A day of national mourning is being held in Switzerland on Friday, following a fire which killed 40 young people, mostly teenagers, in a bar in the Crans-Montana ski resort on New Year's Eve. Church bells rang across the country for five minutes, and people stood for a minute's silence in their memory. Firefighters in the resort were applauded as they joined an audience watching the tribute ceremony, which was live-streamed to Crans-Montana from the Swiss city of Martigny. The ceremony saw the leaders of neighbouring countries, including France's Emmanuel Macron, join an audience while speakers, including the Valais canton's president, paid tribute to those who died. The annual food fight festival ''Els Enfarinats'' has left the Spanish town of Ibi covered in flour and egg shells.

X is only allowing "verified" users to create images with Grok. Experts say it represents the "monetization of abuse"--and anyone can still generate images on Grok's app and website. After creating thousands of "undressing" pictures of women and sexualized imagery of apparent minors, Elon Musk's X has apparently limited who can generate images with Grok. However, despite the changes, the chatbot is still being used to create "undressing" sexualized images on the platform. On Friday morning, the Grok account on X started responding to some users' requests with a message saying that image generation and editing are "currently limited to paying subscribers."

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has limited image generation on the social media platform X amid growing backlash over its use to create sexualised deepfakes of women and children. Grok told X users on Friday that image generation and editing features were now available only to paying subscribers. The move comes after Musk was threatened with fines and several countries pushed back publicly against the tool that allowed users to alter online images to remove the subjects' clothes. The European Commission said on Monday that such images circulating on X were unlawful and appalling. The United Kingdom's data regulator also said it had asked the platform to explain how it was complying with data protection laws following concerns that Grok was generating sexually abusive images of women.

Cute robots, lightweight EVs and a surprisingly quiet leaf blower are among the tech that stood out as the show winds down. Two OlloBots -- one with a long furry purple neck, making it about two feet taller than the other -- are pictured on a light purple floor, in front of a screen displaying a closeup of a child playing with blocks. Even as CES 2026 wraps up soon, there's no shortage of standout hardware hiding in plain sight. From genuinely quieter yard tools to ultra-light EVs and companion robots that want to remember your family, Day 3 was all about tech that felt a little more considered -- and in some cases, refreshingly practical. If you can't get enough of CES, be sure to check out our picks for best of CES 2026, which highlights the most impressive new tech we've seen in Las Vegas.

As we look back on 2025, the world experienced a year of both remarkable achievement and profound challenge in global health. Multilateralism, science and solidarity were tested as never before, underscoring a fundamental truth: International cooperation is not optional. It is essential if we are to protect and promote health for everyone, everywhere in 2026 and beyond. Perhaps the most significant milestone was the adoption by WHO Member States of the Pandemic Agreement, a landmark step towards making the world safer from future pandemics. Alongside this, amendments to the International Health Regulations came into force, including a new "pandemic emergency" alert level designed to trigger stronger global cooperation.

Trump's grand plan to reshape the world order leaves Europe with a difficult choice to make For 80 years, what bound the United States to Europe was a shared commitment to defence and a common set of values: a commitment to defend democracy, human rights and the rule of law. That era was inaugurated in March 1947 in an 18-minute speech by President Harry Truman, in which he pledged US support to defend Europe against further expansion by the Soviet Union. America led the creation of Nato, the World Bank, the IMF and the United Nations. And it bound itself into what became known as the rules-based international order, in which nation states committed to a series of mutual obligations and shared burdens, designed to defend the democratic world against hostile authoritarian powers. Now, the new US National Security Strategy (NSS), published in December, signals that, for the White House, that shared endeavour has ended; that much of what the world has taken for granted about America's role is over.

Elon Musk's Grok AI image editing limited to paid X users after deepfakes Elon Musk's platform X has limited image editing with its AI tool Grok to paying users, after it came under fire for allowing people to make sexualised deepfakes. There has been a significant backlash after the chatbot honoured requests from users to digitally alter images of other people by undressing them without their consent. But Grok is now telling people asking it to make such material that only paid subscribers would be able to do so - meaning their name and payment information must be on file. The BBC has approached X for comment. Those who do not subscribe can still use Grok to edit images on its separate app and website.

Service members take part in what the Russian Defense Ministry said was the deployment of a nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system in Belarus, in a still image taken from a video released on Dec. 30. Russia's military says it has fired its hypersonic Oreshnik missile at a target in Ukraine in response to what it described as an attempted Ukrainian drone strike on one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's residences, something Kyiv has called a lie. It is the second time that Russia has used the intermediate-range Oreshnik, a missile that Putin has boasted is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity of more than 10 times the speed of sound. The missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads as well as conventional ones, but there was no suggestion that the one used in the overnight attack had been fitted with anything other than a conventional warhead. The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike had targeted critical infrastructure in Ukraine. It said Russia had also used attack drones and high-precision long-range land and sea-based weapons.

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Russia has used the Oreshnik ballistic missile as part of a massive overnight strike on Ukraine. Four people were killed and 25 others injured in Kyiv on Thursday night, where loud booms could be heard for several hours, setting the sky alight with explosions. It only the second time that Moscow has used the Oreshnik, which was first deployed to hit the central city of Dnipro in November 2024. Russia's defence ministry said the strike was a response to a Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin's residence in late December, which Kyiv denies carrying out . While the ministry did not specify what had been the Oreshnik's target, shortly before midnight (22:00 GMT) videos began circulating on social media showing numerous explosions on the outskirts of the western city of Lviv.