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