Switzerland is reeling from one of its worst tragedies after a fire ripped through an Alpine bar during a New Year’s Eve celebration, leaving more than 40 people dead and dozens of others with serious burn injuries.
The prosecutor in charge of the case said on Friday that initial investigations suggested the most likely cause of the fire was sparkling flares being carried too close to the ceiling.
xAI says it is working to improve systems after lapses in safeguards led to wave of sexualized images this week
Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok posted on Friday that lapses in safeguards had led it to generate “images depicting minors in minimal clothing” on social media platform X. The chatbot, a product of Musk’s company xAI, has been generating a wave of sexualized images throughout the week in response to user prompts.
Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok’s public media tab filled with such images. xAI said it was working to improve its systems to prevent future incidents.
Sales at Elon Musk’s company slump after Donald Trump’s withdrawal of EV subsidies
China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.
BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.
Many athletes and professional musicians swear by getting some shut-eye during the day, but what’s the best way to ensure you don’t end up feeling groggy?
Listen to enough productivity podcasters, and it’s easy to convince yourself that napping is a superpower: not just a sticking plaster after a bad night’s sleep, but a shortcut to a better memory, improved mood and possibly a faster 5k run time. Premier League footballers are all at it – and so are professional piano players, UFC champions and Arianna Huffington. But if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a job that encourages regular snoozing, are there really enough benefits to a burst of shut-eye for it to be worth the kerfuffle? Is there a reliable way to get to sleep quickly enough? And can you really guarantee you’ll wake up feeling better, not worse?
“There are three main reasons for napping among most adults,” says Clare Anderson, the University of Birmingham’s professor of sleep and circadian science. “The first is what we call compensatory napping, which is what you do when you’ve had insufficient sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are pre-empting insufficient sleep coming up, for instance if you’re working on night shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which basically comes down to desire: you have an opportunity to sleep during the day, and it feels nice to do it.”
Manager Glasner pleased club got deal done swiftly
Johnson says he is ‘super excited’ to make move
Oliver Glasner credited Crystal Palace’s hierarchy for completing the signing of Brennan Johnson from Tottenham for a club record £35m on the second day of the transfer window.
The Wales forward has a four-and-a-half-year deal and is expected to be part of Palace’s squad that will face Newcastle on Sunday. Glasner has made no secret of his desire to bolster the FA Cup winners after a demanding debut campaign in Europe and has criticised Palace’s lack of preparedness in previous transfer windows. But the Austrian manager said he was delighted with the signing of the 24-year-old after Palace saw off competition from Bournemouth.
Strikes on Southern Transitional Council are first fatal coalition attack on group since it seized swathes of southern Yemen
Saudi warplanes have targeted separatist fighters in Yemen, killing seven in a counterattack against a sweeping advance by the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council.
The deaths on Friday are the first from coalition fire since the secessionist STC seized swathes of Hadramout and al-Mahra provinces last month.
Foreign ministry says mayor has poured ‘antisemitic gasoline on an open fire’ by scrapping IHRA definition
Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of pouring “antisemitic gasoline on an open fire” after he reversed a recent order by the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams.
“On his very first day as @NYCMayor, Mamdani shows his true face: he scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X.
When life gets stressful, your face is often the first place to show telltale signs. Eye bags get darker after sleepless nights and pimples appear in protest at the first signs of stress. Whatever the cause, the best concealers can help to even out imperfections, so you look flawless regardless of what is going on behind the scenes.
It might seem obvious, but not all concealers are the same. Some leave a cakey finish on the skin, while others settle quickly into fine lines or blend out and leave barely any coverage at all. Many modern concealers also include active skincare ingredients to combine the benefits of both products.
Best concealer overall:
Nars Radiant Creamy concealer
Best budget concealer: Collection Lasting Perfection concealer
This time last year Polanski was barely known outside the party. Now he’s hoping for success at May’s local elections – by taking a page from Nigel Farage’s playbook
Zack Polanski finally decided to stand as the Greens’ leader, he says, after witnessing the party being eclipsed by Reform in last May’s local elections across England, and realising that British politics had changed for good.
While the Greens made yet more steady gains, Reform won nearly 700 councillors from a standing start. As deputy leader, it was Polanski’s job to speak to losing candidates to both offer consolation and ask what lessons could be learned.
Europe’s biggest offshore wind developer seeking to overturn White House decision to suspend work on a $5bn wind farm project
Europe’s biggest offshore wind developer is taking the Trump administration to court over its decision to suspend work on a $5bn project on the north-east US coast.
Denmark’s Ørsted filed a legal challenge on Thursday against the White House’s decision 10 days ago to suspend the lease for its Revolution Wind site as part of a sweeping move halting all construction of offshore wind.
Other hikers had reported seeing the animal near the body and scared it away ‘by throwing rocks’ at it
Authorities in Colorado are investigating a suspected fatal mountain lion attack after a woman was found dead on a hiking trail in Colorado on Thursday.
In a news release on Thursday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said that hikers reported seeing a mountain lion near a person lying on the ground on the Crosier Mountain trail in unincorporated Larimer county at around 12.15pm local time on Thursday.
The new stadium sits in the suburb of Herston, a name alluding to the state’s first premier and the man believed to be his lover
Today the story would be unremarkable: two gay men, migrants from England, give their Queensland home a portmanteau of their last names.
But in 1859, these two men, Robert Herbert and John Bramston, were the new state’s first premier (then called colonial secretary) and one of his attorneys general.
When I met my husband and found out his name was Philip, I felt conflicted. I liked him as a person but his name tasted like crunchy green pears and I don’t like green pears at all. My compromise was to call him Phil, which tastes more like stewed pear – sweeter and not as crunchy. It’s just a nicer-tasting name in my mind.
Fortunately I was 30 by the time I met Phil, so I had an explanation for my word-taste associations, after years of strange looks from family and friends. I had lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, one of the rarest forms of the phenomenon, in which words or sounds trigger taste sensations. Researchers estimate it affects just 0.2% of the population.
Six-month-old Mohamed Abdisamad’s death from infection prompts concern at lack of training for circumcisers
A coroner has warned that more babies could die from infected circumcisions in the UK after the death of a six-month-old boy exposed a lack of infection control training and accreditation for circumcisers.
Mohamed Abdisamad died in February 2023 of a streptococcus infection. He had a heart attack on his way to hospital a week after undergoing a non-therapeutic circumcision, an inquest at west London coroner’s court found in October.
‘Every single game we play it’s hard work,’ says Slot
Liverpool fourth before trip to Fulham on Sunday
Arne Slot has described Liverpool’s first half of the season as a “constant battle” and admitted the title race appeared to be a straight fight between Arsenal and Manchester City.
The Premier League champions are 12 points adrift of Mikel Arteta’s leaders after a goalless draw with Leeds on New Year’s Day. Liverpool are unbeaten in eight matches and back in the Champions League places after recovering from the club’s worst run in 71 years, yet remain unconvincing. Slot conceded his team are not “flying” or in contention to retain their title at present.
US president’s posts that US will come to the rescue of protesters prompt warnings of ‘regret-inducing response’
Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators, prompting warnings from senior Iranian officials that any American interference would cross a “red line”.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump said that if Iran were to shoot and kill protesters, the US would “come to their rescue”. He added “we are locked and loaded, and ready to go”, without explaining what that might mean in practice.
Hailing app will now act as agent rather than supplier outside London, avoiding VAT requirement
Uber has swerved paying millions of pounds to the UK exchequer under Rachel Reeves’s new “taxi tax” after the ride-hailing app rewrote contracts with its drivers.
The move came as rules announced in November’s budget took effect, which adjusted how VAT is payable on minicab fares and would have resulted in the whole Uber fare becoming subject to the 20% sales tax.
Stephen Graham and Steven Knight had an astonishing 2025. As A Thousand Blows explodes back, they talk about taking decades to become overnight sensations, the Peaky Blinders movie – and why it could be time for a scouse Bond villain
Stephen Graham had a stellar 2025. He didn’t just play Bruce Springsteen’s father in biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere but, of course, co-created and starred in Netflix mega-hit Adolescence – the game-changing drama that sparked global debate about online misogyny, incel culture and the “manosphere”.
His friend and regular collaborator Steven Knight watched admiringly from afar as the devastating four-parter became event TV. “My God, it was a cultural phenomenon,” he says, puffing out his cheeks with pride. “Adolescence got people talking who don’t normally talk, about things they don’t normally talk about. Is there any finer achievement than having a direct, immediate and positive effect worldwide on human relationships? It’s like putting something on screen which is medicine. It’s actually good for you.”
A once-toxic topic is helping survivors and relatives of victims get elected to enact the laws they helped draft
A new generation of young political leaders is gaining power in the US by using their personal experience with gun violence to push for reforms they say the US is ready for.
Their ascent is part of a nearly decade-long shift, from gun violence prevention being a third-rail issue in politics that was rarely spoken about on campaign trails, to one that candidates, most of them Democrats, are now running – and winning – on.
Exclusive: diplomats had to scramble to contain fallout with Beijing after Douglas Alexander’s trip to Taipei
China threatened to cancel high-level trade talks with the UK earlier this year over a government minister’s visit to Taiwan, the Guardian can disclose.
Beijing told the British government it would pull its first trade and economic dialogue with the UK in seven years after Douglas Alexander, then a trade minister, travelled to Taipei in late June.
A booze-free mocktail that uses lemon juice to bring a bright sharpness to the earthy sweetness of beetroot and sumac
Traditionally, shrubs are made with vinegar, but for this one we use lemon juice to bring a bright sharpness to the base syrup, because it balances the earthy sweetness of the beetroot and sumac. A 0% gin brings some botanical notes to proceedings, but the syrup also works wonderfully just topped with soda water. You’ll need to start the syrup a day ahead.
Connor Wilson, head chef, The Kirkstyle Inn, Slaggyford, Northumberland
How did an Aussie, a Texan, an Irishman and three Cumbrians find themselves on the road on the Ukrainian frontline? For classic rock collective Hardwicke Circus, it was a no-brainer: ‘We thought they’d like to hear some rock’n’roll’
It is late October and, 10 kilometres from the frontline in Donetsk, east Ukraine, the inhabitants of a reconditioned ambulance are completely lost. While opening your phone and logging on to a maps app might appear the obvious solution, this would be extremely unwise here: Russian drones are overhead and hunting for any signals.
Inside the van are a motley crew: an 81-year-old Irish music industry veteran; a 72-year-old Texas rocker; an Australian keyboardist; a Ukrainian saxophonist; and three twenty-something musicians from Carlisle, Cumbria. Their destination is a military base where they are to perform for Ukrainian troops.
Striker’s run of goals has helped transform his side’s fortunes and raised the possibility of international recall
As the half-time scores drifted in, two questions dominated the airwaves. Was Daniel Farke 45 minutes away from the sack? And just how underwhelming a summer signing had Dominic Calvert-Lewin been? As television and radio pundits agreed, the Leeds manager was in a precarious position, something extraordinary was unfolding in the away dressing room at the Etihad Stadium.
It was late November and Leeds were trailing 2-0 to Manchester City. While Farke decided the moment had come to rip up his long-preferred setup and switch from a back four and a lone striker to a 5-3-2, Calvert-Lewin was not content merely to ready himself for his introduction as a second-half substitute.
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