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 […]
Russia’s central bank has registered the country’s first self-regulatory organisation for operators issuing digital financial assets, establishing a formal industry oversight structure as authorities expand supervision of cryptocurrency and digital rights markets. The Bank of Russia confirmed that the National Association of Securities Market Participants, known as NAUFOR, had been entered into its unified register of financial market self-regulatory organisations. The registration, announced on 8 October, applies […]
The innovation breakthroughs for pioneering new communications networks include RetinaMIMO, new materials, and OSCAR solution among other root technologies. By tackling coverage, energy consumption, and capacity challenges, the breakthroughs drive ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. The breakthroughs have unlocked a wealth of new capabilities, including the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series.
Huawei promotes A2A-T standards and drives commercial open-source OpenAN through extensive partnerships to build an open telecom agent ecosystem.
SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 October 2026 – At Huawei Decoding China 2026, Fang Xiang, Corporate Vice President and President of Wireless Network Solution of Huawei, unveiled a series of innovation breakthroughs to pioneer new communications networks. The innovation breakthroughs mark major leaps in root technologies focused on ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency. With the breakthroughs, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU, GigaGreen Plus series, and UBBPi series. Additionally featuring the new progress in open ecosystem for telecom agents, the breakthroughs will lay a solid foundation for new communications networks.
Xiang Fang, Corporate Vice President and President of Wireless Network Solution of Huawei, unveiling innovation breakthroughs for new communications networks
With booming intelligent devices and services, new devices, traffic, and applications are taking shape in the mobile industry. The new devices are expanding network connectivity from people to things and agents, increasing the number of connections by 100 times. Device-cloud synergy for intelligent services calls for stronger uplink capabilities to support training and inference, shifting network focus from downlink dominance to both uplink and downlink. With new applications, come a diversity of new interaction modes, calling for higher standards in experience and driving networks to support ubiquitous steady ultra-low latency with a high reliability.
As the world steps into an intelligent era, the value of connectivity is not only about quantity—it’s more about quality. This has been inspiring Huawei to convert cutting-edge breakthroughs into the commercial practices of new communications networks by focusing on root technologies for ubiquitous experience, simplified and green networks, and superior spectral efficiency.
Pioneering ubiquitous experience
RetinaMIMO is a new pioneering technology designed to solve the challenge of concurrent ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage. It features the industry’s first Retina scanning system that allows RF link topologies to be reconstructed to eliminate coverage collapse in the vertical direction. It also adopts a reconstructed antenna array architecture to address the diminishing marginal gains as array elements (AEs) increase.
Based on RetinaMIMO, Huawei has launched the world’s first commercial U6 GHz device VitaAAU. Compared with similar products with 1024 AEs, VitaAAU widens coverage by about 30%, enabling U6 GHz to match C-band in both horizontal and vertical directions. This enables operators to deliver U6 GHz coverage for new communications networks on their C-band sites, minimizing overall TCO. To date, VitaAAU has seen commercial adoption in the UAE and other markets, with peak downlink speeds exceeding 10 Gbps, making ubiquitous premium experience a reality.
Pioneering simplified, green networks
Huawei’s pioneering EP power amplifier (PA) architecture capitalizes on new materials and technologies to solve the problem of energy efficiency decline on higher frequency bands, maximizing energy conversion efficiency. The industry’s first-ever multimode dielectric filters allow antennas to have small dimensions and low power consumption on multi-channel networks with high frequency bands. Powered by new materials, technologies, and architectures, VitaAAU antenna is reduced to 1.5 m in diameter while supporting “0 Bit 0 Watt 0 Loss”, delivering superior energy saving efficiency. These innovations enable Huawei’s GigaGreen Plus series products to achieve significant reductions in dimensions, weight, and power consumption, better positioned to power simplified and green networks.
Pioneering superior spectral efficiency
Multi-band, multi-cell, and multi-user interference is a major restrictive factor of capacity. The time scaling of the Tau (τ) law is introduced to base stations for the first time to realize optimal dynamic resource scheduling across all domains based on the OSCAR solution. With low-latency bus and high-speed interconnect technology, a high-speed architecture is built to enable the real-time exchange of massive data. Thanks to software and hardware synergy, new UBBPi series products improve average user experience by 1.3 times while reducing power consumption by approximately 40%, further improving spectral and energy efficiency.
Pioneering open-source autonomous networks
Autonomous networks have emerged as an inevitable choice to deal with the growing AI services and increasing network complexity. RANSpirit is another industry first from Huawei, implementing single-domain network autonomy based on the telecom foundation model and digital twins. To date, RANSpirit is serving more than 1.2 million cells across 25 networks around the world, providing assistance to more than 2,000 engineers.
Extensive agent collaboration relies on an open, win-win ecosystem. This galvanizes Huawei to join industry partners to develop ecosystem standards, communities, and industry alliances. In terms of standards, Huawei adapts to the TM Forum, building a cross-agent foundation on the A2A-T standard and framework agreed upon by the industry. In terms of communities, Huawei jointly promotes neutral open-source communities and donates open-source agent components to the Linux Foundation, driving global collaboration and innovation. With regard to industry alliances, Huawei has taken the initiative to pool ecosystem strengths to accelerate business implementation based on the GSMA industry platform.
Fang concluded with the reiteration of Huawei’s unswerving pursuit of dual-drive innovation to promote new breakthroughs in mobile networks and work with partners from around the world to deepen the OpenAN ecosystem, advancing new communications networks through technological innovation and open collaboration.
FAQs
Q1: Why is it challenging to balance ultra-high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage?
Ultra-high bandwidth depends on higher frequency bands. As we know, a higher frequency leads to a greater propagation loss of electromagnetic waves and a weaker ability for them to penetrate obstacles, because high-frequency signals attenuate fast and have short coverage distances, while ubiquitous coverage requires signals to travel a long distance in complex environments. Inherently, the two priorities pull in sharply opposite directions.
Hashtag: #Huawei
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Defence technology company Anduril Industries and chipmaker Qualcomm have unveiled plans for a laptop designed and assembled in the United States, with orders expected to open in 2027 as the partners seek to establish a domestic computer manufacturing network. The initiative, called BlueChip, will initially target government agencies, military organisations, emergency responders and public safety customers. Anduril has produced working prototypes, but neither company has disclosed production […]
Ukraine’s cybersecurity authorities have warned that hackers are infiltrating Dahua surveillance cameras and video recorders through predictable serial numbers, weak passwords and unpatched software vulnerabilities. The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine, CERT-UA, identified intrusions in which attackers altered device configurations and created unauthorised accounts, potentially giving them continuing access to surveillance equipment. The agency has not disclosed the number of affected devices, the dates of the […]
Microsoft has opened a voluntary departure programme to approximately 60,000 employees across four countries, offering severance support as the technology group adjusts staffing across several major businesses. The initiative, announced on Monday, covers eligible workers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and India. It encompasses more than a quarter of Microsoft’s global workforce, although the company has not specified how many departures it expects. Amy Coleman, […]
Veeam Software is holding its VeeamON Tour Dubai conference on Tuesday, bringing together more than 400 technology executives, cybersecurity specialists and partners to examine the protection of corporate data used by artificial intelligence systems. The event, scheduled at Address Sky View, focuses on data security, recovery and governance as businesses increasingly deploy autonomous AI agents capable of accessing sensitive information and performing tasks across enterprise systems. Organisers […]
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Apple has introduced an OLED-equipped iPad mini with a larger, brighter display, a faster processor, enhanced connectivity and water resistance, marking a substantial redesign of its smallest and most portable tablet. The device, announced on Monday, features an 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR screen, Apple’s A20 Pro chip and a thinner enclosure. Pre-orders open on October 28, with deliveries and retail availability scheduled for […]
300+ AI Applications Delivering Surges in Core Metrics and Annual Cost Reduction of Over CNY100 Million (Approx. US$15 Million)
NANJING, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 26 October 2026 – Nanjing Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. (NISCO) has worked with Huawei and ecosystem partners to commercially deploy the world’s first steel model powered by swarm intelligence—the YuanYe Steel Large Model (YuanYe)—across multiple scenarios at scale. This helps NISCO transition its core operations from relying on experience to being powered by data and intelligence collaboration.
NISCO’s intelligent operations center that covers the widest business range in the industry and uses 5-dimensional digital twins to deliver integrated production and operations management across spaces, boundaries, organizations, and equipment
As a traditional manufacturer navigating the challenges of transformation and cost efficiency, NISCO has built a robust digital and intelligent foundation by adopting industry-leading products including Ascend, Kunpeng, Huawei Cloud Stack, and Pangu models. By embedding AI into every core stage of production—ironmaking, steelmaking, rolling, and quality inspection—NISCO is forging green and high-end AI-powered super steel plants.
Unlike general-purpose monolithic models, YuanYe innovatively fuses multiple AI models with the steel industry’s metallurgical mechanism models to create a dual-drive, multi-model cluster architecture. This architecture features a “right brain” for probabilistic computing and a “left brain” for precise and scientific decision-making. Powered by massive amounts of sensing data aggregated from millions of operational technology (OT) data points across 26 business domains, NISCO has achieved real-time digital twin mapping within its intelligent operations center, laying solid data and scenario foundations for YuanYe. This enables the entire steelmaking process to become not only visible, but also capable of precise control and intelligent assessment. Now 100% of NISCO’s key equipment is connected and digitally controlled and its new product R&D cycles have been shortened by 50%, reducing annual costs by over CNY100 million (approx. US$15 million).
As the model continues to iterate, NISCO had launched 25 business agents by October 2026. These agents cover a wide range of scenarios, from visual quality inspection and process optimization to production scheduling and operations management, setting a new benchmark for digital and intelligent steel transformation.
NISCO’s hot-rolling production line in its heavy plate plant
Breakthroughs in four core scenarios: YuanYe redefines traditional operations for significant safety, efficiency, and quality gains
In the ironmaking stage, AI makes traditionally invisible blast furnaces transparent. YuanYe leverages blast furnaces’ internal sensor data and metallurgical mechanism analysis to perform real-time dynamic simulations of the ironmaking process. Assisted by furnace temperature prediction and health diagnosis models, furnace operators can predict temperatures and identify issues two hours in advance, with over 90% accuracy. This shifts furnace operations from reactive post-event remediation to proactive pre-control, increasing prime-grade molten iron yield by over 10% while significantly cutting unit energy consumption.
In the rolling stage, AI drives precise predictions and codifies expert experience to enhance the operational stability of steel rolling and secure leadership in product quality. To tackle the highly dynamic and complex operating conditions during the rolling process, YuanYe’s rolling-force prediction model achieves millisecond-level response, narrowing the thickness tolerance to ±0.2 mm and reducing the steel thickness deviation to 1.9% to reach a world-leading standard. The rolling-force hit rate has jumped from 88% to 98%, supporting a steady annual output of over 2.5 million tons of steel plates and increasing the overall yield rate by 0.5%. Enhanced dimensional precision and physical-chemical stability allow NISCO’s products to meet demanding steel specifications across diverse applications, ranging from mega stadiums and oil pipelines to 10,000-ton cruise ships and LNG storage tanks.
In quality inspection, the synergy between robots and AI models serves as a discerning “eagle eye”, doubling metallographic inspection efficiency. During metallographic inspection for finished steel, the integrated smart metallographic inspection system built on YuanYe has achieved full-process automation, covering sample grinding and polishing, image acquisition, and smart grading. Inspection accuracy has risen to over 95%, while per-sample inspection time has been shortened from 10 minutes down to 3–5 minutes. This 80% increase in overall inspection efficiency frees human operators to focus on anomaly analysis and high-level decision-making.
In the energy and environmental control stage, NISCO leverages the YuanYe architecture to develop the S-Link Intelligent Agent for Gas and Flue Gas Sulfur Control. Integrating 602 process parameters alongside multi-modal image and knowledge capabilities, the agent achieves a smart closed loop across source prediction, process optimization, and end-of-pipe compliance. By combining mechanism inversion with time-series forecasting, it issues precise sulfur-risk warnings one hour in advance, achieving a sulfur prediction accuracy of over 95%. Operational optimization algorithms then calculate the optimal gas blending scheme within seconds. Finally, game-theoretic models dynamically allocate emission quotas, slashing natural gas co-firing consumption by nearly 50%. This has reduced downtime caused by emission exceedance by over 25%, and delivered more than CNY600,000 (approx. US$90,000) in annual economic benefits—securing both environmental compliance and drastic cost reduction.
From automating labor to empowering people: Defining a new paradigm of inclusive AI
Li Jinyan, General Manager of the Digital and Intelligent Integrated Development Department and Director of the AI Research Institute at NISCO, said: “Digital and intelligent transformation is inherently human-centric. Its purpose is not to replace people, but to unleash human potential. Our goal is to lift employees out of the endless sea of data, empowering them to direct their creative energy toward work of higher value.” To date, NISCO has deployed over 300 AI models across its plants, alongside more than 1,000 low-code agents and lightweight applications built independently by frontline employees.
As Cheng Yongfu, Senior Industrial Solution Expert at Huawei’s Steel & Non-ferrous BU, noted: “The real value of industrial AI can only be realized when it expands from single-point applications to comprehensive integration with production, operations, and management, which can unlock sustained, scalable empowerment.”
Looking ahead, as model deployment expands and computing demands continue to grow, NISCO will team up with Huawei and other partners to explore the construction of dedicated data centers for smart steel plants. Centered on the AI-native three-tier architecture (AI-native OS, AI-native factory, and AI-native enterprise) and powered by the YuanYe model, NISCO is accelerating high-quality steel development, aiming to provide a replicable and scalable benchmark for the digital and intelligent transformation of the global steel and manufacturing industries.
Hashtag: #Huawei #NISCO
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Attackers infiltrated LiteLLM’s GitHub organisation eleven days before distributing malware through its software releases, with newly recovered records showing credential-stealing workflows operating on October 10 and 12. Security company Socket identified two malicious workflow commits in the BerriAI/litellm repository, while LiteLLM’s investigation confirmed that stolen credentials from the earlier intrusion helped attackers manipulate its October 21 release process. The findings establish a longer period of unauthorised access […]
Cybercriminals penetrated Microsoft 365 accounts at 79 organisations during a coordinated campaign involving stolen authentication tokens, phishing and attempts to conceal fraudulent email activity, cybersecurity company Huntress has disclosed. The investigation, published on October 22, identified at least 497 successful sign-ins and more than 200,000 failed login attempts between July 14 and September 22. Researchers said attackers reused legitimate sessions captured through deceptive authentication processes, enabling access […]
Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a campaign targeting diplomatic organisations in three Central Asian countries with BlackX, a bootkit capable of circumventing Windows Secure Boot protections even on updated computers. Kaspersky disclosed the operation on Thursday, identifying diplomatic agencies in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as targets. Its Global Research and Analysis Team linked the activity to APT41, a hacking group associated with China, but assigned only medium confidence […]
US semiconductor stocks suffered a sharp sell-off on Thursday, wiping billions of dollars from market valuations after equipment manufacturer Lam Research warned that supply-chain bottlenecks were restricting shipments despite strong demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 6.72 per cent on October 22, with all 30 constituent companies declining. The retreat reflected mounting investor concerns about whether chipmakers could sustain ambitious expansion plans amid […]
The partnership pairs LeapThought’s own AI with Google Cloud’s Gemini models and sovereign Cloud offering, giving infrastructure owners control of their data and connected intelligence across the full project and asset lifecycle.
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 23 October 2026 – LeapThought and Google Cloud today announced a strategic partnership to bring sovereign, domain-native AI to the owners and operators of critical building infrastructure, giving them control of their data and sharper decision-making across the full value chain, from delivery through operations.
Ratnakar Garikipati, Founder, Chair, and CEO of LeapThought, alongside Rahul Sharma, Google Cloud Managing Director, APAC Public Sector. The partnership combines LeapThought’s specialized AI with Google Cloud’s Gemini models and sovereign infrastructure to deliver secure data control and end-to-end intelligence for infrastructure assets.
The partnership has two priorities. The first is value chain integration, which connects everyone involved in delivering and running an asset — owners, operators, developers, consultants, contractors, and suppliers — on one governed platform. The second is security and sovereignty: owners can keep control of their data, within compliant, standardized frameworks that can be repeated from one program to the next.
FULCRUMHQ, LeapThought’s globally recognized Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD) platform, gives infrastructure owners the option to run on Google Cloud, including Google’s sovereign, air-gapped solutions for defense, public sector, and private sector environments requiring high security. At its core is GENIEHQ, LeapThought’s own Industrial AI, embedded directly into the platform and built to reason over the structured and unstructured data that defines a capital program — BIM models, GIS and geospatial data, ERP financials, schedules, contracts, reality capture, telemetry, and data from field robotics and sensors. The partnership pairs GENIEHQ with Google Cloud’s Gemini models, giving owners and their delivery teams natural-language access to that data across a project and a portfolio.
The partnership delivers on these two priorities as follows:
1. Value Chain Integration: One Governed Record, Natural-Language Insight
Major capital and building infrastructure programs span owners, operators, developers, consultants, contractors, and suppliers — each typically working in separate systems, with design, construction, and operational data fragmented across handovers. LeapThought’s FULCRUMHQ platform brings this information together into a single governed record that follows an asset from design through operation, giving owners a consistent view across their portfolio, not just a single project.
By running FULCRUMHQ — and the GENIEHQ Industrial AI embedded within it — on Google Cloud, and integrating LeapThought’s proprietary data architecture with Google’s Gemini models, the partnership enables:
Interactive Model and Portfolio Querying: Combining GENIEHQ’s deep understanding of project and portfolio data with the multimodal capabilities of Gemini, owners, engineers, project managers, and field teams can ask complex, plain-language questions directly against BIM models and portfolio data — instead of manually clicking through complex 3D CAD/BIM model trees or running predefined filter scripts — such as identifying clash detections, extracting exact material quantities, verifying regulatory code compliance, or surfacing risk trends across a program (e.g., “Show me all fire-rated doors on Level 3 that don’t match the latest spec,” or “Which contractors across our portfolio have the highest rate of non- conforming work this quarter”).
Global Scale and Reliability: Google Cloud provides the high-performance compute and elastic scalability needed to process compute-intense multi-gigabyte 3D models and point-cloud datasets, across a single project or an entire portfolio, in real time.
2. Security and Sovereignty: Full Control on Google Cloud’s Sovereign Solutions
For critical civil assets, defense installations, public sector agencies, and private sector owners where data cannot traverse the public cloud, LeapThought gives owners the choice to deploy on Google Cloud’s data residency solutions, including Google Cloud Data Boundary, Google Cloud Dedicated, and Google Distributed Cloud. In these environments, GENIEHQ, LeapThought’s Industrial AI embedded within FULCRUMHQ, runs alongside Gemini locally, within the owner’s chosen security boundary, ensuring zero cross-boundary exposure or unauthorized external telemetry.
“The value of an asset now lies as much in the intelligence around it as in its physical form. That intelligence belongs to the owner, and it must be secure, sovereign, and shared across the whole value chain. Demand for this is growing quickly, in Asia and around the world, and that is what brought us and Google Cloud together. We’re starting from Singapore and building toward a standard for critical infrastructure everywhere,” said Ratnakar Garikipati, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of LeapThought.
“Public sector and critical infrastructure agencies manage some of the most intricate engineering and regulatory datasets in the world. The partnership between Google Cloud and LeapThought enables project teams and portfolio owners to quickly surface actionable insights directly from complex BIM models and program data using everyday language. Combined with Google’s sovereign, air-gapped solutions, we’re providing agencies with the option to modernize project workflows while maintaining strict data governance, residency, and operational sovereignty,” said Rahul Sharma, Managing Director, APAC Public Sector, Google Cloud.
Hashtag: #LeapThought
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About LeapThought
LeapThought is a US technology company that builds software connecting people, data, and AI across the infrastructure lifecycle. It is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, has its Asia headquarters in Singapore, and operates across the United States, Brazil, Singapore, and New Zealand. Its FULCRUMHQ platform and embedded GENIEHQ Industrial AI serve public agencies, developers, consultants, contractors, and universities and institutes of higher learning. Clients include Singapore’s Land Transport Authority, Building and Construction Authority, and JTC. The company was founded and led by Ratnakar Garikipati.
Production-grade in-app messaging with no credit card required to start, plus an optional Cloud Bonus offering your choice of either 15% off AWS or 30% off Alibaba Cloud
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 October 2026 – Nexconn, a global cloud communications platform, announced the launch of its production-ready Free Chat Plan. Under the new initiative, developers and startups can deploy enterprise-grade chat infrastructure for up to 10,000 monthly active users (MAU) completely free—with full Chat Pro features enabled and no credit card required.
The launch tackles a persistent industry pain point: typical free tiers across the category cap at 100 to 1,000 MAU and restrict apps to sandbox environments—thresholds far too low to validate user retention or viral growth.
“A free tier should empower teams to validate their business model, not just verify that an SDK compiles,” said Will Song, Head of Global Business at Nexconn.
To further extend startup runway, Nexconn also introduced an additional Cloud Bonus: teams that link a payment method can choose between 15% off AWS or 30% off Alibaba Cloud to offset their backend cloud costs.
The offer is open to teams that simply send their first in-app message by December 31, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Singapore Time (SGT, UTC+8), locking in up to 10,000 MAU of Pro chat (valued at $860/month). Developers can claim the plan and view full details at https://www.nexconn.ai/free-chat-api?utm_source=pr.
What the Free Chat Plan Includes
The plan provides comprehensive capabilities across the entire application lifecycle:
Rich Messaging Architecture: Unlimited messages across direct (1-on-1), group, community, and open channels.
Modern Social Interactions: Read receipts, typing indicators, user mentions, unread badges, and cross-platform multi-device synchronization.
Native Push: Built-in multi-channel mobile push gateway included with no add-on fees.
High-Capacity Resource Quotas: Supports up to 500 peak concurrent connections, 10 GB of cloud storage, and 180 days of searchable message history.
No-charge Migration Support: End-to-end data migration support for teams transitioning from Sendbird, Stream, CometChat, PubNub, Agora, or Twilio.
Developer Acceleration: An open-source AI Integration Skill allows developers to generate client SDK code and backend token endpoints via simple text prompts.
The Cloud Bonus: The 10,000 MAU Chat plan remains free and does not require a credit card. Teams may optionally link a payment method to activate the Cloud Bonus—15% off AWS services or 30% off Alibaba Cloud services.
How to Get Started
Sign Up: Create an account in the Nexconn Console.
Build: Integrate the SDK manually or with the open-source AI Skill.
Activate Your Free Plan: Complete enrollment by simply sending at least one message before December 31, 2026, 11:59 p.m. Singapore Time (SGT, UTC+8).
(Optional) Cloud Discounts: Link a payment method to activate your choice of 15% off AWS services or 30% off Alibaba Cloud services.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Nexconn
Nexconn is a global cloud communications platform engineered for developers, high-growth startups, and enterprises building real-time, mission-critical digital experiences.
The company delivers a unified real-time portfolio tailored to global scale:
AICP (AI Communication Platform): High-performance Chat and Call (voice/video) APIs, combined with production-ready, scenario-specific AI Agents (such as Smart Office and Social Marketing). This unified platform allows businesses to seamlessly embed intelligent, context-aware communications into any web or mobile application.
Enterprise & Public Sector Deployments: Carrier-grade private cloud and on-premises solutions engineered for organizations and government bodies requiring strict data residency, privacy, and compliance.
Japanese banks, airlines and transport operators suspended digital services as companies rushed to install emergency security patches for critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language widely used across the internet. The disruptions spread across Japan on Wednesday and Thursday, affecting online banking, airline applications, airport information systems and commercial websites. Companies temporarily disabled vulnerable services while assessing their exposure to two security flaws that could allow attackers […]
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares plunged nearly 6% in Hong Kong on Thursday, leading a technology sector selloff after China’s market regulator demanded stronger product quality controls and consumer protection measures across major ecommerce platforms.
The company’s stock fell to HK$97.55 during morning trading, marking its steepest intraday decline in two months. Investors reacted to indications that Beijing could intensify scrutiny of online marketplaces, potentially increasing compliance costs for Alibaba and its competitors.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation disclosed on Wednesday that it had convened a meeting in Beijing with representatives of leading digital commerce businesses to discuss improving product standards, strengthening consumer safeguards and addressing shortcomings in platform governance.
Shares of JD. com dropped approximately 4.7%, while Kuaishou declined more than 4%. Other technology companies, including Tencent, Meituan, Xiaomi and NetEase, also suffered losses as selling spread across the sector.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined nearly 3%, touching a three-month low, while the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped more than 4%, reaching its weakest level since September 2024. The technology benchmark has lost more than 30% this year.
The regulatory announcement focused on persistent problems involving counterfeit merchandise, misleading advertising and products failing to match descriptions provided by online sellers. Authorities identified livestream shopping, instant retail services and social commerce as areas where product safety risks have become increasingly complex.
The regulator said platforms must strengthen their responsibilities as gatekeepers, establish comprehensive quality management systems and improve supervision throughout commercial supply chains. Companies were instructed to align their practices with existing regulatory guidance and the government’s 2026 quality improvement priorities.
Officials also emphasised greater transparency, improved aftersales services and more effective mechanisms for resolving consumer complaints. The measures seek to strengthen accountability among platform operators without necessarily introducing an entirely new regulatory framework.
Representatives from Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall businesses attended the meeting alongside JD. com, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou, Douyin, Vipshop and other online trading platforms.
The gathering followed guidance issued last year by ten government departments, including the market regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, concerning product and service standards across digital marketplaces.
Authorities acknowledged that companies had implemented improvements under those guidelines but said substantial challenges remained. Emerging business models were creating additional difficulties for regulators attempting to identify unsafe products, deceptive marketing and inadequate consumer safeguards.
For Alibaba, the renewed regulatory emphasis directly affects its domestic commerce operations, particularly Taobao and Tmall, which connect merchants with consumers across China’s vast online retail market.
Stricter monitoring requirements could oblige marketplace operators to devote additional resources to merchant verification, product inspections, complaint handling and supply chain oversight. The financial implications will depend on how existing requirements are implemented and enforced.
The announcement did not disclose fresh financial penalties against Alibaba or establish a timetable for additional enforcement measures. The market reaction therefore reflected concerns about possible regulatory consequences rather than confirmation of sanctions against the company.
Broader investor caution compounded the selling pressure. Mainland investors had reduced their exposure to Hong Kong equities during the preceding trading session, while technology valuations remained under pressure amid questions surrounding substantial expenditure on artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Alibaba has committed significant capital to expanding its computing capacity and artificial intelligence operations, making investor assessments of profitability and spending particularly important alongside regulatory developments.
The company completed an HK$80 billion share placement in August, allocating approximately 60% of net proceeds towards expanding global computing infrastructure and the remainder towards hyperscale artificial intelligence data centres and upgrades to cloud systems.
That financing underlined Alibaba’s commitment to technological investment even as its established ecommerce businesses face heightened expectations concerning operational standards and consumer safeguards.
The regulator also encouraged companies to use commercial data to improve product quality among suppliers, linking information gathered through online transactions with manufacturing improvements and better supply chain coordination.
Another proposal involved developing and publishing platform quality governance indices, intended to provide consumers with clearer information about standards maintained by different marketplaces.
Officials urged participating companies to strengthen cooperation with regulators and other stakeholders while making information about products and services more transparent.
The meeting included discussions of the ISO 9001 quality management framework and methods for businesses to assess their own governance arrangements. Platform representatives exchanged views on implementing quality improvements and addressing weaknesses identified by the authorities across online trading activities.
Government websites across Europe were temporarily shut down on Wednesday as authorities rushed to contain two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, the programming language supporting a substantial share of the world’s websites. The emergency prompted precautionary outages affecting public services in the Netherlands, Finland, France and Germany, while PHP developers released security updates and urged operators to install them immediately. Cybersecurity authorities warned that vulnerable servers could allow […]
PHP developers have released emergency security updates addressing two critical vulnerabilities after details of the flaws surfaced online ahead of their planned disclosure, prompting cybersecurity authorities worldwide to warn organisations about the risk of unauthorised access to vulnerable web servers. The vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, could allow attackers to execute malicious code remotely without authentication. The PHP security team released patches on Wednesday, October 21, […]
Artificial intelligence is becoming a bigger part of the smartphone experience, powering features such as real-time translation, photo editing, voice assistants, and text summarisation. Similar digital experiences, including those offered through platforms like GameZone casino, also rely on mobile devices that balance functionality with performance. However, delivering AI capabilities without significantly reducing battery life remains a technical challenge. Manufacturers are exploring specialised processors, smaller AI models, and […]
Jio Platforms opens its $3.2 billion initial public offering to public investors on Wednesday, launching India’s biggest share sale and the first flotation from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group in two decades. The telecom and digital services company has priced its shares between Rs 1,065 and Rs 1,119, with subscriptions running until Friday. At the upper end, the offering of 270 million new shares would raise approximately Rs […]
Solcis extends open security guardrails such as NVIDIA OpenShell and Microsoft’s AGT with the controls compliance professionals need, in a platform built to be self-hosted.
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 21 October 2026 – Solcis, a spin-out of 6clicks, today released Solcis Compliance Studio and the Solcis Policy Engine. Together they let organisations turn their policies and compliance obligations into enforceable rules for AI, check each action an AI agent takes against those rules as it happens, and keep a tamper-evident record for auditors and regulators. Solcis integrates with open runtime enforcement engines such as NVIDIA OpenShell and Microsoft’s Agent Governance Toolkit (AGT).
As organisations put AI agents to work, they must show that every automated action meets the same obligations as the rest of the business. Today, that is hard to prove. Solcis closes that gap across cybersecurity, privacy, financial crime, conduct and prudential regulation.
Solcis Compliance Studio Solcis Compliance Studio is where compliance teams define, run and prove compliance for their AI agents. Studio has six core capabilities:
Policy lifecycle and authoring: turns obligations into enforcement policies and manages them through deployment and updates.
Universal evidence ledger: brings results from every enforcement point into one tamper-evident record.
Compliance model management: recommends the best small language model (SLM) for each policy, benchmarked for compliance.
Learning and drift detection: improves policies over time from observed decisions and human judgement, and detects control and agent drift.
Compliance coverage and analytics: audit-ready reporting on compliance posture, including agent discovery.
Integrations: connects to GRC, SIEM and ticketing systems, including 6clicks, ServiceNow IRM and Archer.
Solcis Policy Engine Organisations can enforce Studio policies through NVIDIA OpenShell, Microsoft’s AGT, or the Solcis Policy Engine, Solcis’s own open enforcement engine for general compliance and business rules. The Policy Engine reaches decisions in under 200 milliseconds by combining two types of check:
Deterministic checks apply fixed rules that return the same result for the same input every time, giving regulators and auditors repeatable, evidence-backed answers.
Inference-based checks use AI to judge context and ambiguous cases that fixed rules cannot capture. Checks are routed to the best-suited AI small language model (SLM).
Every agent action in its path receives an Allow, Deny or Escalate decision with a severity rating, inline and without slowing it down. Decisions are enforced through the Solcis SDK in an AI system’s action path, or the Solcis Gateway on model, tool and MCP endpoints.
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Figma co-founder and chief executive Dylan Field has questioned the limitations of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), warning that unrestricted access to company data could increase security risks even as the design software developer expands its artificial intelligence partnerships. Field said the open-source protocol, which enables AI agents to connect with external applications and information, requires substantial improvement. His comments followed Figma’s announcement of 20 additional MCP […]
Initiative offers 1,000 free paediatric eye examinations, 1,000 free adult myopia screenings and a planned three-year myopia-control trial
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 20 October 2026 – As part of its mission to eliminate avoidable vision loss, Orbis and the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), partnered to tackle the growing, lifelong burden of short-sightedness (myopia) across Hong Kong. The joint initiative highlights how myopia takes root early in primary school and, if left unmanaged, poses a severe, sight-threatening risk in later life.
Rather than a minor inconvenience corrected by stronger glasses, unmanaged high myopia physically alters the structure of the eye, drastically increasing the lifetime risk of irreversible blindness. Drawing on insights from HKUMed’s academic research and data from the joint Orbis x HKUMed Vision Matters community screening project, this partnership provides a crucial wake-up call on how lifelong visual health is determined during childhood.
In direct response to this public health challenge, Orbis and the Department of Ophthalmology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed, are taking immediate action by offering 1,000 free comprehensive eye examinations for local children. This initiative gives families immediate access to expert care, early detection, and evidence-based guidance to safeguard their children’s sight before permanent damage occurs. In parallel, free eye screening will be provided to 1,000 adults aged over 50 years with known myopia. The 1,000 paediatric eye examinations and 1,000 adult eye screenings are all part of the HKUMed 140 for the Community Campaign.
A Lifelong Threat: From Classroom to Later Life
The joint effort establishes a clear, connected narrative across two generations:
Myopia Starts Early: A 2025 HKUMed study conducted at the HKU Eye Centre examined 501 children aged 5–12 and found that nearly 40% suffered from myopia. These findings reinforce the urgent need for regular professional eye examinations, even when a child has not reported any vision problems.
Consequences Last a Lifetime: To evaluate the long-term impact, HKUMed researchers analysed 4,217 adults aged 50 and older through the Orbis x HKUMed Vision Matters: Glaucoma AI-ROTA Screening Project. The analysis revealed that 44.5% of older adults suffer from myopia, with 6.7% suffering from high myopia. Given the historical lack of recent large-scale Hong Kong data based on objective eye measurements in this demographic, these findings represent an important public health update.
Clear Vision Does Not Remove Risk: Myopia develops when the eye grows excessively long, causing distant objects to appear blurred. While glasses can correct distance vision, they do not shorten an elongated eye or eliminate the long-term risks associated with high myopia, including retinal disease, glaucoma, cataracts, and permanent sight loss.
In the adult analysis, visual impairment or blindness was roughly twice as common among individuals with myopia and more than four times (6.3% vs. 1.5%) as common among those with high myopia, compared to those without myopia. Glaucoma—the leading cause of irreversible blindness—was also nearly twice as prevalent among people with high myopia compared to those without (13.1% vs. 6.8%). Together, these findings highlight the critical importance of identifying and managing myopia early, before it progresses into high myopia.
Practical Action: Free Screenings and Clinical Solutions
To bridge medical evidence with practical community action, Orbis and the Department of Ophthalmology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed are rolling out complementary initiatives. The 1,000 paediatric examinations and 1,000 adult screenings are all part of the HKUMed 140 for the Community Campaign:
1,000 Free Paediatric Examinations: Providing local families with comprehensive eye checks to help identify eye problems early and obtain professional advice on appropriate follow-up care and myopia management.
Free Eye Screening for 1,000 Adults with Myopia: Providing free eye screening to 1,000 adults aged over 50 years with known myopia.
Landmark “2027 Children Myopia Control Study”: Supporting a three-year HKUMed clinical trial to evaluate three advanced intervention strategies among children aged 5–12: 0.05% atropine eye drops, optical defocus spectacle lenses, and a combination of both therapies.
AT A GLANCE
Children: 39.7% of 501 children aged 5–12 screened had myopia.
Adults: 44.5% of 4,217 participants aged 50+ had myopia; 6.7% had high myopia.
Impact: Visual impairment or blindness affected 6.3% of adults with high myopia, versus 1.5% without myopia.
Action: 1,000 child exams; 1,000 screenings for myopic adults over 50. All are free under the HKUMed 140 for the Community Campaign.
Next step: Three-year trial of 0.05% atropine, defocus spectacle lenses, and combined therapy.
Leadership Quotes:
Professor Chak-sing Lau, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Health) and Deanof Medicine, HKU:
“Myopia is an increasingly important public health challenge that places a substantial lifelong burden on individuals and society. Through the HKUMed 140 for the Community Campaign, these initiatives reflect our longstanding commitment to translating academic excellence into meaningful benefits for the community. HKUMed is dedicated to transforming pioneering research into real-world health benefits. Through our partnership with Orbis, we seek to integrate clinical excellence, technological innovation, and population health research to lessen the impact of myopia and its complications in Hong Kong, while providing robust scientific evidence to guide eye health policy and clinical practice in the region. Together, we are working to safeguard the long-term visual health of schoolchildren and the wider population.”
Kathleen Sherwin, President and CEO of Orbis International:
“This partnership connects community service directly with research. The adult screening programme gives us a clearer view of the long-term burden of myopia, while the children’s examinations and planned trial focus on acting earlier. Together, Orbis and HKUMed are turning evidence into practical steps to protect sight.”
Mary Lau, Director of Orbis Hong Kong:
“Parents should see myopia as a condition that needs active management, not simply stronger glasses. By offering 1,000 child exams; 1,000 screenings for myopic adults over 50, we want to help more families identify problems early, obtain professional advice and take action to protect their different generation’s sight.”
Professor Christopher Leung Kai-shun, Albert Bing-Ching Young Professor in Ophthalmology, Chairperson and Clinical Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed:
“Vision Matters is showing us that myopia is an important part of the eye-health burden among Hong Kong’s over-50s. Glasses can correct blurred vision, but they cannot reverse the excessive growth of the eye or eliminate the risk of permanent sight loss associated with high myopia. The earlier we act, the greater the opportunity to protect sight over a lifetime.”
Dr Helen Zhang, Principal Investigator of the 2027 Children Myopia Control Study; and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed
“This trial will compare eye drops, myopia-control lenses and both treatments combined. We aim to provide clearer evidence to help families choose the right approach for their children.”
Dr Kendrick Shih, Investigator of the 2027 Children Myopia Control Study; and Clinical Associate Professor of Practice,Department of Ophthalmology, School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed:
“Myopia can worsen without obvious warning signs. Regular monitoring and timely treatment can help protect a child’s vision for the future.”
What Parents Can Do
Prioritize Annual Checks: Arrange regular professional eye examinations rather than waiting for visual symptoms to appear.
Explore Clinical Control Options: Seek advice from a qualified eye-care professional if myopia is detected.
Look Beyond Standard Glasses: Discuss evidence-based myopia-control options instead of relying only on stronger prescriptions.
Encourage Healthy Visual Habits: Encourage outdoor time, regular breaks from close work, and maintain a comfortable reading distance.
Public Registration & Participation
Registration will open in phases: Phase 1 (Now Open): Free eye screenings for children aged 5–12 (limited quotas, first-come, first-served). Online Registration: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/CzitVUBgJQ
Phase 2 (Coming Soon): Free eye screenings for myopic adults aged 50 or above. Details will be announced on the HKU portal and official Orbis channels.
Hashtag: #Orbis #HKUMed #Myopia
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