Here is what you need to know.

The US dollar sinks to its lowest level since September. The greenback trades down 0.5% at 94.66 as its loses ground versus all of its major peers aside from the British pound. It has fallen 8.7% from its multi-year high reached on January 3.

Beijing’s home prices fell for the first time in over 2 years. Home prices in Beijing fell 0.4% in June, making for the first decline since February 2015. Smaller cities continued to see gains.

UK CPI eases off its post-Brexit high. Consumer prices in the United Kingdom rose 2.6% year-over-year in June, down from their 2.9% advance in May.

Australia’s central bank is becoming more confident. Minutes released from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s July meeting suggest the central bank has become more upbeat on the Australian economy and labor market.

Netflix soars past growth targets. Netflix added 5.2 million subscribers worldwide, easily beating its forecast of 3.2 million new subscribers. Shares spiked 8% following the results, hitting a record high.

Citi picks a post-Brexit EU hub. The bank will set up a “major new trading operation” in Frankfurt, Germany, according to Sky News.

Tesla adds 2 new board members. James Murdoch, the CEO of 21st Century Fox, and Linda Johnson Rice, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing Company, are the newest members of Tesla’s board of directors.

Stock markets around the world are mixed. China’s Shanghai Composite (+0.35%) led the overnight gains while Germany’s DAX (-0.56%) trails in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open up 0.11% near 2,462.

Earnings reporting picks up. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Harley-Davidson and Lockheed Martin are among the names releasing their quarterly results ahead of the opening bell while IBM and United Continential report after markets close.

Economic data is light. The NAHB Housing Market Index will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.30%.

LONDON – If you’ve ever wondered how much the BBC’s biggest names earn, you won’t have to wait long to find out.

On Wednesday morning, the British broadcaster will publish the salaries of the TV and radio stars on its books who earn more than £150,000 ($195,000) a year.

In doing so, the BBC is following orders from the government. Ministers want the organisation to be more upfront about the way it spends its £3.7 billion income from TV licence fee payers.

The BBC tried to fight off the transparency measures. Director general Tony Hall said it could lead to inflation in star pay and “will not make it easier for the BBC to retain the talent the public love.” But the government prevailed last year as part of negotiations to renew the BBC’s 11-year operating agreement, known as its Royal Charter.

The BBC’s 2016 annual report showed it paid 109 stars more than £150,000, which is the annual salary of Prime Minister Theresa May. Tomorrow, these household names will be identified. Here’s what to expect.

Who are the BBC’s top earners?

Media journalists have long attempted to calculate the earnings of BBC stars.

Although not an exact science, by analysing publically available BBC data, Companies House information, and industry gossip, you can build a pretty good picture of the broadcaster’s high rollers.

It’s safe to say that the BBC will name the likes of “Match of the Day” presenter Gary Lineker and former “Top Gear” host Chris Evans among its top earners. Graham Norton and the man who replaced Evans on “Top Gear,” Matt LeBlanc, are also likely to be identified.

BBC journalists will also be in the spotlight. So, expect names including Laura Kuenssberg, Andrew Neil, John Humphrys, Nick Robinson and Huw Edwards to have their pay made public.

Less is known about how much the BBC pays actors, but don’t be surprised if stars of big dramas like “EastEnders” make the list. That could mean finding out how much Danny Dyer makes for playing pub landlord Mick Carter.

But don’t expect full transparency

The BBC does not have to publish the exact salaries of household names. Instead, pay will be categorised in £50,000 bands, giving us a pretty good idea of how much presenters take home, if not the whole picture.

This may provide some comfort for those reluctant to have their salaries thrust into the public domain, but the reality is that once earnings tip over £1 million, the odd £50,000 becomes a rounding detail.

There will be anger

Some people will be outraged at how much the BBC’s top names earn. Expect The Daily Mail and other right-wing media, who have little but contempt for the broadcaster, to focus on the ugliest figures in the disclosure.

Certain Conservative backbenchers will also bristle. Notable BBC bashers include MPs Philip Davies and Andrew Bridgen. They will almost certainly make themselves available for a quote.

But it’s all about context.

The BBC already pays below the market rate for its biggest stars. It is no secret that presenters can massively increase their earnings at a commercial broadcaster, such as ITV or Sky.

Here’s just one example.

The BBC’s biggest entertainment star is Graham Norton. Our best estimates put his salary at around £2.5 million. ITV’s top entertainment names, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (Ant and Dec), signed a new three-year deal in 2016 that was reportedly worth £30 million. That’s £5 million a year each, or around double what Norton takes home.

Stars are prepared to work for less because they love the BBC. It’s why “The Great British Bake Off” hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins turned down mega bucks and decided not to follow the show to Channel 4 last year. “We’re not going with the dough,” they proclaimed.

It’s an unusual quirk of the TV business, but then the BBC is an unusual institution. It was one of Britain’s best-known brands and is an enormous platform, reaching 96% of British adults every month. The BBC’s unique public service remit, impartiality, and freedom from the whims of advertisers and shareholders are also key attractions for stars.

And here’s some more context. BBC sources say that this year’s annual report will show that its bill for top talent is down 10% year-on-year, and a quarter over the past five years. All of this, at a time of significant inflation in the TV industry. Big spending from Sky and new players, like Netflix, has made the battle for talent more intense than ever and forced up prices.

“There’s this view that people who work for the BBC should be paid the same as the lowliest of civil servants and maybe they should even be doing it for free. This has been a non-issue for so long it’s unreal,” respected media analyst Claire Enders told The Guardian over the weekend.

Expect a gender pay gap

Where the BBC could face justifiable criticism is over discrepancies in gender pay.

Wednesday’s publication will likely reveal that men significantly outnumber women among the BBC’s top earners. It could also show that men pick up much bigger pay cheques.

Citing industry sources, the Daily Telegraph reported that the list of the top-paid stars will have “astounding omissions” and could prove “very embarrassing” for the BBC.

BBC News anchor Fiona Bruce and political editor Laura Kuenssberg are likely to be among the BBC’s best-paid female stars. Bruce reportedly earns between £500,000 and £800,000, while Kuenssberg has a salary of between £300,000 and £350,000, according to the Telegraph.

Top earning men, such as Gary Lineker, earn well over seven figures. If this imbalance is addressed as a result of greater BBC transparency over the coming years, it will be a victory for the government.

Barely anyone in the TV industry thinks it’s a good idea

It is worth remembering that senior figures in TV are on the BBC’s side when it comes to revealing talent pay. The broadcaster has deep reservations about the disclosures – and so do its peers. Speaking last year at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, they piled in to criticise the plans.

ITV director of television Kevin Lygo said “it’s a waste of everyone’s time,” adding it is “a mean-spirited, nosey way of looking at things.” Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt added: “It puts the BBC on the backfoot in a way that’s unhelpful for licence fee payers.”

Viacom-owned Channel 5 agreed. Director of programmes Ben Frow said: “I pay my licence fee and I trust that the people at the BBC spend my money in the best way they see fit.”

This is despite the potential upsides for these rival broadcasters. Put simply, if they know how much the BBC’s biggest stars earn, the easier it is to offer more for their services. It’s what BBC boss Tony Hall was getting at when he said transparency “will not make it easier for the BBC to retain the talent the public love.”

That debate begins in earnest on Wednesday.

Maak je borst maar nat als je wilt werken voor Erika Nardini. Ze is de bestuursvoorzitter van het Amerikaanse sport- en lifestylebedrijf Bartstool Sports. En ze heeft een bijzondere manier om potentiële nieuwe medewerkers uit te testen.

Tegenover de New York Times gaf Nardini onlangs aan hoe ze sollicitanten op de proef stelt. Naar eigen zeggen kan ze “vreselijk” zijn tijdens sollicitatiegesprekken, omdat ze zo ongeduldig is. Maar ze heeft een unieke methode ontwikkeld om te kijken of kandidaten echt geïnteresseerd zijn in een baan.

Sms’je van de baas als sollicitatietest

“Ik doe bijvoorbeeld het volgende. Als we bezig zijn met een sollicitatieronde en iemand mag op gesprek komen, dan sms ik  die persoon iets op zondag om 9 of 11 uur ‘s ochtends. Gewoon om te kijken hoe snel ze reageren.”

Nardini vindt dat iemand binnen drie uur moet kunnen reageren. “Ik ga mensen niet het hele weekend lastig vallen, als ze voor me werken. Maar ze moeten wel flexibel zijn. Ik denk altijd aan werk. Anderen hoeven niet de hele tijd te werken, maar ik wil graag mensen hebben die er ook altijd aan denken.”

De sms-test past bij Nardini’s opvatting over de balans tussen werk en privé. In het interview met de NYT zegt ze ook dat ze werkethos belangrijker vindt “dan bijna wat dan ook”.

Ook meent ze dat “jonge mensen die net gaan werken moeten leren om niet van hun stuk te raken door ongemakkelijke situaties. (…) Het is echt geweldig om je niet op je gemak te voelen”, aldus Nardini. “Daar word je echt een anders mens van.”

Een peiling onder Amerikaanse werknemers uit 2016, waaraan ongeveer 5.000 mensen,  wees uit dat de generatie van millennials zichzelf het sterkst ziet als ‘werkpaarden’, ofwel als werknemers die weinig vrije tijd nemen en veel opgeven voor hun carrière.

Uit het onderzoek bleek ook dat de loyaliteit tegenover de werkgever bij millennials relatief groot is. Bij de Generatie X (geboren tussen pakweg 1960 en 1980) en bij babyboomers lag het percentage dat volledig carrièregericht werkt met 26 procent lager dan bij millennials (35 procent).

Lees het volledige interview in The New York Times »

“Two weeks ago I moved from Scotland to Germany to start a new job as an iOS engineer at SoundCloud,” wrote Matthew Healy on the Hackernoon website on July 10. “On Monday of last week I started that job. By Thursday evening I, along with 172 of my new colleagues, was officially being laid off.”

“Why was a business that was about to cut 40% of its workforce still hiring so aggressively?” he asked.

It’s a question that Healey and many other SoundCloud employees are still struggling to understand.

Reports started to appear online on July 5 that said SoundCloud was about to cut its 420-strong workforce by 40%. Bloomberg had read a draft blog post in which SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung explained that the company was letting go of 173 staff, and shutting down its offices in London and San Francisco (leaving only offices in New York City and Berlin) as part of an effort to reduce costs at the company whose losses have been spiralling out of control.

“Nobody saw it coming,” a SoundCloud employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Business Insider. “It was a sudden announcement.”

Those that remain at the company could be forgiven for feeling nervous. SoundCloud’s existing cash reserves will only carry it through to the fourth quarter of the year, which is less than 50 days away, according to sources cited by TechCrunch. SoundCloud has attempted to downplay the TechCrunch report, although the company confirmed last week that it is in the process of trying to raise more capital.

The leaked blog post that Bloomberg saw was quickly published onto SoundCloud’s website and there have been two company all-hands meetings since.

During last week’s all-hands meeting – held on July 11 and monitored by a number of security personnel – “SoundClouders” were looking for answers as to why the company had to suddenly lay off almost half of its staff.

Staff wanted to know why they hadn’t been warned that cuts were on the way, and the remaining employees wanted assurance that the cost reductions would keep the company in business for the foreseeable future.

“The all hands today was absolutely horrible,” another SoundCloud employee, who also wishes to remain anonymous, told Business Insider shortly after the meeting. “[There were] no real answers and [they were] politically avoiding questions.”

Ljung and cofounder Eric Wahlforss accepted “no ownership of the responsibility and no admittance of fault,” the source claimed, adding that they also failed to state whether there would be any repercussions for the executives that have led SoundCloud into the sticky position it now finds itself in.

SoundCloud was born in Stockholm and raised in Berlin

SoundCloud was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2007. It launched in 2008 and started out as a cool, indie platform for people interested in discovering the latest and greatest new music.

“We build an online audio platform that’s used by people working with music to be able to receive, send, and distribute their music,” Ljung said in a YouTube video uploaded in October 2008 when SoundCloud had around 25,000 users.

“They use it on a daily basic to be able to get files they’re working on over to other people … or to be able to take their finished tracks and get them out to people who then sell the tracks or to other social networks. What we’re basically doing in the long term is trying to build a cloud-based audio platform that anybody who is involved with music can work with.”

The founders met while studying at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, which has a reputation for being one of the world’s best computer science universities. They bonded over a shared love of music and decided to create a platform that was something like Flickr or WordPress but for sound.

“We both were working in music and one way or another I used to be a sound designer for films and Eric used to release music,” Ljung said in the same YouTube video. “We had a lot of trouble trying to collaborate with people. Trying to use the web and getting sent music all the time. Getting it to our inboxes and getting the weird FTP logins. One day we realised OK it’s actually annoying when people send us new music they’re working on when that should be like a really happy moment.”

Shortly after setting up the company, the founders moved SoundCloud to Berlin, which was developing a reputation as one of the most startup-friendly cities in Europe at the time, partly due to its cheap accommodation and its abundance of talented programmers.

“If I look back 10 years ago, Berlin was a nascent [startup] ecosystem,” Wahlforss said at a startup event in March. “It didn’t have all of the infrastructure in place, but it certainly had some of the raw ingredients.”

The company became one of Berlin’s most-loved startups and in May 2014, SoundCloud was reported to have caught the eye of Twitter, which was considering buying the platform. Twitter had already tried to launch a music product to get people to stay longer on the platform, but the attempt failed.

Ultimately the Twitter talks fell through. This is thought to be partly because SoundCloud wanted a deal worth $1 billion (£770 million) when its valuation was only $700 million (£386 million). It could also be because, despite its best efforts, SoundCloud had been plagued by copyright infringement issues.

SoundCloud was constantly battling with the major music labels

In May 2015, Sony Music pulled music by several key artists from SoundCloud after the label decided it wasn’t making enough money from music hosted on the streaming site. Original recordings from Sony artists like Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Miguel, and Hozier were removed. They were later added again after SoundCloud negotiated a new deal with Sony Music.

In August 2015, SoundCloud was sued for not paying musicians royalties. In an email sent to its members, the Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS for Music) announced that it felt it has “no alternative but to commence legal proceedings,” following “five years of unsuccessful negotiations.”

By November 2015, loyal SoundCloud users were starting to lose faith in the site as it shifted from a hangout for DJs and radio hosts to a commercial platform. Users said the music streaming app and website had strayed from its earlier focus on supporting DJs and felt that it was unfairly removing content and focusing on high-profile users and licensed music.

At the time, Business Insider spoke to Chris Reed, known as Plastician, owner of the Terrorhythm Recordings music label which he launched in 2002. He said that he “had trouble” with a track on his personal SoundCloud profile as well as the profile of his record label. “I own all the rights to it, it contains no illegal samples, and I even own the publishing to it,” he said. “So I was really confused as to why this is happening.”

Over time, the company managed to successfully negotiate deals with many of the major record labels – but this didn’t come cheap. SoundCloud had to sacrifice some of its equity in the process but bringing the major labels on board helped it to compete with the likes of Apple Music and Spotify.

Today, the company has deals with all three major music labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner. In the process, it’s given away a significant amount equity, with 3-5% going to Warner and possibly more going to Universal.

SoundCloud introduced ads and a premium service

SoundCloud claims to have around 175 million listeners who can tune into listen to more than 150 million pieces of content. For most of its life, it was completely free and had no revenue stream.

It introduced advertisements in mid-2015 ahead of the launch of its £9.99 SoundCloud Go subscription streaming service, which launched in March 2016 to compete with Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. There’s also a cheaper £4.99 option that allows users to listen to content without ad interruptions but they don’t get access to all of the music on the platform.

The deals with the major labels are what allowed Spotify to launch its premium service. That essentially means the company was forced to give away chunks of equity to launch its music streaming service.

But ultimately, SoundCloud remains unprofitable. The last official numbers show SoundCloud incurred a €51 million (£45 million) loss in 2015, higher than the €39 million (£35 million) loss it recorded in 2014. The company’s revenues in 2015 were €21 million (£19 million).

During 2015, SoundCloud’s headcount grew by 25%, up from 236 to 295 people. A Companies House filing shows that it spent €26.77 million ($28 million, £23 million) on wages and salaries in the year. That meant the average annual salary at the company hit €90,729 ($95,000, £77,000) in 2015 – up 19% on the €75,979 ($80,000, £65,000) average wage paid out to staff in 2014.

New staff were hired even though job cuts were imminent

One major point of contention is the fact that SoundCloud hired a number of people into roles over the last few months knowing full well that they were going to have to make large redundancies, according to TechCrunch.

Developer Vojta Stavik and his girlfriend were planning to pack up their lives in Prague and move to Berlin where Stavik was planning to take his dream job at SoundCloud. He and his girlfriend were planning to let go of their apartment, say goodbye to their friends and family, and relocate to the German capital.

Stavik was due to start on July 17 but his engineering role was axed on July 7. He told Business Insider on the day he was due to start: “I’m moving there this week by my own without having any particular job.”

Stavik applied for the job at SoundCloud in April. In May, after a 20-minute Skype call and a remote coding assignment that he spent 20 hours on, SoundCloud flew him to Berlin for a series of interviews and tests. He was offered a job at SoundCloud two days after his trip to Berlin

“I was super happy and excited about moving to Berlin!” Stavik wrote in a blog post explaining the process on July 9.

SoundCloud told Stavik that it would provide him and his girlfriend with temporary accommodation for their first few weeks in Berlin. They were supposed to get the keys on July 13.

On July 6, Stavik saw a report about the job cuts at the company. He immediately sent an email to the recruiter asking whether they affected him.

On July 7, he received an email from the relocation agency saying it had paused his relocation process and it was waiting for SoundCloud HR to provide it with more information. The company also told him that everyone at SoundCloud had been given a day off to process the news. “That was the moment when I realised that I’m probably screwed,” Stavik wrote on his blog.

“For the whole day, I was sending emails to every contact person at SoundCloud I had, asking them about my planned start day, having no response.”

Finally, at 8pm that evening, SoundCloud chief technology officer Artem Fishman called him up and told him his job has been cancelled. “I told him I already quit my job, let my apartment in Prague go, and was supposed to move to Berlin in just a few days! I also asked him about the possible compensation. The response was negative.”

Stavik claimed that Fishman said SoundCloud wanted to act like his application never happened.

Stavik is now on the hunt for a job in Berlin.

Elsewhere, software engineer Matthew Healy wrote a blog post on titled: “My week at SoundCloud.”

In the post, Healy said: “Two weeks ago I moved from Scotland to Germany to start a new job as an iOS engineer at SoundCloud. On Monday of last week I started that job. By Thursday evening I, along with 172 of my new colleagues, was officially being laid off.”

Healey had secured a lease on an apartment and sold many of his belongings in order to move to Berlin to work for SoundCloud.

“I had my first day at SoundCloud on the Monday before I signed that lease. It was a ridiculous start to a new job. First, there was the obligatory branded swag: a t-shirt, a water bottle, a pair of headphones, all in a branded tote bag. Then there was the office itself: an incredible space where every detail had been considered, with free snacks and drinks, and an espresso machine. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to work there.

“Eleven other people started with me. Around the office, people were telling us it was the biggest intake in months.”

Stavik, Healy, and many other SoundCloud staff have added their names to an open spreadsheet of SoundClouders for hire. Recruiters that are interested in hiring the laid off SoundClouders are also adding their names and details to a separate page on the spreadsheet.

TechCrunch reports that SoundCloud’s founders told staff during one of the post-redundancy all-hands meetings that investors had asked them in March to make the job cuts as part of a $70 million (£54 million) debt funding deal that was first reported by Business Insider. SoundCloud was reportedly forced to raise the debt funding after it failed to raise $100 million (£77 million) in venture funding.

Several top tier executives left SoundCloud in the months leading up to the job cuts, possibly because they knew they were on the way. SoundCloud’s COO and finance director both left the company around February, while veteran SoundCloud employee David Noël left in March.

During a fireside chat with TechCrunch editor at large Mike Butcher in Berlin on July 12, Ljung carefully dodged questions that staff would no doubt love to know the answers to.

“We were hiring people up until we shifted strategy,” Ljung said at the Tech Open Air conference. “We operate in many different countries. In some countries it takes a long time for people to be hired.”

SoundCloud is desperately trying to raise more money as cash reserves dwindle

The company’s current cash reserves will only last until the end of the fourth quarter, according to TechCrunch sources. Ljung confirmed on July 12 that he’s in the process of trying to raise more money for the company after he was asked about a rumoured $250 million (£193 million) funding round.

Ljung repeatedly said during his interview with Butcher that he was adamant on building a strong and independent music streaming platform and refused to comment on Google and Spotify acquisition rumours. The Financial Times reported last September that Spotify was in “advanced talks” to buy SoundCloud for $1 billion (£770 million), while Music Business Worldwide reported in January that Google was mulling an acquisition that was likely to be in the order of $500 million (£386 million).

“It’s a very sad event to let go of these people but if we zoom out and look at the entire company right now, I think people are missing a couple of key points,” Ljung said in Berlin. He highlighted how SoundCloud was the twentieth most-downloaded app in the US App Store on the day before the interview. “We have an enormous user base and very good growth. Very good engagement too. Everything in terms of the business and user metrics is growing.

“Now is the time where we have to take more control over our situation,” he said. “We’re in the process of reducing our cost basis significantly. We’re taking more control of our own future and ensuring our independence.”

Chance the Rapper: ‘SoundCloud is here to stay’

On July 13, as rumours circulated that SoundCloud was close to running out of money, hip hop artist Chancelor Bennett (a.k.a Chance the Rapper) wrote on Twitter: “I’m working on the SoundCloud thing.” The next day, he followed up with another tweet that read: “Just had a very fruitful call with Alex Ljung. @SoundCloud is here to stay.”

What was said on the call isn’t known. Some people speculated that Bennett’s mysterious tweet meant that he had given SoundCloud some money, while others speculated that he might be buying the service. It wouldn’t be the first time a solo artist has bought a music streaming platform – Jay Z acquired Tidal in 2015.

A representative for SoundCloud reportedly told Variety that the rapper is “essentially spreading good vibes about the company during a challenging time.” The representative added that they were unaware of a more material commitment.

Shortly after Bennett’s tweet, a post from Ljung appeared on SoundCloud’s blog. It read:

Hey everyone,

There’s an insane amount of noise about SoundCloud in the world right now. And it’s just that, noise. The music you love on SoundCloud isn’t going away, the music you shared or uploaded isn’t going away, because SoundCloud is not going away. Not in 50 days, not in 80 days or anytime in the foreseeable future. Your music is safe.

Along with each of you, we’ve built this incredible creative community of artists, podcasters, DJs, producers and more who are the driving force in pushing culture forward in the world. That’s not going to change. Last week we had to make some tough decisions to let go of some of our staff, but we did this to ensure SoundCloud remains a strong, independent company.

Thank you for the outpouring of love and support. Some of you have asked how you can help-spread the word that we’re not going anywhere and keep doing what you’re doing-creating, listening, uploading, sharing, liking, and discovering what’s new, now and next in music. SoundCloud is here to stay.

Peace, Alex

SoundCloud cofounders continue partying, despite the layoffs

It’s safe to assume that the last two weeks have been among the most difficult for SoundCloud since it was founded.

But SoundCloud’s cofounders appear to be trying to carry on as normal. Both cofounders have attended parties in Berlin over the last couple of weeks, with Wahlforss co-hosting one with his wife last Thursday at a rural site just outside Berlin. He refused to answer Business Insider’s questions at the party, saying: “I don’t want to do an interview.”

LONDON – The BBC has just published how much its 96 biggest stars get paid.

The glut of information, made public alongside its 2016/17 annual report, reveals that the BBC’s five best-paid TV and radio names are:

Chris Evans: £2.2 million-£2.25 million Gary Lineker: £1.75 million-£1.8 million Graham Norton: £850,000-£900,000 Jeremy Vine: £700,000-£750,000 John Humphrys: £600,000-£650,000

All 96 stars on the list earn more than £150,000 a year, which is the same salary as Prime Minister Theresa May.

Precise pay cheques have not been published. Instead, household names are categorised into £50,000 bands, giving us a pretty good idea of how much they take home, if not the whole picture.

The full list is pictured below, while a more detailed run-down of the BBC’s 20 best-paid stars is available here.

The disclosure is not the whole picture. It does not include stars paid through commercial arm BBC Worldwide, such as “Top Gear” host Matt LeBlanc, or those who work for the broadcaster through independent production companies. So, for example, we don’t know how much Benedict Cumberbatch makes for playing Sherlock Holmes.

This also means that the full earnings of some stars are not listed. Graham Norton’s pay, for example, is likely to be much higher, but because he probably pockets some of the production fee for “The Graham Norton Show” from his production company So Television, this is not captured in the BBC list.

The huge gender pay gap

The disclosure has, however, blown open a damaging subplot for the BBC, exposing a huge gender pay gap. Only a third, or 34, of the BBC’s 96 highest earning stars are women.

The broadcaster’s best-paid woman is “Strictly Come Dancing” presenter Claudia Winkleman, who collects an annual salary of between £450,000 and £500,000. This is two bands higher than her co-host Tess Daly, who takes home between £350,000 and £400,000, although Winkleman does have a Radio 2 show.

The second highest paid woman is “The One Show” host Alex Jones, who makes anything from £400,000 to £450,000.

Compare this to the highest earning man, Chris Evans, who takes home around £2.5 million for hosting the Radio 2 breakfast show and “Top Gear” last year.

BBC director general Tony Hall admitted this pay gap is not good enough and said the organisation must get better. “The disclosures highlight the need to go further and faster on issues of gender and diversity,” he told staff on Tuesday, according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider.

Overall, the BBC pointed to progress it has made to cut its talent bill.

It paid presenters and actors £194 million in the 12 months to the end of March this year, which was down 2% on £198 million the previous year. Within this, the bill for top talent (those who earn more than £150,000) was down 10% to around £28.6 million year-on-year.

The BBC signed off on around 43,000 talent contracts over the course of its financial year. Less than a quarter of 1% were paid more than £150,000, the broadcaster said.

The BBC says its needs to spend millions on stars

Hall was unapologetic for spending big on stars. “We need to employ the very best,” he told staff on Tuesday. “Talented people in front of the camera or microphone are critical for our relationship with audiences.”

He added that the BBC does not take its duty to spend public money “lightly,” making clear: “We’re not afraid to walk away if money becomes an issue.”

The BBC is publishing star pay after the government asked it to be more transparent about the way it spends its £3.7 billion income from TV licence fee payers.

The BBC tried to fight off the transparency measures. Director general Hall said it could lead to inflation in star pay and “will not make it easier for the BBC to retain the talent the public love.”

But the government prevailed last year as part of negotiations to renew the BBC’s 11-year operating agreement, known as its Royal Charter.

The BBC just dropped nine pages of information on how much it pays its biggest stars.

The British broadcaster was told by the government last year that it must publish the salaries of all presenters (and actors) if they earn more than £150,000 ($195,000) a year.

Despite deep misgivings, the BBC agreed. Wednesday’s disclosure, which forms part of the BBC’s annual report, is the result. Never before has so much information about the pay of British TV stars been revealed in one go.

In total, 96 stars earn more than £150,000. The BBC has not published the exact salaries of these household names. Instead, pay is categorised in £50,000 bands, giving us a pretty good idea of how much presenters take home, if not the whole picture.

Top earners include entertainment host Graham Norton and BBC News anchor Fiona Bruce. Business Insider has chosen to highlight the BBC’s 34 best-paid stars. They are ranked in ascending order.

Check out the BBC’s biggest earners:

=10. Derek Thompson: £350,000-£400,000

The highest-paid actor on the list, Thompson has played Charlie Fairhead in BBC1 drama “Casualty” since the show’s inception in 1986.

=10. Simon Mayo: £350,000-£400,000

Mayo hosts “Simon Mayo Drivetime” for BBC Radio 2. He is also the co-host of the popular “Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review,” which doubles as a successful podcast.

=10. Nick Grimshaw: £350,000-£400,000

Grimshaw is the man who replaced Chris Moyles as the host of Radio 1’s breakfast show. He also works on big events for the BBC, such as its coverage of the “One Love Manchester” concert staged by Ariana Grande.

=10. Vanessa Feltz: £350,000-£400,000

A seasoned presenter, Feltz hosts the breakfast show on BBC Radio London.

=10. Tess Daly: £350,000-£400,000

Daly is the co-host of BBC1 entertainment giant, “Strictly Come Dancing.”

=10. Fiona Bruce: £350,000-£400,000

As well as being a regular BBC News anchor, Bruce also presents “Antiques Roadshow” and “Fake Or Fortune.”

=9. Alan Shearer: £400,000-£450,000

The former Newcastle United striker is a pundit on “Match of the Day.”

=9. Stephen Nolan: £400,000-£450,000

Nolan hosts shows for BBC Northern Ireland and Radio 5 Live.

=9. Andrew Marr: £400,000-£450,000

=9. Alex Jones: £400,000-£450,000

Jones is the co-host of BBC1’s “The One Show.” She also fronts other programmes, such as “Shop Well for Less” and events like “Children in Need.”

=9. Nicky Campbell: £400,000-£450,000

Campbell is the host of 5 Live’s breakfast show on the radio. He also presents religious debate show “The Big Questions” on BBC1.

=8. Claudia Winkleman: £450,000-£500,000

The highest-paid woman on the list, Winkleman is the co-presenter of BBC1’s biggest entertainment show: “Strictly Come Dancing.”

She also has other regular gigs, including BBC2’s “The Great British Sewing Bee” and BBC1 movie review programme “Film 2016.”

=8. Matt Baker: £450,000-£500,000

Baker is the host of “The One Show” on BBC1. He also presents “Countryfile” and is involved in the BBC’s coverage of the Olympics.

7. Steve Wright: £500,000-£550,000

Wright is a prominent Radio 2 presenter. He hosts a weekday afternoon show, as well as “Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs.”

6. Huw Edwards: £550,000-£600,000

Huw Edwards is the BBC’s top news anchor. He hosts the BBC News at Ten, the broadcaster’s flagship bulletin, and has shared the election hot seat with David Dimbleby in recent years.

The BBC also calls on Edwards to anchor major events. He presented coverage of the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.

5. John Humphrys: £600,000-£650,000

Veteran broadcaster Humphrys is one of the lead hosts of Radio 4’s “Today” programme.

4. Jeremy Vine: £700,000-£750,000

Vine is famed for being the man who controls BBC News’ swish graphics on election night. He also has a mid-morning Radio 2 show, which has an audience of around 8 million, while other hosting duties include BBC2’s tea time quiz “Eggheads.”

3. Graham Norton: £850,000-£900,000

Norton is the BBC’s biggest entertainment star. He hosts chat show “The Graham Norton Show,” as well as a Radio 2 programme on a Saturday.

2. Gary Lineker: £1.75 million-£1.8 million

Gary Lineker is best known for his work on Premier League highlights show “Match of the Day.” He also hosts major sporting tournaments, such as the World Cup and Olympics.

He agreed a new five-year deal with the BBC in 2015, under which the broadcaster allowed him to present BT Sport’s Champions League coverage.

1. Chris Evans: £2.2 million-£2.25 million

Chris Evans had a calamitous, but well-remunerated stint as the host of “Top Gear” last year. He has left the BBC2 motoring brand, but still hosts BBC Radio 2’s flagship breakfast show.

Evans said in 2015 that TV stars get paid too much. “Most of us work part time anyway so just pay us less – that’s what I would do. It’s not rocket science,” he said.

Morgan Stanley beat Wall Street estimates for second quarter earnings, following the trend set by its peers.

The bank delivered earnings per share of $0.87, up from $0.75 in the second quarter of 2016, and ahead of the $0.76 expected by analysts.

Here’s what you need to know:

The bank delivered net revenues of $9.5 billion, up from $8.9 billion a year ago. Net revenues increased in each of the three key business lines: institutional securities, wealth management and investment management. Institutional securities, which houses sales and trading and investment banking, generated $4.8 billion in revenues, up from $4.6 billion a year ago, driven by a strong performance in investment banking and in equities trading. Net income for the unit fell slightly to $1.4 billion. Equity sales and trading revenues tipped up, while fixed income trading revenues dropped slightly. Wealth management posted $4.15 billion in revenues, up from $3.8 billion. The unit had a pre-tax margin of 25%, delivering net income of $1.1 billion, up from $859 million. Investment management revenues increased to $665 million, up from $583 million. Net income for the unit increased to $142 million.

Morgan Stanley’s cap a generally strong showing from its peers. Each of the big banks beat estimates, with JPMorgan hauling in record earnings from its commercial banking and asset and wealth management units. On Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch bested Wall Street estimates, with record quarters in global banking and wealth management, while Goldman Sachs beat estimates despite a sharp drop in trading revenues.

Apple has appointed its first managing director for Greater China, its current vice president of wireless technologies, Isabel Ge Mahe.

The job change is significant for two reasons: China is Apple’s most difficult market, and Isabel Ge Mahe is one of the few female senior executives at Apple.

She fills a newly created role of vice president and managing director of Greater China, and she will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook and chief operating officer Jeff Williams. She starts the job this summer.

Apple hasn’t give away too much detail about Ge Mahe’s duties, except that she will provide “leadership and coordination across Apple’s China-based team.”

In a statement, Cook added that the company was “strongly committed to invest and grow in China.”

Historically, Apple has done well in China. It’s the company’s second-biggest market after the US and it generates 25% of Apple’s profits.

But recently, there’s been a blip. Revenue is declining, and Apple is losing market share to local, cheaper competition like Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei. According to Gartner figures, Apple has 14% market share in China.

It’s likely Ge Mahe will be tasked with reversing that trend.

Prior to the new role, she led Apple’s wireless team for almost a decade. She also oversaw the teams that worked on Apple’s payment system Apple Pay, smart home software HomeKit and driving platform CarPlay.

Ge Mahe was born in the northern Chinese city of Shenyang, speaks fluent Mandaron, and holds Electrical Engineering degrees and an MBA from Berkeley.

Here is what you need to know.

The Bank of Japan upgrades its growth forecast. Japan’s central bank kept policy on hold and said it expects growth of 1.8% this year, up from its previous forecast of 1.6% growth.

The European Central Bank meets. Expectations are for the central bank to remain on hold and give clues as to when it will begin tapering its asset purchase program.

Australia’s jobs report misses. The Australian economy added 14,000 jobs in June, a bit below the 15,000 that economists were expecting.

Goldman Sachs says bitcoin will test $3,000. In a recent note to clients, Sheba Jafari, head of technical strategy at the bank, said bitcoin will test its all-time high near $3,000 a coin and could get to almost $3,700.

Jana Partners is cashing out its Whole Foods bet. The activist hedge fund has exited its stake in Whole Foods with a $300 million profit.

American Express’ profit tumbles. The credit card company said profit fell 33% versus a year ago, hurt by an increase in customer rewards.

Qualcomm’s profit slumps amid legal battle with Apple. Quarterly profit tumbled 40% year-over-year as Apple contractors didn’t pay royalties due to the ongoing legal battle between the two companies.

Stock markets around the world are higher. Australia’s ASX (+0.85%) led the overnight gains and Britain’s FTSE (+0.61%) is out front in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open little changed near 2,475.

Earnings reporting picks up. Athenahealth, Ebay, Microsoft, and Visa all report after markets close.

US economic data trickles out. Initial claims and the Philly Fed will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 2.27%.

In an alarming new blow to hygiene standards at UK food and drink chains, the BBC Watchdog programme has found traces of coliform poo in iced drinks at McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC.

In an episode that aired Wednesday July 19 on BBC One, Watchdog tested 10 samples for traces of “faecal coliform” at branches of each of the fast food chains.

Coliforms were found in seven samples at KFC, six at Burger King, and three at McDonald’s.

The latest news comes after the BBC’s investigation only last month found iced drinks from popular high-street coffee chains Starbucks, Costa, and Caffe Nero were all contaminated with varying levels of bacterial faeces.

Four of the samples taken at Burger King and five at KFC were described as having “significant” levels of the bacteria, according to Metro. Strict hygiene rules state that the acceptable level of this type of bacteria in water for human consumption is zero.

All of the restaurants have responded to the claims. KFC, the worst offender, immediately shut down the ice machines in question in order to conduct its own investigation. It said it had “reinforced the importance of adhering to our strict procedures to all employees.”

“We are awaiting the results of independent testing of the ice that will confirm they are back up to the standards we expect,” it added.

“To reassure customers we have also inspected and cleaned the ice machines in all other restaurants across the UK.”

Burger King said it was committed to emphasising standards and training procedures for employees, while McDonald’s responded saying it would be “happy to work with relevant industry bodies on ensuring a standard for ice contamination.” Currently no such standard exists in the UK.

Legendary investor Bill Miller is apparently bullish when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

Miller revealed to Forbes that he invested 1% of his net worth into bitcoin in 2014, determining that the potential gains to be made from a cryptocurrency boom outweighed the risk of a complete loss.

Forbes reporter Antoine Gara writes that the investment has grown tenfold and that bitcoin is one of the top holdings of Miller’s hedge fund.

In 2014, Bitcoin’s traded in a range between $183 and $914. Currently it’s trading at $2,340, up nearly 1,200% from its 2014 low.

While Miller’s net worth is unknown, his fund, LLM had about $2 billion in assets as of February, according to CNBC.

Last year, Miller split from Legg Mason after 35 years with the firm. This past February, Miller completed a buyout of LLM, an investment adviser jointly owned by Miller and Legg Mason, which he now runs through his family-owned Miller Value Partners firm.

Miller is well known for his streak of beating the S&P 500 Index for 15 straight years – 1991 to 2005 – while running the Legg Mason Value Trust and was appointed chairman of the firm and chief investment officer in 2007.