Bedugul Coffee: Friday Morning Briefing: Empty shelves, poor customer service speed Sears' demise

United States

“It’s really going down,” said Sandy Hetrick about Sears, which is weighing whether to file for bankruptcy protection in the coming days. Sandy Hetrick drove 15 miles from her home to a Sears in Media, Pennsylvania to buy folding chairs and clothes. Her local Sears in Wilmington, Delaware, the 54-year-old retiree said, was so poorly stocked that she stopped going there.

Using heavy equipment to push aside debris and with helicopters circling overhead, rescuers in the Florida Panhandle searched for trapped residents as officials warned the death toll from Hurricane Michael was likely to rise.

A lawsuit challenging the use of race as a factor in U.S. college admissions will go to trial in Boston on Monday, when Harvard University will face accusations that it discriminates against Asian-American applicants.

U.s.-China

Amid gathering gloom over the state of the Chinese economy, exporters of motorcycles, tractors, photocopiers and Christmas tree lighting will join thousands of other companies peddling their wares at China’s largest trade fair Monday. Many of those exporters will have something in common - uncertainty over future U.S. orders as a trade war with the United States rages.

Exclusive: The five nations in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network have been exchanging classified information on China’s foreign activities with other like-minded countries since the start of the year, seven officials in four capitals said.

World

A delegation from Saudi Arabia has arrived in Turkey as part of a joint investigation into the disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, two Turkish sources said. Media companies are pulling out of a Saudi investment conference because of growing outrage over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.

Commentary: International spying and occasional killings have always been government tools. For all the breathless speculation of espionage novels and journalists, however, such activities traditionally have been tightly controlled, with informal agreements keeping killing in particular to a bare minimum, particularly on foreign turf. After a week that saw the possible murder or abduction of a Saudi journalist in Turkey, the disappearance of the senior Chinese official heading Interpol and a Western expose of Russian military intelligence, the rules are changing fast, writes Reuters global affairs columnist Peter Apps.

Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle in front of celebrities and Britain’s senior royals including Prince Harry and wife Meghan who wed at the same venue in May.