In parts of Germany, Bavarians were once known as “needleheads.” One day, God, angered at the solipsism in the country’s beautiful southernmost state, is supposed to have picked a local up by the head, thus elongating it like a needle, and rotated it. “See,” God said, “there’s more to the world than just Bavaria.” The tale might offer a useful ...

Boris Johnson was elected as Britain’s prime minister because he’s a ruthless optimist, yet he has presided over one of the gloomiest periods in the country’s postwar history. If he wants to cheer people up again, he needs a credible plan for reopening the UK’s schools. Release from lockdown is painfully slow here, and the economic recovery is stuttering because ...

As protests against racism have gathered global momentum in the wake of George Floyd’s death, it has become clear that US President Donald Trump is not the only leader in the world with a problem. There isn’t a single wealthy Western country that is racism-free. European nations, the US, Australia, Canada: All were founded—or fattened—on the proceeds of either slavery ...

Bloomberg It’s not often rival carriers join forces on anything in the competitive aviation industry. But last week, three of Europe’s biggest airlines teamed up to sue the UK government over plans to force visitors to self-isolate for 14 days. British Airways, EasyJet Plc and Ryanair Holdings Plc said they asked for London judges to hear a case against the ...

Bloomberg Edgars needs buyers to make binding offers by the end of June to prevent the start of wind-up proceedings, putting at risk the future of a South African clothing chain that has traded for almost a century. Administrators for parent Edcon Holdings Ltd put the retailer up for sale alongside sister companies Jet and Thank U after measures to ...

Bloomberg Air Namibia grounded all international flights not already wiped out by the coronavirus after the country’s president, Hage Geingob, said the state carrier should be liquidated. The southwest African nation’s carrier has received about 8.3 billion Namibian dollars ($485 million) in government funding over the past two decades and Geingob said earlier this month the country “cannot afford to ...

Bloomberg The code name was “Apollo.” Its mission was to keep Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd alive. Hong Kong’s dominant airline had been in financial strife for months, its strong start to 2019 a distant memory. Social unrest in the city triggered a slump in passengers through the second half of last year. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which forced Cathay ...

Bloomberg The UK aims to drive down greenhouse gas emissions from aviation to make carbon-free transatlantic flights possible within a generation, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said. Shapps said he has formed a group bringing together leaders from aviation, environmental groups and government to form the “Jet Zero Council,” as he seeks to rebuild the industry in the wake of the ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump addressed graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point on Saturday, even as the backlash to his threat to use active-duty service members to quell domestic political protests continues to roil the Pentagon. Trump’s appearance at the nation’s oldest service academy was meant to signal a return to normalcy after the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it ...

Bloomberg India and China have started to pull back their forces along the border in the Himalyan region after talks between senior military officials, according to India’s Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane. “Our borders along with China are under control,” Naravane told reporters in the northern Indian city of Dehradun on Saturday. “We have had a series” of meetings with ...