Money Talks

France's top-flight football league is in dire straits after failing to auction off its television rights for the next three seasons. Clubs have been haemorrhaging cash since April 2020, when the government cancelled all sporting events due to the coronavirus pandemic. The drop in earnings could force many of them to lay off talent in the face of mounting losses. For more on this, Kieran Maguire joined us from Manchester. He's Sports Finance Specialist at the University of Liverpool.

#Ligue1 #FrenchFootball #TVRights

The US has threatened to reimpose sanctions on Myanmar following a military coup. Washington has called for a concerted international response to pressure the generals into relinquishing power. Monday's takeover saw de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other government officials detained. Natasha Hussain reports. For more on this, Vasuki Shastry joined us from Dubai. He's an associate fellow of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House.

#Myanmar #Sanctions #MilitaryCoup

The eurozone economy shrank almost 7-percent last year after it suffered a contraction in the final months of 2020.. putting it on the verge of a double-dip recession. The latest numbers from Eurostat are putting more pressure on the European Union to improve its roll-out of coronavirus vaccines, which has be criticised for being slow and uneven. But with jabs in short supply, the prospect of a quick economic recovery remains uncertain. Paolo Montecillo reports. For more, we spoke to Carsten Brzeski, head of macro research and chief Eurozone economist at ING.

#EurozoneEconomy #Coronavirus #Vaccine

How much is the Earth worth? What's the monetary value of a rainforest, or a whale? These are more than hypothetical questions. The climate crisis and its financial impacts were major topics at last week's virtual World Economic Forum. And ecologists and economists are increasingly working together to illustrate just how important - and valuable - the global environment is. So how do you put a price on our planet? Melinda Nucifora finds out.

#Ecologists #Nature #Economists

The first 1-million COVID-19 vaccine doses have arrived in South Africa. The AstraZeneca shots will be given to frontline healthcare workers. South Africa has recorded the most coronavirus infections and deaths on the African continent, with more than 1.4-million cases and over 44-thousand deaths. And it's also contending with a more virulent strain of the virus. South Africa's Health Department says it plans to start rolling out the vaccine next Monday. Ntshepeng Motema has more from Johannesburg.

#AstraZeneca #SouthAfrica #Coronavirus

Months of lockdown and millions of cases of COVID-19 jolted India's economy last year, shrinking it by 7-percent. But infection rates are falling and inoculations have begun. The Modi government has unveiled an annual budget worth almost half- a- trillion dollars to help the economy out of recession.. And it could also calm famers who've been protesting contoversial new agricultural laws. Mobin Nasir reports. Sunil Poshakwale joined us from Birmingham. He's a professor of international finance at Cranfield School of Management.

#India #Farmers #Modi

UK households built up an average of nearly 10-thousand dollars in savings during 2020. Lockdowns and restrictions have seen Britain's collective nest egg rise above 200 billion dollars. While millions suffered a fall in income, consumer spending fell even harder, meaning many saw their bank balances rise. For some, this change in spending habits and a more frugal way of living is something they want to continue.. Although the UK government is hoping for a consumer spending boom. Oliver Regan has more.

UKhouseholds #Saving #Pandemic

US President Joe Biden has signed a raft of executive orders to combat the climate change, including a ban on some energy drilling. Biden's reversal of his predecessor Donald Trump's climate policies comes as a new report found that the planet is the hottest it's been in 12 thousand years. Natasha Hussain reports.

#ClimateCrisis #JoeBiden #EnvironmentalPolicy

Shares in GameStop - the US retail stock that's at the centre of a battle between individual and Wall Street investors - have continued their wild ride. Shares in the struggling videogame retailer soared as much as 39-percent on Thursday to 483-dollars, extending this year's rally to more than 2-thousand percent. It also suffered falls of more than 60-percent in the same session, with trading halted at times to reduce volatility. The frenzied trading has seen GameStop's market value surge to as much as 33-billion-dollars, which is a far cry from just a few weeks ago when the company was worth just 1.3-billion- dollars. Day traders gathering on the social networking site, Reddit, have piled into the stock to counter professional investors including hedge funds, who have been betting billions of dollars that GameStop's shares would fall.

#GameStop #ShortSelling #WallStreet

Some of the world's biggest tech firms just had their best quarters ever. That's according to reports released by Apple, Facebook and Tesla, which showed how their businesses continued to flourish despite the pandemic. But it's uncertain how much longer this can last. For more, we spoke to veteren tech analyst Daniel Ives. He's the managing director of Wedbush Securities in New York.

#TechStocks #Apple #Tesla