European governments agreed that airlines would not be penalized (with cancelled departure or arrival slots) if they cancelled empty or nearly-empty flights. But airlines flew empty flights anyway.

From personal experience I know that many fewer flights were scheduled from the US to Italy flew in April and May, 2020. And many of those scheduled were cancelled a few days in advance.

Is it possible that the "ghost flights" started after May?

In any case, it is clear that governments ought to demand statistics about number of paying passengers, and publish them. The simple wish of a business to keep something secret should carry very little weight in the decision about whether to allow it to do so. Any significant public interest should be enough to override that wish.

Swiss banking secrecy made Switzerland an ideal place for dictators and crooks to hide money. A treaty made Switzerland pull back the secrecy for clients from European countries, but third world embezzlers still take advantage of it.

Many other countries help disguise profits for rich people.

*How to save [the UK's] precious public services? A windfall tax on those who got rich from Covid.*

Coping with Covid-19 is expensive, especially if you're not careful to spend money wisely. The UK spent a lot of money, much of it incompetently or corruptly.

In the minds of Tories, like other plutocratists, this is an opportunity to cut the support that keeps penurious people alive. They have been pushing for more than a decade to undermine and ruin the National Health Service, and they see success within their grasp.

Putin announced his intention to seize the whole extent of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces -- far larger than the territory his proxies actually hold.

That would require real fighting. The announcement was a declaration of real war.

The province of Donbas includes the important city of Mariupol. Western experts speculated some weeks ago that Putin would try to capture it. Ukraine will surely resist that attack strenuously.

The US would be more convincing when condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine if it had not supported occupations and carried out conquests.