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TRIO, the longest-running, full-service woman-owned marketing agency in Mount Pleasant, is proud to announce the expansion of its team and several key promotions that mark the agency’s continued growth as it approaches its 25th anniversary in 2026.

Kevin Sninsky has been promoted to senior copywriter. A longtime team member, Sninsky’s deep understanding of traditional writing and strategic use of AI tools has enhanced client deliverables, earning him a promotion last month. His ability to blend timeless writing techniques with modern technology has been instrumental in TRIO’s success over the past four years.

Shaniequa Washington has been promoted to director of marketing and community relations. Formerly TRIO’s equity partner manager, Washington brings over 20 years of corporate leadership experience at Walmart, where she managed store expansions and team development across the Southeast. Her strong ties to the community, built through years of entrepreneurial and influencer work, have positioned her to help TRIO expand its brand across the region and beyond.

TRIO also welcomes Lauren Brownrigg to the team as a junior account manager. Brownrigg joined the agency as an intern after graduating from St. Louis University last year. After relocating to Charleston, she joined TRIO full-time earlier this year and works alongside TRIO’s client services team to support account strategy and the implementation of marketing plans and projects.

Two new digital marketing specialists have also joined the agency. Sai Krisha now leads TRIO’s paid digital and email marketing programs. He recently earned recognition as a LinkedIn Marketing Insider—an achievement held by fewer than 6,000 professionals worldwide. Devyani Pathak leads TRIO’s SEO program and serves on the agency’s AI leadership team, helping integrate automation and innovative tools into marketing strategies that drive client success.

In April, during Charleston Tech Week, TRIO announced its new focus on being an AI-powered marketing partner, helping brands thrive in a rapidly transforming marketplace and technology-driven world. The agency's team changes are essential to serving its clients in this capacity.

In addition, TRIO has welcomed Julie Pearson as chief financial officer. Pearson brings more than three decades of corporate finance and human resources experience and now plays an integral role on the agency’s leadership team.

“Our people are our greatest asset,” said Jessica Munday, TRIO’s founder and CEO. “This growth reflects our commitment to providing smart, strategic marketing services while building a team equipped for where the industry is heading. We are all ready and excited for our next chapter.”

TRIO was named the 2025 Small Business of the Year by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and continues to provide brand strategy, digital marketing, public relations, advertising and web services to clients throughout the region.

In a significant alignment between global finance and next-generation blockchain infrastructure, Apex Group — a $3.4 trillion fund administrator — and ZIGChain have announced a strategic alliance to launch the region’s first fully regulated, on-chain fund ecosystem focused on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. The initiative is being launched in partnership with founding members Truleum Venture Partners, Tokeny, Disrupt.com, and Zamanat.

Unveiled at an exclusive gathering in Dubai, the alliance brings together industry leaders in fund administration, tokenization compliance, asset management, and regulatory design. Its goal is to deliver a modular, Shariah-compliant infrastructure for launching and managing trillions in tokenized funds — deployed natively on ZIGChain and built to meet institutional standards.

This marks a major turning point in the institutional adoption of tokenized finance. By tokenizing entire fund structures rather than individual assets, blockchain integration becomes more operationally viable for large financial institutions. For Apex Group, this move reflects a clear strategic trajectory in Web3 infrastructure, following its acquisition of Tokeny and now expanding into fully on-chain fund ecosystems, where permitted in terms of the applicable regulatory frameworks.   

“This is the institutional blueprint for unlocking the global fund market,” said Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain. “Apex Group’s reach, Tokeny’s compliance architecture, and Truleum’s regulatory expertise — tied together on ZIGChain — form an institutional-grade foundation for a new era of on-chain capital markets. It’s not every day that a pre-launch chain partners with one of the biggest financial institutions in the world. This is how tokenization goes mainstream, and we are honoured to help make it happen.”

Apex Group is a leading provider of fund administration, financial infrastructure, and regulatory services, with operations in over 50 countries and $3.4 trillion in assets under administration. Its subsidiary Tokeny — recently acquired by Apex Group — is the creator of ERC-3643, the leading global standard for permissioned digital securities.

“This alliance is a natural extension of Apex Group’s mission to modernize fund infrastructure globally,” said Christiane El Habre, managing director at Apex Group – Middle East. “We’re proud to support this first-of-its-kind initiative and help drive compliant tokenization across new markets and asset classes.”

The alliance represents a long-term commitment to embedding tokenization into the global fund ecosystem. By enabling programmable, compliant fund structures with built-in regulatory guardrails, asset managers gain the tools to operate more efficiently, scale globally, and access new distribution channels in accordance with regulatory frameworks.

“Tokenization introduces a structural shift in fund management by enabling programmability, transparency, and near-instant settlement without compromising regulatory oversight. When implemented within a robust regulatory framework, it allows asset managers to launch compliant, modular funds with greater operational efficiency and global distribution potential. This alliance is a decisive step toward embedding these capabilities at an infrastructure level.” said Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta, chairman of the Middle East Stablecoin Association (MESA) and member of the UAE Securities & Commodities Authority’s Asset Management Industry Panel.

The alliance reflects a broader shift underway in institutional finance, where traditional asset managers are increasingly exploring blockchain-native infrastructure to modernize fund operations. With the global asset management industry reaching $128 trillion in assets under management in 2024, the opportunity for tokenized, programmable fund structures is significant, and rapidly gaining traction.

Zamanat, a founding member and native ZIGChain dApp, is currently pursuing over $3 billion in tokenized fund strategies to be executed through this framework. Additional institutions and service providers are in active discussions to join the alliance, signaling accelerating interest across the Middle East and beyond.

As momentum builds, ZIGChain is positioning itself as the default programmable settlement layer for compliant, institution-ready fund infrastructure, anchoring the next phase of growth in on-chain asset management.

About ZIGChain

ZIGChain is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain designed to democratize access to investment opportunities, facilitate financial inclusion regardless of income level, technical skill, or geographic location. ZIGChain enables developers and institutions to launch scalable, compliant protocols for profit-sharing, fund tokenization, and real-world asset management.

Its ecosystem includes Zignaly, a licensed social investment platform connecting over 600,000 users with more than 150 professional portfolio managers. ZIGChain also supports Zamanat, the world’s first Shariah-compliant real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform, combining ethical finance with programmable blockchain infrastructure.

For more information, visit zigchain.com.

About Apex Group

Apex Group is dedicated to driving positive change in financial services while supporting the growth and ambitions of asset managers, allocators, financial institutions, and family offices. Established in Bermuda in 2003, the Group has continually disrupted the industry through its investment in innovation and talent.  Today, Apex Group sets the pace in fund and asset servicing and stands out for its unique single-source solution and unified cross asset-class platform which supports the entire value chain, harnesses leading innovative technology, and benefits from cross-jurisdictional expertise delivered by a long-standing management team and over 13,000 highly integrated professionals.

Apex Group leads the industry with a broad and unmatched range of services, including capital raising, business and corporate management, fund and investor administration, portfolio and investment administration, ESG, capital markets and transactions support. These services are tailored to each client and are delivered both at the Group level and via specialist subsidiary brands.

The Apex Foundation, a not-for-profit entity, is the Group's passionate commitment to empower sustainable change.

To learn more, visit www.apexgroup.com.

Elsass Financial Group is proud to announce the grand opening of its newest office in Fort Mill, South Carolina. This was celebrated with a ribbon cutting by the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, July 17, 2025. The office is located at 135 Confederate Street, Suite 107, Fort Mill, SC 29715, in the heart of downtown.

This expansion marks the firm’s first location outside of Ohio and represents a significant step in their long-term vision to serve clients across the Southeast.

“We’ve always believed in helping people find clarity and confidence in their financial future,” said Karl Elsass, President of Elsass Financial Group. “Opening a South Carolina office allows us to bring that same client-first philosophy to Fort Mill, a thriving community that shares our values and energy. We couldn’t be more excited to grow here.”

The celebration included the launch of Liquid Asset, a custom-labeled Fort Millsner brewed in collaboration with Amor Artis Brewing, as well as gourmet charcuterie from local favorite Tega Graze.

Brad Stoehr, CIMA®, CEPA®, who is leading the Fort Mill office, shared his personal connection to the expansion: “This community has been our home since 2008. It’s where we’ve raised our children, built friendships, and contributed to local causes. I’m proud to bring Elsass Financial Group’s expertise and heart to a place we deeply care about. Giving back and helping others make smart financial choices is what drives us.”

Elsass Financial Group also extends a heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors who helped make this event possible: Horizon Investments, Ocean Park Asset Management, iM Global Partners, and Cyndi Clowney of The Bovender Team and Compass Realty.

On July, 2025, during the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, Dr. Zhang Qihua, President of the Global Alliance for Sustainable Development Foundation, pointed out in an interview: “As focus stays on air and water, WHO ranks urban noise as the second-biggest environmental health risk.”

Noise Pollution: A Neglected Global Health Threat

“In megacities over ten million, long-term noise exposure raises cardiovascular disease risk by 27%. This directly hinders the achievement of SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities),” added Dr. Zhang.

He emphasized that the acoustic environment is gaining attention in public health and governance.

With 48% of residents suffering sleep disturbances, improving tranquility is no longer just technical—it’s a systemic social task.

Scenario-Based Innovation: A Chinese Breakthrough Approach

In the relevant discussion, Dr. Zhang pointed out several outstanding cases from Chinese enterprises in reducing residential noise:

“We have observed that some Chinese companies are exploring more adaptable noise-reduction solutions tailored to the structural characteristics of local housing. For example, the Chinese brand TATA Wooden Door has developed quiet products tailored to family needs in small apartments, multi-generational homes, and elderly-friendly spaces. Such approaches also offer reference value for other developing countries.”

He believes that the process of enabling residential scenarios through technology is not only a response to real pain points in families but also promotes the shift of "quietness" from a single function to a lifestyle component.

Global Collaboration to Promote the Popularization of the “Quiet Lifestyle”

On how to promote the global adoption of the “quiet lifestyle,” Dr. Zhang stated that the key lies in experience sharing and local adaptation.

He believes that mature markets can share acoustic standards and governance mechanisms, while emerging markets offer valuable practices in product innovation and application scenarios.

“Cases like TATA Wooden Door show that acoustic optimization isn’t limited by technology and can be implemented sustainably based on needs. Sharing practical cases through forums helps regions find suitable paths. When people begin choosing quiet products aligned with their lifestyles, it becomes a meaningful step toward better living environments,” Dr. Zhang concluded.

Unlisted, a real estate technology company on a mission to unlock the full potential of every home, today announced that Rosaria Becker of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate has published an agent profile on the platform, representing the Hinsdale area.

Unlisted’s technology is designed to allow agents, buyers, and homeowners to see beyond the MLS. Agents have long searched the tax records to identify homes for clients when nothing on the MLS worked. Unlisted elevates that process and makes the data organized and searchable for everyone.

The platform utilizes publicly available real estate data to create a digital property profile for every home in the country. The real estate records can be quickly searched and organized into curated lists of homes that fit a buyer’s criteria. While the buyers and their agents realize the homes are not for sale, it provides a list of properties they may approach about a potential offer.

Unlisted is unveiling a new feature that leverages the expertise of thoughtfully vetted, proven real estate professionals in the local market to support users. Unlisted is a powerful way to stay connected with both buyers and homeowners,” says Becker. “I want to be a visible, accessible resource for anyone exploring a move in the 60521 area, whether they're ready to take action or just weighing their options.”

The agent profiles are designed to highlight a local agent with a track record in that neighborhood and someone with niche expertise that can truly offer guidance. Unlike other online platforms, the agents for each ZIP code on Unlisted are vetted and must be able to offer true value to a prospective buyer or seller. The ethos of Unlisted is different from other real estate websites, the platform is designed to offer information and connection. Becker’s deep understanding of the Hinsdale market makes her the ideal partner for Unlisted.

"We are thrilled to launch Unlisted in the Hinsdale market with Rosaria Becker as our agent of record. Her track record of trusted service, thoughtful guidance, and consistent success reflects the standard we aim to bring to every off-market experience," said Katie Hill, founder and CEO of Unlisted. "With Rosaria’s expertise we are confident this partnership will bring incredible opportunities for buyers and homeowners in Hinsdale."

To learn more about Becker's work and Unlisted, view her Unlisted profile, rosariabecker.com, or UnlistedHomes.com.

For Unlisted for Agents, visit UnlistedHomes.com/Agents.

Wyatt Foundation and Conceive Fertility Foundation, two national nonprofit organizations dedicated to furthering access, education, and research in fertility care, today announce the 2025 recipients of their national IVF Grant Program.

Five recipients will receive a $15,000 grant to offset IVF treatment costs. Additionally, each recipient will also receive $1,000 to be used towards preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), courtesy of CooperSurgical, a leader in the fertility and women's health fields for nearly 35 years. The national campaign and partnership launched in April 2025 during National Infertility Awareness Week and drew in over 600 applicants from across the country, each with moving stories of their journeys.

“Each applicant shared her own unique story of infertility, but what united them all was a journey marked by heartbreak, stress, and profound disappointment. This reinforces that the emotional toll of infertility is both real and powerful,” says health psychologist Dr. Alice D. Domar, chief compassion officer at Inception Fertility and director of the Inception Research Institute. “We hope that through this program, we are able to further the conversation around fertility care and the need for greater access to it.”

Recipients of the grant program include aspiring parents who each carry powerful stories of perseverance through the heartbreak of infertility. Their journeys reflect a wide range of challenges, including pregnancy and infant loss, failed IVF cycles, genetic conditions, and male factor infertility. Despite these obstacles, they remain determined to build their families.

The nonprofit arm of Inception Fertility, the largest provider of fertility services in North America, the Wyatt Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and couples achieve their dream of building a family through assisted reproductive technology (ART). The organization was started by TJ Farnsworth, the founder and CEO of Inception Fertility, and his wife Margaret Farnsworth, who successfully conceived their first child, Wyatt, through IVF.

“Inception Fertility and the Wyatt Foundation are honored to once again support this program, which provides recipients with access to the essential care they need on their family-building journeys,” says Margaret Farnsworth, executive director of the Wyatt Foundation. “We extend our heartfelt wishes to each recipient as they continue on their path to parenthood.”

Conceive Fertility Foundation is the nonprofit arm of Caden Lane, a direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand of baby products focused around the birth of a child. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Conceive Fertility Foundation aims to support patients who have been impacted by the struggle of infertility through education and grants. Katy Mimari, CEO of Caden Lane, launched Conceive Fertility Foundation after her own experience with infertility and understanding the financial barriers that prevent some aspiring parents from building their families. A percentage of Caden Lane's profits go to the Conceive Fertility Foundation.

"Conceive Fertility Foundation and the Caden Lane family are thrilled to once again work alongside Inception Fertility and provide women with the opportunity to experience the extraordinary joy of having a baby,” says Mimari. "We look forward to following each recipient’s journey and send our warmest wishes as they move forward."

About Wyatt Foundation

Wyatt Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and couples achieve their dream of building a family through assisted reproductive technology (ART) by reducing the financial barriers to IVF through scholarships awarded based on financial need and clinical factors determining potential success. The foundation has two main goals: to provide financial assistance to individuals and couples who cannot afford fertility treatments and to fund research in the field of infertility.

The organization was started by TJ Farnsworth the founder and CEO of Inception Fertility™ and his wife Margaret who successfully conceived their first child through IVF. Upon the birth of their son Wyatt, TJ reflected back on his family's experience as patients. He realized that many aspiring parents were carrying the same emotional burden that he and his wife had — and that few fertility clinics took a holistic approach to consider the physical, psychological, financial and mental aspects of infertility.

To learn more, visit: inceptionfertility.com/wyatt-foundation/

About Conceive Fertility Foundation

Founded by Katy Mimari, CEO of Caden Lane, Conceive Fertility Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to supporting individuals affected by infertility through education and grants. Despite insurance covering diagnostics, treatment costs are a significant financial burden and Conceive Fertility is a non-profit organization that exists to help couples who are struggling to conceive. A portion of sales from Caden Lane go to support the mission of the Conceive Fertility Foundation.

To learn more, visit conceivefertilityfoundation.com.

About Inception Fertility

Inception Fertility™ (Inception) is a family of fertility brands committed to helping patients build their own families. Built by patients for patients, Inception's purpose is to achieve the highest bar in experience, science and medicine in an effort to enhance each patient's experience and achieve better outcomes.

Inception's medical experts are leading pioneers in fertility care. Our doctors are some of the first to use breakthrough assisted reproductive technologies (ART) — including in vitro fertilization (IVF), preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) and fertility preservation services — and they continue to lead the industry by building on these technologies through development, research and thought leadership.

Through its growing family of national organizations — which includes The Prelude Network®, the fastest-growing network of fertility clinics and largest provider of comprehensive fertility services in North America; MyEggBank®, one of the largest frozen donor egg banks in North America; BUNDL Fertility™, a multi-cycle fertility service bundling program; HavenCryo™, a long-term reproductive preservation and storage solution provider and NutraBloom®, a premium lifestyle brand with expertly formulated supplements to support individuals' health and wellness goals for preconception — Inception is working to deliver on its promise to push the envelope of what is possible for exceeding patient expectations.

For more information, visit inceptionfertility.com.

About CooperSurgical

CooperSurgical is a leading fertility and women's healthcare company dedicated to putting time on the side of women, babies, and families at the healthcare moments that matter most in life. CooperSurgical is at the forefront of delivering innovative assisted reproductive technology (ART) and genomic solutions that enhance the work of ART professionals to the benefit of families. We currently offer over 600 clinically relevant medical devices to women's healthcare providers, including testing and treatment options.

CooperSurgical is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CooperCompanies (NASDAQ: COO). CooperSurgical, headquartered in Trumbull, CT, produces and markets a wide array of products and services for use by women's healthcare clinicians.

More information can be found at coopersurgical.com.

About CooperCompanies

CooperCompanies (NASDAQ: COO) is a leading global medical device company focused on helping people experience life's beautiful moments through its two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision is a trusted leader in the contact lens industry, helping to improve the way people see each day. CooperSurgical is a leading fertility and women's healthcare company dedicated to putting time on the side of women, babies, and families at the healthcare moments that matter most.

Headquartered in San Ramon, CA, CooperCompanies has a workforce of more than 16,000, sells products in over 130 countries, and positively impacts over 50 million lives each year.

For more information, visit coopercos.com.

NextFour announces the official launch of its online platform to help students seeking admission to the most selective U.S. colleges. Featuring AI-powered personalized advice, exclusive data-driven insights, and on-demand access to human experts, the innovative NextFour solution expertly guides families through the key aspects of the college planning process to maximize their chances of being admitted to their top-choice schools.

NextFour was founded in 2023 by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and husband-and-wife team Samir Kothari and Benita Daryani. As technology industry veterans (formerly with Meta and Google) and parents familiar with the complexities of college admissions, they created NextFour to address the challenges they encountered firsthand. The bar for gaining admission to top-ranked colleges has never been higher, underscoring the importance of a thoughtful application strategy and prompting anxious families to seek guidance. However, with high school counselors facing overwhelming caseloads and traditional private counseling services often being expensive and inconsistent, many families struggle to find help that is reliable, easily accessible, data-driven, and affordable. NextFour uniquely solves for these problems by democratizing access to knowledge and tools that give students a critical edge in the college admissions process.

How It Works

The core of NextFour’s college planning service is an exclusive data analytics platform featuring a comprehensive and structured dataset covering the college admissions ecosystem. This proprietary information (representing thousands of data sources) powers advanced metasearch interfaces, easy-to-understand visualizations, and AI-driven guidance. These features analyze the user’s individual profile to provide personalized, evidence-based advice to help them make well-informed, data-driven college planning decisions, such as:

• Strategically selecting intended majors based on personal interests, competitiveness, and career outcomes
• Identifying extracurricular activities based on alignment with application themes and impact in college admissions
• Determining whether to submit SAT/ACT scores based on evolving school-specific test policies and benchmarks
• Building a college list (and early application strategy) based on personal preferences, proprietary rankings, and individualized likelihood of admission

NextFour’s suite of automated capabilities is complemented by seamless connectivity to humans with relevant domain expertise. The NextFour Advisors Network allows users to easily connect one-on-one with current college students who have recent, firsthand experiences with specific extracurricular activities, colleges, and majors. NextFour also offers a unique messaging-based Q&A service where NextFour experts are available to answer questions in real-time at a fraction of the cost of traditional counselors. NextFour’s hybrid approach combines innovative technology with human experts on an on-demand basis, ensuring families can efficiently access the help they need to feel confident in their decision-making.

A growing number of students and parents have already benefited from a beta version of the NextFour platform. Class of 2025 parent Paula S. shares her experience: “NextFour was invaluable to us! We got incredible insights and advice that were critical in supporting our son’s college admissions journey. We previously tried other online products, and even hired private college counselors, but NextFour was simply better, faster, and cheaper. And now we are thrilled that our son was accepted into several top schools, including his first choice!”

“Getting into a highly ranked college doesn’t happen overnight; it requires strategic planning and thoughtful decision-making throughout the high school years to build the strongest applications. We recognize that the process can be intensely challenging, which is why we specifically designed our service to help students (and their parents) throughout that journey and into their dream schools,” stated Samir Kothari, co-founder and co-CEO of NextFour. “The feedback from our early users has been great, and we are excited to now extend the platform to more families. We will continue to innovate and execute on our mission to provide users with a trustworthy solution that reduces anxiety, saves money, and enhances college admissions outcomes.”

Visit www.nextfour.ai to receive data-driven, actionable insights for developing a compelling application profile and enhancing your chances of admission to selective colleges. Most platform features are free, ensuring easy accessibility for all users. Optional, fee-based features — such as real-time access to human experts — are offered individually at a fraction of the cost of traditional college counseling services.

Best Prop Firms, a website that independently reviews and compares proprietary trading firms, recently launched regional rankings focused on the United States and Canada among others. The expanded coverage is designed to help traders evaluate firms based on region-specific funding models, platform compatibility, and challenge structures.

With more traders seeking firm conditions tailored to their location, the new guides offer side-by-side breakdowns that reflect local payout cycles, platform access, and rule transparency. Online traders can now easily explore the best prop firms in the United States and other key regions by challenge type, profit split model, and funding timelines.

Hands-On Testing for Accurate Comparisons

Unlike directories that rely on self-reported data, Best Prop Firms uses a structured testing process to assess each firm listed. The team opens real accounts, completes full evaluations, and monitors payout delivery, platform usability, and rule enforcement under real conditions.

“Many prop firms look similar on the surface, but when you go through the full challenge yourself, the differences become clear,” said Noam Korbl, co-founder of Best Prop Firms. “We test every firm hands-on to uncover the details that actually affect a trader’s experience.”

This approach allows the site to highlight factors that are often difficult for traders to verify upfront, such as how long it takes to receive a first payout, whether account types are matched to trading style, and how firms handle support or disputes during the evaluation.

Helping Traders Navigate Complexity

The prop trading industry has become more competitive over the past year, with firms offering a wide range of models from instant funding accounts to structured two-step challenges with scaling plans. These changes have increased trader choice but also added complexity.

“Clear challenge rules and realistic expectations matter more than flashy promises,” Korbl said. “Traders want to know what they’re signing up for and how the process works before they commit. That’s what we aim to provide.”

Each regional page includes overviews of challenge type, payout schedule, trading platform support, and evaluation limits, giving users a way to find firms that align with their goals and location. It also explains which allows for certain strategies such as scalping, high frequency trading, or automation.

Regional Differences Now Easier to Compare

The new U.S. and Canada rankings account for location-specific considerations such as regulation, supported platforms, and acceptable funding methods. Some prop trading firms serve one country but not the other, or offer faster payouts and certain platforms in one region only.

By expanding region-specific content, Best Prop Firms aims to give traders more confidence in selecting a prop firm that fits both their trading style and jurisdiction, such as up to date shortlists of the best prop firms in the U.S. and Canada.

As the global economy enters a year of recalibration, Canadian investors and households are bracing for a volatile but navigable 2025. According to Kate Leaman, AvaTrade’s chief market analyst, Canada’s economy is expected to post modest gains this year, growth hovering around 1.8%, but that calm surface belies a more turbulent undercurrent: trade friction with the United States, creeping inflation, and a changing global investment landscape.

A major flashpoint is the return of tariffs. In 2025, both Canada and the U.S. slapped 25% duties on a range of goods, from steel to everyday consumer products. While aimed at addressing trade imbalances, these tariffs have created a ripple effect that’s beginning to show up where it matters most your grocery bill. According to forecasts, tariffs will impact nearly 9% of the consumer price basket tracked by Statistics Canada, with price hikes filtering through to households over the next 12 to 18 months.

Tariffs and Your Wallet: The New Inflation Driver

By mid-2025, Canada’s inflation hovered around 2.3–2.5%, but that’s set to change. Bank of Canada now predicts a temporary spike above 3% in 2026, largely driven by tariff-induced price increases. The impact will be most acute in non-energy consumer goods: groceries, household items, and apparel. For the average Canadian, that means $100 worth of groceries today could cost $103 or more within the year, small increments that add up across a family’s monthly budget.

This inflationary jolt comes at a time when consumer confidence is slowly recovering, bolstered by wage growth and easing interest rates. But as AvaTrade analysts point out, shoppers should prepare for “several choppy quarters in the aisles,” as tariffs push costs higher before supply chains fully adjust. The long-term upside? A potential reshoring of production and more “Made in Canada” goods, though these may not come cheap, at least initially.

Market Strategy: Diversify and Stay Nimble

Despite the friction, Canada’s financial markets remain resilient. The TSX is expected to grow, though more slowly than in 2024, with double-digit earnings growth led by energy, materials, and financials. Infrastructure projects like LNG terminals and high commodity prices are fueling optimism in key sectors. But volatility remains a theme, and AvaTrade suggests Canadian investors diversify, across geographies, sectors, and asset classes to weather potential shocks.

Meanwhile, export trends are likely to be erratic: a short-term surge in shipments as firms race to beat new tariffs, followed by potential declines if trade barriers persist. Canada's strategic pivot to the Indo-Pacific, however, offers hope for exporters seeking new markets beyond the U.S.

The Bigger Picture: Resilient, But Tested

The Canadian economy is not in crisis but it is at a crossroads. Tariffs, inflation, and geopolitical tensions will challenge both households and investors to adapt. For Canadians, 2025 is not the year to expect explosive growth but it is a year to plan smart, shop strategically, and watch global headlines closely. As AvaTrade's market outlook notes: Canada remains fundamentally sound, but navigating the months ahead will require patience, adaptability, and a clear-eyed view of risk.

This analysis was written by Kate Leaman, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

In the past few years, semiconductor technology has advanced rapidly — so much that Nvidia recently became the world’s first $4 trillion company, thanks to the huge demand for AI chips. Today’s top GPUs and AI accelerators can process massive amounts of data incredibly fast. But this brings up an important question: Can our networks keep up and deliver data quickly enough to keep these powerful chips working at full speed? In many cases, the answer is no.

A growing performance gap means high-end processors often sit idle, starving for data, while relatively sluggish networks struggle to keep up. Bridging this gap will require new strategies — from intelligent proxy servers to massive infrastructure upgrades — to ensure the AI revolution isn’t bottlenecked by bandwidth and latency.

Proxy Servers Step In to Balance Load and Manage AI-Era Latency

When real-time AI applications demand instant responses, clever use of proxy server platforms and gateways has become essential. Unlike a basic intermediary, modern AI proxies do far more than pass along traffic. They perform smart routing, load balancing, and caching to optimize data flow between users, devices, GPU clusters, and cloud APIs. For instance, an AI gateway can direct your request to the least busy or closest server, manage timeouts and retries, and monitor performance — all in the blink of an eye. By pushing computation to the edge of the network, self-driving cars can avoid round-trip delays to distant data centers — the goal is to eliminate every unnecessary nanosecond from vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.

Services like Webshare make this architecture easier to deploy by offering scalable proxy infrastructure with configurable bandwidth, rotation, and geolocation. Instead of creating a proxy system from the ground up, teams can quickly tap into a large pool of IP addresses designed for tasks like AI inference, data collection, or edge delivery.

Let’s talk about another aspect. Semantic caching of LLM (large language model) responses can transform response times from seconds to milliseconds. In other words, answers that once took a few seconds on a busy model could be delivered near-instantly from a proxy’s cache. Similarly, content delivery networks (CDNs) function as proxy layers across the globe, bringing data physically closer to users to speed up streaming and video AI processing. And when fresh computation is needed, proxies help balance the load. They distribute incoming requests across fleets of GPUs so no single server gets swamped, preventing slowdowns.

Compute Power Meets Network Limits: A Growing Bottleneck

Despite these optimizations, the broader problem remains — today’s chips are outrunning the networks that feed them. We see it clearly in advanced AI training, which often spreads one job across hundreds of GPUs in parallel. Those GPUs need to swap results continuously over the network to synchronize with each other.

If the interconnect is too slow, the GPUs end up idle, twiddling their thumbs as they wait for data. “Job completion time is determined by how quickly GPUs can turn out results and how quickly the network can synchronize those results,” the source explains. Improving network throughput and latency can thus unlock hidden performance. In fact, even small upgrades to network infrastructure can “bring up [GPU utilization] rate” and yield “millions of dollars in savings” by avoiding wasted idle time.

Looking further ahead, entirely new network paradigms are emerging to keep pace with Moore’s Law. One promising route is optical interconnects. Today’s server racks still rely on copper wires, but electrical signaling is nearing its limits for high bandwidth over distance. Companies like Ayar Labs are pioneering in-package photonics to beam data as light. Their optical chiplets can blast terabits of data per second between chips with dramatically lower latency and power draw than copper traces. As the professionals put it, the conventional electrical architecture is “rapidly approaching the end of its roadmap,” and future chip-to-chip links will require photonics.

By converting electronic signals to light right at the source, these optical networks could prevent tomorrow’s ultrafast CPUs and AI accelerators from being starved for data. In summary, a multi-pronged effort — faster switch silicon, smarter network cards, and even lasers in our chips — is underway to close the gap between what our chips can chew through and what our networks can supply.

As chips get faster and more powerful, our networks are struggling to keep up. But progress is being made. New technologies, as we see these days, are helping close the gap between computing and data delivery. The fact that companies put all the effort into improving not only the hardware which are chips but also the way data is transferred, talks about their dedication to avoid slowdowns and make sure AI reaches its full potential. That means delivering real-time, smart performance everywhere — from data centers to self-driving cars. In the end, success will go to those who build not just the fastest processors, but also the fastest systems to connect them.

American Kratom Association (AKA) will host a special press conference to address the recent FDA warning letters targeting 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) products. The event will feature the AKA’s official response, expert commentary on public safety implications, and details of the industry's commitment to consumer protection. Dr. Chris McCurdy of the University of Florida, an internationally recognized expert on kratom, will be attending and available to the media.

The AKA has issued a national consumer alert on the action.

Following the press conference, media are invited to attend a highly anticipated live debate and policy presentation titled: "The 7-OH Fault Line: Can the Industry Find Common Ground?"

This critical session will feature representatives from the American Kratom Association and the Holistic Alternative Recovery Trust (HART)—an organization that supports 7-OH product access—engaging in a robust discussion on science, safety, and regulatory futures.

Visit here to register or submit a question beforehand.

Press Conference Details

• Date: Friday, July 25, 2025
• Time: 10:00 a.m. PT
• Location: Chairman Room – 2nd Floor, Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel (3400 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89169)

"The 7-OH Fault Line" Debate Details

• Date: Friday, July 25, 2025
• Time: 3:00 p.m. PT
• Location: Room 221, Las Vegas Convention Center (3150 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89109

Why It Matters

This is a pivotal moment for the kratom industry and public health regulation. As federal action intensifies, the future of kratom—and the distinction between mitragynine and 7-OH products—is on the line. Media will have direct access to the facts, major players, and contrasting perspectives shaping this critical debate.

Who Should Attend

Local and national press, health reporters, regulatory affairs journalists, and industry media outlets covering FDA policy, herbal supplements, consumer safety, and alternative health products. 

Taylor Farms, North America’s premier provider of ready-to-enjoy salads and healthy fresh foods, proudly announces the awarding of over $650,000 in scholarships through its enhanced annual scholarship program. Taylor Farms awards students in three distinct categories: the Extraordinary Scholarship, the Innovative Scholarship, and the Employee Scholarship.

A total of 38 new scholarships have been awarded for 2025:

• The Extraordinary Scholarship supports students pursuing degrees at four-year universities. This year, 26 exceptional students were honored in this category.
• The Innovative Scholarship is designed to encourage academic and career development at junior colleges and trade schools, with 9 promising students recognized this year.
• The Employee Scholarship now provides direct support to 3 dedicated Taylor Farms team members who are advancing their own education and development goals.

Since launching the program in 2008, Taylor Farms has awarded $4.7 million in scholarships to 319 students, all children of full-time Taylor Farms employees. The company remains deeply committed to education and believes in empowering its community through opportunity and learning.

“We are honored to continue to support our team members and their families in their educational journeys,” said Bruce Taylor, chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms. “By investing in education and the academic aspirations of our communities, we are building the foundation for continuous opportunity. Congratulations to this year’s winners.”

Taylor Farms partners with the Community Foundation for Monterey County to administer the application and award process. Scholarship recipients receive an upfront financial award and are eligible for annual renewals for the duration of their undergraduate or graduate studies. In addition to the 2025 new recipients, 81 renewal scholarships were granted to students who originally received their awards between 2022 and 2024.

“Every year we have an incredible group of applicants, and this year was no exception with close to 100 submissions received. The dedication and pursuit of higher education is apparent in the essays and personal statements we reviewed. Our committee spent hours combing through every application and feel that this year’s recipients are incredibly exceptional with bright futures ahead of them. We are honored to share in this academic milestone and look forward to hearing their stories in the future,” added Retail Scholarship Committee Chair, Charis Neves.

Flowable, a premier enterprise digital transformation platform, has unveiled its Summer 2025 update, introducing a sophisticated agent model and a new agent engine that elevates agentic AI to a primary role alongside BPMN and CMMN automation engines. This update, released on July 22, 2025, is a game-changer in integrating AI into business workflows for enhanced efficiency, coordination, and scalability.

AI Agents as Core Components of Flowable

The summer 2025 release makes agentic AI a central element of the Flowable platform. Businesses can now create, orchestrate, and manage AI agents using the same powerful tools they rely on for BPMN and CMMN workflows, providing a unified environment for advanced enterprise process automation.

This new release offers enterprises the opportunity to scale AI adoption and integration, unlocking new levels of productivity and business process optimization.

Key Features of Flowable’s New AI Agents

The update includes a range of new features designed to optimize business processes and enhance automation:

• Flexible Agent Creation: Users can create AI agents of varying complexity, to work with simple tasks or complex workflows, directly within the Flowable platform.
• External AI Integration: Flowable integrates with external AI services, such as AWS Bedrock, Azure Foundry, and Salesforce Agentforce, enabling businesses to extend their automation capabilities.
• Multi-Agent Collaboration: The platform supports complex workflows with multiple AI agents working together across internally configured and external systems for efficient automation.
• AI-Powered Case Management: The new “AI button” in Flowable’s case automation links cases to AI models, enabling real-time summaries, question answering, actionable suggestions, and autonomous customer communication and task completion.

AI Agent Autonomy: Adaptive Decision-Making

Flowable’s new AI agents offer dynamic autonomy, meaning they can adapt their level of decision-making based on the nature of the task at hand. In unpredictable, organic scenarios, agents provide AI-powered assistance. For more structured, well-defined processes, they revert to deterministic solutions, ensuring businesses can handle both structured workflows and complex, evolving situations effectively.

Document and Data Processing with AI

A key feature of this update is the Document Agent Type, which automates the processing of unstructured documents. This agent classifies documents, such as invoices, passports, and contracts, extracting relevant information and significantly reducing manual data entry, thereby improving efficiency and reducing errors in document-heavy workflows.

AI-Driven Contextual Assistance

The Orchestrator Agent Type provides businesses with an intelligent assistant to manage cases and workflows. It offers capabilities such as:

• Summarizing case details and providing task overviews.
• Triggering actions based on user interactions or document uploads, such as initiating an "invoice intent analysis" after an invoice is uploaded.
• Suggesting or automating steps in workflows based on case events, like starting a "customer escalation" if a customer expresses frustration.

These features enhance case management by improving both responsiveness and decision-making.

A Suite of AI Agents for Every Business Need

The Flowable 2025.1 release introduces four powerful types of AI agents, each designed to address specific business needs:

• Utility Agent: Automates tasks like data enrichment, sentiment analysis, and classification.
• Document Agent: Extracts and processes data from unstructured documents such as invoices, contracts, and other records.
• Knowledge Agent: Provides contextual answers by tapping into internal knowledge bases, FAQs, or documentation.
• Orchestrator Agent: Coordinates and manages other agents or tasks based on dynamic inputs, rules, or goals.

Empowering Enterprises with Intelligent Automation

Flowable’s latest release enables enterprises to seamlessly integrate agentic AI into their workflows, unlocking new levels of automation and intelligence. By leveraging agentic AI, organizations can enhance decision-making, streamline operations, and drive digital transformation. 

With this next generation of AI-powered automation, businesses are poised to lead the future of intelligent business processes.

Trips, the leading pioneer in IP tokenization, announced today that it has acquired Mentaport, the leading provider of cutting edge IP watermarking and agentic AI tracking. Together, the two companies will unite under a new name, KINETK, serving IP holders across the entire spectrum of media, from individual creators to global IP enterprises. As part of the transaction, Mariale Montenegro, CEO and co-founder of Mentaport, will be joining KINETK as CTO and co-founder.

KINETK brings together two first movers in IP infrastructure, establishing the next generation of IP rights and fixing the current content data model. Today, IP is everywhere, driving consumption behaviors across the global digital economy. KINETK embraces a bigger, more interconnected vision: a future where every piece of content carries its own signature, where IP holders have full transparency into their reach, their rights, and their value wherever their content goes and is consumed.

“From the very beginning, our mission has been to reshape the way creative work is protected, tracked, and valued in the digital world,” said Michael Finkelstein, CEO and co-founder of KINETK. “We’ve always believed that IP holders deserve cutting edge infrastructure to not only defend their work, but also amplify their impact. Today, we’re taking a bold step forward in that journey. I am beyond thrilled to partner with Mariale and her entire team in bringing this to life.”

“KINETK captures the core of what we started at Mentaport; a dynamic network powered by invisible watermarking, real-time tracking, and creator-first intelligence,” said Mariale Montenegro, CTO and co-founder of KINETK. “Every post. Every platform. Every time that content moves, KINETK moves with it. I couldn’t be happier to partner with Michael and his team in seeing the initial Mentaport vision come to life.”

The murder of Daniel Langlois in December 2023 immediately gained international press and put a spotlight on the tiny island nation of Dominica, but the microscope that followed has also brought to light a lot more — state corruption, police interference and a concern that the nation has no judicial integrity. At the heart of the case is U.S. citizen, Jonathan Lehrer, that has been held in jail, without trial or the ability to speak to media, since December 2023.

Initially, the lead investigator, ACP Jeffrey James, went on TV multiple times to assure the citizens of Dominica that the police and his investitive prowess led to the arrest of Jonathan Lehrer with ample evidence to easily close the case. As we now hit 18 months since those televised press conferences, why do we find Jonathan Lehrer still in jail and no trial date yet set? The easy answer is that the entire case has fell apart and the system has highlighted that ACP Jeffrey James has lied to the courts at almost every stage of the investigation to date (as stated by Justice Colin Williams in his official bail ruling, Sec 92-103).

Outline of concerning activity from official court proceedings:

• ACP Jeffrey James told the courts in February 2024, “and from my own investigations and personal knowledge that there is a strong Prima Facie case against the applicant including and not limited to direct eye witness evidence, circumstantial evidence, and scientific evidence.” This statement was used to keep Lehrer from gaining bail. In official hearing, Justice Williams determined every point of this statement to be a direct lie, meaning that the prosecution has no eyewitnesses or scientific evidence of any kind.
• In multiple hearings, ACP James and the prosecution called for a delay of the bail hearing because they were waiting for ballistic reports on a bullet found at the scene. ACP James stated they were still waiting on the report as early as April 2024, then again in July 2024 and September 2024. Finally in September 2024, Justice Williams was able to determine that ACP James and the prosecution had received multiple ballistic reports, with the second one being received in July 2024. All of the existing reports showed negative results to Lehrer and his legally registered firearm, helping to show Lehrer’s innocence. All this again highlighted the propensity of ACP James and the prosecution to lie directly under oath in order to delay a bail ruling and continue attempts to potentially edit, alter or change the results of the report.
• ACP James, under oath, declared that Lehrer had a Glock firearm with a 15-round capacity magazine. When Lehrer was arrested, ACP James noted that the 15-round magazine was missing five rounds, which matched the number of found bullets at the scene. When the firearm was brought to the courts, it was easily shown to be a 10-round magazine, not a 15-round and that ACP James had fabricated the connection to the five bullets found at the scene.
• In November 2024, Lehrer was finally granted bail due to lack of evidence and was close to be released. Three days later, ACP James and the prosecution filed an application to revoke bail based on “new investigative evidence” that showed Lehrer would be an immediate flight risk. When pressed by Justice Williams, ACP James was unable to present any factual evidence to support his new claims and Lehrer’s bail was upheld.
• In January 2025, just days away from being released on bail, ACP James filed a new charge of firearms trafficking against Lehrer based on a single firearm magazine found during the initial December 2023 search of Lehrer’s residence. According to international law and the Dominican constitution, a single magazine cannot be cause for a firearms trafficking conviction, so the state and prosecution is once again using corrupt tactics to unjustly interfere with the judicial process and Lehrer is paying the price.

The unfolding case of Jonathan Lehrer has moved far beyond questions of guilt or innocence — it now stands as a damning indictment of Dominica’s justice system. From knowingly false statements under oath by lead investigator ACP Jeffrey James to deliberate withholding and misrepresentation of evidence, the record of court proceedings paints a disturbing picture of systemic misconduct. Despite repeated rulings by Justice Williams exposing these deceptions, Lehrer remains imprisoned without trial, raising urgent concerns not only about prosecutorial abuse, but about the very legitimacy of the judicial process in Dominica. As international scrutiny intensifies, the Lehrer case may well become a defining test of whether Dominica is prepared to uphold the rule of law — or continue down a path of institutional corruption and authoritarian control.

Jonathan Lehrer is represented by Pilgrim & Associates.

About KCT Chambers

KCT Chambers is a law chambers located in Bridgetown, Barbados. It was established out of a desire to help individuals and entities capitalize on opportunities, enforce rights, resolve existing challenges and preempt future ones. We believe in practical and legally grounded solutions and are guided by the core principles of accessibility, integrity and diligence. In order to achieve these objectives we apply a progressive, responsive and client-centred approach which is built upon detailed analysis of legal rights and obligations and the provision of clear, timely and consistent advice. For more information, visit kctchambers.com.

About Andrew O. G. Pilgrim Q.C.

Mr. Pilgrim is the founder of Pilgrim & Associates, the largest law chambers in Barbados to have a focus on criminal litigation. With over 25 years in practice, he is renowned throughout Barbados and the English-speaking Caribbean for his passionate and inspired representation of his clients. He has leveraged his wealth of knowledge and exceptional oratorical and analytical skills in a plethora of cases which have led to landmark decisions of the Court of Appeal of Barbados and the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Hurun Research Institute recently released the Global Unicorn Index 2025, a ranking of the world’s unicorns, defined as startups founded in the 2000s, worth at least $1 billion in U.S. dollars and not yet listed on a public exchange. The cut-off date was January 1, 2025, with significant changes in valuation updated up to the date of release. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017. This is the seventh year of the Global Unicorn Index.

This report includes the Most Successful Unicorn Investors in the World 2025, a ranking of the investment houses that have invested in the most unicorns.

Hurun Research found 1,523 unicorns in the world, based in 52 countries and 307 cities. 359 unicorns saw their valuations rise, of which 203 were new faces. 143 saw their valuations drop, of which 52 were ‘demoted’ as their valuation no longer met at least $1 billion. 64 were ‘promoted’ out of the list, of which 34 went IPO and 30 were acquired. 1,073 saw no change to their valuations. Their total value was $5.6 trillion.

The world’s unicorns are disrupting financial services, business management solutions and healthcare. 77% sell software and services, led by fintech, SaaS, and AI, whilst 23% have a physical product, led by semiconductors, new energy, biotech, and health tech.

Hurun Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said:

“2025 has been the year of AI. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, AI startups have rocketed, marking a critical inflexion point. Today, nearly a third of the world’s unicorns are AI-related, underscoring its transformational impact across industries. Big data, SaaS, and fintech remain the most common sectors for AI-themed unicorns, whilst 128 are pure-play AI companies with a combined valuation nearing $1 trillion, spanning AI assistants to machine learning platforms, and sector-specific AI applications in healthcare, security, robotics and fintech.”

"SpaceX has become the world’s most valuable unicorn, with a staggering $350 billion valuation, ahead of TikTok-owner ByteDance and OpenAI. It’s the first time a space exploration company has led the pack."

“No company encapsulates the 2020s unicorn boom quite like OpenAI. Two years ago, OpenAI was valued at just $20 billion; today, it’s $300 billion. That jump in valuation in just two years is the fastest we’ve ever seen, driven by the revolutionary potential of generative AI.”

“Some founders don’t stop at one unicorn. With xAI, Elon Musk is now the founder or co-founder of three of the world’s four most valuable unicorns, as well as Neuralink ($8 billion) and The Boring Company ($7 billion) — a testament to how one visionary entrepreneur can repeatedly create massive value in completely different industries. Five have founded three unicorns and 33 have founded two.”

“When it comes to unicorns, the world can essentially be split into three regions: the U.S., China, and the rest of the world. The U.S. accounts for half of all unicorns, China a quarter, and the remaining quarter is spread across dozens of other countries, led by India and the UK. Surprisingly, perhaps, the EU countries together have just over 112 unicorns, less than 8%, despite contributing to 20% of the world’s GDP. Each region has its strengths: American unicorns are heavy in SaaS, fintech and AI; China’s are in AI, semiconductors and renewable energy; and the rest of the world leans towards fintech and e-commerce — reflecting different regional innovation focuses.”

“The United States is in a league of its own with 758 unicorns — fully 50% of the world’s total. California alone is home to 396 companies valued at a combined $2.1 trillion. The East Coast, led by New York with 141 unicorns, Massachusetts with 44 unicorns and Florida with 15 unicorns, continues to thrive in fintech, healthcare, and enterprise software. The Midwest, while smaller in count, shows growth in states like Illinois, with 15 unicorns, and demonstrates increasing startup momentum beyond coastal hubs. States like Texas, with over 32 unicorns, Colorado and Washington are emerging as strategic tech centres, boosted by talent migration and business-friendly environments. This dispersion indicates a maturing innovation landscape where startup ecosystems are flourishing across diverse regions, not just Silicon Valley.”

About Hurun

Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research and media group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2023, mainly in China and India, and recently expanded to the UK, U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Best known for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India, and the world, Hurun’s other key series focus on young businesses and entrepreneurs, through the Hurun Unicorns Index, two Hurun Future Unicorns indices, the Hurun Uth series, and the Hurun Pioneers series.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest list compiler for startups, ranking over 3,000 startups across the world through its annual Hurun Global Unicorns Index (startups with a valuation of $1 billion or more), and two Hurun Future Unicorn Indexes: Gazelles, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within three years, and Cheetahs, most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within five years.

The Hurun Pioneering Young Startups and Entrepreneurs series focuses on startups set up within the last ten years and founders aged 45 or under. The Hurun Uth series includes the Under25s, Under30s, Under35s, and Under40s awards, representing the cream of each generation of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth $1 million, $10 million, $50 million, and $100 million, respectively in U.S. dollars.

Other lists include the Hurun 500 series, ranking the most valuable companies in the world, China and India, the Hurun Global High Schools List, ranking the world’s best independent high schools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists and the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions and regional governments. Hurun hosts high-profile events across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai, and Singapore.

For further information, visit https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7nIL0sGS9pguTnQxULrpoA or www.hurun.net.

Media Contact

Porsha Pan
+86 139 1838 7446
porsha.pan@hurun.net

Leading international e-scooter operators Beam Mobility and Neuron Mobility have signed a preliminary agreement as they work towards a merger that will solidify their micromobility leadership in Asia Pacific. The merger of the two Singapore-headquartered companies will bring together strong industry expertise, laying a solid foundation for profitability, scalable growth, and long-term success.

Completion of the transaction is expected within 60 days, subject to customary closing conditions.

The combined company will operate in over 100 cities and will retain both the Beam and Neuron brands, deploying each in their strongest markets. Neuron is a market leader in Australia and Canada, while Beam’s strong presence in South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Turkey, as well as their recent launch in the U.S., unlocks exciting new opportunities.

Neuron Mobility’s co-founder and CEO, Zachary Wang, will lead the combined company as chairman and global CEO. He will be supported by Beam Mobility’s CEO and co-founder, Alan Jiang, who will become the CEO of Asia. Beam’s president, and fellow co-founder, Deb Gangopadhyay, will become a strategic advisor while shaping the industry with groups like the Open Mobility Foundation. Further leadership appointments will be announced in due course. The new company will be headquartered in Singapore.

Zachary Wang, CEO of Neuron Mobility, said: "We are excited to share our plans to bring together the strengths of both companies, creating a truly global e-scooter operator with a clear path to profitability. The combined company will leverage Neuron’s leadership in Australia and Canada, along with Beam’s strong presence in South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Turkey, while also unlocking new opportunities for growth.”

Alan Jiang, CEO of Beam Mobility, said: "The deal unlocks a wealth of exciting opportunities, allowing us to leverage the best of both companies. As well as strengthening our position in Australia and New Zealand, Beam’s large vehicle fleet and expertise in permit-based and emerging markets, combined with Neuron’s strong track record in tender-based markets, will provide a solid foundation for sustainable growth and international expansion."

Deb Gangopadhyay, president of Beam Mobility, said: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built at Beam over the past seven years. This merger unites two of the most innovative companies, and I’m excited to support the combined company as a strategic advisor. I’m also looking forward to shaping the future of our industry through leadership and collaboration with key organisations such as the Open Mobility Foundation.”

Existing Neuron Mobility investors, including Square Peg Capital and GSR Ventures, along with Beam Mobility’s investors, including Affirma Capital, Hana Ventures, and Peak XV Partners, will all take a stake in the new company.

Lucra, the leading social competition platform, today announced a partnership with childrenʼs and family entertainment company Playground Productions, to integrate its white-label gamification software into the iconic Backyard Sports franchise. The collaboration will introduce free-to-play digital tournaments, enabling players across the United States to compete against others in the Backyard Sports community for the chance to win exclusive rewards.

The integration taps into the hunger for nostalgic, interpersonal experiences through a modern digital lens—making it even easier for players to build community and play socially. Whether itʼs challenging old friends or new ones through interactive tournaments, the addition of Lucra reinforces Backyard Sportsʼs mission to deliver accessible, family-friendly fun that transcends generations.

“The Backyard Sports are beloved games that truly shaped how many of us first connected over sports and everyday fun,ˮ said Dylan Robbins, CEO of Lucra. “Weʼre excited to partner with them to bring social competition to their fans in a new, digital-native way. This collaboration shows just how adaptable our platform is for partners looking to deepen engagement, reward loyal users, and build authentic communities through play.ˮ

For Backyard Sports, the partnership represents an investment in modern, behavior-driven customer engagement. By leveraging Lucraʼs technology, the franchise can reward players for participating in fun, social experiences that drive loyalty and ongoing connection with the brand.

“Lucraʼs technology aligns perfectly with our vision for Backyard Sportsʼ future in combining nostalgia with modern features that keep our fans coming back, and we look forward to continuing to deliver on our singular focus: our fans,ˮ said Lindsay Barnett, CEO of Playground Productions.

Through this partnership, Lucra continues its expansion into digital gaming and entertainment, demonstrating the flexibility of its technology to support a wide variety of applications and industries. By meeting gamers where they are, Lucra is rapidly growing its addressable market and broadening its brand appeal among digital-first audiences.

With launch planned in the coming months, both companies aim to deliver a best-in-class social competition layer that reminds everyone of the joy of competition and makes every game more meaningful and rewarding for players.

About Lucra

Lucra provides white-label gamification software that helps brands drive visitation, build customer loyalty, and unlock new revenue. Our technology encourages your users to engage in social tournaments, group play, and peer-to-peer challenges directly within your existing experience. We handle all payments, compliance, and risk management, allowing you to quickly implement our solution to drive more traffic, increase user engagement, and generate new revenue. Lucra powers gamification for top entertainment, hospitality, and consumer brands, including Dave & Buster's, Five Iron Golf, Puttshack, TouchTunes, Hollywood.com, and more. For more information, visit www.lucrasports.com.

About Playground Productions

Playground Productions is a children's and family company focused on making best-in-class film, television, digital media, and video games. By leveraging the top technology, talent, and character IP, Playground creates content that celebrates the joy of play for kids and kids at heart. Playground is best known for reviving the iconic Backyard Sports franchise and remastering classic titles like Backyard Baseball ‘97 and Backyard Baseball ‘01. Learn more at www.playground-productions.com.

The 17th Global Chinese Awards ceremony, titled "You Bring Charm to the World," sponsored by Guojiao 1573, concluded successfully tonight at the Phoenix Satellite TV headquarters in Beijing. The winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Special Tribute Award, and other major accolades shared their inspiring stories, celebrating Chinese excellence and honor.

Xu Wei, Chairman and CEO of Phoenix Satellite TV, said in his speech that the Global Chinese Awards has consistently documented the real journeys of Chinese people from a global perspective, exploring the cultural essence of the Chinese spirit and conveying the warmth and power of Chinese culture. He noted that this year's awardees embody unwavering self-motivation and a strong sense of unity among Chinese communities worldwide, showcasing the unique charm of Chinese culture.

Turing Award laureate Yao Qizhi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences and the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University, received the Global Chinese Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was presented by Xu Wei. In his remarks, Yao Qizhi stated, "I've been engaged in scientific research for over 50 years, and it's a fascinating and meaningful endeavor. I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute even a small part to this great cause." He also expressed special thanks to his wife, Chu Feng, who was present at the ceremony, for her many years of support and companionship.

Renowned writer and producer Bai Xianyong, best known for the youth-edition Kunqu "The Peony Pavilion," was honored with the Global Chinese Awards Special Tribute Award. He entrusted Xiang Yong, a professor at the Peking University School of Arts and Dean of the Institute for Cultural Industries, to accept the award on his behalf. In a video message, Bai Xianyong said, "I call myself the 'captain of the Kunqu Opera volunteers,' but in reality, there is a large group of friends behind me who are passionate about preserving Chinese culture. They have been incredibly supportive and deeply involved. I accept this honor on behalf of the entire 'The Peony Pavilion' team."

Chen Qingquan, the first Hong Kong-based academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and distinguished chair professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, received a Global Chinese Award. The award was presented by He Xi, Chairman of China Power International Development Limited. Chen Qingquan said, "Future electric vehicles will become humanity's 'third space,' significantly improving our quality of life and well-being. Our work on electric vehicles is not only to benefit the Chinese people but also the entire world, for this generation and those to come.

Actor and singer Fei Xiang was presented with a Global Chinese Award by Chen Jianhui, Vice President of China News Service. In his acceptance speech, Fei Xiang shared, "I love the theme of the awards, 'You Bring Charm to the World,' because the value of every individual is connected to the world. Everyone contributes to making the world a better place." He concluded by expressing gratitude to the audiences who have supported and encouraged him over the years.

Xu Jingkun, a global sailor and the first Chinese person to complete the Vendée Globe solo non-stop round-the-world race, was presented with a Global Chinese Award by Tang Dongliang, Executive Vice General Manager of Luzhou Laojiao Co., Ltd. Xu Jingkun shared highlights of his journey with a few key numbers: 27,616 nautical miles sailed over 99 days and climbing the 29-meter mast three times in a single day. He became the 100th person to finish the race, often called the "Mount Everest of sailing." Reflecting on his achievement, he said, "Chinese navigation has never been absent from history, and new routes are never found by waiting."

The team of young builders of the Chinese Space Station received a Global Chinese Award. Yang Liwei, Deputy Chief Designer of the China Manned Space Program and national space hero, presented the award to eight representatives. Yang Liwei said, "The average age of the core team for the Chinese space station project is under 30. The future of China's space program belongs to the younger generation."

The Chinese national table tennis team was also honored with a Global Chinese Award, presented by Xu Zhengzhong, Chairman of Bauhinia Culture Group. The team's head coach, Li Sun, accepted the award on their behalf. Li Sun emphasized that the team's success reflects the combined efforts of multiple generations and that bringing glory to the nation has always been the shared dream and goal of Chinese table tennis players.

The "You Bring Charm to the World" Global Chinese Awards ceremony was initiated by the Phoenix Satellite TV Group in partnership with several Chinese-language media organizations at home and abroad. The event celebrates Chinese role models who have achieved outstanding success and global influence across diverse fields. Over the past decade, more than 100 exceptional Chinese individuals have been recognized at this event.

iib East Africa has earned international recognition for its leadership in sustainable banking, securing three prestigious awards in 2025 from Euromoney, Global Finance and World Finance.

These accolades underscore iib East Africa’s unwavering commitment to environmental responsibility, ethical banking practices, and inclusive economic development in the Horn of Africa.

On July 18, 2025, Euromoney named iib East Africa Djibouti’s Best Bank for ESG in its 2025 Awards for Excellence, reinforcing the bank’s role as a catalyst for impact-driven finance in one of Africa’s fastest-growing trade corridors.

On January 20, 2025, Global Finance named iib East Africa as the Best Sustainable Bank in its 2025 Sustainable Finance Awards, recognizing the bank’s integration of ESG principles into core operations, innovative green financing frameworks, and community-led climate initiatives.

On June 23, 2025, World Finance awarded iib East Africa the title of Most Sustainable Bank in Djibouti, commending its efforts to decarbonize lending portfolios, champion SME access to sustainable finance, and fund renewable infrastructure across the region.

After receiving the award, Papa Demba Diop, CEO iib East Africa stated, "These awards reflect our enduring commitment to creating long-term value not just for our shareholders, but for our communities and the planet. Sustainability is not a siloed function at iib - it is embedded in everything we do."

Sohail Sultan, chairman of iibGroup, stated, “These recognitions affirm our conviction that sustainable finance is not just responsible - it is resilient, strategic, and essential to long-term prosperity. At iibGroup, we view ESG as a fundamental pillar of stability, growth, and legacy across our markets.”

Operating at the intersection of sustainable finance and responsible development, iib East Africa continues to lead the market with bold initiatives including:

• Financing solar energy systems to reduce reliance on diesel and imported electricity
• Funding climate-resilient, energy-efficient housing for underserved communities
• Delivering ESG-aligned trade finance to SMEs driving food security and sustainable commerce
• Leading inclusive community initiatives like coastal and neighbourhood cleanups, and environmental awareness and engagement for marginalized groups

As the region navigates climate and development challenges, iib East Africa is redefining the role of banking in shaping a greener, more inclusive future.

About iib East Africa

iib East Africa is headquartered in Djibouti and is part of the Intercontinental Investment Bank, a purpose-driven banking group operating across key frontier markets. With a strong commitment to sustainability, ethical finance, and regional growth, iib delivers high-impact financial solutions that empower businesses, uplift communities, and preserve environmental capital. For more information, visit www.iibanks.com/eastafrica.