The Netherlands: Covid: Dutch go into Christmas lockdown over Omicron wave

rime Minister Mark Rutte said the measures were "unavoidable".

Countries across Europe have been tightening restrictions as the heavily mutated variant spreads.

The new rules in the Netherlands - the strictest to have been announced over Omicron so far - come into force on Sunday.

"I stand here tonight in a sombre mood And a lot of people watching will feel that way too," Mr Rutte told a news conference on Saturday. "To sum it up in one sentence, the Netherlands will go back into lockdown from tomorrow."

Read more at: Covid: Dutch go into Christmas lockdown over Omicron wave - BBC News

Germany: Aldi fires $3.4 billion shot in U.S. supermarket wars

One of the several Aldi's in Fort Lauderdale

German grocery chain Aldi Inc [ALDIEI.UL] said on Sunday it would invest $3.4 billion to expand its U.S. store base to 2,500 by 2022, raising the stakes for rivals caught in a price war.

Aldi operates 1,600 U.S. stores and earlier this year said it would add another 400 by the end of 2018 and spend $1.6 billion to remodel 1,300 of them.

The investment, which raises Aldi's capital expenditure to at least $5 billion so far this year, comes at a time of intense competition and disruption in the industry.

German rival Lidl will open the first of its 100 U.S. stores on June 15. In May, Lidl said it would price products up to 50 percent lower than rivals.

The furious pace of expansion by Aldi and Lidl is likely to further disrupt the U.S. grocery market, which has seen 18 bankruptcies since 2014. The two chains are also upending established UK grocers like Tesco Plc (TSCO.L) and Wal-Mart's UK arm, ASDA.

In May, Aldi Chief Executive Jason Hart told Reuters the chain intended to have prices at least 21 percent lower than rivals and would focus on adding in-house brands to win over price-sensitive customers.

"We're growing at a time when other retailers are struggling," Hart said in a statement. Hart added that Aldi's prices were also up to 50 percent lower than traditional grocery chains, a move that appeared to follow rival Lidl's announcement on prices

Read more: Aldi fires $3.4 billion shot in U.S. supermarket wars | Reuters

Free plastic bags may be banned across the whole of Europe - by Eleanor Harding

A ban on free plastic bags across the whole of Europe is being considered by Brussels.

Proposals to make shoppers pay for single-use carrier bags are to be looked at next month and could become law within two years.

The measure is a key recommendation in a green paper on plastic packaging to be published by the European Commission.

Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner for the environment, said: ‘Fifty years ago, the single-use plastic bag was almost unheard of – now we use them for a few minutes and they pollute our environment for decades. ‘But social attitudes are evolving and there is a widespread desire for change.’

The average EU citizen gets through about 500 plastic carrier bags a year – with most of them used once, according to Brussels. The total volume produced in Europe in 2008 was 3.4million tons, but only 6 per cent were recycled.

Despite their widespread use, research suggests most Europeans want to see a clampdown on carrier bags, with two thirds of people surveyed by the Commission saying they favored an outright ban. 

Note EU-Digest: Many European grocery stores and super markets are already charging between euro 0.07 and 0.13 cents for a plastic bag and paper bags are not used at all.

For more: Free plastic bags may be banned across the whole of Europe | Mail Online