World Business Report

US President, Donald Trump welcomes the South Korean leader to the White House to discuss trade. He believes a deal can be done. The South African government has warned young women against taking up unverified foreign job offers promoted on social media campaigns. Plus, we see the true cost of fast fashion in Ghana as piles of unwanted clothes end up on the beaches.

Across the globe postal services are pausing deliveries to the US as Washington prepares to end its long‑held tariff exemption on low‑value parcels.Evergrande, once China’s biggest property giant has now been kicked off the Hong Kong stock market, we bring you the latest twist in its collapse.Plus in Ghana, part of our Africa series, we see the true cost of fast fashion as piles of unwanted clothes end up on the beaches.You can contact us on WhatsApp or send us a voicenote: +44 330 678 3033.

President Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump have visited central Texas today to survey where flash floods killed 120 people last weekend. As search teams continue to search for more than 160 people still missing, Mr Trump and his wife met families affected by the floods and first responders.Dr Sam Brody, Director of the Institute for Disaster Resilient Texas and a Professor at Texas A&M University discusses how disasters like this might be avoided in the future.Also on the programme, what impact could the 35% tariffs for Canada announced by Trump yesterday have on businesses there and why the post-covid trend of converting office buildings to homes is gathering momentum in New York.

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.