Author: switzerlandtimes.ch

The backers of Switzerland’s Safe Food initiative have lodged an appeal against the Federal Council and the Federal Chancellery, accusing them of misrepresenting the proposal in the official booklet for the vote on September 27th, RTS reported. The appeal was filed on Thursday with the government of the canton of Bern by Franziska Herren, an environmental campaigner and one of the initiative’s leading supporters. The campaigners say the authorities have wrongly presented the initiative’s central target as legally binding. The proposed constitutional amendment says that, within ten years, the federal government should seek to raise Switzerland’s net food self-sufficiency rate…

Ahead of Switzerland’s national day on August 1st, fireworks have generally been banned due to the risk of forest fires, although official displays are still permitted in some places, reports SRF. With Switzerland parched by drought, almost every canton has imposed restrictions on open fires and fireworks. Yet some authorities are allowing large official displays to go ahead. Critics say the exemptions undermine the bans. The rules vary by canton, but private fireworks are prohibited across most of the country. In French-speaking Switzerland, Geneva, Valais and Vaud have gone further by banning the sale of pyrotechnics, including small firecrackers and…

For 40 years, The Economist has indulged in what it refers to as “burgernomics”: a worldwide comparison of the price of a Big Mac. The McDonald’s Big Mac is remarkably consistent wherever you eat it, so you might expect its price to be consistent too. But it is not—and, according to the publisher, that reveals something about the true value of currencies. Perhaps. As usual, Switzerland’s Big Mac is the most expensive, costing US$ 9.04 (CHF 7.30), 45% more than the same burger in the US, which costs US$ 6.22. The most affordable double layered burgers are found in Indonesia…

Switzerland’s railways are carrying more people than ever. In the second quarter of 2026 passengers travelled 6.3bn kilometres by train, an increase of 5.2% from a year earlier, reported Litra. That surpassed the previous record, set in the final quarter of 2025, by nearly 200m passenger-kilometres, the collective distance travelled by passengers. This is good news for a country seeking to accommodate population growth without filling roads with more traffic. Yet headline numbers can conceal as much as they reveal. Passenger traffic grew far faster than railway capacity. Operators ran 53.24m train-path kilometres—a measure of train movements—during the quarter, just…

Swiss water reservoirs are unusually depleted for this time of year, reaching their lowest seasonal level in at least 20 years. According to the latest weekly data from the Federal Office of Energy (FOE), they are 46% full—16.4 percentage points below the average for the same point in the year over the past two decades. The unusually low levels reflect a combination of poor winter snowfall and an exceptionally dry spring. Federal data show that spring 2026 was among the driest since nationwide records began in 1864. Despite the shortfall, the federal government sees no immediate threat to Switzerland’s electricity…

Laboratory tests in the Swiss canton of Solothurn found excessive pesticide residues in one-third of vegetable samples taken from Asian grocery stores last year, prompting a criminal complaint against an importer. Asian supermarket vegetables tested by Solothurn’s food safety inspectors repeatedly failed compliance checks, according to the canton’s 2025 annual report. Officials analysed 38 vegetable samples from ten retailers for pesticide residues. The results were striking. Around one-third (32%) of the samples exceeded Switzerland’s legal limits for pesticides, a broad category covering chemicals used to control insects, fungi and other pests. Inspectors described the findings as sobering. The non-compliant samples…

The Matterhorn has always been dangerous. Intense prolonged heat and the sort of people climbing it have made it more so, according to SRF. Guides on the Swiss side of the peak are avoiding some routes they now consider too dangerous. The risks are growing across the Alps. Guides in Chamonix have stopped taking people up Mont Blanc after two people died on the mountain on Wednesday according to u-trail. Mountain guides in Zermatt are advising climbers to postpone attempts on the summit because of an increased risk of rockfall. High temperatures and scant snow have left parts of the…

For a growing number of Nigerian professionals, access to reliable power has become closely connected to productivity. Freelancers, entrepreneurs, remote employees and online business owners increasingly depend on laptops and other digital devices to complete their work. When electricity becomes unavailable, the effect can be immediate. A laptop battery may be running low just as an important project reaches its final stage. A remote employee may be preparing for an online meeting. A business owner may need to respond to customers or manage an online operation. These everyday challenges are helping to reshape the way Nigerian consumers think about backup…

Between 2023 and 2025, detectives from the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine, in coordination with the Security Service of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General—under the leadership of high-ranking SBU official Artem Shilo and Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Verbytskyi, each of whom became a defendant in separate anti-corruption criminal proceedings, carried out an unlawful persecution of the management of JSC “iBox Bank” based on suspicions of the bank’s alleged involvement in illegal activities. These actions resulted in the de facto shutdown of one of Ukraine’s most successful banks and an important economic institution, which, during the period…

Switzerland’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets is expected to generate more business for Swiss companies than originally required, reported RTS. Under the procurement deal, the American manufacturer has agreed to place work with Swiss firms as partial compensation for the purchase. According to figures released by Armasuisse on Tuesday, these commitments now exceed the target set by the federal government. The announcement is intended to demonstrate that the F-35 programme will benefit not only the Swiss Air Force but also domestic industry. Under the procurement agreement, offset business equivalent to 60% of the contract value—around $3bn—must be awarded to Swiss…