Business Daily

President Trump's crackdown on immigrants is popular with his core voters, but less so with corporate America. Manuela Saragosa asks whether this nation of immigrants is about to vote to close the door to the American Dream for millions of foreigners. Among them are Indian IT workers who have been left in limbo by the sudden suspension of H-1B visas, as relayed by immigration lawyer Poorvi Chotani...

Voters will soon decide who will be the next President of the United States, with healthcare – both the Coronavirus response and health coverage in general - being one of the most important issues. We'll hear from one American cancer survivor who lost their coverage during the crisis, and the director of a Missouri hospital on the challenges they've faced during the pandemic. Then, Julie Rovner of...

Tensions with China have simmered for the past three years ever since President Trump initiated the so-called trade war. As Ed Butler hears from tech analyst Dan Wang, the trade war could prove a death sentence for Huawei, one of China's highest-profile firms. So what is likely to change after the US election, depending on who wins? Not much, says China analyst Rui Zhong, as Beijing's priorities u...

Would you feel better tucking into a juicy steak knowing that the cow it comes from is still happily living out its life in a field somewhere? Biotechnology could make that possible. Manuela Saragosa hears from Shannon Falconer at pet food maker Because Animals, who grows real meat in a lab. Jon McIntyre at Motif FoodWorks explains how new technology has made his plant-based products tastier. We a...

Business Weekly hears from the industry that brings viruses back from the dead. The world of biotechnology is rapidly evolving - it recreates the stuff we can’t necessarily touch and feel, like smells and bacteria. Can it help contain future pandemics? Manuela Saragosa explores the risks and opportunities. We also head backstage at the theatre - many shows are having to come up with novel ways to...

Can spider silk and grasshopper rubber, brewed by vats of genetically modified microbes, wean us off our addiction to oil-based plastics? Manuela Saragosa explores what sounds like an environmentalist sci-fi utopia. She speaks to Daniel Meyer, head of corporate planning at Spiber, a Japanese company that is already trying to commercialise clothes and car parts made of synthetic spider silk. Meanwh...

Genetically modified microbes could herald a new industrial revolution - but the technology also poses new dangers. Manuela Saragosa speaks to someone who used it to recreate the horsepox virus - a close cousin of smallpox - from scratch three years ago. Virologist David Evans explains why he did it, and what aspects of this rapidly evolving technology worry him most. One of the companies on the c...

After several countries banned alcohol as part of their lockdown measures, we ask if prohibition ever works? Ed Butler reports from South Africa, where a recent ban on alcohol was welcomed by some healthcare professionals and those fighting violence in the country. Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron and University of California criminologist Emily Owens discuss whether limits on alcohol are ever real...

Journalist Peter Geoghegan describes the many ways in which private money is corrupting democratic politics, encouraging chaos and fuelling public cynicism. In an extended interview with the BBC's Ed Butler, the Irish author and broadcaster explains a Brexit campaign advert that he happened to come across in a local newspaper while visiting the city of Sunderland in the north of England led him to...

Many women feel they are ignored by the larger economy after they reach a certain age, and some of them aren't willing to accept that. Tamasin Ford speaks to Bonnie Marcus, host of the Badass Women at Any Age podcast, who explains how women over 60 can deal with the double-whammy of sexism and ageism in business. Meanwhile, Tricia Cusden tells us about how she started up the cosmetics retailer Loo...

As evidence mounts that Chinese authorities are continuing to incarcerate Uighur Muslims in work camps in the North West of the country we discuss the steps foreign companies should be taking to ensure their businesses don’t benefit from enforced labour. We also have a report on what could be the most severe housing crisis in the recent history of the US. In yet another consequence of the coronavi...

Many Africans are buying Chinese-made smartphones that steal their information. Investigations have shown that the cheap devices are pre-installed with a kind of malware that drains the data allowance and in some cases signs the user up to subscription services without their knowledge. Nathan Collier, from security firm Malwarebytes explains how it works. But David Li of Shenzhen Open Innovation L...

China is accused of detaining millions of people from the Uighur ethnic minority and forcing them to work in factories. Pressure is mounting on foreign businesses to ensure material they source from China does not benefit from that forced labour. Alison Killing, an architect and investigator has found that 268 detention facilities have been built in the Xinjiang province in North-West China in jus...

Some universities fear they have become too financially dependent on fee-paying Chinese students - and thanks to Covid-19, many of them are staying away this year. Salvatore Babones, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, says Australia is particularly vulnerable to this, while Vivienne Stern of Universities UK says it’s just one of a number of serious concerns for UK and US universit...

Catering and hospitality are among the sectors worst hit by the global coronavirus pandemic, with many governments banning in-house dining. Manuela Saragosa speaks to New York Chef Anna Klinger, who owns and manages Al Di La, a Trattoria in Brooklyn. Ka Yi Ong who runs Mini Star, a Singapore eatery that specialises in stinky tofu tells us about its new and very successful delivery service. Micheli...

Why being bored might be good for us. Ed Butler speaks to Kate Greene, a science writer who experienced months of isolation as part of a project to test how astronauts might cope with the boredom of a long trip to Mars. John Eastwood from the Boredom Lab at York University in Toronto and Erin Westgate from the University of Florida discuss the impact boredom can have on our ability to work. Dr San...

Two ancient and archeologically priceless rock shelters in Western Australia were destroyed earlier this year by the mining company Rio Tinto. On this episode of Business Weekly we ask whether the punitive measures imposed on senior executives this week are tough enough. Could biotechnology transform the way we eat and the way we treat animals? We investigate the future of food and find out how a...

Does farming as we know it have a future? We hear from those who argue biotechnology is about to disrupt agriculture for good. Shifting diets and food sources will put one million US farming jobs at risk, according to futurist Tony Seba of the think-tank Rethink X. But cattle farmers are not about to give up their livelihoods so easily. We hear from British farmer Andrew Loftus and Danielle Beck o...

Many of us will have noticed 'friend' or 'follow' requests on our social media from strangers with profiles which don’t quite ring true. They mainly use cloned pictures, often taken from accounts of those in the US military. Zoe Kleinman investigates the global industry of romance scamming, which can have tragic consequences. Zoe hears from Lisa Forte, a cyber security expert from Red Goat Securit...

Is the continent looking at a lost generation of students as Covid-19 forces the majority of education ministries to scrap the entire 2020 Academic year? Tamasin Forde speaks to Folawe Omikunle the CEO of Teach for Nigeria, a charity that places leaders into under-served primary schools as teachers. She says Covid has shone a light on their already crumbling education sector. Professor Lilian Sala...

Can a simple nudge change behaviour for the common good - even in potentially life and death situations? Elizabeth Hotson talks to Helena Rubenstein, Head of Behavioural Science of Innovia Technology, about a successful experiment to stop drink driving and Martine Visser, economics professor at the university of Cape Town, explains how nudging the inhabitants of South Africa’s most populous city t...

Protests have continued in the former Soviet country of Belarus this week and workers have started to strike. How will that affect the struggle for reform and what does it mean for the future of the economy? We hear from businesses there trying to plan for the future. We also hear how women have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Some analysts say the fight for gender eq...

President Trump has given the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok a deadline to sell off its US operations, or else he will have it shut down in the country. Microsoft and Oracle have been rumoured to be interested. Russell Brandom of tech site The Verge tells Ed Butler that the extent of what's on offer is over-hyped. But Jason Davis, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Insead says a US...

Efforts to get healthcare and support materials into Sudan to assist their battle against Coroniavirus are being impeded by sanctions on the country. Although many sanctions have been lifted, Sudan is still listed as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States, meaning many companies are barred from dealing with the country. Dr Husain Abuakar, head of the emergency department at Omdurman Tea...

President Lukashenko has remained defiant in the face of growing protests at his disputed re-election, threatening striking workers with being fired, in a stand-off that could last a long time. Even state broadcasters are raising their voices, as former state TV presenter Dmitry Kohno explains. Ed Butler hears from two leaders in Belarus’ burgeoning tech sector, who worry both for the sector’s con...