Business Daily

As we head towards the postponed Tokyo Olympics, the world’s eyes will be on athletics. But huge controversy is brewing over a new type of super shoe which has led to a recent surge in track and field records. Ivana Davidovic asks whether runners' ability is becoming less and less important for success on the track? And what does that do the sport? US Olympian Mason Ferlic is worried that this is...

Authorities in China ordered Didi to stop taking new ride sharing customers, and banned the sale of the app, because of data sharing issues. Investors in the newly floated company are furious, but this isn’t the first kind of regulatory intervention China has made. So what’s behind this crackdown? As numerous sporting events take place this weekend we’ll be looking at the political power wielded b...

When it comes to climate change, what is the world of finance doing? Manuela Saragosa speaks to Jan Erik Saugestad, executive vice president of Norwegian asset managers Storebrand, whose investments must meet certain environmental, social and governance standards. This week also saw finance ministers from the V20 group of countries most vulnerable to climate change meet virtually. We talk climate...

It’s been six months since the UK’s transition period from the EU ended. While the two sides hammered out arrangements for how various goods-producing sectors would continue to trade post-Brexit, financial services was largely left out of negotiations. We hear from the boss of Euronext, the head of securities trading at the London Stock Exchange, the man who authored a government-commissioned repo...

Can anyone make it in the modern western world with hard work and good education? No, says Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel in conversation with Ed Butler. He says liberal politicians have lied to us, which is why populist politics has taken root. So what's the solution to the failure of globalisation? (Picture: Michael Sandel addresses a theatre audience. Credit: http://justiceharvard.org )

Footballers and other athletes are standing up to the sponsors who subsidise them. Ed Butler speaks to Laurence Halsted, a former British Olympic Fencer who wrote about his concerns about the Games in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016. Sports marketing consultant Tim Crow says the involvement of people's politics in sport makes the usual bonanza for sponsors at events a lot more problematic. Martyn Ziegler,...

Could geothermal energy provide a big missing piece in the puzzle of how to decarbonise the world economy? And do we need the help of oil companies to make use of it? Laurence Knight visits the UK's first ever geothermal power project at United Downs in Cornwall. The project's managing director Dr Ryan Law says it could provide the perfect complement to solar and wind energy, while the resident ge...

Global tourism has lost trillions of dollars during the pandemic, leaving communities who rely on the sector desperate. Now that parts of the world are slowly starting to open up again, Business Weekly asks whether travel can be done safely and sustainably in a pandemic. We hear from an intimacy co-ordinator whose job it is to ensure actors feel comfortable with their sex scenes. She tells us why...

Shareholders and courts pile pressure on the oil majors. Amid falling demand for oil and targets to cut carbon emissions, what role if any do companies like ExxonMobil and Shell have in a decarbonised world? Manuela Saragosa speaks to Aeisha Mastagni from the California State Teachers' Retirement System - a shareholder in ExxonMobil pushing the company to change its long-term strategy. Lord Browne...

There's a bewildering world of milk alternatives. From oats, to tiger nuts, the list of varieties keeps growing but not everyone’s delighted about the march of plant based drinks. Some dairy farmers worry that the rural economy is at risk and just don’t get the hype. Elizabeth Hotson talks to plant-based pioneers, Camilla Barnard, co-founder of Rude Health and Alpro's General Manager Sue Garfitt....

A US government report on UFOs has said there was no clear explanation for the unidentified aircraft, but did not rule out extra-terrestrial origin. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested into searching for signs of alien intelligence. Ed Butler speaks to Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at Cornell University, who has analysed the closest, most likely planets to support alien life. If,...

Women across the globe are leaving their jobs and sometimes careers because they are unsupported at work when they go through the menopause. But could mandated menopause leave re-dress the balance? Ivana Davidovic speaks with Lauren Chiren, who abandoned her high-flying career in finance because her menopause symptoms were so bad she thought she had early onset dementia. Karen Arthur, who also lef...

Is crushing office boredom a curse or an opportunity? Manuela Saragosa hears from David Bolchover, a writer who spent years at major insurance firms with almost nothing to do all day, and Tom Hodgkinson, founder of the Idler magazine, on why being idle is so important to the creative process. (Photo: A man relaxing at work, Credit: Thinkstock)

On this edition of Business Weekly, we look at Tokyo 2020 and hear how the organisers of the Olympic Games are trying to get spectators into the venues, whilst trying to minimise the risk from coronavirus. We also take a look at legal challenges brought against employers who are insisting workers have a Covid vaccination before they re-enter the office. We hear from both an international legal exp...

There is a new job on film sets, a job that has grown out of the #MeToo movement. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Ita O’Brien, the woman who created the guidelines for the role, about why every film set needs an intimacy co-ordinator. Could their inclusion as members of the production team become a legal requirement? We hear from Elizabeth Wagmeister, Variety magazine's senior correspondent in Los Ange...

Big Tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft are moving into AI healthcare services in a big way. But can we trust private, for-profit, companies to use our data properly? Prof Allyson Pollock, director of the Newcastle University Centre for Excellence in Regulatory Science in the UK, tell the BBC's Ed Butler she is alarmed at the rate healthcare services are being privatised in the cou...

Communicating with people from different cultures is a potential minefield. We’ll discover what can happen when things get lost in translation and we’ll also get some tips on how to avoid major clangers and embarrassing faux pas. We hear from Nazir Ul-Ghani, the Europe, Middle East and Africa director of the software tool Workplace from Facebook and Roger Kreuz, a professor of psychology at the Un...

Is medicine about to be transformed by digitisation and artificial intelligence? Ed Butler has his cognitive abilities assessed by a computer app. Thomas Sawyer of the health tech company Cognetivity, which developed the AI-assisted app claims it will help revolutionise the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's. But pretty soon our wellbeing could be monitored by multiple apps - on our phon...

Israel's military says it struck a thousand targets in Gaza last month, in response to more than 4,300 missiles it claims were fired into Israel. With the latest bout of violence now over, the reconstruction can begin once again. Manuela Saragosa speaks to Samir Mansour, who saw his famous Gaza bookshop destroyed before his eyes. International donors want to help rebuild businesses like Samir's. E...

This week, two Americans went on trial in Japan, accused of smuggling former Nissan chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, out of the country in a music equipment box. On Business Weekly, we ask why they did it and if Mr Ghosn will ever face Japanese justice. We hear from the broadcaster, author and activist, Gretchen Carlson, about the role she played in the #metoo movement. She sued her former boss at F...

After decades of restrictions, China's leaders want women to have more children. But will a 'three-child' policy prevent a decline in China's population? Ed Butler speaks to Professor Stein Emil Vollset from the University of Washington School of Medicine about the dramatic population declines expected in many countries including China. China demographics expert Yong Cai explains why the declining...

Do audiences, sponsors and broadcasters still have the patience for five-day matches? Or is the future now with the shorter one-day and Twenty20 formats? Rahul Tandon speaks to Geoff Allardice, general manager of cricket for the International Cricket Council, about his hopes that the inaugural World Test Championship final this year will reinvigorate traditional long-form cricket, as well as Lalit...

Can technology help victims of sexual harassment feel more confident in reporting their perpetrators? Ed Butler hears how the #MeToo movement inspired Ariel Weindling to start up a reporting app called #NotMe. Meanwhile, Neta Maidev's own experience of sexual harassment eventually led her to create another app - Vault Platform. But can HR departments sometimes be part of the problem? That's the vi...

Five years ago she successfully sued her former boss at Fox News, Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment. Now, American broadcaster Gretchen Carlson tells Ed Butler about how she helped kick off the #MeToo movement, why major American companies continue to gag employees and protect workplace predators through non-disclosure agreements, and how she is fighting in Washington DC to make the working envir...

The UN has predicted it could take two years for the world job market to recover from the Coronavirus pandemic. The hardest hit could be young jobseekers, who had almost got a foot in the door before it closed. We’ll hear from young people around the world, who have found their employment prospects shattered by the pandemic. We’ll also hear from Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Lab...