Business Daily

Will the next war be waged online? Ed Butler talks to Nicole Perlroth, winner of the 2021 Financial Times Business Book of the Year for This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends - an investigation into the how governments, spies, criminals and corporations are dealing with - and exploiting - the risks associated with doing business in the digital era.

What can be done to stem the tide of carers quitting the industry? Before the pandemic the healthcare sector struggled to recruit enough workers. Today they're leaving in droves. Citing physical and mental exhaustion, poor working conditions, a lack of appreciation and miserly pay, carers are leaving their jobs - a trend with all the makings of a future skills crisis. The BBC's Rebecca Kesby speaks to Ged Swinton, a member of the Royal College of Nursing who had to leave his job as a frontline nurse after losing patience with an unappreciative government - and abuse from the public. Will Hunter recently returned to his job as an accident and emergency junior doctor, but could only handle part time work after an intense year of pandemic conditions. In the USA we hear from Vicki Good, former president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, who tells us people are leaving the care sector almost as soon as they join, despite spending years in training beforehand. We speak to Lori Peters of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, who says that without decent pay and conditions, the sector won't attract enough workers to fill a skills gap that will only get bigger.

This episode is produced by Russell Newlove, Sarah Hawkins and Elizabeth Hotson.

But are apps that deliver from the shop floor to your front door in minutes just a pandemic-era fad or are they here to stay? Have you ever been in a situation where you needed something delivered right away? A toothbrush you forgot on a trip? Or butter for a recipe you've already started preparing? There are many apps for that – a whole fleet of them – that are now competing for your dwindling time. They promise to get everyday items to you, sometimes in 10 minutes or less. But, is it just a pandemic-era trend, or does it have staying power?

At any given time, about a million American families are looking to adopt and most prefer newborns. The industry is regulated on a state-by-state basis and many advocates argue that, not only the existing rules are not enforced properly, but that much greater federal regulation is needed to ensure that the whole process is ethical and safe.

PHOTO: Woman holding little boys hand walking down the street/Getty Images

The world’s biggest clothing retailer, Inditex, has a new boss, the 37-year old daughter of the company’s founder. Will Marta Ortega manage brands like Zara, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti in the same way her father did or will she take a different path? And do consumers still want fast fashion? Plus, we hear why mining the metals and minerals used in green technologies can contribute to the world’s climate change problems and what is needed to ensure that they are mined in a way that doesn’t infringe on human rights or damage local communities. Also, one of the founders of Transparency International tells us the money stolen by corrupt leaders is being ploughed into western assets like property – with the help of an army of financial and legal professionals. Meanwhile, Covid has forced many workers to re-assess and re-evaluate their lives and as a result, they are quitting their jobs in record numbers. It's being called the Great Resignation. And the increasing appeal of the ukulele; how the small guitar-like instrument is making a big noise among the young. Business Weekly is presented by Matthew Davies and produced by Clare Williamson. (Image: Zara shopper with brown bag; Credit: Getty Images)

Could a more equitable global vaccine rollout have stopped the new variant? As the world waits for more information about just how contagious and dangerous the new Covid-19 variant is, we ask if the emergence of a variant like Omicron could have been avoided – or at least slowed - if people all around the world had been vaccinated at the same pace. Instead, richer countries race to give booster vaccines to their own populations as many poorer countries are still waiting to receive their first jabs.

Tamasin Ford hears from Dr. Richard Mihigo, who coordinates the WHO’s immunisation and vaccine development progamme in Africa. He says it’s not just about shipping jabs to countries; the international community could also step up to help with planning and logistics for the distribution of vaccines. Dr. Atiya Mosam, a public health specialist in South Africa, was disappointed in the way the world reacted when news the new variant came out of her country. She argues that the travel bans that many countries quickly imposed are both discriminatory and ineffective. She also worries that many South African scientists feel they have been punished for being open and honest with the world about their discovery. Dr Meru Sheel, an epidemiologist at the Australian National University, says the issue of vaccine inequality should have been fixed many months ago. She says the vaccines should evenly distributed because it makes the most sense from a public health perspective, and also because it’s the ethical thing to do.

(Image: Passengers at Cape Town airport in South Africa on 29 November 2021. Source: David Silverman/Getty Images)

The collapse of the US energy giant Enron remains one of the most dramatic scandals in modern capitalism, but 20 years on did we learn any of the lessons from the fall of a corporate giant?

Picture Credit: Getty Images

Can the ambitious renewable energy plans of the incoming government overcome domestic nimbyism and Russian gas politics?

Ed Butler hears from one member of the new left-liberal-green coalition, Social Democrat MP Jens Zimmermann, about their plans to phase out coal entirely by 2030, and replace 80% of electricity generation with wind and solar. But building new wind turbines already faces substantial red tape and vociferous opposition from bird conservation groups, as industry man Steffen Lackmann explains.

Meanwhile, how will the government tackle a more pressing matter - Russian President Vladimir Putin's alleged restriction of gas supplies to Europe this winter in order to force German approval for the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Ed speaks to Gustav Gressel, geopolitical analyst at the ECFR think tank, and to Melissa Eddy at the New York Times' Berlin bureau. Plus Yuri Vitrenko, head of Ukraine's gas pipeline company Naftogaz, explains why he fears approval of the pipeline could mean war in his country.

(Picture: Leaders of the incoming German government, including Chancellor-elect Olaf Scholz (centre), inadvertently re-enact the opening scene from Reservoir Dogs; Credit: Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

Authoritarian regimes are working closer than ever to keep each other afloat - with plenty of help from the West's financial system.

Ed Butler speaks to Frank Vogl, who helped found the global anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. He claims that the world's kleptocrats are enabled by an army of bankers, lawyers and accountants who are helping them squirrel away their ill-gotten money in Western real estate and investments.

And for regimes like those of Belarus, Venezuela or Syria, who find their power contested by their own people and their economies in tatters, there is plenty of support to be found these days from other authoritarians - chief among them Russia and China. That's according to the historian, journalist and author Anne Applebaum. The questions is whether the world's democracies will ever get their act together and do something about it?

(Picture: Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro (left) embracing Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko; Credit: Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images)

In Afghanistan, high schools are currently closed to girls, and women have been banned from TV dramas. So how hard is life for the female half of the population, as the Taliban reassert control?

Tamasin Ford hears from her colleague Yalda Hakim, who recently returned to the Afghan capital Kabul, the city of her birth, where she quizzed members of the new regime about their intentions for girls' education. Tamasin also speaks to Mahbouba Seraj of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center in Kabul about what life is now like in the city.

Meanwhile Marianne O’Grady, who worked in Afghanistan for the charity CARE International until she was evacuated in August, says that with food now running desperately short in the country, there are even more pressing concerns than the treatment of women.

(Picture: Afghan girls look out next to a building in Sharan, Afghanistan; Credit: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)