By Francesca Street, CNN

(CNN) — For Madalin “Cris” Cristea, the danger unfolded in slow motion.

Cris and two fellow hikers were descending Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in the Alps.

The wind was howling, the snow was driving hard, but they were making steady progress toward safety.

Then, through the blur of white, Cris saw one of the other hikers — a British man named James — slip.

“He disappeared in front of me,” Cris tells CNN Travel today. “The image I have of him is he’s on his stomach, literally sliding. Your whole spine lights up with fear.”

A realization hit instantly: James was roped to his adult son, Matt. Both were in peril. If the father went over the edge, the son would almost certainly be dragged down with him.

For a moment, Cris froze. Visibility was bad. The wind drowned out their voices. And the three men were high on Mont Blanc, without a guide and with no one else in sight.

“I was in a state of shock,” Cris says. “I just had this feeling that he was going to die.”

Journey to the Alps

Cris’ journey to this moment began eight months earlier — because of a watch.

On New Year’s Eve 2015, the Romanian-born Londoner was on vacation in Barcelona, Spain with his girlfriend, Viv. The couple were strolling around the streets hand-in-hand, wandering in and out of stores.

“We walked past this Montblanc shop, you know, the one that sells watches and pens, stuff like that,” Cris says.

He peered in the window and saw the watches with their blue faces and shining silver straps. They were beautiful, but way out of his budget.

Half joking, he turned to Viv and said: “Do you reckon if I went and climbed Mont Blanc, they’d give me a discount?”

She laughed and wrapped an arm around him. “Probably not,” she said.

The couple didn’t go inside the store. But back home in London, the conversation kept playing inside Cris’ head. He loved Viv and their life together, but he was feeling lost in the city.

“I come from a very small place, my town is 8,000 to 9,000 people. And moving into London was a bit of a change,” Cris says.

He was in his twenties at the time, working as a lifeguard at a central London gym, but felt unfulfilled and in a rut.

“Maybe I was depressed,” he reflects today. “It was a very low point in my life.”

It didn’t help that it was January in Britain. The weather was miserable. Everything felt gray, uncertain, unhappy.

One cold, wet day on the way to work, Chris thought back to Barcelona. To the Montblanc store. To the conversation with Viv.

An idea suddenly formed: “I’m going to climb Mont Blanc. And I’m going to climb Mont Blanc this year.”

Mission to the mountain

The idea wasn’t entirely out of the blue. That Christmas, Cris’ brother had given him Bear Grylls’ autobiography, “Mud, Sweat and Tears,” and he’d spent the holidays poring over the explorer’s stories of climbing Mount Everest.

But while he had dreamed of climbing big peaks, he had little experience.

“I didn’t have any skills in mountaineering,” he says. “I had only done one mountain before, and that was the highest mountain in Greece.”

Climbing Mount Olympus is impressive, but Cris still felt ill prepared for Mont Blanc.

“The reason I felt inexperienced for Mont Blanc was that I was lacking certain experience elements that I didn’t get on Mount Olympus, which are experience with using crampons, an ice axe and experience with high altitude,” he says.

“I climbed Mount Olympus in summer, so there’s no snow on the mountain, and since the summit is at 2,918m, you’re not there enough to really feel the altitude. If I were to put it in running terms, I’d say that climbing Mount Olympus is like running a 10k; in comparison, Mont B

By Leah Dolan and Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

Rome, Italy (CNN) — Peers, supporters, successors and admirers of the late Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani are paying their respects today in Rome at the late couturier’s funeral.

Since Wednesday, Valentino (who often went by his first name) has been lying in state at PM23, the new arts and culture exhibition space opened by Fondazione Valentino Garavani in 2025. There, amongst white-washed walls and under an opulent chandelier of white flowers, Valentino’s coffin lay. Today, it has been transported to the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri — a church designed by Michelangelo in the 16th century — for the ceremony in central Rome.

While open to the public, the funeral guest list also includes industry luminaries, as well as high profile women — such as Anne Hathaway and Olivia Palermo — who regularly wore Valentino’s designs on the red carpet. Alessandro Michelle, the current creative director at Valentino, arrived in dark blacked-out shades. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who led Valentino’s namesake brand from 2008 until 2024, made his way into the church alongside Francois-Henri Pinault — the current chairman of the board of directors at Kering, the parent company of Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and more.

Also spotted was Fendi designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, the former creative director at Dior who also served a stint at Valentino. American designer Tom Ford, longtime British fashion journalist Suzy Menkes and Anna Wintour were also in attendance — the latter arriving in a fur stole and her signature layers of candy-colored jewel necklaces. Even the Carabinieri police capes worn by the guards were designed by Armani.

Early in the morning, a steady stream of white flower wreaths were carried inside the basilica. Members of the public queued outside the church, some were dressed in red or carrying red bags, purses, scarves — a homage to the designer’s signature scarlet shade. One fan outside the church waved a glittering black poster to the camera: “Goodbye Valentino,” it read. “The last emperor of fashion.”

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By Elise Hammond, CNN

(CNN) — Federal officers in tactical gear line up at the driveway of a large block-shaped building wedged between the city limits of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Across from them, a crowd of protesters yell at the officers and sometimes try to block cars driving in and out.

The Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building has served as the backdrop for the ongoing tense dance in the Twin Cities since federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good earlier this month. Its stark brick structure is home base for the immigration proceedings at the heart of the crackdown in the state, prompting fear and anger.

The man behind the name — Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple — would be standing outside with protesters if he were still alive, one historian and scholar said.

Whipple, Minnesota’s first Protestant Episcopal bishop, was known for advocating for the welfare of Native Americans and was a well-connected leader who stood up to government officials on their behalf throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, according to historians. While his legacy reflects his advocacy for those in the minority, it falls short of altruism and the building bearing his name perches on sacred land also known for its traumatic and violent history toward Indigenous peoples.

Now, the building bearing his name is where many people are temporarily detained after being swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Others are called to appear there for asylum and deportation hearings and other proceedings that have become increasingly confusing for migrants in the second Trump administration.

A lasting social justice legacy

Though Whipple, who died in 1901, began his term as bishop more than 165 years ago, some say he has influenced the protests and social justice efforts present in the city today as activists respond to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Whipple “arrived in a Minnesota that was deeply racially divided at a national moment that was full of lots of conflict and tension,” said Craig Loya, current bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. “He spent his whole ministry, oftentimes at great personal cost, standing with Jesus on the side of those who were marginalized and excluded.”

That imperative of standing with vulnerable people is something Loya said he thinks his congregation has carried on through the decades. Whipple was a “missionary bishop,” according to Michael McNally, the director of American Studies and professor of religion at Carleton College. Whipple and settlers were the newcomers in Minnesota. In the 18th century, the Dakota were living in the southern part of the state, and the Ojibwe were in the north, McNally said.

The bishop wanted to extend the gospel to them and along the way developed a reputation as a well-connected person who would advocate for the tribes at a time when the White population wanted to remove them, McNally said.

“Part of his story and his myth is that he was given a name that translates to a ‘straight tongue’ because Ojibwe and Dakota leaders saw him as sort of worth their trust, but he also had a big network of people, and he was a very sort of powerful voice in DC and other places,” McNally said.

A complicated legacy

While Whipple is best remembered for advocating for Native Americans, his attitude towards them was “paternalistic,” McNally said. Though he thought the Indigenous peoples could be neighbors with the White settlers, Whipple believed they had to assimilate to White culture to do so, he added.

At the time, Whipple made it his aim to understand and advocate for Indigenous peoples’ best interests — or rather “what we thought their best interests were,” he said.

The resu

Por Gabe Cohen, CNN

La Agencia Federal para el Manejo de Emergencias (FEMA, por sus siglas en inglés) ha suspendido abruptamente los despidos en curso de cientos de trabajadores de desastres mientras la agencia se prepara para una enorme tormenta invernal que se espera que azote una gran franja del país en los próximos días.

En un correo electrónico del jueves por la tarde, obtenido por CNN, se le dijo al personal que FEMA “dejaría de despedir” a los trabajadores de desastre cuyos contratos de empleo expiran en los próximos días, una práctica que había estado en curso desde principios de enero .

Dos fuentes familiarizadas con la decisión dijeron que la tormenta inminente fue un factor significativo en la pausa repentina, aunque los funcionarios de Seguridad Nacional han estado lidiando en silencio con el destino de estos trabajadores durante semanas.

No está claro cuánto tiempo durará la pausa en los despidos.

En lo que va del mes, aproximadamente 300 trabajadores de desastres han sido despedidos, y solo un puñado ha recibido extensiones de contrato, según otras fuentes.

En respuesta a una solicitud de comentarios el jueves por la noche, el DHS enfatizó que la dotación de personal de desastres de la agencia incluye “puestos con mandato limitado que están diseñados para FLUCTUAR en función de la actividad del desastre, la NECESIDAD operativa y los fondos disponibles”.

La pausa se produjo apenas horas después de que la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, cuyo departamento supervisa FEMA, visitara la sede de la agencia para una reunión informativa sobre la tormenta invernal que se aproxima, que los meteorólogos advierten que podría devastar comunidades y requerir una respuesta federal significativa.

Noem, una crítica vehemente de FEMA durante el segundo mandato del presidente Donald Trump, ha pedido repetidamente reformas radicales, o incluso la eliminación de la agencia. La administración Trump ya está inmersa en una reestructuración de FEMA, con miles de empleados, incluidos muchos directivos experimentados, perdidos por despidos y adquisiciones en los últimos 12 meses.

Incluso mientras Noem visitaba la sede de FEMA y se reunía con funcionarios el jueves, los gerentes estaban escoltando al personal fuera del edificio cuyos contratos estaban por terminar, según una fuente que presenció la escena.

Pero entonces algo cambió y horas más tarde los recortes se suspendieron.

Noem realizó una llamada el jueves por la mañana con los gobernadores de los estados que se espera se vean afectados para abordar cualquier pregunta o inquietud sobre los preparativos y los recursos federales.

En documentos internos obtenidos por CNN el jueves, los líderes de la agencia describieron sus preparativos para la tormenta invernal, escribiendo que “FEMA está presente y preparada para apoyar proactivamente a los estados en la trayectoria de esta tormenta invernal para garantizar una respuesta rápida y bien coordinada. Los desastres se desarrollan mejor cuando se ejecutan localmente, se gestionan a nivel estatal y se apoya a nivel federal, una función que nos tomamos muy en serio”.

FEMA ha activado su Centro Nacional de Coordinación de Respuesta, ha desplegado equipos de respuesta y recursos en Texas, Virginia, Georgia y Pensilvania, y ha preparado 30 generadores, 250.000 comidas y 400.000 litros de agua en Luisiana, según los documentos.

Más de 200 especialistas trabajarán en centros de llamadas para apoyar a los sobrevivientes que necesiten asistencia urgente, y más de dos docenas de equipos de búsqueda y rescate urbano están en espera, mostraron

Por Stephy Chung, CNN

En 2015, China le devolvió a Ai Weiwei algo de gran valor: su pasaporte chino.

Esta medida le permitió al artista disidente viajar por primera vez desde que las autoridades revocaron su documento en 2011, el mismo año en que pasó 81 días en detención secreta del Gobierno por presunta evasión fiscal. Poco después se mudó a Berlín.

Durante los últimos 10 años, Ai ha vivido en Alemania, el Reino Unido y ahora Portugal, sin haber pisado jamás su país natal, donde personas con pasados ​​mucho menos controvertidos han sufrido detenciones arbitrarias.

Pero a mediados de diciembre, decidió arriesgarse y regresó para una visita de tres semanas.

“Fue como si una llamada telefónica que llevaba 10 años desconectada volviera a conectarse de repente”, declaró sobre su llegada a Beijing. “El tono, el ritmo y la velocidad volvieron a ser como antes”.

Hay fragmentos de la visita en la cuenta de Instagram de Ai, donde el artista publica activamente, pero no suele escribir pies de foto, lo que contribuye a que el viaje sea discreto.

Entre las escenas se incluyen un video de chimeneas bajo la inconfundible luz tenue del invierno de Beijing, el artista fumando mientras una mesa giratoria gira tranquilamente con platos y una botella de Nongfu Spring, una marca local de agua mineral; y un robot saliendo de un ascensor.

Imágenes fijas muestran al artista levantando pesas en un gimnasio interior y poniéndose al día con viejos amigos. Lo ordinario se vuelve algo extraordinario en comparación con la intensa vigilancia que tuvieron las autoridades la última vez que estuvo en la capital de China.

La nostalgia impregna las imágenes. “Lo que más extrañaba era hablar chino”, manifestó. “Para los inmigrantes, la mayor pérdida no es la riqueza, la soledad ni un estilo de vida desconocido, sino la pérdida del intercambio lingüístico”.

Cuando Ai se fue en 2015, se convirtió en una espina para el Gobierno.

El artista y activista, sin pelos en la lengua, criticó implacablemente a China por todo tipo de cuestiones, desde presuntos abusos de derechos humanos hasta censura y corrupción.

Obras como “Remembering” (2009), una instalación que conmemora a los miles de niños que murieron en el derrumbe de escuelas mal construidas durante el terremoto de Sichuan de 2008, atrajeron la atención internacional.

En “SACRED”, describió lo que fue estar encarcelado durante casi tres meses, en seis dioramas de tamaño natural que se presentaron por primera vez en la Bienal de Venecia de 2013.

Estos artículos aparecieron en un momento en que, en los años posteriores a los Juegos Olímpicos de Beijing 2008, las autoridades proyectaban cuidadosamente una nueva era de desarrollo para China y reprimieron enérgicamente cualquier disidencia.

En la década que lleva sin Ai ha estado fuera, las medidas de censura y vigilancia de China se han vuelto más sofisticadas, y los críticos ahora temen que la inteligencia artificial esté potenciando estos sistemas de control.

Ai había dicho anteriormente que no se hacía ilusiones sobre sus