A very happy New Year to you all, and welcome to the Crust Update. We hope to make this our new format of news updates in this new year.
For the team here, we see this as a year where we will grow, and in order to do so, we want to spend less time running single updates through social media channels, and running several daily updates through our Substack, containing the major news we think you need to know about, while giving bigger stories articles of their own.
We thank you all for an incredible 2025, and let’s move on with our major updates coming into 2026.
Zohran Mamdani sworn in as New York mayor
Just after midnight on New Year’s Day, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the 112th mayor of New York City in a private ceremony held in the old City Hall subway station. Speaking immediately after taking the oath, Mamdani said, “This is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime,” summing up both the personal significance of the moment and the historic nature of his election as the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor.
Mamdani will now move straight into the work of governing, having campaigned on expanding public transit, strengthening tenant protections, and reshaping how New York City Hall approaches affordability.
New Yorkers are energetic about their new mayor, and he enters office upon a wave of public support that has not let up in the face of a desperate and weird media campaign against him.
January 6 “Does not happen without Donald Trump”
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee released the full transcript and video of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s closed-door testimony, which revealed exactly why Republicans did not want the testimony released. Smith told lawmakers that the January 6 attack on the Capitol “does not happen without Donald Trump,” describing Trump as the central figure driving the effort to overturn the 2020 election. The testimony, held up by Republicans, and seemingly released at a time to be drowned out by New Years Eve’s fast news cycle, puts any remaining doubt about Trump’s insurrection to bed.
Smith also stated that his team had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” to bring the election-subversion case to trial before it was dropped under DOJ policy after Trump returned to office, which may go on to become a major sticking point when looking a this moment in hindsight. Crucially, the testimony confirms that Trump privately acknowledged he lost the election, even while publicly insisting it was stolen. Smith told lawmakers Trump complained in private, “Can you believe I lost to this f’ing guy?”, a detail that clearly contradicts the bizarre and ongoing claims that Trump genuinely believed the election was rigged.
There has still been no criminal verdict on January 6, but what was released yesterday shows that there very much should be. A prosecutor, under oath, stated plainly that the attack would not have occurred without Trump’s actions, that the evidence met the standard for conviction, and that the only reason a jury never heard the case was presidential immunity.
Dozens dead in fire in the Swiss Alps
A devastating fire tore through the Le Constellation bar in the Swiss Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana in the early hours of New Year’s Day. The day turned to disaster, when a packed New Year’s celebration became one of the worst civilian tragedies in recent Swiss memory.
Swiss authorities said at least 40 people are presumed dead and around 100 more seriously injured after flames swept through the crowded venue shortly after 1:30 a.m. local time, overwhelming narrow exits and regional hospitals. Police and prosecutors have ruled out foul play and are investigating the cause as an accident. Emergency workers continue to help survivors and identify victims from multiple nationalities as the community reels from the shock.
Historic Amsterdam unsalvageable after fire
Another fire in Europe, this time in Amsterdam, where a major blaze ripped through the historic Vondelkerk church in the early hours of New Year’s Day, turning one of the Dutch capital’s architectural landmarks into a ruin amid celebrations.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight, engulfing the 154-year-old structure and causing its tower and roof to collapse while authorities battled intense flames. Residents nearby were evacuated as sparks and debris rained down, and electricity was cut to around 90 homes to allow emergency services to work safely. No injuries have been reported so far, however, the church is now considered unsalvageable while investigators continue to examine what sparked the inferno.
Hundreds of Thousands march for Gaza in Turkey
On New Year’s Day in Istanbul, more than half a million people took to the streets in one of the largest demonstrations in the city’s recent history to show solidarity with Palestinians and demand an end to the violence in Gaza.
The march, organized by more than 400 civil society groups under slogans like “We won’t remain silent, we won’t forget Palestine,” filled the Galata Bridge and surrounding areas despite freezing temperatures, with participants waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and calling for a cessation of military action. Organizers and speakers described the turnout as a moral stand against what they called ongoing genocide and voiced hopes for peace and relief in the year ahead.
Bulgaria joins Eurozone
In our last update this morning, Bulgaria officially entered the eurozone as the new year began, marking a major economic and political milestone after years of preparation and delay.
The move brings Bulgaria fully into the EU’s single-currency bloc, tying its monetary policy more closely to the European Central Bank. Critics inside Bulgaria continue to warn about price increases and the loss of economic control as the lev is phased out, however, the adoption of the Euro is expected to be a major boost to the economy of the EU country with the lowest GDP.
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