Mexico prepares for Trump 2.0

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories from Mexico, Lebanon, Liberia and Tanzania.

Mexico's first woman president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is preparing for a potentially bumpy year, as Donald Trump returns to the White House with threats of tariffs and mass deportations. Will Grant looks at the challenges ahead in 2025.

On Saturday 4th January 1975, Jim Muir pulled up in Beirut, marking the beginning of a decades-long career reporting for the BBC from the Middle East. He recalls what the 'Switzerland of the Middle East' was like in the months before civil war gripped the country, and how it has changed over the years.

The Liberian warlord-turned-politician, Prince Yormie Johnson, recently died at the age of seventy-two. The BBC's former Africa Correspondent, Hilary Andersson, recalls meeting him when she was first starting out as a journalist.

Last year, Reha Kansara and her friends challenged themselves to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. While they made it to the foothills to fulfil their promise, they also discovered a few truths about the adage that it’s the journey, not that destination that really matters.

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello,
0:02.0	Today,
0:03.0	Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.0	Hello, today we travel back in time 50 years
0:09.0	to when our correspondent first arrived in Lebanon,
0:13.0	regarded at the time as the Switzerland of the Middle East.
0:17.0	So what's changed and what's remained the same. We're in Liberia, where we hear
0:23.9	the story of a brief but hair-raising encounter with a warlord as a young journalist first embarked
0:30.3	on her career. And we're in Tanzania, where we scale the heights of Mount Kilimanjaro
0:37.2	and learn some lessons about setting life goals.
0:40.3	But first, in both Mexico and the United States,
0:44.3	2024 was a year much defined by their presidential elections.
0:49.3	The two races produced very different results.
0:52.3	While Donald Trump was re-elected in the US,
0:56.6	Mexican voters did choose their first female president in Claudia Sheenbaum.
1:02.9	The two countries have long-standing close ties,
1:06.6	though the relationship was a rocky one during President Trump's first term.
1:12.1	And that friction looks like it might continue, as Mr. Trump has again threatened to impose high tariffs on
1:17.5	Mexican imports, as well as the mass deportation of illegal migrants.
1:23.5	As Will Grant reports, the challenge for Claudia Shane Baum will be in finding ways to keep her neighbour in the White House happy, while not simply submitting to his demands.
1:35.1	Initially, the similarities between the two voters stood out more than their differences.
1:40.5	Both were middle class, both Latinos, both spoke of an historic election victory with tears in their eyes.
	...

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.