4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Kate Adie presents stories from Israel, Guatemala, The Philippines, Greece and the Faroe Islands
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is in the Middle East for another round of crisis diplomacy. After the assassination of a senior Hamas leader this week, there are now concerns the conflict will widen. Tom Bateman has just left his post in the Middle East and is now covering US foreign policy from Washington - which as he reflects - might have to draw on some lessons from history.
Ahead of his inauguration next weekend, Bernardo Arevalo, Guatemala's President-elect, has had to contend with a series of attempts to prevent him from taking power. His victory in elections last year confounded all expectations, and was widely seen as a repudiation of Guatemala's political elite, which has been dogged by corruption allegations for many years. But, the country's democratic future is still hanging in the balance, says Rory Sullivan.
Linda Pressly meets with a Catholic priest and a forensic pathologist in the Philippines, who are exhuming the remains of victims of Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. In the process they discover evidence that points to a very different version of events to the official line.
Heidi Fuller-Love visits the Greek island, Antikythera, whose remote and idyllic setting is its greatest allure for visitors, but it also poses its biggest challenge for the small number of residents there. Now the Greek government is paying people 500 euros to live there.
And finally - Tim Ecott reports from the Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic where residents are trying to conserve their land and traditions in the face of an influx of tourists.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Vadon Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
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0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
0:05.0 | Today Guatemala in transition, we hear how the authorities have resorted to dubious tactics to obstruct the country's new president-elect from taking |
0:16.2 | par. We meet a priest under pathologist in the Philippines where exhumations of those killed during the war on drugs are revealing a different story to the official line. |
0:29.0 | In Greece we visit the island that's home to the ancient Antichithara once used to predict solar |
0:35.6 | eclipses and where the government are paying people to go and live. |
0:41.0 | And we're in the self-governing Danish territory of the Pharaoh Islands, where we hear how locals are trying to adapt to a new tourist influx. |
0:50.0 | But first, the killing of a senior Hamas leader this week, Sala Al-A-Laruri in Lebanon, sparked condemnation from its allies in the Middle East, including Iran and Hezbollah. In November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned |
1:07.4 | that Israel would attack Hamas members wherever they are. Israel doesn't confirm or deny assassinations but has previously |
1:16.4 | been involved in targeted killings. Concerns are now growing of a wider regional |
1:22.4 | flare-up. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin |
1:26.6 | is in the Middle East for another round of crisis diplomacy, his fifth visit |
1:31.8 | to the region since the Hamas attacks of October the 7th. |
1:36.4 | The Americans want Israel to move to a lower intensity phase of fighting in Gaza, but so far there are few signs of this. Our |
1:45.7 | correspondent Tom Bateman has just ended a six and a half year posting in the |
1:50.4 | Middle East. He's now reporting on the conflict from Washington covering US foreign policy, which as he reflects, might have to draw on some lessons from history. |
2:01.0 | My last journey from Jerusalem took me along the route 443, a fortified motorway flanked |
2:07.2 | by dystopian walls and surveillance cameras. It's an Israeli-built road heading from the |
2:11.8 | outskirts of occupied East Jerusalem, cutting through the |
2:14.7 | West Bank and taking you via a military checkpoint into Israel. But this trip felt parochial, not political. |
2:22.0 | Some taxi drivers like the 443 |
2:24.3 | forgetting to Bengurian airport |
2:26.2 | as it shaves a few minutes off the journey time |
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