Michelle Martin

The government also says some of what is released should not be trusted.

And all of this has fanned the flame of conspiracy theories, old and new, about the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein.

Switzerland declared five days of mourning for the victims of a New Year's Eve fire that tore through a bar at a luxury ski resort in the Swiss Alps.

NPR's Ruth Sherlock is a Rome correspondent and she's with us now to tell us more about this.

Good morning, Ruth.

Good morning.

So what can you tell us about the latest information?

We've been hearing from people who were in or near the bar that night.

What are they saying?

So you were telling us earlier that the officials don't believe that this was deliberately said.

So what do we know about the cause of the fire?

Ruth, thank you.

And that's up first for Friday, January 2nd.

I'm Michelle Martin.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Louise Clemens, Dana Farrington, Miguel Macias, Mohamed Elbardisi, and Alice Wolfley.

It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

Our executive producer is Jay Shaler.

We hope you'll join us again on Monday.

Really?