No wonder the annual Montreux Noël festivities are among the most popular in Switzerland. Here’s what’s lined up. Lakefront Christmas market Kicking off on 23 November until 24 December 2017, about 160 merchants and craftspeople will be offering countless gifts from their mini chalet-style stalls twinkling with lights and decorations at the Montreux’s Christmas Market. There […]
Swiss dietary changes that could halve environmental damage and improve health
A new study in Switzerland shows the impact dietary choices have on the environment. Compared to current eating habits, three different diets all roughly halve the environmental damage wrought by food production. Put together by Agroscope, a Swiss government research centre, the analysis looks at scenarios that would reduce environmental damage while maintaining the current […]
Earthquakes – Swiss study shines new light on the risks in the Alps
A study by scientists at ETH Zurich, published on ScienceDirect on 15 November 2017, provides a powerful new way of looking at the risk of large earthquakes in the Alps, Apennines, Zagros and Himalaya mountain ranges. Most know that mountain ranges are built by tectonic plates pushing against each other. However, some forget how seismically […]
My Swiss Story – reunited after 32 years
Everyone has a story. My Swiss Story is a series that looks at lives in Switzerland. This week we met Bill Harby, an American freelance writer and photographer living between Geneva and Neuchâtel. Married with three grown stepchildren, he has a third home in a forest on Hawaii’s biggest island, an erupting volcano. What brought […]
Life expectancy – Switzerland’s men drop from first place
Last year, Switzerland tied with Iceland for the prize of longest male life expectancy, according to the OECD. In this year’s report, published last Friday, Switzerland slipped into second place alongside Japan. Why? Male life expectancy in Switzerland declined. It moved from 81.1 years to 80.8, a drop of 0.3 years. At the same time […]
Passing on the right – a grey area in Switzerland
The rules in Switzerland are clear. With one exception, anyone passing on the right is breaking the law. In practice, many drivers are confused. Article 35 of Switzerland’s federal road traffic states that drivers can only pass on the left. The only time passing on the right is permitted is when there are parallel queues of […]
Switzerland moves closer to female board quotas
This week, Switzerland moved closer to requiring minimum percentages of women on company boards and management teams. A parliamentary commission came out in support of the Federal Council’s plan to require greater gender balance in the boardrooms of Switzerland’s large listed companies. A commission majority (14 versus 11) would like to see a minimum of […]
Reimbursement in Switzerland for drugs bought abroad could soon be possible
According to the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, Switzerland’s federal government wants to allow Switzerland’s residents to claim for drugs bought abroad. Prices across the border are generally far lower. As recently as March 2017, the government told insurers that anyone buying medicines abroad would have to pay for them out of their own pockets. Now […]
Health insurance rise in 2018 even higher, according to new calculation
At the end of September the Swiss government announced an average nationwide health premium rise of 4% in 2018. This government calculation is rather narrow. It only looks at the price of standard compulsory insurance, including accident cover, for an adult with a CHF 300 deductible. Price comparison site bonus.ch calculates that this policy configuration […]
Stiff new legal precedent could be set for using phones while driving
20 Minutes. According to 20 Minutes, a driver who caused a fatal accident while driving and using a mobile phone, has been charged with constructive manslaughter (meurtre par dol éventuel), a charge brought against those who willfully put lives at risk and kill someone. It is a harsher sentence than involuntary manslaughter (homicide par négligence), […]
