You can't have Christmas without a Christmas tree. That seems to be the thinking in France, where the agriculture minister has officially classified the festive firs as "essential items". The decree couldn't come soon enough for an industry that's been badly cut down by the pandemic. Miranda Lin tells us more.

#christmas #EssentialItems #France

As the popular song goes, diamonds are forever. But mining just one carat of the costly arm candy results in long-lasting impact on the environment too. The nearly 90-billion-dollar diamond industry has also had to come to terms with accusations that it fuels conflict in war-torn countries. Now, a British company has developed a process to make diamonds out of thin air, and clean it at the same time. As Tayyibe Aydin reports, it could help the industry polish up its image.

#Diamonds #Carbondioxide #SkyDiamonds

The US commercial fishing industry experienced a 30% drop in revenue when COVID-19 hit in March, according to the National Seafood Association. As restaurants, cafeterias and catering halls shut down, New York's wholesale fish sellers felt the blow. Kyoko Gasha has more on how they've had to change their business models to stay afloat.

#UScommercialFishing #Pandemic #FishingIndustry

British retail group, Arcadia is on the verge of collapsing and becoming the first major corporate casualty of the pandemic. The group, run by the self-described "King of the High Street" Philip Green, has 550 stores and employs 13,000 people. The group includes names like Top Shop. In recent years it has been losing market share to newer, online rivals. And the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown have delivered a potentially fatal blow. Simon McGregor-Wood has more. Craig Erlam joined us live in London, he's a Senior Market analyst at OANDA.

#Arcadia #UKretailsales #UKlockdowns

We start with the Turkish economy, which grew at a better-than-expected pace in the third quarter. The nation outperformed all other major emerging markets thanks to a flood of cheap credit and the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions. As Paolo Montecillo reports, the government is betting on a series of reforms to sustain the expansion. For more, we spoke to Taha Arvas here in Istanbul. He's an economist and a financial columnist at the Daily Sabah newspaper.

#TurkeyEconomy #InterestRates #FinancialSector

Pakistan's largest and most populous city, Karachi, is ever-expanding. Now, Prime Minister Imran Khan is determined to convert the uninhabited Bundle Island,~off the coast of the city,~into a huge real-estate project. But critics say the plan runs counter to his green pledges and could trigger an environmental disaster. Rahul Radhakrishnan has more.

#Pakistan #Karachi #Mangroves

Views of anti-vaxxers are well known, but there are other people who are hesitant about the vaccines, worried about how quickly they've been developed. Research from University College London and Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir has shown that some of the people who don't want the vaccine are still unsure about the origin of the virus, and that conspiracy theories are affecting their decisions. Our health correspondent Nicola Hill reports.

#CoronavirusPandemic #Vaccine #SocialDistancing

As Somalia prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections, the Horn of Africa nation - like the rest of the world - is battling the spread of COVID-19. The disease has infected almost four-and- a-half thousand people there, and killed more than a hundred. The World Bank expects Somalia's economy to contract two-and- a-half percent this year because of the outbreak. It would be an interruption to what had been a slow recovery, which had received a boost by a recent agreement to relieve almost 5-billion-dollars' worth of debt by the international community. Somalia's also been hit by severe flooding and a widespread locust infestation that have displaced tens of thousands of residents and destroyed crops. And the economy could take another hit from a possible flare-up in violence amid reports the Trump administration is planning to pull-out hundreds of US troops stationed in the country. We got more on the situation in Somalia with the nation's Commerce and Industry Minister Khaliif Abdi Omar, who joins me here in the studio.

#SomaliaEconomy #NaturalDisasters #PoliticalViolence

The Philippines is seeing a so-called 'plant-demic', as people turn to gardening to relieve stress and boredom from spending more time at home. Business is blooming for florists and nurseries, who have been struggling due to coronavirus lockdowns. But as Laila Humairah reports, the skyrocketing demand is also driving up plant poaching.

#Philippines #GardeningCraze #

The UN's trade and development body has urged Israeli occupiers to re-open Gaza, as the economy teeters on the brink of collapse. In its latest report on the cost of the occupation, the UN Conference on Trade and Development says Palestinians should be allowed to trade freely with the rest of the occupied territories, and the world. The report says Israeli occupation of Gaza is estimated to have cost the economy 16.7-billion dollars between 2007 and 2018. That's six times the size of Gaza's GDP in 2018, or 107-percent of the total GDP of Palestine. Mahmoud El Khafif spoke to us from Cairo. He's the co-ordinator of The Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit at UNCTAD, and he's also the main author of the report.

#GazaEconomy #UNtradeanddevelopment #IsraeliOccupation