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Sydney : Hello from – well, Sydney, actually, where I’m having my first decent coffee in months, on a quick trip home.

Back in Washington, DC, where I now live, the US government isn’t the only thing to have shut down this week . On Saturday, the Starbucks on my street in Dupont Circle closed.

It was one of hundreds of Starbucks locations that shuttered across the United States last weekend, including nine in the District of Columbia alone, according to USA Today , and more in the surrounding metropolitan area, as part of a $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) restructure.

Starbucks has been cagey about the

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