Angela Merkel has done it again: She’s “merkeled.” In German, that neologism means to hedge, delay, dilute and fudge — as the eponymous German chancellor is wont to do. There’s much to be said for this elastic style of politics, especially in the labyrinthine European Union. Merkel’s latest fudge, however, will weaken and undermine the bloc, and tarnish her legacy. ...

Bloomberg The Nordic region’s pace-setting push into green transport is set to extend from cars to the air-travel market. Iceland this month signalled plans to move towards carbon-free domestic flights by the end of the decade, while Sweden’s Heart Aerospace aims to deliver an electric plane specifically designed to ply routes linking remote Scandinavian settlements within six years. Coordinating the ...

Bloomberg British Airways will work with hydrogen plane startup ZeroAvia to speed the switch to hydrogen power for commercial aircraft. The partnership was announced, as the head of parent IAG SA prepared to outline the group’s plan to reach net-zero emissions at a United Nations climate summit. The legacy airline will work with the startup, which has already demonstrated a ...

Bloomberg Nestle’s organic sales should grow this year on average at roughly the same pace as last year, according to Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider. The world’s largest food maker generates some 90% of its revenue from in-home consumption, which has benefited from lockdown and social-distancing measures, Schneider said on Swiss television program Bilanz Standpunkte on SRF 1. On the ...

Bloomberg China’s antitrust watchdog fined Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and a Tencent Holdings Ltd unit over a pair of years-old acquisitions and said it’s reviewing an impending Tencent-led merger, signalling Beijing’s intention to tighten oversight of internet sector deals. The State Administration for Market Regulation said it’s reviewing the combination of DouYu International Holdings Ltd with Huya Inc, which could ...

Bloomberg Lululemon Athletica Inc — whose founder once body-shamed women on live television — is finding that offering larger sizes can pay off. Sales of women’s garments rose 22% last quarter, reaching pre-pandemic growth levels, the company said on a call with investors after reporting third-quarter results that beat estimates. Executives didn’t specifically attribute the surge to the more inclusive ...

Bloomberg The board of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has begun the process of identifying a successor to Chairman Ian Davis, Sky News reported. The search is at a very early stage and an appointment is unlikely to be announced until well into next year, it said, without revealing where it got the information. Davis joined the British jet-engine maker in 2013. ...

Bloomberg Members of the Electoral College were expected to meet on Monday to officially elect Joe Biden, a moment some Republican lawmakers have targeted as the end of President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results as far as they’re concerned. The constitutionally mandated procedure across the 50 states and the District of Columbia usually passes with little notice. But ...

Bloomberg The US rescinded Sudan’s almost three-decade designation as a state sponsor of terror, paving the way for the North African country to rejoin the global community and boost its ravaged economy. “The congressional notification period of 45 days has lapsed and the secretary of state has signed a notification stating rescission of Sudan’s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation is ...

Bloomberg Fourteen Venezuelan migrants drowned and six are missing after a failed bid to reach Trinidad and Tobago by boat. Eleven bodies were recovered, and another three corpses were found on a Venezuelan beach, the nation’s government said in a statement. The vessel departed from the Venezuelan town of Guiria on December 6 with 20 people on board, according to ...