America's 51st State?
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2017
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hurricane Maria has exposed the complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the mainland USA. Kate Adie introduces insight, wit, and analysis from correspondents around the world.
Puerto Ricans are getting used to a new way of life on their storm-ravaged island but not, they tell Aleem Maqbool, getting the help they need from the rest of the United States.
In France, Stephen Sackur assesses President Macron’s chances of rebooting the nation’s economy and asks whether history is repeating itself.
John Sweeney is in Mesquite, once the hometown of Stephen Paddock, as he searches for clues as to what may have motivated the deadliest mass murder in modern America.
In Somalia, Yasmin Ahmed hears young men's dreams of footballing glory and life in Europe – at whatever cost.
And Justin Rowlatt has a confession to make.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello. Today you're elected president, you have plans, but then it's not all plain sailing. |
| 0:12.0 | Not America, but France where Macron's popularity has taken a dive. |
| 0:17.7 | Still no motive for the mass shooting in Las Vegas as we search for clues in the |
| 0:22.3 | killer's hometown. We meet young Somalis who want a different |
| 0:27.2 | future and are planning the dangerous journey to Europe. And pay attention, our correspondent fails to and gets a tattoo. |
| 0:37.0 | Puerto Rico, you lovely island, island of tropical breezers, known to most of us through the ironic song in West Side Story, |
| 0:46.7 | with the chorus, I Like to Be in America. |
| 0:49.9 | It's a complicated relationship. |
| 0:52.0 | The Caribbean Island is what's called unincorporated. a complicated devastating hurricane as Ali MacBool has found life's been tough for the survivors. |
| 1:06.6 | For nearly three and a half million people on Puerto Rico there is a new way of life to get |
| 1:11.8 | used to. |
| 1:13.0 | Without electricity, the day now starts closer to sunrise |
| 1:16.4 | and comes to a halt once it gets dark. |
| 1:19.0 | Communications are near impossible. |
| 1:20.9 | There is little sense of what's happening in the outside world without TV |
| 1:24.7 | or the internet. Credit card machines don't work and cash dispensers do no dispensing. |
| 1:30.5 | And in the tropical heat and humidity, air conditioners no longer hum. |
| 1:36.4 | The current projection is that a quarter of Puerto Rico might have its electricity supply |
| 1:41.4 | back by December. Extraordinary that this is happening in a territory of the most powerful economy in the world. |
| 1:48.7 | The island may not be a state of the USA, but Puerto Ricans are natural-born American citizens. |
| 1:55.2 | They can travel back and forth to the U.S. mainland as they please, and everyone I met in |
... |
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