Business Daily

The history of the spice trade, and the human misery behind it, is explored by Katie Prescott. Katie travels to the spice island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, where cloves, turmeric, nutmeg and vanilla are still grown to this day. But it also supported a trade in African slaves who worked the spice plantations, as Katie discovers at what was once the local slave market. Food historian Monica As...

Will legal cannabis and smart scooters help transform the atmosphere that Angelenos breathe? Jane Wakefield reports from the Los Angeles on two hi-tech industries hoping citizens will breathe deeply. Smart scooters have been taken up with alacrity in a city notorious for its traffic jams and smog, and public official Mike Gatto is a big fan. But not everyone is happy with users' lack of respect fo...

Are dating apps like Tinder speeding up the decline of the arranged marriage in India? Manuela Saragosa speaks to the brains behind three apps competing in what is a gigantic market for hundreds of millions of lonely hearts. Mandy Ginsberg, chief executive of Match Group, talks about the generational shift they are seeing in Indian attitudes to dating, having just launched the Tinder app there. Pr...

Is the telecoms equipment provider a front for Chinese espionage or just the victim of the escalating US-China dispute? Why don't Western governments trust the company to handle its citizens' data? Following the controversial arrest in Canada of Huawei's finance head Meng Wanzhou, the BBC's Vishala Sri-Pathma asks whether the move is just the latest step in a tech cold war between the US and China...

Presidential elections in the DRC this weekend come after 17 years of conflict-ridden rule under controversial president Joseph Kabila. Leading businessman and mine-owner Emmanuel Weyi explains why he has pulled out of the presidential race. But the country's mineral wealth also means the elections are being closely watched by international industries. Indigo Ellis from the risk consultancy Verisk...

How technology can help look after an ageing population. Ed Butler visits a care home in Japan where robots are used to help dementia patients, and hears from Adam Gazzaley, a California-based professor of neurology and psychiatry who has developed a video game aimed at keeping older people alert. Computer science academic Alessandro di Nuevo gives an overview of how technology is increasingly emp...

The people vying for success in India's tech startup scene. Rahul Tandon explores how Bangalore has turned into a hub for Indian tech startups, and meets the young Indians who have shunned the security of a salaried job in the tech sector to strike out on their own. (Photo: Interns working at one tech startup in Bangalore, Credit: Getty Images)

Racism persists in the workplace - how do we stop it blighting another generation of talent? Vishala Sri-Pathma visits Deji Adeoshun, leader of the Moving On Up programme, which seeks to improve employment opportunities for young black men in London, to find out how simply having the wrong name and sounding too street can harm your job prospects. Business psychologist Binna Kandola explains how ra...

These are uncertain times. The British Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a vote of confidence in her leadership, but the future of her Brexit deal remains unknown. In the US, Donald Trump faces a hostile Congress and multiple legal threats to his presidency. Meanwhile the IPCC says the entire planet must urgently address the existential challenge of climate change, yet the path forward remai...

Businesses are getting exasperated by the uncertainty over whether and how the UK will leave the EU in three-and-a-half months' time. Britain faces three options - either Prime Minister Theresa May's painstakingly negotiated withdrawal deal, or a traumatic "no deal" Brexit, or the humiliation of cancelling Brexit altogether. None of the three options commands clear majority support either in the U...

European glass eels are worth a fortune in East Asia, where they're regarded as a delicacy in restaurants in China and Japan. But the lucrative smuggling trade from Europe to Asia is contributing to their status as an endangered species. Ed Butler tries some eel in a restaurant in Japan while UN researcher Florian Stein describes the scale of the smuggling. Andrew Kerr, chairman and founder of Sus...

Donald Trump has threatened to pull the US out of the global postal system, after receiving a letter from the inventor of the "Mighty Mug". Jayme Smaldone tells Manuela Saragosa how he was prompted to write the letter by the inexplicably low prices that Chinese knock-offs of his product were able to charge on online retail platforms in the US. It all boiled down to the arcane system of internation...

It's easy for anyone, from criminals to stalkers, to dig up your personal information online. So is it even possible to disappear in our digital world? Manuela Saragosa is somewhat shocked by Tony McChrystal of data security firm ReputationDefender, when he reveals the personal details he discovered about her from a cursory search on his mobile phone shortly before she interviewed him. Silkie Carl...

Are "voluntourists" - foreigners coming to do well-meaning voluntary work - actually doing more harm than good at developing world orphanages? Manuela Saragosa speaks to one who says she saw the light. Pippa Biddle travelled to Tanzania to help do construction work at an orphanage. But she soon realised that the shoddy work she and her fellow American students were doing was creating more work for...

Fighting for the rights of domestic workers in America, plus other 'forgotten' segments of the economy. Jane Wakefield speaks to Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance in the US, at a TED Women event in California. Yvonne Van Amerongen describes a 'dementia village' in the Netherlands allowing older people with the condition to continue to be part of society rathe...

As the UK's proposed exit from the EU nears, things are getting complicated in the British parliament. We explain the options for Theresa May and MPs with the help of John Rentoul, chief political commentator for the Independent, Jonathan Portes, economics professor at King's College London, and Jill Rutter, programme director at the Institute for Government. Producer: Laurence Knight (Photo: Prot...

Activist Danielle Moss talks about the backlash to the #MeToo movement highlighting abuse of women, while former gang member Eldra Jackson talks about toxic masculinity. Author of Rage Becomes Her, Soraya Chemaly, asks why men are allowed to be angry while women are not. (Photo: A stock image of an angry woman, Credit: Getty Images)

Could the European Parliament elections plus Brexit next year together provide the death knell for the European federalist dream? Populist parties from the far right and far left across Europe hope to take control of the heart of Europe at the 2019 elections. Manuela Saragosa reports from the parliamentary building in Brussels, in the last of our five programmes this week looking at the future of...

The populist government in Warsaw is accused of picking fights with the EU and dividing the public against each other. Ed Butler reports live from the city of Poznan, where some residents tell him that they no longer discuss politics at home because it has become such a divisive topic within their families. In a post-Brexit world, few Poles want to follow the UK in leaving the EU, and most agree t...

Is Brexit boosting a bust-up with Brussels? Gianmarco Senna, is a ruling Lega Party counsellor with the regional Lombardy authority. He told Manuela Saragosa he thinks Brexit is marvellous. But while Italy is unlikely to follow in the UK's footsteps, Manuela is in Milan looking at how Brexit might help the Italian Government extract what it wants from the EU – more money to spend on helping fix th...

President Emmanuel Macron has big plans to shape the future of the European Union. It looks like a multi-speed, multi-lane motorway. Is this really the answer to those who are tiring of the European project? And will trouble at home mean he struggles with his plans anyway? Rob Young speaks to President Macron’s economic adviser, Philippe Aghion who tells him about President Macron's plans to renew...

How do German citizens feel about the future of the world’s largest trading bloc? Ed Butler visits PSM Protech, a specialist engineering firm in Bavaria where he speaks to its owner Irene Wagner about what the EU means to her company plus he asks Volker Wieland, an economics professor at a Frankfurt University and one of Germany’s five key economic advisors, the so-called Wise Men, what the threat...

The Spice Islands' urban planning director, Dr Muhammad Juma, is a pioneer in mapping technology, using drones to get a clear picture of Zanzibar's urban sprawl. But it was an innovation borne out of necessity - the archipelago's population is booming, and so are its slums. Katie Prescott travels to the Tanzanian province to meet the man. She also speaks to drone pilot Khadija Abdulla Ali, one of...

Africa is urbanising at break-neck speed. So how do people keep track of where city amenities are, or indeed which areas are at risk of flooding? It's a job for the cartographers, armed with drones. Katie Prescott reports from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's most populous city. Its population is growing at more than 4% a year, often with little planning. The slums of Kigogo district for example are regu...

Will Britain's role on the world stage be diminished by leaving the EU? Views from veteran pro-Europe UK MP Ken Clarke, Dutch writer Joris Luijendijk and Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm in Washington DC. Producer: Laurence Knight (Photo: British and EU flags at a protest in London in September 2018, Credit: Getty Images)