Kate Adie introduces correspondents' reflections from Indonesia, Argentina, Kenya, Colombia and Germany. Prabowo Subianto was once a military hardman at the forefront of Indonesian politics. He's run for the country's presidency twice before - and failed. Will it be third time lucky for him on the 14th of February? The BBC's former Indonesia correspondent Rebecca Henschke recently revisited the country and was startled by his apparent image makeover to appeal to first-time voters. When Javier Mi...
Feb 01, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from India, Bangladesh, the US, Switzerland and Finland. This week, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opened a grand Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya. The site on which it sits was once home to a centuries-old mosque which was demolished by a Hindu mob thirty years ago. Yogita Limaye reflects on the impact of the new temple, which fulfils a dream for many Hindus, but has alienated much of India's Muslim minority. Samira Hussain attends a press conferenc...
Jan 27, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast : Kate Adie presents stories from Taiwan, Ecuador, Germany, Georgia and Indonesia The pro-sovereignty candidate William Lai won Taiwan's presidential election this week. Our correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes charts the key moments that led to this historic vote, as Taiwan's voters sent a signal to Beijing. Will Grant has been in the Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil which experienced a sudden descent into violence after two gang members escaped from prison, and a TV station was raided during a liv...
Jan 20, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie introduces stories from Japan, the USA, the Thailand-Myanmar border, Barbuda and Guinea-Bissau. The earthquake which shook Japan on New Year's Day brought considerable damage to the mostly-rural Noto peninsula. One noticeable pattern amidst the destruction was how much more robust modern buildings had proved to be over older, wooden homes. Jean Mackenzie reflects on Japan's evolving ability to cope with earthquakes. Every four years, the citizens of Iowa welcome a political circus to t...
Jan 13, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, Guatemala, The Philippines, Greece and the Faroe Islands US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in the Middle East for another round of crisis diplomacy. After the assassination of a senior Hamas leader this week, there are now concerns the conflict will widen. Tom Bateman has just left his post in the Middle East and is now covering US foreign policy from Washington - which as he reflects - might have to draw on some lessons from history. Ahead of his i...
Jan 06, 2024•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from China, Bolivia, the US and Italy. BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell arrived in Beijing as a student 20 years ago and jumped straight into the city's buzzing nightlife. But the bohemian club scene he fell in love with was rapidly replaced by shiny new shopping malls, and towering skyscrapers as China's wealth and ambition grew. Along with the economic boom came substantial military expansion and a tightening of control in political and cultural life under Xi...
Dec 30, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Ukraine, Tajikistan, Brazil and Mexico Over recent weeks, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has battled in vain to ensure further US funding for the war in Ukraine. Just one year ago, he received a standing ovation in Congress, such was the strength of support to see Ukraine victorious. Now, the reality is very different. James Waterhouse has been following events in Washington and in Kyiv and says why this is a defining moment for Ukraine in the war. In Dnip...
Dec 23, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Poland, CAR, Hong Kong, Armenia and Tunisia This week the former Polish PM Donald Tusk returned to power marking a clear break from the right-wing, populist government that has been in office for the last eight years. Voters filled cinemas screening the parliamentary proceedings, as the country was gripped by the political drama. Sarah Rainsford was in Warsaw. In the Central African Republic, the Wagner Group is wielding significant political, economic and cultura...
Dec 16, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie introduces dispatches from South Africa, Syria, the Netherlands and Germany. Fergal Keane reported from South Africa during the country's difficult transition to democracy after the end of apartheid. He revisits some familiar neighbourhoods and reflects on what happened to the hope and ambition that gripped the country at the time. Four years after Islamic State was defeated in Syria, thousands of children whose parents supported the group, are living in camps and detention centres wit...
Dec 09, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from the UAE, Iran, Ireland, Finland and Cambodia As the world's seventh largest oil producer, the UAE may seem an odd choice to host the world's annual climate summit, but the Emiratis have been keen to showcase their green credentials. But the UAE’s desired image is falling short of the reality, says Owen Pinnell, as he reveals the devastating impact of gas-flaring. In Iran, the enforcement of the mandatory hijab rule was once again in the spotlight after the death o...
Dec 02, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Russia, the US, Argentina, Iraq and Iceland. In the wake of President Putin's invasion of Ukraine, repressive laws were passed which effectively criminalise all anti-war activism. The recent trial of artist Sasha Skochilenko underscored the heavy-handed enforcement of these laws, as well as the inconsistent way in which justice is applied in Russia. Steve Rosenberg was in St Petersburg. Democratic and Republican states are introducing radically different laws on i...
Nov 25, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Saudi Arabia, the West Bank, Spain, Chile and Taiwan. Amid glittering chandeliers and floral bouquets, leaders from 57 Arab and Muslim countries gathered in the Saudi Arabian capital for an Emergency Summit on the situation in Gaza. So, did it produce anything beyond the speeches? Our Security Correspondent Frank Gardner was there. The occupied West Bank has also seen an increase in outbreaks of violence since the Hamas massacre in October. There are now concerns ...
Nov 18, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Cambodia, Colombia, India, Fiji and Kenya. The Mekong river provides a living for tens of millions of people who live along its banks across five East and South East Asian countries. However, new hydroelectric dams have upended communities which have lived along the river for millennia, with some Cambodian villages flooded to make way for new dam projects. Laura Bicker takes a journey to the heart of the Mekong river system to meet people recently displaced. Four ...
Nov 16, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, the Middle East, Peru and Japan. The Israel-Gaza conflict has been framed by harsh words, and when talk of peace and reconciliation seem more distant than ever, is there space for understanding - or hope? Our correspondent Fergal Keane has spent his career reporting on divided societies, and after spending the last few weeks in Jerusalem, he reflects on the question of hope. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been back in the Middle East this week, w...
Nov 11, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Mexico, Israel, Pakistan, Georgia and Romania. On October 24, high winds started howling around the Mexican beach city of Acapulco. In barely 12 hours, unseasonably warm seawater off the coast had turned a common tropical storm into Category 5 Hurricane Otis. The ferocity of the storm was unexpected, and left locals and tourists with little time to prepare before 200-mile-per-hour winds hit - some of the strongest ever recorded on earth. James Fredrick visited Aca...
Nov 09, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast : Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, Turkey, Switzerland, DRC and Indonesia Four weeks on from Hamas' deadly attack in Israel, details continue to emerge about the killing spree. Israelis are wrestling with the impact and the consequences - and the release by Hamas of a hostage video this week has added pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to secure their release. Paul Adams finds there’s a pervasive sense of insecurity in the streets of Jerusalem, with violent incidents puncturing any veneer of ...
Nov 04, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, Gaza, Germany, New Caledonia and Hungary. Public pressure is growing on Israel’s prime minister to secure the release of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Lucy Williamson has been talking to one man whose family was taken captive from Kibbutz Be’eri. Deirdre Finnerty spoke to an Irish-Palestinian family, who were visiting relatives in northern Gaza when the conflict began, and fled to Khan Younis. She hears about the struggle to access basic su...
Nov 02, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Israel and Gaza, South Korea and Turkey. Three years ago the Gulf states of Bahrain and the UAE agreed to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel - and it was Joe Biden's hope that Saudi Arabia would soon join them. But where do the Arab nations stand today amid a new Israel-Gaza conflict, asks the BBC’s Security Correspondent Frank Gardner. Reporting on the Israel-Gaza conflict is a particular challenge, as so few journalists currently have access or permissio...
Oct 28, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, Ukraine, Argentina, Mauritius and Greece. When Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on the 7th October, over 200 of the people killed were foreign nationals. At least 30 of them were from Thailand, and at least 19 Thais are believed to have been abducted by Hamas. More than 25,000 Thai migrant agricultural workers living in Israel. Jonathan Head travels to north-eastern Thailand to meet returning survivors, and relatives of those still mi...
Oct 26, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories on Israel and Gaza, Lebanon and Poland. An explosion at a hospital in Gaza this week has thrown into sharp relief the challenges of establishing the facts during a time of war. Amid the claim and counterclaim, getting to the truth is harder than ever. Jeremy Bowen reflects on the speed at which stories unfold these days, and the challenges of reporting during the conflict, as competing narratives clash online. The British and US governments urged their nationals to lea...
Oct 21, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Pakistan, Germany, Portugal, Senegal and the United States. Pakistan's government has issued an order for illegal migrants to leave the country by the beginning of November. This includes around 1.7 million Afghans, according to official figures. Among the many caught in the middle are nearly 2,000 Afghans who risked their lives working with or for British armed forces during the war in Afghanistan. They’ve been promised visas by the British government that would ...
Oct 19, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents a special edition reflecting on the brutal attack in Israel this week by Hamas militants and the subsequent siege and bombardment of Gaza. Anna Foster reports from Ashkelon in Israel’s south, where revellers were attending a music festival, before Hamas’ assault. She met one man who managed to escape, who tells her his story. As details emerged of how Hamas’ brutal assault unfolded in kibbutzim last weekend, communities living near the Gaza border have been left traumatised by...
Oct 14, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Australia, Poland, the US, Cameroon and Cape Verde. Australians are voting in a historic referendum on whether or not to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the country’s constitution, and create a body that can advise governments on issues affecting their communities. After months of campaigning voters are bitterly divided, as Katy Watson found out. Poland’s upcoming election could result in an unprecedented third consecutive term for the in...
Oct 12, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from the US, Slovakia, Turkey, Greece and Democratic Republic of Congo. In a break with history, a right-wing faction of the US Republican party moved to oust the speaker of the lower chamber of Congress, Kevin McCarthy. The party must now begin the task of uniting behind another candidate. And as Donald Trump appeared at his civil fraud trial in New York, Gary O'Donoghue reflects on an extraordinary week in Washington. We visit the Slovakian capital, Bratislava where ...
Oct 07, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Russia’s western borders. A day of shooting in majority-Serb north Kosovo left a police officer and three members of an armed group dead. Guy De Launey reports on one of the most serious confrontations between Serbia and Kosovo since Kosovo declared independence in 2008. 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of Xi Jinping’s announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious project to connect China with the Central...
Oct 05, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Niger, Syria, Portugal, Costa Rica and the US. French President, Emmanuel Macron announced he is withdrawing French troops from Niger, once seen as a key ally in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel, and withdrew his ambassador. Meanwhile in Niamey, people are adjusting to life under military rule after the coup in July. Mayeni Jones recounts her recent visit there. Thousands of people have gone missing or been detained since the Syrian protests began in 2011,...
Sep 30, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Nagorno-Karabakh, Canada, South Africa, Peru and Germany. Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the last week. Rayhan Demytrie spoke to some on the Armenian border about the devastating impact of the recent Azeri blockade. And now they face the loss of their homeland, with distrust between both communities running deep. Canada's assertion that India appears to have been involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh...
Sep 28, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie presents stories from Libya, Ukraine, Australia and the US Anna Foster visits the flood-affected region of Derna, in Libya's east, where she speaks to survivors of the storm surge after two dams collapsed in the hills above the city. In the Russian-controlled areas of Donbass in Ukraine's east, Nick Sturdee hears from residents there who have lived through nearly a decade of fighting. In an area which is hard to reach for Western journalists, he gains an insight into how the conflict i...
Sep 23, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Stories from Morocco, Gabon, Pakistan, Norway and Canada A community in the High Atlas Mountains grapples with the devastation wrought by the strongest earthquake to hit Morocco in more than one hundred years. James Copnall visited Amizmiz where several lives were lost and homes destroyed and a harsh winter lies ahead. The West African country of Gabon has become the latest in the region to witness a military coup, overthrowing the government of President Ali Bongo, scion of the Bongo dynasty. C...
Sep 16, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Adie introduces stories from The Gambia, Iran, the USA, Chile and Hungary. Dozens of bereaved families in the Gambia are taking legal action against an Indian drug manufacturer and Gambian health authorities, after more than 70 infants died after taking apparently toxic cough remedies. Sam Bradpiece heard their stories and traces how these medicines came to market. As Iran approaches the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the authorities are already cracking down on signs of pub...
Sep 09, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
