Gaza’s future

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kate Adie introduces dispatches from Egypt, Poland, the USA, Malaysia, and the Mekong River.

Arab leaders convened in Egypt this week to draw up a post-war plan for Gaza - and to counter Donald Trump's proposal to turn it into the 'riviera of the Middle East'. Lyse Doucet travelled to Cairo to report on the new Arab resolve, but found herself being pulled back into the city's own tumultuous history.

Increased uncertainty about the future of Ukraine is fueling a sense of unease in neighboring Poland. The question of 'how safe are we?' is a hot topic of discussion in the country's current presidential election campaign. Adam Easton reports from Warsaw.

In order to tackle the country's opioid crisis, some US states are focussing less on prosecution, and more on treatment. The first state to decriminalise the personal possession of hard drugs was Oregon back in 2020 – a decision it would come to reverse in 2024. Martin Vennard has been to the famously progressive state to find out what’s been happening.

Malaysia has become a global hub for recycling, importing an estimated five million tonnes of plastic each year - but does it really make a difference? Leanna Hosea went to find out what happens to the world's waste once it arrives.

Finally, we head to the banks of the Mekong River, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet. Matthew Gwyther travelled through the region and reflects on how its past and present have being shaped by dominant powers.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, today we're in Poland, where fatigue and fear over the war in Ukraine is shaping the forthcoming presidential election.
0:14.9	In the US, we hear how the state of Oregon tried and failed to decriminalise drugs. We meet the Erin Brokevich of Malaysia
0:24.4	who's been uncovering uncomfortable truths about the country's recycling plants, and we're on the
0:31.0	shores of the Mekong River, where three countries meet, and where China's influence is on the rise.
0:40.2	But first, Arab leaders met for an emergency summit in the Egyptian capital Cairo this week to devise a plan to rebuild Gaza and
0:47.1	to counter President Trump's controversial proposal to relocate more than two million Palestinian
0:53.4	people in order to develop what he calls
0:56.4	a Riviera of the Middle East.
0:59.6	Egypt is playing an increasingly important role in trying to forge a new regional peace
1:05.4	and revive the long-standing aspiration for a Palestinian state.
1:12.6	Our chief international correspondent, Lees Dou Ducet traveled to Cairo to report on this new Arab resolve to move forward.
1:18.7	But she found herself also being pulled back into a tumultuous history gone by.
1:25.1	There's something about Cairo that pulls you back in such a wonderful way.
1:30.6	In the storied heart of this teeming city, history lives,
1:34.3	in the crumbling mansions layered with dust,
1:37.1	the balconies edged with iron lace, the graceful arches,
1:41.0	the windows screened by carved wooden latticework, the Mashrabiya. Grand homes and elegant
1:47.2	apartment blocks of times gone by evoked stories of old families, old eras. The Kyrene houses
1:54.4	architects describe as the soul of the city. And now in these early days of spring, when you can still feel the last bite of winter,
2:03.1	Cairo's urban jumble is festooned with the bright lanterns of Ramadan in the Islamic holy
2:08.5	month of fasting, canopies of shimmering tinsel crowning the streets, yet more reminders of the
2:15.6	cherished, unchanging rituals.
	...

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