By BBC World Service
The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.
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The Saudi Pro League has attracted some of the top players from around the world - with transfer fees and salaries amounting to millions of dollars. We travel to Saudi Arabia to look at the country's ambitious plan to become...
Have you tried learning a language online? We explore the growth of language learning platforms with Babbel CEO Arne Schepker, and how the Covid pandemic lead to an increase in learning digitally. Mr Schepker explains how more international working...
The region of Bordeaux in the south-west of France is perhaps the most famous wine-producing area in the world. But it’s struggling. While the prestigious, most expensive wines – Saint-Émilions, Pomerols and Margaux are selling well, others are not....
Sam Bankman-Fried, the American crypto entrepreneur who went from billionaire to bankrupt, is on trial in New York for fraud. The 31-year-old who founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is accused of lying to investors and lenders. He has...
Trick or treat and other traditions are now at the centre of a global multi-billion business. The ancient Celtic and Pagan festival, which started thousands of years ago in Ireland, was taken by emigrants to North America, where it...
Countries around the world are racing to achieve targets on the ban of new petrol and diesel cars - but they are hitting stumbling blocks, meaning some are pulling back on their commitments. Although global sales of electric cars...
After many months of news headlines about whether Elon Musk was going to buy Twitter, he eventually completed the purchase on 27 October 2022. Since then, the company’s been through some big changes; laying off most of its 8000...
In 2015, Akinwumi Adesina was elected President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), and since then he's become a symbol of optimism across the continent. How did he become known as Africa's "optimist-in-chief"? In this edition of Business Daily, Dr...
Short selling has gone mainstream. Inspired by the noisy success of activist short sellers, amateur investors are now trying this highly risky strategy themselves. They’re aided by a slew of new trading apps making it possible to short a stock...
What’s it like to be on the wrong side of a big short? Former CEO Paul Pittman's company was shorted by an anonymous short seller who made false allegations in order to drive its share price down - way down....
Short selling – the trade where you hope a stock’s value will fall rather than rise. If it does, the trader can win. Big. That’s led to the growth of what’s called the activist short seller. A trader who comes...
Andre Schwammlein once wanted to be a pilot – but ended up behind the wheel of a bus and train company instead. The chief executive and co-founder of Flix – the driving force behind Flixbus and Flixtrain - says he...
The development of new sports stadiums and facilities can bring regeneration to deprived areas. They hold a special place in the hearts of sports and live music fans. But have some of the new ones lost their spark? In...
We’re in Kentucky, where an area which had long ago been abandoned as an industrial site is once again coming to life. US manufacturer Ascend Elements has chosen the site to build a factory for electric car batteries made from...
For years, balsa wood has been a key component in the giant rotor blades on the top of wind turbines. Most of it comes from the rain forests of South America and, in particular, from Ecuador. As the world...
In an effort to insulate domestic prices, India has banned exports of non basmati white rice - its largest rice category. We ask what the impact of this is on large importing countries. A rice mill owner in Northern Nigeria...
From Bangladesh to Wall Street and back again, the founder and CEO of Impact Investment Exchange talks to Devina Gupta. Durreen Shahnaz explains how her childhood in socialist Bangladesh and then move to a job on Wall Street in the...
Shares in GameStop, the video game store, experienced a dramatic rise in early in 2021. The stock had captured the imagination of many individual investors who heard about it on social media platforms such as TikTok and Reddit. Some...
In May this year, Nigerian president Bola Tinubu took office – and announced an end to fuel subsidies. He said the move would free up money for investment in public services and infrastructure projects, but it caused a spike...
In 2020, Napa Valley experienced its most destructive wildfire ever. Vineyards burned, leaving not only direct damage, but more long lasting impact with wine affected by smoke taint. We hear how the perennial presence of wildfires means local...
The event is facing its biggest financing challenge in its 93-year history. There is no host city for the next edition in 2026, and the Commonwealth Games Federation is struggling to persuade other cities to host after that. We...
We speak to Greek designer Dimitra Petsa - founder of Di Petsa - a brand which has been worn by celebrities around the world. She graduated from fashion school five years ago and since then has launched her own...
In the UK, brides spend an average of £1,400 on a dress for the big day. But inflation and the rising cost of living means that's starting to change. We look at the trend of spending less on wedding dresses...
Paris is the most visited city in the world and one of the things it’s known for, is fashion. But what is it about the City of Light that makes it a popular destination for businesses? In this programme, Hannah...
Duplicate products, or dupes, are flooding social media. Dupes are clothes, beauty products, homeware that are cheaper than the recognisable brand, but still look similar. We hear from shoppers and fashion experts about this growing trend and its...
Twenty-five years ago Puma became the first big sports brand to collaborate with a fashion house. Since then all of the big players have been collaborating with celebrities, sports stars and high fashion brands. Hannah Mullane speaks to...
The shipping industry is looking for solutions to it's emissions problem. Shipping giant Maersk has just unveiled the world’s first container ship to run on green methanol - is this the answer? We hear from Maersk’s CEO about...
Xi Jinping announced a massive building project along the ‘New Silk Road’ to very little fanfare in Kazakhstan 10 years ago this month. Infrastructure including railways, roads and ports have been built in 165 countries to date, as part...
You may not be familiar with the vicuna, but in Peru, where it's the national animal, the smallest relative of the llama is revered - particularly for its fine and insulating coat. In this programme, Stefania Gozzer travels to the...
What used to be a fairly niche industry is now on the increase, with companies setting up removal clinics around the world. And no surprise – as more people get tattoos, more people night change their minds and want...
Where do you go to get financial advice? More and more people are turning to Instagram, YouTube and TikTok for money matters. David Harper meets the ‘Finfluencers’ – financial influencers entertaining and educating young people around the world, and bringing...
How do you make an artisan product at scale? We head to the UK factory of Biscuiteers, where millions of biscuits are hand-iced every year, from treats shaped like designer bags to edible versions of favourite cartoon characters. ...
It’s been a long wait for tech billionaire Elon Musk to push into India’s EV market. High import duties have kept Tesla out of India so far. Mr Musk has repeatedly sought to lower those duties, but the government...
In the third and final programme of this series on the economics of irregular migration across the Mediterranean, the BBC’s Frey Lindsay sits down with two spokespeople from the European Commission to discuss how irregular crossings across the Mediterranean affect...
In the second of three programmes, we’ll hear about the increasing running costs facing charities involved in running search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Inflated fuel prices, cost of living crises and political interference are all driving the costs of...
In the first of three programmes, the BBC’s Frey Lindsay accompanies the charity rescue vessel the Ocean Viking to explore the myriad costs involved in irregular migration across the Mediterranean. Each year hundreds of thousands of people attempt the extremely...
From losing his job in the 2008 financial crash, to a billion dollar idea. We speak to Mohit Lad, who teamed up with his old college friend Ricardo to trawl through the trash cans of shuttered businesses in Silicon Valley...
We hear from people protesting in the government-controlled city of Sweida. Criticism of President Bashar al-Assad has been growing in Sweida since demonstrations began in mid-August over the removal of fuel subsidies. It's the latest measure that has put a...
K-Pop, short for Korean Popular music, has become a global phenomenon with millions of fans worldwide. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry with 80 million units of physical albums sold in 2022. But a huge chunk of it goes straight to...
We meet the Chinese property tycoon and multi-millionaire who, along with his then-wife, once moved in the highest echelons of power in Beijing. But the couple fell foul of the Chinese government during Xi Jinping’s inexorable rise to power and...
The former British colony in South America boasts the world’s fastest-growing economy at the moment – it expanded by 62 per cent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The reason is oil. Since 2015, US oil major Exxon...
Science is all around us but a lot of it can be difficult to understand. Gareth Mitchell speaks to people building careers around helping make science understandable to the general public. We speak to a YouTuber making music about science,...
It's a rapidly emerging technology that has the potential to solve problems at an incredible pace. At the moment its uses are limited but that hasn’t stopped investment rolling into the sector and businesses from making money as the...
We travel to a facility in the south of England to see one of the super-fast computers in action. We’ll find out what quantum computing has the potential to do, what its going to take to make that a reality...
For all the exciting developments in the synthetic biology industry, there are also concerns. People can edit genes in their garages these days, so who’s regulating this space? Plus - we’ll hear about the exciting new business models with...
In this week’s series focusing on business and science, we start things off by looking at the world of synthetic biology. The industry is estimated to be worth around $30bn in the next few years, but how is that money...
Many of us have drawers and boxes full of beauty products that we never end up finishing. We meet the Nordic start-ups who are trying to cut some of that waste by changing the way we shop. We...
Does the paper industry use too much water? As concern about plastic waste grows, many companies have switched from plastic packaging to paper, but how environmentally friendly is paper production? Uruguay, in South America, has been suffering from...
How does sleep relate to your job, your income, or your socio-economic status? We look at the impact of a good, and bad night’s rest. We discuss the factors affecting sleep, including access to health care, where and...
Delegates will soon descend on Saudi Arabia for perhaps the most consequential meeting in UNESCO’s history. With an extended agenda after last year’s cancellation, it’s the first World Heritage Committee meeting to be held in-person for four years. In this...