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The chief executive of the World Economic Forum steps down over ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Sarah Rogers.
Also on the programme we'll be hearing from Volvo over the recall of thousands of its electric cars over a fire risk with some of its batteries.
Yes, but first.
The chief executive of the World Economic Forum has quit following an investigation into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Berger-Brenda joins a growing number of business executives who stepped down over connections to the late sex offender.
Our international business correspondent Theo Leggett has the latest on this.
He's come under fire as a result of the Epstein files, which appeared to show a friendly relationship between him and the late sex offender, who he met and dined with on several occasions.
He says he didn't know about Mr Epstein's previous criminal convictions.
Either way, the WAF launched an investigation into the links between the two, and now he has stepped down.
And what has Borger Brenda said about this?
He hasn't said a lot.
We have had a press statement today from the World Economic Forum itself and from Berger-Brenda.
And they're both very anodyne, really extending thanks to one another, talking about the past eight and a half years and how wonderful it's been.
But none of them, in fact, referring to the Epstein files or to the revelations that seem to have provoked his downfall.
Now there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing, but a link of any kind to Jeffrey Epstein, and we know, as those files were released, anyone's name that appears.
It does cause reputational damage.
It It does.
And especially when those links seem to be friendly links that occurred years after Mr Epstein had already been convicted of a sex offence.
And that seems to be the problem here.
And if you look at the files, these are friendly communications saying thank you for dinner.
There's a little bit of matey jockeying as well.
And Burger Brand is actually referred to in some other exchanges with third parties.
So it creates this impression, whether it's right or wrong, of congeniality, of friendship with somebody who, by an outsider's perspective, ought to have been seen as beyond the pale.
Thank you very much.
That from Theo Leggett.
Now the price of lithium, a key ingredient in EV batteries, has surged, after one of the world's top producers Zimbabwe, suddenly banned exports.
The African country supplies around 10 of the world's mined lithium, most of it going to China for processing.
The ban aimed at focusing production domestically and stopping illegal shipments has now taken effect immediately and will remain in place until further notice.
BBC's Shingai Nyoke in Harare told me it's meant uncertainty.
It's caused a lot of confusion because the government had put in place a ban that will come into effect in 2027, where it would effectively ban the export of lithium concentrate.
And so this announcement, I think, has sent markets into a panic.
China, for example, the markets there.
There's been a jump in the price of lithium by between 6 and 10 percent because there's concern about the future supply.
Zimbabwe is a major supplier to China.
It's the second largest, after Australia, supplying about 10 to 15 percent of the lithium that China needs.
If the aim is more domestic production, is Zimbabwe ready for that?
Does it have the infrastructure?
There has been significant investment since China came into Zimbabwe in 2022.
They've invested about US$2 billion to build mines as well as processing plants.
Out of those five producers, only two of them, so a minority of them, are working towards establishing these processing plants locally.
One of them has completed their plant at a cost of about half a billion dollars.
And there's another that's still in the pipeline.
So Zimbabwe would not really be ready at this stage to be able to produce the lithium sulfate beyond the lithium concentrate that it's currently producing at the moment.
And I think that's the concern.
Now with me today, Emma Wall, Chief Investment Strategist at Hargreaves Lansdowne.
Now we've just been listening to that from Shingai Nyoka.
Now the move has seen shares of lithium and producers from China to Australia jump.
Are the markets overreacting a bit?
I think it's a fair reaction, because there definitely will be short-term disruption to supply chains.
We've heard there that actually Zimbabwe may have intentions to resupply to the market but not initially because of how much investment has to go into production.
Lithium is absolutely imperative to so much of what we do every day now.
The phone that people speak on, the laptops that they use, the cars that they drive all require lithium batteries.
And so I do think the market is reacting to the short-term disruption, which is going to happen.
Emma, thank you for now.
Japan's birth rate has fallen for a tenth year in a row to an all-time low.
Health ministry data shows just over 700,000 babies were born last year.
The drop adds to a host of problems for new PM Sanai Takeichi, including labour shortages, ballooning social security bills and fewer workers paying tax.
It's also helping drive Japan's debt ratio, which is the highest among major economies.
Now, let's bring back Emma Wall.
Stellantis, who own Jeep and Fiat, announcing less than favourable results today.
They have.
But interesting.
The share price has gone up because, alongside those less than favourable results in which they blame tariffs in the US which is very interesting because in the last 24 hours we've also had Aston Martin announced jobs being cut because of tariffs in the US as well
Solantis has also made the kind of very divisive announcement that they will be reviving their petrol and diesel models in the US and Europe.
And the market seems to be reacting favourably to that.
But it is a difficult week for car manufacturers.
We've also been focusing on who might take over at Warner Brothers.
Could it be Paramount or could it be Netflix?
It's the saga that's gone on and on.
Whilst all this has been going on, Warner Brothers Discovery reported its fourth quarter results today, streaming up, but it's losing money.
Yeah, revenue is down, earnings are down.
And in particular, the biggest segment, which is all its TV revenue, is down there, because they're just not getting as much money as they used to for ad sales.
I mean, this is why it's up for sale.
It is challenged.
It has some great assets.
But Paramount and Netflix are still kind of locked in this battle.
Paramount hiked its bid last week and the rumour mill is that Netflix is literally on its way right now to go and counterdeal.
So it'll be interesting to see how these results are reflected in that bid.
Emma Wall, thank you.
Now the managing director of Volvo UK has been speaking to the BBC after a firm had to recall more than 40000 models of one of its electric cars over battery fire concerns.
The Swedish car firm has already issued a warning to owners of the EX30 not to charge above 70 due to fire risks.
Nicole Malelio spoke to the BBC's Big Boss podcast.
It's never good to have this kind of a spotlight, and I completely empathise with anyone who's experienced this.
We have a proportion of our EX30 cars that had risk of catching fire when they've been charged beyond 70.
So, as a safety brand, and safety being our top priority, we have advised customers not to charge beyond 70 until we find a fit.
So we've been working really hard, hard and quickly to get to a solution, which we now have.
We found the root cause and I expect next week to be able to get those cars in and start to fix them.
I guess the important bit is that there's been a tiny percentage that have caught fire globally 002.
So a tiny amount, but we still take it incredibly seriously.
What sort of time horizon would people expect that to be fixed within?
It depends on the amount of parts, which I'm just getting the information from, how quickly we can resolve it.
The important thing is we've found the root cause because it means we know what we need to do.
We've given customers free charging as a result as well, to make sure that they can have some recompense in the meantime.
So I can't answer the question around how long.
It depends on how quickly the parts come through.
But I do know they're going to start coming through the third week of March.
And you can hear all of Sean Farrington's interview with McColl Malilo Shaw in the latest episode of the Big Boss interview wherever you get your BBC podcast.
Now, that's it from World Business Express with me, Sarah Rogers.
And you can subscribe to us.
Easy for me to say.
Search for World Business Express wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Thanks for listening.
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