This week, Swiss Post announced it would stop accepting parcels bound for America from 26 August 2025. The suspension, which follows similar moves by other European postal operators, stems from new American customs rules requiring every package—regardless of size or value—to be declared and cleared. Letters, documents and express deliveries remain unaffected. The change follows […]
Did Swiss president’s lecturing scupper US tariff negotiations?
Did a phone call with Switzerland’s president provoke Donald Trump into slapping punitive tariffs on the country? According to SonntagsBlick, citing unnamed American sources, Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland’s president, so irritated the US president during an exchange on 31 July 2025, that he imposed a 39% tariff on Swiss goods—the highest rate imposed on any developed […]
Swiss pilots under strain due to pilot shortage
Swiss International Air Lines is struggling with a shortage of pilots. The problem is not a lack of recruits—its European Flight Academy in Solothurn is full, with about 100 trainees per intake—but a training backlog caused by the covid-19 pandemic, when courses were halted and only resumed in mid-2022. Passenger demand has since surged, leaving […]
Swiss rents set to rise sharply in coming years
Swiss tenants face steep rent increases in the coming years. According to Martin Tschirren, head of the Federal Housing Office, advertised rents are likely to climb by 3–5% annually. Demand for housing continues to outstrip supply, he told the NZZ am Sonntag on 25 August 2025, as his office released its latest housing market data. […]
Switzerland’s higher state pensions to be financed with VAT increase
In March 2024 Swiss voters approved, by 58%, a plan to grant pensioners a 13th monthly payment. That set off a quarrel over how to fund it. This week the National Council’s social-security committee backed a scheme to finance the extra benefit solely through a 0.7 percentage point rise in value-added tax, reported SRF. The […]
Swiss court drops appeal against Platini and Blatter acquittal
Switzerland’s federal prosecutor will not challenge the acquittal of Michel Platini and Joseph Blatter, the former heads of UEFA and FIFA, reported RTS. The ruling, which cleared them of fraud, breach of trust, mismanagement and forgery, is now final. By accepting the verdicts at both trial and appeal, the prosecutor has closed another chapter of […]
If we give in, Trump will demand more, says Swiss political scientist
Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to dent Swiss exports. They have also sparked what Joseph de Weck, a Swiss historian and political scientist, calls an identity crisis in a country long used to navigating between great powers. Mr Trump treats trade deficits as the source of almost every American ill—debt, deindustrialisation, even the opioid crisis. Tariffs […]
Swiss business and environmentalists warn against scrapping imputed rent
Switzerland’s parliament wants to scrap Switzerland’s quirky taxable imputed rental on owner-occupied homes. A vote on 28 September 2025 to impose a new tax on holiday homes is the first step to scrapping this taxable fictional rent. But there is a catch: the change would end most deductions for mortgage interest, home maintenance and environmental […]
Swiss jobs market: more workers, more jobless
Switzerland’s labour market looked both buoyant and brittle in the second quarter of 2025. Employment edged up, but unemployment did too, according to a report published by the Federal Statistical Office this week. The number of people in work rose by 0.6% year on year to 5.36m, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Adjusted for […]
Revitalizing the UN: Lessons from 102-Year-Old Edith
By Peter Hulm Uncover the remarkable journey of Edith Ballantyne, a 102-year-old pioneer in UN revitalization. From teenage refugee to influential diplomat, her insights on global governance and peace are timeless and inspiring. “The UN as an organization, or an international instrument of that kind, is absolutely essential.” That was in 2015 at the age […]
