Bloomberg Grocery stores are booming as the coronavirus pandemic drives Americans to stock up their pantries. But the nation’s biggest grocer is largely missing out. Walmart Inc, which has sat at the top of the food chain for years, has lost market share to companies like Kroger Co and Albertsons Cos, whose quarterly sales have risen by double-digit percentages. While ...

Bloomberg Bed Bath & Beyond will eliminate 2,800 jobs under a plan to cut costs and streamline operations amid deepening challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers. The “significant workforce reduction” will begin immediately, affecting both corporate headquarters and retail stores, the home-goods retailer said in a statement. Along with previously announced restructuring actions, the latest effort will result in as much as ...

Bloomberg What’s going on with Kim Jong-un? Is he sick? Worried about Covid-19? Consumed by an economic crisis? Battling internal threats? Perhaps the North Korean leader is biding his time until the US presidential election? Or maybe he’s playing the same game of threats, reconciliation and retreat that has kept his family in charge of the secretive state since the ...

Bloomberg Two Hong Kong opposition politicians known for protesting against the city’s China-backed administration were among 16 people arrested on Wednesday, according to police, in the latest blow to the pro-democracy movement. Democratic Party lawmakers Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting were arrested at their homes, their party said in a statement. The developments come in the wake of a sweeping ...

Bloomberg With Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny lying in an induced coma just minutes from Angela Merkel’s office in Berlin, the German chancellor is at a loss over what to do about Vladimir Putin. The German leader — a key conduit to the West for the Russian president — is frustrated that Putin has shown no flexibility on the case, ...

Bloomberg Support for Scottish independence has risen during the coronavirus pandemic, yet the financial reality of breaking away from the UK has been thrown back into the argument again. The government in Edinburgh recorded a budget deficit of 8.6% of gross domestic product compared with 7.4% a year earlier, according to the annual expenditure and revenue report. The deficit for ...

Bloomberg Myanmar reported 70 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the highest one-day tally since the virus was first detected in the country on March 23, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports. There had been no local transmissions between July 16 and August 16, with about 200 infections detected since then. The majority of cases are residents of Sittwe, ...

Bloomberg Germany extended a program that has kept millions of people from losing their jobs, allocating around 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) more to help Europe’s biggest economy recover from the coronavirus crisis. At a meeting in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition agreed to provide job-preserving subsidies until the end of 2021. The subsidies, known in German as “Kurzarbeit” and ...

Bloomberg More than $54.3 billion in US commercial mortgage backed securities have been transferred to loan workout specialists mostly because of payment delinquencies, a 320% increase since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Hotel and retail properties, the sectors hit hardest by restrictions on travel and public gatherings to reduce virus transmissions, make up the ...

Bloomberg WorldRemit Ltd., a UK online money transfer company, has agreed to buy Africa-focused, app-based remittance firm Sendwave as the global pandemic intensifies demand for digital banking. The cash and stock deal is worth more than $500 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The combined company will be valued at more than $1.5 billion, according to ...