Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Yes, no, maybe: for a long time it was unclear whether the talks between the United States and Iran would take place at the Bürgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. But Switzerland has pulled out all the stops to make the meeting possible.
US Vice-President JD Vance and the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, arrived with their delegations. Read about the outcome in today’s briefing.
The Bürgenstock once again became the stage for world politics: despite deep mistrust between the US and Iran, direct talks took place and initial agreements have been reached for the next 60 days.
While Switzerland held its breath, the US and Iran negotiated for hours at Bürgenstock over the weekend. The meeting had actually been scheduled for Friday, but US President Donald Trump’s premature signing of the agreement and mutual mistrust between the parties had caused a delay.
US Vice-President JD Vance arrived at Bürgenstock early on Sunday morning. According to the Tages-Anzeiger, he is said to have waited until the Iranian delegation had flown out before boarding the plane himself.
The delegations negotiated until after midnight. However, little information about the exact details has been made public. It is known that the US and Iran have agreed on a 60-day roadmap for further negotiations. In addition, a direct communication channel for the Strait of Hormuz and a mechanism to monitor the ceasefire in Lebanon are to be established, as reported by Swiss public broadcaster SRF, citing the mediators Qatar and Pakistan.
Switzerland was more than just a picturesque backdrop. As the Tages-Anzeiger goes on to report, a foreign ministry taskforce is said to have worked tirelessly to ensure the talks went ahead. The police in canton Nidwalden also had to remain flexible and repeatedly extend their operational readiness. However, the Swiss flag is missing from the official logo of the “Lake Lucerne Summit”.
On Monday morning the high-level delegation from Iran left the Bürgenstock, which, according to SRF correspondent Sebastian Ramspeck, was to be expected. “The mistrust is too great,” he says. The Iranians refrained from shaking hands and posing for joint photographs with the US representatives. The talks are now set to continue at a working level.
Ten years after Brexit: for Swiss nationals in the United Kingdom, life has become more bureaucratic and more expensive. Nevertheless, the Swiss community on the island is growing.
Ten years ago, the UK voted to leave the EU; Brexit became a reality – with consequences that were also felt by Swiss nationals living on the island.
Lakshmi Sundaram, from Geneva, also felt that the Brexit vote was a “vote against people like me”, she told Le Matin Dimanche. However, she did not have to worry about her residency status because she had already been living in the UK for more than five years and was granted Settled Status. Swiss nationals in the UK enjoy the same rights as EU citizens.
Nevertheless, there are still problems: as the status exists only digitally, several Swiss nationals have already been held up at the border due to IT issues, as Loredana Guetg Wyatt, the former president of the Federation of Swiss Societies in the UK, explains. And the future of Settled Status is not guaranteed. The Reform UK party, led by Brexit advocate Nigel Farage, has announced plans to restrict Europeans’ access to social security benefits. Guetg Wyatt reports that several Swiss nationals are fearful of a possible takeover by Farage’s party. The hurdles have also become higher for Swiss nationals looking to move to the UK: visas and access to the healthcare system cost several thousand francs.
Nevertheless, the UK remains attractive to Swiss nationals: while the French community has shrunk, the number of registered Swiss nationals has risen by 17% since Brexit, reaching 41,394 in 2025.
The heatwave has Switzerland in its grip. As temperatures rise, so do the challenges for people working outdoors.
There’s one topic nobody in Switzerland can avoid at the moment: the heat. Following a hot weekend, temperatures are forecast to remain above 30°C for the rest of the week.
As I write, I am sitting in my flat, where I manage to keep the temperature reasonably bearable by thoroughly airing the room and keeping it in the shade. But outside, road workers are busy resurfacing the road in the blazing sun. The newspaper Blick has identified the five hottest jobs in Switzerland and asked how people cope with these extreme temperatures.
Road workers are, of course, on the list. They try to get as much done as possible in the morning and take ice-cream breaks as well as longer lunch breaks. The bike courier featured in the article really reaches his limits, particularly when stopped at traffic lights. “It feels as if someone’s holding an iron to your head,” he says. To stop his head from overheating, he regularly dips it into a fountain during his shift. As well as the usual cooling tips, those interviewed also rely on humour and try not to get too worked up – there’s hardly any other option at the moment.
Unusual find in Basel: a diver discovers a hand grenade in the River Rhine. The controlled detonation led to a large-scale deployment of police, the fire brigade and the army.
What would you do if you discovered an explosive device, such as a hand grenade, while swimming? The diver who found a grenade in the Rhine in Basel on Sunday immediately brought it ashore himself.
The police, whom he had alerted, then took charge and cordoned off the area; a nearby boat was evacuated. Experts concluded that it was highly likely to be an unexploded ordnance.
The army’s explosive ordnance disposal team decided to detonate the hand grenade on site. To this end, the Civil Defence provided sandbags, and the cordoned-off area was extended, which also meant that no boats were allowed to travel on the Rhine. The detonation ultimately went according to plan. As ammunition or explosive devices can still be dangerous even after decades, the police remind the public that they should never be touched or moved.
Translated from German, sub-edited by Thomas Stephens
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