When the employees of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc read that coronavirus lockdowns and home-working have ignited a technology boom, they could be forgiven for weeping. The company makes the jet engines that power large passenger jets, which is one of the most technically complex engineering tasks known to man. And yet, most of Rolls-Royce’s products are grounded right now because hardly ...

Ordinarily, a new medical treatment is approved only after at least one large-scale, randomised controlled trial shows it to be effective without being harmful. Yet at times — and notably during epidemics — evidence can mount that a treatment is safe and effective before we have that final evidence. We think this is the case with Covid-19 and convalescent plasma. ...

After a more than year-long review of its monetary policy strategy, the Federal Reserve has decided it will throw away the rule book and let inflation run higher and unemployment run lower before seeking to tighten financial conditions. To be clear, this change leaves the central bank pursuing an almost completely discretionary monetary policy, one where the risk is that ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co grounded eight of its 787 Dreamliner jets for inspection and repair after finding two manufacturing flaws that together could compromise the structural integrity of the aircraft. The distinct issues involve the composite barrel sections at the rear of the wide-body plane, which are melded together at a Boeing plant in South Carolina. Together, the flaws cause the ...

Bloomberg London’s Gatwick airport asked creditors to change the terms on its 3.4 billion-pound ($4.5 billion) debt pile to allow the transport hub to recover from a slump in air travel. The UK’s second-largest airport wants investors in its debt, including those holding 2.8 billion pounds of its bonds, to waive covenants and change certain conditions in the financing documents. ...

Bloomberg Kenya Airways Plc expects demand for air travel for the rest of this year to be less than half the level in 2019 due to the ongoing effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. The partially state-owned East African carrier is starting to resume international flights after the government eased travel restrictions it imposed to help contain the coronavirus. The anticipated ...

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings shareholders voiced their frustration with scandal-hit retailer by voting against proposed changes to director pay policies and rejecting financial statements for last year. Investors logged into the South African company’s virtual annual meeting and protested against the extent of fees paid to various advisers, some related to a deal the retailer reached with creditors to skip ...

Bloomberg Cosmetics maker Coty Inc reported worse-than-expected results in its fourth quarter, posting a $1.2 billion drop in sales year on year as consumers stuck at home during the pandemic skipped beauty-product purchases. Sales of $922.1 million in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter were down 56% year on year and worse than analysts’ estimate of $1.34 billion. After a brutal ...

Bloomberg Gap Inc tempered the pace of its sales decline in the second quarter, outpacing analysts’ estimates by picking up e-commerce customers. Sales for the period, which ended on August 1, fell 18% from a year earlier to $3.3 billion, higher than analysts’ projection of $2.9 billion. The company, which owns the Old Navy and Banana Republic brands, increased comparable-store ...

Bloomberg When students at an elite university in Berlin charged the school with condoning racist attitudes, the administration had no formal procedures in place to deal with the spat. Even its diversity czar said it was out of her hands. The dispute at the Hertie School — one of Germany’s top training grounds for civil servants — was sparked by ...