En chiffres

The Walt Disney Company has systematically underpaid women, depriving female employees of more than $150m in wages in California since 2015, according to a new analysis of salary data carried out as part of a class-action lawsuit alleging widespread pay gaps at the company. Attorneys for a group of women suing Disney alleged in the state court in Los Angeles that the entertainment and media corporation has paid women an average of 2% less than men doing equivalent jobs, in violation of California’s Equal Pay Act. The case is one of many pay gap class-actions against high-profile companies in recent years.

Patients in England will be able to get prescription medicines for seven commonhealth conditions directly from pharmacies under a blueprint designed to ease the pressure on GP appointments. For the first time, pharmacists will be able to write their own prescriptions, under health changes ministers and NHS England chiefs hope will be introduced from this winter, following a consultation with the industry. The seven conditions covered by the proposal are: earache, UTI, sore throat, sinusitis, infected insect bite, impetigo and shingles. It is hoped the measure will help to free up 15 million slots at doctors’ surgeries.

The Biden administration has proposed the nation’s most ambitious climate regulations to date: two plans designed to ensure that two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032. The new rules would require nothing short of a revolution in the American automobile industry. Last year, all-electric vehicles represented only 5.8 percent of new cars sold in the United States. All-electric trucks were even more rare, making up less than 2 percent of new heavy trucks sold.