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Did you know that..? Was Covid-19’s closest relative discovered in a mine? The world’s “closest known relative” to the Covid-19 virus was found in 2013 by Chinese scientists in an abandoned mine. The virus found in its depths was part of a faecal sample that was frozen and sent to a Chinese laboratory for analysis and storage. Nearly seven years later it “erupted” as Covid-19. The Sunday Times Jeff Bezos passes his own personal wealth milestone. Jeff Bezos has broken his own wealth record. The founder of Amazon commands a net worth that rose to $171.6 billion, more than the GDP of Hungary or Algeria. The valuation broke the previous mark that Bezos, 56, set in 2018, when his holdings were valued at $167.7 billion. There has been a spike in global demand for delivered items during the coronavirus pandemic. Daily Mail Want to boost profits? Hire more women! Large companies with no female executive committee members ‘missed out on £47 billion last year’, research claims. Research by The Pipeline found 15 per cent of major companies had no women in top roles. Companies with no women on highest committees had net profit margin of 1.5% Percentage of women on top teams was 19.8 per cent – 2.7 per cent higher than last year. Daily Mail Scientists predict one million tests by Christmas. Scientists say that Britain will be carrying out a million coronavirus tests a day by Christmas. The government has spent more than £500 million in the past fortnight 10
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on new laboratory-based testing machines. A senior scientist said: “It’s going pretty well. They have really scaled up their capabilities. By Christmas we’ll be at a million a day, I think. That seems perfectly possible. The Times Suits are going out of fashion. Formal wear is gathering dust as people have traded suits for sweatpants during the pandemic. Suits ranked among the most discounted and worst selling items in parts of Europe in September, including France, Germany and Italy, according to data compiled by StyleSage. It’s also affecting the wider supply chain: Reuters reports that merino wool farmers in Australia are switching to other forms of agriculture to survive, while wool mills in northern Italy increasingly produce casual wear and fabrics that don’t stain or crease easily. Lack of demand has also forced several retailers in Europe and the US to close stores permanently. Metro Recession not as bad as first feared. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted the global economy won’t suffer quite as severe a recession as previously forecasted. In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF predicts the global economy will contract by 4.4% this year, which is 0.8 percentage points smaller than its June estimate. It expects the UK economy to decline by 9.8% in 2020 (down from the June forecast of 10.2%). The only G7 economy predicted to experience a sharper decline is Italy – with a predicted 10.6% decrease. The report notes that tourism-dependent economies are in a “particularly difficult spot”. BBC
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