Kate Taylor

• Starbucks is making changes to its beloved Starbucks Rewards program.
• Many items, like free coffee, lattes, and sandwiches, will soon require more stars.
• Customers will still get one star per $1, or two stars per $1 on a pre-loaded card.

Starbucks is making changes to its hugely popular Starbucks Rewards program, increasing the number of points required to redeem many menu items.

Customers who enroll in the chain’s Starbucks Rewards program earn points — or “stars” — when purchasing food or drinks, which can then be redeemed for free menu items, like coffee. An update to the system is rolling out in February, changing the number of stars required for most of the redemption options, a leaked internal memo viewed by Insider reveals. Insider reviewed the memo from two different sources.

Free hot coffee, tea, or baked goods will now require 100 stars, doubling the previous price of 50 stars. But iced coffee and iced tea will also be available at that tier — meaning customers will now be able to get those free drinks for only 100 stars, down from the current 150 stars. Some packaged snacks, ham and swiss croissants, and plastic to-go cups will also be available at the 100-star tier.

Cold brews, lattes, and all other “handcrafted drinks,” along with hot breakfast items like sandwiches, which previously required 150 stars to redeem, will now require 200 stars, while 300 stars can be redeemed for lunch items like sandwiches and salads, up from 200 stars previously. Also at the 300 level is a new option to redeem stars for packaged coffee.

The top level of 400 stars, for merchandise like cups, remains unchanged — and for 25 stars, customers will still be able to add an espresso shot, syrup, or alternative milk to a drink, as in the previous system. 

The way customers acquire stars will also not change, the memo says. Rewards members will still receive one star for every $1 spent at Starbucks, or two stars for every $1 using a pre-loaded digital or physical Starbucks card.

The updated rewards system is scheduled to go live February 13 and the changes are being made to “ensure the health of the program and meet the evolving needs of our customers,” the memo said.

A Starbucks spokesperson declined to comment to Insider on the memo or the changes it describes.

Starbucks has one of the most successful rewards memberships in the fast food business. The program has 28.7 million members as of this quarter, a year-over-year increase of 16%. Rewards members were responsible for over half of Starbucks’ sales last quarter.

Starbucks Rewards members tend to have strong feelings about the program and any potential changes. When the coffee chain last made major changes to the program in 2019, customers took to social media to express their grievances. At that point, Starbucks changed how many stars were required for some free foods and drinks. The rewards program has gained over 10 million members since then, so even more people could be affected this time around. 

Other quick-service chains have recently made it more expensive for customers to earn rewards. Chipotle increased the number of points rewards members needed for a free burrito by 16%, and Dunkin’ revamped its entire rewards system, more than doubling the amount of spending required for drinks like a free latte.

Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.

Mondadori via Getty Images; Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images

• The Nazi party ruled Germany from 1933 until 1945, with Adolf Hitler as its leader.
• The Nazis spread antisemitism and were responsible for both the Holocaust and the start of World War II.
• Over 75 years later, Germany looks very different today from what it did during the 1930s and 1940s.

THEN: The Brandenburg Gate in 1933. Built in the late 1700s, this structure was historically a symbol of German pride, but Hitler turned it into a sign of Nazi power.A Nazi parade at Brandenburg Gate in 1933.

Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Source: Insider

NOW: The Brandenburg Gate in 2022, now an iconic landmark and a symbol of a reunited Berlin after the Cold War.A Christmas tree (L) with its top chopped off is seen next to a Chanukkah menorah in front of Berlin’s landmark the Brandenburg Gate on December 21, 2022

TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images

Source: Visit Berlin 

THEN: The Reichstag building in 1933, which housed Germany’s parliament in Berlin. Hitler used an arson attack at the building to seize power for the Nazis.The Reichstag building on fire after an arson attack on February 27, 1933.

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Source: History.com

NOW: The Reichstag building in 2022, which holds the lower house of Germany’s national assembly — or Bundestag.An Israeli flag flies next to a German flag and a European Union flag in front of the Reichstag building on January 26, 2022.

Christian Ender/Getty Images

Source: Britannica

THEN: The Berlin Cathedral in 1935. The building’s history dates back to the 1400s, but was badly damaged during World War II.Young people dance in front of the Berlin Cathedral in October 1935.

Herbert Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Source: Visit Berlin

NOW: The Berlin Cathedral in 2022 is now a concert venue, and its dome has become a major part of Berlin’s cityscape.People cool off in the fountain in front of the Berlin Cathedral on July 19, 2022.

Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Source: Visit Berlin

THEN: The Dachau concentration camp in 1933, which was the first camp opened by the Nazis for political prisoners. It eventually turned into a death camp for Jews.Prisoners enter Dachau concentration camp in 1933.

Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Source: History.com

NOW: The Dachau concentration camp in 2018. It’s now a museum and memorial site.The Dachau concentration camp in 2018.

Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Source: Dachau website

THEN: Dortmund in 1933. Antisemitism against the city’s Jewish population increased after World War I.German dictator Adolf Hitler speaking to a crowd at a Nazi rally, in Dortmund, in 1933.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Source: Holocaust Research Project

NOW: Dortmund in 2022. The city’s residents have pushed back against neo-Nazi activity in recent years.Counter-protestors carry a banner during a demonstration of right-wing extremists in Dortmund on April 14, 2018.

David Young/picture alliance via Getty Images

Source: DW News

THEN: Dresden in 1934. This city was a major hub for Germany’s road and train network and was heavily bombed by Allied forces during World War II.A view from the town hall tower over the destroyed city of Dresden, taken sometime between 1945 and 1950.

Deutsche Fotothek/picture alliance via Getty Images

Source: History.com

NOW: Dresden in 2019. After World War II, the city was rebuilt with modern buildings and saw an expansion in manufacturing.A Christmas market in Dresden on December 13, 2022.

Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance via Getty Images

Source: Britannica

The leader of a foiled plot by members of right-wing militia groups to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday in a U.S. District Court, prosecutors said.

Adam Fox, 39, was found guilty in August by a federal court jury in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on one count each of conspiring to abduct Whitmer, a Democrat, and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in a scheme prosecutors said was intended to spark a “second American Revolution.”

Co-defendant Barry Croft Jr., 47, like Fox a member of the Three Percenters militia group, was convicted of the same charges at the same trial and was scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday.

Prosecutors described Fox as the mastermind behind a plot to break into Whitmer’s vacation home, kidnap her at gunpoint, and take her to stand “trial” on bogus treason charges and face execution.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jonker said he did not think a life sentence, as asked for by prosecutors, was appropriate, but that the crimes required a “significant sentence,” the Detroit News reported. Fox declined to speak during the sentencing and had no reaction to the sentence, the report added.

The judge also imposed five years of supervised release beyond the sentence of 192 months in prison, prosecutors said.

Fox’s attorney had said prosecutors overstated his role. The attorney added that Fox and Croft never used explosives and the group would never have been able to actually kidnap the governor.

Prosecutors said the plot, precipitated by the group’s opposition to public health measures Whitmer imposed during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, was aimed at pushing the country into armed conflict as a contentious presidential race approached in November 2020.

The weapon of mass destruction involved was a bomb that prosecutors said the conspirators planned to detonate to hinder law enforcement’s response to the abduction.

Whitmer, co-chairman of Joe Biden’s White House campaign that year, had clashed publicly with then-President Donald Trump over her COVID-19 policies.

She accused Trump of fomenting political extremism by repeatedly directing heated rhetoric on the issue, including a campaign rally in Michigan where his criticism of Whitmer drew chants of “Lock her up” from the crowd.

Fox and Croft were among 13 men arrested in October 2020 in the kidnapping conspiracy.

Two others put on trial with them in federal court were found not guilty in April 2022. The same jury failed to reach a verdict for Fox and Croft, resulting in a mistrial for them.

Two other men who pleaded guilty to kidnapping conspiracy charges testified for the prosecution at the first federal trial and during the retrial of Fox and Croft about four months later.

The two cooperating witnesses, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, were sentenced to 2 1/2 years and four years in prison, respectively.

Three other men tried together in state court and convicted in October 2022 of playing supporting roles in the plot as members of the Wolverine Watchmen militia were sentenced recently to minimum sentences of 10, 12 and 7 years in prison, respectively.

Russia announced on Tuesday it would ban oil sales to countries that abide by a price cap imposed this month by the West, giving its long-awaited response to the most dramatic step taken so far to limit Moscow’s ability to raise funds for its war in Ukraine.

Under the price cap, which took effect on Dec. 5, oil traders must promise not to pay above $60 per barrel for Russian seaborne oil to retain access to Western financing for such crucial aspects of global shipping as insurance.

The cap has been set close to the current price for Russian oil, but far below the prices at which Russia was able to sell it for much of the past year, when windfall energy profits helped Moscow offset the impact of financial sanctions.

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, and any actual disruption to its sales would have far-reaching consequences for global energy supplies.

A decree from President Vladimir Putin, published on a government portal and the Kremlin website, was presented as a direct response to “actions that are unfriendly and contradictory to international law by the United States and foreign states and international organisations joining them”.

The Kremlin ban would halt crude oil sales to countries participating in the price cap from Feb. 1-July 1, 2023. A separate ban on refined oil products such as gasoline and diesel would take effect on a date to be set by the government. Putin would have authority to overrule the measures in special cases.

The West’s price cap, unseen even in the times of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, is aimed at crippling Russian state coffers and Moscow’s military efforts in Ukraine – without upsetting markets by actually blocking Russian supply.

According to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Russia’s budget deficit could be wider than the planned 2% of GDP in 2023 as the oil price cap squeezes Russia’s export income – an extra fiscal hurdle for Moscow as it spends heavily on its military campaign in Ukraine.

Some analysts have said that the cap will have little immediate impact on the oil revenues that Moscow is earning, as the price for Russian oil has already fallen close to it. But it could limit Moscow’s ability to profit from future price shocks.

Russian forces shelled and bombed towns and cities in eastern and southern Ukraine again on Tuesday. After a number of dramatic Ukrainian gains in the autumn, the war has entered a slow, grinding phase as bitter winter weather has set in at the front.

The heaviest fighting has been around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying for months to storm at huge cost in lives, and further north in the cities of Svatove and Kreminna, where Ukraine is trying to break Russian defensive lines.

In Bakhmut, home to 70,000 people before the war and now mostly a bomb-wracked ghost town, Reuters reporters saw fires burning in a large residential building, while debris littered the streets and most buildings had had their windows blown out.

“Our building is destroyed. There was a shop in our building, now it’s not there anymore,” said Oleksandr, 85, adding he was the only remaining resident there.

Nearby, 73-year-old Pilaheia said she had long got used to the “constant explosions”.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in an update: “Russia continues to initiate frequent small-scale assaults in these areas (of Bakhmut and Svatove), although little territory has changed hands.”

Putin has repeatedly spoken of a desire for peace talks in comments in recent days. But his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov made clear Moscow still has a list of preconditions, including that Ukraine recognise Russia’s conquest by force of around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, which it says it has annexed.

Kyiv says it is winning the war and will never agree to relinquish its land.

TASS news agency quoted Lavrov as saying late on Monday:

“Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy.

“The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that as a result of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure nearly nine million people were currently without power – equal to about a quarter of the country’s population.

Russia has openly been targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, in what Kyiv says are strikes with no conceivable military purpose solely designed to harm civilians. Moscow says the aim is to reduce Ukraine’s ability to fight.

What had been intended as a campaign to subdue Ukraine within days has been a military fiasco for the Kremlin, whose forces were defeated on the outskirts of Kyiv in the spring and forced to flee other areas in the autumn.

Putin has responded by summoning hundreds of thousands of reservists for the first time since World War Two to fight in his “special military operation”.

In the latest humiliating setback for Russia’s military, a suspected Ukrainian drone reached the main base for Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet, hundreds of kilometres inside Russian air space, on Monday. Moscow said it had shot the drone down but acknowledged at least three servicemen were killed.

It was the second time the base had been hit since the start of December, a sign that Russia has yet to plug the gap in its air defences that made the audacious attack possible.

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The tech-heavy Nasdaq came under pressure on Tuesday following declines in some megacap growth stocks and Tesla, while optimism around an economic recovery in China after the country further eased its COVID-19 curbs helped cap losses.

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) tumbled 8.1% to hit a more than two-year low after Reuters reported that the electric vehicle maker plans to run a reduced production schedule at its Shanghai plant into January. The stock has lost more than two-thirds of its value this year.

Megacap growth stocks Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) slipped between 1% and 1.5% as U.S. Treasury yields rose.

The declines made consumer discretionary (.SPLRCD) and technology (.SPLRCT) the worst performers among major S&P 500 (.SPX) sector indexes.

However, sectors closely tied to the economy, such as industrials (.SPLRCI), materials (.SPLRCM) and energy (.SPNY), advanced, helping the Dow Jones (.DJI) to eke out gains.

“What you’re seeing is a battle between investors who are doing year-end tax selling and investors that believe that normal inflows in January will lead to a better market,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.

Meckler also pointed to thin trading volumes playing its part in market volatility.

Growth stocks have been under pressure this year from a rise in U.S. Treasury yields after the Federal Reserve embarked on an aggressive interest rate hike campaign to tame a surge in inflation, with investors turning to high dividend-yielding value stocks such as energy.

The S&P 500 growth index (.IGX) has tumbled 30% this year, compared with a 7% drop for the value index (.IVX).

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms such as JD.Com Inc , Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Pinduoduo Inc (PDD.O) climbed between 2% and 3.8% after China said it would stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting Jan. 8.

Investors are hoping for a so-called “Santa rally” at the end of what has been a largely disappointing month for U.S. equities.

The S&P 500 (.SPX) and the Nasdaq (.IXIC) have lost around 5.7% and 9% so far in December and are on track for their biggest yearly loss since 2008 as the monetary policy tightening sparked worries of the economy tipping into a recession.

Economic data so far has offered little hope. Inflation has cooled further, but not enough to discourage the U.S. central bank from driving interest rates to higher levels next year.

Money markets are pricing in 59% odds of a 25-basis-point interest rate hike at the Fed’s February meeting and expect rates peaking at 4.98% in May. .

At 11:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) was up 133.48 points, or 0.40%, at 33,337.41, the S&P 500 (.SPX) was down 4.22 points, or 0.11%, at 3,840.60, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) was down 83.89 points, or 0.80%, at 10,413.97.

Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) shed 4.9% after cancelling thousands of flights, piling more pressure on the S&P 500.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and 1.43-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 61 new highs and 311 new lows.

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It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that snowflake libs have taken over the New York Times.

When the Gray Lady’s employees aren’t defenestrating an op-ed editor for doing his job, arguing that words are violence, or accusing their bosses of systemic racism, they aren’t working at all. In early December, more than 1,100 of the paper’s unionized employees organized a 24-hour “work stoppage,” demanding 10 percent pay raises and citing the Times‘ “failure to bargain in good faith.”

But even a Marxist beehive is bound to include a few worker bees.

Take Times national security reporter Matthew Rosenberg. In a March hidden camera video, Rosenberg trashed his woke colleagues as “fucking bitches” who refuse to stop “going on” about the alleged trauma they suffered at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rosenberg, by contrast, said he was “so over” the “January 6 stuff”—and that he’d even had “fun” covering the scene.

“These fucking little dweebs who keep going on about their trauma. I’m like, guys, shut the fuck up,” Rosenberg said. The Times, he continued, is “not the kind of place I can tell someone to ‘man up,’ but I kind of want to be like, ‘Dude, come on, you were not in any danger.'”

Perhaps inspired by Rosenberg’s valorous rant, two of his fellow Times reporters joined the anti-woke resistance when their colleagues staged that “work stoppage” earlier this month. Chief White House reporter Peter Baker and White House correspondent Michael Shear—both union members—courageously crossed the picket line to cover the prisoner exchange executed by President Joe Brandon that brought WNBA player Brittney Griner back to America and sent Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer better known as the “Merchant of Death,” back to Moscow. Shear also made headlines last year when he admonished the Times‘ union representatives for raising dues for members who earn more than $140,000 per year.

Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time until Rosenberg, Baker, and Shear are consumed by a mob of blue-haired, Gen Z cannibals in a sacrificial ceremony performed under the “Church of Equity.” For now, however, they’re brave guerrillas fighting deep behind enemy lines. And for that, they are also 2022 Washington Free Beacon Men of the Year.

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We here at the Washington Free Beacon are no fans of change.

We haven’t replaced our Brita filter since the Obama administration. We still publish Matthew Continetti. And in flagrant defiance of the movement to abolish gender, each year we proudly honor MEN—not women, not people, not gender dysmorphic bi-genitalia pansexuals—but MEN of the Year.

Until now.

For years, we laughed at progressives who said men could be women and women could be president. But this year, one brave woman convinced us that men do not have a monopoly on manliness. And so, we are proud to present a female Man of the Year: J.K. Rowling.

For years now, the Harry Potter author has been steadfast in her criticism of the “climate of fear” perpetuated by transgender activists, asserting that “sex is real” and slamming “irreversible” sex-change operations for young people. But her political activism is not why she’s getting this award.

Unsurprisingly, Rowling’s stance on gender has earned her criticism from her legions of woke fans, who would much prefer she get with the program and blog about how all goblins in the Harry Potter world are genderfluid. And while she’s never been shy at clapping back to her trolls, it wasn’t until this year that she really started talking like a man.

When asked by a basement-dwelling Twitter user how she could “sleep at night knowing” she’s alienated readers with her views, Rowling shot back: “I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”

That’s an alpha-male flex, emphasis on the male. It’s Don Draper shutting down a hippie by telling him he sleeps on a bed made of money. It’s Rick Blaine telling Ugarte that he would probably despise him if he gave him any thought. It’s Harry Potter saying “yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker” before beating Professor Snape to death with a broom.

You can imagine Rowling firing off that tweet as she manspreads on a couch, presumably one that’s bursting at the seams with British Pounds. Speaking of the Pound, did you hear that King Charles’s face will begin appearing on the notes sometime in 2024? J.K Rowling heard, and she doesn’t care. Know why? Because she’s richer.

Defending women around the world. Telling your trolls to sod off by rubbing your $1.2 billion net worth in their faces. Out-earning the pansy boy king of England. That’s the stuff of legends—swashbuckling, ass-kicking, masculine legends.

So you win, liberals. We firmly believe that J.K. Rowling, a self-proclaimed female woman, is actually a man. And we are proud to name her a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.

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