The results of a new Pew Research Center poll on politics and climate change surprised even some of those who study public attitudes toward science. Forty-five percent of respondents who identified as conservative Republicans said they had little or no trust in climate scientists, compared with 6 percent of self-described liberal Democrats. Only 15 percent of conservatives said they ...

  Mihir Sharma India’s tax system is among the most complex of the world — 157th, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, with about 33 different payments required. It’s a consistent barrier to entrepreneurship and to investment. That’s why so many people were eagerly anticipating the rollout of the Indian government’s first real attempt at systemic reform in recent years: a nationwide ...

  Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc plans to buy back as much as 550 million euros ($609 million) of stock after record passenger numbers over the summer helped second-quarter profit beat analyst estimates. The shares rose. Profit after tax increased 8.2 percent to 912 million euros in the three months through September, Dublin-based Ryanair said on Monday. Analysts predicted earnings of ...

  Emirates Business Etihad Airways, the global airline partner of 15 Taste Festivals across the world, is bringing world-class chefs to ‘Taste of Abu Dhabi’ to compete in the final ‘Taste the World’ competition, from November 10-12. The 10 renowned chefs taking part in the event will compete to reveal who amongst them epitomises Etihad Airways’ food philosophy, which aims ...

  Bloomberg Qatar Airways expects to finalize plans to buy a 49 percent stake in Meridiana Fly SpA by the end of January, which would end a long spat with unions over job cuts at the ailing Italian carrier. Completion of the deal, which was agreed in July, depends on Meridiana meeting certain unspecified conditions, Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer ...

  Bloomberg John Rothery said his goodbyes, handed in his badge and walked away from Boeing Co. He had worked on almost every commercial jet model over four decades, from a 707 bristling with military radar in the late 1970s to today’s sleek 787 Dreamliner. The date, October 3, had been circled on Rothery’s calendar for more than a year. ...

  Hong Kong / AFP HSBC shares rallied on Monday in a positive response to quarterly profit results after the British banking giant underwent a radical cost-cutting exercise. In the three months to September its adjusted pre-tax profit — which strips out one-off items and unfavourable currency movements — rose seven percent from a year earlier to $5.59 billion, beating ...

  Bloomberg Tesco Bank, the lending arm of the UK’s biggest grocer, said it suspended online transactions after about 20,000 customers had money fraudulently taken from their accounts. About 40,000 of the bank’s 136,000 checking account holders experienced suspicious transactions over the weekend, Tesco Bank Chief Executive Officer Benny Higgins told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. About half of those ...

  Sydney / AFP Australian banking giant Westpac posted a seven percent slide in annual net profit on Monday on the back of market headwinds and impairment charges but said it was well positioned with a strong balance sheet. Westpac’s Aus$7.45 billion (US$5.72 billion) result in the year to September 30 rounded out annual reporting from three of the nation’s ...

  TOKYO / AP Japanese telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Group Corp., which has acquired British chipmaker ARM Holdings for about $30 billion, reported on Monday that its July-September profit more than doubled from the same period the previous year. Tokyo-based Softbank’s fiscal second quarter profit totaled 528.6 billion yen ($5.1 billion), up from 258.6 billion yen last year, boosted ...