Around 40 killed, 115 hurt in Swiss resort bar blaze on New Year’s Day, police say
Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images
(LONDON) Around 40 people were killed and 115 others were injured early on New Year’s Day, when a fire ripped through a popular bar in a resort town in the Swiss Alps, police said.
The Swiss president said the fire caused one of the worst tragedies that the country has ever experienced.
A blaze of “undetermined origin” broke out at the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana at about 1:30 a.m. local time, the Cantonal Police of Valais said in a statement.
Investigators were working on Thursday to determine the cause of the fire, officials said during a morning press conference. The incident was not being investigated as an attack, they added.
“A large contingent of police, firefighters, and rescue personnel immediately responded to the scene to assist the numerous victims,” police said in their statement.
A no-fly zone was put in place over Crans-Montana, police said in their statement. The resort town is popular with skiers and sits in Switzerland’s southern Sierre District in the Canton of Valais.
Police have not released the identities of those who were killed in the blaze. Officials on Thursday said it was likely, given the popularity of the area with travelers, that some of the deceased were tourists who traveled to the Alpine town to ski and to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
The French Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement that at least two French nationals were among the injured. Both were being treated in local hospitals, the ministry said. French officials were “in constant contact with the Swiss authorities in case other nationals are affected,” the ministry added.
ABC News’ Tom Soufi-Burridge contributed to this report.
Hundreds joined a public rally in London in support of the protestors in Iran, calling for regime change from clerical rule and for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down. (Lab Ky Mo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of military action in Iran in support of anti-government protests there, shortly before Trump told reporters that Tehran wants “to negotiate” with the U.S.
In a message on his official Farsi-language X account on Sunday, Khamenei posted an image of a crumbling statue with Trump’s likeness.
“That father figure who sits there with arrogance and pride, passing judgment on the entire world, he too should know that usually the tyrants and oppressors of the world, such as Pharaoh and Nimrod and Reza Khan and Mohammad Reza and the likes of them, when they were at the peak of their pride, were overthrown,” Khamenei wrote.
“This one too will be overthrown,” the ayatollah added.
Khamenei’s post came shortly before Trump spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One, first suggesting he may follow through on his threats of new strikes on Iran before revealing that fresh negotiations with Tehran may soon be underway.
Trump said it “looks like” Iran may have crossed the administration’s red line of killing protesters, adding that the U.S. military has “strong options” at its disposal. “We’ll make a determination,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran against the use of force to suppress the protests. On Saturday, Trump wrote on social media, “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”
According to a U.S. official, the president will be briefed Tuesday to review possible U.S. responses to the situation in Iran.
Trump also said Sunday that Iranian leaders contacted him on Saturday and that a meeting is being set up between them. The president cautioned that the U.S. may take action before a meeting takes place.
“They do. They called,” Trump said when asked if he thinks Iran wants to engage diplomatically.
“Iran called to negotiate yesterday — the leaders of Iran called yesterday. They want to negotiate. I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” he said.
“We may meet with them,” he added. “A meeting is being set up, but we may have to act — because of what’s happening — before the meeting, but a meeting is being set up,” Trump said.
Protests have been spreading across the country since late December. The first marches took place in downtown Tehran, with participants demonstrating against rising inflation and the falling value of the national currency, the rial. As the protests spread to cities across the nation, they took on a more explicitly anti-government tone.
The death toll from the protests had risen to 544 as of Sunday, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
At least 10,681 people have been arrested, according to HRANA. Protests have taken place at 585 locations across the country, in 186 cities, spanning all 31 provinces, according to activists.
The HRANA data relies on the work of activists inside and outside the country. ABC News cannot independently verify the figures provided by the group.
The Iranian government has not provided any casualty figures for protesters related to the ongoing protests. State television has broadcast images of people attending morgues to identify bodies of friends and relatives.
The state-aligned Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday that 109 security personnel had been killed in the protests.
Widespread and sustained internet outages have been reported across the country amid the deepening protests and reported government crackdown. Online monitoring group NetBlocks said early on Monday that Iran’s “national internet blackout” had surpassed 84 hours.
Khamenei and top Iranian officials have said they are willing to engage with the economic grievances of protesters, though have also framed the unrest as driven by “rioters” and sponsored by foreign nations, prime among them the U.S. and Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday described the wave of protests as a “terrorist war” while speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran.
Araghchi said that the situation is “under control” and that internet access would be restored.
The foreign minister also claimed that Tehran had gathered extensive evidence showing U.S. and Israeli involvement in the protests over recent days. “We believe what took place after 8th of January was infiltration,” he said, suggesting that “Mossad agents” are leading the demonstrations.
Araghchi also criticized Western nations for failing to condemn what he called “terrorists.”
On Monday, state television broadcast footage of pro-government rallies organized in Tehran and other major cities.
The footage showed crowds waving Iranian flags in the capital’s Revolution Square, shouting slogans including “death to America,” “death to Israel,” and “I’d sacrifice my life for the leader.”
State television described the Tehran demonstration as an “Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism.”
Dissident voices abroad, meanwhile, have encouraged further demonstrations. On Sunday, Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi addressed protesters in a post to X, announcing what he said was “a new phase of the national uprising to overthrow the Islamic Republic and reclaim our beloved Iran.”
“In addition to taking and holding the central streets of our cities, all institutions and apparatuses responsible for the regime’s propaganda and for cutting communications are to be regarded as legitimate targets,” Pahlavi wrote.
“Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people — and bear the nation’s lasting shame and condemnation,” he added.
“We are not alone. International support will soon arrive,” Pahlavi wrote.
Denmark’s then-Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod speaks to the press in Brussels, Belgium, on July 18, 2022. (Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images_
(LONDON )– Denmark’s new government was less than two months old when U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to acquire Greenland broke into public view in the summer of 2019.
“We thought it was unprecedented,” recalled former Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, who then was in post and suddenly tasked with a transcontinental fire drill.
Trump’s desire for what he at the time called “essentially a large real estate deal” threw a wrench in the works of a planned state visit by the president to Denmark. The president ultimately cancelled the trip, saying Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had shown “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”
Frederiksen at the time rejected Trump’s proposal as “absurd.”
Kofod, who has since left Danish politics, told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday that the 2019 saga was “a really bad situation for the bilateral relationship.”
“We also saw it as offending a close ally,” Kofod recalled. “We were very surprised that the first major comments he had were, ‘Why can’t I just buy Greenland?'”
Copenhagen, he said, never considered formulating a price for Greenland’s potential sale.
At the time, though, Danish leaders did not believe Trump was “determined” to force a U.S. acquisition of the world’s largest island, Kofod said. Rather, the Danish government saw the proposal as a means to foster more U.S. engagement in and influence over Greenland.
Nearly seven years later, Kofod’s successors — again under the leadership of Frederiksen — have faced a more protracted and aggressive campaign from Washington. Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. will acquire Greenland — “one way or another,” he said earlier this month.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump’s second term has seen the president double down on his ambition to acquire the minerals-rich island — despite Danish and Greenlandic politicians repeatedly rebuffing him.
Trump has suggested that U.S. sovereignty over Greenland is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. A 1951 defense agreement already grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, but Trump has suggested the accord is inadequate and has demanded “ownership.”
The issue dominated this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump said in a Wednesday address that he would not use military force to seize control of the Arctic landmass.
On Wednesday, Trump said during the event that a “framework” of a deal had been reached on Greenland after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Details of the purported agreement are yet to be revealed.
Frederikson said in a Thursday morning statement that Copenhagen “cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a Thursday press conference that Nuuk is “willing to do more in a NATO frame,” but also said they have some “red lines” including territorial integrity, international law and sovereignty.
In Davos on Wednesday, Trump said that Greenland’s mineral deposits are “not the reason we need it,” though also said the professed deal “puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”
Trump’s professed security concerns have prompted Danish efforts to increase military spending in the Arctic and the deployment of small contingents of NATO troops to Greenland.
But the deployments — which the eight European nations involved said were for military exercises to enhance the defense of the region — prompted Trump at the time to threaten new tariffs against the American allies starting on Feb. 1 unless the U.S. was able to acquire Greenland.
That raised the prospect of a new transatlantic trade war, though Trump said Wednesday that he would drop the tariffs citing the purported deal.
European and allied leaders have said they are open to deeper and broader cooperation with the U.S. in Greenland, to address American security concerns and to develop shared commercial opportunities across the mammoth, resources-rich territory.
For Kofod — who said his time in office saw Copenhagen and Washington forge a “path forward” despite tensions over Greenland — any deal should be twinned with a European show of force.
“The first step is power,” Kofod said. Trump may soften his attacks “if he sees that he will have all of Europe — including the U.K., France, Germany — against him, and they are ready to defend Greenland,” Kofod said, plus if he sees that European “retaliation is so massive that it will hurt the U.S. economy and interests.”
“Trump plays with all the instruments he has. Europe has to learn to play the power game,” Kofod said, and “move him to a narrower path if this is going to stop.”
The Danish and Greenlandic experience in 2019 bears striking similarities to 2026. Then, as now, Trump set off a diplomatic storm by repeatedly declaring his ambitions to take control of Greenland.
In both instances, Copenhagen and the Greenlandic government in its capital Nuuk responded by expressing openness to further collaboration, stressing the importance of sovereignty and dispatching a high-level delegation for talks in Washington.
Kofod said the de-escalation of tensions in 2019 was achieved through closer cooperation and modernization in the security sphere. “We took the security concerns of Trump very seriously,” he said.
The period spanning Trump’s first term and that of his successor, President Joe Biden, saw the U.S. reopen its consulate in Nuuk, modernize the Thule Air Base — since renamed to the Pituffik Space Base — and agree a new economic cooperation strategy in Greenland.
Copenhagen and Nuuk, Kofod said, encouraged “constructive engagement” with the U.S. in investment, education programs, tourism and other areas.
Similar measures might help ease the current round of pressure in the High North, Kofod said.
But he added that the future of the Arctic — which was long considered an area of scientific work largely free of geopolitical tensions — will be inextricably tied to security considerations.
Climate change, the subsequent melting of pack ice and the opening of new sea lanes is making the Arctic more navigable and — potentially — more lucrative. Russia’s 15,000 miles of Arctic coastline puts Moscow at the forefront in the region, while China’s declaration of itself as a “near-Arctic state” indicates Beijing’s long-term interest there.
“That’s why Trump is right on the concern about security in the future of the Arctic,” Kofod said. “Any U.S. president will find Greenland key to defending North America and the United States.”
Trump’s efforts “fit his ideology,” Kofod said, saying his bid to acquire Greenland despite broad opposition aligns with the “Donroe Doctrine” — a play on the 1823 Monroe Doctrine by which the U.S. said it would block European interference in the Western Hemisphere — which has in recent weeks been professed by members of Trump’s administration and noted by the president himself.
“There is something to that, that I think Europe hasn’t taken seriously enough,” Kofod said. “But now they are taking it seriously.”
The turbulence will undermine European, American and collective NATO security, Kofod warned.
“For the U.S. it’s also a big self-inflicted problem,” he said. “But I don’t think Trump looks at the world like that. He thinks that NATO is there, it’s important, but it’s not something you cannot live without, because you just can form another alliance.”
A view of the destruction in the area following Russia’s drone attack in the city of Odessa, Ukraine on February 12, 2026. (Artur Shvits/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Russia is yet to respond to a U.S.-backed energy truce, as the two combatants continue to exchange long-range drone and missile strikes amid American-led peace talks.
Recent trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks in the United Arab Emirates were described by all sides as constructive, though appear to have failed to find a breakthrough on several contentious points or secure a new truce covering critical energy infrastructure.
After the most recent round of talks last week, Zelenskyy said that U.S. officials proposed a temporary pause in attacks on energy targets, which would have mirrored the brief pause on such attacks that occurred at the end of January.
Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Kyiv is yet to receive a response from Moscow on the purported offer. “On the contrary, we’ve received a response in the form of drone and missile attacks. This suggests that they are not yet ready for the energy ceasefire proposed in Abu Dhabi by the American side,” he said.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 25 missiles and 219 drones into the country overnight, of which 16 missiles and 197 drones were shot down or suppressed.
The impacts of nine missiles and 19 drones were reported across 13 locations, the air force said. “The main targets are Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa,” the air force wrote on Telegram.
Four people, including two children, were also injured in strikes on the central city of Dnipro, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. An earlier strike on the Synelnykove city just outside of Dnipro killed four people and injured three others, the regional administration said in posts to Telegram.
The Interior Ministry said that at least 13 people were injured in a series of drone strikes in the city of Barvinkove in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The regional military administration in Odesa said one person was also injured there by Russian strikes.
The Interior Ministry reported damage to several areas of the capital. At least two people were injured by the attacks on Kyiv, according to the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that almost 2,600 residential buildings were left without heating due to “damage to critical infrastructure targeted by the enemy.”
In total, approximately more than 1 million people without heating in the Ukrainian capital, according to Klitschko and Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.
DTEK — Ukraine’s top private energy firm — reported major damage to its energy infrastructure in Odesa, plus an attack on a thermal power plant.
Ukrenergo, the state energy transmission operator, reported power outages in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attacks as “Russian terror” in a post to X. “Each such strike is a blow to peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Russia must be forced to take diplomacy seriously and deescalate,” he said.
Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, “There needs to be more protection against these attacks.”
“The most effective defense against Russian ballistic missiles is the ‘Patriot’ system, and the supply of missiles for these systems is needed every day,” he added, referring to the U.S.-made surface-to-air missile platform.
“Everything currently available in the air defense program should arrive faster,” he said.
Ukraine continued its own drone strike campaign overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 106 Ukrainian drones overnight into Thursday morning.
Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that two people were killed in drone attacks. At least 15 other people were injured across the region by Ukrainian attacks, the governor said. Gladkov also said Ukrainian forces fired several missiles into the region.
Local officials in the Volgograd, Tambov and Voronezh reported damage to industrial sites and falling drone debris in or close to residential areas.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, reported temporary flight restrictions for airports in Kaluga, Volgograd, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Kotlas, Ukhta, Perm and Kirov.
Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement posted to social media that among the targets of the strikes were the main arsenal of Russia’s missile and artillery forces in the Volgograd region. “This arsenal is one of the largest ammunition storage sites of the Russian army,” the General Staff said.
The ongoing peace talks have seen no easing of long-range strikes by either side, as the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion approaches.
As yet, no next round of talks have been scheduled. Zelenskyy said the U.S. had proposed a new trilateral meeting to be held in Miami, but that, “So far, as I understand it, Russia is hesitating.”
“We are ready. It doesn’t matter to us whether the meeting will be in Miami or Abu Dhabi. The main thing is that there should be a result,” the Ukrainian president said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday that Moscow had “a certain understanding” regarding the next round of talks. “We expect the next round to take place soon. We’ll also give you directions on the location,” he added, as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.
Russian Foreign Ministry officials have this week been critical of the ongoing peace push.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week suggested that the U.S. side had drifted from the understandings reached between Moscow and Washington at the August meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Lavrov also said Trump’s administration had failed to roll back former President Joe Biden-era sanctions against Moscow.
Lavrov and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova framed the lack of progress as the fault of Kyiv and its European backers.
“At the current stage, it is the European Union that is preventing the Kyiv regime from making any compromises in exchange for promises to provide everything necessary to continue military operations,” Zakharova said in a briefing on Thursday, as quoted by Tass.
