Wednesday newspaper round-up: Retailers, vaccine approval, Caffe Nero

For nearly a month festive shop windows and twinkling fairy lights have been wasted on empty high streets but that changes on Wednesday when the end of shopping restrictions in England hands retailers 23 days to save Christmas. Retailers have drawn up the battle plans they hope will enable them to safely concertina two months’ worth of Christmas shoppers into a Covid-secure one, from round-the-clock shopping in Primark to virtual queues outside John Lewis. - Guardian

The UK has become the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid, opening the way for mass immunisation with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to begin in those most at risk. The vaccine has been authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), ahead of decisions by the US and Europe. The MHRA was given power to approve the vaccine by the government under special regulations before 1 January, when it will become fully responsible for medicines authorisation in the UK after Brexit. - Guardian

Mike Ashley has come under fire from a landlord for offering a £50m lifeline to Arcadia before the retailer collapsed - despite refusing to pay rents on some of his stores. The tycoon was attacked for “inexcusable” payment delays by Ben Habib, chief executive of First Property Group and a landlord for Mr Ashley's Sports Direct empire.- Telegraph

Caffè Nero could face a legal challenge despite winning backing from creditors to pursue a company voluntary arrangement. The coffee chain’s plan was thrown into confusion by an eleventh-hour bid from EG Group, controlled by the billionaire Issa brothers. The approach was rebuffed, although it is understood that Mohsin, 49, and Zuber, 48, who are buying Asda from Walmart, remain interested. Under EG’s bid, landlords would have been paid in full for rent arrears during the pandemic, compared with 30p in the pound under the CVA. - The Times

The battle to cater for increased home working intensified last night when Salesforce said that it was buying Slack Technologies, the workplace messaging app, for $27.7 billion. The biggest deal in the cloud computing company’s history is intended to bolster its challenge to the much larger Microsoft. - The Times