A New Year's party at a Swiss Alpine bar turned into a tragedy after about 40 people died in a fire and another roughly 115 were injured, many in their teens to mid-20s.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te vowed to defend the self-ruled island's sovereignty in the face of what he termed China's "expansionist ambitions," days after Beijing wrapped up live-fire military drills near its shores.

The protests began due to economic pressures, with Iran's currency rapidly depreciating. Demonstrators have also chanted against the country's theocracy.

Former special counsel Jack Smith spoke with lawmakers behind closed doors in December. That testimony is now public.

In recent years, mobile crisis response teams respond to 911 calls about people in mental crisis, to avoid involving police. But some crisis units have now closed for lack of consistent funding.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., says he thinks the Senate can pass a "retroactive" Affordable Care Act subsidy extension, but "we need President Trump."

Every new year, public media reporters across the country bring us some of the new state laws taking effect where they are. Here are six in 2026.

From building your strength to tackling credit card debt, NPR's Life Kit has a newsletter journey to help you tackle your New Year's resolution.

Dozens of people are presumed dead and about 100 injured, most of them seriously, following a fire at a Swiss Alps bar during a New Year's celebration, police said Thursday.

For most of 2025, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin surged as President Trump vowed to make the U.S. a crypto leader. But now, a severe sell-off has shaken the sector.

One young man told the BBC he went into the bar to look for his little brother, who he thought was inside.

The worst of the weather is expected to hit Scotland, with weather warnings in place until Sunday.

For the first time, children will be offered vaccination on the NHS against the common infection which, in rare cases, can be very serious.

Many clinical trials to test the use of psychedelic medicines for conditions such as depression have been underway since 2022 - with surprising results

In an interview about his health, the US president says: "I don't want thick blood pouring through my heart".

Not even the viewers know who host Claudia Winkleman has assigned as the fourth "secret traitor".

The price of Ram - once one of the cheapest computer parts - has more than doubled since October 2025.

The man was hit in Gillingham on Monday and carried for an unspecified distance, Kent Police said.

Videos on social media showed cars set on fire during running battles as protests entered their fifth day.

In an interview with state TV, the Venezuelan president also evaded a question about an attack in his country claimed by the US.

There is no automated substitute for experienced staff, and 'if there's one thing AI has a never-ending thirst for ... it's data'

Interview If AI can take on the role of a junior programmer, what happens when senior staff start retiring? Industry veteran and CEO of Safe Software, Don Murray, reckons the technology is becoming indispensable, but the human can never be removed from the loop.…

More tales of apocalypse avoided - including in an animal testing lab - and the hard work that made that possible

ON CALL Y2K Welcome to another edition of On Call, The Register’s Friday column that shares your tech support stories. Over the holiday season we’re telling tales of the Y2K bug, and readers who spent December 31, 1999 on call in case the world’s computers caused calamities.…

'What do we need to do better?' El Reg talks to comms boss about the problem

Interview Scientists and engineers have been taken aback by the amount of radio interference generated by satellite constellations, and many are calling on standards bodies to improve operator performance.…

Do you want bork with that?

Bork!Bork!Bork! Today's example of bork-in-the-wild shows that Microsoft is not the only game in town when it comes to screens having an IT moment in public. No, there will be no orders on this Firefox-based drive-thru kiosk at Wendy's.…

Well kinda... Your call will be transferred to the next available assistant

Microsoft had a special way of dealing with customers demanding to speak to its CEO. One that kept the customer happy without necessarily bothering His Billness.…

GPUzilla has reportedly received orders for more than two million units

With the sales ban lifted, Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance, are scrambling to secure orders for Nvidia's H200 graphics accelerators while they can. But will there be enough to satisfy demand?…

What, weekend warriors from Silicon Valley not good enough?

The US Army has been all-in on becoming an AI-powered outfit for some time, and now it's creating a career path for officers to specialize in making its automation dreams come true. …

As in past incidents, ESA says the impact was limited to external systems

The European Space Agency has suffered yet another security incident and, in keeping with past practice, says the impact is limited. Meanwhile, miscreants boast that they've made off with a trove of data, including what they claim are confidential documents, credentials, and source code.…

The world has passed it by in many ways, yet it remains relevant

Feature In the early 1990s, internetworking wonks realized the world was not many years away from running out of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses, the numbers needed to identify any device connected to the public internet. Noting booming interest in the internet, the internet community went looking for ways to avoid an IP address shortage that many feared would harm technology adoption and therefore the global economy.…

El Reg speculates about what GPUzilla really gets out of the deal

This summer, AI chip startup Groq raised $750 million at a valuation of $6.9 billion. Just three months later, Nvidia celebrated the holidays by dropping nearly three times that to license its technology and squirrel away its talent.…

"Acting is the sum of everything you've experienced. The joy. Sadness. Loss, Heartbreak."

Double-detonating "superkilonova," Roman liquid gypsum burials, biomechanics of kangaroo posture, and more.

Streaming may get a little worse before it gets better.

Streamers made a strong showing this year, as did horror. Big tentpoles, superhero sagas mostly fell flat.

This time, a Colorado plant scheduled to shut down will be kept on standby.

The past year has seen plenty of hacks and outages. Here are the ones topping the list.

In a year where lofty promises collided with inconvenient research, would-be oracles became software tools.

The study's main takeaway: "Be bold. It is the thing that slows down authoritarian creep."

Settlement forces NIH to review grants previously rejected on ideological grounds.

Musk allies spin DOGE as having a "higher purpose" beyond federal budget cuts.