With photographs from Kyiv, Bangkok and Zurich — among other places.
country: Switzerland
Stay updated with comprehensive news on Switzerland from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Swiss politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Zurich, Geneva, and cultural events.
PARIS — April Fools’ Day is an international celebration of silliness, with roots in ancient Rome, India and the first written reference in The Canterbury Tales. In France and Italy, the poisson d’avril and pesce d’aprile respectively, is a traditional call to spend the day trying to tape a paper cut-out of a fish on […]
Cheap cocaine is flooding the European drug market, escalating conflicts in open drug scenes, everywhere except the historically drug-tolerant Zurich. A visit to this Swiss city — known as an open-air hotspot for crack and heroin in the 1990s — with a different approach for taking on drug addiction.
The precious metal is the asset of choice for cushioning market shocks and navigating uncertain geopolitical times. But that’s not the only reason analysts are forecasting an ounce at $3,000 within the next year or two.
According to psychology research, lying to kids about the subject of Santa Claus risks ruining their confidence and altering the parent-child relationship.
Years of budget cuts and a sluggish economy have pushed Italy’s public healthcare system to the brink. As doctors and nurses flee the country in search of better pay, it is in communities along the border with Switzerland where the cracks are most visible.
Setting mountaineering speed records is a way for trail runners to add their names to history books to stay in the spotlight now that almost all the world’s mountains have already been climbed. But this desire to push limits is not ecological — even for a man who recycles or foregoes airplane travel.
Long neglected in our homes, toilets are undergoing a revolution through both technological and design innovations. As we spend on average more than a year of our lives on them, consumers are increasingly looking for something more than purely functional.
Every year, countless tourists make the pilgrimage to the place where Sherlock Holmes is supposed to have died – the Reichenbach Falls, near Meiringen, in northern Switzerland. Die Welt looks back at the famous detective, and his final days — and how those pages of literature have become a driving force for locals to market their land to tourists.
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are only the most recent and glaring conflicts that are driven, at least in part, by extreme animosity fueled by ethnic and national identity. For independent Russian website Important Stories, Vsevolod Bederson looks at what we can learn from other ethnic conflicts, what has worked, and what has not, when it comes to extinguishing animosity and violence.
France’s much discussed citizens’ convention on assisted dying has just delivered its conclusions, including some proposals the government deems too ambitious. But the freedom to choose one’s own death is the ultimate achievement of self-control, says French philosopher Gaspard Koenig.
The Davos Forum was once a true shaper of our collective future in a globalized world. Today it is beyond its expiry date, even if global solutions to global problems are needed more than ever.
In the face of Russia’s stranglehold over supplies, the European Commission has proposed support packages and price caps. But across Europe, fears about the cost of living are spreading — and with it, doubts about support for Ukraine.
Switzerland has rejected a NATO request to take in injured Ukrainian soldiers, arguing it would compromise its neutrality. This is an old game of masking moral cowardice by a country that has profited off the Putin regime.
From self-induced trance to psychedelics, altered states of consciousness are experiencing a renewed interest in the scientific community for their therapeutic value.
No one should be under any illusions that Ukraine is about to join the EU or NATO. If this war is to end in a lasting peace, Ukrainians will have to accept a new position on the world stage and a new approach. The famously “neutral” and multilingual Switzerland could be a model.
Switzerland is famous for its fondue, a national specialty that is eaten by dipping bread into melted cheese, using uniquely shaped long-stemmed forks. Now a 60-year old Swiss man has found a rather unexpected use for his fondue fork, reaching with the length of the utensil and its sharp prongs to steal envelopes containing condolence […]
Five Questions for the legendary pilot, environmental activist and founder of Solar Impulse Foundation, supporting solutions that are profitable and protect the planet.
A report turns much-needed attention to a dark and long-ignored chapter in Swiss history.
Women have the most to lose if governments don’t start investing more in quality care services, the International Labour Organization warns.
More and more young and not-so-young people are returning home to live with their parents. A phenomenon which is hard on their aging parents.
GENEVA — One day last October, during the morning talk show on Swiss state broadcaster RTS, still groggy viewers were brutally awakened by a sentence dropped live on-air: “Schools train children who will be decimated by artificial intelligence.” The voice that dragged them out of their reverie belonged to a French doctor and entrepreneur named […]
It may not be Europe’s biggest trend setter, but in subtle ways, the land-locked, quadrilingual republic is fashioning a hipper, more confident cultural identity.
Alternative energy projects might be good for the environment. But with a few exceptions, they’re awful on the eyes.
In their own silent but deadly way, cattle are contributing to climate change. Adapting their diets may be one way to ease the problem. Changing our eating habits is another.
LAUSANNE — “We struck off, heading for the horizon with a fever we thought could be cured by accumulating kilometers. But it just riled us up even more. Still, moving quenches something. It eases our melancholy at not having done anything with our lives, at having been born too early and having failed at everything. […]
LAUSANNE — There are books and newspaper articles, technologies promising relief, even theater productions devoted to the topic. Indeed, it seems like everyone is talking about insomnia these days. In Switzerland, insomnia already affects about a third of the population, according to a study carried out between 2009 and 2012 by the Center for Investigation […]
LAUSANNE — Is wildlife a world of bullies? We like to imagine the relationships among living beings as a no-holds-barred struggle for survival, a twisted vision of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, conveyed by the political and economic doctrine of social Darwinism. And yet, examples of cooperation abound in the animal world. Mammals, insects and […]
François-Xavier Mousin and Caroline Buechler used to do marketing for Switzerland’s watch industry. But that was before they went cuckoo for cacao.
This bio-friendly cattle rancher doesn’t win many friends among either vegetarians or traditional ranchers. But those who eat his ‘no-stress’ beef can taste the difference.
LAUSANNE — Margaux and her partner, Séverine, have spent more than a year traveling in a van from the United States to Patagonia. It makes sense then that they’ve come across #Vanlife, an Instagram hashtag van users like themselves use for posting pictures of their lives on the open road. The couple, from Lausanne, enjoy […]
The male god of tennis cried (profusely) after his Australian Open win. Not just his tears, but the place he gives his family, show a different way to be a sports hero.
The global economy is doing wonderfully well. And yet, its key players are wary. Why? Because for all the good news about GDP growth, there are signs of deepening divisions in society, and a sense that for many people around the world, life will be harder for their children than it has been for themselves. […]
LAUSANNE — A few decades from now, that steaming cup of coffee you enjoy (and rely on) every morning won’t taste the same. Climate change, a multitude of alarming forecasts tell us, is threatening the precious bean, prompting researchers and industrialists alike to work on ways to make the plant more adaptable. The trick is […]
When the masses descend upon snow-covered Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering, Esther Heldstab is determined to swim against the tide. The purveyor of tourist mementos on the town’s main street is one of the few shopkeepers who won’t hand over their keys to multinational conglomerates who transform shoe stores and bakeries into lounges and cocktail party space for the week. While the likes of Zurich Insurance, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank take over prime space on Promenade, Heldstab and her sister who run Swissalp Fantasy at no. 79 — where the window display features a stuffed Bernese […]
GENEVA — His video, “I’m testing a blackhead vacuum,” has more than 200,000 views. The one entitled, “Baldness: my hair transplant” has been seen at least 440,000 times. But his bestseller remains “How to have a beautiful, well-trimmed beard,” with more than 800,000 views. Since he created his YouTube channel, The Winslegue Tutorials, two and […]
The historian and sociologist Georges Vigarello recounts the evolution of the dress, which tells the story of female representation and liberation in society.
The many ways your iPhone or Android, and their apps, are built to hook you like a drug user. The UX (user experience) designers are confessing to their sins.
An experimental television show on France’s Canal+ relies more on sounds than images to scare the daylights out of people
GENEVA — “What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?” A simple question that comes up in December, but is enough to make some people break into a cold sweat. “For years, New Year’s Eve has given me a headache,” says Sonia, a 26-year-old communications student at the University of Geneva. “You ask yourself whom […]