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From Our Own Correspondent

A Funny Old Game

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2017

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A diplomatic dance, football playing politicians, mountain music and robotic sex dolls. Kate Adie introduces correspondent’s stories from around the world.

In Germany - he almost became a professional footballer now he wants to be Chancellor - Jenny Hill meets a former teammate, and childhood friend, of Martin Schulz. In Sierra Leone Bob Howard meets the ‘friends of the dead’ as young entrepreneurs seek any way they can to escape the country’s staggering levels of unemployment. Micky Bristow reflects on the diplomatic games being played out between China and Taiwan. Special number plates and invitations to Swiss summits may seem insignificant to some, but not when on you’re an island that few nations recognise as an independent country. In Peru, Robin Denselow samples the sounds of mountain music at a reconciliation concert high in the Andes. And in San Marcos, California, Jane Wakefield takes a tour of a rather unusual factory offering the latest in AI equipped, robotic sex dolls.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the BBC.

0:02.0

And this is from our own correspondent with tales of mountain music, a football playing politician and a robotic sex style.

0:11.0

This edition was first broadcast on May the 13th, 2017. Here's Kate

0:17.1

Ade.

0:18.1

Hello. Today Sierra Leone has crippling unemployment which is why we meet freelance gravediggers and bootleg parking attendance.

0:27.0

In Taiwan, you wait months for an invitation and then nothing.

0:31.0

Officials blame China for their exclusion from an international summit.

0:36.0

We're off to Peru where terrorist violence is giving way to the thrum of guitars.

0:41.0

And in the United States we have an interview with a robot called

0:45.1

Harmony, a sex robot that is. It's election season it seems, tomorrow vote is in Germany's most popular state elect their

0:55.3

regional leaders. Nord-Rein-Vest failures results are regarded as a significant

1:00.2

pointer to what might happen in September's general election. The vote seen as the

1:05.1

first real test for Martin Schultz, leader of the Social Democratic Party, and

1:09.2

Angela Merkel's main challenger for the role of Chancellor.

1:13.0

Whoever wins in September will play a significant role in shaping the EU's future

1:18.0

and determining its approach to Brexit.

1:21.0

Martin Schultz spent over 20 years at the European Parliament, eventually becoming

1:25.9

its President, but there is more to the man than Brussels bureaucracy as Jenny Hill found

1:31.7

on a visit to his hometown and into his past.

1:35.0

The pitch at Vosalin Football Club has seen better days.

1:40.0

As I arrived, a damp wind was blowing through this former mining town and across the ground,

1:45.6

leaving behind a fine drizzle on the blue plastic seats of the stands.

...

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