Markets shrug off Trump tariff threat against EU
11:25
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Major stock markets on Monday largely shrugged off US President Donald Trump's latest tariffs threat to hit the EU and Mexico with 30 percent levies. Analysts said investors viewed the warning as yet another negotiating ploy against America's trading partners rather than a genuine move -- although lingering uncertainty weighed on oil prices. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks to Gavin Bade, Trade and Economic Policy Reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
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Is Donald Trump really behind a sweet change to the Coca-Cola recipe?
Refreshing news? About time, as the news regarding Donald Trump is focused on speculation over the potential firing of the US Federal Reserve chair and mounting outrage from even his most die-hard MAGA followers over his administration's handling of the Epstein files. Even Sesame Street's very own Elmo got in on it, demanding that Trump finally release the files relating to the investigation into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In these troubled times for Trump, he has now claimed that, thanks to him, Coca-Cola is changing its American recipe. Indeed, Trump has said that Coca-Cola has agreed to use real cane sugar in its flagship soft drink in the US at his suggestion. 'I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'I'd like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You'll see. It's just better!' Any switch from high-fructose corn syrup in Coke sold in the United States would put Coca-Cola more in line with its practice in other countries, and while Coca-Cola has long indulged US fans of cane sugar by importing glass bottles of Mexican Coke to the US since 2005, the company has not confirmed the move mentioned by Trump. A spokesperson for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. did say in a statement that the company appreciated Trump's enthusiasm and promised that more details on new offerings within its products would be shared soon. Make American Coke Great Again? Or sip happens? The US' corn farmers, whose yields are used in artificial sweeteners, would be affected by the return to sugar in US production. 'Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar doesn't make sense," Corn Refiners Association President and CEO John Bode said in a statement. "President Trump stands for American manufacturing jobs, American farmers, and reducing the trade deficit. Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and boost imports of foreign sugar, all with no nutritional benefit.' Not that this would make much of a difference to Trump's Coke habits, as his beverage of choice is Diet Coke, which is sweetened with aspartame – and therefore not affected. The New York Times reported in 2018 that he was drinking about a dozen Diet Cokes daily. He's such a fan of the Diet version that he had a red button installed on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Not one to trigger a nuclear launch or anything, but a small knob that summons a White House butler who delivers Diet Coke on a silver tray. Despite his fondness for Diet Coke, his relationship with the company hasn't always been sweet. In a series of posts in 2012, Trump suggested diet soda might be connected to weight gain, before eventually writing: 'The Coca Cola company is not happy with me — that's okay, I'll still keep drinking that garbage.' Grabage that he brings to G20 summits, as a bottle of Diet Coke could be seen sitting next to his chair at the G20 in 2017. A sweetened devotion? The relationship appeared to sweeten earlier this year, as we reported that the Coca-Cola Company had issued a commemorative bottle of Diet Coke to mark Trump's second term in the White House. Trump's deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, shared a picture on X, captioned with: 'Tonight, President Trump received the first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle from the Chairman and CEO of Coca Cola Company, James Quincey.' A Coca-Cola representative told Newsweek at the time that the meeting between Quincey and Trump 'reinforces our commitment to strengthening America's economic future.' Critics reacted to the gift, with many bemoaning that Coca-Cola was hypocritically falling in line with the new Trump era, despite the company condemning Trump and his supporters following the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021. The company said at the time that the assault on the Capitol was 'an offense to the ideals of American democracy.' Trump called for a boycott of Coca-Cola and other companies opposing reforms in Georgia's voting laws that were signed by the state's Republican governor in 2021. '7x': What even is in Coca-Cola? The Coca-Cola recipe was a closely guarded secret for the longest time. Dr. John S. Pemberton's secret formula for Coca-Cola (or Pemperton's Tonic, as it was originally known) was kept under wraps since its concoction in 1886. The recipe is written on a piece of paper which is kept in a safety deposit box in a vault in the US (true story – you can even visit the Vault of the Secret Formula at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta), and was only entrusted to two Coke execs, neither of whom could travel on the same plane for fear the secret might go down with them. However, a 1931 Fortune magazine article reported that the soda was 99% sugar and water, with the 1% being caramel, fruit flavourings, phosphoric and citric acid, caffeine, de-cocainized coca leaves, kola nuts and the secret ingredient known as '7x'. It was later leaked that the '7x' flavourings are alcohol and six oils - orange, cinnamon, lemon, coriander, nutmeg and neroli. Now you know.
