Starbucks is closing stores across Greater Boston, leaving crowded cafes and empty storefronts as independent coffee shops compete for downtown customers.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO defense ministers in Brussels that Europe must take the lead in defending the continent and that Washington would no longer automatically provide key conventional assets if an ally is attacked. He framed the shift as a push to remake the 32-member alliance into a tougher “NATO 3.0” posture aimed at deterrence. The move accelerates European efforts to raise defense spending and expand domestic arms-production capacity. It reflects a structural geopolitical rebalancing and does not directly move broad commodities or major stock indexes, but it is viewed as a medium-term catalyst for European defense stocks and related strategic metals.