Business Daily

The secretive Wagner Group has a history of violence in Africa. In this episode, we ask why leaders are outsourcing security to an unaccountable army accused of murders, rapes and torture. We look into the crimes they're accused of committing, the governments they're keeping in power and the business deals making it all possible.

Aanu Adeoye, an Africa expert at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, tells us about the propaganda machine behind Wagner. Keir Giles, a Russia specialist at Chatham House, explains just how intertwined the group is with the Russian state, and Dr Sorcha MacLeod, chair of the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, explains why the presence of groups like Wagner in unstable countries often makes things worse.

Presenter: David Reid Editor: Carmel O'Grady

Audio for this episode was updated on 31 March 2022.

(Photo: Protesters in Mali's capital, Bamako, waved Russian flags during an anti-France demonstration in May 2021. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

In the run up to the US election, prices of food, gas and housing were never far from voter’s minds.

We head to Pennsylvania where food prices have risen faster than anywhere in the US to find out what it’s like for people day-to-day.

And we look at what President-elect Donald Trump has said he could do to help people.

Will it work?

Presented and produced by Monica Miller

How will countries handle challenges like rising debt, inflation, and political tensions? And what new opportunities might arise as the world adapts?

The BBC’s Economics Editor, Faisal Islam, and our Chief Economics Correspondent, Dharshini David, join Ed Butler to discuss the year ahead.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Producer: Izzy Greenfield

(Picture: Numbers 2-0-2-5 printed on blocks of wood, each sitting on top of a stack of coins. Credit: Getty Images)

Even before taking office, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose huge trade tariffs on Mexico, deport millions of undocumented Latino migrants out of the United States and crack down on the flow of drugs like fentanyl from Latin America into the US. And he's threatened to take control of the Panama Canal and re-name the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.

He has criticised the BRICS group of developing nations – which includes Brazil – for floating the idea of a new currency to challenge the dominance of the US dollar in international trade. And he has praised Argentina’s maverick right-wing president Javier Milei for cutting state expenditure.

So what will Trump’s second presidency mean for Latin America – a region that used to be known as “America’s back yard”?

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: [email protected]

Presented and produced by Gideon Long Additional reporting by Vianey Alderete in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

(Picture: The border wall on the US-Mexico border, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 23, 2024. Credit: Reuters)

The coronavirus pandemic allowed many people worldwide to work in new and radical ways. It brought some of the biggest changes for computer-based office workers, many finding themselves working from home for the first time. Research from McKinsey Global Institute, the international management consultancy firm, suggests remote work in some form, is likely to remain for this group of employees. We discuss what the continued shift towards remote work means for both businesses and employees around the world. We hear from Roseleen Kagiri, a remote worker in Nairobi, Kenya, and Hailey Walker who works from home in Chicago in the US. Matt Wilson, co-founder and co-chief executive of Omnipresent, a tech start-up, reveals why his business employs all of its workers remotely. Nick Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University in California tells us about studies he’s done on working from home and how remote work affects productivity, and Harriet Molyneaux, managing director at HSM Advisory, a global advisory group focussed on the future of work based in London, explains why employers are now looking more closely at remote hybrid work to attract and retain the best talent. Presenter/producer: Tara Holmes (Image: Woman sitting at desk with cup of coffee; Credit: Getty)