Thursday, January 01, 2026

«Une soirée de cauchemar» : en Suisse, l’incendie d’un bar fait des dizaines de morts présumées et une centaine de blessés

LE FIGARO : Le sinistre, dont l’origine demeurait inconnue jeudi soir, s’est produit dans un bar de la station de ski de Crans-Montana située dans le canton de Valais dans la nuit de la Saint-Sylvestre, a indiqué la police helvète.

«En trente secondes, tout s’est enflammé.» Crans-Montana, station de ski du canton de Valais, en Suisse, a été le théâtre d’un terrible drame dans la nuit du 31 décembre au 1er janvier 2026. Un incendie s’est déclaré dans le bar Le Constellation, très fréquenté par les touristes de cette station hivernale helvète.

Le bilan, encore provisoire, fait état de «plusieurs dizaines de personnes présumées décédées» et d’une centaine de blessés, parmi lesquels deux Français, selon le quai d’Orsay. La piste d’un attentat a été écartée rapidement par les autorités suisses, qui privilégient celle d’un incendie accidentel. » | Par Jeanne Durieux | jeudi 1er janvier 2026

Giovanni Syracusa: Tuscan Peposo Beef Stew | Authentic Italian Recipe

Nov 15, 2025 | How to make Tuscan Peposo Beef Stew, the authentic Italian Chianti stew from Florence.

This rich and rustic Tuscan beef stew is slow cooked with Chianti wine, garlic, black pepper, and beef chuck until tender.

One of the oldest and most traditional Tuscan recipes. Tuscan Peposo is one of the most iconic dishes in Florence.

This recipe uses beef chuck, Chianti wine, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and crushed black pepper. The beef cooks low and slow for the perfect tender texture and deep flavor.

This authentic Italian Peposo recipe is perfect for fall, winter, Sunday dinner, holiday or any night you want true Tuscan comfort food.


Anne Applebaum: Donald Trump Has Reinvented Reality

Jan 1, 2026 | This year we had Anne Applebaum in the studio to discuss the ideas in her book Autocracy Inc. During the conversation, Anne went into great depth about the MAGA movement's dismantling of democracy while in power, and how it has moved to question the very basis of fact.


I cannot write here what I really think of Trump. or of Trump's far-right cronies. — © Mark Alexander

Steve Rosenberg: I Ask Russians: How Do You See Your Lives Five Years from Now?

Jan 1, 2026 | On the streets of Moscow I ask Russians: what are your hopes for 2026 and how do you see your lives five years from now? Among the responses: “That depends on Vladimir Putin. On what mood he’ll be in.” Another reply: “Five years from now? If I can manage 10 days that's good.”

Iran: Paramilitary Member Killed amid Protests | DW News

Jan 1, 2026 | Authorities in Iran say a member of their paramilitary force has been killed as clashes between police and demonstrators escalate. Angered by runaway inflation, protesters have been seen on video defying police and attacking government buildings.

Mehrere Tote und etwa 100 Verletzte nach Brand in Schweizer Skiort

Jan 1, 2026 | Bei dem Brand im Schweizer Skiort Crans-Montana in der Silvesternacht sind nach Polizeiangaben "mehrere Dutzend" Menschen gestorben.

Rund 100 seien in der Bar zum Großteil schwer verletzt, sagte der Kommandant der Walliser Kantonspolizei, Frédéric Gisler. Genaue Zahlen zu Verletzten und Toten sind derzeit nicht bekannt. Auch über ihre Identität machten die Behörden keine genauen Angaben.

Es sollen auch Ausländerinnen und Ausländer unter den Toten sein. Das Unglück löste einen Großeinsatz von Polizei, Feuerwehr und Rettungskräften aus. Die Intensivstationen im Schweizer Kanton Wallis, in dem sich die Gemeinde befindet, sind den Behörden zufolge voll. Patienten werden daher in andere Krankenhäuser gebracht.


'Several Dozens' Believed Killed in Fire at Swiss Ski Resort Bar, Say Authorities | BBC News

Jan 1, 2026 | "Several dozens" are presumed to have died in a fire in a bar at a Swiss ski resort, authorities have said. Around 100 have been injured, with "several nationalities" involved.

The fire began at around 01:30 (00:30 GMT) in a bar called Le Constellation, police said. The cause is not known, although police initially said there had been an explosion.

The local prosecutor says there is "no question" of an attack.


Dozens Believed Dead After Fire at New Year’s Party in Switzerland, Police Say

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. at a bar at the Crans-Montana ski resort. Roughly 100 people were injured in the overnight blaze, the Swiss police said.

Dozens of people were “presumed dead” and about 100 were injured, many gravely, after a fire in a bar at a ski resort in Switzerland during a New Year’s celebration early Thursday, the Swiss police said.

The blaze broke out around 1:30 a.m. at Le Constellation, a bar in Crans-Montana, a municipality in Valais, a French-speaking canton, the police said. Officials said they were still investigating the cause of the fire and a subsequent explosion at the site, but they ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Emergency services sent 10 helicopters and 40 ambulances to help take the injured to hospitals, officials said at a news briefing on Thursday morning. They added that the emergency ward and operating theaters of the nearest major medical center had run out of space. Teams of doctors and counselors were also dispatched to offer psychological help for survivors, the officials said.

“While this evening should have been a time for celebration and gathering, it turned into a nightmare,” Matthias Reynard, a senior member of the regional council, said at the briefing.

Nine hours after the fire began, the exact death toll was still unknown. The police asked those with relatives who may have been affected by the fire to contact the authorities. Live Updates » | Christopher F. Schuetze and John Yoon |Thursday, January 1, 2026

Trump's Project 2026: How American Democracy Gets Dismantled by Stealth

Jan 1, 2026 | Donald Trump’s political project is often misunderstood as a campaign, a presidency, or a movement. This video argues it is something far more dangerous: a sustained effort to hollow out democratic constraints until elections still happen—but no longer decide outcomes. From the Big Lie and January 6 to loyalty tests, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and narrative control, this analysis traces how elections can be deformed without ever being formally abolished. It examines how rules are rewritten, institutions weakened, and doubt normalized—so that defeat is treated as illegitimate and intervention becomes “justified.” This is not about one election. It’s about whether American democracy remains real or becomes performative.


ANTHONY DAVIS can be supported on Patreon here.

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Happy New Year! Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Glückliches Neues Jahr! Bonne année ! Feliz Ano Novo! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! ! سنة جديدة سعيدة

LIVE: New Year 2026 around the world | BBC News

Steve Schmidt: Trump’s Year of Lies and Corruption

Dec 31, 2025 | In 2025, Donald Trump and his regime executed an authoritarian playbook that degraded American democracy. Steve Schmidt looks back at the first year of Trump’s return to office and warns of what may come in 2026.

Après les manœuvres militaires chinoises autour de Taïwan, Xi Jinping affirme que «la réunification de notre patrie est inarrêtable»

LE FIGARO : Pékin a lancé des missiles et déployé des dizaines d’avions de chasse, navires de guerre et bateaux de garde-côtes pour encercler l’île lundi et mardi.

Le président chinois, Xi Jinping, a déclaré mercredi que la réunification du pays était inarrêtable, lors d'un discours à la Nation peu après l'annonce par Pékin de la fin des manœuvres militaires autour de Taïwan. «La réunification de notre patrie, dans l'air du temps, est inarrêtable», a affirmé Xi Jinping en présentant son message du Nouvel An 2026 à Pékin, a rapporté l'agence de presse officielle Chine nouvelle. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | mercredi 31 décembre 2025

Deutschland: Was sich 2026 für Verbraucher ändert

Dec 30, 2025 | Während das Deutschlandticket und das Heizen mit Gas teurer werden, steigt die Höhe des Kindergeldes und Strom soll günstiger werden. Neuerungen gibt es auch bei der Rente. Ein Überblick. © AFP, DPA

Die Neujahrsasnprache 2026 von Friedrich Merz

Der Bundeskanzler spricht zur Nation.

Hypocrites: MAGA Christians and Their "Religion”

Seth Andrews talks to us about the hypocrites.

Iran: Protests Expand beyond the Economy | DW News

Dec 31, 2025 | Protests over the rising cost of living in Iran are spreading amid an economic crisis. Videos published online have shown students demonstrating at several universities - including in the capital Tehran - with security forces deployed at major intersections in the city. Protests by shopkeepers have been ongoing since Sunday after the country's currency hit a record low.

Brigitte Bardot’s Legacy of Racist Rhetoric

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The actress, who died this week at 91, was an icon of 1960s cinema. She was also a hero to the French far right.

For a certain France, Brigitte Bardot incarnated the lost idyll of the country’s supposed golden years after World War II when its president supped as an equal at the table of world leaders, French-made Citroëns rolled down its new superhighways, and white people of French ancestry filled its cities.

For that France, Ms. Bardot — blond and slim, a child of the most privileged neighborhood in Paris — seemed the perfect symbol of this booming era of liberation from postwar gloom. Indeed, at the time, France was happy to export Ms. Bardot — a superstar of 1960s cinema who died on Sunday at 91 — as the quintessence of the country’s seductive charm. She was “incredibly French,” Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, with whose family Ms. Bardot had ties dating back over 60 years, said after her death.

But the idyll had shaky underpinnings from the start, both in its conception of France and of Ms. Bardot herself. When reality caught up with the pure white dream — the reality of a France that even in the 1960s depended for its prosperity in substantial part on immigrants from its former empire, many of them Muslim — the blond goddess soured.

Her post-cinema career, after her early retirement in 1973, was punctuated by a series of hair-raising racist and Islamophobic declarations targeting Muslims and immigrants, along with gay people, feminists and anybody else who didn’t fit into her vision of the “France of before” when “everything was less screwed up,” as she put it in one of her last interviews, with the far-right magazine Valeurs Actuelles (“Today’s Values”) in September 2024.

Six times convicted of uttering racist statements under France’s strict hate-speech laws, Ms. Bardot was a precious ally for the anti-immigrant party the National Front, which was founded by Ms. Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, an old friend of Ms. Bardot. She was a popular icon who expressed, crudely and in charged images, the anti-immigrant ideology at the party’s core.

She was the only major French star who took up squarely for both the National Front and its rebranded offspring, the National Rally party, French media pointed out this weekend. » | Adam Nossiter | Adam Nossiter, a former Paris bureau chief for The Times, has reported on France for decades. | Wednesday, 31 December 2025

Burkina Faso and Mali Ban US Nationals In Retaliation to Trump’s Visa Decision

THE GUARDIAN: Announcements mark latest twist in the frosty relationship between west African military governments and the US

Mali and Burkina Faso said they would ban US citizens from entering their countries in retaliation for Donald Trump’s decision to ban Malian and Burkinabe citizens from entering the US.

The announcements, made on Tuesday in separate statements by the foreign ministers of the two west African countries, marked the latest twist in the frosty relationship between west African military governments and the US.

On 16 December, Trump expanded earlier travel restrictions to 20 more countries, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are run by juntas and have formed a breakaway association from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States. » | Guardian staff and agencies | Wednesday, December 31, 2025

‘Tonga is not a threat’: anger as small Pacific nation falls under Trump visa restrictions: Community leaders raise alarm over study links and Polynesian ties, with Tonga to face restrictions from January as US says too many overstay »

En français :

Le Mali et le Burkina Faso imposent des restrictions d’entrée aux Américains par «réciprocité» : Les États-Unis ont publié une liste de nationalités interdites d’entrer sur le sol américain. Les deux pays contrariés ont été récemment rajoutés à cette liste. »

Alaa Abd el-Fattah ‘Will Not Be Stripped of British Citizenship’ over Past Tweets

THE GUARDIAN: Government sources say social media posts by British-Egyptian activist do not meet legal bar for such sanction

The Home Office will not strip the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah of his citizenship because his “abhorrent” past social media posts do not meet the legal bar for such a sanction, government sources have said.

Abd el-Fattah, who landed in London from Egypt on Boxing Day, has been at the centre of a political storm over social media posts he published more than a decade ago, including tweets in which he called for Zionists to be killed.

Keir Starmer said he was “delighted” by Abd el-Fattah’s arrival on Friday after the British government helped secure the activist’s release from years in an Egyptian jail. However, the prime minister has since condemned the tweets and said he was unaware of them.

Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has also launched a review looking into “serious information failures” around the case, after successive Tory and Labour governments had lobbied for Abd el-Fattah’s release as a political prisoner.

The activist, who was granted British citizenship while in prison in 2021 through his mother’s birth in the UK, has apologised “unequivocally” for his posts after opposition parties called for him to be deported and his citizenship revoked. » | Rowena Mason, Whitehall editor | Tuesday, December 30, 2026

Related videos here and here.

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Cryptocurrency Slump Erases 2025 Financial Gains and Trump-inspired Optimism

THE GUARDIAN: Last few months of the year have seen $1tn in value wiped from the market, despite all-time-high price of bitcoin

As 2025 comes to a close, Donald Trump’s favorable approach to cryptocurrency has not proven to be enough to sustain the industry’s gains, once the source of market-wide optimism and enthusiasm. The last few months of the year have seen $1tn in value wiped from the digital asset market, despite bitcoin hitting an all-time-high price of $126,000 on 6 October.

The October price peak was short-lived. Bitcoin’s price tumbled just days later after Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on China sent shockwaves across the market on 12 October. The crypto market saw $19bn liquidated in 24 hours – the largest liquidation event on record. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, saw a 40% drop in price over the next month. Eric Trump’s own crypto company endured a similar drop in its value in December. » | Johana Bhuiyan | Monday, December 29, 2025