Nexus

Global management consultancy McKinsey & Co has agreed to pay nearly $600 million for 'turbo-charging' the sales of highly addictive opioid painkillers. Normalisation and promotion of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin since the late 1990s has long been recognised as the genesis for America's opioid epidemic which has killed more than half a million people. Addictive opioid painkillers are often a gateway to illicit opioids like heroin. We find out the true cost of America's other epidemic with Greg McNeil whose son Sam died of a heroin overdose aged 28, author Beth Macy who has written extensively about the crisis in her book 'Dopesick' and Rand Corporation researcher Rebecca Haffajee who has spent years studying the policies around opioids in the US.

Has populism come for capitalism? Last week a band of retail investors clubbed together on Reddit to turn the screw on Wall Street with spectacular results The Gamestop saga is one of the most fascinating business stories in years and the so-called 'Reddit Army' isn't through, they've targeted other shares and even commodities. So what's the motivation? Are they a serious force to be reckoned with? And is this really the David and Goliath tale we're lead to believe? We break it down with former SEC lawyer Jacob Frenkel, finance blogger Frances Coppola and proud Gamestop holder Christopher Wehkamp.

The spotlight is on China's mining industry once again after 22 miners were trapped deep underground in Shandong Province for two weeks. Half of them were rescued, but 10 of their colleagues did not make it out alive and one miner is still missing. The story of the rescue is no-doubt a happy one but the real question is why did the mining company wait 30 hours to alert the authorities? Could more men have been saved? And do miners' lives in China and elsewhere matter? We find out with mine rescue expert Brian Robinson, author Jonathan Franklin who covered the 2010 Chile mine rescue and Apo Leong, a labour rights campaigner in Asia.

Brad Yasar mined thousands of coins years ago and they’re now worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but he can’t access them because he’s lost the passwords to his Bitcoin wallets. He's not the only one. Another young man, Stefan Thomas, made headlines recently when he admitted he also couldn’t access his 240 million dollar fortune, he’s tried to unlock his Bitcoin wallet 8 times, and now has just two attempts left. We also look at the case of James Howells, a Welshman who’s lost even more than Stefan Thomas, around 260 million dollars! James threw his Bitcoin hard drive in the bin years ago and it has ended up in a local landfill site, he's been asking if he can dig it up for years.These three men aren’t the only ones to make these sorts of mistakes, it’s estimated around one in five Bitcoins are dormant, because of lost wallets and forgotten passwords, that’s equivalent to around 140 billion dollars!

0:26 – Forgotten Passwords!

18:39 – “I SOLD my HOUSE and bought BITCOIN”

21:02 – “ I want to bring BITCOIN SCAM down”

People in the UK are being warned that they’re now living through the 'worst weeks of the pandemic' More cases than ever, more deaths than ever - a “perilous moment” says the Prime Minister - and what’s really sickening, is that thousands more are expected to die with their chance to be vaccinated just weeks or a few months away - which is why we still urgently need effective treatments. Nexus speaks to the eminent British professor, Sir Christopher Edwards, who believes he came up with an idea for an effective treatment right at the beginning of the pandemic - but is still struggling to get it tested in the UK.

1:36 – UK and CORONAVIRUS

4:01 – What is ‘new treatment’?

9:25 – How ‘Dexamethasone’ and ‘Spironolactone’ work?

19:50 – RECOVERY Trial

Nexus lays out the year ahead - every month has something interesting - especially with all big events delayed by the Pandemic! We focus on three events in particular - a new U.S. president, Brexit Britain and Ghislaine Maxwell's trial linked to her old friend Jeffrey Epstein - will she ever face justice?

2021 EVENTS: 0:40

BIDEN INAUGURATION: 5:20

BREXIT: 12:25

GHISLAINE MAXWELL: 19:00

What a year 2020 has been. The Pandemic overshadowed every world event - even the U.S. presidential election but here at the Nexus we did manage to find some time to cover other stories and speak to some interesting characters who all have their place within those stories; including President Trump’s former communications director Anthony Scaramucci, the former boss of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and the so-called ‘architect of Brexit’ Mr Nigel Farage.

This week we’re looking back at the biggest story of 2020; the Coronavirus pandemic. There have now been more than 75 million reported cases of Covid-19 worldwide and it has spread to every continent except Antarctica. So far, the virus has claimed more than 1.66 million lives and caused the worst economic downturn since World War 2.

Morocco has become the latest country to join President Trump's so-called 'Abraham Accords' a series of foreign policy initiatives which seek to 'normalise relations' between Arab nations and Israel. In return, the United States agreed to recognise the disputed territory of Western Sahara as belonging to Morocco. This is a pretty outrageous move for many of the indigenous people who live there, the Saharawi, who have been fighting for independence for 47 years. We take a detailed look at the deal with analysts from the US, Israel and Morocco and we also hear from the Polisario Front, a group the UN considers to be the legitimate representative of the Saharawi people.

Nigel Farage says he will continue to campaign for the full British Brexit if Boris Johnson bows to the EU

1:06 - Nigel Farage in action

4:31 – Donald Trump and 2020 US Election

11:15 - #TrumpTV and 2024 US Election

14:20 - #Brexit deal

21:57 - #Immigration