All change at the top in Brussels

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

European leaders have finally decided who should fill the top jobs in EU organisations. They have nominated German defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, as the new President of the European Commission. She must now be approved by MEPs in Strasbourg, which has meant some serious train travel for Adam Fleming. The shocking picture of a father and his daughter lying dead in the Rio Grande recently highlighted the risks for migrants trying to cross illegally into the United States. As Chris Buckler found, others stranded on the border have a long wait. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women often have to queue for hours for water. But a new high-tech scheme in one village in Tanzania is transforming access to clean water. Chloe Farand went to see the project. Tarkhan Batirashvili grew up in Georgia’s Caucasus mountains. He became one of the most notorious terrorists in the world, ruling northern Syria for Islamic State until his death in 2016. Tarkhan’s cousin Temuri wants to combat the radicalisation that set Tarkhan on his course to Syria. But this is no easy task, as William Dunbar discovers. As the Women’s World Cup nears its final stage, the organisers hope the contest will help to raise the profile of female football players across the globe. But that may be easier to achieve in some places than in others. In Argentina, for instance, the game is everything. But for decades women have had little part to play, and almost no chance of becoming professionals. This is something that Macarena Sánchez wants to change, as she fights to be accepted as a professional football player. Aude Villiers-Moriamé met her.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:05.0	Today in an era of global communication and evermore speedy travel,
0:10.0	it's ironic that crossing a border is so frequently very slow and difficult,
0:15.0	as from Mexico to the US.
0:18.0	Religious belief can divide families and confuse allegiances.
0:22.0	We have a tale from the Caucasus mountains.
0:25.0	Clean water is still a luxury in many parts of the world,
0:29.0	but there's one solution in Tanzania,
0:32.0	and women's football in a football mad country, Argentina.
0:37.0	In lengthy negotiations in Brussels with gender, nationality and political alliance all in the mix, the EU's
0:45.7	been sorting out who gets the top jobs. Not something that finds the British heavily
0:51.1	involved, you might guess guess but our correspondent Adam Fleming has
0:55.2	had to get stuck in and prepared to travel a lot by train.
1:00.3	Every month I travel from Brussels to Strasbourg to cover the sitings of the European Parliament.
1:06.0	Normally getting the train is a proper pain, but this week it seemed like a lucky escape.
1:13.7	I bordered the number 9830 via Lille as EU leaders entered their 17th hour of talks about who should fill which positions at the top of the European bureaucracy.
1:27.0	Except, the chaotic rail journey didn't feel that different.
1:32.0	First of all, as I got out of the taxi, there was the beeping of a car horn.
1:36.8	It was the chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, dropping off his son.
1:41.9	Bonjure, I shouted brightly, knowing that his chances of getting one of the top jobs were going up and down like a yo-yo.
1:50.0	Then there were no numbers on the carriages, and no one on the platform to help.
1:55.4	It was the same back at the summit, where the leaders knew what they had to do, but not how to do it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.