Gulf Cooperation Council urged the UN Security Council to take a firm stance to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Qiyuan Robotics, a unit of Shangwei New Materials, will open its first South China retail store in Guangzhou at the Shangpin Home Furnishing Qijianghui complex. The store will operate as an immersive whole-home humanoid-robot experience space, leveraging the home-furnishing complex for scenario-based demonstrations.

Starbucks is developing internal AI-driven tools to replace parts of the software it currently buys from vendors including Microsoft and IBM, an internal presentation shows. Work includes homegrown alternatives to Microsoft’s inventory-tracking system and IBM’s maintenance-management tools; some projects could be deployed by the end of next year pending test results. CTO Anand Varadarajan told staff earlier this year Starbucks spends about $400m a year on software and sees clear opportunities to reduce that spend. Starbucks says AI is lowering the barrier to building bespoke applications and accelerating employee adoption.