Global News Podcast
Arrests made after many fatalities in North Macedonia nightclub fire
Mon, 17 Mar 2025
Police have detained a number of people after a fire at an nightclub in North Macedonia killed scores of people. Also: The US deports hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members despite court order.
Chapter 1: What are the main stories covered in this episode?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Monday the 17th of March, these are our main stories. Prosecutors in North Macedonia are investigating whether a fire in a nightclub that killed nearly 60 people could be linked to bribery and corruption. The United States says its airstrikes on Saturday killed several Houthi leaders in Yemen.
The Trump administration deports more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador despite an order by a U.S. judge banning such a move. Also in this podcast, how a glamorous new soap opera seeks to overturn stereotypes about Black Americans.
That's not the experience of most of Black America, so that's cool that other people get to experience Black excellence, you know, and our drama. Music Thank you.
North Macedonia's interior minister says prosecutors are investigating whether corruption and bribery are linked to a fire in a nightclub that killed 59 people. Panche Toskovski said the venue in the eastern town of Kochani did not have a legal license to operate.
Chapter 2: What happened during the North Macedonia nightclub fire?
A special team has been set up to look into the cause of the fire in the early hours of Sunday morning, which broke out after a popular band used fireworks during a performance. The flames spread quickly as the ceiling was made of highly flammable material. Our Balkans correspondent, Guy Delaney, sent this report from Cotcheny.
This was the moment when a great night out turned into a disaster. Pyrotechnics ignited on stage as part of the performance by the band DNK in Cochini, a small town about 60 miles to the east of North Macedonia's capital, Skopje.
At first they watched as flames crept across the ceiling while staff tried to put out the fire with extinguishers, but the mood swiftly switched to panic as the blaze intensified. Survivors described the chaos as they fought to escape through the only exit.
The fire broke out. Everyone started screaming and shouting, get out, get out. But unfortunately, there was only one exit. I don't know how, but I ended up on the ground. I couldn't get up. People started stomping on me. I don't know how, but somehow I managed to get out. I'm fine now, but there are many dead. My sister died. I was saved and she wasn't.
Here in Koceni, police have sealed off access to the Pulse nightclub. It's behind a green and yellow painted hotel on a roundabout on the outskirts of town, and it's now considered a crime scene. Liupso Kosevski is the public prosecutor.
I can guarantee that the investigation will be thorough and fast. We will engage experts from all fields and determine the reasons for the accident and those responsible for it. At the moment, people are being detained and questioned, and we cannot disclose any details.
The government has held an emergency meeting and declared a week of national mourning. It's also calling for an urgent safety inspection of all clubs and music venues.
Kai Delaney reporting. The Houthis in Yemen say more than 50 people were killed in US airstrikes on Saturday. Washington says some key Houthi figures were among the dead, but the group hasn't confirmed this. The US military says it shot down drones launched by the Iranian-backed group in response to the strikes.
Donald Trump has said he'll hold Iran responsible for the attacks the Houthis are carrying out on commercial shipping. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi's political bureau, told the BBC that the US president's actions are likely to further increase tensions in the region.
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Chapter 3: Why is the US deporting Venezuelan gang members despite a court order?
Inside of the aisle, there are the opposition parties and other critics who are saying that there's a very serious investigation against aides to Prime Minister Netanyahu about their connections to Qatar during a time of war when Qatar has close ties to Hamas. Those aides are suspected of being involved in efforts to improve Qatar's image in Israel.
And that therefore the shin bed is involved in this investigation into those ties within the prime minister's office. And therefore that that's the reason why Netanyahu was moving against one end bar at this time. You know, that's that's that's the two reasons that we're being presented with at the moment.
The attorney general has said that she was not consulted on this decision. Why is that significant?
Well, you know, according to the law, it is actually the government, as in the cabinet, which is entitled to appoint and dismiss the head of the Shin Bet. The attorney general, you know, she is the ultimate arbiter for the government of what is legal, what is a legal government action.
And she's saying that Israeli law and precedent in the courts means that the government can't just fire a senior official like the head of the Shin Bet at will. It has to provide a substantive precedent. reason to do so. And she's saying first, the government needs to provide that reason to her before she can say whether or not she believes that's a legal and lawful decision.
The legal affairs correspondent for the Times of Israel, Jeremy Sharon. The U.S. has deported more than 250 mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador by invoking a rarely used, centuries-old wartime law. The deportations took place despite a federal judge's order to halt the flights. The U.S.
Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said he wanted to express his gratitude to El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, for playing a pivotal role in ridding the U.S. of violent criminals and that El Salvador would hold the prisoners in, quote, very good jails at a fair price.
I asked our America's editor, Leonardo Rocha, why the Trump administration had gone ahead with the deportations despite the judge's ruling.
President Trump is determined to go ahead with his policies. All the measures that he has signed into law or some special decrees that he signed have been challenged in court and he's going ahead with them. I think he's very defiant and very determined here.
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Chapter 4: What caused the prolonged mission for astronauts on the ISS?
But the spacecraft they arrived on, made by aerospace company Boeing, suffered technical problems. so NASA had to find another way to get the astronauts home. They opted for the next scheduled SpaceX flight, extending Butch and Sonny's mission until now. The pair will now spend the next few days handing over to the new crew before they can finally begin their journey back.
Rebecca Morrell. Well, for more on what it's like to spend a long time on the International Space Station, Paul Henley spoke to Colonel Katie Coleman, a retired NASA astronaut. She's a veteran of two space shuttle missions, and she flew back from the station in 2011 after spending 159 days there. Paul asked her about her time on board the ISS.
I would have spent another £159 if I could have.
You were excited enough by this experience. What about witnessing this, well, you could call it a rescue, at least a relief for those who want to go back home?
Actually, I cannot call it a rescue in that, you know, we try to stick to the facts. And they've had this crew, Sonny and Butch. There's a ship that came up in September with two empty seats just for them. That SpaceX 9 spaceship has been attached to the space station this whole time. So they could have left at any time and especially in an emergency. So it's not a rescue.
It's a regularly scheduled part of the operations. But that's actually the magical part. which is that dedication to mission. The fact that, you know, knowing what you're doing up there is so important. It's so fulfilling. It even does overcome the fact that your family is taking up a lot of your slack for you and you miss each other greatly.
We hear that training takes over in these circumstances, but the routine of life on board must get, frankly, at times boring, doesn't it?
I can barely speak when you ask me that in that, you know, it might depend on the person. I have not yet met an astronaut who was bored up there because every day is different. I mean, even if you, we actually barely have time to look out the window, but when you do look out the window, you'd think in a way, I mean, I think I went around the earth more than 4,000 times yesterday.
And it's different every time you're seeing someplace that's interesting to you or maybe it's home to you, but you're seeing it in a different light, in a different season. And it just never, you know, that vantage point and you're always kind of looking with other people's eyes as well.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges of long-term space missions?
Well, those things that you talked about, definitely we are seeing some of that. I would say in terms of muscle wasting, that does happen. We lose bone about 10 times faster than someone who has osteoporosis. But here's kind of the good and the bad news is that due to the experiments we're doing up there, because it happens so fast, we're easily studied. And it turns out exercise is here to stay.
and that it really works to maintain bone health. So that's working out, although each of us has a physical every year the rest of our lives if we are willing to go to NASA to have it.
That was Colonel Katie Coleman, a retired NASA astronaut.
Still to come... Essentially, China's got 1.4 billion people, but it's ageing rapidly, and the government believes there simply aren't enough young people to pay for the ever-growing number of pensioners.
Now authorities in one Chinese city are offering couples a huge financial reward to have more babies. But will it work?
On our podcast, Good Bad Billionaire, we explain how the world's billionaires made all their money.
Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors. We cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer.
Yeah, we're talking about Marcus Persson, the Swedish coding king who programmed the world's most successful game, Minecraft, all by himself.
He made a billion, but is he good, bad or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire. Listen on the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Chapter 6: How is China addressing its aging population problem?
The growing political influence of Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has sparked a wave of protests outside Tesla facilities in the United States. I would like to run Musk out of business. Critics call him President Musk and say the billionaire has too much power in the White House.
As President Trump's chief cost-cutting advisor, Musk has been instrumental in firing thousands of government workers and canceling humanitarian aid contracts around the world. Musk is also the CEO of Tesla, and protesters are urging people to ditch their stock in the company and to stop driving their cars.
I had a 2021 Tesla, and about two years ago, I put on a bumper sticker that said, bought this car before we knew.
Karen Rabwin protested two days after selling her Tesla.
People on the freeway would drive by and honk and give me a thumbs up. I loved it until a couple of weeks ago. And I said, no, I can't do this anymore. How could I drive that car? I believe I have principles. So it felt like a stigma. It was a horrible stigma, but it was also showing the world that I was supporting something that I wasn't, that I wasn't behind.
Was it easy to sell and did you get a good deal? We actually did it at the Cadillac dealer. We traded it in. We did not get as much as we could have, but I didn't want to drive that car another day.
You've got kind of a, I'd say maybe a Shepard Fairey-influenced Elon poster with a big X through his face.
Trying to do something that can be reproduced and all that and spread, you know, make people wake up. You know, we're either in a nightmare or a dream, and I just want people to wake up and see what Elon is doing. So that's why I'm here.
So many Americans are admiring what Doge is doing and are supportive of it.
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