Sunday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Frasers Group, Belarus

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has made an aggressive bid for the collapsed sports retail empire of his old rival Dave Whelan, the former Wigan Athletic owner. Frasers, formerly Sports Direct, is understood to have offered administrators more than £30m for DW Sports, which comprises 73 gyms and 75 stores. It is the latest opportunistic swoop by Newcastle United owner Ashley, who has used the high street crisis to strike cut-price deals for retailers including Jack Wills, Evans Cycles and House of Fraser. - Sunday Times

In Minsk on Sunday, it was a tale of two rallies. On the one hand was a show put on by Alexander Lukashenko, the “dictator” whose 26-year reign towered over Belarusians until just a few days ago. On the other was a pro-opposition demonstration, emboldened after workers from most state enterprises joined them in a national strike. Mr Lukashenko made an emotional appeal in front of an underwhelming crowd of a few thousand, many of whom had reportedly been bussed in for the occasion. - The Independent

Apple has been accused by one of its former executives of openly allowing China’s WeChat an exemption from the US company’s strict rules around iPhone apps. Phillip Shoemaker, who was in charge of policing the App Store until 2016, claimed WeChat’s continued presence on iPhones amounted to a “special exception”, and speculated that Apple allowed it because it feared being frozen out of the lucrative Chinese smartphone market. - Sunday Telegraph

Former Flybe shareholders are preparing legal action over claims they were misled about the airline's performance before it was sold in a cut-price deal last year. Several dozen retail investors want a judge to decide if former directors put out inaccurate statements and overstated how well the company was doing. - Mail on Sunday

Cineworld is facing a court battle after one of its landlords launched legal action against the cinema chain over unpaid rent. Cineworld, the world’s second largest cinema chain, is understood to be withholding rent from property firm AEW as the pandemic continues to hammer the film sector and dents demand among cinemagoers. - Sunday Telegraph

Serco, the company awarded a contact-tracing contract worth £108m, was fined £2.6m for failures on another government contract just months ago, the Guardian has learned. The fine, referred to as a service credit, was issued for shortcomings on an asylum-seeker accommodation contract between September 2019 and January 2020. It followed a previous £1m fine on an earlier Serco asylum-seeker accommodation contract last year. - Guardian

Lloyds has warned that a second wave of Covid-19 cases could send the UK into a double-dip recession. Angus Armstrong, chief economic adviser at the bank, has sketched out the impact of infections hitting a second peak in January 2021. He warned in a presentation to thousands of staff last month that the wave would send another shock through the British economy before it had fully recovered from the spring lockdown. - Mail on Sunday

The World Bank’s new chief economist has warned the recovery will last even longer than the financial crisis aftermath as China struggles to rescue global growth again. Carmen Reinhart dashed hopes of a rapid V-shaped rebound by predicting that recoveries in advanced economies will take more than five years on a per capita income basis. She told The Sunday Telegraph: “I think it will be longer [than the financial crisis recovery]… We are talking upwards of five years. Look, the damage being done is being done really to every sector.” - Sunday Telegraph

A last-ditch attempt to prevent the UK government from endorsing TikTok’s plans to locate its headquarters in London is being mounted by China hawks who accuse the app’s parent company of cooperating with authorities in Xinjiang province. Downing Street is keen encourage TikTok to move from Beijing to London, but faces a rearguard action led by the trade secretary, Liz Truss, who is anxious about some of the demands being made by the business. - Guardian