US lawmakers are clueless about the reason for high Swiss trade tariffs; Switzerland named the world’s wealthiest country — in one category only; and more news in our roundup on Monday.
US lawmakers: ‘We don’t know why Trump targeted Switzerland’
A delegation of 25 legislators from the US House of Representatives paid visit to Swiss parliament members on Friday, and the 39-percent trade tariffs imposed by President Trump on Swiss imports were the focus of their discussions.
While the Republican members of the bi-partisan group support their president’s push for higher customs duties, they couldn’t understand why Trump imposed higher tariffs on Switzerland than on any other European country.
“No one can explain to us why Switzerland was slapped with such high tariffs, and no one can say what will happen next,” said MP Fabian Molina after the meeting. “This is very worrying.”
Switzerland named the world’s wealthiest country — with a twist
According to a study carried out by the Economist magazine, Switzerland is the richest nation among 178 countries examined, but in one category only.
That’s because the Economist ranked each county based on three criteria.
While Switzerland is the wealthiest in the per-person GDP category ($104,000), it falls in the ranking to the 5th place when the GDP is adjusted for local costs of living, as well for hours that need to be worked to achieve this income level.
READ ALSO: Are people in Switzerland really the world’s richest?
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Home-office trend is still going strong in Switzerland
Although home-working attained its highest point during the Covid pandemic, the number of home office jobs in Switzerland has reached a new high in the second quarter of 2025, according to an analysis carried out by the job platform Indeed.
In fact, with 14 percent of all jobs advertisements offering ‘working from home’ positions, Switzerland is in the third place in terms of this kind of employment among the largest Western economies.
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Global warming will make many Swiss homes uninhabitable
In Switzerland, buildings are designed to withstand winter, but increasingly hot summers pose a greater risk.
“New buildings are still designed to withstand winter, with large windows facing south,” making the indoors hotter in the summer, said Gianrico Settembrini, architect and researcher at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences.
The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) has therefore published a study on concrete cooling measures to make new dwellings more “habitable” (that is, not as hot) in the summer, by using sustainable, environmentally-friendly, and economical methods.
The study mentions, for example, bed cooling systems that would circulate cool water through mattress covers, fans, cooling textiles, as well as ‘geocooling’ — using the Earth’s consistent underground temperature to cool buildings.
On the other hand, air conditioning systems, which are very energy-intensive, should be avoided.
READ ALSO: Why getting permission for air conditioners is so hard in Switzerland
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