By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — Starbucks has an advantage in the mornings with coffee. Now, it wants to lure people back later in the day with a different type of caffeine boost.

The coffee chain’s US locations will roll out a new afternoon menu in the coming weeks, which will include new snacks and a variety of drinks different from its core coffee selections, including teas, revamped energy drinks and matcha.

“If you think about the morning, it’s very routinized, but the afternoon can be a bit more spontaneous,” Tressie Lieberman, Starbucks’ global chief brand officer, told CNN. “You want a different drink based off how your day is going or what the weather feels like.”

That creates an opportunity for Starbucks, she said.

Starbucks has been losing some of its competitive edge to upstarts like Dutch Bros. and Black Rock Coffee. Afternoons are typically a slower time for the chain, said Robert Byrne, senior director of consumer research for Technomic, so there’s potential for growth.

“This is the little miniature break, the brain reset, or the emotional reset that a lot of consumers can get from that quick little afternoon trip to their favorite beverage spot and I think there’s a ton of opportunity there,” he told CNN.

Expanding Starbucks’ afternoon selection has been a key initiative for CEO Brian Niccol’s revival plans. After a slow start, his menu changes and other improvements seem to be working: The Seattle-based company reported Wednesday its first rise in US same-stores sales and traffic in about two years.

A crucial part of the afternoon menu is Starbucks’ new energy drinks, which smaller competitors already offer. The chain previously tried to enter the popular space, but discontinued the effort about a year ago when it slimmed down its menu.

The new version is based on its popular Refreshers drinks brand, and will derive its caffeine from green coffee extract, or unroasted coffee beans. Lieberman said that helps Starbucks stand apart since many energy drinks are made with a lot of synthetic ingredients.

The “health-minded consumer segment” is rapidly growing and now accounts for roughly 40% of all food and beverage sales, Circana, an industry research firm, reported this week. In particular, energy drinks are now a $25 billion market.

Other drink additions appealing to health-conscious customers include a new chai latte that lets customers customize the sweetness level and global flavors like ube and lavender. New matcha beverages are coming next week, too.

Starbucks’ food selection is also getting a makeover, with more savory items packed with protein and fiber, which are two popular wellness trends, and additional on-the-go options for afternoons. After all, food is nearly a $6 billion business for the brand, which has focused heavily on breakfast, Lieberman said.

“We’re looking at adding more handheld options like a pizza or a flatbread that would be portable and use super simple, clean ingredients,” she said.

By Leah Dolan, CNN

(CNN) — This week, a pack has been circling. It began at the Schiaparelli haute couture show in Paris on Monday, when Demi Moore arrived in a cheetah print catsuit and matching coat designed by the house’s creative director Daniel Roseberry.

Then at the Chanel show on Tuesday, a scene-stealing look from VIP guest Dua Lipa as she seemingly channeled Fran Fine in a brash, tailored skirt suit and 2.55 flap bag. Every inch of the pop star was covered in a mesmeric yellow, black and red swirl that looked like animal print on acid. By Wednesday, it was clear the memo had spread from the city of lights all the way to New York when Kendall Jenner promptly stepped out in a beaded tiger stripe midi dress. Both outfits were from Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2026 collection, presented in December last year

It’s the ‘80s staple, but with a twist. Since his debut last October, Mattieu Blazy is steadily making a name for himself, gently reinventing what once felt static — tweed, twin sets and pearls, dress coats — into clothes that are new, exciting and fluid. It makes sense, then, that something as familiar as animal print looks fresh and singular through his perspective. Lipa and Jenner’s looks are far from your typical mob-wife costumes. There is no coiffed hair, no stacks of gold jewelry, no Soprano’s styling. Instead Blazy’s take is more playful — brighter, brasher and, in the case of Jenner’s tiger dress, in textiles that look like toy pieces.

While Moore kept her front row look more conservative, Schiaparelli has long been experimenting with the boundaries of animal-inspired fashion (remember Kylie Jenner’s lifesize lionhead?) This season, Roseberry continued his mission with a haute couture collection that featured replica reptilian textures, protruding tusk breasts, scorpion bustiers and a translucent two-piece skirt suit rendered in hyperreal blowfish scales.

According to trend analyst @databutmakeitfashion, standard leopard print is already on the rise. Some are calling it the Boom Boom era of fashion — where the ‘80s doctrine of fur, clashing prints and a greedy, more-is-more approach to dressing feels like a fun cosplay opportunity during an otherwise bleak economic, political and social reality.

But maybe this time around, designers understand that to stop us doomscrolling the animal prints of 2026 need to be louder and more outrageous than ever. A new species entirely.

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By Hadas Gold, CNN

(CNN) — Tesla dominated the electric vehicle industry by the mid-2010s with sleek, fast cars that helped combat the public perception that EVs were severely limited by short ranges.

Now the company – and its controversial CEO, Elon Musk – face stiffer competition and political headwinds. Its EV sales fell by a record 9% in 2025, amid increasing rivalry from China and the expiration of the US EV sales tax credit.

But Musk has been steering the company toward an audacious bet. He believes Tesla’s future won’t ride on cars but on humanoid robots.

On Tesla’s earnings call on Wednesday, Musk laid out a literal replacement of Tesla cars by robots – announcing Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X in favor of making more of its Optimus robots.

“We’re gonna take the Model S and X production space in our Fremont factory and convert that into an Optimus factory … with the long-term goal of having 1 million units a year of Optimus robots in the current SX space in Fremont,” he said.

It’s the quintessential, science-fiction dream of the future: Musk says Tesla’s Optimus robots, will do everything from clean your house to perform surgery.

He’s called Optimus the key to eliminating world poverty, making human work optional and reaching Mars.

“Every human on earth is going to have their own personal R2-D2, C3PO,” Musk said in November, referring to the personal robots from Star Wars. “But actually, Optimus will be better than that.”

But critics say these are fever-dream distractions from Tesla’s core automotive business. And plenty of companies, like Boston Dynamics and Figure, are already deep into the humanoid robot business.

Musk’s own success and pay are directly at stake. Tesla must deliver one million Optimus robots within 10 years for Musk to fully realize an almost $1 trillion Tesla pay plan approved by shareholders late last year.

“Elon is a big thinker, and he wants to be pushing the edge of people’s imagination,” a former Tesla senior engineer told CNN in an interview.

But the EV and robot markets are very different, the engineer said. “With electric vehicles, Tesla was really the only one working on this hard problem. There’s a lot of companies now and tons of competition.”

‘Infinite money glitch’

Tesla first unveiled its humanoid robot project at a 2021 event, where a silvery figure danced to thumping techno music on a stage. It was an actor in a robot suit, complete with a face that looked like a screen. “Obviously, that’s not real,” Musk said as the costumed figure left the stage.

Just months later, in January 2022, Musk said he thought Optimus could be “more significant than the vehicle business” for Tesla over time.

Tesla says Optimus can now sort objects, serve popcorn, throw out trash and dance. It does “some basic tasks in the factory,” Musk said Wednesday – progress, but still a far cry from Musk’s futuristic vision – even as he predicted Optimus could eventually generate $10 trillion of revenue.

It’s a lofty goal, one experts say may be tougher than Musk’s bets on electric vehicles or SpaceX. Humanoid robots are among the most complex machines imaginable, and the race to build them is already heating up.

Tesla is not the only company in this space. Hyundai and Google DeepMind are also deploying their Atlas humanoid robot internally in the coming months before rolling it out to customers. Meanwhile the CES tech show in January was full of companies — including Nvidia, Qualcomm and Intel — show

Por Ana María Cañizares, Uriel Blanco y Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, CNN en Español

Mientras atiende su negocio en Minneapolis, José confiesa no recordar haber visto algo igual en la ciudad. “Hay gente que está atemorizada y otra que ya no le importa lo que pasa y se suma a las protestas. Se siente mucha impotencia en estos momentos. No recuerdo haber visto tanta injusticia en este país”, cuenta este inmigrante ecuatoriano, del que CNN no da su nombre real para proteger su identidad ante la situación que enfrenta la comunidad.

La tensión en Minneapolis se ha intensificado tras la muerte de los ciudadanos estadounidenses Alex Pretti y Renee Nicole Good, ambos baleados por agentes federales durante operativos de inmigración en la ciudad. A estos hechos se suma el caso de Liam Conejo Ramos, un niño de 5 años que fue trasladado a un centro de detención de Texas junto con su padre, un ciudadano ecuatoriano, detenido días atrás en un suburbio de Minneapolis.

La ofensiva migratoria ha impactado de lleno a familias como la de los Conejo o la de José, en medio de una operación sin precedentes del Gobierno de Donald Trump en Minnesota. Las redadas comenzaron con acciones centradas en la población somalí de las Twin Cities —Minneapolis y St. Paul— y desde entonces se han extendido a toda la comunidad inmigrante.

“Tengo un negocio y vivo de primera mano cómo la gente sufre. Me entero de gente nueva que es detenida, es como si los hubieran raptado o desaparecido de una manera cruel y no digna. No debería ser de esa manera”, dice José.

La comunidad ecuatoriana en Minnesota ha crecido significativamente en los últimos años, hasta convertirse en la tercera comunidad latina más numerosa del estado, solo por detrás de la mexicana y la puertorriqueña. Y, en medio de la represión, Ecuador y sus ciudadanos parecen estar ahora en la mira de los operativos.

“El presidente Trump dice que va a sacar a gente mala y ahora están llevándose a gente buena, que no ha cometido delitos. Tener la piel más oscura y hablar español o tener rasgos latinos te pone en tela de duda”, añade José.

El miedo, además, se refleja en la vida cotidiana. José dice que aunque observa que muchos inmigrantes intentan sobrellevar la situación, los empleados dejan de ir a trabajar y los clientes evitan salir a comprar.

“La gente migrante ha perdido su trabajo porque lo empleadores no van a esperar que no vayas a trabajar una semana, un mes y luego volver como si nada. Muchos han perdido su trabajo”, dice.

El martes 20 de enero, Liam Conejo Ramos, un niño de 5 años y estudiante de preescolar, fue separado de su familia en la entrada de su casa en un suburbio de Minneapolis, luego de que agentes federales detuvieran a su padre, Adrian Conejo Arias, un ciudadano ecuatoriano. El niño fue llevado junto a él y posteriormente trasladado al centro de detención de Dilley, en Texas.

El Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés) afirmó que el padre de Liam es un “extranjero ilegal” de Ecuador y dijo que los agentes llevaron al niño con ellos después de que el padre manifestara que quería que Liam permane

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Archaeologists have discovered a 1,400-year-old Zapotec tomb in southern Mexico, adorned with complex carvings, which has been called “the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade.”

Located in San Pablo Huitzo, in the state of Oaxaca, the tomb was built by the Zapotec culture in around the year 600, according to a statement from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) last week.

Among the many well-preserved details are a sculpture of an owl that sits above the entrance to the burial chamber.

A sculpture of a man’s head can be seen inside its beak, possibly representing the individual who was buried inside, according to the INAH.

Hundreds of thousands of Zapotec speakers still live in Mexico to this day. For the Zapotec, owls signify both night and death.

The site is also home to multicolored murals, featuring symbols associated with power and death.

At the threshold to the burial chamber there are carvings of two human figures holding various artifacts in their hands, who may have been the guardians of the tomb, according to the INAH.

And inside the burial chamber itself is an “extraordinary” mural in ocher, white, green, red and blue, showing a procession of people carrying bags of copal, a tree resin burned as incense during ceremonies.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum highlighted the importance of the discovery at her daily news conference last Friday.

“It’s the most significant archaeological discovery of the last decade in Mexico due to the level of preservation and the information it provides,” she said.

Mexico’s culture secretary, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, also underlined that the tomb is an “exceptional discovery” for what it tells us about Zapotec culture and “its social organization, funerial rituals and belief system, preserved by the architecture and the murals.”

A multidiscplinary team from the INAH is now working to protect the site and conduct further research.

This includes stabilizing the murals, which are in a “fragile state” due to the impact of tree roots, insects and rapid changes in environmental conditions, said INAH.

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