Congressmember delivered opening remarks at city hall, noting that Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor

Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji appearing on stage for his inauguration ceremony earlier.

New York is a place that “a young immigrant democrat socialist Muslim can be bold enough to run and brave enough to win,” he says, “not by abandoning conviction, but by standing firmly within it.”

⚽ Premier League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail John

Sunderland: Roefs, Hume, Mukiele, Alderete, Cirkin, Xhaka, Geertruida, Mayenda, Le Fee, Adingra, Brobbey. Subs: Patterson, Neil, Rigg, O’Nien, Mundle, Isidor, Hjelde, Harrison Jones, Tutierov.

Man City: Donnarumma, Matheus Luiz, Dias, Ake, O’Reilly, Silva, Gonzalez, Foden, Savio, Cherki, Haaland. Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Doku, Rodri, Gvardiol, Khusanov, Mukasa, Lewis, Reigan Heskey.

Blaze that swept through crowded New Year’s Eve bar in Crans-Montana also injured 115 people

• Swiss resort fire: latest updates

• Le Constellation bar fire in Switzerland: what we know so far

Switzerland will hold five days of mourning after an “unprecedented” fire tore through a crowded bar, killing about 40 people and injuring 115 who were celebrating at a New Year’s Eve party in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana.

The country’s president, Guy Parmelin, described the blaze as one of the most traumatic events in Switzerland’s history. “It was a drama of an unknown scale,” he said, paying tribute to the many “young lives that were lost and interrupted”.

New year party at Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana turned into tragedy as flames shot across the ceiling

• Switzerland resort fire – latest updates

The new year had passed its first hour and the party in Le Constellation was in full swing with revellers dancing to thumping hip-hop. Dawn was far off and the teenagers and twentysomethings were in no hurry to leave the bar. It was, after all, New Year’s Day.

Outside, darkness draped Crans-Montana, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps with a reputation for poshness and luxury. Le Constellation, however, had few pretensions: a cavernous venue with TV screens on the top floor to watch sport, and a basement with low lighting, loud music and a dancefloor.

• Philogene and Akpom goals secure 2-1 win over Oxford

• Charlton hold Coventry 1-1; Derby upset Middlesbrough

Ipswich climbed into the automatic promotion places in the Championship following a 2-1 victory over struggling Oxford.

Their success came via first-half goals from leading scorer Jaden Philogene and Chuba Akpom, while Will Lankshear replied for the visitors. Ipswich moved a point above Middlesbrough after they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Derby, while Oxford remain three points from safety.

Over the holiday period, the Guardian leader column is looking ahead at the themes of 2026. Today we examine how the White House’s war on vaccines has left the future of a key technology uncertain and up for grabs

The late scientist and thinker Donald Braben argued that 20th-century breakthroughs arose from scientists being free to pursue bold ideas without pressure for quick results or rigid peer review. The rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines seemed to validate his claim: emergency conditions sped up trials, relaxed regulatory sequencing and encouraged scientists to share findings before peer review. Out of that sprang one of the great scientific success stories of our age: mRNA vaccines. These use synthetic genetic code to train the immune system to defend itself against viruses. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, whose work enabled the mRNA Covid vaccine, went on to win the Nobel prize. Their breakthrough suggests that loosening traditional constraints could accelerate major scientific advances.

The extensive scientific and logistic infrastructure built during that period is now occupied with turning the technology towards other diseases: flu, HIV and even cancer. Until very recently, the US, which put more than $10bn into mRNA development, appeared primed to reap the scientific and commercial rewards. Despite the deregulatory zeal that birthed mRNA, the second Trump administration has rejected it. Instead, it has been remarkably steady in its commitment to the radical anti-science and anti-vaccine agenda of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. He has spent the past year undermining and outright sabotaging the US’s own success. Over the summer, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a “coordinated wind-down” of federal funding for mRNA research, cancelling an additional $500m in funding for 22 projects.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

About 40 people are believed to have been killed and 115 injured after a fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, according to the Italian foreign ministry. Video from the scene shows orange flames billowing from inside the ground-floor bar and lounge. Swiss police confirmed arson was not the cause and the blaze is thought to have been started accidentally

Second highest annual number of irregular arrivals on record reached British shores in 2025

More than 41,000 people crossed the Channel in small boats last year, figures branded “shameful” by the Home Office have revealed.

The government said 41,472 people arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in 2025 – the second highest number on record after 45,774 made the journey in 2022.

There is much to learn from the New Labour playbook. We were disciplined, innovative, robust and proactive – and we won

• Labour needs complete ‘reset’ to defeat threat posed by Reform UK, says strategist

• Chris Powell is an election strategy analyst and advised the Labour party for more than 20 years

The next general election will be no ordinary democratic contest. Not the usual swing of the pendulum this way or that. It will be a key moment in the history of our democracy – and it could be less than three years away.

Be in no doubt: populists represent a new and terrifying threat to the kind of free elections and free society we cherish, but now take for granted.

Chris Powell is an election strategy analyst and advised the Labour party for more than 20 years. David Cowan, who co-authored this article, is founder of Forensics, a data and consumer research consultancy. They are co-founders of winningagainstpopulists.com

Abortion was seen as one of Democrats’ strongest issues in the 2024 election – new polls indicate that may be shifting

Up to seven states will vote on abortion rights this year. But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade.

In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). But in October of this year, just 36% of Democrats said the same. By contrast, abortion remained about as important to Republicans in both 2024 and 2025, PRRI found. PRRI’s findings mirror a September poll from the 19th and SurveyMonkey, which found that the voters who cared most about abortion are people who want to see it banned.

Investigators say no indication of terrorism or arson after 40 people die and 115 are injured in blaze

• Switzerland ski resort fire – latest updates

Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 115 injured, many of them seriously, after a fire at a bar in the Swiss Alps during a new year celebration at a luxury ski resort.

The blaze ripped through the packed bar, Le Constellation, early on Thursday in Crans-Montana, one of the top-ranked ski destinations in Europe, which lies about 25 miles (40km) north-west of Zermatt.

England’s World Cup-winning coach says Ashes series has been ‘a disappointment’ and that a harder mentality in Australian youth cricket could be a factor

Trevor Bayliss will be among those watching the fifth Ashes Test at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground this Sunday. But even as the head coach responsible for delivering the World Cup in 2019, the majority of England fans who walk past him will probably do so without so much as a double take.

This was very much the Australian’s way when sporting the Three Lions on his training kit for five years – low key and forever dodging the spotlight under that wide-brimmed hat. Even crediting Bayliss for that World Cup – or the Ashes win in 2015 – cuts against his mantra that players alone deserve the glory. Coaches, he always stressed, are simply there to facilitate.

Nationwide protests against living conditions enter fifth day with security forces reportedly using live ammunition

The largest protests in Iran for three years entered a fifth day on Thursday amid reports of deadly clashes between protesters and security forces, with state-affiliated media confirming at least two people had been killed.

Although state media did not identify those killed, witnesses and videos circulating on social media appear to show protesters lying motionless on the ground after security forces opened fire.

⚽ Updates from the 3pm GMT New Year’s Day kick-offs
⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Niall

“You mentioned second-bottom Newport’s visit to leaders Bromley – just above them there’s a ding-dong in my old stamping ground of Shrewsbury, with fourth-bottom Town hosting third-bottom Bristol Rovers in the first (of what may be many) big relegation six-pointer of 2026,” writes Jeremy Boyce. “I’m predicting a festive 0-1 and the second managerial departure of 2026 (Michael Appleton). Cheers!”

Full time in the early kick-off, and it’s finished Blackburn 0-2 Wrexham. Sam Smith opened the scoring before Ollie Rathbone smashed in an early goal-of-the-year contender for the visitors, who climb to eighth in the table.

Sheldon Whitehouse, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, remains undeterred and determined to press on with his investigation

“That’s the tactic they use,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island senator, pondering whether Donald Trump might attach his name to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “You float stuff and you float stuff and you float stuff until people get inured to what a stupid or outrageous thing it is that has been floated and then you pull the trigger.”

Whitehouse was sitting in his Senate office and speaking to the Guardian at 11am on Thursday 18 December. Two hours later, his words proved prophetic. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, announced on X that the Kennedy Center board had “voted unanimously” to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.

In the dead of winter, it can be hard to keep your alertness up when it gets darker. Here are a few good habits that will help you stay productive

• Sign up here to get the whole series straight to your inbox

It is an all-too-familiar scenario: you reheat a bowl of last night’s noodles for lunch, devour it, then return to your desk and gradually droop over the course of the afternoon, to the point at which you are battling to keep your eyes open. Or perhaps you struggle with energy on waking up; or, after a busy start and strong coffee first thing, you begin to fade mid-morning. Or, like me, after dinner in the winter months, you are completely lethargic.

How common are such peaks and troughs in our energy levels? “If you’re having an active day, then you will naturally get tired because we are human, we’re not machines,” says Dr Linia Patel, a dietitian and nutritionist. “Getting tired at the end of the day, before you go to bed, is perfect. But getting tired at your desk is not great.” Chronic tiredness is something to see a doctor about, says Patel, as it could be a symptom of illness.

Historic trawler and floating lighthouse among East Yorkshire city’s attractions as it gears up for tourism boost

A combination of a world record-breaking trawler, a floating lighthouse and a dizzying array of maritime objects that include a stuffed polar bear called Erik are all helping to make Hull one of the top 25 places in the world to visit in 2026.

The East Yorkshire city is on the verge of completing an ambitious £70m transformation, which, supporters believe, will propel it into becoming an international tourist destination.

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause

Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths.

Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

⚽ Premier League updates from the 5.30pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Tables | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail Michael

2 min: Liverpool immediately concede a free-kick on their own byline, which immediately allows Leeds’ looming back-line to come up from the back. Liverpool, remember, are joint last in the Premier League for goals conceded from set pieces, and sacked their set-piece coach last week.

Liverpool survive here, though, with Alisson punching away.

Ukraine has not commented on attack on cafe and hotel that comes despite ‘productive’ ongoing peace talks

A Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 people and injured at least 50 more as they celebrated the new year in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Russian officials said, as tensions between the two countries continue to rise despite diplomats hailing productive peace talks.

Three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast, the region’s Moscow-installed leader, Vladimir Saldo, said in a statement on Telegram on Thursday. He said one of the drones was carrying an incendiary mixture that sparked a blaze.

From Agatha Christie doing the dishes to the cancer surgeon inspired at the theatre, an idling brain suddenly seems able to join the dots

If you really want to solve a problem, try doing nothing about it. Fold some laundry. Stir a risotto. Go for a run, watch a film, try to entertain someone else’s baby: anything that involves pottering about in an undemanding yet still vaguely engaged way, which absolutely couldn’t be classed as work but isn’t totally vegetative either. It may not be the productivity hack any go-getter wants to hear, but it’s surprising how often a spell of aimless noodling around frees an otherwise overworked human brain to make the kind of lateral mental leap that helps everything fall into place. And I’m not just saying that to justify a New Year’s Day spent lying hungover on the sofa, ploughing through the last of the Christmas cheese.

For the eminent cancer surgeon Michael Baum, it was a night off with his wife at the theatre that allowed him to suddenly join the dots. After watching a scene in Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia where one character explains chaos theory to another, Baum had his own personal eureka moment: what if this mathematical concept, used to describe complex systems that may seem haphazard but have a hidden underlying pattern to them, could also explain the otherwise puzzling way in which cancer grows and spreads? The result of that one stray thought as the interval curtain rose was an innovation in chemotherapy, and a gratifying rise in survival rates.

Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist

President auctioned off portrait painted live onstage and said his new year’s resolution was ‘peace on Earth’

Donald Trump welcomed 2026 with a glitzy bash at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach where he auctioned off a freshly painted portrait of Jesus Christ for $2.75m and said his new year’s resolution was a wish for “peace on Earth”.

The portrait of Jesus had been painted onstage by artist Vanessa Horabuena who, the president said, was “one of the greatest artists anywhere in the world”.

Complaint argues Trump administration denying coverage of gender-affirming care is sex-based discrimination

The Trump administration is facing a new legal complaint from a group of government employees who are affected by a new policy going into effect Thursday that eliminates coverage for gender-affirming care in federal health insurance programs.

The complaint, filed Thursday on the employees’ behalf by the Human Rights Campaign, is in response to an August announcement from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that it would no longer cover “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions” in health insurance programs for federal employees and US Postal Service workers.

British charitable trust that draws on OxyContin-maker fortune says it exempted names to protect reputations

Two charities that received a combined total of more than £1.1m from the British charitable trust run by the Sackler family were kept out of its latest accounts to protect their reputations from “serious prejudice”.

The trust, which draws on the Sackler fortune that came out of the US opioid crisis, gave £3.8m to arts, eduction and science bodies in 2024, according to its latest accounts, filed on New Year’s Eve.