Starbucks China ends free seating: buy before you sit, nationwide
The coffee giant's purchase-before-seating rule goes national Thursday, a strategic pivot that redefines the third place and pressures rivals to follow.

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The coffee giant's purchase-before-seating rule goes national Thursday, a strategic pivot that redefines the third place and pressures rivals to follow.
Guardian investigation ties US-made stun guns to abuse of Palestinian detainees, putting Axon's export practices in the crosshairs.
Russia's Kosmos 2612 shadowed ICEYE-X36, a commercial satellite that feeds Ukraine's military - a sign that low Earth orbit is now a contested battlefield.
The e-commerce giant is backing a 960-megawatt SMR fleet with X-energy and AEP, a high-stakes test for the AI data center power crunch.
Experts tied the fragment to LandSpace's Zhuque-2E, which launched on September 15 and shed debris over the American Midwest after deploying 10 satellites.
Musk's plan to hand every American child a SpaceX share worth $10.5B raises questions about wealth, AI, and whether money will even matter.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's gift would amount to roughly 1% of his net worth, turning millions of minors into private-company shareholders.
Tech leaders want the shares given directly to Americans, not parked in a foundation.
A base camp in Alaska is rewriting the timeline of the first Americans, with the oldest house, needles, and possible dog bones ever found in the Western Hemisphere.
Solidigm's equipment-export request to Washington could reshape where the world's memory chips get made - and who gets to sell them.
The latest inflation print lands as Trump campaigns for GOP control of Congress, putting cost-of-living worries at the center of the midterm fight.
Bollywood star Imran Khan's court fight over a protest-linked exit order puts every OCI cardholder's political risk in focus.