Switzerland

The city of Basel will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2025: the contest was born in Lugano, in 1956 and will return to its birthplace almost 70 years later

The Federal Armaments Office of Switzerland, state agency in charge of armaments and military technology, published an announcement offering a total prize of over €50.000 to the best ideas for removing the many remnants of war from lakes

Around 920.000 party-goers attended the 31st Zurich Street Parade on Saturday 10 August, confirming the city status of global techno music capital

The number of cross-border commuters working in Switzerland has risen by 3% in one year and around 399.000 people with a G permit were working in Switzerland at the end of June 2024

Zermatt rail link will ne interrupted for weeks due to severe damage caused by the flooding of the Vispa river; trains operated by Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn will not be running to the Swiss mountain resort until at least mid-August

Former Brazilian football star Ronaldinho has opened his first restaurant near Geneva in western Switzerland; the restaurant is named "R10" after the famous footballer's shirt number

Credit Suisse, established in Zurich on 5 July 1856, no longer exists as legal entity in Switzerland after 168 years of operations; the bank has merged into UBS with all its rights and obligations now being transferred to UBS Switzerland

A decline in property price is widespread in many areas and buying would be more convenient than renting by early 2025, a UBS study predicts, because of falling mortgage rates, rising rents and key interest rate cuts expected from the Swiss National Bank

Eighty countries have called for the "territorial integrity" of Ukraine to be the foundation of any peace agreement to end Russia's war in a communique issued on the second and final day of their gathering at a Swiss resort on 16 June

The Swiss people will vote today on four issues at a federal level: two initiatives on health insurance premiums, compulsory vaccinations and the referendum against the comprehensive Energy Law

The federal government intends to invest CHF16.4 billion ($18.1 billion) in railway infrastructure between 2025 and 2028, 2 billion more than for the current period

Switzerland will not be participating in the European Copernicus programme to monitor climate change from 2021 to 2027 although Parliament had voted in favor; the reason given by the government is the strained state of federal finances

Government announced plans to spend a maximum of CHF29,2 billion ($32 billion) over the next four years for Switzerland to “remain an international leader in education, research and innovation”, a higher sum than for 2021-2024 but smaller than expected