INTERNACIONAL
Officials race to identify mostly young victims of deadly Swiss Alps bar fire
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Swiss authorities on Friday began the grim task of identifying the mostly young victims of a deadly New Year’s Eve bar fire that killed around 40 people and injured more than 100 at a ski resort in Crans-Montana.
Italian authorities said the death toll could be as high as 47, Reuters reported, citing information provided by Swiss officials. Several Italian nationals were reportedly among the dead, injured or still missing.
The fire tore through the Le Constellation bar in the Alpine resort town in the early hours Thursday, turning a packed night of celebration into panic and tragedy. Officials said the blaze appeared to be an accident rather than an attack.
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Mourners leave flowers and light candles at a makeshift memorial near the site of a deadly New Year’s Eve bar fire in the Swiss Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana. (Maxime Schmid / AFP via Getty Images)
Swiss authorities said the severity of the burns suffered by many of the victims could delay formal identifications for days, as forensic teams worked to determine the identities of those killed.
Police and government officials said a large share of the victims were teenagers and young adults, with many believed to be between 16 and 26 years old. In Switzerland, the legal drinking age is 16 for beer and wine.
«All this work needs to be done because the information is so terrible and sensitive that nothing can be told to the families unless we are 100% sure,» said Mathias Reynard, head of government of the canton of Valais. He said investigators were using dental records and DNA samples to identify the victims.
Italy and France said some of their nationals remain missing, and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Crans-Montana on Friday and laid flowers.
The number of Italians involved in the incident currently stands at 19, according to the BBC, which cited Italy’s foreign ministry.
Australia has also confirmed that one of its nationals was injured.
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Emergency crews and medical aircraft are seen at a regional airport in Switzerland as victims of a deadly New Year’s Eve bar fire in the Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana were transported for treatment. (REUTERS/Lisa Leutner)
Some survivor accounts and video broadcast on social media suggested the ceiling of the bar’s basement may have caught fire when sparkling candles used during bottle service got too close, though authorities said the cause had not yet been formally determined.
Officials said the blaze triggered the violent ignition of combustible gases — a phenomenon known to English-speaking firefighters as a flashover or backdraft, according to The Associated Press.
Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the blaze, described «total chaos» inside the bar. One of his friends died and «two or three were missing,» he told the outlet.
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Rescuers and firefighters work at the site of an explosion that ripped through a bar in Crans-Montana on Jan. 1, 2026. (MAXIME SCHMID / AFP via Getty Images)
Clavier said he did not see the fire start but recalled waitresses entering the room carrying Champagne bottles topped with sparklers shortly before the blaze erupted.
Another witness told BFMTV that people smashed windows to escape the flames. Panicked parents rushed to the scene to see whether their children were trapped inside.
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Rescuers are seen at the site of an explosion that ripped through a bar in Crans-Montana on Jan. 1, 2026. (MAXIME SCHMID / AFP via Getty Images)
Helicopters and ambulances rushed to the scene to assist victims from multiple countries, officials said. Hospitals were quickly overwhelmed, with intensive care units and operating theaters reaching capacity.
Swiss authorities later said the burn unit in Valais was full, and that Italy made a major burns unit in Milan available to treat the injured.
By Friday, mourners had begun leaving flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial near the cordoned-off bar as the resort town struggled to absorb the scale of the tragedy.
Fox News’ Bradford Betz, Greg Norman, Emma Bussey, as well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
world,fires disasters,disasters,france,europe,italy
INTERNACIONAL
Zelensky reiteró a sus aliados que el armamento del ejército ruso contiene “miles de componentes” de fabricación extranjera
El presidente de Ucrania, Volodimir Zelensky, advirtió que los misiles y drones utilizados por el ejército ruso contienen “miles de componentes” de fabricación no rusa, especialmente procedentes de Europa, Estados Unidos y Japón, y pidió a estos países bloquear de manera efectiva estas cadenas de suministro.
“Todos esos misiles y drones rusos que se utilizan hoy en día contienen miles de componentes que Rusia no puede producir por sí sola. Cinco misiles Iskander-M llevan al menos 75 componentes críticos de fabricación no rusa. Tres misiles ‘Kh-101’ incluyen casi 160 componentes que Rusia no puede reemplazar por sí misma», detalló el mandatario.
A su vez, en un mensaje hacia sus aliados, remarcó: “Cada shahed (dron de fabricación iraní) tiene cientos de estos componentes exportados a Rusia desde otros países, y no solo de empresas chinas, por cierto. También de Europa, Estados Unidos y Japón”.
El mandatario instó a los aliados de Ucrania a bloquear realmente las cadenas de suministro que llevan componentes críticos a Rusia para la producción de armas, calificando esta medida de “crucial” tanto para Kiev como para la seguridad internacional.
“Las propias empresas deberían supervisar mejor el destino de sus componentes. Sin estas conexiones con el mundo, Rusia no puede hacer nada; no es capaz de ser fuerte estando completamente aislada”, aseguró.
Zelensky reiteró que “el bloqueo y la presión pueden realmente obligar al agresor a reconsiderar su política” en medio de la invasión al territorio ucraniano.
Respecto a las negociaciones en Suiza, indicó que la delegación ucraniana presentará un informe tras ronda de conversaciones en Ginebra sobre los ataques recientes en Odesa y sus consecuencias.
“El equipo debe plantear sin duda la cuestión de estos ataques, en primer lugar a la parte estadounidense, que propuso que tanto nosotros como Rusia nos abstuviéramos de atacar”, puntualizó respecto de los últimos bombardeos de Moscú a infraestructura crítica ucraniana.
El presidente subrayó que Ucrania está preparada y no necesita la guerra, y manifestó su disposición para avanzar hacia un acuerdo justo que ponga fin al conflicto bélico iniciado por Rusia en 2022. Además, adelantó que en las próximas semanas habrá nuevas negociaciones con socios internacionales y se discutirá la necesidad de que Europa produzca sus propios misiles de defensa aérea.
“La única pregunta para los rusos es: ¿qué quieren? Y también, si habrá consecuencias para Rusia por el hecho de que los shaheds, los misiles y las fantasiosas charlas sobre la historia les importan más que la diplomacia real, la diplomacia y la paz duradera»,
La jornada del martes incluyó una reunión de Ucrania con representantes de Estados Unidos, Francia, Reino Unido, Alemania, Italia y Suiza. El secretario del Consejo Nacional de Defensa ucraniano, Rustem Umerov, señaló que se coordinaron enfoques para los próximos pasos y destacó la importancia de mantener una visión común y la coordinación de acciones entre Ucrania, Estados Unidos y Europa.
Los negociadores de Ucrania y Rusia reanudarán una segunda ronda de conversaciones de paz en Ginebra este miércoles, mientras el principal enviado de Estados Unidos mostró optimismo sobre la posibilidad de poner fin al conflicto más letal en Europa desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Estas conversaciones representan el esfuerzo diplomático más reciente para frenar los combates, que causaron cientos de miles de muertes, desplazado a millones de personas y devastado amplias zonas del este y sur de Ucrania.
Los delegados de Estados Unidos mantiene su presión para lograr un acuerdo que ponga fin a casi cuatro años de guerra, aunque hasta ahora no se ha alcanzado un compromiso entre Moscú y Kiev respecto al territorio en disputa.
El enviado estadounidense Steve Witkoff, representante de la administración del presidente Donald Trump, afirmó que los esfuerzos diplomáticos del mandatario impulsaron el proceso.
“El éxito del presidente Trump al unir a ambos lados de esta guerra ha generado un progreso significativo”, escribió en X. “Ambas partes acordaron actualizar a sus respectivos líderes y continuar trabajando para llegar a un acuerdo”.
(Con información de Europa Press)
Defence,Defense,Europe
INTERNACIONAL
Inside world’s top science society’s convention bashing Trump, pushing DEI, pronouns: ‘Felt like a funeral’
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FIRST ON FOX: One of the world’s largest and most influential scientific societies held its annual conference last weekend, which a Fox News Digital review found was littered with examples of progressive messaging, criticisms of the Trump administration, and «woke» workshops.
Attendees who showed up at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) event, held at the Phoenix Convention Center from Feb. 12-14, were immediately greeted at registration with identifier stickers that used gender pronouns such as «they/them,» «xi/xer,» «xe/xem,» and other descriptors that critics have alleged have little to do with science and biology.
During the meeting’s opening night, shortly after a 10-minute hoop dance routine from traditional Native American dancers, AAAS CEO Dr. Sudip Parikh told the audience that it’s been a «hard» and «tough year for science and scientists in this country.»
Parikh went on to blame DOGE for the «devastation» of «some of our science agencies» and the «president’s budget request» that «cut science by half» and, in his opinion, amounted to «forfeiting the future.»
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The 2025 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
«What happened over the course of the last year is a rupture. We’re not going back, it’s not possible, too much damage has been done, too much has changed. There’s an entire generation of scientists that have a scar, a scar that is not going to go away,» Parikh explained, adding that scars can «make us tougher» and «become almost shields» that «build resilience.»
Parikh told the crowd that he warned last year that Robert F. Kennedy Jr was the «wrong person» for Health and Human Services secretary and said, «I still feel that way,» which prompted laughter and applause from the crowd.
«It’s going to take protests, it’s going to take politics, it’s going to take the ability to not speak gibberish, all of that has got to come together if we’re going to fight for the inheritance of the enlightenment to continue to make this world a better place,» Parikh said.
Workshops at the event, which provided gender-neutral washrooms, included a session titled «Mao-Mei Liu: Nurturing Diversity in Science is Resistance,» and another called «Investigating the Role of Race in Clinical Decision-Making.»
«Who Gets to Belong? Disability, Power, and Participation in Higher Education,» another workshop was called.
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The 2026 annual AAAS conference provided guests with an all-gender washroom and gender pronoun stickers. (Fox News Digital)
Dr. Theresa A. Maldonado, a world-renowned expert in electrical engineering, delivered the president’s address at the conference and also lamented what a difficult year 2025 was for science and suggested climate change was responsible for the devastating southern California wildfires last year.
AAAS, the publisher of the highly respected Science magazine, posted several more videos over the course of the next few days, many including speakers who criticized the Trump administration and injected politics into discussions.
«Colonial Legacies, Climate Crises, and the Erosion of Mobility Choice» was another workshop that scientists at the conference were offered and in an interview with «climate justice scholar» Jola Ajibade, she explained how climate change has benefited a «few wealthy people» while «low-income communities are displaced.»
«At the center of my work is giving a voice but also bringing to the attention of everyone the impact of a slew of climate solutions, the impact of those solutions on low-income communities, on Black communities, on indigenous, on Latino communities as well,» Ajibade explained, adding that she is focused on finding a «decolonial» approach.
Listed sponsors of the event included the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a group tied to the progressive consulting behemoth Arabella Advisors through the New Venture Fund, a nonprofit that pushes a variety of progressive causes.
«The whole thing that is sad for me is that when I attended these conferences in the first Trump administration there was plenty of liberal nonsense, but it still was a celebration of science and the achievements of the year, and you left excited,» an event attendee told Fox News Digital.
«This year felt like a funeral, with nothing but griping and moaning. Why would people want to keep coming back year after year with something like that? I suspect that is why their attendance greatly suffered this year compared to the pre-COVID years. Their constant pleas to keep politics out of science are completely undercut by their perpetual whining and endorsing utter craziness. They’re happy for science to be political, as long as it’s leftist.»
Additionally, as lawmakers in the United States continue to warn about the growing threat posed by China and what they believe is the CCP’s infiltration of top institutions in the United States — particularly in the medical and science fields — the AAAS conference opted to allow the Beijing-based research institute Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to operate a booth at the event.
The state-run Chinese academy, which has faced controversy over its ties to China’s government and military, has collaborated with a Chinese medical technology firm linked to a 2013 U.S. bribery case involving NIH-funded research. The company has also installed equipment in leading American research labs.
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Protesters are seen outside a rally held by President Donald Trump at Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan. (Getty Images/Dominic Gwinn)
«The AAAS says that their organization wants to ‘inspire’ future scientists and engineers, but session topics and material from their meeting actually discourage participants from relying on their effort and merit and turns the focus to race and ethnicity,» Johnathan Butcher, acting director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.
«These are the very same kind of racist ideas inspired by DEI that have been prohibited in universities, state governments, and the federal government, because the ideas violate state and federal civil rights laws,» Butcher added. «Policymakers should be aware of what this organization is doing and make sure the association is not promoting racial preferences in hiring, promotion or research awards in academia or anywhere else.»
In a statement to Fox News Digital, an AAAS spokesperson said, «A broad spectrum of the scientific enterprise attends the meeting. The topics covered were wide-ranging across scientific disciplines and are proposed by scientists. AAAS respects their First Amendment right to free speech.»
politics,science,dei
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