More than 85% of the world’s central banks are working on central bank digital currencies, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has already implemented a digital yuan, and the European Central Bank (ECB) wants to launch a digital euro by 2025. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank will launch ...

Everybody loves the Olympic Games. Except when you’re the host nation in the middle of a pandemic. Unfortunately for Japan’s government, it’s not really up to them to decide whether the Games of the 32nd Olympiad get cancelled. While Tokyo could theoretically pull the plug right now — two months from the rescheduled start date — the city is contractually ...

Ocean conservation was once a goal for Democrats and Republicans alike. In Congress, they collaborated to ensure that US fisheries would be sustainably managed, to protect imperiled marine creatures by banning the use of driftnets and shark finning, and to set aside large areas of the ocean for special protection. While he was president, George HW Bush designated six National ...

The double standards defense is the Kremlin’s go-to device whenever it’s accused of wrongdoing: “You Westerners have no moral right to point fingers because you do it too.” It’s telling that Russia has unfolded the double standards umbrella over Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who on May 23 scrambled a fighter jet to land a Ryanair Holdings Plc plane in Minsk ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s aviation-safety ranking has been downgraded by the US, prohibiting an expansion of flights from the nation’s carriers to its northern neighbor. The move by the Federal Aviation Administration is a symbolic blow to Mexico at a time when it has become by far the biggest international market with the US and may force an end to business agreements ...

Bloomberg The European Union’s air-safety regulator told airlines to avoid flying over Belarus, saying the diversion of a Ryanair Holdings Plc flight raised doubts about the Eastern European nation’s respect for international aviation rules. The safety bulletin issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) unifies the region after several of its member states and the UK issued similar ...

Bloomberg Marks & Spencer Group Plc shares jumped after the retailer said it expects to generate pretax profit of as much as 350 million pounds ($495 million) this fiscal year as it recovers from the pandemic and enters the next stage of its turnaround. The stock jumped as much as 7.4% in London, and is up about 22% since the ...

Bloomberg Portuguese retailer Sonae SGPS SA was expected to open its first store without checkout staff in Lisbon on Wednesday, bringing an innovation pioneered by Amazon.com Inc to the European continent. Arrays of cameras and sensors track shoppers who are charged through an app as they pick groceries from the shelves at the Continente brand store. The technology was provided ...

Bloomberg US airlines rose as the country’s three biggest carriers said a travel rebound is gaining steam, with United Airlines Holdings Inc and Delta Air Lines Inc heading for the highest closing price in about six weeks. The pace of recovery has been faster than expected, Delta President Glen Hauenstein said. United predicted it would turn a profit before certain ...

Bloomberg US government officials monitoring the airways say they won’t tolerate passengers who refuse to don masks as airline travel surges ahead of the summer season. A recent spike in unruly passenger reports, many of them involving people refusing to cover their faces, prompted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to issue a stern warning to travellers. “Let me be clear ...