There is a certain tragic irony in the fact that a crackdown on U.S. colleges with low graduation rates was announced during the very week when the Times Higher Education Supplement published its annual list of the world’s best universities. The coincidence provokes the thought that there is too much of this going on. By “this” I mean the ...

  A recent survey by Datincorp, a Caracas-based pollster, found that some 57 percent of Venezuelans wanted to leave the country. That number, up from 49 percent just four months ago, is just one facet of the rolling collapse in South America’s most benighted nation, which has gone from oil powerhouse to global exporter of people in a little over ...

  Bloomberg The aviation industry is supporting a United Nations proposal to limit pollution from international flights even though the measure may eventually cost companies $24 billion annually. Trade groups representing United Continental Holdings Inc., Boeing Co. and other industry leaders are pushing nations to join the agreement, which would require companies to offset their emissions growth by funding environmental ...

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co.’s 14,500 flight attendants will decide whether to approve a tentative contract agreement following “intense discussion and debate” by leaders of their union. The board of Transport Workers Union Local 556 voted Friday to send the pact to members after two days of deliberation, the labor group said in a statement posted Friday on its website. ...

  Bloomberg The British division of Aldi is ramping up plans for expansion, unaffected by the shock Brexit referendum, as the German discount retailer enjoys booming demand. Aldi UK announced on Monday that it will invest £300 million ($389 million, 346 million euros) to revamp its stores over the next three years. “Future capital expenditure plans are unaffected by the ...

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., the builder of Japan’s first home-made passenger jet, said a test aircraft took off on its third attempt to fly to the U.S. Monday after aborting flights last month due to problems with air-conditioning sensors. The jet left Nagoya airport at 1:28 p.m. today, said Kenichi Takemori, a Nagoya-based spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., ...

  Bloomberg The European Union failed to eliminate subsidies to planemaker Airbus Group SE that were previously found to violate trade rules, the World Trade Organization said in a ruling that opens the door to billions of dollars in sanctions against Brussels. The finding by a WTO compliance panel Thursday strikes a blow to the EU in a long-running dispute ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s central bank stepped up efforts to support lenders in the Arab world’s biggest economy as they grapple with the effects of low oil prices. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, as the central bank is known, said it decided to give banks about 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) in the form of time deposits “on behalf of ...

  Bloomberg Former IMF chief Rodrigo Rato was jeered as he arrived at court on Monday for his trial for alleged of misuse of funds when he was the boss of two of Spain’s top banks. Rato is standing trial with 64 other former executives and board members at Caja Madrid and Bankia, whose near-collapse sparked an EU bailout of ...

  AFP French tax authorities have asked Switzerland to hand over client information for some 45,000 bank accounts as part of a probe into alleged tax fraud, Le Parisien daily said on Monday. Swiss banking giant UBS said in July that the Swiss authorities had asked it to provide client information following a French request for international administrative assistance in ...