The torrent of astonishing talk from Democratic presidential aspirants has included two especially startling ideas. One is that we are going to die — the climate change crisis is “existential” — unless America does a slew of things that the aspirants know are not going to be done. And the leading progressive aspirant has endorsed an idea that would confirm ...

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy — also known as CAP — is a 58-billion-euro system of farm aid that accounts for the bloc’s biggest single budget expense. And it has long been a punching bag for euroskeptics. The UK press for years excoriated the “butter mountains” supported by EU money. Even after production quotas went away, critics accused the ...

It’s a deal linking Shanghai and Zurich, but the real target looks to be London. China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. is in talks to invest at least $2 billion in Swiss Re AG, Manuel Baigorri of Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Shanghai-based China Pacific is the country’s third-largest insurer, while Zurich-based Swiss Re is Switzerland’s biggest ...

The European Union’s 555 billion-euro ($600 billion) lending arm, the European Investment Bank, will choose this month whether to sign off on a plan to ditch fossil fuel projects almost entirely and boost support for clean-energy finance. The decision has been delayed by pushback from Germany and some central European nations. That says a lot about Berlin’s muddled approach to ...

As the UK prepares for elections on December 12, the outlook for Brexit is as unclear as ever. Among the options before voters are leaving the European Union without a deal (the Brexit Party); leaving with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deal (the Tories); hammering out a new deal that would then be subject to a second referendum (Labour); or simply ...

Emmanuel Macron wants to “take back control” of immigration in France. At first glance, his government’s forthright language — and its aspirations for a system of numerical “quotas” similar to Canada’s or Australia’s — sounds a lot like the populist clarion call that won Nigel Farage the Brexit referendum. There are differences, of course. This is about migration from outside ...

Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank Group Corp., has joined the new religion for technology investing. Last week, Son disclosed SoftBank’s third-quarter investment losses from bets on WeWork, Uber Technologies Inc. and other stakes. He also talked about his fealty to corporate cash flow and putting appropriate guardrails on young companies. Son displayed something that seemed like humility — in ...

Bloomberg A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official wrote a memo last month saying that Southwest Airlines Co should ground 49 of its airliners because repairs were performed that didn’t meet legal standards. There is “a high likelihood of a violation of a regulation, order or standard” of the FAA, and the US regulator needs to take immediate action to revoke ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc plans to launch a new supermarket brand distinct from the Whole Foods Market chain the company acquired two years ago, a sign of the retail giant’s hunger for a slice of the grocery market beyond high-end organic food. The company has posted four job listings for “Amazon’s first grocery store” in the Woodland Hills neighbourhood of Los ...

Bloomberg Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown may not be selling his company shares anytime soon but that isn’t stopping other executives from cashing out gains after restrictions ended last month. CFO Mark Nelson is the latest executive to sell 70,000 shares for $5.7 million, reducing his stake in Beyond Meat by 16%, according to a filing. Chief People Officer Cari ...