World Tour: When systems fail

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with the chief of our European desk, Jenny Lind Schmitt.

Switzerland

JENNY LIND SCHMITT: We start today here in Switzerland, where the nation is still reeling from last week’s New Year’s Day tragedy. A fire at the Constellation Bar in the alpine village of Crans-Montana killed 40 people and left more than 100 severely injured. Most of the victims were teenagers and young adults. Eight of those killed were under the legal drinking age of 16. The youngest to die was 14.

AUDIO: [Mourners singing hymns]

On Sunday, hundreds of mourners held a procession through the town’s streets out of respect for the victims. They filled the square outside the church where the service could be heard.

AUDIO: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the two proprietors of the bar. They could face charges of homicide, bodily harm, and causing a fire through negligence.

AUDIO: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

But local authorities admitted Tuesday that the last safety inspection of the bar was five years ago, although the law requires annual inspections.

Authorities believe the fire started from sparklers held too close to the ceiling, which was covered with highly flammable sound-insulating foam panels. The panels ignited and then spread the flames quickly, engulfing the basement bar. Panicked revelers tried to flee up a narrow staircase to the exit, but many succumbed to the smoke and flames.

The scale of the emergency quickly overwhelmed small local hospitals. Medical teams have transferred the wounded to burn units across Switzerland and abroad.

PARMELIN: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

Swiss President Guy Parmelin called for a national day of mourning on Friday. Church bells will toll across the country at 2 pm calling citizens to remember the victims of the fire.

Berlin

Still in Europe, we head up to Berlin, where climate extremism is moving from protest to sabotage. Leftwing militants claimed responsibility for an arson attack that left more than 45,000 homes without power.

Authorities reported that several high-voltage cables near a power plant were in flames. The outage also left many homes and businesses without power as temperatures fell below zero.

Martin Stralau of the Berlin police:

MARTIN STALAU: [GERMAN] We are currently proceeding on the assumption that this was arson. That is, so to speak, the working hypothesis. Investigators are now on site at the cable bridge, examining the crime scene and gathering evidence.

He says detectives are treating the attack as arson and are still investigating.

An extremist organization called The Volcano Group claimed responsibility, saying it wanted to “cut the juice to the ruling class” in response to climate concerns and A.I. electricity consumption. Though framed that way, the blackout endangered hospital patients, stranded elderly residents, shut down heat and transit during a winter freeze, and hit working-class neighborhoods hardest.

Nigeria

Next, to Nigeria, where terror attacks have continued in the northern part of the country after airstrikes by the United States.

Gunmen killed at least 30 people at a market in northcentral Niger state on Saturday evening. The terrorists also abducted several people.

Mallam Muhammad witnessed the violence.

MALLAM MUHAMMAD: [HAUSA] All five of my children were there. Nothing remains.

He says the insurgents took all five of his children.

Meanwhile, fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province torched several homes in a village in the northeast on New Year’s Eve.

They burned dozens of homes and asked the residents to either convert to Islam or pay tax … or be killed.

Days earlier in the same state, insurgents killed 11 Christians, targeted a church, and burned more than one hundred homes.

Islamist groups also attacked people in other northern states.

Some experts say the terror groups likely staged the attacks in response to U.S. airstrikes on Christmas Day. The U.S. action targeted operations of a terror group known as Lakurawa. But residents say it also brought fear and confusion to their community.

Iran

SOUND: [Protesters chanting]

We wrap up in Iran, where authorities are trying to quell the impact of widespread protests.

Demonstrations that began over rising prices of food and gasoline cut across nearly all of Iran’s 31 provinces.

A U-S based rights group said at least 35 people have been killed in the protests, and that Iranian authorities have detained more than one thousand others.

This week, in a sign of desperation, the government announced plans to hand out the equivalent of $7 U.S. dollars to every Iranian over the next four months.

AUDIO: [FARSI] This plan will be implemented from around January 10th, and people can make purchases with the amount deposited for them on a monthly basis.

She says here that the plan will begin on Saturday with monthly deposits into bank accounts.

Iran’s economy has battled against years of economic sanctions over its nuclear programs. The currency has lost more than one-third of its value against the U.S. dollar in the past year.

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Jenny Lind Schmitt in Porrentruy, Switzerland.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.