Coca-Cola will roll out cane sugar version of namesake soda in the U.S. this fall
Coke has used high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten its namesake soda in the U.S. since the 1980s, although it still uses cane sugar in other markets like Mexico. "Mexican Coke" has gained popularity in the U.S. over the last decade or so, as retailers like Costco and Target have stocked the drink, following the lead of bodegas and restaurants catering to Hispanic clientele.
In a news release announcing its second-quarter earnings Tuesday, Coke said the new product offering is "designed to complement the company's strong core portfolio and offer more choices across occasions and preferences."
The product announcement comes after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that he has been speaking with the company about using "REAL Cane Sugar" in its U.S. soda. Trump is a longtime fan of Diet Coke, which uses the artificial sweetener aspartame, and even has a button in the Oval Office to summon the drink.
Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vocally opposed the use of high-fructose corn syrup, blaming it for obesity and chronic disease. Research does not suggest that cane sugar is a healthier option than high-fructose corn syrup.
Longstanding tariff-rate quotas on sugar imported from other countries make the commodity a more expensive option than corn syrup, which is made in the U.S. and supported by government subsidies for corn farmers.
Prior to Tuesday's announcement, Coke had been touting moves to cut back the amount of sugar in its portfolio — and customers are liking the switch. For example, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar has been one of the fastest-growing drinks for the company, with 9% volume growth last year.
Rival PepsiCo has also been adding cane sugar back to its namesake cola. On Monday, the company announced the forthcoming launch of Pepsi Prebiotic Cola, which includes three grams of fiber and five grams of cane sugar.
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Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Commentary: Paramount appeased Trump — but now it has to battle Colbert and all his friends
There may be a new entrant in the annals of corporate hole-digging: Media titan Paramount, which owns CBS and recently said it's canceling the top-rated "Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Paramount said it needs to cancel the Colbert show for 'financial reasons' and leaked reports likely sourced to the company suggest the show loses around $40 million per year. But the decision reeks of Trumpian subterfuge, putting Paramount in the fraught corporate position of picking sides in one of President Trump's many disputes over business and cultural priorities. Paramount plans to merge this year with media firm Skydance, to help stabilize its finances and ease the transition from legacy media behemoth to a nimbler streaming operation. The two companies agreed on the $8 billion deal last year, when Joe Biden was president. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the deal in February. That left the Federal Communications Commission, which must also sign off since the deal involves the transfer of broadcast licenses. FCC approval was 'widely seen as a formality,' as Deadline reported in April. But it didn't come until July 24, months later than would have been likely under any president other than Trump. In the meanwhile, Paramount paid tribute to Trump in unprecedented ways likely to dog the company for months or years, with the cancellation of Colbert's show fueling a barrage of criticism from Colbert himself and many allies, some of it on Paramount's own airwaves. Paramount clearly didn't anticipate this sort of trouble when it arranged the deal last year. But when Trump won the presidency in November, Paramount faced new barriers to a buyout that otherwise might have been routine. That's because of Trump's personal beef with CBS and the news show "60 Minutes." Trump sued the network last year as an individual, claiming the show distorted a 2024 interview with Kamala Harris, Trump's foe in the presidential election, to give her favorable treatment. Shortly after taking office in January, Trump appointed loyalist Brendan Carr to head the FCC. Then Trump converted the formerly independent agency into an arm of the White House's policy and political operations. One of Carr's first moves as Trump's FCC boss was opening an investigation into the CBS for its interview with Harris, an unprecedented effort to use government power to intimidate a news organization. 'The chairman of the FCC has cagily created a new and coercive technique for operating outside the agency's established statutes and procedures to attack corporate decisions he and Donald Trump do not like,' former FCC commissioner Tom Wheeler, now of the Brookings Institution, wrote in February. 'Prime targets are media company editorial decisions.' The Los Angeles Times and other news organizations reported that Shari Redstone, non-executive chair of umbrella company Paramount Global, pushed her executives to settle with Trump. Redstone and her family stand to net about $1.75 billion from the Skydance deal. So she has a clear interest in pushing barriers to the deal out of the way. That may explain why earlier this month, Paramount and CBS agreed to settle the Trump lawsuit for $16 million. Colbert roasts Trump regularly on his show and is far more political than David Letterman, whom he replaced in 2015. On July 14, the cheeky host called the $16 million Paramount payment to Trump 'a big, fat bribe'—on CBS's own air. Three days later, Paramount canceled Colbert's show. There's no public evidence that the company axed Colbert to appease Trump. Yet it did please Trump. 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,' Trump posted to social media on July 18. Then on July 24, Paramount received the FCC blessing to close the deal with Skydance. Mission accomplished ... Except for what is sure to be a very messy aftermath. Colbert's contract lasts until next May (same as the tenure for embattled Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell), and the show will air until then. 'For the next 10 months, the gloves are off,' Colbert told his audience on July cronies Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Weird Al Yankovic joined that show for a spoof that ended with a Trump-Paramount kiss-cam exposé. The same day, Jon Stewart devoted half of his weekly Comedy Central program to blasting Paramount for trying to 'make yourselves so innocuous, that you can serve a gruel so flavorless, that you will never again be on the boy king's radar.' Stewart ended the show with a musical number, backed by a gospel quintet, featuring the refrain 'Go f— yourself,' which may or may not become an instant classic but is certainly giggly. Stewart's show, like Colbert's, runs on a network owned by Paramount. So does the animated series "South Park," which just debuted the premiere episode of its 27th season, in which a fictional Trump tries to seduce a [fictional] Satan, who mocks fictional Trump for having diminutive [fictional] genitalia. Maybe Paramount won the battle. But will it win the war? Will Trump really be satisfied that Colbert's Paramount-supported mockery of him might continue until next year? Or that Stewart and the diabolical "South Park" brain trust will keep tweaking him indefinitely? If Paramount cites contractual obligations requiring it to continue airing the Trump-bashing resistance, will Trump nod and say, right, of course? Big public companies make mistakes all the time. The memorable ones are those compounded by a corporate reaction that amplifies the original sin and makes everything worse. In 2023, Target tried to back away from its own LGBTQ outreach effort, offending the very people it was wooing and making no new friends in the process. In 2017, United Airlines appeared to defend thuggish security guards who forcibly dragged a passenger off a plane, igniting a firestorm of bad publicity that wiped nearly $1.5 billion off its market value. Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick resigned as CEO in 2017 after failing to shake months of controversy over a toxic company culture rife with sexual harassment and discrimination. Those incidents are now textbook examples of how to worsen a crisis, rather than fix it. Paramount now seems headed toward its own chapter in that cringy volume. Colbert, Stewart, et al. won't do Trump any harm, since they've been slamming him for years and have long been speaking to like-minded audiences. But now they're aiming their comedic lances at Paramount, which most of their viewers have probably never thought much about. That will change. Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Bluesky and X: @rickjnewman. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices.
The Verge
18 minutes ago
- The Verge
Paramount-Skydance merger approved after companies agree to government speech demands
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved Skydance's $8 billion purchase of CBS-owner Paramount after the companies agreed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs but feature a 'diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.' In light of the Trump administration's critiques of CBS's alleged anti-conservative bias — including collecting a $16 million settlement over the president's lawsuit over an allegedly deceptively edited video of then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes — the companies' commitment to address bias in the lawsuit likely means featuring more conservative programming. Skydance agreed to employ an ombudsman for at least two years, 'who will receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS.' 'Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,' Republican FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement announcing the agency's approval. 'That is why I welcome Skydance's commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.' He said the commitments 'would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage,' and mark 'another step forward in the FCC's efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination.' Carr also boasts that Skydance 'reaffirms its commitment to localism as a core component of the public interest standard,' and that the approval will 'unleash the investment of $1.5 billion into Paramount.' Carr has made no secret of his distaste for news coverage he sees as disproportionately unfavorable to the right and DEI policies he believes contribute to unfair treatment. He's opened investigations into all three major networks as well as NPR and PBS (NBCUniversal and its owner Comcast are investors in The Verge parent company Vox Media). A week ago, CBS announced it was retiring The Late Show, hosted by Trump critic and comedian Stephen Colbert. The network said it was 'purely a financial decision.' The FCC's only remaining Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, dissented, writing that, 'In an unprecedented move, this once-independent FCC used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom … Even more alarming, it is now imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.' Still, she gave Carr credit for calling a vote on the matter, rather than rubber-stamping the merger through one of the agency's bureaus, like it did for the Verizon-Frontier merger, which similarly required an end to DEI programs. Gomez warns that this agreement is just the canary in the coal mine. 'The Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can—and should—abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage,' she writes. 'It is a dark chapter in a long and growing record of abuse that threatens press freedom in this country. But such violations endure only when institutions choose capitulation over courage. It is time for companies, journalists, and citizens alike to stand up and speak out, because unchecked and unquestioned power has no rightful place in America.' Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Lauren Feiner Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Business Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Film Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Streaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All TV Shows
CBS News
18 minutes ago
- CBS News
Trump signs executive order laying out new rules for NIL deals and money in college sports
President Trump on Thursday introduced new rules for the name, image and likeness and revenue-sharing deals that have shaken up college sports in recent years, seeking to rein in what the White House called an "out-of-control, rudderless system." The executive order seeks to ban "third-party, pay-for-play payments to collegiate athletes," while still allowing athletes to strike brand endorsement deals. It also says any revenue-sharing arrangements between universities and athletes should expand or preserve "scholarships and collegiate athletic opportunities in women's and non-revenue sports." Mr. Trump's order also said schools with more than $50 million in athletic revenue cannot reduce the number of scholarship opportunities for "non-revenue sports" — typically sports other than football and basketball. Schools that draw more than $125 million are directed to increase their non-revenue scholarships in the coming academic year. The president also directed the National Labor Relations Board to work on "clarifying the status of collegiate athletes" — likely referring to moves by some college athletes to be deemed university employees and form labor unions. It's not clear how the order will be enforced. Mr. Trump tells top administration officials to "develop a plan" within 30 days to advance the order using "all available and appropriate regulatory, enforcement, and litigation mechanisms." It floated decisions about federal funding, Title IX enforcement and work with Congress. CBS News was first to report on Mr. Trump's plan to sign a college sports-focused executive order last week. In recent years, collegiate sports have been reshaped by drastic policy changes that allow student-athletes to make millions of dollars while still in school. The NCAA in 2021 permitted athletes to earn money for the use of their name, image and likeness, or NIL. Since then, some big-name student-athletes have scored the types of lucrative brand endorsement deals that were once more closely associated with professional athletes. Rules restricting schools from directly paying athletes have also been loosened. A legal settlement involving the NCAA earlier this year allowed schools to start sharing revenue with athletes for the first time, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the NCAA's attempts to limit some benefits to athletes violated antitrust law. The changes mark a stark departure from college sports' previous operating model, in which athletes were thought of as amateurs and were paid in college scholarships. That system faced stiff criticism from many student-athletes, who viewed it as unfair to block them from being compensated even as their work, in some cases, brought in millions of dollars for their schools. But the new landscape has also drawn fears about whether smaller colleges will struggle to compete with their larger peers' checkbooks, and whether sports that don't generate much revenue for colleges will face more pressure. And fans of certain schools have formed so-called NIL collectives that draw in donations and offer endorsement deals to players, an arrangement some critics have called a "pay-to-play scheme." "Absent guardrails to stop the madness and ensure a reasonable, balanced use of resources across collegiate athletic programs that preserves their educational and developmental benefits, many college sports will soon cease to exist," Mr. Trump's executive order signed Thursday states. Meanwhile, most states have passed their own laws regulating NIL, but the federal government doesn't have a uniform standard. This week, a House committee advanced the SCORE Act, which would set national NIL rules. But there's concern that the bill doesn't do enough to protect athletes' interests. The NCAA said in a statement after Thursday's executive order that it "appreciates the Trump Administration's focus on the life-changing opportunities college sports provides millions of young people." "The NCAA is making positive changes for student-athletes and confronting many challenges facing college sports by mandating health and wellness benefits and guaranteeing scholarships, but there are some threats to college sports that federal legislation can effectively address and the Association is advocating with student-athletes and their schools for a bipartisan solution with Congress and the Administration," NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement.
