The Fire and the Fury: North Macedonia Mourns – and Rages – After a Devastating Blaze
NEED TO KNOW
The Fire and the Fury: North Macedonia Mourns – and Rages – After a Devastating Blaze
NORTH MACEDONIA
Andrej Gjorgieski, the lead singer of the popular North Macedonian hip-hop band DNK, was performing in mid-March at the Pulse nightclub in Kočani, a town of 30,000 residents 60 miles east of the capital, Skopje, when the roof caught fire.
He told the audience to get out. Once outside, he ran back in to rescue more people but died along with 59 others as the blaze engulfed the warehouse. Among the dead were the band’s backup singer, keyboardist, and drummer.
He “died a true hero,” his manager told the Independent.
After the fire, the mourning began. Funerals, which took place in multiple cities, were marked by closed stores and roads, moments of silence, and thousands of mourners for the victims, who were between 16 and 24 years old.
With a death toll of 60 and 200 more injured, there is almost no one in the Balkan nation of about 2 million people who has not been affected by the disaster, wrote the Associated Press.
And along with the mourning, the fury ignited.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in multiple protests over the ensuing weeks demanding accountability, akin to the ongoing mass protests rocking Serbia and threatening to bring down the government there after the collapse of a canopy at a train station in Novi Sad that killed 16 in November.
And, like in Serbia, demonstrators blamed the nightclub fire on corruption and nepotism.
“I want everyone who helped this place carry on with its business to be jailed,” 16-year-old Jovan told the Guardian as he joined other protestors in Kočani’s central square. “We need change because this is a corrupt country.”
Afterward, the demonstrators ransacked a cafe believed to belong to the owner of the nightclub.
Officials said that the club was operating illegally with an invalid license it obtained from the country’s economy ministry with a bribe.
They also reported that former city officials of Kočani had rejected authorizing a permit for the club because it failed to meet safety standards. The building had no fire alarm system, only two fire extinguishers, and a ceiling made of highly flammable material. It only had one functional exit.
The fire broke out after sparks from pyrotechnics set the ceiling on fire. Many of the victims died in the ensuing crowd crush as panic-stricken people attempted to escape through the single exit, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, the number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.
“I will have no mercy,” the country’s prime minister, Hristijan Mickoski, said after the fire. “There is no person in Macedonia who is not broken and with a destroyed spirit after this.”
To date, 34 people remain in custody in connection with the fire, including high-ranking government officials such as the former finance minister, the manager of the club, and seven senior police officials. Some of the charges carry 20-year sentences.
Over the weekend, prosecutors announced another 19 suspects, again including high-ranking officials, the Sarajevo Times reported.
Those found responsible will face justice, said the prime minister as he declared seven days of national mourning for the victims of the fire: “Regardless of who they are, from which institution, from what level, from which party and profession.”
A few days after the fire, authorities increased inspections of nightclubs across the country. Officials said they found that only 12 licenses had been issued in 2024, even though there are dozens of venues across the country.
Despite the protests and the anger, analysts said there is little chance that the accident will destabilize the right-wing coalition government, which has been led by the VMRO-DPMNE party since June 2024, mainly because officials, unlike in Serbia, were quick to act – and mourn – along with the public.
“We are all in shock,” President Gordana Davkova-Siljanovska said in an address to the nation after the fire. “And I am shocked myself, as a mother, as a person, as a president.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Panama’s Opposition Warns of US ‘Camouflaged Invasion’ after Canal Deal
PANAMA
Panamanian opposition politicians accused the US of launching a “camouflaged invasion” of the country over the weekend, furious over a deal that allows the deployment of US troops to the country, the Guardian reported.
Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump confirmed the presence of American troops under a new security agreement decades after the last US bases were closed, Al Jazeera reported.
Last week, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a three-day visit to the country, which led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding and other security pacts aimed at increasing cooperation and securing “the Panama Canal from Chinese influence.”
Hegseth said the deal would secure “first and free” passage for US warships through the Panama Canal and allow troops to operate from three former American bases: Fort Sherman, Rodman Naval Base, and Howard Air Force Base.
He also proposed establishing US military bases in Panama, though he noted such deployments would be contingent on the Panamanian government’s consent. That is unlikely, Panamanian officials said.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino rejected claims that Panama had agreed to the permanent setup of US bases, calling the deployments temporary and limited.
His administration added that Washington had recognized Panama’s sovereignty over the canal following initial discrepancies in the English and Spanish versions of the communiqué.
The agreement prompted fears from the country’s opposition that it represents a de facto return of US military control over the region.
Opposition leaders denounced the pact as “an invasion without firing a shot,” accusing the government of surrendering sovereignty.
The deal has revived painful memories of the 1989 US invasion – known as “Operation Just Cause” – and raised concerns about a new foreign military presence.
China has criticized the agreement and called for the Panama Canal to remain a neutral international waterway.
The canal is a vital artery for global trade, handling about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world commerce.
Tanzania’s Main Opposition Kicked Out of Upcoming Election
TANZANIA
Tanzania’s election commission banned the country’s main opposition party, CHADEMA, from participating in the October election, days after its leader Tundu Lissu was arrested and charged with treason following a protest calling for electoral reforms, the Associated Press reported.
On Saturday, Ramadhani Kailima, director of elections at the Independent National Electoral Commission, announced the disqualification of CHADEMA, citing the party’s refusal to sign a mandatory electoral code of conduct.
He said the opposition party’s boycott of the signing ceremony constituted a legal violation that would exclude it from this year’s vote and any by-elections until 2030.
The decision comes days after authorities detained Lissu, who was charged with treason Thursday after holding a rally in southern Tanzania where he had demanded changes to the electoral system.
Authorities accused the opposition leader of seeking to incite rebellion and disrupt the election process. His trial has been adjourned until April 24, the BBC wrote.
Lissu has long criticized the country’s elections system for unfairly favoring the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power since independence in 1961. His CHADEMA party has called for restructuring the electoral commission to remove presidential appointees.
His lawyer called the treason charges politically motivated by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration.
Observers noted that CHADEMA’s exclusion paves the way for CCM to extend its decades-long rule in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary contests.
The arrest and election ban add to Hassan’s ongoing crackdown on the opposition and dissenters since she came to power in 2021 following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
Hassan initially received praise for reversing some of Magufuli’s authoritarian policies. But human rights groups and opposition parties have accused the CCM government of the arrests and abductions of opposition members.
The government denies the allegations and has launched an investigation into the abductions.
France Arrests Algerian Diplomatic Official Over Paris Kidnapping of Regime Critic
FRANCE
French prosecutors arrested and charged an Algerian consular official with involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian political opponent living in France, prompting a strong reaction from Algeria, Reuters reported.
On Friday, French authorities indicted three men, including an Algerian consular employee, on suspicion of abducting influencer Amir Boukhors in April 2024. They charged the individuals with abduction, arbitrary detention, and illegal confinement in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
Boukhors, also known as “Amir DZ,” was kidnapped in a Paris suburb and released the following day.
Algiers has accused the influencer – who has more than a million TikTok followers and was granted asylum in France in 2023 – of fraud and terrorism charges and issued nine international arrest warrants against him, according to France 24.
Following Friday’s detentions, the Algerian foreign ministry denounced the move as a violation of diplomatic protocol, adding that the indictment was based on the “far-fetched argument” that the official’s phone had been detected near Boukhors’ residence.
Algerian officials demanded the official’s immediate release while alleging that France is seeking to “torpedo” recent rapprochement efforts between the two countries.
The row comes as relations between France and Algeria have taken a nosedive after Paris moved to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2023.
Algeria – which supports the region’s pro-independence Polisario Front – strongly opposed France’s policy shift and recalled its ambassador in Paris at the time.
Relations further deteriorated after Algiers arrested and jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal on national security charges.
However, tensions eased in recent weeks following a call between Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in late March.
The two leaders expressed a desire to mend relations after years of disputes rooted in colonial history and competing regional alliances.
DISCOVERIES
Half And Half
Scientists recently discovered a new state of matter that may help revolutionize quantum computing.
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory identified a never-before-seen “half-ice, half-fire” phase of matter that could pave the way for smarter, faster information storage.
“Finding new states with exotic physical properties – and being able to understand and control the transitions between those states – are central problems in the fields of condensed matter physics and materials science,” Weiguo Yin, co-author of the new study, said in a statement. “Solving those problems could lead to great advances in technologies like quantum computing and spintronics.”
Yin and his colleague Alexei Tsvelik explained that the exotic phase refers not to literal temperature extremes, but to the behavior of electron spins – the tiny magnetic moments carried by electrons.
In this material state, highly ordered, “cold” spins coexist with disordered, “hot” spins. That strange pairing gives the material the ability to switch sharply between phases at finite temperatures, a property with promising applications in fields like spintronics and quantum computing.
Their research builds on a previous study by Yin and Tsvelik involving the magnetic compound Sr3CuIrO6, where the “half-fire, half-ice” state was first found.
In that phase, copper atoms held “hot” spins while iridium atoms carried the “cold” ones. The newly described twin flips the roles – iridium gets hot, copper cools off – showing a hidden symmetry and, more importantly, a path toward controlled, ultrasharp switching.
The researchers believe the sharp switching behavior – occurring over an ultranarrow temperature range – could form the basis of new quantum bits, or “qubits,” for data storage.
These findings could be useful in many areas, from improving refrigeration technology to storing information in quantum systems – where these phases might serve as bits of data, according to Popular Mechanics.
“Next, we are going to explore the fire-ice phenomenon in systems with quantum spins and with additional lattice, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom,” Yin added. “The door to new possibilities is now wide open.”