The Apprentice

The Apprentice is back for its 2018 series and is ready to introduce us to a whole new batch of egotistical and power-hungry candidates. The Apprentice is a hit BBC reality show, now going into its 14th series, featuring hour-long episodes. Each series of the programme aims to find a new apprentice for billionaire business mogul and Amstrad founder Lord Alan Sugar, who's worth £1.4bn. It aims to recreate the toughest of business environments and tasks for its set of contestants, but it is often very funny due to the incompetence and arrogance of the competitors. It returns on Wednesday 3rd October 9pm on BBC1. Why not meet a few of the candidates first.

Apprentice Candidates

Amazon Opens 4 Star Store

Online retailing giant Amazon is opening a store in New York that will only sell products that receive a high rating on its website. The store will sell toys, household goods and other items that have a rating of four stars or more online. Customers who visit the store will pay less if they have bought into Amazon's Prime service. Physical shops are becoming a key expansion area for Amazon as it seeks to take on more traditional retailers. The four-star store will also sell books, games and kitchen utensils as well as Amazon's own Echo speakers and its Kindle e-readers. It will also have sections dedicated to items that are "trending" and proving popular with online customers.

4 Star Store

Crisp Packet Campaign

Royal Mail has stepped into a row between campaigners and crisp makers Walkers - by urging people posting empty packets to put them in envelopes. Campaigners asked people to post the non-recyclable plastic bags and "flood Walkers social media with pictures of us popping them in the post". Royal Mail is obliged by law to deliver the bags to Walkers' freepost address. But without envelopes they cannot go through machines and must be sorted by hand, causing delays. People have been taking selfies of themselves posting the crisp packets and putting them on social media with the hashtag #PacketInWalkers. It follows a petition hosted by 38 Degrees which called for Walkers to make their packets recyclable. "Walkers produce a staggering 7,000 plastic crisp packets a minute which they don't pay a penny to clean up. They need to listen to their customers and take action now."

Crisp Packet Campaign

Cadburys Say Thanks

Just as it did 100 years ago, Cadbury is playing its part in supporting those who have been affected by war. The 360g bar bears the same wrapper design as Cadbury Dairy Milk sold during the war but adorned with Poppies, which became a symbol of Remembrance after the First World War. From every bar sold, 30p will be donated to the Legion, supporting the British Armed Forces, veterans and their families. In addition to this financial contribution, Cadbury is supporting the Legion through a year-round calendar of fundraising events and activities.

Remembrance Chocolate 

Welcome To Jack's

The UK's biggest supermarket chain is taking on Aldi and Lidl with its own discount store. The first Jack's branch has been unveiled by Tesco in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, and will open on Thursday, along with an outlet in Immingham, Lincolnshire. It is named after Tesco founder Sir Jack Cohen and its chief executive said it would be cheaper than the German discounters. About 10 to 15 more stores are planned in new locations, but will shoppers make the switch?  "We have been thinking about what customers want, and bringing it to them in the most cost-effective, value-orientated way possible," he told the BBC. "The objective is to be the lowest cost for customers." Jack's stores will sell 2,600 products - far fewer than the 35,000 carried by a Tesco supermarket - with 1,800 branded "Jack's".

Jack's

Playstation Retro

Sony has announced a miniature version of the first PlayStation console, which originally launched in 1994. The mini version will come with 20 retro titles, including Final Fantasy VII and Tekken 3. The PlayStation Classic is around half the size of the original and is due to launch on 3 December. One expert said nostalgia was driving interest in retro consoles, which offer a means of making historical video games more accessible.The device will retail for £89.99. As well as the mini console, an HDMI cable for connecting to a TV and two wired controllers will be included.The design of the console is faithful to the original - even featuring a disk eject button, despite the lack of an actual disk reader. Instead, pressing the button will swap the game being played for another. The release date will mark exactly 24 years since the launch of the first PlayStation, which went on sale in Japan on 3 December 1994. It was launched in the UK the following September.

Retro Playstation

Coca Cola Considers Cannabis Move

Coca-Cola is best known for its eponymous caffeine-based drink, but the firm now appears to be experimenting with a different drug: cannabis. The drinks giant is in talks with local producer Aurora Cannabis about developing marijuana-infused beverages. These would not aim to intoxicate consumers but to relieve pain. The firm declined to comment but said it was watching the cannabis drinks market closely. Cannabidiol, a constituent of cannabis, can help ease inflammation, pain and cramping, but has no psychoactive effect.Quoting unnamed sources, BNN Bloomberg said Coca-Cola was in "serious talks" with Aurora but no deal had been finalised. "They're pretty advanced down the path" of doing a deal, one source was quoted as saying. "It's going to be more of the 'recovery drink' category," the source added.

Coca Cola

Maychup

A hybrid condiment comprised of mayonnaise and ketchup has officially arrived in the United States after a campaign to launch the new sauce was successful. Mayochup, created by Heinz, was first revealed in April, when the condiment giant released the hybrid in the Middle East. After a successful launch, the company asked the US through an online poll whether they’d also be interested in stocking shelves with mayochup - and the results found more than a half a million people in favour of the sauce. Despite the people who’d voted in favour of mayochup’s US debut, the news of the soon-to-be-released dipping sauce has been met with mixed reactions from people on social media who think it is not a new invention at all. What do you think?

Mayochup

Apple Launch

Apple has updated its iPhone X handset with three more powerful models, two of which are larger than before. The iPhone XS Max has a 6.5in (16.5cm) display. The iPhone XS has the same 5.8in-sized component as the original. The iPhone XR's screen is 6.1in but is lower quality. A new smartwatch was also launched with an added fall-detection function. There had been concerns that the relatively high £999 entry price of iPhone X would limit its appeal. But Apple said it had consistently proven more popular than either of the lower-priced iPhone 8 models. Market research firms suggest it also outsold rival companies' flagship devices. That helped propel Apple to become the world's first company with a market capitalisation above $1tn (£768bn). However, China's Huawei still managed to overtake it in terms of overall smartphone market share in the April-to-June quarter, putting Apple into third place.

Apple Launch

Shopper To The Stars

A 17-year-old entrepreneur from London has revealed how he built up a business selling designer clothes and trainers to the world’s most famous footballers. Sam Morgan has receipts from more than 300 elite players including Paul Pogba, Kevin De Bruyne and Mesut Ozil, as well as a host of England stars. The teenager operates as a personal shopper through his Instagram page, which has soared to have more than 66,000 followers. His astonishing success has not come about by luck. He has worked hard, quietly plotting at home in London. He's always had a mind for business. When Morgan was 11, a school friend brought back sweets from America and started selling them. His passion for fashion kicked in at 13, when he started to buy and sell pieces online to fill his own wardrobe. It was that interest that escalated to his current situation. His Insta page has grown to towards an impressive 22,000 followers over the past year. He made his breakthrough while in bed at night, wondering how he could capture a niche market.

Star Shopper

Ciao Starbucks

It has taken more than two years to build, but on Friday, Starbucks will open its first Italian outlet. The company's Milan "roastery" goes far beyond the usual latte production line. The marble-floored store will offer a "theatre of coffee roasting, brewing and mixology", as well as cocktails, pizza, bread and ice cream. Local businesses said they were "not afraid" of the competition, and emphasised that high-quality coffee was already widely available in the region. Traditional Italian coffee shops are designed for a quick pit-stop, where customers can knock-back a mouthful of espresso without even stopping to sit down. Starbucks is hoping to offer something different. Mintel's research, which estimates the Italian coffee market was worth €19.4bn (£17.4bn) last year, suggests 16-to-35 year-olds are open to American coffee-style concepts such as flavoured Frappuccino's and cold brew, which are less common in Italy.

Starbucks Italy

Domino's Tattoo Regret

Domino’s Pizza have done a U-turn on a promotion that promised free pizzas for life to anyone who got a tattoo of their logo. The Russian branch of the fast food company promised those that got the inkings 100 free pizzas for the next 100 years. But it would appear the brand were not expecting so many people to take part, as they quickly had to change their promotion to the ‘first 350 people’ within days of it going live.The ‘Domino’s forever’ campaign had originally been due for two months, from August 31 until October 31. But while the promotion has now been officially closed, it would appear that some Russians have not quite got the memo.

Domino's Forever

End of Life for PS2

Sony has ended its repair service for the PlayStation 2, more than 18 years after it first went on sale. The console was first released in Japan in March 2000 and remains the best-selling games console ever produced. Manufacturing of the device ended in 2012, six years after the follow-up PS3 console had been released. Sony said it was no longer able to offer repairs because it was running out of replacement parts for the ageing console. In a statement, the company thanked customers for their "continued patronage". Gamers seeking repairs will now have to try their luck with unofficial services. More than 150 million PlayStation 2 consoles have been sold compared with 80 million of the latest console - PS4.

PS2

Nike Boycott

Critics have burned Nike trainers and clothing in protest at Colin Kaepernick's appointment as the face of the brand's new advertising campaign. The American football quarterback, 30, protested against racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling during the US national anthem. In announcing the deal, Nike said he was "one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation". But opponents took to social media, promising to destroy Nike products. On Twitter, they hit out at the deal using the hashtag #JustBurnIt - a play on Nike's slogan 'Just Do It' - which trended on Twitter alongside #BoycottNike. Nike's new advertising campaign, celebrating the 30th anniversary of its 'Just Do It' slogan, also includes ads featuring tennis star Serena Williams, New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr and Seattle Seahawks rookie linebacker Shaquem Griffin. Shares have dropped 2% since the announcement.

Just Burn It

Costa Cola

Coca-Cola is to buy the Costa coffee chain from owner Whitbread in a deal worth £3.9bn. Whitbread had intended to spin off the chain as a separate firm, but said a straight sale was more profitable. Chief executive Alison Brittain said Whitbread would now focus on its Premier Inn business in the UK and Germany. Whitbread bought Costa, which is now the UK's biggest coffee chain, for just £19m in 1995. At the time, it had just 39 outlets. It now has more than 2,400 UK coffee shops, as well as some 1,400 outlets in 31 overseas markets. Costa Express has 8,237 vending machines worldwide. As well as being the largest UK coffee chain, Costa is also the world's second largest. It is looking to triple its presence in China, where it is second to Starbucks. According to consumer analysts Kantar Worldpanel, the out-of-home coffee market is worth £6.3bn a year in the UK alone. While this is a landmark deal for Whitbread, it is also a significant move for Coca-Cola, taking it into hot beverages for the first time and, it hopes, providing the growth for which its investors have been crying out.

Costa Cola