Author: Jack Mulligan

The idea of combining United Airlines and American Airlines may be dramatic enough to excite traders for a day, but it also highlights just how concentrated the US airline industry already is. According to the report, United chief executive Scott Kirby floated the possibility of a tie-up with American to the Trump administration earlier this year, a move that would create the largest airline in the world if it ever became real. On paper, the proposal is easy to understand. Bigger scale can mean greater control over capacity, stronger pricing power and a more formidable network. In practice, however, the…

The Kremlin is trying to steady its footing after the election defeat of Viktor Orbán, the European leader who for years served as one of Moscow’s most useful political partners inside the European Union. Russia is now adjusting to a new reality in which Hungary no longer offers the same dependable alignment it once did, even if the door to pragmatic relations remains open. Moscow’s response has been careful rather than dramatic. Instead of treating the result as an outright strategic rupture, the Kremlin has chosen to emphasize Péter Magyar’s apparent willingness to maintain practical dialogue. That tone reflects necessity…

As finance leaders gather in Washington under the shadow of the Middle East war, Ajay Banga is trying to drag attention away from the immediate fire and toward a much larger threat building in plain sight. The World Bank president says developing economies are heading into a historic employment shortfall that could define the next decade far more than any single geopolitical shock. His warning is stark. Over the next ten to fifteen years, around 1.2 billion people in developing countries will reach working age, but current trends suggest those economies will create only about 400 million jobs. That leaves…

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has drawn a hard line against U.S. pressure while still signaling that dialogue with Washington remains possible. In a rare interview with an American television outlet, he made clear that Havana will not negotiate over its political system, its constitutional order or leadership succession, even as tensions with the Trump administration continue to rise. That position captures the balance Cuba is now trying to strike. On one hand, Díaz-Canel wants to project defiance and sovereignty at a time when Washington is openly discussing political change on the island. On the other, he is also trying to…

The National Football League is facing a new legal challenge after the U.S. Justice Department opened an inquiry into whether the league’s television arrangements have crossed the line from efficient rights packaging into anticompetitive behavior. At issue is not only how the NFL sells its games, but whether fans are being pushed into paying more than they should through an increasingly expensive mix of subscriptions. The case lands at a sensitive moment for the sports media business. Live rights have become one of the few assets powerful enough to attract and retain paying viewers in a fragmented entertainment market. That…

Spotify is introducing a broader set of controls that will let users decide how much video they want to see inside the app, marking a notable shift in how the platform balances its audio roots with its growing push into visual content. The company says the new settings are designed to give listeners a clearer choice between an audio-first experience and one that includes more video elements across music, podcasts and audiobooks. The update matters because Spotify has steadily expanded video features over the past several years, moving well beyond its original music-streaming identity. As the service added looping visuals,…

Disney is preparing its next phase of cost cutting, with plans that could include up to 1,000 layoffs, according to reports that emerged this week. The move comes shortly after Josh D’Amaro took over as chief executive in mid-March and signals that the company’s long restructuring effort is not over, even after several years of reorganization, expense reductions and leadership transition. The expected cuts are important less for their size alone than for what they say about Disney’s current priorities. The company is not reacting to a sudden emergency. It is continuing a broader effort to streamline operations, reduce overlap…

Britain has gone public with a covert Russian submarine operation near critical undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, using the disclosure to send a direct warning to Moscow and reassure allies that the activity was detected, monitored and ultimately deterred. Defence Secretary John Healey said a Royal Navy warship and RAF P8 maritime patrol aircraft tracked three Russian submarines for more than a month, leaving them in no doubt that their movements had been exposed. The episode matters because it touches one of the most sensitive vulnerabilities in modern Western security: undersea cables and pipelines. These links carry communications, energy…

Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi has introduced a new recession indicator that aims to capture something he believes the headline unemployment rate is now missing. Called the Vicious Cycle Index, the measure is built around a simple concern: the labor market may be weaker than it looks if people are quietly dropping out instead of remaining in the workforce and showing up as unemployed. That matters because the unemployment rate, while still low by historical standards, can sometimes hide discouragement rather than reveal it. If people stop actively looking for work, they no longer count as unemployed. In that case,…

The newly announced ceasefire between the United States and Iran is already facing a serious test because it does not appear to cover Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. That gap has created immediate confusion over what the agreement actually includes and whether the broader calm being pursued through mediation can hold if one major front in the conflict remains active. The dispute matters because stopping Israeli strikes in Lebanon was reportedly one of Iran’s key demands in the ceasefire talks. If Tehran believes that promise has been broken or reinterpreted, the risk is that the agreement could begin…