Police say explosion ripped through a bar called La Constellation in the luxury Alpine ski resort town
Several people have been killed and others injured when an explosion ripped through a bar in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, Swiss police said early on Thursday.
“There has been an explosion of unknown origin,” Gaetan Lathion, a police spokesperson in Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland, told AFP.
A DNA test showed me that theoretically I have links to a long list of countries – and that the way we look at belonging makes little sense
While accepting that David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary is, for many, the human embodiment of Marmite – loved or hated, with not much in between – one can still question whether, for all his faults, he should “go home to the Caribbean”. Whether you agree with him over this or that utterance or the broad sweep of government policy, he has, unquestionably made his contribution to Tottenham, in north London, whose people he has represented for a quarter of a century, to parliament, as a senior MP, as foreign secretary and now as an important figure with several key portfolios.
So when a lieutenant of Nigel Farage, admittedly no fan of Lammy’s, suggests, without notable contradiction or condemnation from Reform, that Lammy “should go home to the Caribbean”, one is tempted to look at that askance. But then, in the year just past, when bigotry in frontline politics took off its training wheels and othering became the sport that everyone can play, the notion that someone who clearly belongs here should not belong here ceased to shock.
Margot Robbie busts her corset in Wuthering Heights, the Devil Wears Prada sequel goes fashionably to war, and Christopher Nolan brings us a Greek epic. Plus much more in our pick of the best films coming to UK cinemas this year
Jessie Buckley may need to hire a carpenter for the silverware-cabinet she is expected to need for her hugely admired performance in the film based on the Maggie O’Farrell novel. She plays Anne (or Agnes) Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, grieving the terrible loss of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, in 1596, which the story imagines to be a spur to the creation of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Paul Mescal plays Shakespeare and Emily Watson his mother, Mary.
• 9 January.
Police show the Guardian around hotspots for a rural crime that has links to international gangs – and is on the rise
A cold, bright afternoon in the Vale of Pewsey and a couple of brown hares were nibbling away in a field of winter barley. It was a tranquil scene in this tucked-away corner of the English West Country but tyre tracks cutting through the crop were a sign of the violence that takes place when night falls.
This is one of the hotspots in Wiltshire for hare coursing, in which criminal gangs set dogs – usually greyhounds or lurchers – on the mammals.
New mayor, 34, was sworn in by state attorney general Letitia James in old beaux arts city hall subway station
Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City soon after midnight in a private ceremony in an abandoned beaux arts subway station – a prelude to daylong celebrations set to include a second, public swearing-in and a block party outside city hall.
Mamdani, 34, was sworn into office by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, surrounded by wife, Rama Duwaji, members of his immediate family, including Mira Nair, his mother and a film-maker, and his father, Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of African studies at Columbia University.
The department of foreign affairs is trying to confirm the death of an Australian man who was reportedly killed while fighting with Ukrainian forces against Russia last month.
According to multiple posts on social media, Russell Allan Wilson was killed on 12 December in the Donetsk region. The ABC reported that a friend of Wilson said he was killed during his final mission, and had been due to be married the week after his death.
The restorer, who died on Monday, brought unwanted attention to herself – and her small Spanish town. Then, slowly, a small miracle took place
Very few of us find fame quite as late, or quite as brutally, as Cecilia Giménez did in the summer of 2012. The Spanish amateur artist was already 81 when her efforts to restore a decent, if unremarkable, fresco of the scourged Christ brought her a renown that almost destroyed her.
Almost overnight, Giménez, who died on Monday at the age of 94, was stripped of her quiet existence in the north-eastern Spanish town of Borja, and recast as the well-meaning and unwitting creator of what would become known around the English-speaking world as Monkey Christ. In Spain, the meme phenomenon was dubbed Ecce Mono (Behold the Monkey), a play on the painting’s Latin title Ecce Homo (Behold the Man).
Sam Jones is Madrid correspondent for the Guardian
Tim Smit also says extreme political views will fade when people realise good things around the corner
Sir Tim Smit says the world is in a better place than it was when he co-founded the Eden Project 25 years ago and he believes people are more attuned to the natural world.
Speaking as the project in Cornwall reaches its 25th anniversary, Smit describedextreme political views as the “roar” of people fearful that they cannot control the future but he said they would fade when people realised that good things were around the corner.
It’s the Korean fantasy movie that came out of nowhere to become Netflix’s most-watched film ever. And social media mentions of its characters are outranking those of real-life superstars
When KPop Demon Hunters landed on Netflix in late June, no one predicted it would become a globe-sweeping, chart-topping phenomenon. The near-instant success of the animated kids’ film caught the industry by surprise, and six months later, fans are still hungry for merchandise, music, spin-offs and more stories. Here’s what you may have missed.
It’s an animated ‘musical urban fantasy film’ The story follows a K-pop girl group called Huntr/x (pronounced “Huntrix”), who are also demon hunters, responsible for protecting humanity from supernatural threats with their combat skills and empowering pop. Their rivals are the Saja Boys, who are secretly demons. When the groups are pitted against one another, the stakes are peace on Earth, and in particular the Honmoon: the magical barrier that protects humans from the underworld. Conflict, and personal growth, ensues.
Israeli movement Women Wage Peace and Palestinian group Women of the Sun held a mass rally in October 2023. Three days later a Hamas attack triggered war – leaving the women more determined than ever
On the shores of the Dead Sea, about 1,500 Israeli and Palestinian women had gathered, holding hands and calling for an end to what they called a “vicious cycle of bloodshed”. It was an October evening in 2023 and they had travelled from villages, settlements and refugee camps around the region for a mass peace rally jointly organised by the Israeli movement Women Wage Peace and the Palestinian group Women of the Sun.
Two of the organisers were friends: Yael Admi, 66, an Israeli mother of six, and Reem al-Hajajreh, 43, a Palestinian mother of four. The women had hoped their message would cut through decades of violence and mistrust. But three days later, Hamas launched its deadly attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, followed swiftly by what turned into a genocidal war by Israel on Gaza which left more than 70,000 dead, most of whom were women and children. The fragile hope embodied by the Dead Sea event was overtaken overnight by grief, fear and fury.
Australian beef producers said they were “extremely disappointed” after China announced a 55% tariff on imports that exceed quota levels in a move to protect a domestic cattle industry slowly emerging from oversupply.
China’s commerce ministry said on Wednesday the total import quota for 2026 for Australia and other countries such as Brazil and the US covered under its new “safeguard measures” is 2.7m metric tons, roughly in line with the record 2.87m tons it imported overall in 2024.
US intelligence officials persuade Donald Trump that Ukrainians did not target Putin with drones – reports. What we know on day 1,408
Ukraine was “10%” away from a peace deal, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday, and his country wanted an end to the war but not at “any cost”. The Ukrainian president, in his New Year’s Eve address, said any agreement needed strong security guarantees. “The peace agreement is 90% ready, 10% remains. And that is far more than just numbers.”
As the Russian ruler, Vladimir Putin, pushes for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as part of any deal, Zelenskyy said he did not believe Russia would stop there. “Pull out from the Donbas, and it will all be over. That is how deception sounds when translated from Russian – into Ukrainian, into English, into German, into French, and, in fact, into any language in the world.”
Zelenskyy said he would not sign a “weak” peace agreement that would only prolong the war. “What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine … Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”
European leaders and allies meeting in Paris on 6 January will make firm commitments towards protecting Ukraine after any peace deal with Russia is brokered, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Wednesday during his New Year Eve’s speech.
Ukrainian long-range drones struck the Temp oil depot in the Russian city of Rybinsk, sparking a large fire, an official from Kyiv’s SBU domestic security service said on Wednesday. In Ukraine, a Russian drone attack hit apartment buildings and the power grid in Odesa, injuring six people, including children. Officials said Wednesday that four apartment buildings were damaged and the power company DTEK reported significant damage to two energy facilities.
US and European officials agree that Ukraine did not target Putin and his house with drones. Donald Trump on Monday appeared to give the Russian claim credence, but on Wednesday the US president shared a New York Post editorial accusing Russia of blocking peace. A source familiar with the issue said on condition of anonymity that Trump had reposted the editorial after being briefed by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, on the drone attack allegations. US national security officials including the CIA determined that the attack did not happen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, as it tried to shore up its claims, Russia’s defence ministry released video including a Russian serviceman standing next to fragments of a device that he said was a downed Ukrainian Chaklun-V drone carrying a 6kg explosive device that had not detonated. “This is laughable,” said Heorhii Tykhyi from Ukraine’s foreign ministry, “both the fact that it took them two days to produce this, and the fact that the things they try to present as evidence basically shows that they are not serious even about fabricating the story. We are absolutely confident that no such attack took place.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, called Russia’s claims “a deliberate distraction … No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war.” Reuters said that a Ukrainian briefing paper noted that in the hours after the alleged attack, various Russian officials made extremely similar and likely coordinated comments in public. Residents of a town near Putin’s Novgorod residence heard no sounds of air defences on the night of the alleged attack.
Kim Jong-un hailed North Korean troops fighting in an “alien land” in a new year message to soldiers, state media reported on Thursday. Without mentioning the Ukraine war, the dictator addressed personnel in what state-run KCNA described as “overseas operations units”. North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and western intelligence agencies, with at least 600 killed and thousands more injured – all having fought under instructions to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner.
The US has granted the majority Russian-owned Serbian oil company NIS a reprieve until 23 January from sanctions targeting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a Serbian minister said on Wednesday. Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) was forced in early December to shut down Serbia’s sole oil refinery, which supplied about 80% of Serbia’s fuel needs. Washington imposed sanctions on NIS demanding the complete exit of Russian shareholders and preventing the refinery from receiving supplies. But talks over its sale have dragged on.
US military announces two separate strikes on boats it claims were transporting drugs in the Pacific
The US Coast Guard was searching for survivors of a US military strike against a convoy of suspected drug vessels in the Pacific Ocean, officials said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the US military’s Southern Command said the military had carried out a strike against three vessels.
British boxer is released on New Year’s Eve in Ikeja
Joshua can ‘recuperate at home’ after treatment
The British boxer Anthony Joshua has been discharged from hospital, Nigerian authorities said on Wednesday night. The two-time former heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist was involved in a car accident near Lagos on Monday which killed two of his close associates and team members.
The 36-year-old had been under observation while recovering from minor injuries, his promoter had said on Monday.
This year features a football World Cup, a Winter Olympics, a Commonwealth Games and a historic Test match
Jannik Sinner will be aiming to become only the second man in the Open era, after Novak Djokovic, to win three consecutive Australian Open singles titles, while in the women’s draw Madison Keys will be seeking to defend the title she landed via a shock victory over Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s final. Elsewhere, Roger Federer is scheduled to return to Melbourne Park for the first time since retiring from tennis in 2022 as part of a Battle of the World No 1s match, alongside Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt. “It still makes me smile when I think about all the moments I’ve had here,” said the Swiss legend.
Colorado lawmaker, who pushed for Epstein files release, points to bill’s unanimous passage through US House and Senate
Republican representative Lauren Boebert has fired back at Donald Trump for vetoing a bill that would have funded a drinking water project in her Colorado district, implying the president was playing at political retaliation.
The bill was aimed at funding a decades-long project to bring safe drinking water to 39 communities in Colorado’s eastern plains, where the groundwater is high in salt and wells sometimes unleash radioactivity into the water supply.
Ex-special counsel testified in front of judiciary committee about aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump
Jack Smith, the former justice department special counsel who led the aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump, told a congressional committee that he never spoke to Joe Biden about his cases, according to the transcript of a deposition released on Wednesday.
In his behind-closed-doors testimony to the House judiciary committee earlier this month, Smith defended the charges he brought against Trump for allegedly possessing classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election, while warning of the consequences of allowing election meddling to go unpunished.
Manager praises his team’s turnaround in past 12 months
January arrivals also hailed for making a key difference
Pep Guardiola has praised Manchester City for turning their form around to become the best-performing Premier League team in 2025 and warned rivals they will improve once Rodri returns to full fitness.
Despite a rare trophyless season, City go to Sunderland on New Year’s Day with 2025’s best points-per-game ratio, narrowly ahead of Arsenal, who played two more league matches.
Decision comes after DoJ stopped contesting California court’s ruling to return control of guard to state’s governor
Donald Trump has staged a sudden climbdown from his attempts to impose federal troops in law enforcement roles on Democratic-run cities, announcing on Wednesday that he was ending attempted deployments from Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland.
The unexpected shift came after justice department lawyers said they were no longer contesting a California court’s ruling that returned the national guard troops to the authority of Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor. It also followed a rare rebuke from the US supreme court, which blocked the White House’s efforts to deploy national guards in Illinois.
A woman has been found dead after being swept out into the ocean from a Sydney beach in the early hours of New Year’s Day, as authorities issue a warning about dangerous surf conditions on the NSW coast.
Later in the morning another swimmer went missing in the water at Coogee.
England scrum-half returned from injury to a side on the crest of a wave and will hope to catch Steve Borthwick’s eye
Harry Randall and Bristol enter the new year with high hopes. The scrum-half has returned to fitness ahead of schedule after hamstring surgery and marked his 150th Bears appearance in the win against Newcastle last Saturday.
Pat Lam’s side approach the Prem encounter with Sale at Ashton Gate on Friday after five straight victories, sitting fourth in the table, their attractive style having clicked. A fresh assault on the playoffs looks likely.
Resisted at first, the replacement for the subway token became an indelible symbol of the city
First, New Yorkers saw the elimination of subway token, which lasted for half a century. Now, its successor – the swipeable MetroCard, which lasted barely more than three decades – has seen its demise.
At midnight on 1 January, the flexible credit card-sized pass used by millions of New Yorkers to get through subway turnstiles is being terminated from sale just as a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, takes office.
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