Anti-government protests in Thailand have been heating up for two months. With tens of thousands of people pouring into the streets of the capital, there's a group that's earned a reputation for fuelling protesters. Liz Maddock explains.

#AntiGovernmentProtests #StreetVendors #Thailand

Electric carmaker Tesla has reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit as it ramps up deliveries of vehicles and cashes in on its environmentally friendly operations by selling carbon credits to competitors. The company plans to deliver a record number of cars in the fourth quarter, but could face challenges in gearing up production. For more on this, Chris Jones joins me live from London. He's chief analyst and vice president at technology market research provider, Canalys.

#Tesla #ElectricCars #CarProduction

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has unveiled a new relief package for workers and businesses as more restrictions are imposed across parts of Britain to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus. It includes cash grants of up to 2-thousand 750 dollars for businesses in high-alert areas, doubling self-employed grants from 20 to 40-percent, and changes to the Job Support Scheme which replaces the furlough scheme at the end of this month. Employers will need to pay a minimum of 5-percent while the government pays just over 60-percent of employees' wages. Employees will only need to work a minimum of 20-percent of their contracted hours to qualify for the new scheme- compared to the original 33-percent. The UK is seeing a second wave of the virus, with more than 26-thousand cases recorded on Wednesday.

#UK #Coronavirus #SupportPackage

The US opioid epidemic has killed nearly 450-thousand Americans over the past 20 years. A major cause has been the abuse of prescription painkillers. Now the US Justice Department has reached a settlement worth more than 8-billion- dollars with one of the main culprits, Purdue Pharma. But not everyone believes justice is being served, with the deal stopping short of criminally charging its executives or its owners. Miranda Lin reports. Michael S Vigil is the former Chief of International Operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration. He spoke to us from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

#OxyCotin #Purdue #OpioidCrisis

There are more than 2 million internally displaced refugees in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. The UN says people are struggling to survive in horrific conditions. The price of bread has risen by 22 percent in a month, and more than 30 percent of the bakeries in the area have closed. As Furkan Yagmur reports, one NGO has found a way to make up for a shortage of bread.

#SyriaRefugees #BreadMaking #BreadPrices

In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, waste pickers are anxious about losing their livelihoods. They've had less recyclable waste to sell since the pandemic set in. And though it's been more than three months since the government reopened the economy, people just aren't tossing things away. Adesewa Josh tells us more.

#Kenya #RefuseRecyclers #Lockdown

COVID-19 cases are once again surging across North America and Europe and the World Health Organisation is warning of another devastating wave of fatalities. That's driving Italy, Belgium, Ireland and other European countries to reimpose lockdowns and other restrictions. But, as Mobin Nasir reports, that's threatening the region's nascent economic recovery and raising pressure on governments to offer even more financial support to people and businesses.

#Coronavirus #ReInfections #EUrestrictions

Donald Trump has announced he could soon remove Sudan from the US' list of states that support terrorism. It's been one of the key goals of Sudan's transitional government to get the country back into the international community -- and save its spiralling economy. Miranda Lin has more. Dr Yassir M. Alobaid is the General Manager of Sudanese Independent Center for Social & economic Studies and Consultancy. He spoke to us from the capital, Khartoum

#Sudan #US #SponsorsOfTerrorList

The US government has filed a landmark anti-trust lawsuit against one of the tech industry's biggest firms. The US Justice Department is accusing Google of strangling the competition by abusing its monopoly in the online search market. Several state attorneys- general have joined the DOJ in the case.. which is the most aggressive antitrust action against an American company in more than two decades. We spoke to Santosh Rao, head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners in Princeton, New Jersey.

#Google #AntiCompetitivePractices #FederalLawsuit

A good guitar riff sticks in your head for hours. The talent of the musician is key, but so is the quality of the instrument. And there's one family-run business in the Czech Republic that started life boot-legging guitars under the former regime, but is now supplying some of the biggest stars in the world. Sarah Morice has their story.

#GuitarManufacturer #CzechRepublic #Instruments