It’s the most important number you’ve never heard of, and President Joe Biden is about to change it as he resets US environmental policy. It’s the social cost of carbon, a figure that helps determine the stringency of federal regulations governing cars, trucks, power plants, refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines, vending machines and much more. The social cost of carbon ...

Bloomberg They’re essential workers performing critical safety work and have been assigned priority designation to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Yet tens of thousands of airport security screeners, air-traffic controllers and federal accident investigators who must report to work in spite of the virus ravaging the US haven’t gotten the shot and aren’t sure how and when they will. “It’s incredibly ...

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co is offering another round of voluntary leave as staffing levels remain too high for a flight schedule hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. Time off for employees accepting the offer begins on March 1, when thousands of workers are set to return from six-month leaves awarded last year, Southwest said. Already, 791 pilots have agreed to take ...

Bloomberg The UK government will introduce a limited hotel quarantine system for passengers arriving from the highest-risk countries, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move is aimed at curbing the spread of new variants of coronavirus that could prove resistant to vaccines, but is expected to apply to arrivals from countries with new forms of the virus, ...

Bloomberg Airport Authority Hong Kong is considering raising as much as $1.5 billion in its second dollar bond offering in two months, according to people familiar with the matter. The airport operator kicked off a series of investor calls on Wednesday for the potential offering, said the people who are not authorised to speak publicly and asked not to be ...

Bloomberg Years from now when the pandemic’s impact on global business is analysed, it’s likely that the most lucrative change will be how it pushed—or actually shoved—massive markets into the modern e-commerce era. In many countries, online shopping hadn’t been easy because of underdeveloped infrastructure and the reluctance, or inability, of consumers to use banks and electronic payment. That stalled ...

Bloomberg Levi Strauss & Co is expanding its partnership with retailer Target Corp well beyond blue jeans. The agreement will mark Levi’s first home-goods partnership, with new products including tableware and pillows, the companies said in a statement. The tie-up will also broaden its Red Tab brand within Target stores, with in-store displays planned at more than 500 locations by ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden held his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pressing him on issues from the poisoning of opposition leader Alexey Navalny to the massive hack of US computer systems that’s been linked to Moscow. The Kremlin confirmed that the call took place Tuesday, describing the conversation as “businesslike and frank.” The leaders also talked about ...

Bloomberg The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest against China’s law giving its coast guard more freedom to fire on foreign vessels, the Southeast Asian nation’s foreign affairs minister said. “While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one — given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea — is a verbal threat of war ...

Bloomberg Tunisian lawmakers approved cabinet changes proposed by Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi after riot police blocked protesters from nearing the assembly amid a rising wave of discontent in the birthplace of the Arab Spring. On Tuesday, 11 new ministers proposed for departments ranging from health and justice to the interior obtained more than the minimum 109 votes needed in the ...