Bloomberg Businessweek-Europe Edition May 2, 2022

● Globally, there have been 512 million Covid-19 cases, 6.2m people have died, and almost 11.6 billion vaccine doses have been given. China is intensifying its “Zero Covid” strategy as cases surge. In Shanghai, where the government began erecting fences to close people off, residents complained the measures were inhumane and posed serious fire hazards. ▷ 22 ● War in Ukraine ▶ Russia cut off gas flows to Bulgaria and Poland after they refused to switch their payments to rubles. The EU has rejected paying for imports in the Russian currency, saying it would violate sanctions and strengthen Vladimir Putin. ▶ President Maia Sandu, blaming recent violence in Moldova on Russian-backed factions in the separatist-held enclave of Transnistria, said she would resist attempts to drag Moldova into the war in neighboring Ukraine. ▶ On…

In our ongoing debate over “self-evident truths,” American history has always been contested ground. On every issue, each side has claimed to be the true voice of America’s founding ideals. But in recent years, the debate has taken a turn. More and more, there are people who look at U.S. leaders from earlier generations and see flaws that should disqualify their statues from places of honor. To continue to honor them, these critics say, is to condone racism. Or sexism. Or homophobia. And they believe we should cleanse our public spaces of them. On the other side, there are people who look at the same leaders and see virtues that should shield them from criticism. To call attention to their flaws, they say, is to hate America, and they are trying…

In early January the state of Massachusetts added a new set of figures to its Covid-19 dashboard. Two years into the pandemic, it began to draw a distinction between people who were hospitalized because of the virus and people who were there for other reasons but also happened to be infected. Nothing changed inside the hospitals’ walls—a Covid-positive patient there because of a car crash still had to be isolated. But the effect on the state’s numbers was dramatic. It cut them in half. While case numbers have plunged and the death tally is slowing, the U.S. will in the next few weeks pass 1 million Covid fatalities, and more than half the country has been infected. There will almost certainly be more waves of illness, either from new variants or as…

Two decades ago, as a resurgent Russia sought to reclaim its place on the global stage, flagship airline Aeroflot PJSC and various startup carriers accelerated their shift from Soviet-era Ilyushins and Tupolevs to modern jetliners. That proved a bounty for Airbus SE and Boeing Co., of course, but it also enriched a less exalted corner of the aviation business: aircraft leasing firms. Dozens of lessors jumped in, and today about half of the 1,000 planes in the Russian fleet are owned by companies outside the country. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown that market into turmoil, setting up a high-stakes tussle between leasing companies and their insurers, who say they’re not obligated to pay many claims because sanctions required them to drop coverage in Russia. Days after the fighting started,…

It’s unusual for a governor to denounce one of his state’s biggest and most prominent employers. But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on Walt Disney Co. for criticizing a new law curtailing what schools can teach students about gender identity and sexual orientation aren’t likely to be a limited instance. Instead, they’re another sign that political fights—especially for presidential hopefuls like DeSantis—are expanding from legislatures to corporations and the business world. Last month, under pressure from activists and its own employees, Disney put out a statement declaring that the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, as critics have dubbed it, “should never have been passed and should never have been signed into law.” The company vowed to work to help get it repealed or struck down in court. Disney’s actions follow what’s recently become…

When it began in early April, Elon Musk’s pursuit of Twitter Inc. had the tone of a prank. Soon it seemed to get slightly out of hand, then spiraled completely out of control, and culminated on April 25 with the world’s richest man agreeing to spend $44 billion for one of the most politically important technology companies in history. There have been bigger acquisitions in financial terms, but Twitter’s significance has always been out of line with its balance sheet. There’s never been a Silicon Valley deal quite like this one. To recap how we got here: In early April, Musk disclosed that he’d acquired a stake in Twitter, explaining the move by railing about the social media company’s supposed squelching of free speech. His complaints have lacked specifics, instead relying…