Tag: World News

Bern (TIP)- Sparklers attached to champagne bottles and held too close to the ceiling likely sparked the deadly fire at the “Le Constellation” bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, during a New Year’s party, killing at least 40 people, CNN quoted officials as saying.
The blaze reportedly spread rapidly due to a flashover, and Swiss prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible criminal responsibility. Earlier, at a press conference in Crans-Montana, Valais Cantonal Police Commander Frederic Gisler said authorities responded swiftly after a fire was reported at a bar in the area. According to Gisler, smoke was first seen coming from the bar in the centre of the Swiss ski resort at around 1:30 am. Moments later, a witness contacted the emergency call centre to report the incident. A red alert was immediately issued to mobilise firefighting services, he added. The first teams from the Crans-Montana intercommunal police and the gendarmerie reached the scene at 1:32 am, and were soon joined by additional emergency responders, CNN reported.
“Their initial assignment was obviously to take care of the victims, to provide them emergency help,” Gisler said. He noted that firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze quickly. “Following that, the initial investigations were able to start,” he said. Reception centres were later set up to assist those affected by the incident, and a helpline was launched at 4:14 am to provide information and support to families. “All of the injured people had received care by shortly after 5 am, thanks to this widescale mobilisation,” CNN quoted Gisler as saying.
Families of those who lost their lives in the fire at Crans-Montana are facing a painful wait, as local authorities said it could take several days to identify all of the approximately 40 victims, CNN reported.
“Currently and in the days to come, the priority will be identifying the people who have died so that their bodies can be returned quickly to their families,” Gisler said in a press conference.
Swiss bar fire was like ‘hell’: Survivors recount ski resort blaze
Ringing in the new year with a night of drinking and dancing high in the Swiss Alps, Ebenezer Mehari, 17, decided to take a breather outside the packed Constellation Bar.
As he turned to go back inside, he told NBC News at the scene Friday, “hell” erupted as a deadly fire broke out. “I heard a big boom, and everybody was screaming,” he said.
Mehari said a thick smoke enveloped the venue and the crowd, blinding him. He fell to the ground as people rushed to escape the bar, he said, but a man pulled him away to safety. His friends were not so lucky, he says. “I have four friends who died,” he said, still struggling to process the loss. “For me, it’s not real.”
Axel Clavier, 16, from Paris, told The Associated Press that he lost his jacket, shoes and phone while fleeing, though he was grateful to have made it out. “I am still alive and it’s just stuff,” he said. “I’m still in shock.”
Samuel Rapp said he was at a restaurant next door when the fire broke out.
“A lot of people were screaming and it was horrible,” Rapp told NBC News’ British broadcasting partner Sky News. “People were walking on everybody,” he said, adding that he “saw a lot of people on the floor, and I think these people were dead because someone put jackets on their faces.”

Bangkok (TIP)- Thailand’s army accused Cambodia on Monday of violating a newly signed ceasefire agreement, reached after weeks of deadly border clashes, by flying more than 250 drones over its territory.
The Southeast Asian neighbours agreed to the “immediate” ceasefire on Saturday, pledging to end renewed border clashes that killed dozens of people and displaced more than a million this month.
But the fresh allegation from Bangkok and its threat to reconsider releasing Cambodian soldiers held by Thailand left a sustained truce in doubt, even as their foreign ministers wrapped up two days of talks hosted by China.
The Thai army said on Monday, Dec 29, “more than 250 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected flying from the Cambodian side, intruding into Thailand’s sovereign territory” on Sunday night, according to a statement.
“Such actions constitute provocation and a violation of measures aimed at reducing tensions, which are inconsistent with the Joint Statement agreed” during a bilateral border committee meeting on Saturday, it said.
The reignited fighting this month spread to nearly every border province on both sides, shattering an earlier truce for which US President Donald Trump took credit.
Under the truce pact signed on Saturday, Cambodia and Thailand agreed to cease fire, freeze troop movements and cooperate on demining efforts and combatting cybercrime.
They also agreed to allow civilians living in border areas to return home as soon as possible, while Thailand was to return 18 Cambodian soldiers captured in July within 72 hours, if the ceasefire held.
– ‘Small issue’ –
Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn described the drone incident as “a small issue related to flying drones seen by both sides along the border line”.
He said on Cambodian state television on Monday that the two sides had discussed the issue and agreed to investigate and “resolve it immediately”.
Thai army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said in a statement the drone activity reflected “provocative actions” and a “hostile stance toward Thailand”, which could affect the security of military personnel and civilians in border areas.
Thailand’s army “may need to reconsider its decision regarding the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers, depending on the situation and the behaviour observed”, it said.
Several family members of soldiers held by Thailand for six months had little faith they would be released, even before Bangkok raised fresh doubts.
Heng Socheat, the wife of a soldier, told AFP on Monday she worried the Thai military might renege on its pledge.
“Until my husband arrives home, then I will believe them,” she said.

Seoul (TIP)- North Korea said on Monday, Dec 29, it fired long-range strategic cruise missiles into the sea to test the country’s nuclear deterrence, days after it showed apparent progress in the construction of its first nuclear-powered submarine. Sunday’s launches were the latest weapons display by North Korea ahead of its planned ruling Workers’ Party congress early next year. Keen outside attention on the congress, the first of its kind in five years, will be on whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will establish new priorities in relations with the US and respond to Washington’s calls to resume long-dormant talks.
The official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over Sunday’s launches, which occurred off the country’s west coast. It said Kim noted that testing the reliability of North Korea’s nuclear deterrence and demonstrating its might are “just a responsible exercise of the right to self-defence and war deterrence” in the face of external security threats. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was aware of several cruise missile launches made from North Korea’s capital region on Sunday morning. It said South Korea maintains a readiness to repel any potential North Korean provocations through its alliance with the United States.
UN Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from launches involving its huge stockpile of ballistic missiles. Its cruise missile tests are not banned, but they still pose a threat to the US and South Korea because they are highly manoeuvrable and fly at low altitudes to avoid radar detection. Analysts say North Korea would aim to use cruise missiles to strike US warships and aircraft carriers in the event of conflict.
Last week, North Korea test-launched new anti-air missiles off its east coast and displayed photos showing a largely-completed hull of a developmental nuclear-powered submarine. North Korea implied it would arm the submarine with nuclear missiles.
A nuclear-powered submarine is among a slew of sophisticated weapons systems that Kim has vowed to introduce to cope with what he describes as US-led security threats. Some experts say North Korea’s recent alignment with Russia — including sending thousands of troops and military equipment to support President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — may have helped it to receive crucial technologies in return.
North Korea has focussed on weapons-testing activities to expand its nuclear arsenal since Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with US President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019.
But in an apparent response to Trump’s repeated outreach, Kim suggested in September that he could return to talks if the US drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearisation” of North Korea. Experts say Kim might think his enlarged nuclear arsenal would give him greater leverage to wrest concessions in potential talks with Trump.

Jerusalem (TIP)- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump will meet Monday to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza, whose troubled opening months are stoking concern that regional fighting could resume in the new year.
Trump is to host Netanyahu, his most frequent foreign guest, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after hearing complaints from Arab and Muslim partners about continuing Israeli military strikes in the war-shattered and now-divided Palestinian enclave, as well as in Lebanon and Syria.
Israel says it’s fending off fresh threats by armed Islamist groups. Chief among these is Hamas, which triggered the two-year conflict in the Gaza Strip and agreed to the truce and a full hostage release — but not to surrender weapons as demanded by Trump’s internationally endorsed 20-point peace plan. The group has said it might be willing to integrate into the military of a future Palestinian state.
In Lebanon, Israel has been hitting Hezbollah and accusing the Beirut government of lagging in its promise to prevent the militia from rearming and regrouping at the border.
Netanyahu’s goal in the Trump talks will be to “strengthen, preserve and safeguard the achievements of the war and thus ensure that the offensive capabilities that we denied our enemies won’t be restored,” said Guy Levy, a Netanyahu spokesman.
Trump has been highly supportive of Israel even as it faced censure elsewhere over the Gazan carnage. When Netanyahu took the war to Iran — the sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah — in June, US strategic bombers joined Israel’s air force in the assault on its nuclear facilities.
But the president has shown impatience with questions of when and how his Gaza plan can move to the reconstruction and reconciliation stages, known as Phase 2.
Israelis, meanwhile, are bracing for more war. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank found that 71% of the public believe there will be a flare-up with Hezbollah in the coming year. Sixty-nine percent see it happening with Iran, and 53% with Hamas.
“No one is arguing that the status quo is sustainable in the long term, nor desirable,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said.
Trump is expected soon to name fellow global leaders to a “Board of Peace” to oversee the interim administration of post-war Gaza. Formation of an International Stabilization Force, also known as ISF, consisting of troops from other countries, should soon follow.
Yet Israeli and US officials privately acknowledge arguing over whether Israel should withdraw troops and tanks from parts of the 53% of the territory it still holds, and hand them over to the ISF, even as Hamas remains armed and defiant in the rest. It’s also unclear whether the ISF would be willing and able to confront Hamas, which is branded a terrorist group in the West.
Another sticking point has been over Hamas’ failure to return the body of the last of the some 250 people it seized during the Oct. 7, 2023 shock invasion of southern Israel.

PALM BEACH (TIP)- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while acknowledging that the fate of the Donbas region remains a key unresolved issue.
The two leaders spoke at a joint news conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday afternoon. Both leaders reported progress on two of the most contentious issues in peace talks – security guarantees for Ukraine and the division of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russia has sought to capture.
Both Trump and Zelenskiy offered few details and did not provide a deadline for completing a peace deal, although Trump said it will be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will succeed. He said a few “thorny issues” around territory must be resolved.
Zelenskiy said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine has been reached. Trump was slightly more cautious, saying that they were 95% of the way to such an agreement, and that he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of that effort with U.S. backing.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an X post published after Trump met with Zelenskiy, said progress was made on security guarantees. Macron said countries in the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” would meet in Paris in early January to finalise their “concrete contributions.”
Zelenskiy has said previously that he hopes to soften a U.S. proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from Donbas, a Russian demand that would mean ceding some territory held by Ukrainian forces. While Moscow insists on getting all of Donbas, Kyiv wants the map frozen at current battle lines.
Both Trump and Zelenskiy said on Sunday the future of the Donbas had not been settled, though the U.S. president said discussions are “moving in the right direction.” The United States, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the area, although it remains unclear how that zone would function in practical terms.
“It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue,” Trump said.
Nor did the leaders offer much insight into what agreements they had reached on providing security for Ukraine after the war ends, something Zelenskiy described Sunday as “the key milestone in achieving a lasting peace.”
Russia has said any foreign troop deployment in Ukraine is unacceptable.
Zelenskiy said any peace agreement would have to be approved by Ukraine’s parliament, or by a referendum. Trump said he would be willing to speak to parliament if that would secure the deal.

New York (TIP)- Though the Taliban, de-facto rulers of Afghanistan, have managed to keep the ban on opium and narcotics, the “trade continues to dominate informal economy” of the country, United Nations monitors have reported. “This trade sustains a large network of traffickers, criminal organisations, and even some State actors, who derive economic benefits,” a UN report dated 8 December said. The Taliban seized control of Kabul on 15 August, 2021, after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and US and allied forces withdrew following two decades of military presence there.
Poppy cultivation and opium production have fallen to record lows after Taliban took control, but large parts of the industry moved across the border, “where Afghan narcotics networks are demonstrating resilience by relocating farmers and equipment,” the report noted. Those areas, where the industry is being relocated, could potentially benefit Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL)-Khurasan, and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), it said. Taliban’s ban on opium cultivation in 2022 led to a reduction of heroin being processed and trafficked out of Afghanistan, but it also triggered an increase in prices of dry opium, “roughly four times higher than prices at the time when the ban was announced,” the report said. Dry opium is the main raw product needed for heroin production.
Farmers in Afghanistan, the report noted, have fought back against Taliban’s ban on opiates. Two people were killed in May in a showdown between the de-facto authorities and opium farmers. A month later, protests erupted again. Subsequently, authorities in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan and Jurm agreed to a 15-day window to allow poppy harvest before the fields were to be destroyed. According to the report, while opium production has dropped, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has observed an uptick in crops used to make synthetic narcotics such as methamphetamine, particularly in rural areas of Afghanistan, where revenue sources are few. These drugs, UN monitors said, could slowly replace opium in the international market.
ISIL-K, led by Sanaullah Ghafari, has proved to be resilient in Afghanistan’s North and East, the report said, even though Taliban and Pakistan have inflicted losses on its leadership. The Islamic State draws its rank and file from poor central Asian communities, living on both sides of the Afghan border.
The outfit, the UN monitoring report noted, staged successful attacks outside Afghanistan last year, striking at a Shia mosque in Iran’s Kerman and at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia.
The TTP, led by Noor Wali Mehsud, has conducted increasingly lethal attacks on the Pakistani military, with more than 600 ambushes and bombings reported in 2025 alone. The outfit, the report said, maintains over 6,000 cadres in Afghanistan provinces of Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktika and Paktiya.

Washington (TIP)- The Trump administration has announced a huge arms sale worth around $11bn (£8.2bn) to Taiwan, which includes advanced rocket launchers, self-propelled howitzers and a variety of missiles. This package, which still needs to be approved by the US Congress, will be the second arms sale to Taiwan since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
China, which sees self-governed Taiwan as a breakaway province, condemned the move, saying it “severely undermines China’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity”.
Taiwan’s defence ministry thanked the US and said the deal would help the island in “rapidly building robust deterrence capabilities”.
The US has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan, and has walked a tight diplomatic rope for decades. But it remains a powerful ally of Taiwan’s and the island’s biggest arms supplier.
The latest arms sale has angered Beijing, which has in recent years ramped up pressure over Taiwan with military drills and regular incursions into its waters and airspace.
“The US’s attempt to support independence through force will only backfire, and its attempt to contain China by using Taiwan will absolutely not succeed,” said its foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun.
“It will only accelerate the push towards a dangerous and violent situation across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
The latest package features High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars) worth $4bn and self-propelled howitzers worth $4bn, according to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which announced the details late on Wednesday.
The size of this sale, if it goes through, dwarfs the 19 rounds of arms sales totalling $8.38bn during the previous administration under Joe Biden.
In his first term, Trump had approved arms sales to Taiwan totalling $18.3bn – the largest package was worth $8bn.
The US State Department said this deal serves Washington’s interests “by supporting [Taipei’s] continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability”.
China has long vowed to “reunify” with Taiwan and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.
It is a threat that Taiwan is increasingly taking seriously. It plans to boost defence spending to more than 3% of its gross domestic product next year and up to 5% by 2030.
In October, President Lai Ching-te announced the building of a dome-like air defence system to guard against “hostile threats”, without mentioning China by name.
China has grown increasingly assertive in the region, often rattling neighbours with unusual moves – in June, Japan protested following an unprecedented naval drill by Chinese aircraft carriers in the Pacific.
More recently the two countries have been sparring over the Japanese prime minister’s suggestion that Japan could deploy its own self-defence force if China attacks Taiwan.
Tensions escalated this month as boats from both sides faced off near disputed islands, and Chinese fighter jets locked radar on Japanese aircraft.

PARIS/BEIRUT (TIP)- French, Saudi Arabian and American officials held talks with the head of the Lebanese army on Thursday in Paris aimed at finalising a roadmap to enable a mechanism for the disarmament of the Hezbollah group, diplomats said. Israel and Lebanon agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in 2024, ending more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that severely weakened the Iran-backed militant group.
Since then, Israel has carried out hundreds of violations. Without evidence, it has accused the Lebanese army of not making enough efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and sometimes in the east and in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Speaking after the meeting, France’s foreign ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said the talks had agreed to document seriously with evidence the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah as well as strengthening the existing ceasefire mechanism.
With growing fear the ceasefire could unravel, the Paris meeting aimed to create more robust conditions to identify, support and verify the disarmament process and dissuade Israel from escalation, four European and Lebanese diplomats and officials told Reuters.
With legislative elections due in Lebanon in 2026, there are fears political paralysis and party politics will further fuel instability and make President Joseph Aoun less likely to press disarmament, the diplomats and officials said.
“The situation is extremely precarious, full of contradictions and it won’t take much to light the powder keg,” said one senior official speaking on condition of anonymity. “Aoun doesn’t want to make the disarming process too public because he fears it will antagonise and provoke tensions with the Shia community in the south of the country.”
With the Lebanese army lacking capacity to disarm Hezbollah, the idea would be to reinforce the existing ceasefire mechanism with French, U.S. and possibly other military experts along with U.N. peacekeeping forces, the diplomats and officials said. The parties agreed to hold a conference in February to reinforce the Lebanese army, Confavreux said.
Hezbollah has refused to fully disarm, citing the ongoing Israeli attacks. In his latest speech, the group’s leader Naim Qassem doubled down on his stance.

BRUSSELS (TIP)- European Union leaders will decide on Thursday, Dec 18, how to finance Ukraine in 2026 and 2027 to keep it fighting Russia’s invasion, with the use of Russian assets frozen in the EU the preferred option, but hinging on Belgium’s uncertain approval. The EU wants to keep Ukraine financed and fighting because it sees Russia’s war as a threat to its own security. EU leaders are also keen to show European countries’ agency and strength after U.S. President Donald Trump last week called them “weak”.
With U.S. financial help for Kyiv drying up under the Trump administration and EU national budgets already under strain, the EU is looking to use the 210 billion euros of Russian central bank assets frozen in the bloc as a basis for a loan to Ukraine. The stakes are high because without the EU’s financial help Ukraine will run out of money in the second quarter of next year and most likely lose the war to Russia, which the EU fears would bring closer the threat of Russian aggression against the EU.
“If we do not find an answer to that question (of how to finance Ukraine in 2026 and 2027), we will not enable Ukraine to defend itself,” a senior EU diplomat said. “That would have severe implications … for the security of the rest of Europe.”
“It would also have severe implications for the credibility of Europe and underline that we are as weak as Trump apparently thinks we are,” the diplomat said.
REPARATIONS LOAN IS “ONLY GAME IN TOWN”
One of the financing options could be for the EU to borrow the needed amount against the security of the EU budget and then lend the money on to Ukraine, but such a move would require unanimity among the 27 EU countries and Moscow-friendly Hungary has already said it would veto it.
Another option would be for each willing EU country itself to raise money on the market and pass it on to Kyiv, but that would mean a rise in the already high debt and deficit levels and a lack of longer-term financing certainty for Ukraine.
Diplomats said the use of the Russian assets was therefore in practice “the only game in town” and favoured by most countries because it ensured a large sum for Ukraine without increasing national debts or any immediate fiscal effort.
But to use it, EU leaders first need to convince Belgium, which holds 185 billion euros of the total 210 billion euros frozen in Europe, that they will not leave it alone with the bill if Russia successfully sues in international courts over the plan.
Most EU countries are willing to give such guarantees. But Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever has argued that because damages awarded to Russia in a successful court case could far exceed the amount held by Belgium and the trial could take place many years from now, he effectively needs a blank cheque from other governments for an indefinite period.
“There are limits to the guarantees member states could give,” another senior EU diplomat said.
“De Wever seems to want indefinite guarantees, and no EU member state can offer indefinite guarantees. No EU government can go to its own parliament and ask for indefinite guarantees for indefinite amounts of euros. That’s simply not possible,” the senior diplomat said.
The discussions among leaders on Thursday will therefore focus on narrowing down the scope of the guarantees to a form that would also be acceptable to other EU countries, diplomats said, stressing a financing solution for Ukraine will be found.
“This is not a European Council where we can part ways on Friday and not have anything,” a third senior EU diplomat said.