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Kate Adie introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents and writers.

Kate Adie introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers telling stories from around the world.

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From Our Own Correspondent: Acapulco in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

09/11/2023

Acapulco in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Acapulco in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis

Hurricane Otis left nearly a million people without adequate food, water or power.

Acapulco was once a playground for Hollywood stars, but fell into decline after years of violence. Now its struggling residents must also deal with the effects of a huge hurricane.

Kate Adie presents stories from Mexico, Israel, Pakistan, Georgia and Romania. 

On October 24, high winds started howling around the Mexican beach city of Acapulco. In barely 12 hours, unseasonably warm seawater off the coast had turned a common tropical storm into Category 5 Hurricane Otis. James Fredrick visited Acapulco in the days after the storm.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, tensions have been rising in Israel’s mixed cities: places which, while majority Jewish, have a sizeable Arab population. Emily Wither meets a grassroots peace group working to bring people from communities together in tense times. 

In October, Pakistan’s government announced that any foreign national who does not have the paperwork to stay in the country would be deported from 1st November. The policy will mostly affect an estimated 1.7 million Afghan nationals in the country. Caroline Davies travelled to the border region to meet those ordered to return. 

Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, a valley region not far from the border with Russia, has a troubled history. In the early 2000s the region became a base for Chechen separatists in their war with Russia, and become synonymous in media coverage with Islamist extremism. In recent years, a group of Chechen women entrepreneurs have taken it upon themselves to change the negative stereotype of their community, as Sally Howard found. 

Romania’s state healthcare service is one of the most poorly funded in the European Union, with several scandals emerging in recent years. Stephen McGrath has reported on Romania’s medical system many times, but recently he found himself at the heart of it - as a patient. 

Producer: Viv Jones
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith 
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman

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