BEIJING, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Production has just wrapped in Beijing, China on KC Global Media Asia’s new drama series “VIII: Awakening.” The fantasy adventure S grade drama completed 24 fifteen-minute episodes for its first season.

“VIII: Awakening” is a contemporary reimagining of a classic legend of Chinese Mythology, set in modern times. Revered for their supernatural abilities, the Immortals use their divine powers to vanquish evil and aid the needy. Blending suspense-driven storytelling with fantastical elements and light humor, the series presents a world that is both mysterious and grounded in reality.

The cast stars rising actress Zhang Wan Ying (“Glory”) as He Haining, Leo Zhou (“Relying on Favors”) as Dong Fang Shuo and Nick Shan (“Creation of The Gods Ⅰ: Kingdom of Storms“) as Lu Xian. After awakening a mysterious precognitive power, insurance investigator Lu Xian (Shan) discovers he is the descendant of an ancient legendary guardian and must unite seven others to stop a deadly conspiracy. As an imprisoned dragon clan threatens to return, the group uncovers betrayal from within their ranks and faces a battle that will determine the fate of the world. Together, they awaken their true powers, defeat the forces of darkness, and restore peace — though a new threat quietly emerges in the shadows.

“VIII: Awakening” was directed by noted internet midform series director Yu Ji and executive produced by KC Global Media Asia partners Andy Kaplan and George Chien. Meng Xun, who has collaborated with acclaimed directors such as John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai, served as production designer. 

“KC Global Media Asia is looking forward to being a part of bringing such an exciting project to global audiences,” said Bonnie Wiryani, Vice President and Head of Content Sales. “Viewers are more and more interested in seeing local and cultural stories developed creatively and VIII: Awakening has all the artistry, action, mystery, fantasy and folklore that we believe will resonate widely. There is great potential for the story to grow beyond a single title and develop into a broader universe in the future.”

The KC Global Media Asia production is a partnership between CICC (China Intercontinental Communication Center) and Shanghai Qi’Ai (Shanghai Qi’Ai Film & TV Culture Co., Ltd.)

This is the first original production in China for KC Global Media Asia, and they will also be handling international sales. This reinforces their continued commitment to growing their distribution arm, expanding strong creative production partnerships, and delivering a diverse lineup of high-quality stories with broad international appeal, shining a spotlight on Asian storytelling.

About KC Global Media

KC Global Media Entertainment LLC is a global multi-media company headquartered in the United States, with offices in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and South Korea. The brainchild of former Sony executives Andy Kaplan and George Chien, KC Global Media Asia (KCGM Asia) is Asia’s leading entertainment hub through the production, distribution, and programming of quality, ground-breaking content. Backed by over three decades of industry experience, KCGM Asia boasts an impressive portfolio of premium brands in Asia, including English-language general entertainment network AXN, Japanese anime content network Animax, Korean general entertainment network ONE, English-language general entertainment FAST network KCM, and AXN Sports.

Expanding its extensive multi-platform presence, KCGM Asia maintains a distribution footprint reaching 112 million Pay TV, OTT, and FAST households across 52 territories in Asia and Africa — including its JOURNY joint venture with NextTrip, Inc. — alongside a digital footprint of over 140 million social media users across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. By combining award-winning content, beloved entertainment brands, and deep market expertise across both distribution and digital platforms, KCGM Asia is setting new standards for entertainment and audience engagement across the region and beyond. 

Website: www.kcgm-distribution.com | Facebook: @KCGlobalMedia | Instagram: @KCGlobalMediaAsia | Linkedin: @KCGlobalMediaAsia

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Azazie, the leading direct-to-consumer special-occasion brand, is bringing its bridesmaid dress pop-up to San Diego on Sunday, September 6, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Liberty Ballroom at Courtyard San Diego Airport/Liberty Station.

The one-day event will allow customers to explore and try on Azazie bridesmaid dresses in person. Guests can purchase their favorite styles on-site or shop online afterward with greater confidence in their preferred fit and style.

Each attendee will also receive a spin on Azazie’s exclusive raffle wheel for the chance to win a $5–$20 coupon redeemable at the event.

Free general admission and $10 peak-hours access tickets are available by reservation. Each reservation accommodates the ticket holder and one guest. All pop-up purchases are final sale.

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Sunday, September 6, 2026

Time: 9:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Location:

Liberty Ballroom, Courtyard San Diego Airport/Liberty Station

Address: 2592 Laning Road, San Diego, CA 92106

About Azazie

Azazie is a leading direct-to-consumer bridal and special occasion brand offering thoughtfully designed, size-inclusive dresses for weddings, celebrations and life’s most memorable moments.

HOUSTON, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Equilon Enterprises LLC, doing business as Shell Oil Products US (Shell), has signed an agreement to increase its equity from 33% to 100% in Tri Star Energy, LLC, a convenience store operator and fuel distributor operating across the southeastern United States and anchored in the Nashville market. The acquisition makes Shell the full owner of an additional 320 fuel and convenience retail sites in Tennessee and surrounding states, as well as supply agreements with 552 more dealer-owned locations.

“Tri Star has built a strong business with high-quality assets, a dedicated team and a loyal customer base. The transaction is fully aligned with our growth strategy to focus capital on businesses in which we have distinctive advantages and can create long-term shareholder value,” said Machteld de Haan, President of Downstream, Renewables and Energy Solutions, Shell plc.

Shell already has the largest branded fuel network in the US, with approximately 12,000 primarily wholesaler- and dealer-owned fuel and convenience retail sites across 49 states serving more than 7 million customers daily. This acquisition significantly strengthens its company-owned presence in the US.

The investment is in line with Shell’s strategy to reallocate capital from lower-return areas to businesses and markets where the company has proven it can deliver strong performance and has clear competitive advantages, as announced at its Capital Markets Day in 2025. Shell stated that 80% of its growth cash capex in the Mobility & Convenience business will be spent in 10 key markets, such as the US, where it generates the majority of its cash flow.

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory clearance and the satisfaction of closing conditions.

Notes to editors 

• Shell is acquiring the remaining interest in Tri Star Energy from The Parman Corporation, Kimbro Oil Company, and their subsidiaries.
• Once the acquisition is complete, Tri Star Energy will be operated by Texas Petroleum Group, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Mobility & Convenience US LLC (SMC). SMC’s portfolio will consist of nearly 550 company-owned convenience retail sites and supply agreements with approximately 650 dealer-owned sites across the southern US.
• The acquisition is projected to generate an internal rate of return above the hurdle rate set for Shell’s marketing business.
• With a long history in the US, Shell is delivering secure energy supplies and meeting the evolving needs of customers today and into the future.
• Globally, Shell and its affiliates serve around 29 million customers per day at Shell-branded mobility sites, who visit for quality fuels, electric vehicle charging, and convenience and non-fuel products and services.

Cautionary Note

The companies in which Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this press release “Shell”, “Shell Group” and “Group” are sometimes used for convenience to reference Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These terms are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular entity or entities. ”Subsidiaries”, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this press release refer to entities over which Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. The terms “joint venture”, “joint operations”, “joint arrangements”, and “associates” may also be used to refer to a commercial arrangement in which Shell has a direct or indirect ownership interest with one or more parties.  The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in an entity or unincorporated joint arrangement, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

Forward-Looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “aim”; “ambition”; ”anticipate”; “aspire”, “aspiration”, ”believe”; “commit”; “commitment”; ”could”; “desire”; ”estimate”; ”expect”; ”goals”; ”intend”; ”may”; “milestones”; ”objectives”; ”outlook”; ”plan”; ”probably”; ”project”; ”risks”; “schedule”; ”seek”; ”should”; ”target”; “vision”; ”will”; “would” and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks, including climate change; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, judicial, fiscal and regulatory developments including tariffs and regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; (m) risks associated with the impact of pandemics, regional conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle East, and a significant cyber security, data privacy or IT incident; (n) the pace of the energy transition; and (o) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Shell plc’s Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2025 (available at www.shell.com/investors/news-and-filings/sec-filings.html and www.sec.gov). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this press release and should be considered by the reader.  Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, September 1, 2026. Neither Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Shell’s net carbon intensity
Also, in this press release we may refer to Shell’s “net carbon intensity” (NCI), which includes Shell’s carbon emissions from the production of our energy products, our suppliers’ carbon emissions in supplying energy for that production and our customers’ carbon emissions associated with their use of the energy products we sell. Shell’s NCI also includes the emissions associated with the production and use of energy products produced by others which Shell purchases for resale. Shell only controls its own emissions. The use of the terms Shell’s “net carbon intensity” or NCI is for convenience only and not intended to suggest these emissions are those of Shell plc or its subsidiaries.

Shell’s net-zero emissions target
Shell’s operating plan and outlook are forecasted for a three-year period and ten-year period, respectively, and are updated every year. They reflect the current economic environment and what we can reasonably expect to see over the next three and ten years. Accordingly, the outlook reflects our combined Scope 1 and 2 target, NCI target and our oil products ambition over the next ten years. However, Shell’s operating plan and outlook cannot reflect our 2050 net-zero emissions target, as this target is outside our planning period. Such future operating plans and outlooks could include changes to our portfolio, efficiency improvements and the use of carbon capture and storage and carbon credits. In the future, as society moves towards net-zero emissions, we expect Shell’s operating plans and outlooks to reflect this movement. However, if society is not net zero in 2050, as of today, there would be significant risk that Shell may not meet this target.

Forward-Looking non-GAAP measures
This press release may contain certain forward-looking non-GAAP measures such as free cash flow and underlying operating expenses. We are unable to provide a reconciliation of these forward-looking non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures because certain information needed to reconcile those non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is dependent on future events some of which are outside the control of Shell, such as oil and gas prices, interest rates and exchange rates. Moreover, estimating such GAAP measures with the required precision necessary to provide a meaningful reconciliation is extremely difficult and could not be accomplished without unreasonable effort. Non-GAAP measures in respect of future periods which cannot be reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measure are calculated in a manner which is consistent with the accounting policies applied in Shell plc’s consolidated financial statements.

The contents of websites referred to in this press release do not form part of this press release.

We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this press release that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC.  Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.

BugBase’s Pentest Copilot Enterprise maps attack surfaces, follows user journeys, and delivers validated vulnerabilities across applications, APIs, networks, and cloud.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —  BugBase announced Pentest Copilot Enterprise, an autonomous black-box red teaming platform.

Recent public disclosures have underscored the need for organizations to continuously test and verify their cyber defenses as AI capabilities advance. Many regulated organizations cannot share source code with external pentesters. Others depend on costly, time-consuming manual black-box assessments that can take months to complete and are conducted only periodically.

Pentest Copilot Enterprise is built for that reality. It tests systems from the outside in, without source-code access, while maintaining authenticated context to find and validate meaningful weaknesses. Specialized agents operate in parallel across changing states, identities, and workflows.

Pentest Copilot maps pages, APIs, forms, accounts, access levels, and business functions, then executes iterative attacks across 100 vulnerability types, including authentication, authorization, injection, and complex business-logic flaws.

Real Chromium browsers reproduce authenticated user flows while preserving cookies, authentication tokens, CSRF state, and multiple identities. Agents navigate WAFs, bot-detection systems, CAPTCHA, T-OTP, email and phone verification, and magic links.

In BugBase-published testing, Pentest Copilot achieved 100% coverage of defined scope on OWASP Juice Shop and Broken Crystals. It also completed GOAD, NHA, and DRACARYS Active Directory labs, demonstrating coverage across web applications, APIs, internal networks, identity systems, and clouds.

“AI is changing the economics of attack, so security teams cannot depend on an annual, point-in-time test,” said Dhruva Goyal, Founder and CEO of BugBase. “Many organizations need the confidence of a real pentest without handing source code to a third party. Pentest Copilot tests from the outside in, follows the attack through, and proves the impact, so teams can find and fix weaknesses before an attacker does.”

Every reported vulnerability includes a reproducible proof of concept, validated evidence of impact, remediation guidance, compliance-ready reporting, and one-click retesting.

Pentest Copilot Enterprise is available as self-serve SaaS, a dedicated tenant, or an on-premises deployment.

Try it out today by creating an account or requesting a demo at copilot.bugbase.ai.

About BugBase

BugBase is an offensive security research company that helps organizations defend themselves through continuous, authorized testing against real-world attack paths. Its offerings include managed bug bounty and vulnerability-disclosure programs, expert-led pentesting services, and autonomous pentesting through Pentest Copilot.

For further information, contact queries@bugbase.ai.

What happens when AI starts investigating its own ideas? AutoResearch is an open-source attempt to bring AI agents one step closer to answering that question through experiments, evidence and iteration.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EvoMap, an open infrastructure project for AI self-evolution, has open-sourced AutoResearch, a system that lets AI agents take research ideas from hypothesis to experiment and use the results to determine what happens next.

The Research Verification Problem

AI models are getting better at proposing ideas, writing code and analyzing results. But does a plausible answer actually hold up when put to the test?

AutoResearch starts from a simple premise: a model’s confidence is not evidence of success.

The system uses multiple AI models to independently generate and cross-review research ideas, then converts accepted ideas into executable research plans with defined metrics, success criteria, resource budgets and evaluation procedures. During execution, specialized agents handle planning, implementation, experimentation, analysis and review.

Research state, code, experiment logs, metrics, failures and decisions are preserved in a persistent workspace, allowing the system to continue unfinished research rather than restarting from scratch. Independent and blind review is also used to challenge conclusions before a research direction can be closed.

Evidence Determines What Happens Next

One of the more important design choices in AutoResearch is that failure is not treated as the end of a research path.

A partial result can lead to a revised hypothesis. An external test can expose a problem and trigger another round of experiments. And when repeated experiments stop producing meaningful gains, the system can stop pursuing the idea while retaining what was learned.

The approach was tested on a real Django issue from SWE-bench Lite. AutoResearch initially scored 2/7 and then 4/7 on official new-feature tests. Rather than stopping after the partial improvement, it continued investigating the underlying problem and ultimately reached 7/7, while maintaining 203/203 regression tests.

On the RSICD benchmark, an AutoResearch-generated research idea improved mean Recall from 32.84 to 34.69, demonstrating that the system could turn an AI-generated research hypothesis into a measurable improvement through iterative experimentation.

From AI Research to AI4AI

What happens when AI starts researching AI itself?

AI can already help researchers search the literature, identify promising directions, formulate hypotheses and even design experiments. The harder problem is what comes after that: can AI actually test the ideas it comes up with, and let the results determine whether those ideas are worth pursuing?

In AI research, this could mean agents exploring model architectures, training methods, optimization algorithms, agent designs and evaluation techniques, then running experiments to test their hypotheses and using the results to shape the next round of research. Moving from “this might work” to “let’s find out whether it actually works” is a critical step toward more autonomous research.

The same principle could eventually extend beyond AI to areas such as drug discovery, materials science and engineering, where research ideas can be evaluated through simulations or physical experiments. The potential is not simply to have AI assist with more of the research process, but to give it a way to learn from what happens when its ideas meet evidence.

That is the direction AutoResearch is designed to explore: turning research ideas into executable experiments, experiments into evidence, and evidence into the next research decision.

Open-Source Research Infrastructure

AutoResearch is now available as an open-source project for researchers and developers working on AI scientists, autonomous agents and AI4AI systems. The accompanying paper, “AutoResearch: Insight In, Hallucination Out,” is available on arXiv.

GitHub: github.com/EvoMap/AutoResearch
Research paper: arXiv: AutoResearch: Insight In, Hallucination Out
Technical research: EvoMap Research: AutoResearch Evidence Loop

About EvoMap

EvoMap is an open infrastructure project for AI self-evolution. The company is building systems that allow AI agents to learn from experience, share validated capabilities and improve across tasks and environments. EvoMap’s work spans AI agent infrastructure, reusable AI capabilities and autonomous AI research, with representative projects including the Genome Evolution Protocol (GEP), EvoX Agent and AutoResearch.

Learn more at evomap.ai.

Alerts escalate through the on-call rotation until someone answers. Free for up to five users, with paid plans starting at USD $6 per user per month. On-call scheduling and escalation are included rather than sold as separate modules.

SYDNEY, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JAMS Software today released JAMS Incident Management, on-call alerting and incident management software for IT operations, service desk, and engineering teams. The product accepts alerts from any system that can send an email, call a webhook, or reach an API. It delivers those alerts over voice, SMS, push, email, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. It then escalates through the on-call rotation until a person acknowledges and tracks the incident through to resolution. The product is generally available across Australia and New Zealand now, following a customer early access period that opened on 1 August.

JAMS Software built the product for its own teams. As a customer of other incident management products, the company felt the pain of a feature-bloated tool with overdone AI hype at a price that was not worth it. So the company built a tool that would reliably alert the right human, every time an incident occurs, at a reasonable price.

JAMS Incident Management natively integrates with JAMS Scheduler. Teams running JAMS Scheduler can open an incident automatically from a failed job and restart that job directly from the phone call or the text message with JAMS Incident Management. The two products are fully independent, and neither one requires the other.

“We built JAMS Incident Management for people like us,” said Peter Hegland, chief executive officer of JAMS Software. “A service desk team using Zendesk that needs an on-call schedule and escalation path for human team members. A batch processing team that needs to know when a critical job fails or when it’s about to miss its SLA. A DevOps or SRE team that needs to know an outage has happened and that someone is already on it. It works for us, and we hope it works for you.”

INTEGRATIONS

JAMS Incident Management can connect to any monitoring, orchestration, or IT service management system through email, webhook, or REST API. JAMS Incident Management also has prebuilt two-way integrations for Azure Monitor, ServiceNow, Zendesk, and JAMS Scheduler, with more integrations coming soon.

AVAILABILITY IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Teams in Australia and New Zealand hit the on-call problem at an awkward hour. Overnight batch windows, and cover for offices across Asia Pacific, put failures outside local working hours, where an alert either reaches a person or waits until morning.

Voice and SMS notifications reach on-call staff on Australian mobile networks, and JAMS staffs support in Australia alongside the United States and the United Kingdom. Teams elsewhere in Asia Pacific can request voice and SMS coverage directly, and the email, push, Microsoft Teams, and Slack channels work in every market today.

PRICING

JAMS Incident Management is priced per user in United States dollars. A free plan supports up to five users with no time limit and no credit card. The Starter tier is USD $6 per user per month billed annually for up to 25 users, and the Professional tier is USD $16 per user per month billed annually for up to 50 users. Enterprise pricing is available on request. On-call scheduling and escalation policies are included in the paid plans rather than sold as separate modules. A fourteen-day trial unlocks every feature and requires no credit card. Teams can purchase subscriptions to JAMS Incident Management online directly without interacting with a sales team.

SECURITY AND AVAILABILITY

JAMS Incident Management runs on Microsoft Azure, with TLS in transit, stored provider credentials encrypted at rest, tenant isolation, and an audit trail covering every action. Single sign-on uses OIDC, with setup guides for Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, and Auth0. Voice and SMS delivery covers Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with additional regions available on request. Email, push, Microsoft Teams, and Slack notifications work anywhere.

Teams can start today at jamsscheduler.com/incident-management. The free plan supports five users with no credit card, and paid plans can be purchased online without a sales call.

JAMS INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AT A GLANCE

Category: On-call alerting and incident management software
Notification channels: Voice, SMS, push, email, Microsoft Teams, Slack
Alert sources: Email, webhook, REST API, Azure Monitor, ServiceNow, Zendesk, JAMS Scheduler
Two-way integrations: Azure Monitor, ServiceNow, Zendesk, JAMS Scheduler
Free plan: Up to five users, no time limit, no credit card. One alert flow and one on-call schedule
Starter: USD $6 per user per month billed annually, up to 25 users. Unlimited alert flows, schedules, and escalation policies
Professional: USD $16 per user per month billed annually, up to 50 users. Adds Azure Monitor, ServiceNow, and Zendesk
Enterprise: Custom pricing, unlimited users
Metering: Email, push, Microsoft Teams, and Slack unlimited on every plan. SMS and voice pooled across the team
Trial: Fourteen days, every feature, no credit card
Voice and SMS coverage: Australia, United States, United Kingdom. Other regions on request
Single sign-on: OIDC, with setup guides for Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, and Auth0
Auditing: Every action written to an audit trail
Hosting: Microsoft Azure
General availability: September 1, 2026
Product page: jamsscheduler.com/incident-management

About JAMS Software

JAMS Software builds IT orchestration and alerting products for the teams that keep critical processes running. JAMS Scheduler, released in 1987, centralises, automates, and manages scheduled jobs across Windows, Linux, UNIX, IBM i, z/OS, and OpenVMS environments for over 850 customers worldwide. JAMS Incident Management handles alerting and on-call escalation for those same teams, and works on its own or alongside the scheduler. The company separated from Fortra in June 2025 and now operates independently, backed by PSG, 2ndWave Software, and its employees. JAMS serves customers across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia Pacific through its regional team. Learn more at jamsscheduler.com.

Media Contact
Bobby Schmidt
Vice President of Marketing, JAMS Software
marketing@jamssoftware.com