By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers WASHINGTON: More than 39 million Americans have already voted. The Democratic candidates are campaigning on the cost of living, and US President Donald Trump is taking his fight into Republican strongholds. The early-voting surge signals intense engagement—but its political meaning remains uncertain. As the United States enters the final stretch of […]
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 30 October 2026 – Crown Worldwide Group is proud to announce that Crown Workspace Hong Kong has been awarded the Gold Award for Best Workplace Consultancy at the prestigious HR Vendors of the Year Awards Hong Kong 2026, organised by Human Resources Online. In addition, Crown Workspace received the special “Trinity Champion of Achievement” recognition, honouring its consistent and outstanding achievements in elevating the HR solutions ecosystem across 2024-2026. Together, these accolades recognise Crown Workspace’s continued excellence in workplace transformation, relocation management, sustainability consulting, and innovative solutions that help organisations create future-ready workplaces.
The HR Vendors of the Year Awards is widely regarded as one of Asia’s most respected platforms for recognising excellence among HR and workplace solution providers. Entries are evaluated by an independent judging panel of HR leaders and experts, assessing nominees on criteria including people, products and services, innovation, leadership, and industry contribution. The awards recognise organisations that demonstrate exceptional expertise, business impact, and commitment to helping clients address evolving workplace challenges. The Trinity Champion of Achievement holds particular significance as it recognises Crown Workspace’s sustained achievements over three consecutive years, from 2024 to 2026. This special recognition further reinforces Crown Workspace’s consistent contribution to the HR and workplace solutions ecosystem in Hong Kong.
What distinguishes Crown Workspace is its ability to combine workplace consultancy, relocation expertise, sustainability leadership, and project execution into a single integrated offering. In a market where many Hong Kong organisations are rightsizing their offices, adopting hybrid working models, and seeking cost-effective ways to optimise their workplaces, Crown Workspace helps clients transform their offices while achieving ESG objectives through services such as furniture resale, storage solutions, and recycling programmes.
Complementing these sustainability-focused initiatives is Crown Workspace’s proven capability to deliver complex, business-critical projects, including high-security relocations, IT and infrastructure moves, and large-scale workplace transformations. Backed by strong customer satisfaction and industry-leading operational standards, Crown Workspace provides organisations with a trusted partner to navigate workplace change while creating more efficient, sustainable, and future-ready work environments.
“We are honoured to receive both the Gold Award and this special recognition at the HR Vendors of the Year Awards,” said Jeffrey Chong, General Manager, Hong Kong, at Crown Worldwide Group. “The Trinity Champion of Achievement is particularly meaningful as it reflects the consistency of our work and the dedication of our team over the past three years. Hong Kong organisations are rethinking the role of the workplace. Increasingly, our clients are asking how they can create more flexible, sustainable and employee-centric environments while maintaining business continuity. These recognitions reflect our commitment to helping businesses navigate that transformation successfully. We remain focused on delivering secure and sustainable solutions that support our clients’ business goals.”
Building on these latest recognitions, Crown Workspace will continue investing in people, technology, and innovative workplace solutions, helping businesses create workplaces that are resilient, efficient, sustainable, and ready for the future.
For more information, please visit Crown Workspace’s website at crownworkspace.com.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Crown Workspace
Crown Workspace helps organisations manage workplace change through commercial and specialist relocations, move management, storage, furniture solutions, IT relocation services, and workplace consultancy. Supported by the global capabilities of Crown Worldwide Group, Crown Workspace delivers tailored solutions that minimise disruption, maximise value, and create positive outcomes for businesses, employees, and the environment.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Nasdaq Dubai marked the listing of a $500 million sukuk from Sharjah Islamic Bank on Thursday, following an offering that attracted $1.3 billion in investor orders, more than twice the amount available. The five-year, senior unsecured Islamic financing instrument, issued through SIB Sukuk Company III Limited, carries a profit rate of 5.850 per cent and matures in September 2031. The securities are listed […]
Publicly listed companies now hold approximately 1.3 million Bitcoin, an increase of 31% over 14 months, although most of the expansion came from a single company, according to new figures released by blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant. Strategy, the Bitcoin investment company chaired by Michael Saylor, accounted for 71% of the increase in corporate holdings, highlighting the growing concentration of digital assets among listed businesses despite wider adoption […]
Apple has unveiled its first touchscreen MacBook Pro laptops, reversing a longstanding design position associated with co-founder Steve Jobs and bringing direct finger controls to its premium notebook range. The 14-inch and 16-inch models, announced on Wednesday, 28 October, combine touch-enabled OLED displays with M5 Pro and M5 Max processors. Pre-orders opened immediately, with availability scheduled for 6 November. The 14-inch touchscreen model starts at $2,899 in […]
The Kerala Cabinet has approved a major revision of police recruitment rules, increasing the proportion of women appointed as civil police personnel from 10 per cent to 30 per cent. The decision, taken at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, changes the male-to-female recruitment ratio from 9:1 to 7:3. Under the revised arran…
Led by Blockchain Capital, the funding will accelerate the expansion of PhotonPay’s stablecoin-centric Financial OS, connecting stablecoin liquidity with global fiat networks to unlock digital assets for everyday corporate operations and cross-border settlement.
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 October 2026 – PhotonPay today announced the closing of a $40 million Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from new investor SBI Group and follow-on investments from existing investors IDG Capital, GL Ventures, and Lightspeed Faction. Blacksheep Technology acted as exclusive financial advisor to PhotonPay on the transaction.
The new capital will support the expansion of PhotonPay’s stablecoin-centric Financial Operating System (Financial OS), with investment focused on enhancing multi-asset wallet capabilities, expanding global card issuing, strengthening local clearing infrastructure in key markets, and developing an agent-ready financial execution layer.
As of August 2026, PhotonPay’s annualized transaction volume reached US$65 billion. The company has secured 34 payment and financial licenses and regulatory authorizations across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and serves over 200,000 business customers across more than 200 countries and territories.
As stablecoins move beyond crypto-native use cases into corporate treasury, settlement and commercial spending, PhotonPay sees the next phase of global finance not as a choice between stablecoins and fiat currencies, but as the convergence of both. Its Financial OS connects on-chain liquidity with the banking, clearing and card networks businesses rely on for everyday operations.
“Moving money across borders in seconds means little if it still takes days to put that capital to work,” said Lewison Chen, Founder and CEO of PhotonPay. “Stablecoins are accelerating global money movement, while local clearing and global card issuing connect that liquidity to local settlement and everyday business spending. Our Financial OS brings these capabilities together, making the underlying infrastructure far less visible to businesses, even as it becomes more essential than ever.”
“At the same time, business software is becoming increasingly autonomous,” Chen added. “AI is shifting financial workflows from people manually operating fragmented tools toward systems that understand business intent and coordinate execution across assets, accounts and financial rails. That creates the foundation for agentic commerce. Stablecoins change how money moves. AI changes how it gets put to work. But commerce is still what money is for.”
Moving Money Across Assets and Markets
PhotonPay’s Financial OS brings together multi-asset wallets, global money movement, foreign exchange, local clearing, and global card issuing through an integrated API-first architecture. This unified system gives businesses access to the financial capabilities they need to manage and deploy funds across markets.
Stablecoins sit at the core of this architecture. PhotonPay’s multi-asset wallet connects stablecoin liquidity with fiat balances, integrating asset conversion, foreign exchange, and local clearing into a single connected workflow. This enables businesses to move funds across supported on-chain and traditional financial networks, turning digital asset liquidity into purchasing power for local payments and everyday corporate spending.
Supporting this dual-rail infrastructure is PhotonPay’s established global financial network. Businesses can open local collection accounts in 17 key markets and receive funds in more than 60 currencies. On the payout side, the network supports over 100 payment routes across local clearing systems, bank transfers, and digital wallets, including payouts to 74 major local e-wallets. Approximately 97% of payout transactions reach recipients within hours or on the same day, with 68% arriving in real time.
Global card issuing extends these capabilities into programmable business spending. Through PhotonPay’s APIs, businesses and platforms can issue virtual and physical cards, configure granular spending controls, and embed card payments directly into their software and automated workflows. Over the past 12 months, PhotonPay issued 4.4 million cards, up 275% YoY.
Beyond its first-party payment solutions, PhotonPay makes its infrastructure available through embedded finance, enabling technology platforms to natively integrate global accounts, payments, and card issuing into their own products. The company now serves more than 100 enterprise and platform partners, extending the reach of its Financial OS into industry-specific workflows.
From Financial Intent to Agentic Commerce
As AI agents assume active operational roles, financial infrastructure must evolve beyond API access to enable programmable, policy-governed execution. It requires systems capable of translating high-level instructions into coordinated financial actions, with deterministic controls governing how those actions are executed.
In May 2026, PhotonPay and Mastercard completed a live agentic payment demonstration using a tokenized PhotonPay card, validating AI-initiated transactions across existing global card networks.
Building on this milestone, PhotonPay is developing standardized financial interfaces designed for developers and AI agents. With planned support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), PhotonPay aims to make account information, balances, card functions, and payments accessible as composable financial primitives, allowing AI agents to securely retrieve context and initiate financial workflows within defined authorization boundaries.
To govern this agent-ready layer, PhotonPay is developing a policy-based execution framework designed to enforce programmable authorization rules, spending limits, and transaction-level controls. The framework is intended to enable AI agents to coordinate financial tasks across supported accounts and assets, while ensuring that execution remains subject to explicit, enforceable policies set by businesses.
PhotonPay is also advancing its AI-assisted risk review capabilities, designed to identify complex cases for human assessment. Together, these initiatives reflect a foundational principle of autonomous finance: AI may interpret intent and coordinate tasks, but financial execution must remain governed by verifiable authorization, deterministic controls, and auditable records.
“Connecting financial networks is only the beginning. The real breakthrough is abstracting that complexity behind a unified, programmable financial layer, so businesses and AI agents can move from intent to execution within clearly defined boundaries,” said Chen.
Simple on the Surface, Deep by Design
The promise of a Financial OS is simplicity: enabling businesses to manage assets, route money, and execute payments through a unified financial operating layer. Yet delivering that simplicity requires deep financial infrastructure beneath the surface.
While stablecoins accelerate borderless value transfer, turning that liquidity into local settlement, supplier payments, and corporate spending still depends on established banking relationships, domestic clearing rails, foreign exchange infrastructure, and global card networks. Each market brings its own regulatory and operational requirements.
For PhotonPay, building a Financial OS means abstracting these fragmented global networks into a programmable, interconnected financial system. The objective is not to eliminate financial complexity, but to manage it within the underlying infrastructure, so businesses can operate without having to navigate these systems themselves.
“AI can simplify how businesses interact with financial services, but it cannot replace the infrastructure required to deliver them,” said JP Pi, Chief Compliance Officer at PhotonPay. “Establishing local financial capabilities takes years of investment, institutional partnerships, and regulatory engagement. Software or AI models alone cannot replicate that depth. The simplicity businesses experience is the result of that heavy lifting, not a substitute for it.”
PhotonPay has engineered a financial foundation spanning both stablecoin and fiat rails, connecting multi-asset conversion with local clearing networks. Institutional partnerships with J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, and DBS, alongside connections to domestic payment systems such as Brazil’s Pix and Mexico’s SPEI, form the backbone of this network.
The new capital will enable PhotonPay to strengthen its local clearing and compliance infrastructure in existing markets while expanding into new jurisdictions, scaling the reach of its Financial OS across corporate spending, embedded finance, and agentic commerce.
“Businesses want one provider that can handle their payments across currencies and markets, whether they’re using bank transfers, stablecoins or cards. Lewison and his team have spent a decade building the banking relationships, licenses and local payment infrastructure to deliver that. We believe PhotonPay’s ability to bring these capabilities together gives it a strong advantage as businesses adopt stablecoins for everyday payments.” – BCAP，Yuanhan Li，Partner
“As stablecoins become increasingly integrated into global payment systems, bridging digital assets with traditional financial infrastructure will be essential to unlocking their real-world potential. PhotonPay’s established global payment network and its vision for a stablecoin-centric Financial OS align closely with SBI Group’s strategy to advance digital financial infrastructure and expand the practical adoption of digital assets. We look forward to supporting PhotonPay’s continued growth and exploring opportunities for strategic collaboration across the SBI Group ecosystem.” – Eiichiro So, CEO & Managing Director of SBI Ven Capital
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About PhotonPay
Founded in Hong Kong in 2015, PhotonPay is a global fintech company building a next-generation, stablecoin-centric Financial Operating System (Financial OS). Its API-first architecture brings together multi-asset wallets supporting stablecoins and fiat currencies, global money movement, foreign exchange, global card issuing, embedded finance, and local clearing infrastructure, connecting digital and traditional financial rails within an integrated financial system.
PhotonPay operates 16 offices worldwide, employs nearly 600 people, and holds 34 payment and financial licenses and regulatory authorizations across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The company serves businesses across more than 200 countries and territories.
The Kerala Cabinet has approved a major revision of police recruitment rules, increasing the proportion of women appointed as civil police personnel from 10 per cent to 30 per cent. The decision, taken at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, changes the male-to-female recruitment ratio from 9:1 to 7:3. Under the revised arran…
GitHub has made Copilot Fusion generally available, introducing an artificial intelligence orchestration system that automatically selects and coordinates multiple AI models to complete software development tasks without requiring programmers to manage individual model choices. The Microsoft-owned platform announced the launch on 28 October, making the technology available across all GitHub Copilot subscription plans. Fusion evaluates coding requirements, selects appropriate models and determines whether tasks should be handled […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD) has secured four awards at the 23rd International Business Awards 2026, including one gold and three silver distinctions, recognising its performance in judicial administration, institutional governance and public service innovation. The department received the Gold Stevie Award in the Large Legal Organisations category, alongside Silver Stevie Awards for Innovation in Public Administration and Governance, Operational Excellence, and Large […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai More than 250 senior maritime executives are expected in Dubai on 12 November for the inaugural Seatrade Maritime UAE Summit, where shipping disruption, supply chain resilience and changes in global trade will dominate discussions. Seatrade Maritime is organising the gathering with DP World as host partner at Madinat Jumeirah. The programme will include the unveiling of the 2026 Leading Maritime Cities report prepared […]
By Nitya Chakraborty In just ten days between October 25 and November 3 this year, four national elections were scheduled. Out of these, elections were held in Brazil and Serbia on October 25 and in Israel on October 27. Only on November 3, the midterm elections will be held in the United States. The bitter […]
The London Metal Exchange is exploring plans to convert metal inventories held in Hong Kong warehouses into digital assets that businesses could use to secure financing, as the city develops its commodities trading infrastructure. The exchange confirmed that its proposal remains at an exploratory stage and focuses on off-warrant metal, a category of warehouse inventory not covered by the standard title documents used in its established trading […]
Personal information concerning more than 40,000 employees and contractors of the US Department of Homeland Security has been published online, exposing staff involved in surveillance, intelligence gathering and undercover operations. Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit organisation that publishes leaked material, announced the release on Wednesday. The records contain names, work telephone numbers, email addresses, job titles and internal group memberships across several federal security agencies. The […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has issued dedicated guidance governing cryptocurrency mining operations, becoming the first international financial centre in the region to establish comprehensive commercial licensing and governance expectations for the sector. The guidance, published by ADGM’s Registration Authority, establishes crypto mining as a licensable commercial activity rather than a regulated financial service. It applies to businesses conducting mining operations within or […]
Cybercriminals have distributed malicious software disguised as ChatGPT and Claude desktop applications, exploiting legitimate digitally signed installers to execute malware on Windows computers, cybersecurity company Check Point Research has disclosed. The operation, identified as Yoba, uses fraudulent GitHub repositories and accompanying websites advertising supposed applications named GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus. Researchers disclosed the campaign on 27 October after tracking its activity for approximately two […]
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Media OutReach Newswire – 28 October 2026 – On October 27, ahead of the BAIC FOTON Africa Partners Conference, BAIC FOTON inaugurated its Africa Regional Training Center in South Africa and held its first training session. CEO Lu Zhenghua, BAIC FOTON International President Wu Zongtian, other leaders and local partners attended.
As global commercial vehicle competition intensifies, international growth requires strong products and manufacturing as well as professional full-lifecycle service. BAIC FOTON’s growing African lineup creates diverse sales, maintenance and technical-support needs, making local talent development essential. Since early 2026, the company has delivered nearly 100 specialized training sessions in key markets, including heavy-duty truck engine disassembly in Argentina, all-electric bus fault diagnosis in Türkiye, and one-day intensive training for five rotating groups in Uruguay. The programs turn headquarters’ technical standards into practical frontline diagnostic and repair skills.
Lu Zhenghua said the center will support Africa’s regional operating system and deeper localization by connecting technical standards, service experience and local team capabilities, while improving coordination among product supply, after-sales support and talent development. Wang Zhuozhong, VP of BAIC FOTON INTERNATIONAL, introduced the center’s background and development plan. Local partners discussed service cooperation, support for service providers and future opportunities.
Centered in South Africa and serving the wider continent, the center will share technical standards and service experience and help dealers improve spare-parts stocking, maintenance processes and response efficiency, advancing standardized, professional services.
The 900-square-meter facility allocates 450 square meters each to theoretical and practical training. A 140-square-meter classroom seats 80, and a 35-square-meter classroom seats 24. Offices and rest areas support five practical zones: complete vehicles, engines, transmissions, electrical and electronic systems, and new-energy vehicles. The facility supports training across BAIC FOTON’s product range and job roles.
After touring the center, Lu Zhenghua and his delegation met local dealers and customers to discuss regional business. African dealers welcomed its contribution to local talent and service capability, and looked forward to deeper technical and business cooperation.
Building on local manufacturing in South Africa, BAIC FOTON is integrating manufacturing, spare-parts supply, after-sales support and professional training. It will continue working with African partners to deepen internationalization and localization and promote high-quality growth across the continent.
Hashtag: #BAICFOTON
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Age fraud has been confirmed at the 68th State School Sports Meet after a student representing CKM Higher Secondary School, Koruthodu, in Kottayam district, failed a medical age-verification examination on Wednesday. The athlete, who had won gold in the sub-junior boys’ 400 metres, was disqualified following the findi…
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Once upon a time people in India exercised their “right to protest” in front of the ruling establishment in New Delhi free of cost, though they still needed government permissions for assembly of people for protest. However, under PM Narendra Modi, it has been abolished altogether with denotification of designated protest […]
OpenAI has announced three artificial intelligence-generated research results spanning mathematics, computer science and physics, including a claimed disproof of the Exponential Time Hypothesis, a longstanding assumption about computational difficulty. Outside specialists will examine the findings before they can be treated as established scientific advances. The company said on Monday that its systems had produced mathematical arguments challenging problems that have resisted researchers for decades. Two results have […]
By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers NEW YORK: India’s digital media industry has taken an unusually significant step in challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Twenty-one major news publishers, including media organisations owned by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, have approached the Supreme Court, arguing that India’s digital privacy legislation could undermine investigative journalism, compromise confidential sources […]
Munich-based Proxima Fusion has signed two agreements with Japanese technology companies to develop essential components for its planned fusion reactors, extending its manufacturing partnerships as it prepares to build a demonstration machine in Germany.
The memorandums of understanding, signed in Tokyo on Wednesday during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to Japan, cover superconducting materials and equipment for heating and fuelling plasma. Proxima will collaborate with Fujikura on high-temperature superconducting tape and with Kyoto Fusioneering on specialised reactor systems.
The agreements are preliminary arrangements rather than binding purchase orders or commitments to construct manufacturing facilities. Financial terms and delivery schedules have not been disclosed, leaving the scale of any eventual procurement dependent on further negotiations and technical work.
Under the Fujikura agreement, the companies will examine the feasibility of establishing a factory in the German state of Lower Saxony to manufacture high-temperature superconducting tape, known as HTS tape. The material is used to make powerful magnets that confine extremely hot plasma inside fusion machines.
Proxima estimates that its Alpha demonstration stellarator will require approximately 20,000 kilometres of tape. Each subsequent Stellaris commercial power plant would need around 40,000 kilometres, making dependable manufacturing capacity central to its development plans.
The collaboration follows Proxima’s September memorandum of understanding with Lower Saxony concerning a large-scale European production facility. The proposed project’s first two phases envisage investment of approximately €140 million through 2029, with public and private financing expected to contribute equally. The state has identified €21 million as its intended contribution.
The latest Fujikura arrangement concerns feasibility work and does not establish that the proposed factory has secured final financing, regulatory approvals or a construction timetable. Fujikura already manufactures superconducting tape and supplies other fusion developers, giving it industrial experience in a material whose production requires demanding quality controls.
Fujikura announced in September a separate long-term agreement to supply more than 10,000 kilometres of superconducting tape to US-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems for its planned ARC power plants. That contract also involves expansion of the Japanese manufacturer’s production capacity.
Proxima’s second agreement brings Kyoto Fusioneering into work on gyrotrons, devices that generate high-power microwaves to heat plasma, and fuel-cycle technology used to manage the hydrogen isotopes required for fusion reactions. Both systems are essential to operating a reactor beyond the magnetic confinement stage.
Kyoto Fusioneering is also expected to contribute technology to Germany’s national Fusion Hubs programme, which was launched with an initial €125 million in research funding. The collaboration connects a Japanese supplier specialising in fusion engineering with Proxima’s reactor development and Germany’s broader industrial research effort.
The company has experience developing plasma-heating equipment and integrated fuel-handling technologies. Its engineering activities include work on gyrotrons and experimental systems designed to test processes needed for future fusion plants. The agreement with Proxima does not itself constitute a confirmed equipment delivery.
Proxima develops stellarators, a type of fusion device that uses carefully shaped magnetic fields to hold plasma in place. Its approach differs from the tokamak configuration pursued by several other fusion developers, although both depend on advanced magnets and systems capable of sustaining demanding operating conditions.
The company’s Alpha demonstrator is intended to operate in the early 2030s and test whether its stellarator design can achieve net energy gain from fusion. Its Stellaris concept is intended as a subsequent electricity-producing plant at Gundremmingen, the site of a former nuclear power station in Bavaria.
Proxima raised €411 million in July to support its development programme. The company emerged from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in 2023 and has assembled partnerships with engineering and manufacturing businesses as it moves towards constructing its first major machine.
Neither the Alpha timetable nor the commercial ambitions establish that fusion electricity production has been demonstrated at an economically viable scale. Substantial engineering, testing and regulatory work remains before a commercial plant can supply electricity to the grid.
The company’s manufacturing strategy also reflects the substantial quantities of specialised materials required for stellarator construction. Superconducting tape must meet stringent performance specifications, including its ability to carry large electrical currents while exposed to strong magnetic fields and extremely low temperatures.
Fujikura and Kyoto Fusioneering were already listed among participants in Proxima’s Alpha Alliance, an industrial network bringing together companies with expertise in materials, components and reactor engineering. The new memorandums identify more specific areas for cooperation within that wider group.
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Emirates has fitted 65 aircraft with Starlink satellite internet and plans installations on another 10 to 12 jets each month, alongside new aircraft deliveries and cabin refurbishment work. Adnan Kazim, the Dubai airline’s deputy president and chief commercial officer, disclosed the installation figures while outlining its fleet plans. The programme is proceeding as Emirates prepares to receive Boeing aircraft from summer 2027 and […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Saudi Arabia has opened a two-month window for eligible Yemeni workers without valid residency status to regularise their employment and transfer to new employers through government digital platforms. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said the programme, launched on 11 October, covers Yemeni nationals whose residence permits have expired and those recorded as absent from work. Applicants must hold valid travel […]
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