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  • 12 million adults are struggling with bills – an extra two million since the pandemic hit in February, says the Financial Conduct Authority. 31% of UK households have lost income. 25 to 34-year-olds are the most likely to have had a change in employment. Black, Asian and minority ethnic workers are the most likely to have lost hours.
  • Six million small businesses, representing 16.6 million jobs, are at risk of going under due to the pandemic, finds King’s Business School. Two-thirds of small firms only expect trading to worsen, according to a Federation of Small Businesses poll.
  • Chinese financial tech firm Ant Group expects to raise a record-breaking $34 billion when it floats on the stock market for the first time in November. Ant boss Jack Ma – who founded the last record-breaker, Alibaba – is worth $61 billion, estimates Bloomberg.
  • Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) doctors face racial discrimination when applying for more senior roles, says the Royal College of Physicians. 29% of white candidates receive offers after their first shortlisting, compared with 12% of BAME candidates. On average, black doctors earn over £9,000 less, and black nurses around £2,000 less, according to a 2018 study in the British Medical Journal.
  • Donald Trump’s chief of staff has openly declared that “we’re not going to control the pandemic.” When CNN journalists asked Mark Meadows why the Trump government would not try to contain it, he responded: “Because it is a contagious virus.” Er… there you go!
  • Big tech firms in the US are dodging up to $2.8 billion a year of taxes in poorer countries, reckons ActionAid International. These estimates for Facebook, Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet could pay for almost two million nurses in just three years in 20 developing economies. Nationalise the tax dodgers!