Business Matters

San Francisco is set to ban the sale of e-cigarettes. But might the ban actually be bad for public health? We speak to Ellen Huet at Bloomberg in San Francisco. Could security issues in the Strait of Hormuz affect international shipping? We speak to Professor Rockford Weitz, Director of the Fletcher Maritime Studies Program at Tufts University. In the US, the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell has warned against bending to ‘short-term political interests’. We hear from Joe Saluzzi of Themis Trading in New Jersey. The next phase of mobile phone technology, 5G, is on its way across the world. We hear about the concerns that a minority take very seriously. Plus the latest in period drama: Downton Abbey, but set in India in 1795. BBC's Shabnam Mahmood brings us the story. And we're joined throughout the programme by Alexis Goldstein, an activist and financial reform advocate in Washington and Enda Curran from Bloomberg in Hong Kong. Picture description: Customer uses a vape at the Umi Vapes store in Georgia, USA Picture credit: European Photopress Agency

The new sanctions will deny Iran's leadership access to financial resources and foreign financial institutions, which help them conduct transactions. We ask Barbara Slavin, who directs the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, whether the latest sanctions will make much difference? Meanwhile, Ebola presents a clear threat to the economies and people of central and east Africa. The death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo is in excess of 1500. We explore what it means for the countries in the region. And how do you do business in a divided city? Our reporter Ivana Davidovic heads to North Nicosia in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Susannah Streeter is joined on the programme by Sarah Birke, Tokyo bureau chief for The Economist and Peter Morici, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, who's in Washington DC. (Picture: An Iranian rial note and US dollar. Picture credit: Getty Images)

Following months of political turmoil in Sudan and demonstrations of varying sizes, action by the Sudanese military means that the country has effectively been offline since the 3rd of June as Tomi Oladipo reports from Khartoum. The Trump administration shows no sign of backing down in the continung tit-for-tat tariff war between the United States and China. We hear from Kai Ryssdal, host of Marketplace on American Public Media. Sunday is another big political day for Turkey with the people of Istanbul going to the polls to choose their mayor for the second time in four months; the BBC's Ed Butler reports from Istanbul. Friday was International Yoga Day and the yoga industry is now a multi-billion dollar business as the BBC's Tamasin Ford has been finding out. Plus,Lightsail 2 is a spacecraft with a difference - first off it's crowd-funded as Jennifer Vaughan of the Planetary Society explains. And joining us throughout the programme are Alison van Diggelen, host of freshdialogues.com - she's in Silicon Valley and Liz Gwynn of Prime7 News is in New South Wales, Australia. Photo description: In Berlin, an activist dressed in traditional Saudi garb holds a cardboard saw with "blood money" inscribed on it during a protest against Sudan's Transitional Military Council Photo credit: JOHN MACDOUGALL/Getty Images

In a rare bipartisan act the Republican-led Senate passed three resolutions to prevent the sale. The president has promised to veto the action, leaving the deal in limbo. Meantime, in the UK the Court of Appeal ruled that the British government must review the way it grants export licences for arms sales to Saudi Arabia - after ruling that current procedures were unlawful. We unpick the political and financial fallout. We are also looking at Hong Kong - will there be more protests? The campaigners who've been arguing so vociferously, and in such numbers, against a proposed law allowing extradition to mainland China have given the Hong Kong legislature a deadline to scrap it completely. Next week in Bahrain, the first piece of the Trump administration's much-vaunted Middle East peace plan is due to fall into place, at a workshop on the Palestinian economy. But the Palestinian Authority - despite being on the verge of financial collapse - has cut ties with the White House and won't be there. We look at the reasons why. We are taking a closer look at Canadian environmental policies and we are travelling to Africa where the bi-annual Africa Cup of Nations tournament is about to kick off. Organisers hope it will provide a significant boost to the Egyptian economy - but a shadow that often lingers over major sporting events like the Olympic Games is once again stalking this tournament - is the economic benefit of hosting such events over-hyped? Presenter Fegus Nicoll is joined Mike Bird in Hong Kong and Alexander Kaufmann in New York.

The parent company of Google, Alphabet, has long been on the back foot over how it handles sexual harassment allegations, ethical concerns with artificial intelligence systems and its treatment of contract workers. But it has decided that its annual shareholder meeting was not the forum to pass a string of 13 worker and investor proposals on artificial intelligence, antitrust issues and diversity. We hear from activist investor Pat Miguel Tomaino; Maria Noel Fernandez, who is a director with Silicon Vallery Rising, speaking for workers in the LA digital industry and from journalist Paresh Dave, who was at the meeting. We travel to Chennai in India where the very survival of trade and industry is being seriously questioned, because of a major water crisis. Plus, we hear about a project in New York aimed at reducing plastic waste, by encouraging consumers to reuse their containers. We also look ahead towards next week when the messaging app Slack will list in New York with a valuation of around $17bn. Also on the programme, we look at Facebook's controversial plans to launch its own cryptocurrency, Libra. There have been calls for it to be delayed until the US Congress has examined it. Presenter Nigel Cassidy is joined by guests Diane Brady in New York and Madhavan Narayanan in Delhi. (Photo: Google employees stage a walkout in November 2018 in New York. Credit: Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images)