Bob’s Stores, a longtime Northeast clothing store chain, announced this week that it is shutting down after it failed to secure financing amid a bankruptcy filing. Through July 14, all remaining Bob’s locations will offer liquidation-level discounts on the stores’ trademark work wear, footwear, team wear and everyday family-oriented clothing.…
After years of investing in self-checkout machines, some major retailers are starting to reverse course. Dollar General said it has eliminated self-checkout options at about 12,000 locations, a majority of its stores, after it began the process in the first quarter this year. Five Below is working to remove self-checkout…
The world’s biggest gaming championship kicks off today in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Around 1,500 global esports champions are heading to Boulevard City, competing for eight weeks for a record prize pool of $60m (£47m). “The Esports World Cup is a major moment in esports history,” said Ralf Reichert, chief executive…
Google has admitted its greenhouse gas emissions have risen 48% over the past five years – largely because of artificial intelligence – scuppering its climate aims. AI systems require intense levels of computational power, and this has piled pressure on the tech giant’s data centres around the world. In its…
As thousands of men hurried towards the main square in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim on Sunday for a protest, they passed signs declaring “war” on a contentious order from Israel’s highest court. The Supreme Court ruling on June 25 said the Israeli government must enlist draft-age ultra-Orthodox (or…
During a visit to a local farm while working with development agency USAID, Ugandan entrepreneur Juliet Tumusiime realized that a huge amount of banana stems are left over from banana cultivation and simply discarded. Looking for a way to use the waste, she struck upon an innovative business idea. Almost…
The Chinese coast guard detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel in waters off China’s southeast coast on Tuesday night, in the latest flare-up of tensions around a group of frontline islands controlled by Taipei. In a statement, Taiwan’s coast guard said the fishing boat, Tachinman 88, was intercepted by two Chinese coast…
Sierra Leone officially banned child marriage on Tuesday with President Julius Maada Bio signing into law a bill to end the practice that remains widespread. Advocates hope the new legislation will better protect girls in Sierra Leone, around a third of whom are married before they turn 18, increasing the…
A club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia to advance their leaders’ vision of an alternative world order is set to expand again this week – this time adding a staunch Russian ally that has openly supported Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The expected admission of Belarus to the Shanghai…
Voters in Britain are primed to end a 14-year era of Conservative rule, in a momentous general election that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is almost universally expected to lose. Sunak took the biggest gamble of his troubled premiership by calling the early vote, but he has struggled to turn around…