As the Taliban entered the Afghan capital of Kabul, university lecturers gathered their female students for some final goodbyes. Telling the shocked young women “we may not meet again,” the lecturers, along with everyone else, were evacuated, and the universities, along with schools, offices and shops, were shuttered. I spoke by phone with Aisha Khurram, one of those students whose ...

Ours is a populist age, dominated not only by the anti-elitist posturing of Donald Trump and the Republican Party but also by a resurgent left that views “billionaire” as a dirty word. Many of our most profound problems, however, originate not in the pathologies of a narrow ruling class but among the broad mass of humanity. A powerful reminder came ...

Last month, Atlas Crest Investment Corp, a blank-check firm created by investment banker Ken Moelis, spectacularly lopped $1 billion off the enterprise value off its $2.7 billion deal with flying taxi company Archer Aviation. Several factors contributed to this reset, including an intellectual property dispute with a rival and the fact Archer has yet to finish developing a fully operational ...

The UK government is calling on the nation’s pension funds to participate in an “investment big bang” by allocating more capital to domestic and long-term illiquid investments. It’s a proposal that’s short on detail and fraught with difficulties, and one that pension fund trustees should treat with an abundance of caution. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

Bloomberg Norwegians own more electric cars per capita than anyone else on the planet. But their obsession with Teslas has done little to persuade the nation that there’s a future without oil. According to a weekend poll, 55% of voters in western Europe’s biggest oil producer want exploration to continue. The results come as Norway prepares for general elections next ...

Bloomberg BHP Group is in talks over a potential merger of its oil and gas unit with Woodside Petroleum Ltd to accelerate a retreat from fossil fuels amid increasing pressure to curb emissions. Options being discussed include a distribution of Woodside shares to BHP holders to allow the Australian energy firm to add operations spanning Australia to the Gulf of ...

Bloomberg Spring Airlines Co and Japan Airlines Co are anticipating a post-pandemic tourism boom between China and Japan for their joint-owned budget carrier, even though Japan still lags behind major economies in reopening its borders. Spring Airlines Japan Co had operated seven routes from Narita to Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuhan and other cities, but five of them were suspended due ...

Bloomberg The company running the Chinese business of iconic Canadian coffee shop chain Tim Hortons agreed to go public through a merger with blank-check company Silver Crest Acquisition Corp. The transaction will give Tim Hortons China a Nasdaq listing and value the business at about $1.69 billion including debt, Silver Crest said in a regulatory filing, which confirmed an earlier ...

Bloomberg US consumer sentiment fell in early August to the lowest level in nearly a decade as Americans grew more concerned about the economy’s prospects, inflation and the recent surge in coronavirus cases. The University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index fell by 11 points to 70.2, the lowest since December 2011, data released showed. The figure fell well short of ...

Bloomberg Richard Branson sold about $300 million in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc stock, tapping his biggest listed asset again to prop up his business empire during the pandemic. The billionaire offloaded almost 10.5 million shares — about 4% of the space-travel company — through a company he controls, leaving him with an 18% stake, according to a regulatory filing. The ...