WorldcrunchStay 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.
GENEVA — A series of hurricanes of unprecedented intensity in the North Atlantic. Record-high temperatures all over the planet. Monstrous fires in California and Portugal. Entire regions hit by severe drought. Mountains collapsing… Has 2017 given us a foretaste of the disasters to come because of climate change? To answer this question and get a […]
Mountains are as integral to Switzerland as beaches are to Tahiti. But that doesn’t mean every Swiss person likes the rising surroundings.
Exhibitions in the U.S. are held specifically to allow visitors to take pictures of themselves. European museum curators cringe, but competition for the attention of the social-media generation is real.
Can’t afford original artwork? Never fear. For a small fee, people in Geneva can borrow a piece or two.
Last year, an unknown painting by the famous French artist was left to a small Swiss canton. Months of investigation were needed to uncover the canvas’s mysterious elements, but some questions remain.
GENEVA — It’s just before 7:30 a.m. on the train station platform. White letters on the display panel spell out the final destination of the approaching train: Geneva Airport. A-I-R-P-O-R-T. Just the sight of those seven small letters produces a cold sweat, a knot in the stomach, a slight dizziness. For most people, airports are a launching point for a world of possibilities. They’re synonymous with vacations, new horizons. But not for me. I wander around them like a zombie, clutching my box of anti-anxiety pills like it’s my best friend. I admit, I’m afraid of planes. Every time I […]
Taxpayers sometimes have to pay three times for any scientific article.
In Switzerland, a provocatively mundane location for top avant-garde art. But can you find something more important than a full tank of gas?
Sandy makes big money stripping down, but never all-nude.
Guests come to the Hauterive Abbey, outside of Fribourg, to get away from it all, take a few days to reflect, and keep quiet. Very very quiet.
The boom from Gulf countries is the direct result of a promotional campaign that features halal menus, Arabic speakers and prayer mat in front of hotels.
GENEVA — It may sound like hocus-pocus, but with the growing influx of African migrants, social services in Switzerland are having to tackle a new and perplexing problem: witchcraft. The phenomenon specifically involves African women — mostly prostitutes from Nigeria — who were “bewitched” before leaving home and suffer serious psychological consequences as a result. […]
GENEVA — It’s a sight that would have pleased Pantagruel, the 16th-century giant dreamed up by French writer François Rabelais. A horde of mini-vegetables, more numerous and diverse, are taking the world’s kitchens by storm. For many years, we have grown accustomed to baby carrots and cucumbers, not to mention baby corn. But here come […]
In Switzerland, some local governments are turning to sound specialists to make cityscapes easier on the ears.
ZURICH — The determined look of Mambo Mhozuyenikono (not his real name) contrasts with the nonchalance of the other students who wander, trays in hand, around the cafeteria at the University of Zurich. For this 23-year-old from Zimbabwe, enrollment here is a privilege rather than an obligation — not something to be taken for granted. […]
GENEVA — At the Geneva University Hospitals, pneumologist Jean-Paul Janssens receives patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This rare disease is caused by the degeneration of motor neurons and kills patients within a few years. It is incurable. And yet patients often receive invitations from private clinics or doctors promising a miracle cure using […]
Wild parakeet populations are expanding in many European cities, where they enjoy the relative warmth of dense urban settings and have easy access to food.
LAUSANNE — A Swiss-based charity, Race For Water Foundation, wants to turn the PlanetSolar catamaran into a floating display of emerging hydrogen technologies. “That’s unprecedented on a boat,” says Alexandre Closset, CEO of Swiss Hydrogen. “For the first time, a full hydrogen chain will be installed on a boat.” The electric vessel, the first to […]
Being creative is often just a matter of connecting the dots — though they better be the right dots.
Feel the novelty fatigue growing inside? But it is not just the vintage feel of the reissued Nokia 3310 that makes it convincing, it is something deeper.
Hipsters beware: beards have been on the list of unusual taxes.
The Thyon tourism office rents innovative ‘tiny houses’ to ski vacationers: 56 square feet, fun and environmentally friendly. But it’s not so simple.
Introducing deep thoughts to early child education can pay off later.
GENEVA — Sapiosexual. The word only recently emerged from Internet limbo to warrant real-world study. It defines a sexual orientation. Namely, that of a person who will be sexually attracted to another person solely because of their intelligence, their erudition. In other words, a sapiosexual is someone sexually obsessed with IQ. For such a person, […]
-Essay- LAUSANNE — The cult of the strong man is back at the forefront of our societies, albeit in different forms. There are strong-man politicians, military leaders, even autonomous survivalists. And yet as formidable as he may be, the strong man finds himself challenged by someone even better, even more powerful: the augmented man. Against […]
Foreign scientists working in the U.S. are seeking job prospects in Switzerland as they contemplate leaving a country under an unfriendly administration. For one Swiss agency, that’s not necessarily good news.
-OpEd- GENEVA — When it comes to choosing a future leader, a candidate’s personality tends to be as important as his or her proposed policies. In the case of Donald J. Trump, the political ideas he expressed in his presidential campaign were simplistic, outrageous and Manichaean. His conduct was deliberately extravagant and he made no […]
-OpEd- Is this China’s big moment? The World Economic Forum in Davos is welcoming Chinese president Xi Jinping as a special guest. It’s the first time a Chinese leader has attended the event. It marks a historic moment, not least because it comes just a few days before Donald Trump will be sworn in as […]
The Lausanne-based start-up Skioo is organizing trips from Swiss cities to Alpine resorts thanks to an alliance with the U.S.-based car-hire app.
The promise of eternal life gets a boost from the latest technologies, but there are troubling questions that go beyond science.
When we pet an iguana, we are taking advantage of a communication channel that already exists between iguanas. Evolution can work across species too.
The heir to the Hiltl dynasty of vegetarian restaurateurs decided veggie eateries need not be sober, puritanical settings, like the one his great-grandfather founded in 1898. Vodka, for example, is vegan.
GENEVA — Beloved French singer Edith Piaf probably wasn’t aware of it but what made her see “La Vie en Rose,” or life through rose-tinted glasses, as she sings in one of her most famous love songs, could have just been a rush of phenylethylamine or oxytocin. Several types of hormones are released when a […]
GENEVA — Two weeks ago, the Michelin Guide published its latest edition, sprinkling its coveted stars on some of the most deserving restaurants, and withholding them from others. It remains, for its longevity, rigor and selectivity, a bible for any bon vivant and a point of reference for critics and other gastronomy professionals. But it’s […]
Amid extraordinarily high tensions on the Korean peninsula, Switzerland managed to get diplomats from Pyongyang to sit down with counterparts from Seoul.
Every November, the erudite British council behind Oxford Dictionaries picks a word of the year to signify the term that most influenced society in the previous 12 months. They picked the word “selfie” in 2013. “Vape” was the winner in 2014. Last year, it wasn’t even a word. It was an emoji (the one with […]
Swiss developers turn the business model of online gaming on its head.
Patrick Jan barely scratches out a living. He is too busy making his childhood dream come true.
You won’t find gold or weapons stored deep in the granite caves of Switzerland’s Bernese Alps. Instead, the mountain range holds more precious treasure — servers and hard drives.
Robots have always fascinated us. In fiction or in real life, they crossed our path, for better or for worse. But where do they really come from?