By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Business Writer

Starbucks said Thursday it’s closing hundreds of U.S. and Canadian stores and laying off 900 nonretail employees as it focuses more of its resources on a turnaround.

The Seattle coffee giant said store closures would start immediately. The company wouldn’t give a number of stores that are closing, but it said it expects to have 18,300 North American locations when its fiscal year ends on Sunday. As of June 29, the company had 18,734 locations.

In a research note Thursday, TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles estimated Starbucks will close around 500 stores in its fiscal fourth quarter.

Starbucks said workers in its stores will be offered transfers to other locations where possible and severance packages.

Starbucks said it will notify nonretail employees whose positions are being eliminated early Friday. Starbucks asked employees who can work from home to do so on Thursday and Friday.

In a letter sent to employees Thursday, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said a review of the company’s stores identified locations where the company doesn’t see a path to financial stability or isn’t able to create the physical environment customers expect. Those stores are being closed.

“Each year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from financial performance to lease expirations,” Niccol wrote. “This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers. Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult.”

Starbucks said it expects to spend $1 billion on the restructuring, including $150 million on employee separation benefits and $850 million related to the physical store closing and the cost of exiting leases.

Starbucks shares fell 1% in morning trading Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how many of the stores that are closing are unionized. Workers at 650 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021, but they have yet to reach a contract agreement with the company.

Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing workers, said Thursday that the closures were made without input from Starbucks’ baristas. The union said it intends to engage in bargaining at every union-represented store that is closing to ensure workers can be placed at another store they prefer.

“Fixing what’s broken at Starbucks isn’t possible without centering the people who engage with the company’s customers day in and day out,” the union said.

News of the store closures came just over a week after unionized employees in three states sued Starbucks over its new dress code, saying the company refused to reimburse workers who had to buy new clothes.

Related Articles

Wall Street’s rut deepens as US stocks head for a 3rd straight loss

Are your lost bitcoins gone forever? Here’s how you might be able to recover them

US home sales remained sluggish in August despite late-summer mortgage rate slide

US economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% pace in significant upgrade of second quarter growth

Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits last week despite signs of a slowing labor market

Starbucks said it used a consistent set of criteria to determine the stores that are closing and union representation wasn’t a factor.

Starbucks will end its 2025 fiscal year with 124 fewer stores than its previous fiscal year. It’s rare for Starbucks to shrink its store count during a fiscal year.

Niccol said Starbucks plans to increase its North American store count in its next fiscal year. The company said it also plans to redesign more than 1,000 locations in the next 12 months to give them a warmer, more welcoming feel.

This is the second big round of layoffs at Starbucks this year. In February, Niccol announced the layoffs of 1,100 corporate employees globally and eliminated several hundred open positions. At the time, Niccol said Starbucks needed to operate more efficiently and increase accountability for decisions.

Niccol is a turnaround specialist who was brought into Starbucks a year ago this month to give the brand a jolt. Under Niccol’s leadership, the struggling Chipotle chain, where Niccol was CEO for about 6 years, essentially doubled its revenue and its profit, and its stock price soared.

In July, Starbucks reported its sixth straight quarter of lower same-store sales, as weak U.S. traffic continued to be a drain on the company. Niccol is trying to turn that around by adding staff, making stores cozier and introducing software that helps prioritize orders and make sure customers can get their drink within four minutes.

“By powering off artificial nighttime lighting during spring and fall migrations, we can ensure that our friends in the sky are kept safe.”

An evening view of the Financial District in Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge park in Brooklyn. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

This week is Climate Week, an annual event that brings leaders from business, tech, government, and academia together in NYC to discuss a push to shift the global approach to climate change. 2025’s theme is “Power On”—but we actually need to power off our lights at night to help our feathered friends by passing Int. 0896.

This bill would require privately-owned commercial buildings and large retailers over 4,000 square feet to turn off non-essential lights at night. By powering off artificial nighttime lighting during spring and fall migrations, we can ensure that our friends in the sky are kept safe.

Have you ever been driving and had a car approach with its brights on? Building lights have the same disconcerting and dangerous impact on birds. The bright lights shining from city buildings at night increase the likelihood of these incidents by drawing birds closer to buildings and causing disorientation, which often leads to fatal injuries. Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s research shows that more than 250,000 birds are killed in New York City each year as a result of building collisions, and that is an underestimate.

Failing to protect birds will continue to compound climate change’s threats to biodiversity. Two-thirds of North American birds are already at risk of extinction from climate change. If we allow these preventable deaths to continue, many bird species will be pushed even closer to the brink; the numerous species of plants and predators that rely on birds for their own survival will follow close behind. 

Protecting birds also protects New York’s climate resiliency. Birds serve as pollinators, seed dispersers, and natural pest control. The city’s avian pollinators enable many of the 1,250 local plant species to reproduce. When bird populations flourish, urban green spaces flourish, which in turn helps to mitigate and prevent climate change. Their contributions are crucial, as climate change and habitat loss increasingly threaten bees and other native pollinators. 

Birds also help combat invasive species, making the city more hospitable for plants and humans alike. Green spaces reduce the urban heat island effect, a phenomenon where dense urban areas like New York City produce and trap more heat, thus experiencing higher temperatures. Lush, green habitats also store carbon, reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and slowing global warming. Yet we can’t reap the benefit s of these green spaces without birds also doing their crucial part to sustain our urban ecosystem. 

Birds in Jamaica Bay (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

The City took a small step forward in 2021 when it began requiring City-owned and leased buildings to turn off non-essential outdoor lights during peak bird migration seasons in the spring and fall, as well as requiring occupancy sensors that control illumination. The clear next step is to pass Int. 0896, which would require privately-owned businesses to turn off non-essential lights. In the statehouse, we must also pass the Dark Skies Protection Act (A. 4615), which would further require the shielding of outdoor lights, preserving New York’s clear skies and beloved birds. 

These laws advance the health of our climate on multiple fronts. Protecting birds from fatal collisions preserves biodiversity and ensures the green spaces they pollinate will continue to thrive. Shutting off thousands of unnecessary lights will also drastically reduce citywide energy consumption by requiring less fossil fuel to be burned to power the city. Not only would NYC businesses reduce their carbon footprint, but they would also save up to 19% of their overall costs. 

Artificial light is also linked to disruptions in your body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm) that is associated with an increased risk of major diseases, from cancer to obesity to Parkinson’s to depression. Nowhere is this truer than in environmental justice communities. Decreasing the amount of artificial light in our skies can not only save the lives of birds, but it can also improve the health of our communities.

In a city of 8.5 million people, New Yorkers are used to coexisting with our human neighbors, but we shouldn’t forget that we also share our streets, skies, and parks with millions of animals. Luckily, a more sustainable, bird-friendly, and healthy New York City is just a flip of the light switch away. 

Harvey Epstein is a member of the New York State Assembly representing Manhattan. Kathy Nizzari is founder of the Lights Out Coalition.

The post Opinion: Flipping The Switch And Protecting Our Feathered Friends appeared first on City Limits.

By SALLY HO, Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said the online retail giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships and made it difficult for them to cancel after doing so.

The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest fine in FTC history, and $1.5 billion will be paid to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions, the agency said Thursday. Eligible Prime customers include those who may have signed up for a membership via the company’s “Single Page Checkout” between June 23, 2019 to June 23, 2025.

The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon in U.S. District Court in Seattle two years ago alleging more than a decade of legal violations. That included a violation of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to ensure that people know what they’re being charged for online.

Amazon admitted no wrong-doing in the settlement. It did not immediately respond to requests by The Associated Press for comment Thursday.

Amazon Prime provides subscribers with perks that include faster shipping, video streaming and discounts at Whole Foods for a fee of $139 annually, or $14.99 a month.

Related Articles

Wall Street’s rut deepens as US stocks head for a 3rd straight loss

Are your lost bitcoins gone forever? Here’s how you might be able to recover them

US home sales remained sluggish in August despite late-summer mortgage rate slide

US economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% pace in significant upgrade of second quarter growth

Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits last week despite signs of a slowing labor market

It’s a key and growing part of Amazon’s business, with more than 200 million members. In its latest financial report, the company reported in July that it booked more than $12 billion in net revenue for subscription services, a 12% increase from the same period last year. That figure includes annual and monthly fees associated with Prime memberships, as well as other subscription services such as its music and e-books platforms.

The company has said that it clearly explains Prime’s terms before charging customers, and that it offers simple ways to cancel membership, including by phone, online and by online chat.

“Occasional customer frustrations and mistakes are inevitable — especially for a program as popular as Amazon Prime,” Amazon said in a trial brief filed last month.

But the FTC said Amazon deliberately made it difficult for customers to purchase an item without also subscribing to Prime. In some cases, consumers were presented with a button to complete their transactions — which did not clearly state it would also enroll them in Prime, the agency said.

Getting out of a subscription was often too complicated, and Amazon leadership slowed or rejected changes that would have made canceling easier, according to an FTC complaint.

Internally, Amazon called the process “Iliad,” a reference to the ancient Greek poem about the lengthy siege of Troy during the Trojan war. The process requires the customer to affirm on three pages their desire to cancel membership.

The FTC began looking into Amazon’s Prime subscription practices in 2021 during the first Trump administration, but the lawsuit was filed in 2023 under former FTC Chair Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who had been appointed by Biden.

The agency filed the case months before it submitted an antitrust lawsuit against the retail and technology company, accusing it of having monopolistic control over online markets.

BERLIN (AP) — Russia is currently tracking two Intelsat satellites used by the German military, a senior minister said on Thursday

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius revealed the active operations as he announced a $41 billion investment in his country’s space programs over the next five years.

Related Articles

Palestinian president: Hamas will have no role in governing postwar Gaza

At least 17 killed in Gaza Strip as leaders ramp up pressure for a ceasefire

Paris court sentences Nicolas Sarkozy to 5 years in prison for criminal conspiracy

Today in History: September 25, Military escorts Little Rock Nine into Central High

Some leaders at UN condemn ‘sick expression of joy,’ ‘macabre response’ to Charlie Kirk’s killing

Pistorius said Russia and China have the capability to engage in space warfare and already occupy strategic positions in space.

“They can jam, blind, manipulate, or kinetically disrupt satellites,” he told a space conference in Berlin, adding that the German military has already been targeted by jamming attacks.

Pistorius said two Russian Luch-Olymp reconnaissance satellites are tracking two Intelsat satellites that are used by, among others, the German armed forces.

The minister said that as he was speaking, “39 Chinese and Russian reconnaissance satellites are flying over us,” with their observations being transmitted in real-time. “So be careful what you say,” he added.

Europe lags behind the United States, China and Russia in space.

For decades, Europe has relied upon the U.S. for its security in space, but the Trump administration’s “America First” policies, plus a commercial market that’s growing exponentially, has prompted Europeans to rethink their approach.

Currently, Europe’s only space base capable of launching rockets and satellites into orbit is in sparsely populated French Guiana, an overseas department of France in South America that’s roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the equator. Otherwise, Europe borrows NASA’s Cape Canaveral in Florida.