Britcher rallies in Sigulda for second win of season
American leads World Cup singles despite missing race
USA Luge star can capture historic overall crown
USA Luge’s Summer Britcher is flying into the Olympics.
Britcher got her second women’s singles luge win of the season on Sunday, moving her atop the World Cup standings and further cementing her status as a medal contender for the Milan Cortina Olympics next month.
Investigators have identified the last 16 people who died in the New Year’s Eve bar fire at the Swiss mountain resort of Crans-Montana, police said on Sunday.
Officers in Valais canton said they had managed to identify the last of the 40 bodies from the blaze, one of the worst disasters in recent Swiss history, with forensic work particularly slow-going due to the horrific burns sustained by most of the victims.
Striker steps in for injured Mbappé in 5-1 victory
Paris Saint-Germain beat city rivals Paris FC 2-1
Gonzalo García bagged a hat-trick to lead Real Madrid to a 5-1 victory over Real Betis at the Bernabéu on Sunday, cutting Barcelona’s La Liga lead back to four points.
The 21-year-old forward, who scored four goals at last summer’s Club World Cup, stepped up in the absence of La Liga’s top scorer, Kylian Mbappé, sidelined by a knee injury. García was left unmarked at the far post to head in Rodrygo’s precise cross for a deserved 20th-minute lead.
Ukraine’s top allies hold security talks in Kyiv; Russia condemns US attack on Venezuela. What we know on day 1,411
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says he hopes for a leaders’ summit in the US by the end of January to discuss proposals on how to end the war with Russia. Security advisers from Ukraine’s top allies met in Kyiv on Saturday for talks on a US-brokered plan to end the war, days after Kyiv announced a deal was “90%” ready. Officials from 15 countries including the UK, France and Germany as well as representatives from Nato and the EU joined the meeting. The US special envoy Steve Witkoff also joined virtually, a Ukrainian official said, although the US military attack on Venezuela earlier in the day overshadowed proceedings.
Next week, the talks will continue during a European leaders’ meeting in Paris and then with US negotiators. “And after that … we will be preparing for a meeting in the United States at the leadership level. We would like all of this to happen in January, by the end of January,” Zelenskyy said.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have gained pace in recent weeks, although both Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory. Russia, which occupies about 20% of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal. But Kyiv has warned ceding ground will embolden Moscow and said it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday evening, Zelenskyy said that if diplomacy to end the war failed, his country would continue to defend itself. “If Russia blocks all of this – and as I said, it depends on our partners – if our partners do not compel Russia to stop the war, there will be another path: to defend ourselves,” he said.
While the US may be making positive noises about a peace deal, exhausted Ukrainians remain wary after nearly four years of war, the Guardian’s Shaun Walker reports.
Saturday’s meeting capped a week marked by deadly strikes, as well as a Russian claim – denied by Ukraine – that Kyiv had launched drones at a residence of Vladimir Putin in an unsuccessful attack. Russia accused Kyiv of firing drones at a hotel and cafe in the Moscow-held part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region early on Thursday, killing what it said were 28 people celebrating the new year. Ukraine says it was a military gathering.
A woman and three-year-old child died in a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv late on Friday, according to the region’s governor. And early Saturday, Russian bombardment of a Kyiv-held part of the southern Kherson region left two people dead, according to the region’s governor.
Russia on Saturday condemned the US attack on Venezuela and called for the release of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was grabbed during an audacious military operation in Caracas. “We strongly urge the American leadership to reconsider its position and release the legally elected president of the sovereign country and his wife,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
In a series of statements, the ministry called for dialogue between Washington and Venezuela’s government and expressed “solidarity” with Venezuela’s people. It stopped short, however, of offering immediate military or financial assistance to its ally.
“This morning, the United States committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This is deeply concerning and condemnable,” the ministry said in a statement. “The pretexts used to justify such actions are untenable. Ideological hostility has triumphed over businesslike pragmatism.”
Moscow is one of only a handful of countries to congratulate Maduro on his disputed re-election in 2024. Venezuela is Russia’s closest partner in South America and a major buyer of Russian military hardware.
Zach Charbonnet scored on a 27-yard run in the first quarter and Seattle shut down the high-powered San Francisco offense in a 13-3 victory over the 49ers on Saturday night that secured the No 1 seed for the Seahawks in the NFC playoffs.
Seattle (14-3) won their first division title since 2020 and are now two home wins away from returning to Levi’s Stadium for the Super Bowl next month after besting San Francisco (12-5) in just the fourth season-ending game ever where the winner was guaranteed the No 1 seed in the playoffs.
South Korea’s military reports projectile launch hours before Lee Jae Myung was due to head to Beijing
North Korea launched ballistic missiles towards the sea on Sunday, its neighbours said, just hours before South Korea’s president was due to leave for talks in China expected to cover North Korea’s nuclear programme.
South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that they detected several ballistic missile launches from North Korea’s capital region at about 7.50am local time. They said the missiles flew about 560 miles (900km) and that South Korea and US authorities were analysing details of the launches.
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