When the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that it will not resume any in-person instruction this fall, it was a political victory for teachers and a defeat for families, science and opportunity for all. The teachers’ union opposed reopening schools amid the continuing rise in Covid-19 cases locally, and lobbied for an early resolution to eliminate uncertainty. Individual teachers ...

A president’s ability to pardon criminals is an oddity of the US Constitution, one of the few powers conferred on the executive without significant constraint. President Donald Trump has abused this authority — most recently by commuting the sentence imposed on his friend and former campaign adviser Roger Stone for seven felony convictions. There’s something to be said for enshrining ...

Bloomberg British Airways, the world’s biggest operator of Boeing Co 747-400s, is retiring its entire fleet of the jumbo jets with immediate effect because of the damage the coronavirus has done to air travel. “It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again due to the downturn in travel caused by ...

Bloomberg Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has reached agreement with unions on up to 700 UK job cuts this year, with the rest of its planned downsizing made up by employees taking voluntary buyouts. The company announced in June it planned to eliminate 3,000 UK jobs this year. While more than that number applied for voluntary severance, the company will still make ...

Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc has proposed cutting the number of hours pilots fly each month by 15% to further reduce labour spending and help avoid involuntary layoffs as surging US coronavirus cases quash travel demand. The proposal offered to the Delta unit of the Air Line Pilots Association would remain in place for a year with hours flexing back ...

Bloomberg Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd, fresh from getting a $1.5 billion rescue package, is anticipating a sluggish recovery in air travel that won’t see demand returning to 2019 levels for at least three years. The British carrier founded by Richard Branson is resuming passenger flights next week with trips to Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles. Widespread border restrictions ...

Bloomberg CBL & Associates Properties Inc, the owner of more than 100 shopping malls across the US, is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The company has been negotiating with its lenders in an effort to enter Chapter 11 with a consensual restructuring agreement in place, said the people, who asked not to ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, said the government has yet to determine how the rescue of South African Airways (SAA) will be funded. His ministry and the National Treasury said they would mobilise the additional 10 billion rand ($599 million) the bankrupt airline’s administrators said is needed to effect the rescue. In a July 17 Twitter ...

Bloomberg Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, rejected allegations that hackers linked to the country’s intelligence services targeted British coronavirus vaccine research, and accused Britain of cyber-attacks against Russia. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said that vaccine and therapeutic sectors in multiple countries have been targeted by a group known as APT29, which it said is “almost certainly” part ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un led a meeting of military officials which discussed “the key issues of further bolstering a war deterrent of the country,” state news agency KCNA reported. The meeting also reviewed “the strategic mission of the major units for coping with the military situation” in the region, KCNA said. The meeting included top officials of the ...