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From Our Own Correspondent

An Emergency Summit in Riyadh

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 Israel’s conflict in Gaza is spilling over into the wider region. Joe Inwood visited an Israeli settlement where Israelis and Palestinians live near each other and found a creeping unease has taken root. In Spain, the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez clinched a vote in parliament to lead Spain for another term as PM. However, a deal he has made with Catalan nationalists triggered a fierce backlash, suggesting this could be an extremely turbulent legislature. Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid. In Chile, the protests against inequality that took place a few years ago drew hundreds of thousands of people to the streets. But the unrest also left 34 people dead and many more injured in clashes with the security forces. A group of musicians, who were among those injured during the protests, have found other ways of making their voices heard as Charis McGowan discovered. As Presidents Xi and Biden met last week, Taiwan remained a sticking point between the leaders. But Taiwan faces another serious threat beyond that of Chinese invasion: its rapidly declining birth rate, which has implications for its economic future. Nuala McGovern was in Taipei. Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:04.6

Good morning.

0:05.8

Today we're among the olive groves and the occupied West Bank

0:10.1

where we hear how the Israel-Gazza conflict has triggered violence and affected people's livelihoods.

0:17.0

From Valencia to Madrid, thousands have taken to the streets across Spain over the new government's decision to grant

0:24.8

amnesty to hundreds of Catalan nationalists. In Chile we meet a rock band campaigning

0:31.9

for police reform and justice after a heavy-handed response

0:36.1

to earlier protests there left several of its members partially sighted or blind. And we're in Taiwan, where the sharp drop in the birth rate

0:46.9

sits in sharp contrast to the rise in popularity of pampered poachers.

0:52.0

But first, Riyadh. It's not often that the leaders of

0:56.6

57 nations can sit down in one place and agree on a single unified policy.

1:03.0

But that was the challenge last weekend as top officials from Arab and Muslim countries

1:08.0

gathered in the Saudi Arabian capital for an emergency summit on the situation in Gaza.

1:14.0

So did it produce anything beyond the speeches?

1:18.0

Our security correspondent Frank Gardner was there.

1:22.0

The hardest thing about reporting on Saudi Arabia is very often the

1:26.2

simple task of getting in. It's not the closed door it used to be, but for journalists

1:31.6

getting access still takes time, patience, and something the Arabs

1:35.3

call Wausetah, connections, influence, friends in the right places.

1:40.0

So when our request for visas to the Saudi embassy was met with,

1:43.2

we're so sorry, but it's too short notice, we can't get you into the summit.

1:46.7

I tried pushing on another door.

...

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