality (LINK) 26 May 2025
USA men's ice hockey team wins IIHF World Championship for first time in over 90 years, beating Switzerland 1-0 in extra time (LINK) 25 May 2025
Five ski tour participants found dead, three under under avalanche, on Adler glacier at 4000m in Valais below Rimpfischhorn east of Zermatt: identification under way (LINK in German) 24 May 2025
Novak Djokovic clinches his 100th career singles title at Geneva Open, day after 38th birthday (LINK) 24 May 2025
— He joins tennis greats Jimmy Connors, who has a record 109 titles, and Roger Federer on 103 as the only men with a century of tournament wins in the Open era.
Why birds fly in a V shape: not wholly unlike cyclists drafting off one another in a race, but it also helps with navigation and maintaining group cohesion, allowing birds to communicate, see each other clearly, and keep a steady formation (LINK) 24 May 2025
— A 2015 study by researchers at the University of Bern demonstrated that birds flying in the V not only take turns flying at the front position, but they are careful to match the amount of time they spend flying at the back as they do at the front.
Swiss foreign office to investigate controversial Gaza NGO, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) linked to U.S. and Israel (LINK) 23 May 2025
US government issues sudden warning on Switzerland travel: very little information on reasoning (LINK) 23 May 2025
Revolving-door between Swiss health authorities and Big Pharma (LINK) 23 May 2025
Only one country in the world produces all the food it needs, study finds: Guyana. Switzerland 0 out of seven food groups (LINK) 22 May 2025
A CHF 50m foundation to help international Geneva is being set up by the canton and the Wilsdorf Foundation (LINK) 22 May 2025
— There is still a chance it could be forced to a referendum. The Swiss People's party objected to an initial CHF 10m package in February.
Geneva Graduate Institute: As multilateral diplomacy falters under leaders like Trump and Putin, Geneva — a key hub of global diplomacy — must step up. What could a "new diplomacy" look like? (LINK) 22 May 2025
— In the new issue of the Global Challenges, professors and researchers from the Institute and a guest author offer contrasting analyses of the opportunities and challenges of a "new" diplomacy for International Geneva, trade, inclusiveness, UN mediation, new media, and AI.
Swiss government pledges CHF11 million to UNRWA but not for Gaza: a further CHF9 million is being allocated to support four other humanitarian organisations (LINK) 21 May 2025
SWISS not flying to Tel Aviv until June 8 (LINK) 20 May 2025
Nestlé water scandal: French state accused of cover-up for illegal treatment of mineral water (LINK) 20 May 2025
Landslide threat: authorities order almost complete evacuation of the 300 inhabitants of Swiss mountain village of Blatten in Lötschental: a major rockfall is "imminent", which in a worst-case scenario could hit the village (LINK) 19 May 2025
— Experts expected the rock to slide at the latest by Tuesday morning. And around two million cubic metres of water could come down from the glacier above the village. An undisclosed number of people (reported to be 16, mainly pensioners) are staying behind. Authorities say they are monitoring them and providing food.
Eight of the best ski areas in Switzerland (LINK) 19 May 2025
The most picturesque castles in Switzerland (LINK) 18 May 2025
SWISS cancels 1,400 summer flights due to pilot shortage (LINK) 16 May 2025
— The cancelations will affect long-haul flights — for example to Chicago, where services will be halved in September and October — and various short and medium-haul services. According to a report, the shortages in cockpit personnel are due to an unusually high number of long-term absences, including pregnancies and accidents. The ongoing retraining of crews for the new Airbus A350 is also tying up capacity.
Swiss National Bank chairman warns of 'great insecurity' caused by US tariffs but no recession, and currently opposes negative interest rates (LINK) 17 May 2025
Swiss Abroad elect representatives online for first time (LINK) 17 May 2025
— In Australia, 0.1% of Swiss citizens living abroad elected their delegates to the Council of the Swiss Abroad (CSA) before the introduction of direct electronic voting. Thanks to direct online voting, voter turnout has now risen to 5.8%.
Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, 89-year-old co-owner of Chelsea Football Club, accused of sexually harassing employee and her husband at boss's California winery (LINK) 16 May 2025
— He is known for his major donations to American progressive and environmental organizations.
BoingBoing: "Switzerland's attempt to take credit for the world's inventions [at the Eurovision song contest in Basel] just backfired spectacularly" (LINK) 16 May 2025
— On its surface, Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer's interlude act "Made in Switzerland" sounds like nothing more than a celebration of the contest's hosts, but look deeper and you'll realize that just like Swiss cheese, quite a few of the mentioned items aren't actually Swiss. Instant coffee? British. Zippers? American. The garlic press? Egyptian! "Of the 18 items mentioned, only eight are verifiably products of Switzerland, meaning that roughly 56% of the song is lies."
A 10.03 carat blue diamond has sold at auction in Geneva for $21.5 million to unnamed private American collector. (LINK) 15 May 2025
— But Tobias Kormind, director of 77 Diamonds, Europe's largest online jeweller, said the sale was "less impressive" than expected. "General uncertainty, including trade tensions between the US and China, may have dampened bidder confidence."
Christie's Geneva achieves $72.3m in magnificent jewels sale despite star lot withdrawal, the 23.24-carat Golconda Blue diamond (LINK) 16 May 2025
— The rare fancy vivid blue gem was estimated at $35 million to $50 million. Christie's confirmed that the consignors chose instead to sell the diamond privately within the family.
Rare 10 Ct. Blue Diamond fetches $21.5 million at Sotheby's Geneva auction: the diamond's presale estimate was $20 million — 13 May 2025 (LINK)
— Sotheby's said that fewer than 0.1% of diamonds show any evidence of blue color, and an even smaller percentage are graded fancy vivid blue. The 31.94 ct. rough diamond that yielded the Mediterranean Blue was found in 2023 at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. The cutter studied the rough for over a year.
Proton threatens to quit Switzerland over new surveillance law: "We would be less confidential than Google" — If passed, new rules would require VPNs and messaging apps to identify and retain users' data: "The only country in Europe with a roughly equivalent law is Russia" (LINK) 13 May 2025
Marie-Laure Salles, Director, Graduate Institute, Geneva: A call for political imagination: the role of Geneva (LINK) 12 May 2025
— "A Global Coalition for Sustainable Peace! This is where Geneva has a unique and important role to play. [...] Mobilization of Geneva needs to happen fast."
Geneva hosts Switzerland's largest marathon: record 25,428 participants across various race formats, including 5,512 marathon runners (LINK) 11 May 2025
Swiss parliament chooses compromise on individual taxation (LINK) 10 May 2025
— Under the proposal, each taxpayer would be assessed independently, a shift that supporters say will reduce disincentives to work, especially for second earners in dual-income households. Critics, however, argue it risks penalising traditional family models.
Switzerland to give CHF39 million ($47 million) to three UN organizations: Unicef, UN Women, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) (LINK) 8 May 2025
— The contributions are in addition to the CHF282 million recently approved by the government for other UN organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The contributions set an example for International Geneva, said the foreign ministry. The funds will be charged to the commitment credit for financing international cooperation from 2025 to 2028.
Switzerland unveils a national drought-detection system (LINK) 8 May 2025
Vatican conclave: Why the guards who protect the conclave are wearing those crazy uniforms: the Vatican Swiss Guards (LINK) 8 May 2025
CERN detects lead atoms turning into gold (LINK) 8 May 2025
— Lead is made of 82 protons and around 126 neutrons at its core. Gold instead has 79 protons, just three fewer than lead. Removing three protons from each lead atom is what is needed to make this transmutation. The ALICE experiment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) looks at what happens when heavy ions smash together. Mostly, it is to understand the quark-gluon plasma that existed in the first moments after the Big Bang. But smashing lead ions together can break those atoms into more commonly recognizable forms, such as the conversion of lead to gold.
Top US officials will meet with Chinese delegation in Switzerland at weekend in first major talks of trade war (LINK) 7 May 2025
World's richest 10% caused two-thirds of global heating since 1990, study calculates (LINK) 7 May 2025
— "We link the carbon footprints of the wealthiest individuals directly to real-world climate impacts," lead author Sarah Schoengart, a scientist at ETH Zurich, told AFP. "It's a shift from carbon accounting toward climate accountability." Emissions from the wealthiest 10 percent in China and the United States — which together account for nearly half of global carbon pollution — each led to a two-to-threefold rise in heat extremes.
Geneva's Tunnel des Nations is seeing far less use than anticipated, with just 11,000 vehicles passing through daily, well below the 17,600 projected in its 2016 building permit. The 1.2-kilometre route opened after a CHF 171m investment by the canton (LINK) 7 May 2025
UBS will pay $511 million to end Credit Suisse US $4bn tax probe into how it helped rich Americans evade taxes even after pledging to stop the practice a decade ago. (LINK) 6 May 2025
Pensioner in Fricktal, Aargau, must pay CHF 14K for book after doorstep visit: a lower court had initially sided with claim he never agreed, citing unclear contract terms. But Aargau's Higher Court has overturned the ruling, saying his behaviour implied tacit agreement. The man said he only paid to avoid stress (LINK) 6 May 2025
Swiss pensioner in court for feeding neighbour's cat: accused of systematically feeding her neighbour's cat "Leo" — a criminal offence in Switzerland — so that the cat no longer wanted to go home. (LINK) 6 May 2025
Ancient Roman infant burials uncovered under Switzerland housing project near Basel: other finds include a 2,000-year-old road, homes, and a bronze panther (LINK) 6 May 2025
A jogger in Bern has been fined nearly CHF 7,000 after spitting on the sign outside the Russian Embassy: guilty of insulting a foreign national emblem. Security personnel monitoring the area tried to stop him. He was eventually detained nearby (LINK) 5 May 2025
The Swiss summer bucket list: 15 magnificent places travel experts can't stop raving about (LINK) — 2 May 2025
Swissinfo: Nearly 500 UN staff demonstrate against budget cuts in Geneva (LINK) — 2 May 2025
Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions (28 April to 9 May 2025), Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG): theme of the meetings and the high-level segment will be "Make visible the invisible: sound management of chemicals and wastes" (LINK) 5 May 2025
Over 70 Ministers gathered for the high-level segment held on 30 April and 1 May — (LINK)
— Katrin Schneeberger, State Secretary Federal Office of Environment, Switzerland: "We must also acknowledge that multilateralism is facing challenges. Geopolitical tensions and financial crises can at times weaken our ability to act collectively. That is why this conference — and this high-level segment in particular — are also valuable opportunities to reinforce international dialogue, a space where exchange and trust prevail."
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