A Risky Affair💡
This Week in Review ☕️ : Coca Cola innovates to deliver iconic Coke | Food becomes more expensive | Netflix enters new category | Floods to heavy rainfall ravage countries | Paris reopens to tourists
Quick Bites:
Beverages🥤: Coca-Cola Zero Sugar's recipe gets revamped to "deliver an even more iconic Coke taste".
The beverage giant announced a "new formula that tastes even more delicious and refreshing than the current version."
The good news is that it's still sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame, so it'll still taste like a can of metallic-flavored artificial sweetener.
Although, the Atlanta-based company mentioned "all nutritional information will remain the same", a new taste for a prized product is always a risky affair.
Many social media users are already threatening to switch to Diet Dr Pepper, or worse, Pepsi.
This is not the 1st time Coca-Cola changed its recipe. In 1985, it introduced a reformulated version of its classic Coke, only to face a swift and heated backlash from unhappy consumers.
We've been surviving on brown rice cakes and Coke Zero this pandemic. Messing with the recipe could have catastrophic results for us... and everyone within a 1-mile radius.
Meanwhile, if you've invested in $COKE, you can only hope the new version doesn't tank the stock, especially since the original has consistently delivered double-digit growth.
Our Thoughts💡: Gonna get buck tonight and order three orders of pepperoni dough and a gigantic Cherry Coke Zero
Food 🍞 : Food is becoming costlier across the world.
The United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) which measures a basket of foods has risen to its highest overall level since September 2011.
Meanwhile, the minimum wage has hardly changed since the 80s! How much was a cheeseburger back then vs now? And no, we're not talking about the Dollar menu at Burger King
So how much more expensive is food worldwide? According to the FAO, the prices of foods have increased as per the following since last May:
💡Cereal: 36.6% increase
💡Vegetable oil: 124% increase
💡Dairy products: 28% increase
💡Meat: 10% increase
💡Sugar: 57% increase
The increased costs are a result of renewed demand in certain countries and pandemic-related production backlog, BBC reports.
Tbh, most stores hide the increased price.. unless you pay attention. Rather than charge more, they shrink the size of the product. 500g of cheddar soon becomes 450g, 400g, 350g, 300g.
Price stays the same but manipulation increases 👋
Our Thoughts💡: Buy local. Really, people! It's not that hard. There is no need for excessive imports to eat your hearts out.
Small mom and pop ventures/farms have become easily accessible this pandemic.
Get👏 with 👏the 👏damn 👏 times👏
Streaming 📺 : Netflix plans to offer video games on its streaming platform by next year, Bloomberg reports.
At a time when companies compete to take on the trillion dollar entertainment ecosystem, this is Reed Hastings' attempt to dominate the fastest growing category: Video Games.
Personally, we can't wait to play a transgender 15th-century cleric with a prosthetic arm & metallic hair fighting for womens rights
According to Bloomberg:
💡Netflix has hired former Facebook exec Mike Verdu to lead the effort (Already heading in the wrong direction)
💡Games will appear as a new programming genre
💡No plans to charge extra currently
💡Details on nature of games undisclosed
Our Thoughts💡: Seems like a last-ditch effort to keep fans invested in online content as vaccination rates increase and people finally turn off their screens.
What Reed Hastings doesn't know: We don't need video games to continue using Netflix.
When it comes to great TV, portion control is for suckers
Climate Change 🌍 : Extreme weather conditions from catastrophic wildfires to heavy rainfall reported across the world.
Environmentalists claim that rising temperatures due to global warming has made the weather even more unpredictable.
Planet Earth to Humans: You hear me now?! 🔈
According to The Telegraph:
💡Germany: 160 people dead from floods; "the country's worst natural disaster in half a century"
💡Belgium: 31 dead and 160 people missing from devastating floods
💡California: 2000 people evacuated due to massive wildfire that has "burned an area roughly the size of Los Angeles"
💡China: Extreme rainfall causes the collapse of two damns at reservoirs in the Mongolian city of Hulunbuir
💡India: 35 people killed as "monstrous" seasonal monsoon triggered landslides and house collapses
💡New Zealand: State of emergency declared due to severe flooding in the Buller District on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island
Tourism 🇫🇷 : The Eiffel Tower reopens after 9 months.
The historic landmark is opening its doors after October 2020; the longest closure since World War II.
An apartment in Montmartre stacked with croissants, a career in fashion and a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower is calling our name
Despite reopening, French President Emmanuel Macron announced new rules aimed at curbing the virus:
💡All visitors over age 18 will need to provide proof of vaccination, antibodies or a negative test
💡Daily capacity is set to be restricted to 13,000 people
💡Masks are mandatory
“Before COVID, it was 80% foreigners, 20% French. Last year, it was 80% French, 20% foreigners.
And this year, it’s amazing because it’s fifty-fifty. And for us, it’s the time that foreigners are coming back to the Eiffel Tower,”
-Eiffel Tower director Patrick Branco Ruivo told reporters.
Quicker Bites:
Prince Harry to write 'intimate and heartfelt' memoir of his life, from childhood to the present day, The Telegraph reports.
Canada to open border to vaccinated US travellers on August 9 and global vaccinated travelers on September 7.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson urges caution as England reopens.
Protests in Cuba to continue as the country temporarily lifts restrictions on food and medicine imports.
Tokyo Covid cases surge to six month high one week before Olympics.
Argentina marks somber milestone with 100,000 deaths from Covid-19.
Countries grapple with devastation left by deadly floods in Europe.
Ugandan weightlifter reported missing in Osaka before Tokyo Olympics.
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