The property market in some US cities has still not recovered from the 2008 meltdown, while others may be seeing the return of risky subprime lending.

Vishala Sri-Pathma travels to Slavic Village in Cleveland, Ohio, which became a by-word for the mass repossessions that followed the bursting of the housing bubble a decade ago. In the nearby Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, where property prices remain 70% below their peak and many houses are still boarded up, Anita Gardner has set up a community group to help residents with housing problems.

Meanwhile on the other side of the nation, Austin in Texas is the fastest growing city in the US, thanks to an oil and tech boom. But Edward Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute explains why there are fears that the loosely regulated federal housing loans that are fuelling this boom could be the next subprime crisis in the making.

(Picture: A resident walks past a boarded up building in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Cleveland, Ohio; Credit: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

Five years ago, Cyprus was in crisis. An international bail-out worth over ten billion dollars saved the economy from meltdown, but also cemented the Mediterranean country’s ties to wealthy Russians. Many of them received a slice of Cypriot banks for cash seized from their accounts to help fund the rescue plan. A controversial and lucrative investment-for-passport scheme has also attracted Russian money - as well as new EU scrutiny.

While many banks have ditched their Russian clients and authorities have implemented a new system of stringent checks, Ivana Davidovic travels to the port of Limassol to investigate whether Cyprus has really cleaned up its act.

(Picture: Yachts line the marina in Limassol, Cyprus; Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The history of the spice trade, and the human misery behind it, is explored by Katie Prescott.

Katie travels to the spice island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean, where cloves, turmeric, nutmeg and vanilla are still grown to this day. But it also supported a trade in African slaves who worked the spice plantations, as Katie discovers at what was once the local slave market.

Food historian Monica Askay recounts the cultural importance that these spices gained in Europe and the other markets where they ended up, while Rahul Tandon how they came to define Indian cuisine.

(Picture: Spices; Credit: Whitestorm/Getty Images)

Will legal cannabis and smart scooters help transform the atmosphere that Angelenos breathe? Jane Wakefield reports from the Los Angeles on two hi-tech industries hoping citizens will breathe deeply.

Smart scooters have been taken up with alacrity in a city notorious for its traffic jams and smog, and public official Mike Gatto is a big fan. But not everyone is happy with users' lack of respect for the rules of the road.

Across town, at the clean-cut offices of marijuana app Eaze, Sheena Shiravi explains how getting high is becoming increasingly hi-tech.

(Picture: Airplane landing at Los Angeles Airport above a billboard advertising marijuana delivery service Eaze; Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Are dating apps like Tinder speeding up the decline of the arranged marriage in India? Manuela Saragosa speaks to the brains behind three apps competing in what is a gigantic market for hundreds of millions of lonely hearts.

Mandy Ginsberg, chief executive of Match Group, talks about the generational shift they are seeing in Indian attitudes to dating, having just launched the Tinder app there. Priti Joshi, director of strategy at Bumble describes her surprise that Indian millennials seem unconcerned about dating across social castes. And Gourav Rakshit, who runs the more traditional marriage-focused app Shaadi.com, explains why he thinks the scope for Western-style casual dating is still quite limited in his country.

(Picture: Young Indian woman using mobile phone; Credit: triloks/Getty Images)

Is the telecoms equipment provider a front for Chinese espionage or just the victim of the escalating US-China dispute? Why don't Western governments trust the company to handle its citizens' data?

Following the controversial arrest in Canada of Huawei's finance head Meng Wanzhou, the BBC's Vishala Sri-Pathma asks whether the move is just the latest step in a tech cold war between the US and China. She speaks to Rand Corporation defence analyst Timothy Heath, tech journalist Charles Arthur, and China tech podcaster Elliott Zaagman.

(Picture: Security guard keeps watch at the entrance to the Huawei global headquarters in Shenzhen, China; Credit: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)

Presidential elections in the DRC this weekend come after 17 years of conflict-ridden rule under controversial president Joseph Kabila. Leading businessman and mine-owner Emmanuel Weyi explains why he has pulled out of the presidential race. But the country's mineral wealth also means the elections are being closely watched by international industries. Indigo Ellis from the risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft gives her assessment, and Jack Lifton, a business operations consultant in metals and an expert on cobalt, explains why one mineral produced in the DRC is so important to the emerging electric car industry.

(Photo: Women walk past a campaign poster of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila's chosen successor Emmanual Ramazani Shadary in Kinshasa, Credit: Getty Images)

How technology can help look after an ageing population. Ed Butler visits a care home in Japan where robots are used to help dementia patients, and hears from Adam Gazzaley, a California-based professor of neurology and psychiatry who has developed a video game aimed at keeping older people alert. Computer science academic Alessandro di Nuevo gives an overview of how technology is increasingly employed in elderly care.

(Photo: 'Paro', the therapeutic seal robot with an elderly woman in Japan, Credit: BBC)

The people vying for success in India's tech startup scene. Rahul Tandon explores how Bangalore has turned into a hub for Indian tech startups, and meets the young Indians who have shunned the security of a salaried job in the tech sector to strike out on their own.

(Photo: Interns working at one tech startup in Bangalore, Credit: Getty Images)

Racism persists in the workplace - how do we stop it blighting another generation of talent?

Vishala Sri-Pathma visits Deji Adeoshun, leader of the Moving On Up programme, which seeks to improve employment opportunities for young black men in London, to find out how simply having the wrong name and sounding too street can harm your job prospects.

Business psychologist Binna Kandola explains how racism in the office has mutated into a more subtle form that many white people fail to recognise exists. Plus Michael Caines - one of only two black Michelin-star chefs in the UK - tells of the grit and doggedness he needed to rise to the top of his profession, despite his skin colour.

(Picture: Michael Caines; Credit: Michael Caines)

These are uncertain times. The British Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a vote of confidence in her leadership, but the future of her Brexit deal remains unknown. In the US, Donald Trump faces a hostile Congress and multiple legal threats to his presidency. Meanwhile the IPCC says the entire planet must urgently address the existential challenge of climate change, yet the path forward remains littered with obstacles.

What is the best way to weather all this uncertainty? In a programme first aired in 2016, Manuela Saragosa gets advice from David Tuckett, professor and director of the Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty at University College London. Plus, David Spiegelhalter, Winton professor for the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory, at the University of Cambridge, explains the difference between risk and uncertainty.

Lt Col Steven Gventer of the US Army tells us how soldiers are trained to deal with uncertainty in war. And, Will Borrell, founder and owner of Vestal Vodka and the owner of the Ladies & Gents bar in London, recalls how his customers reacted on the evening after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

(Picture: British Prime Minister Theresa May at the opening day of the G20 Summit in Argentina; Credit: Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images)

Businesses are getting exasperated by the uncertainty over whether and how the UK will leave the EU in three-and-a-half months' time. Britain faces three options - either Prime Minister Theresa May's painstakingly negotiated withdrawal deal, or a traumatic "no deal" Brexit, or the humiliation of cancelling Brexit altogether. None of the three options commands clear majority support either in the UK parliament or among the British public. And as the clock ticks down to 29 March 2019, businesses are hurriedly preparing for all possible scenarios.Manuela Saragosa speaks to Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt; Dr Gemma Tetlow, chief economist at think tank the Institute for Government; and Jacob Thundil, founder of British coconut products exporter Cocofina.

(Picture: A container ship at the port of Felixstowe, UK; Credit: Getty Images)