After many months of news headlines about whether Elon Musk was going to buy Twitter, he eventually completed the purchase on 27 October 2022.

Since then, the company’s been through some big changes; laying off most of its 8000 employees, a rebrand to ‘X’, and reinstating some previously banned accounts on the platform.

Mr Musk describes himself a free speech absolutist and says he bought Twitter – now called X - to create a space where “a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” However, the company’s faced criticism over lax content moderation, leading to advertisers halting ads on the service. He hopes to boost revenue by making the site a paid-for platform, setting himself some ambitious financial targets.

In this episode, Sam Fenwick speaks to former employees, business owners and journalists to get a picture of what has happened at X since Elon Musk took over.

(Picture: Elon Musk next to a logo for X - formerly known as Twitter. Credit: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Produced by Amber Mehmood and Hannah Mullane

In 2015, Akinwumi Adesina was elected President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), and since then he's become a symbol of optimism across the continent. How did he become known as Africa's "optimist-in-chief"?

In this edition of Business Daily, Dr Adesina tells Peter MacJob what has shaped him as an economist, his outlook for the continent and how Africa could determine the future of renewable energy and green minerals.

He says the international financial architecture should be more inclusive and favourable towards African economies, and the global north should compensate the continent for the adverse impacts of climate change on Africa.

(Picture: Dr Akinwunmi Adesina. Credit: Getty Images)

Presented and produced by Peter MacJob

Short selling has gone mainstream. Inspired by the noisy success of activist short sellers, amateur investors are now trying this highly risky strategy themselves.

They’re aided by a slew of new trading apps making it possible to short a stock or currency in seconds.

Peter Roscoe is a YouTube investing vlogger who’s experienced the highs and lows of short selling.

We also hear from the UK boss of trading app E-Toro – who says shorting has exploded on the platform.

Producer: Ciaran Tracey Presenter: Leanna Byrne

What’s it like to be on the wrong side of a big short? Former CEO Paul Pittman's company was shorted by an anonymous short seller who made false allegations in order to drive its share price down - way down.

This is the story of how Paul and his firm overcame the short attack that cost them millions: and why it’s not just big companies that stand to lose money from rogue shorters on the markets.

Producer: Ciaran Tracey Presenter: Leanna Byrne

Short selling – the trade where you hope a stock’s value will fall rather than rise. If it does, the trader can win. Big.

That’s led to the growth of what’s called the activist short seller. A trader who comes out to tell the world why a company’s stock should be lower than it is. They’re betting on its failure.

Carson Block from the firm Muddy Waters is one of the most prominent new short sellers – vocal on the news and social media, he explains why the companies he shorts are usually the ones with something to hide.

Producer: Ciaran Tracey Presenter: Leanna Byrne

Andre Schwammlein once wanted to be a pilot – but ended up behind the wheel of a bus and train company instead.

The chief executive and co-founder of Flix – the driving force behind Flixbus and Flixtrain - says he was never much of a traveller, but now leads a company that has changed the way millions of people cross countries and continents.

In just 10 years, Flixbus has gone from German startup to global brand - even taking a piece of American heritage: Greyhound.

In this edition of Business Daily, Theo Leggett finds out how the transport entrepreneur got started, the reasons behind the company’s success, and his plans for growth.

(Picture: André Schwämmlein. Credit: Getty Images)

Presented and produced by Theo Leggett

The development of new sports stadiums and facilities can bring regeneration to deprived areas. They hold a special place in the hearts of sports and live music fans. But have some of the new ones lost their spark?

In this edition of Business Daily, Sam Fenwick asks, what gives a stadium its atmosphere and can it be designed in?

Sam speaks to Christopher Lee, whose architecture practice, Populous, has designed 3000 arenas all over the world. He shares his experience of designing iconic grounds like the Yankee Stadium, Wembley Stadium, and Olympic stadiums in Sydney, London and Sochi.

And we hear from BBC World Service listeners, who tell us what makes their favourite sports grounds so special.

(Picture: Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Brayan Bello (66) throws a pitch against the Kansas City Royals in the third inning at Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts. Credit: David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports)

Presented and produced by Sam Fenwick

We’re in Kentucky, where an area which had long ago been abandoned as an industrial site is once again coming to life.

US manufacturer Ascend Elements has chosen the site to build a factory for electric car batteries made from recycled ones - an industry previously almost entirely based in China.

We explore the government incentives that have drawn the company to build here with US Climate Envoy John Kerry.

And we hear from the local mining community which is hoping the new green manufacturing facility may provide much needed jobs.

Presenter: Faisal Islam Producer: Priya Patel

(Image: A worker at the factory building site in Kentucky. Credit: BBC)

For years, balsa wood has been a key component in the giant rotor blades on the top of wind turbines. Most of it comes from the rain forests of South America and, in particular, from Ecuador.

As the world transitions to green energy, lots of countries – particularly China – have been looking for more balsa to make blades. That pushed up prices, raised questions over sustainability and prompted some companies to look for alternatives to balsa wood. One alternative is PET, a foam made from recycled plastic bottles.

So what should we be using to make the wind turbine blades of the future – biodegradable balsa wood or plastic foam made from old bottles?

We talk to people on both sides of the debate and visit a wind farm in rural England to see the blades in action.

(Picture: Crook Hill wind farm in Rochdale, north of England.)

Presented and produced by Gideon Long

In an effort to insulate domestic prices, India has banned exports of non basmati white rice - its largest rice category.

We ask what the impact of this is on large importing countries.

A rice mill owner in Northern Nigeria tells us how the country is expanding its domestic rice production as a result of India’s curb, and we hear from a retailer in the UAE about the purchasing restriction it placed on customers as soon as the announcement was made.

We look at whether other countries can meet the shortfall of rice in global supply and what this could mean for global food security.

Presenter: Devina Gupta Producer: Amber Mehmood

From Bangladesh to Wall Street and back again, the founder and CEO of Impact Investment Exchange talks to Devina Gupta.

Durreen Shahnaz explains how her childhood in socialist Bangladesh and then move to a job on Wall Street in the 1980s shaped the person and businesswoman she is today.

From trading stamps with her friends and buying pickles with the profit, she moved on to bigger trades at the heart of capitalism. What she learnt there set her up for a life dedicated to trying to make the financial system work for those most in need.

Presenter: Devina Gupta Producer: Hannah Bewley

(Image: Durreen Shahnaz. Credit: Durreen Shahnaz)

Shares in GameStop, the video game store, experienced a dramatic rise in early in 2021. The stock had captured the imagination of many individual investors who heard about it on social media platforms such as TikTok and Reddit.

Some investors made a lot of money, while some hedge funds, who had bet against the stock, lost billions. Eventually, though, GameStop shares crashed back to earth and many investors lost the lot.

The story has been dramatised by Hollywood in ‘Dumb Money’, currently screening in cinemas.

Vivienne Nunis sits down with the film’s director Craig Gillespie and financial journalist Matt Levine to investigate what the GameStop saga teaches us about the power of social media when it comes to influencing the movements of the stock market.

(Picture: Paul Dano as Keith Gill in 'Dumb Money'. Credit: Sony Pictures)

Presented and produced by Vivienne Nunis