CNBC

Air travelers face a host of headaches on their journeys: slow security lines, long waits for plush lounges, the threat of delays or cancellations — and the airport Starbucks. Many travelers, flight crews and even airport employees have at some point encountered long wait times for their Starbucks cappuccinos, cold brews and egg bites. “They need to have a better system,” said Coresa Barrino, a Starbucks patron at New York’s LaGuardia Airport Terminal B earlier this month who said she had been waiting 10 minutes and counting for her coffee. The nursing assistant, who was taking a flight back to Charlotte, North Carolina, said the wait when she buys her coffee at a Starbucks in Charlotte is about two minutes.

Can Starbucks' new CEO Brian Niccol bring Chipotle-like efficiency to airport cafes? Long lines and waits for coffees at Starbucks airport outposts are a headache for flight crews and passengers alike but for many customers their airport Starbucks is a must-have. Should Starbucks just offer a few basics? Less food? Are customizations out of control? Amelia Lucas and I delve into the problem and how it fits into Niccol's central challenge: reversing the company's sales slump. How long is too long to wait for coffee at an airport? https://lnkd.in/eNhaetVm

DETROIT — The auto industry has an addiction. It's a "capital junkie" that's been on a yearslong binge of unprecedented spending on all-electric and autonomous vehicles. And now, it's waking up from the bender and entering rehab. Automakers from Detroit to Japan and Germany are attempting to lower costs and reduce expenses amid economic concerns, billions of dollars wasted on self-driving vehicles and a prolonged, if not uncertain, return on investment of EVs amid slower-than-expected adoption. Those issues come in addition to weakening consumer demand, higher commodity costs and some Wall Street analysts sounding the alarm about global automotive sales and profits peaking, as China's industry continues to expand.

There's a new feature in Google Search that allows you to remove your phone, email and address from the search page.

Italian lender UniCredit on Monday offered to snap up its domestic rival Banco BPM for roughly 10 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in a move it says is separate from its pursuit of German bank Commerzbank. The deal would, if completed, merge two of Italy's largest lenders. UniCredit said in a statement early Monday that it is offering 6.657 euros for each share — a slight premium on Friday's close price of 6.644 euros. UniCredit said the purchase, which would be an all-stock deal, would allow the bank to "further strengthen its role as a leading pan-European banking group."

There's often a big gap in expectations versus reality when it comes to retirement age.

In Saudi Arabia's northwestern desert, a sprawling construction site replete with cranes and pile drivers sits encircled by a recently-built road. A pair of tracks cuts through the site like deep gashes through the sand, comprising the spine of what planners say will be a high-speed rail system. The skeletal infrastructure forms the foundations of The Line, a multi-billion dollar high-tech city that its architects say will eventually house 9 million people between two 106-mile long glass skyscrapers more than 1,600 feet high. The project, whose estimated cost is in the hundreds of billions, is just one of the hyper-futuristic venues planned in Neom, the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and a region that the kingdom hopes will bring millions of new residents to Saudi Arabia and revolutionize living and technology in the country. It's a core pillar of Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil revenues and create new jobs and industries

A break-in at a small food store in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg wouldn't usually make headlines around the world, but this time was different. CCTV footage from the store, Dairy Place, in early November appears to show the door being smashed and one person rushing over to empty the cash register. The other person makes a beeline for the fridge, plundering 20kg of butter from the chiller, Russian media reported. The owner of the store said on Telegram that the heist showed butter was now like "gold," according to a Google translation. CNBC could not independently verify the footage.

China on Monday kept its medium-term lending rate steady, as the country's central bank seeks to stabilize the yuan which has come under pressure following Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election. The People's Bank of China kept the medium-term lending facility rate unchanged at 2.0% on 900 billion yuan ($124.26 billion) worth of one-year loans to some financial institutions, according to the bank's official statement. "It is a well-expected move, given that the market liquidity [has] remained ample," said Bruce Pang, chief economist and head of Research, Greater China at JLL, citing PBOC's move in October that injected 500 billion yuan into the banking system.

Six travelers have died from suspected methanol poisoning after visiting the tourist town of Vang Vieng, Laos, this month. The travelers — two from Australia, two from Denmark, one from United Kingdom and one from United States — are believed to have consumed alcohol tainted with methanol, which is sometimes illegally added to regular or home-brewed alcohol to cut costs. Some fourteen people were sickened following a night out in Vang Vieng around Nov. 12. One such traveler recently returned home to New Zealand, according to local news reports.