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Train derails in Switzerland, injuring five amid avalanches in the Alps

Train derails in Switzerland, injuring five amid avalanches in the Alps

The accident, near the town of Goppenstein, occurred as the region is under its second-highest avalanche warning, a level four out of five. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 2 mins info Published On 17 Feb 202617 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A regional train has derailed in southern Switzerland, injuring five people, police said, as the risk of avalanches in the region has reached its second-highest level. The accident on Monday near the town of Goppenstein occurred amid heavy snow and at an altitude of 1,216 metres (4,000 feet), according to the AFP news agency. “According to initial findings, an avalanche may have crossed the tracks shortly before the train passed,” police said, adding that the public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation. “Five people were injured. One of them was taken to hospital,” police added. The train accident follows a series of deadly avalanches across the Alps in recent days involving skiers. On Friday, three skiers were killed after being swept away by an avalanche in the upmarket French Alpine resort of Val d’Isere. Cedric Bonnevie, who oversees the resort’s pistes, said one of the victims was a French national while the others were foreign citizens. He said one victim appeared to have been caught in the avalanche high on the mountain slope, while the other two were part of a group of five, including a professional guide, lower on the mountain face and did not see the avalanche approaching. In Italy, rescuers said last week that a record 13 backcountry skiers, climbers and hikers had died in the mountains over the previous seven days, including 10 in avalanches triggered by an exceptionally unstable snowpack. Fresh snowfall during recent storms, combined with windswept snow sitting on weak internal layers, has created especially dangerous conditions across the Alpine arc bordering France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, Italy’s Alpine Rescue said. Advertisement “Under such conditions, the passage of a single skier, or natural overloading from the weight of snow, can be sufficient to trigger an avalanche,” Federico Catania, Alpine Rescue’s spokesperson, said. The avalanche deaths have occurred on ungroomed mountain slopes, away from the well-maintained and monitored Winter Olympic sites in Lombardy near the Swiss border, Cortina d’Ampezzo in Veneto, and the cross-country skiing venues in Val di Fiemme, within the autonomous province of Trentino. A Securite Civile helicopter flies over an off-piste area around the Alpe d’Huez, French Alps, during an avalanche emergency response rescue mission on January 29, 2026 [Jeff Pachoud/AFP] Adblock test (Why?)

Thune guarantees voter ID bill to hit the Senate despite Schumer, Dem opposition: ‘We will have a vote’

Thune guarantees voter ID bill to hit the Senate despite Schumer, Dem opposition: ‘We will have a vote’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is ready to put Senate Democrats to the test on voter ID legislation. The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has earned the backing of 50 Senate Republicans, including Thune, which is enough to break through a key procedural hurdle. Whether it can pass from the Senate to President Donald Trump’s desk is, for now, an unlikely scenario if lawmakers take the traditional path in the upper chamber. Still, Thune wants to put Democrats on the spot as midterm elections creep closer. “We will have a vote,” Thune told Fox News Digital. SCHUMER SAYS DEMS WILL FIGHT VOTER ID PUSH ‘TOOTH AND NAIL,’ BALKS AT DHS ROLE IN ELECTIONS His comments came as he crisscrossed his home state of South Dakota, where he and Republicans in their respective states are out selling their legislative achievements as primary season fast approaches. Thune viewed the opportunity of a floor vote as a way to have Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus explain to voters why they would block a legislative push to federally enshrine voter ID and proof of citizenship to register to vote. “We will make sure that everybody’s on the record, and if they want to be against ensuring that only American citizens vote in our elections, they can defend that when they have to go out and campaign against Republicans this fall,” Thune said. COLLINS BOOSTS REPUBLICAN VOTER ID EFFORT, BUT WON’T SCRAP FILIBUSTER But the political makeup of the Senate will prove a tricky path to navigate if Republicans want to pass the bill. Though the majority of the Senate GOP backs the bill, without at least a handful of Senate Democrats joining them, it is destined to fall victim to the 60-vote filibuster threshold. And Schumer has time and again made clear that he and the majority of Senate Democrats view the legislation, which passed the House last week, as a tool of voter suppression that would unduly harm poorer Americans and minority groups. So Senate Republicans are looking at their options. One, which Thune already threw cold water on, is nuking the Senate filibuster. The other is turning to the talking, or standing, filibuster. It’s the physical precursor to the current filibuster that requires hours upon hours of debate over a bill. FETTERMAN SLAMS DEMOCRATS’ ‘JIM CROW 2.0’ VOTER ID RHETORIC AS PARTY UNITY FRACTURES Some fear that taking that path could paralyze the Senate floor. Thune acknowledged that concern, having previously made it himself, but noted another wrinkle. “A lot of people focus on unlimited debate, and yes, it is something that could drag on for weeks or literally, for that matter, months,” Thune said. “But it’s also unlimited amendments, meaning that every amendment — there’s no rules — so every amendment will be 51 votes.” He argued that there are several politically challenging amendments that could hit the floor that would put members in tough reelections in a hard spot and possibly cause them to pass, which “could also be very detrimental to the bill in the end.” Thune didn’t shut down the idea of turning to the talking filibuster, especially if it ended in lawmakers being able to actually pass the SAVE America Act. But in the Senate, outcomes are rarely guaranteed on politically divisive legislation. “I think that, you know, this obviously is a mechanism of trying to pursue an outcome, but I don’t know that, in the end, it’ll get you the outcome you want,” Thune said. “And there could be a lot of ancillary damage along the way.”

Swalwell’s ‘I should be working’ gym, pool videos resurface as Dem rival hammers his missed House votes

Swalwell’s ‘I should be working’ gym, pool videos resurface as Dem rival hammers his missed House votes

One of Rep. Eric Swalwell’s, D-Calif., top Democratic opponents in the race for California governor unleashed a “savage” campaign ad using Swalwell’s own words against him. Billionaire gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer, who was also unsuccessful in running for president in 2020, used multiple videos Swalwell posted on social media during the 2025 government shutdown by the pool and at the gym as an attack on his missed votes in Washington, D.C. The Swalwell videos, which were initially intended as an attack on Republicans and blaming them for why he wasn’t working during the 40+ day shutdown, repeatedly say, “I should be working.” “Eric Swalwell’s job is to vote in Congress,” the ad starts out in between videos of Swalwell in the pool and at the gym telling his followers that he “should be working” right now. “In 2025, Eric Swalwell missed 95 votes. That’s more than Rep. Raul Grijalva missed. Rep. Grijalva died in March 2025.” UNEARTHED PHOTO OF SWALWELL MEETING WITH TOP CCP OFFICIAL RAISES ALARM BELLS: ‘VERY DISTURBING’ According to GovTrack.US, Swalwell missed 102 out of 139 roll call votes, or 73%, between Sept. 19, 2025 and Feb. 9, 2026. In late November, he announced his run to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom as California’s next governor. In Steyer’s ad, the billionaire’s campaign claims Swalwell has missed 68% of votes since declaring his candidacy.   “He hasn’t been showing up to work, and now he’s asking for a promotion,” the advertisement concluded, as it continued showing clips of Swalwell bench pressing and talking about how he should be in a suit on Capitol Hill and not pumping iron.  ICE DIRECTOR FLIPS SCRIPT ON SWALWELL AFTER DEM LAWMAKER DEMANDED HIS RESIGNATION “Savage,” Democratic commentator Kaivan Shroff posted on X. “Steyer going negative on Swalwell this early is the latest piece of evidence Dem primaries this cycle are going to be nastier than they’ve been in a while,” senior Huffington Post editor Kevin Robillard posted on X. “Brutal ad,” Washington Free Beacon reporter Jon Levine posted on X. Swalwell began posting these videos last summer, complaining that Republicans had sent him home for political reasons.  “I should be working right now. I should be in Congress. I should be voting to lower your costs. But, instead, I’m in a pool because Republicans sent everyone home because they don’t want to release the Epstein files,” Swalwell said in a late July video he posted to his social media accounts from a glistening pool on the water. “We could be working to lower your costs, make sure healthcare is affordable, and make sure we are restoring the rights of everyone in our community. I should be working right now.” “Swalwell has, however, kept constituents informed of his workouts even if he is not actually working,” Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley posted on X last summer. “It turns out that the shutdown was not the problem since he is being outvoted by deceased colleagues.” According to Swalwell and other Democrats, at the time, Republicans sent everyone in Congress home early to avoid voting on an Epstein transparency app, later passed. However, Republicans said that Democrats were trying to ram through measures already being pursued by the executive branch at the time.  The pool video was part of a series of other “I should be working right now” videos from Swalwell at the time, including one he took while throwing out the first pitch for his hometown’s minor league baseball team and another one of him bench pressing 135 pounds at the gym. Fox News Digital reached out to Swalwell and his representatives for comment on the criticism about him missing votes, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Tom Emmer blasts Democrats’ double standard on SAVE Act: ‘They require photo IDs’ at their own DNC

Tom Emmer blasts Democrats’ double standard on SAVE Act: ‘They require photo IDs’ at their own DNC

EXCLUSIVE: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., is accusing Democrats of being hypocritical in their opposition to Republicans’ latest election integrity bill. The No. 3 House Republican ripped the rival party after nearly all of them voted against the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act last week, specifically over its provision mandating federally accepted photo identification at the polls. It’s also sometimes referred to as the “SAVE Act.” “These guys are doing the same old broken record about voter suppression,” Emmer told Fox News Digital. “Why aren’t they screaming about photo IDs at the airport? Why aren’t they screaming about photo IDs when you check out a book at the library?” NOEM BACKS SAVE AMERICA ACT, SLAMS ‘RADICAL LEFT’ OPPOSITION TO VOTER IDS AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP Emmer pointed out that a photo ID was required for attendees to watch former Vice President Kamala Harris accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House in Chicago last year. “By the way, if they think it’s voter suppression, why do they require photo IDs at the Democrat National Convention to get in?” Emmer said. “I mean, I think Americans are so much smarter than these people can understand, can let themselves understand,” he said. The SAVE America Act passed the House on Wednesday with support from all Republicans — an increasingly rare sight in the chamber — and just one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. A previous iteration of the bill, just called the SAVE Act, passed the House in April of last year with support from four House Democrats. Whereas the SAVE Act would have created a new federal proof-of-citizenship mandate in the voter registration process and imposed requirements for states to keep their rolls clear of ineligible voters, the updated bill would also require photo ID to vote in any federal election. That photo ID would also have to denote proof-of-citizenship, according to the legislative text. DEMOCRAT CLAIMS SAVE ACT WOULD BLOCK MARRIED WOMEN FROM VOTING; REPUBLICANS SAY THAT’S WRONG Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have both panned the bill, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling it “voter suppression” and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., dismissing it as “a modern-day Jim Crow.” Jeffries also specifically took issue with a provision that would enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to initiate removal proceedings if an illegal immigrant was found on a state’s voter rolls, arguing DHS would weaponize the information. But voter ID, at least, has proven to be a popular standard in U.S. elections across multiple public polls. A Pew Research Center poll released in August 2025 showed a whopping 83% of people supported government-issued photo ID requirements for showing up to vote, compared to just 16% of people who disapproved of it. A Gallup poll from October 2024 showed 84% of people supported photo ID for voting in federal elections.

GOP reaches key 50-vote threshold for Trump-backed voter ID bill as Senate fight looms

GOP reaches key 50-vote threshold for Trump-backed voter ID bill as Senate fight looms

Senate Republicans now have enough support within their conference to pass Trump-backed voter ID legislation, but a major hurdle remains. The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has secured the backing of 50 Senate Republicans, following a pressure campaign by the White House and a cohort of Senate conservatives over the past several weeks. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has led the charge in the upper chamber, ramping up his efforts last week as the bill moved through the House. SCHUMER SAYS DEMS WILL FIGHT VOTER ID PUSH ‘TOOTH AND NAIL,’ BALKS AT DHS ROLE IN ELECTIONS Lee told Fox News Digital that he was “ecstatic” about the progress made in shoring up support for the legislation and hoped the Senate would move as quickly as possible to consider it.  “I would love to see us turn to it next week, perhaps the day after the State of the Union address,” Lee said. “I think that would be good timing. But I think this needs to get done sooner rather than later.” That multifaceted campaign — both on social media and behind closed doors in the Senate — proved successful, drawing support from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and several others. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, became the 50th senator to back the bill. That gives Republicans the internal support they need to advance the legislation procedurally, but only if they turn to the standing, or talking, filibuster. Before leaving Washington, D.C., for a weeklong break last week, Lee and other supporters, including Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., pitched the voter ID proposal and potential pathways to pass it to colleagues. “We had some good senators stand up and say, ‘No, we got to fight for this,’” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “I’m with them. We need to fight for this.” COLLINS BOOSTS REPUBLICAN VOTER ID EFFORT, BUT WON’T SCRAP FILIBUSTER Still, the effort faces heavy resistance from Senate Democrats, who are nearly unified in their opposition. The only potential outlier is Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has pushed back against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., characterization of the bill as “Jim Crow 2.0” but has not said whether he would ultimately support the SAVE America Act. Despite that possibility, Schumer and most of his caucus plan to block the legislation. “We will not let it pass in the Senate,” Schumer told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We are fighting it tooth and nail.” Not every Senate Republican is onboard, either. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has announced she will vote against the measure, while Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have not signed on as co-sponsors. One option to bypass Democratic opposition would be nuking the filibuster and its 60-vote threshold — a move some congressional Republicans argue has effectively become a “zombie filibuster,” since legislation can be blocked simply by withholding votes rather than holding the floor. HARDLINE CONSERVATIVES DOUBLE DOWN TO SAVE THE SAVE ACT Despite previous pressure from President Donald Trump to eliminate the filibuster, the move does not have the votes among Republicans to succeed — a point Thune underscored last week. “There aren’t anywhere close to the votes — not even close — to nuking the filibuster,” Thune said. That leaves a return to the standing, or talking, filibuster — the precursor to today’s procedural hurdle. Under that approach, Senate Democrats would be required to hold the floor and publicly debate their opposition, as senators did for decades before the modern filibuster became standard practice. The idea appears to be gaining traction among some Republicans, though critics warn it could effectively paralyze the upper chamber for days, weeks or even months, depending on Democrats’ resolve. Lee said that many senators he’s spoken with are open to the idea, and that those who were reluctant didn’t believe it wouldn’t work.  “I understand why people might have questions about a procedure that we’re not familiar with,” Lee said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t have to do it, because we do.” Meanwhile, Trump has suggested he could take matters into his own hands if Congress cannot pass the SAVE America Act. In a Truth Social post last week, Trump called the legislation a “CAN’T MISS FOR RE-ELECTION IN THE MIDTERMS, AND BEYOND.” “This is an issue that must be fought, and must be fought, NOW! If we can’t get it through Congress, there are legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted,” Trump wrote. “I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order.”