How are movie producers making money in the age of online streaming? In Hollywood, if you produce a hit show or blockbuster movie, a cut of the profits can lead to extraordinary wealth. That could mean producers lowering their salaries to get a percentage of the box office. But Netflix and other streaming services don’t play by old Hollywood’s rules.

The BBC’s Regan Morris speaks to executives and producers about how Hollywood’s business model is changing as a content arms race from the streaming services transforms the film industry. She speaks to YouTuber Lizzy Sharer; Producers Guild of America co-presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher; producer Rob Henry; and Disney executive Kevin Mayer.

(Picture: 35mm film reel and movie clapper on wooden background; Credit: fergregory/Getty Images)

Is Rwanda's economic success story really all it's cracked up to be? Ed Butler speaks to Tom Wilson, east Africa correspondent at the Financial Times, about some supposedly dodgy statistics behind the economic miracle, and the World Bank aid money reliant upon it. And a former economic advisor to the Rwandan president Paul Kagame describes how economic statistics were routinely distorted during his time in government.

(Photo: Rwandan president Paul Kagame, Credit: Getty Images)

Why do Americans have to pay so much for this life-saving drug? There are reports of some uninsured diabetics dying as a consequence. Even the health insurers and drug manufacturers say the pricing system is broken.

Manuela Saragosa speaks to Laura Marston, a type-1 diabetes sufferer and campaigner from Washington DC, about how she had to sell her house and leave her hometown just to get access to affordable insulin - and she says she is one of the lucky ones. Meanwhile the US Congress and various state law enforcement agencies are now looking into why the price of insulin is so many times higher in the US than in other developed countries.

So who is to blame? Robert Zirkelbach, executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, represents the drugs companies, while David Merritt, executive vice president of public affairs at America's Health Insurance Plans, represents the insurers.

(Photo: Insulin being produced at a factory in France; Credit: Getty Images)

Is the wealth management industry still too geared towards male clients? And how do women plan their finances in countries where they don't even have an equal right to inherit?

Katie Prescott explores the financial literacy gender gap, and how it is slowly being bridged. She speaks to Natasha Pope, private wealth advisor at Goldman Sachs, who explains how their increasing number of wealthy female clients can take a very different approach to planning their financial futures.

Meanwhile the BBC's Georgia Tolley speaks to women in Dubai about the precarious position many Emirati women find themselves in, as the traditional paternalistic role of men in caring for female family members erodes, yet the law does not yet provide genuine financial equality to both genders.

(Picture: Woman analysing financial documents; Credit: Natee127/Getty Images)

What does Donald Trump's shock proposal to buy the island from Denmark tells us about modern-day sovereignty and Arctic geopolitics?

Manuela Saragosa puts the question to two law professors. Joseph Blocher of Duke University explains why the practice of nations buying and selling large tracts of land fell out of favour, and whether it could make a comeback, while Rachael Lorna Johnstone of the University of Akureyri in Iceland says the reaction from the Danish government to Trump's Greenland offer shows how Europeans take the self determination of formally colonised peoples seriously.

Plus Mikaa Mered, professor of Arctic & Antarctic geopolitics at the Ileri School of International Relations in Paris, says the Trump's offer belies his administration's claim not to believe in climate change.

And if you cannot buy another country, why not just carve out your own one? Kevin Baugh is the self-styled President of the Republic of Molossia, a few acres of desert in Nevada and California that has its own customs, passports and national anthem.

(Picture: Old map depicting Greenland and Iceland; Credit: JeanUrsula/Getty Images)

As authorities in Istanbul start evicting undocumented migrants from their city, we look at the challenges facing Syrians generally in Turkey. Shrinking wages, child labour, and increasing hostility from many locals, are Syrians now paying the price of Turkey's economic slowdown?

(Photo: Placards are displayed by people gathered to protest against the Turkish government's recent refugee action, July 27, 2019. Credit: Getty Images.)

Will Jumia and other online retailers overcome a lack of infrastructure, wealth and consumer trust to conquer the African market?

Jumia is widely seen by investors as Africa's answer to Amazon and Alibaba. It launched its shares onto the New York Stock Exchange in April. But despite a billion-dollar valuation and rapid sales growth, the company is not yet turning a profit.

Ed Butler speaks to Kinda Chebib at Euromonitor Digital, as well as Aanu Adeoye, managing editor at Nigeria's leading online technology magazine TechCabal.com, to understand the challenges facing Jumia and other ecommerce platforms, not least the problem that many customers do not trust its delivery people or payments systems.

Jumia's Ugandan CEO, Ron Kawamara, tells us why he is confident that these problems can be overcome. Meanwhile Daniel Yu, founder of the rival business-to-business platform Sokowatch, explains why he draws inspiration from the success of similar firms in China, India and other developing countries.

(Picture: A Jumia delivery man looks at his phone as he sits on a transporter in Abidjan, Nigeria; Credit: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)

Much of east Africa has the potential to be a food basket for the region. But 250 million Africans remain undernourished and many depend on international food aid. That aid is often tied to donor countries export plans, there are wars, drought and famine made worse by climate change. Amy Jadesimi of the Nigerian logistics hub Ladol explains the impact that globalisation and aid dependency have had on African farmers. So what can be done? We hear about the success of the Africa Improved Foods project, started 2 years ago in Rwanda.

(Photo: A fruit seller woman poses for a photo at a market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Credit: Getty Images.)

Turkmenistan's authoritarian president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow mysteriously vanished for a few weeks, while his country faced economic crisis. Then he reappeared. What happened?

Ed Butler asks what is going in this Central Asian nation, considered one of the world's most secluded after North Korea. The president's life and superhuman deeds normally dominate state television, so did his brief disappearance from the airwaves herald ill health or a fall from power? If so, who might succeed him? And how will any new leader tackle the gas-rich country's cash crisis and food shortages?

The programme includes interviews with Bruce Pannier of Radio Free Europe, Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch, Ruslan Myatiev of Turkmen.news, and Adam Hug of the Foreign Policy Centre.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow performs his song Karakum on state television; Credit: Hronika Turkmenistana via YouTube)

Share buybacks are when a publicly-listed company uses some of its spare cash to buy up shares in itself, in order to drive the share price up and benefit shareholders. The practice has become so common that the amount of buyback money extracted from corporations exceeds their profits. Rita McGrath, a professor at Columbia Business School, explains how stock buybacks emerged. But are stock buybacks a good idea? Is it perhaps better to use that money to grow the business in other ways? And crucially, with so many executives paid in shares, is this just a way for them to maximise their own take? Nell Minnow of Value Edge explains why she thinks buybacks are ripe for abuse. But Ken Bertsch, Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors says buybacks don’t need to be totally reined in, but can be used for good.

Photo: Getty Images

A few years back 3D printing was seen as the ground-breaking technology that promised a new industrial revolution. The revolution has not arrived yet. So, were we sold a lie? Or did the hype just get the better of us? Ed Butler talks to Sarah Boisvert, a co-founder at Potomac Photonics, a micro-fabrication company in the US. She explains why the buzz about 3D printing, invented back in 1980, really started to take off only some five or six years ago. She says that the 3D revolution is not untrue, it's just that the hype around it kicked in a little too soon. Ed also visits a start up called Climate Edge which manufactures meteorological equipment and supplies weather data for farmers in Africa. And without printers like this one, its lead designer Gabriel Bruckner says, it probably wouldn't exist. The US research and advisory firm, Gartner has coined the term "The Hype Cycle", describing a five-stage process around any new technology, which invariably seems to involve disillusionment before ultimate widescale adoption. Pete Basiliere of Gartner believes 3D printing is a classic case in point, with only a few industries taking it up.

PHOTO: 3D printer creating a hand. Copyright: Getty Images

A new idea has emerged in the business world over the last few years: maybe employees should take time off whenever they feel like it, and get paid while they do it. Lila MacLellan from online business site Quartz explains why, with people ever more expected to be available around the clock on email, phone or in the office, it might be better to leave it to the worker to decide when they do and don’t need time off without having to justify it. Some companies have embraced this idea. Dr Amantha Imber at Inventium and Felicity Tregonning of Spacelab explain why their companies have decided to let employees take as much time off as they want. But not everybody is convinced. Ben Gateley explains why his company scrapped just such a scheme after seven years.

(Picture: A white sand beach on the island of Koh Phangan off the coast of Koh Samui. Picture credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)