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1. Jeff’s giant leap
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is reportedly planning to charge passengers between $200,000 and $300,000 for its first trips into space next year. Blue Origin is working towards making civilian space flight an important niche in the global space economy. Bezos has competition from fellow billionaires Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, whose Spacex has a stated goal to enable people to live on other planets.
2. Leaning on snacks
Pepsico reported second-quarter earnings this week that beat analysts’ expectations as strong snack sales continued to offset its slumping soft drinks business. Pepsico’s brands include Doritos, Lay’s and Fritos. For the quarter, the company’s core earnings were $1.61 a share, which was better than expected. Revenue, at $16.1bn, was also ahead of estimates.
3. Apple launches green fund
Apple, in partnership with several of its suppliers, will launch a $300m clean energy fund in China. The Chinese government has made cutting pollution a key priority — putting pressure on firms to help reduce high levels of smog in its major cities and clean up the country’s waterways and polluted soil. The fund aims to produce at least
1GWH of energy — or enough to power about one million homes — through fully renewable means.
4. P&G caught in tariff row
Procter & Gamble this week said a “vast majority” of its products in Canada will be affected by retaliatory tariffs on Usmade goods after Canadian authorities rejected a request for exemptions. The company’s brands include Pantene
Olay, Gillette and Pampers.