Bloomberg New Jersey is the first state to ban both plastic and paper bags, leaving companies and shoppers to find creative workarounds to get their groceries home. ShopRite, with more than 100 New Jersey stores, will charge a flat $1.50 per order for reusable bags. Instacart Inc, which fulfills shoppers’ lists for Aldi Inc, Lidl Ltd, CVS Health Corp and ...

  Bloomberg Amazon Inc makes it too hard and unnecessarily confusing to cancel subscriptions for services, some customers claimed in a lawsuit alleging the internet retailer is violating California’s rules on automatic renewal programs. The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco federal court by three California residents who say they signed up for free trials of Amazon services only to ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s retail sales plummeted 13.8% in March, the first back-to-back contraction in more than a year as stringent virus restrictions weighed heavily on the economy and crushed consumer spending. The fall in sales value from a year earlier was worse than the median estimate of a 12.6% decline expected by economists in a survey, though it was ...

  Bloomberg John Lee became the only candidate for Hong Kong’s top post by proving his willingness to loyally execute Beijing’s demands despite an international outcry. The question now is whether he can convince China that re-opening the Asian financial centre to the world won’t jeopardise its control. Lee, a former cop and security minister, emerged as a leading advocate ...

  Bloomberg The US Treasury Department sanctioned Blender.io, a virtual currency mixer it said was tied to North Korea’s hacking and money laundering activities. The action marks the first time Treasury has sanctioned a so-called “mixer,” which is used to hide the origin of illicit funds. “Today, for the first time ever, Treasury is sanctioning a virtual currency mixer,” said ...

Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s Conservatives shed seats across England and lost control of three London strongholds in the local elections, leading to a backlash against the from local party leaders. The Tories lost control of Wandsworth Council — an iconic local government which has been Tory-run since 1978 — as well as in Westminster, where the Houses of Parliament are based. ...

Bloomberg France’s four largest left-wing parties overcame rivalries to form a united front ahead of legislative elections next month as opposition mobilises against newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron. After tense deliberations, the Socialist party board approved an electoral pact with the Communists, the Greens and the far-left France Unbowed. They will now present a single slate of candidates in the ...

  Bloomberg Rudy Giuliani balked at showing up for his scheduled interview before the House Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, a spokesman for the panel said. The spokesman, Tim Mulvey, said the committee “will consider all enforcement options” if the former personal lawyer to former President Donald Trump continues to refuse. “Mr Giuliani had ...

  Bloomberg European banks are counting the rising cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as they brace for a wave of defaults and write down the value of their operations in the country. Led by Societe Generale SA and UniCredit SpA, the region’s lenders have so far flagged a hit of $8.6 billion to their earnings from the war. The ...

  Bloomberg The Czech central bank lifted borrowing costs more than expected to the highest level since 1999 and signalled further monetary policy tightening to come as intensifying inflation pressure eclipses risks to economic growth. Policy makers raised the benchmark rate by 75 basis points to 5.75% — exceeding the forecasts of all analysts in a Bloomberg survey for a ...