Bloomberg Walmart Inc will no longer require fully vaccinated employees to wear masks unless required by state or local rules, effective immediately. In addition, a policy allowing five extra days of paid time off for workers testing positive for Covid-19 will end on March 31 as planned, Walmart said. Daily health screenings will no longer be needed for workers, ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from Japan and South Korea committed to work together to deter further Russian escalation along Ukraine’s border and condemned North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches. Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong stressed the “critical importance” of strong cooperation among their countries ...

  Bloomberg Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the late Philippine dictator, widened his lead in a presidential preference survey conducted by pollster Pulse Asia Research Inc in January. Marcos, a former senator, was chosen by 60% of the 2,400 respondents, Pulse Asia said, higher than the 53% he garnered in December. Vice President Leni Robredo, the opposition leader, came second ...

  Bloomberg Tunisia’s president extended his power that has alarmed critics and international allies, giving himself the right to fire judges and setting up a temporary new judicial watchdog after slamming its predecessor. Kais Saied’s replacement of the Supreme Judicial Council, announced in a decree in the government gazette, came after he signalled changes to the institution that safeguards judicial ...

Bloomberg US President Joe Biden tried to send Vladimir Putin an ultimatum about the consequences of any invasion of Ukraine in an hour-long conversation that left both sides at an impasse and Russia’s intentions unclear. Biden warned his counterpart in Moscow that Russia would face “severe costs.” For his part, the Russian leader accused the US of failing to provide ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong will shorten the quarantine period for residents and staff of residential care homes for the elderly and those with disabilities because isolation beds will run out in days, the city’s welfare secretary said on his blog. The quarantine period for home-care residents and staff has been cut to seven days from two weeks if their test ...

  Bloomberg Frank-Walter Steinmeier was re-elected to a second five-year term in the mainly ceremonial post of German president. Steinmeier, 66, won the backing of about two-thirds of the Federal Assembly, a body convened solely for the purpose comprising all lawmakers from the lower house and representatives from the German states. He was supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) has begun talks with the UK Debt Management Office and the Treasury over how to handle active sales of bonds held in its quantitative easing (QE) portfolio, according an official with knowledge of the matter. The discussions come as the central bank last week said it would begin running down its 875 billion ...

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s banks will suspend operations at one in every four branches in the city after a number of employees were infected with Covid, the South China Morning Post has reported. HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered and Bank of China and another 13 major lenders will close a total of 276 branches. The closures started last week and ...

  Bloomberg Starling Bank Ltd. is weighing plans for a fresh funding round that could value the UK challenger at around 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion). The digital lender is considering raising money from its existing backers, which include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. London-based Starling is bidding ...