BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss soccer's annual awards ceremony scheduled for next week was postponed Monday as the nation mourns the fatal fire tragedy on New Year’s Day at a bar in Crans-Montana.
The Swiss Football League said jointly with the national soccer federation “holding the event is not appropriate” in Bern on Jan. 12, and a decision will be taken later on whether to reschedule it.
Awards at “Swiss Football Night” include the best players in the men’s and women’s national teams and national leagues.
The annual “Swiss Sports Awards” live television broadcast scheduled Sunday also was postponed during the period of national mourning.
Skier Camille Rast, who is from the Valais canton (state) that includes Crans-Montana, wore a black armband when winning back-to-back World Cup races in Slovenia at the weekend.
Swiss citizens made up the majority of 40 people killed and 116 injured in the fire that tore through a busy ski resort bar during New Year celebrations.
Investigators believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fire when they came too close to the ceiling.
Swiss authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the two bar managers suspected of involuntary homicide, involuntary bodily harm and involuntarily causing a fire.
Crans-Montana will host World Cup downhill races for men and women at a Jan. 30-Feb. 1 meeting which is the last before Alpine skiers go to the Milan Cortina Olympics that open Feb. 6.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
The flags at the Federal Palace fly at half-mast in Bern, Switzerland, for 5 days, Friday Jan. 2, 2026, following the fire at the "Le Constellation" bar and lounge in Crans-Montana, Switzerland during the New Year celebration. (Anthony Anex/Keystone via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.
In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”
He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.
“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”
Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.
Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.
“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”
Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.
Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.
Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.
Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”
While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.
“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
