Business Daily

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 country. And Nicholson Price, Professor at the University of Michigan School of Law in the US, warns that the stakes are different when tech companies collect healthcare than say marketing information. But Dr Robert Wachter, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, says that though these concerns are real, it may be a price we have to pay for better healthcare in the future.

Producers: Frey Lindsay, Laurence Knight.

(Image credit: Getty Creative)

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 University of Memphis, tells us what can go wrong when companies try to expand into new territories without doing their homework. Plus, we get insights from Lisa Thorne, founder of TogetherGlobal.com who helps personnel in international banks better understand their colleagues in different countries; she also tells us about an unfortunate misunderstanding of her own in 1980s Tokyo. Plus, Jab Borgstrom, worldwide chief creative officer of advertising giant BBH Group, explains how his language skills and dyslexia help him approach communication in a very unique way. Plus Bibek Shrestha from NIC ASIA Bank in Kathmandu, Nepal, tells us how a simple greeting can say a thousand words.

Presenter: Elizabeth Hotson

(Picture of people talking via Getty Images).

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 phones, in our bathroom scales, even in our toilets - streaming data back to computerised healthcare systems. That's the vision of Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. But he also tells Ed of the many pitfalls that could await us in this data-driven future. Plus Sarah Deeny of The Healthcare Foundation in the UK raises concerns about the sensitivity of some of the data being handled.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Doctor holds a tablet computer showing an X-ray image; Credit: Getty Images)

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. Elizabeth Campbell, director at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, describes how this can be done without also enabling the Hamas government, which is labelled a terrorist group by the US, EU and Israel.

Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza that has rendered commerce with the outside world almost impossible. But could the economy have great potential, were the blockade ever lifted? Asmaa AbuMezied of Oxfam points to Gaza’s fledgling startup scene, while Manal White of the social enterprise Zaytoun in London highlights the opportunity for Gazan agricultural exports.

Producer: Frey Lindsay

(Picture: Samir Mansour stands before the remains of his bookstore in Gaza; Credit: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)

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 Fox News for sexual harassment and says more has to be done to protect women in the workplace. And how do you deliver bad news? We have a special report on the art of making employees redundant. Do you deliver bad news over Zoom or in person? Or just cancel their work passes? The answer of course is neither - we learn how to do it properly. Plus, as hundreds of prospectors descend on the small village of KwaHlathi in the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, we hear how the discovery of what might be diamonds could potentially transform lives in one of the country's poorest rural areas. Business Weekly is presented by Lucy Burton and produced by Matthew Davies.

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 birth rate will be difficult to reverse. And author and journalist Mei Fong tells us why the one-child policy of the past will make it even harder for Chinese authorities to promote larger families in the future.

(Photo: A nurse holding a baby at an infant care centre in Yongquan, in Chongqing municipality, in southwest China; Credit: Getty Images)

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 Beriwala, director of the major cricket sponsor Shyam Steel, one of the tournament's major sponsors.

But the world's biggest cricketing nation, India, has moved firmly over to the faster-moving - and more profitable - three-hour T20 matches. We hear from cricket writer Sharda Ugra, player-turned-commentator Deep Dasgupta, and sports business analyst Mudar Patherya.

(Picture: Indian batsman Virat Kohli leaves the field after being dismissed in a test match against New Zealand; Credit: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

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 view of Nuala Walsh, founding director of the Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists. But Rachel Suff of the UK's Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development takes issue with. Plus, Dr Frances Frei of the Harvard Business School, who has helped a range of US firms reassess their workplace culture, says there's much still to be done.

Producer: Nisha Patel

(Picture: Woman looking uncomfortable next to a colleague in the office; Credit: Prot Tachapanit / EyeEm)

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 environment safer for women.

Producer: Nisha Patel

(Picture: Gretchen Carlson; Credit: Stephanie Cowen)

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 Labour Organisation, about how the pandemic could exacerbate inequality around the world. At the same time, Mamta Murthi of the World Bank breaks down how progress for young women in the workplace could be rolled back by decades. Finally, Daniel Susskind from Oxford University, explains why those lost jobs might never come back.

Producer: Frey Lindsay

(Image credit: Getty Creative)