Owner of Swiss bar where deadly New Year’s fire killed 40 detained by prosecutors: Officials
A general view of Le Constellation wine bar after a memorial ceremony in tribute to victims of the Crans-Montana bar fire on January 09, 2026 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Harold Cunningham/Getty Images
(LONDON) — Prosecutors on Friday detained the owner of a Swiss bar where a deadly New Year’s Day fire killed 40 people and injured 116 others, according to officials.
Jacques Moretti was placed in pre-trial detention after a meeting with prosecutors in Sion, the prosecutor’s office for Switzerland’s Valais region said.
The blaze ripped through Le Constellation, a popular bar in the resort town of Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps, early on Jan. 1.
Moretti’s wife and business partner Jessica Moretti also attended the meeting but was not detained, according to the office. She was present at the bar during the fire and was burned on her arm.
“My constant thoughts are with the victims and those who are fighting today. This is an unimaginable tragedy,” Moretti told reporters outside the prosecutor’s office.
The bar had not had any inspections in the last five years, Swiss officials said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“There was a culture of reckless risk-taking”, Nicolas Féraud, the municipal chief of Crans-Montana, said at a press conference earlier this week. “This endangered customers and staff,” he said.
Féraud said that the municipal government had “never received any alerts” about problems in the bar. He also confirmed that there was an emergency exit in the basement, but could not say whether it was open, closed or blocked.
The blaze of “undetermined origin” broke out at the bar at about 1:30 a.m. local time on Jan. 1, the Cantonal Police of Valais said in a statement at the time of the fire.
On Jan. 2, the Valais attorney general told reporters that investigators are “pursuing several hypotheses” based on evidence they’ve gathered.
“We currently assume that the fire was caused by sparklers attached to champagne bottles that came too close to the ceiling,” she said at a news conference.
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.
NATO headquarters in Haren, Brussels, Belgium. (Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The escalating showdown between the U.S. and its NATO allies over the fate of Greenland looks set to be a dominant topic of conversation as leaders gather at this week’s World Economic Forum event in Davos, with U.S. President Donald Trump again declaring on Monday that American ownership of the Arctic island is “imperative.”
Trump said in a post to social media that, following a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, “I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland. As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!”
Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.
European leaders, meanwhile, continued to push back on Trump’s ambitions and publicize their coordination efforts on the issue.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post to X that she met with a bipartisan congressional delegation to discuss both Russia’s war in Ukraine and recent tensions around Greenland.
Von der Leyen said she “addressed the need to unequivocally respect the sovereignty of Greenland and of the Kingdom of Denmark. This is of utmost importance to our transatlantic relationship.”
The European Union, she said, “remains ready to continue working closely with the United States, NATO, and other allies, in close cooperation with Denmark, to advance our shared security interests.”
“We also discussed transatlantic trade and investment. They are a major asset for both the EU and US economies. Tariffs run counter to these shared interests,” von der Leyen wrote.
Danish and Greenlandic ministers traveled on Monday to Brussels to meet with NATO chief Rutte.
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said afterward that the Greenland issue poses challenges “fundamentally to Europe and, for that matter, also the future of NATO.” Poulsen said Rutte is “very aware of the difficult situation.”
Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said the meeting “achieved some important things with regard to security in the Arctic.” She added, “It is important to know how to work with security in the Arctic. That is why we are now carrying out various exercises.”
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, meanwhile, was in the U.K. on Monday to meet with his counterpart in London. “In turbulent times, close allies are crucial — Denmark and the UK stand close together,” Rasmussen wrote on X. “We agree on the need for stronger NATO engagement in the Arctic and closer security cooperation.”
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 deal is inadequate.
Denmark and its European allies have sought to ease concerns about the supposed vulnerability of the Arctic through more military spending and by sending small contingents of troops to Greenland last week.
But Trump interpreted the deployments as a provocation, and announced new 10% tariffs on all goods from the eight nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that sent troops.
European leaders hit back at Trump’s decision and said the move threatened a new transatlantic trade war.
(LONDON) — An American fighter jet appears to have been shot down by Iran, according to three U.S. officials. Search and rescue operations are currently underway, the officials said.
