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From Our Own Correspondent: The King and Thais

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(Image: Anti-government protest in Bangkok. Credit: EPA/Rungroj Yongrit)

24/10/2020 GMT

The King and Thais

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, The King and Thais

Deference to royalty falters in Thailand. Plus stories from the USA, China and Jordan

A culture of unquestioning deference to royalty is faltering in Thailand. Also: America's status in China and in Africa, and a story of Covid and a cobbler in Jordan

Thailand's monarchy is used to a culture of deference - and has many laws and friends in government to defend it. But in recent months the country's seen mass protests, especially by young people, questioning royal prerogatives and privilege - and calling its traditionalist, royalist government to account. There have been unprecedented scenes - and words - in Bangkok. The BBC's Jonathan Head explores what a new generation of protesters are rejecting - and want in future. 

Pascale Harter introduces this and other dispatches from correspondents, journalists and writers around the world.

In China there's great public interest in the US Presidential Election - and Stephen McDonell finds that there are some surprising bedfellows among the people who'd prefer a win for Donald Trump. From senior Communist Party officials to pro-democracy dissidents, and members of ethnic minorities and the Falun Gong movement, there are some very different reasons for backing the incumbent candidate.

Jordan's social life and its economy both suffered this year during a Covid lockdown. Charlie Faulkner shares the personal consequences for one man in its capital, Amman: a cobbler from Egypt who's been repairing shoes in the same shop for decades. He's just one of many thousands of migrant workers in Jordan who are now nervous about leaving the country - even to visit family back home - for fear they might not be allowed back in. 

And Andrew Harding considers American prestige on the African continent. What lessons has the Trump administration offered to African leaders? And what lessons might Africa have for America in return? 
 

(Image: Anti-government protest in Bangkok. Credit: EPA/Rungroj Yongrit)

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