World Business Report

Rahul Tandon reflects on the departure of the company’s Chief Executive David Calhoun. He is set to leave at the end of the year. Could Pakistan be set to resume trade talks with India? We hear from a former Pakistani ambassador to the UK and the US. And we examine why rental costs have risen sharply in some parts of Spain.

Boeing is under pressure after an unused door blew out of a Boeing 737 Max in January shortly after take-off. Will Bain looks at what the changes at the top will mean for the aviation giant as it faces heavy scrutiny following safety incidents and manufacturing issues. Also on the programme: A deadline for Donald Trump to put up the $464m (£365m) penalty for inflating his net worth is due to expire Monday. If he doesn't, the New York Attorney General may start freezing his bank accounts and seizing his property. And as rental costs rise steeply in parts of Spain, Guy Hedgecoe looks at the situation in Ibiza, where the problem is particularly acute due to tourism.

The big event of 2021 that will shape economies all over the world for decades to come was the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow in November. The meeting saw a deluge of promises, but what was actually achieved? Martin Webber speaks to Tim Gould, chief energy economist at the International Energy Agency and economist Irwin Stelzer, from the Hudson Institute in the United States. It was another boom year for the pharmaceutical industry as it crafted the vaccines that have saved so many lives. Of the 8 billion coronavirus vaccinations worldwide, one billion have been delivered by the US logistics company, UPS. We hear from Wes Wealer, President of UPS healthcare. And small business owners have had a bleak time for much of the past year. But many of those that have survived now feel optimistic. We hear from the owner of the Aroma speciality coffee shop in Bologna in Italy, Cristina Caroli, about her year.

Covid-19 is set to prompt radical long term changes to how we live and work, so what lessons can be learnt when we eventually emerge from the pandemic? Could the changes in the way we work herald higher productivity and happier people in the future? We hear the stories of the people who managed to thrive during a very difficult year, including the milkman who saw a boom in deliveries and the dancer who found work in South Korea when the London stage went dark. Martin Webber is joined by Professor Devi Sridhar who holds the Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh; economist Roger Bootle, of Capital Economics; Robert Reich, former Labour Secretary under President Clinton; Tomas Philipson, who was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Mr Trump; and actor Thomas Inge who is currentl starring in the musical Cats in South Korea.