Global News Podcast - Tributes paid to dead and injured after fire at Swiss resort

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Hundreds take part in a vigil in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana after around 40 people died in a fire at a bar while out celebrating New Year. Also: Colombia's armed forces say they have "neutralised" the main leader of one of Venezuela's most powerful and far-reaching criminal gangs; fresh research indicates that psychedelic drugs could be beneficial in treating a range of mental disorders; the UN children's agency Unicef estimates that more than a million Palestinian children trapped in Gaza desperately need mental health support and we talk to the great grandson of the Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha, best known for his paintings of graceful powerful female figures that helped define the Art Nouveau era. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and in the early hours of Friday, the 2nd of January, these are our main stories. Hundreds have attended a vigil at a Swiss ski resort after dozens of people were killed in a fire while celebrating the new year. Colombia's armed forces say they have, in their words, neutralised the main leader of one of the country's most feared criminal gangs. Also, in this podcast, we look at the debate about whether magic mushroom should be used to treat mental health problems and... We feel comfortable there. We enjoy it. We enter a garden. We enter spaces with animals and have similar experiences. How virtual reality is helping injured children in Gaza. First, hundreds of people joined a vigil in the Swiss ski resort of Kram Montana on Thursday evening.

after around 40 were killed in a fire at a bar while celebrating the new year. People prayed and lit candles in memory of the victims. Ilan Ashour works in the Constellation Bar. One of his best friends died in the fire. He told us what he saw. Some friends came. They called me, so I drove over.

I arrived, and from there, everyone was burned. Everyone was screaming. Everyone was shouting. They'd been moved from the constellation to bar, 1900 and it was crazy. It was like a horror movie. For real, it was a horror movie. I've never seen anything like it in my life. At least 115 people were injured, many with severe burns. Dr Robert Larabow is the head of emergency care at Geneva University Hospitals. He told the BBC that injured patients were between 15 and 25 years old and other countries had been asked to help.

He was speaking through a translator. They have activated the European network. work of like intensive care for burnt people. Three people have been sent to Milan. Two people are on their way to go to Germany. Some other injured people are going to go to France. But they had to activate that network with European countries. I've been speaking to our correspondent Sarah Rainsford, who's at the ski resort. I'm just a few metres away from the Constellation Bar, just up the hill a little way.

I can see the police tents that have been erected outside. it where the forensics teams have been doing their work all day long. There's also a white barrier in front of the bar itself. And a little bit closer to where I am, there's a shrine that has sprung up here where people have been bringing flowers and writing notes in memory of the victims of the fire. And there's candles as well, little candles flickering on the lay by again in memory of those who died. And it is a very somber place tonight. It's late now, so it's very quiet here. But all day long, it has been a town very, very somber, a town which is a resort place.

So, you know, it's a place where people come for ski holidays. It's a place where they come to celebrate the new year. But tonight, it's very quiet. There is no party mood here. It's really a place of tragedy and a disaster scene. And do we know any more on what could have caused this? We don't know for sure. The officials who gave a briefing this afternoon were very,

careful to say that the investigation was very young, just a few hours old, really, and that they are not ruling out anything at the moment. They made it quite clear that this, though, was an accident. It isn't being treated as any kind of attack, despite reports at the very beginning about explosions here. So they're saying, no, this was a fire, it was an accident. What they need to establish now is how and why it started. And also to establish whether there were any kind of safety violations by the bar owners themselves, because many people who lost their lives were down in a basement

and there was a fairly narrow entrance and exit point from that basement and lots of people, when the fire took hold, just couldn't get out of that space. So I think lots of questions about how many people were in the bar about the safety precautions and also, as I say, about what caused it. One theory at the moment is that it may have been a flare inside a bottle that was being used by the waitresses there that possibly set the roof on fire, but that's just a theory now. And a number of people are in hospital, many with very serious burns.

And not all of them are being treated in Switzerland. Some have gone to different countries, haven't they? Yeah, that's right. Because the burns are so serious and because so many people are injured, the authorities here have flown people by helicopter to hospitals around Switzerland, but also to other countries. They've been taken to Italy, to Germany and to France. This is a very popular resort with Europe, particularly French and Italians.

And I understand that those who've been taken to Italy are Italian national. But, yeah, very, very severe burns, third-degree burns, a lot of smoke inhalation, and people really coming out of that, those who escape with their lives, telling absolutely dreadful stories about their terror, about their panic, and also about what they saw as they fled for their lives. So really, really devastating things that happened here and that people have seen, people have experienced, and people have heard in the last few hours. Sarah Rainsford.

Trende, Aragua is Venezuela's most powerful and far-reaching criminal gang. Now, Colombia's armed forces say they've killed one of its main leaders, known as El Vieco, or the old man. He was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list and accused of directing the gang's global drug trafficking and financial operations. Our global affairs reporter Mimi Swaby told me more about him. In this military and police joint operation, the Colombian armed forces say they neutralized El Viejo. In this case, we can infer this actually means they killed El Viejo. Now, he was the first of the Trent de Ragua leaders to appear on the FBI's 10 most wanted list

with a pretty hefty $5 million reward on his head. Now, he is considered a second in command and him being on this list, according to the FBI, highlights the gang itself, but also the US's aggressiveness to trying to dismantle it. And why has Donald Trump been focusing on this group? Obviously, he's been focusing and targeting a lot of drug cartels recently, but why particularly was this one put on that list, do we think?

The Tren de Ragua is designated as a foreign terrorist organization. This is alongside an increasing number of criminal gangs that we've seen the Trump administration target in order to give themselves more legal power to try and fight them. This one in particular, according to President Trump, is accused of flooding the US with drugs and also incredibly violent crime. And we've seen him kind of use the Trenna Agua gang as a scapegoat for lots of crime in general.

Lots of the alleged members were targeted in numerous waves of deportations from the US back to Venezuela as well as other countries. And we've also seen it play a central role in the narrative, especially of these deadly strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in both the South Caribbean Sea as well as the Pacific Ocean. There is very little information or kind of facts we have been given for the Trenaragua. But there are many others participating, if not participating more, in the drug transatlantic. trade within the US. And I just assume that when leaders of these gangs are killed, they're replaced pretty quickly. El Viejo is protégé of the top, top guy of Tren der Agua. So someone would probably feel his role.

However, it's more of a sign and a warning to other gang members. That actually, regardless of your status for the US and the FBI, in particular in this case, as well as the Colombian armed forces, they are actively looking and hunting down these key figures. That was Mimi Swaby. A series of new research results indicates that psychedelic drugs could be hugely beneficial in treating a range of mental disorders. These include depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD and trauma, as well as alcohol and gambling addiction. Doctors say the medicines are promising, but their use outside of authorised clinical trials is dangerous and illegal. This report from our science correspondent, Palab Ghosh.

I walk with Ian Rulier along a lake in central London. He tells me he's lived with depression all his adult life. At my very worst, 12 years ago, everything felt like a mountain, you know, like making a cup of tea, getting out of bed, being able to face work, basic things were just really impossible to do. Antidepressants didn't seem to help. I got to a point when I'd had to stop working that I, felt that my mental state and its impact on other people made it logical.

There was a cold logic to it that if I wasn't around, then I would stop other people around me suffering. How'd you mean not around? If I no longer existed, if I died. Ian told me he noticed an improvement after he took doses of the active ingredient in hallucinogenic or magic mushrooms called psilocybin in a medically supervised clinical trial. I was able to go into some very dark places and get to the very roots of my depression and that really helped.

Ian, who's co-director and co-founder of a patient support group for others who've benefited from psychedelic medicines called Saipan, says support and therapy was crucial in his treatment. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done and it's not fun, it's not enjoyable, but by doing that, by facing the darkest parts of my past, I was able to, to survive that. Psychedelics effectively reset the brain. The field of psychedelic medicines was pioneered by Professor David Nutt at Imperial College. They put the brain back to a state, effectively when you were rather young,

before you've learnt everything you have to learn to become a functioning adult. By resetting the brain, they allow people to break free from these ingrained, deeply learned, false beliefs. Like, I'm a worthless person in depression, or I have to wash my hands 150 times to get rid of germs. in OCD, or I can't stop taking a drug, those are learnt patterns of thinking that relate to behaviour, and psychedelics break those down. Two small trials have suggested psychedelic treatments might also help heavy drinkers reduce their dependency on alcohol. Scientists think it reprograms a brain into not wanting a drink. Please remain very still. Here we go. At a scanner at University College London,

researchers monitor the brain activity of a volunteer, watching tempting pictures of drinks that would normally trigger uncontrollable cravings. It's part of a new trial of the short-acting psychedelic dimethyltrimine, DMT, to see what effect it has on the memory and learning centres of heavy drinkers. Dr Ravi Das is leading the experiment. The idea that these drugs, these psychedelics, so DMT that we're testing, but also psilocybin, can break down. these entrenched pathways in the brain

should mean that they can be useful. Alcohol use disorder, opiates, even gambling. But these medicines are not available to everyone yet because more research is needed and the research itself takes time to get started because it's so tightly regulated. Although many small-scale trials have been promising, regulators want to see the results

of much larger trials due out later this year before they even consider relaxing the regulations. I can understand why people are keen and excited, but I think it's really important not to jump ahead of the evidence. Psychiatrists such as Professor Oliver Howes of King's College London point out that psychedelic drugs are illegal and are concerned about the harmful effects of psychedelics if taken without medical supervision.

At the moment, the evidence is very early days for many of these substances. So we want more evidence, not hype. So what would you say to those who've seen the hype and want to try it for themselves because they can't get it from a doctor? Say you go to a back street clinic or a drug dealer. I've seen people that have tried this and I've seen it go badly wrong. So I really strongly advise people not to try and take these substances at home on their own or to use back street clinics because there are risks and sometimes people have bad reactions to these. but Ian hopes that if the results of larger trials of the drugs are positive there's an urgency to make them available to those that most need them

it's being stifled really by bureaucracy red tape stigma etc and people's lives are being negatively impacted by this people are losing their lives because there is just no treatment available for them those most affected hope that the promising science turns quickly into much-needed new treatments that are both safe and effective. And that was Palab Ghosh. Still to come in this podcast. At the moment, it's looking like its population will actually half from today's 1.4 billion

approximately down to about 700 million by the year 2100. China brings in a new tax on contraceptives as it keeps trying to stop its birth rate falling. After more than two years of war in Gaza, the UN Children's Agency UNICEF estimates that more than one million Palestinian children desperately need mental health support. Many have life-changing injuries and severe trauma at a time when healthcare services in the territory have largely collapsed. One initiative is having some success in providing temporary relief to young survivors. Antel Hartel reports. Inside a white tent in Azawida in central Gaza, 15-year-old Salah is fitted with a virtual reality headset.

Beside him, four other boys, also wearing the goggles, are experiencing a world far different from their usual surroundings. One reaches out and claps his hands together, as if swatting a fly. Another says he can see birds. One boy describes seeing a dog, motioning for it to come towards him. By wearing these headsets for a short time, the children take in the sights and sounds of environments such as beaches, gardens and quiet city streets.

Salah sustained a head injury after he was shot by a quadcopter drone while playing with friends. After weeks of physiotherapy, he is able to comfortably move his head again and says virtual reality is also helping his recovery. We feel comfortable there. We enjoy it. We enter a garden. We enter spaces with animals and have similar experiences. It's nice. The initiative was developed by Palestinian software engineer Musab Ali. He first noticed a positive response to this type of therapy when he tested it on hospital patients and start.

One patient, 11-year-old Sharm, had lost a leg and had stopped speaking. But when she wore the goggles, she began to talk. Caregivers say children using the headsets feel calmer, more attentive, and occasionally they laugh, a reaction that has become rare. Abdullah Abu Shammal, who runs children's therapy sessions in Gaza, has also seen positive results. The speed of treatment, healing in. and stabilization using virtual reality techniques has been faster than with conventional therapy.

With conventional sessions, we usually need about 10 to 12, whereas with virtual reality we can achieve results in just 5 to 7 sessions. A number of studies have found that virtual reality can be effective for managing conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a note of caution, though. Medical professionals say it should be used as an additional. treatment, not as a replacement to conventional therapy. The team behind Gaza's virtual reality program face many barriers.

They've reported difficulties transporting the headsets. Power outages are frequent, so is the noise from ongoing bombardment. Virtual reality may provide children with a short-term escape from their war-shattered environment, but experts warn that psychological wounds are deepening, as mental health services remain scarce. Shantelle Hartle, the one-child policy in China enforced between 1979 and 2016 was very consequential. Without it, the country's population of 1.4 billion would today have been higher by several hundred million. But low birth rates mean that as the population gets older, the workforce gets smaller. China's population is predicted to half by the end of the century, posing a threat to its continued economic success.

This explains why citizens have now begun paying a 13% sales tax on contraceptives in an attempt to boost birth rates. Dr Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies at King's College London, studies these matters. So given that the one-child policy is no longer in place, why is the birth rate still so low? There's been a decline in the birth rate for a long time, not necessarily to do with the one-child policy. It was a social choice. and on the whole people now don't want that burden. They will have one child if they have any child at all.

There's also a second factor which is that a large number of women don't marry now in China. They feel that they want to develop their careers or they're marrying later. They're not having children. So that's also a social change that's reflected elsewhere in the world too. And finally, I think just the kind of imbalance between men and women, there's 50 million more men than women. And so you have a kind of skewed demography just in gender balance. So all of these things combined mean that the birth rate falling is not a surprise at all. Now this tax on contraceptives is just one measure. There have been others like

cash bonuses for children even, but they don't seem to be making a lot of difference. No, in 2015, they lifted the one-child policy or they lifted that. They allowed two children. children, now they allow three, and I'm sure they would allow people to have more. But the issue really is that, as I say, it's expense. But also, the government has got very limited tools that it can use beyond fairly significant economic incentives. One country, I think it's hunger, I believe, allows people who have more than, I think, three or four children to not pay any tax for the rest of their lives. Well, I mean, China could use that measure, though it's very unlikely. free or cheaper child care, that's a significant incentive, but social welfare in China generally is not great. Very paradoxically, it's a socialist country, but it looks dimly on state handouts. So it would have to be a pretty considerable financial incentive

and one that people trusted would be their long term. Of course, as this is relatively new, they don't know that, and so it's likely they're going to be cautious. You mentioned Hungary, and I think it is fair to say that China is not alone in this, is it? There are many other countries in East Asia, too, that have low birth rates. Indeed, Japan has had a low birth rate for over 30 years.

Taiwan has, I think, the lowest of all. South Korea has a low birth rate. So it's a very general issue. All of them have chosen different policy tools. All of them, however, have definitely not embraced particularly high levels of immigration. China could use immigration to try and maintain a population level. At the moment, it's looking like its population will actually halve from today's $1.4 billion,

approximately down to about $700 million by the year 2100. Could try and liberalize immigration, but that is extremely unlikely. I've heard no policy makers say that they would do that. What they're trying to do is look after an aging population with robotics, more and more robotics being used. That's a big experiment, a massive social experiment. China is often experimenting like this in ways that, you know, not happening elsewhere. But it's, of course, something, again, we don't know the outcome in the short term to medium term.

Professor Kerry Brown talking to Owen Bennett Jones. The Czech artist Alphonse Muka is known for his paintings of graceful, powerful female figures that help define the Art Nouveau era. His legacy is protected by the Mouca Foundation and museum run by the artist's great-grandson, Marcus. Our reporter Wendy Urquhart went to Prague to meet him. Alphonse Mouca was born in 1860 in southern Moravia, but success eluded him in his home country and he eventually moved to Paris. His great grandson, Marcus, says Mouca's life as a struggling artist in the City of Lights

wasn't always easy, but he definitely had a lot of fun hanging out with the likes of. French artist Paul Gogan. They had parties together. There's a famous photo, Paul Gougain, where somewhere along the way he lost his trousers, and he sat down playing a harmonium that is still in the family collection. Alphonse was eking out a living doing illustrations for magazines and books when fate intervened, as Marcus explains. Sarah Bernhard had a new play and it wasn't performing at the box office. She thought it was because the poster wasn't any good. So she asked the printers to come up with a new one. Alphonse Mucca came up with a sketch for the poster that became Mijs Monde.

Sarah Bernhard signed him on the spot to a six-year contract. This was the birth moment of Armourne. Alphonse Mouca became an overnight success. His decorative panels and advertising posters were the talk of the town. His success led to exhibitions all over the world. Then in 1909, he received an offer he couldn't refuse. to return to his homeland and design the reception room of the Lord Mayor's Hall in Prague. It's an Art Nouveau masterpiece featuring murals, sculptures, textiles and a central fresco

called the Slavic Concorde. When Hitler's troops marched on Prague in March 1939 and laid claim to Bohemia and Moravia, Alphonse Mouche's family quickly hid away every piece of his work. As an artist, a Slav nationalist and a freemason, Alphonse Mouca was targeted, arrested and interrogated by the Nazis within days of the invasion. He was eventually released, but his health never recovered, and he died of pneumonia on July 14, 1939. Alphonse was an artist who loved and respected strong women. And the women in his pictures, they're very clearly women whose strength comes from within.

They don't rely on a male gaze to give them value, which is quite revolutionary at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century. Construction is underway in the grounds of the Savarine Palace to create a multi-level urban space. And when it's finished, the public will finally be able to see the entire Slav Epic series in one place, just as Alphonse Mouca requested nearly a century ago. That was Wendy Urquhart reporting.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. if you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Pat Sissons and the producers were Alison Davis and Stephen Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Charlotte Gallagher. Until next time. Goodbye.