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Main article: Billionaires ‘concerned about their own wealth’
Welcome to Wednesday morning with me, Warren Murray. Here are the stories that are definitely worth watching.
The world’s billionaires have increased their fortunes by more than a quarter to a record $ 10.2 trillion (£ 7.8 trillion) during the coronavirus pandemic, says Swiss bank UBS. This increase came at the height of the crisis from April to July when millions of people around the world lost their jobs or were pushed into government schemes. Josef Stadler, UBS’s director of super-rich banking, said they could buy stocks when markets were crashing and were rewarded when global stocks rallied. Elon Musk has made the most money so far this year with his fortune increasing by $ 76 billion to $ 103 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Jeff Bezos has increased his wealth by $ 74 billion. million to a total of $ 189 billion on the back of the rise in Amazon’s share price.
Luke Hilyard, executive director of the High Pay Center, said that “extreme concentration of wealth is an unpleasant phenomenon from a moral perspective, but it is also economically and socially destructive.” Stadler said billionaires knew the extent of their riches could draw public and political anger. “Is there a risk that society will point them out? Yes, ”he said. “We are at a turning point. The concentration of wealth is as high as in 1905, this is something that worries billionaires. The problem is the power of interest over interest, which makes large amounts of money larger, and the question is to what extent is that sustainable and at what point will society intervene and fight back ”.
‘A house divided’ – Joe Biden has he called for national unity from the civil war battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, rejecting “anger, hatred and division” and presenting the election as a “battle for the soul of the nation.” “Today, once again we are a divided house. But that, my friend, can no longer be. We face too many crises. We have a lot of work to do. “
Biden vowed to rule as an “American President” who would seek bipartisan solutions to the nation’s greatest problems, including the pandemic, racial injustice and economic turmoil. The crisis has spread further in the incumbent president’s administration with the president and joint chief vice president and other isolated military officers after a senior coast guard official with whom they had met tested positive for coronavirus. Meanwhile, Trump has caused outrage by walking away from talks with Democrats for trillions in coronavirus relief, essentially saying he won’t pass a stimulus bill unless he wins the election. A top Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, is among the last in Trump’s circle to test positive.
Waste of Brexit fuel consultants – The scale of the government’s reliance on management consultants has been uncovered, as analysis shows that spending with the top eight companies has increased by 45% to more than 450 million pounds in three years. Figures show that departments at the forefront of EU exit have become increasingly reliant on city consultants, who charge up to £ 3,500 a day. It comes after Lord Agnew, the Minister of Public Service, asked senior mandarins to use the talents of their own staff instead of hiring work. As Rajeev Syal writes, this appears to conflict with the views of Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s senior adviser, who has threatened to shake Whitehall and criticized what he perceives as “groupthink” among public officials. Cummings has presided, while government departments have spent more than £ 56 million on consulting firms to help deal with the pandemic, mostly without giving other companies a chance to compete. Dave Penman, director of the FDA’s public servants union, said that “there appears to be a conflict in the statements that public servants have heard from Lord Agnew and those that come from Cummings and his friends. Does the government trust the civil service or not? “
Catch up on weekdays
> Facebook will ban any Instagram group, page or account that “represents” QAnon, the baseless anti-Semitic conspiracy movement whose followers believe, without evidence, that Donald Trump is waging a secret battle against a global elite of child traffickers.
> The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Sheffield are stopping face-to-face teaching as efforts to reopen campuses appear to fall apart. Read the latest coronavirus developments on our live global blog.
> The world of rock ‘n roll mourns Eddie Van Halen after the legendary guitarist died at age 65 of throat cancer. And at the age of 80, the writer and performer of one of music’s great feel-good hymns also left: Johnny Nash, the crooner-turned-reggae star behind I Can See Clearly Now, which he allegedly wrote while he was recovering from cataract surgery.
> The government’s ambition to offer fiber broadband to all households by 2025 is likely to be lost, says the Social Market Foundation think tank. Their report says issues such as prices and concrete plans to reach remote towns and villages must be addressed.
Knowledge gap – The institute of technology founded by Sir James Dyson will soon have the power to award its own degrees. The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, has 150 engineering students who pay no tuition fees and receive a full-time salary for four years studying and working with Dyson staff. It will start awarding degrees in its own name from 2021 under the legislation that created the route in 2017. Dyson said: “There is no doubt that academic classes in Britain still look down on those with a practical bent, but also there is a broader image problem: engineering is considered boring and difficult. This stigma, and the assumption that you need to devote your days to complex physics, mathematics and chemistry, is part of the reason why the UK engineering shortage is so acute. “
Podcast Today in Focus: How Sweden lives with Covid
The Swedish example is regularly set by libertarian-minded conservatives when they protest against government restrictions aimed at quelling the spread of the virus in the UK. We examine what the Scandinavian country did differently, while one expert explains that it might not necessarily work elsewhere.
How Sweden lives with Covid
Lunchtime Reading: Surviving Learners Tell It All
How does it feel to be stabbed in the back? Do you still yell at them in the street? Are the jobs bogus? Did Lord Sugar use a booster seat? Past winners and losers of The Apprentice relive their traumas and triumphs.
Sport
Rafael Nadal overcame his first real test at this year’s French Open, beating Jannik Sinner in straight sets to reach the Roland Garros semi-final for the record-breaking 13th time. Police are investigating a possible match-fixing case during a French Open doubles match after hundreds of thousands of euros were reportedly staked on a service break in the fifth game of the second set. Next year’s Six Nations tournament could be postponed due to the financial consequences of playing games behind closed doors or in front of small crowds when unions are making cuts imposed by Covid-19.
Former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman destroyed a laptop with “a screwdriver or blunt instrument” before turning it over to forensic experts conducting a doping investigation, a medical court reported. Cristiano Ronaldo’s legal fight against a woman who accuses the Juventus star of raping her in her suite at a Las Vegas resort more than 10 years ago is heading for trial before a federal judge in Nevada. Breanna Stewart scored 26 points as the Seattle Storm won their second WNBA championship in three seasons, sweeping the Las Vegas Aces with a 92-59 loss Tuesday night; while Los Angeles Lakers 102-96 Miami Heat in the fourth game of the men’s final. And finally, The Guardian chooses the best young player from each Premier League club born between September 1, 2003 and August 31, 2004, an age group known as freshmen.
Deal
Taxpayers could lose up to £ 26bn in the government’s most popular Covid-19 business loan scheme due to fraud or an inability to pay it back, the Whitehall spending regulator warned. Asian markets were reasonably quiet overnight despite Trump’s edict that talks on a US stimulus package should end. The FTSE 100 is expected to open slightly lower while the pound is buying $ 1,288 and € 1,098.
The papers
the guardian leads with universities suspending face-to-face teaching, while the photo space heads to a wedding ceremony at a drive-in theater in Essex, where guests watched the ceremony on a big screen. Two views of the prime minister’s conference speech: “Boris, we will come out of this attack of fighting in the dark,” says the Quick But after the prime minister left the door open hanging his speech on wind energy, the Mirror lunges through it with “Bag of Wind”, dismissing “the boastful PM lecture.”
“The best scientists in the world rage against closure” – the Mail says experts want restrictions lifted, except for the elderly and vulnerable. “Rail” would have been more accurate than “rage” because there is nothing in the so-called “Great Barrington Declaration” that conveys a sense of veins popping out of the forehead of epidemiologists. “The cabinet was divided by a stricter blockade,” says the Telegraph while the Times has “Dizzying virus rate leaves Britain on lockdown alert.”
the me Sounds a positive note: “Revealed: Doctors are saving more second wave patients.” the Subway Reports on Facebook and Twitter Censoring Donald Trump’s Fake Flu Posts: “Fake Flu News.” the FOOT leads with the NHS Covid shortage and the image slot goes to Kyrgyzstan, where protests have caused the cancellation of the controversial election result. the Sun reminds us that Remembrance Day is approaching with “Every poppy counts.”
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