Watch: Glacier collapse buries Alpine village
An avalanche of rock, ice and mud has buried a village in the Swiss Alps.
A 64-year-old man has been reported missing after 90 per cent of the village of Blatten, in the Lötschental valley, was smothered by the avalanche on Wednesday afternoon.
The village's 300 inhabitants escaped mass casualties after authorities evacuated the area 10 days ago as a precaution.
Video footage captured the moment about 3.5 million cubic metres of rock, snow and ice broke off the Birch Glacier, which looms above the village.
Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten, said: 'We've lost our village. The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.'
Stephane Ganzer, the head of security in the southern Valais region, told local TV channel Canal9: 'What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90 per cent of the village is covered or destroyed.
'So it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten'.
The debris has blocked a river that runs through the village raising concerns of flooding. The government has said it will provide help to villagers whose homes have been destroyed.
Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, said the extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century.
Residents have been urged to stay away from the area as it is still dangerous.
Global warming has been blamed for a rise in the instability of glaciers worldwide, with scientists saying the warmer temperatures are melting the permafrost.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
DOGE took over the US Institute of Peace. Now, the inside looks like a zombie movie, security chief reveals
In March, operatives with DOGE, erratic billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, seized control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), a congressionally funded and quasi-governmental – but fully independent – nonprofit organization, following a dramatic standoff with staffers. As the DOGE team forced their way into the institute's gleaming Moshe Safdie-designed concrete-and-glass headquarters at the northwest corner of the National Mall, local police and FBI agents ejected everyone from the building, including institute president George Moose, a career diplomat who served for 30-plus years under Republican and Democratic administrations alike. The institute was established in 1984 by Republican president Ronald Reagan with a stated mission to advance international stability and promote global conflict resolution. Still, less than a month into Donald Trump's latest term as president, he issued an executive order taking aim at USIP as 'unnecessary.' DOGE then swiftly fired USIP's workforce and replaced its board with MAGA loyalists, after which the purported cost-cutting agency locked the doors to $500 million structure and essentially walked away – attracting rats and roaches and letting conditions erode to such a point that the facility will now likely require hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs, according to USIP chief of security Colin O'Brien. O'Brien, along with a contract engineer, was the first to thoroughly inspect the institute's building last month after a federal judge declared DOGE's takeover illegal, ruling its actions as 'null and void.' O'Brien, a U.S. Army veteran who then worked in law enforcement before joining USIP in August 2023, said what he found was, in a word, 'offensive.' The offices that were abandoned for two months looked like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie, frozen in time, with everything left exactly as it was when the house was cleaned out, according to O'Brien. And this, he said, was precisely the problem. 'Anyone who manages large commercial buildings understands that maintenance is not something you can just stop doing for two months,' O'Brien told The Independent. 'After DOGE took over, they canceled a lot of contracts and critical functions stopped happening.' Rodents became a problem because DOGE employees neglected to clear out any of the food left on the premises after taking over, O'Brien explained. USIP had a cafe managed by a contractor, with food being stored onsite, he said. Additionally, O'Brien said, USIP personnel had food in refrigerators throughout the building, along with snack items they didn't have a chance to remove from desks and cabinets before DOGE summarily booted them from the property. Over the next eight weeks, DOGE wouldn't let any USIP staff in the building, and didn't do anything to prevent the moldering food from spoiling further, which quickly attracted vermin. Roaches were also attracted to the abandoned perishables throughout the space, entering through wastewater and drainage pipes that had dried up from lack of use, O'Brien said. 'There were several water leaks, as well, that contributed to their ability to come into the building,' he added. Beyond the various infestations, O'Brien recalled that, among other things, ceiling tiles were mysteriously missing throughout the building, water damage was rampant, vehicle barriers had become non-operational, and weeds were growing in the cooling tower on the roof – a potential vector for Legionnaires' disease. Since the location was left without adequate security, graffiti also appeared on an exterior wall. 'These things can turn into major, $100,000-plus repairs for lack of maintenance,' O'Brien said. 'Now we're in a rush to play catchup.' However, according to O'Brien, the issues 'went beyond maintenance.' 'They ripped the main logo off the wall when you come into the lobby, and while we have most of the parts back, would you be surprised that we're still missing four letters: U, S, I, and P?' O'Brien said. 'That's not coincidental.' More than a dozen USIP flags were also removed from their flagpoles and remain unaccounted for, which O'Brien believes were taken, along with the USIP logo remnants, as 'war trophies.' He called the situation 'uncharted,' and struggles to accurately put into words the mix of emotions he felt upon walking back into the USIP building. 'The closest thing you can compare this to is McCarthyism, and even that pales in comparison to the total destruction that is occurring right now,' O'Brien said. O'Brien's colleagues at USIP are 'the most incredible group of people, who care about making the world better,' oftentimes at the expense of their own health and personal safety, he continued. While the current administration claims to see USIP's programs as expendable, the institute in fact grew during Trump's first turn in office from 2016 to 2020. To O'Brien, the disconnect is massive. '[Trump] gets sworn in on January 20, and in his inauguration speech, he said, 'I'm a peacemaker,'' O'Brien said. 'USIP is the only publicly-funded private institution that is dedicated to peace in the developed world. We are unique, with a 40-year legacy of trying to do the right thing and make this world just a little bit better.' Regardless of political affiliation, the men and women at USIP are still prepared to cooperate with the Trump administration however necessary 'in order to leave the world a little bit better than we found it,' according to O'Brien. 'It's not that we're against the administration, or against Trump,' he said. 'It's that we're ready to do this work with whomever.' On May 19, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the DOGE seizure of USIP had been unlawful, and ordered Moose and his staff reinstated. In handing down her opinion, Howell said Trump's 'efforts here to take over an organization… represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better.' As USIP once again assumes control of its building, Musk left DOGE as his 130-day tenure as a 'special government employee' comes to an end. The hastily formed agency managed only a fraction of its promised spending reductions, while crippling a raft of vital government programs and reportedly leading Trump to ask, ' Was it all bulls**t?' The 80-year-old Moose now has a daunting task in reconstituting and relaunching USIP, according to O'Brien, who insisted he 'would take a bullet' for his boss 'without hesitation.' 'He is that kind of person, a wonderful man, great leader, and something to live up to,' O'Brien said. 'Ride or die, I'm standing next to him.'
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
MPs debate decriminalising abortion as opponents warn it would be a radical step
Parliament could debate amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill in the coming weeks around guaranteeing women will no longer face prosecution over ending a pregnancy. Monday's debate at Westminster Hall, on a petition calling for the decriminalisation of abortion, was described by one MP opposed to the change as 'a rehearsal' to the separate Commons debate and votes to come. The petition, which gathered some 103,653 signatures, has urged the Government at Westminster to 'remove abortion from criminal law so that no pregnant person can be criminalised for procuring their own abortion'. Abortion in England and Wales remains a criminal offence. It is legal with an authorised provider up to 24 weeks, with very limited circumstances allowing one after this time, such as when the mother's life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability. The issue has come to the fore in recent times with prominent cases such as those of Nicola Packer and Carla Foster. Ms Packer was cleared by a jury last month after taking prescribed abortion medicine when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, beyond the legal limit of 10 weeks for taking such medication at home. She told jurors during her trial, which came after more than four years of police investigation, that she did not realise she had been pregnant for more than 10 weeks. Nicola Packer was cleared earlier this year of having an illegal abortion (Helle Tumbridge/PA) She has since indicated she will file a complaint with the police, prosecutors and the NHS over how she was treated. The case of Carla Foster, jailed in 2023 for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant, eventually saw her sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal and suspended, with senior judges saying that sending women to prison for abortion-related offences is 'unlikely' to be a 'just outcome'. Labour MP Tony Vaughan, opening the Westminster Hall debate, said it is time to 'abandon these outdated practices' of prosecuting women. He said: 'I believe that our laws cannot be fixed relics of the past, but must reflect social attitudes and societal norms.' He insisted 'decriminalisation does not mean deregulation' and that he has not seen evidence 'to suggest that removing the criminal law deterrent would then motivate swathes of women to have abortions after 24 weeks'. He added: 'I'm in favour of regulation of abortion, but I'm also in favour of decriminalising it, so that abortion can once and for all be treated… as a matter of healthcare, not criminality.' Jim Shannon was among those who spoke against decriminalisation (Richard Townshend/UK Parliament/PA) But DUP MP Jim Shannon disagreed, stating that abortion is not 'simply medical treatment'. He added: 'This is not a simple matter. It's certainly not for me. It's not for my constituents. It's not for us who represent this point of view.' He said it would be a 'radical step' and 'seismic change' and suggested a late-term abortion on the basis of a baby's sex could be accepted if the law was to change. He said: 'Depending on the model of decriminalisation, the effect would range from de facto access to abortion for women up to birth for any reason, there would be no enforceable prohibition on abortion on the basis of the sex of the unborn baby, for example.' Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who will table an amendment in the Commons to the Bill stating that 'no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy', told MPs on Monday: 'There must be no more Nicola Packers.' She said: 'I am staunchly pro choice, and as much as I believe future reforms are needed regarding abortion provision, we must not lose sight of the current moral imperative here and its urgency, namely, vulnerable women being dragged from hospital bed to police cell under suspicion of ending their own pregnancies. 'This can be stopped by disapplying the criminal law related to abortion from women.' Fellow Labour MP Stella Creasy spoke in favour of going further by enshrining a human right to abortion, and is expected to put forward a separate amendment to 'lock in' the right of a woman to have one and protect those who help them. DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who is opposed to decriminalisation, said she was speaking with 'deep conviction' on the issue. She said: 'For me, this is a debate on life and I believe that both lives matter in every pregnancy. The most basic human right is the right to life.' She said the number of abortions taking place in the UK is 'a national tragedy' and attributed a rise in prosecutions in recent years to women being able to take abortion medication at home. She said: 'It is surely not because the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) or police have suddenly decided to handle this issue in a more draconian way. 'The pills-by-post scheme has enabled women, either dishonestly or because they have miscalculated their own gestational age, to obtain abortion pills beyond the 10-week limit.' Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the Government is neutral on decriminalisation and that it is an issue for Parliament to decide upon. She said: 'If the will of Parliament is that the law in England and Wales should change, then the Government would not stand in the way of such change but would seek to ensure that the law is workable and enforced in the way that Parliament intended.' The debate came as it was confirmed Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan had 'stepped in' after advertisements from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) in support of decriminalisation were rejected by Transport for London (TfL) last month. TfL said the proposed advertisements did not comply with its advertising policy 'because they made negative references about the police'. A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: 'The mayor has stepped in and we are now urgently looking into this issue so we can allow adverts from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service on London's transport network.' Bpas said: 'Ahead of the vote in Parliament, it is absolutely vital that the voices of the women who have been so deeply harmed by the current law are allowed to be heard. We urge the mayor to take swift action and allow our charity to share these stories as a matter of urgency.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Suicide pod activist takes his own life aged 47 after ‘trauma' of arrest
A right-to-die activist questioned for murder after the death of a woman using a suicide pod has died by assisted suicide. Florian Willet suffered a mental health crisis after he was arrested by Swiss police in September last year, said Philip Nitschke, the inventor of the Sarco suicide capsule. Mr Willet was the director of Swiss suicide organisation Last Resort, which was set up to facilitate the use of the Sarco. The 47-year-old German was investigated for aiding and abetting suicide. Prosecutors also investigated whether he had strangled the woman, but that was ruled out before he was released in December after 70 days of pre-trial detention. 'Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence. In its place was a man who seemed deeply traumatised by the experience of incarceration and the wrongful accusation of strangulation,' said Mr Nitschke, director of pro euthanasia group Exit International. The Australian former physician, who is called 'Doctor Death' by his critics, said Mr Willet sought help and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital twice before his death on May 5. Mr Nitschke told the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant that Mr Willet had died in Germany with the help of an unnamed specialised organisation. It is not known how he died. 'To describe Florian is to talk of a man who was thoughtful, caring, funny, and friendly. He was an easy person to be around,' said Mr Nitschke, who lives in the Netherlands. 'But most of all, Florian was kind. Florian was also passionate about a person's right to choose when to die.' Suicide is legal under certain conditions in Switzerland, but the pod had never been used before and there were warnings it would be illegal. Mr Willet was the only person present when a 64-year-old American woman, who has not been named, pressed a button to fill the Sarco pod with nitrogen gas. The woman had suffered from an immune disease. He informed the authorities after her death in a forest in the canton of Schaffhausen but was arrested, along with several others, including a newspaper photographer. They were later released but Mr Willet, a former media spokesman for euthanasia clinic Dignitas, continued to be detained. He had described the first death in the controversial Sarco pod as 'peaceful, fast and dignified'. The 3D-printable capsule cost about £550,000 to research and develop in the Netherlands over 12 years. Last Resort has said that future reusable pods could cost about £12,600. 'By the age of five I took my own dying by suicide into consideration,' Mr Willet said in an interview before his arrest. He revealed his father had died by suicide when he was 14 and claimed he was 'completely fine with it.' He added: 'I was extremely sad because I loved my father. But, I understood immediately my father wanted to do this because he was a rational person, which means that expecting him to remain alive just because I need a father would mean extending his suffering.'
