meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
From Our Own Correspondent

Cloaked in Mystery

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Making sense of Italian politics, faking the news, and wedding suit shopping in Pakistan. Kate Adie presents correspondents' stories from around the world: James Reynolds looks back on an eventful few months in Italy, and at what filled the gap between elections in March and a new government taking office in June. Emily Webb meets a man accused of being a witch in Papua New Guinea. He says he was almost beaten to death by his own family and now lives in a refuge alongside others who've been branded sorcerers and driven from their land. In preparation for his wedding, Mobeen Azhar finds himself in the sprawling concrete and iron beast that is Zainab market in Karachi. A grimy and sweaty place, he says, that's considered 'too local' for some locals in Pakistan. Sophia Smith Galer meets the male Baladi (or belly) dancer challenging gender stereotypes in Lebanon. And the staged 'murder' of Arcady Babchenko has got Kevin Connolly thinking about fakes, forgeries and the murky world of international espionage.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the BBC.

0:04.0

Hello. Today, when they talk of witch hunts in Papua New Guinea, that's what they really mean.

0:10.0

We meet a man accused of sorcery driven from his village by his own family.

0:15.0

In Karachi our correspondent goes shopping for a wedding suit and explains how to escape what some Pakistanis call living in Tupperware.

0:25.2

In Lebanon we meet the male belly dancer trying to challenge stereotypes and interest others

0:30.6

in this art form.

0:32.4

And in the world of fake news why actively faking news might not be a good idea.

0:39.0

Yesterday in Italy ministers from the anti-establishment five-star movement and the right-wing

0:44.2

league was sworn in under a political and constitutional crisis averted for now at least.

0:50.1

Keeping up with events in Italian politics can be difficult. This is the

0:55.1

65th government there since the Second World War and the past few months have been

0:59.5

particularly eventful. James Reynolds has been endeavouring to keep up.

1:05.0

At the beginning of March, Italy held a general election.

1:09.0

Three months later, it swore in a new populist government.

1:13.0

That's maybe all you need to know.

1:15.0

But in case you're interested, the country filled the gap

1:18.0

between these two events with the following,

1:20.0

half a dozen rounds of coalition talks, a Prime Minister Designate who came, went and came back

1:26.6

again, a second Prime Minister Designate who came and went, a presidential veto, a market crisis, and countless general shrugs of bemusment.

1:37.0

Let's go back a bit. The election winners were the country's populist parties, the five-star movements and the league.

1:44.0

After the vote they got together and promised more welfare spending, tax cuts,

1:49.0

and a close look at Italy's place inside the European Union that this country helped to create.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.