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University of Exeter Honours Sharjah Ruler and Expands Arab and Islamic Institute

SHARJAH, UAE, July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The University of Exeter awarded His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, its first-ever Honorary President’s Medal on Thursday, recognising his lasting contributions to higher education, research, and academic collaboration.

During his visit, Sheikh Sultan, also a Member of the UAE Supreme Council,  laid the foundation stone for the new Al Qasimi Building. The expansion of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies will further strengthen ties between the UAE and the United Kingdom.

“This distinguished institution welcomed me as a student over forty years ago,” said His Highness, who earned his PhD from Exeter in 1985. “It remains a part of my intellectual and personal journey.”

A highlight was the signing of an agreement to launch the “Leadership Compass” programme, which will train future university leaders from Sharjah in governance, inclusion, and institutional strategy. The partnership builds on joint initiatives such as a marine science degree with the University of Khorfakkan, environmental research in Al Dhaid, and special education programmes with Sharjah Education Academy.

Sheikh Sultan inaugurated a dedicated section at the Institute’s library featuring his 118+ publications, alongside a wide-ranging historical archive on the Gulf region. He encouraged students to apply their knowledge in service of their communities.

Professor Lisa Roberts and students praised His Highness’s visionary support of education and long-standing commitment to the University. She highlighted how their partnership has created valuable academic programmes and continues to support research and student opportunities worldwide.

The full article can be found here.

– Picture is available at AP –

 

Hussain Al Mulla
Media Relations Executive – Sharjah Government Media Bureau
+971563980067
Hussain.almulla@sgmb.ae

Thailand Firework Factory Explosion Kills Nine

An explosion from a fireworks factory in Suphan Buri Province has left nine people dead and two others seriously injured, with authorities still searching for potential victims who may be trapped in the wreckage.

Ping An Ranks 47th on 2025 Fortune Global 500 List, Marking 16th Year on List

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (“Ping An“, the “Company” or the “Group”, HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) is #47 globally on the latest Fortune Global 500 list, up six places from 2024, with operating revenue of about USD158.63 billion. The Company, which ranked 9th among global financial enterprises, has been included in the Fortune Global 500 list for 16 consecutive years.

Ping An continues to advance its technology-enabled “integrated finance + health and senior care” strategy, accelerating its comprehensive digital transformation and the implementation of its “worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving” services. Ping An is committed to driving innovation in five key financial sectors: technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance.

The integrated finance + health and senior care” strategy is driving steady growth of Ping An’s core businesses. As of the end of 2024, Ping An served 242 million retail customers. Of those, Ping An had a 98% retention rate of the 25.6% of customers who hold four or more contracts within the Group. The health and senior care strategy has established a distinct competitive advantage for the Group, with nearly 63% of customers entitled to services and benefits provided by the health and senior care ecosystem. In 2024, Ping An achieved an operating profit attributable to shareholders of RMB121.86 billion, up 9.1% year-on-year (YoY). Net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB126.61 billion, a significant increase of 47.8% YoY. Revenue grew by 10.6% YoY to RMB1.14 trillion, and total assets expanded by 11.9% YoY to RMB12.96 trillion.

Artificial intelligence (AI) empowers Ping An’s core financial businesses. In 2024, the volume of services provided by Ping An’s AI smart voice agents reached about 1.84 billion times, accounting for 80% of Ping An’s total customer service volume. With smart underwriting, 93% of life insurance policies were underwritten within seconds. In addition, Ping An P&C’s claims savings via smart fraud detection reached RMB11.94 billion, an increase of 10.4% YoY. As of December 31, 2024, Ping An had won a cumulative 30 championships in domestic and international AI competitions and filed 55,080 patent applications, ranked 1st globally in fintech and healthcare patents. The Group strives to maintain its AI leadership with its industry-leading nine databases, five laboratories, and a three-layer large model system. It is creating sector-specific barriers and driving deep integration of AI models with business use cases to empower core business growth.

Ping An puts customer needs first by providing “worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving services. Ping An consistently promotes this enhanced customer experience to increase user loyalty. In terms of worry-free services, Ping An extended its auto insurance offerings to include 82 convenient services such as roadside assistance, vehicle inspections, and chauffeur services, benefiting 236 million registered users of the Ping An Auto Owner app. Its home-based senior care services covered 75 cities nationwide by 2024. Time-saving services include Ping An developed the world’s first image-based Smart Quick Claim system. The system enables loss assessment within seconds after relevant photos are uploaded, speeding up the loss assessment process by 4,000 times. Among initiatives to save customers money, Ping An Bank introduced a student credit card, offering discounts on education, shopping, and travel. 

The Company actively fulfills its social responsibilities and supports the development of the real economy. As of December 31, 2024, Ping An had cumulatively invested nearly RMB10.14 trillion to support the real economy. Through the Rural Communities Support program, Ping An provided RMB52.01 billion in funding in 2024 through financial services, such as revitalization insurance and agricultural loans. The Group also supports green development of the economy. Ping An’s green investment of insurance funds and green loan balance reached RMB124.71 billion and RMB157.76billion respectively as of December 31, 2024. Ping An’s green insurance premium income amounted to RMB58.61 billion in 2024. The Company has been recognized for its ESG efforts. For example, in 2024, Ping An’s MSCI ESG rating rose to AA, ranking first in the Asia-Pacific region in “Multi-Line Insurance and Brokerage industry” category for three consecutive years.

The Fortune Global 500 ranks public and private companies based on annual revenue, serving as an authoritative benchmark for assessing the strength of large global corporations and the economic power of different countries. The combined revenue of the 2025 Fortune Global 500 companies reached approximately USD41.7 trillion, exceeding one-third of global GDP.

Ping An remains committed to its original aspiration of providing people-centered financial services, guided by customer needs. The Group maintains its business policy of “focusing on core businesses, boosting revenue and cutting costs, advancing reform and innovation, and preventing risks”. By deepening its technology-enabled “integrated finance + health and senior care” strategy, Ping An aims to fully support the development of the real economy, actively fulfill corporate social responsibilities, and meet growing financial, healthcare, and senior care needs. The Group is dedicated to maximizing value for customers, shareholders, employees, and society as a whole.

– End –

About Ping An Group

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (HKEx:2318 / 82318; SSE:601318) is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. It strives to become a world-leading provider of integrated finance, health and senior care services. Under the technology-driven “integrated finance + health and senior care” strategy, the Group provides professional “financial advisory, family doctor, and senior care concierge” services to its nearly 245 million retail customers. Ping An advances intelligent digital transformation and employs technologies to improve financial businesses’ quality and efficiency and enhance risk management. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. As of the end of December 2024, Ping An had more than RMB12 trillion in total assets. The Group ranked 27th in the Forbes Global 2000 list in 2025 and 47th in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2025. 

For more information, please visit www.group.pingan.com and follow us on LinkedIn – PING AN.

Groundbreaking: AiMOGA Robotics’ Humanoid Robot Becomes World’s First to Autonomously Open Car Doors

WUHU, China, July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — AiMOGA Robotics has announced a major milestone in the real-world deployment of embodied AI. Its humanoid robot, Mornine, has successfully performed an autonomous car door opening task inside a working Chery dealership — using only onboard sensors, full-body motion control, and end-to-end reinforcement learning.

Autonomous Door Opening, No Human Input

Unlike traditional scripted robots or teleoperated systems, Mornine completes the task without human intervention. The robot identifies the door handle, adjusts her posture, and pulls open the door using coordinated force across her arms, waist, and legs. The deployment marks one of the first instances of a service robot executing such a high-friction, physical interaction in a live commercial setting.

Mornine manages to open a Car Door
Mornine manages to open a Car Door

Perception and Learning via Reinforcement

Mornine’s sensor stack includes 3D LiDAR, depth and wide-angle cameras, and a visual-language model (VLM), allowing her to perceive door position and opening status in real time. Rather than being programmed to recognize handles, the robot learned this through reinforcement learning: over millions of simulation cycles, the model independently learned to focus on the correct region and execute the task.

“We never explicitly told the robot what a door handle is,” said the engineering team. “It learned to focus on that region by itself.”

Real-World Transfer Through Sim2Real

After simulation training, the learned model was deployed via Sim2Real methods. Mornine continues collecting live sensor data, which feeds back into the cloud training loop for ongoing improvement — enabling a continuous learning cycle in real deployments.

Commercial Use in Chery Dealerships

Mornine is currently operating in several Chery 4S dealerships in China. Beyond opening car doors, she assists in customer greeting, vehicle introduction, and item delivery. Her ability to handle physical tasks like door opening further supports AiMOGA’s vision of humanoid robots working alongside humans in real-world retail environments.

“Opening a car door may seem simple,” the company noted, “but in robotics, it marks a shift: from simulation to service, from command to capability.”

Lao President Reaffirms Commitment to Deepening Ties with Russia Ahead of Official Visit

President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo credit: Ekaterina Chesnokova, brics-russia2024.ru)

Ahead of his official visit to the Russian Federation from 30 July to 1 August, Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening the longstanding friendship and cooperation between Laos and Russia.

In a message published by both Russia’s state news agency and Lao state media, President Thongloun, himself a former student in Russia, described the visit as a heartfelt return. He called it a meaningful opportunity to reconnect with old friends and reaffirm the enduring relationship that continues to support peace, development, and mutual progress.

The roots of Lao-Russian relations stretch back to Laos’s struggle for independence, when the Soviet Union supported the Lao revolutionary movement. Formal diplomatic relations were established on 7 October 1960.

Following the establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1975, the Soviet Union played a key role in rebuilding the war-torn country, supporting healthcare, education, defence, and economic recovery.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Laos recognised the Russian Federation as its successor state in 1991. Their partnership entered a new phase with the signing of the 1994 Treaty on the Principles of Friendly Relations. Since then, cooperation has expanded across political, economic, humanitarian, and cultural sectors. The relationship was elevated to a strategic partnership in 2011.

President Thongloun praised Russia’s humanitarian efforts, particularly its assistance in clearing unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos, the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world. He expressed deep gratitude, calling the effort lasting proof of Russia’s friendship.

Economic ties have also grown, particularly in the mining, energy, and investment sectors. In 2024, more than 48,000 Russian tourists visited Laos, a sign of strengthening people-to-people connections.

The President also highlighted Russia’s contributions to capacity-building, noting that many Lao professionals have benefited from Russian educational programmes.

The visit coincides with several significant occasions: the Victory Day celebrations marking the end of the Second World War, the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Laos and Russia, and the 60th anniversary of the Lao-Russian Friendship Associations.

President Thongloun had initially planned to visit Russia in May to attend Victory Day celebrations, but the trip was postponed due to a COVID-19 infection. Lao Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane represented him in his absence.

Following that visit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed appreciation for Laos’s support in providing medical and psychological care to Russian military personnel.

Later this year, the two countries are scheduled to hold the Laros-2025 joint military exercises in Laos, further solidifying defence cooperation.

MyRepublic Awarded #1 Best Fixed Network in Asia by Ookla®


SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 30 July 2025 – MyRepublic announces that it has been officially recognised by Ookla®, a global leader in connectivity intelligence, as the #1 Best Fixed Network in Asia.

MyRepublic Awarded #1 Best Fixed Network in Asia by Ookla®
MyRepublic Awarded #1 Best Fixed Network in Asia by Ookla®

Millions of users around the world trust Speedtest® to measure the performance of their fixed and mobile networks every day. Ookla’s Best Fixed Network Award™, based on the Speedtest Connectivity Score™, provides a reliable measure of the overall fixed network experience.

The Speedtest Connectivity Score combines various real-world network performance metrics, with the methodology weighted as follows: 50% on network speed performance, 25% on streaming video experience, and 25% on web browsing experience. This ensures the results reflect the true user experience across multiple activities, with each aspect contributing to the final score.

MyRepublic earned this honour after being benchmarked against the top 10 fixed network providers across Asia, emerging as the region’s leading fixed broadband provider.

The award validates MyRepublic’s continued investment in delivering high-performance connectivity for homes and businesses alike. With an unwavering commitment to innovation, speed, and reliability, MyRepublic’s fixed network consistently outperforms its competitors across Asia in key areas, including download speed, latency, and overall user satisfaction.

“Being named the #1 Best Fixed Network in Asia by Ookla is a tremendous honour and a reflection of the hard work of the MyRepublic team,” said Lawrence Chan, Managing Director of MyRepublic Singapore. “We’ve always believed in pushing the boundaries of what broadband can do.

This recognition affirms our mission to deliver exceptional connectivity that empowers people and businesses to deliver their best. We accept this accolade not just on behalf of MyRepublic, but for Singapore as well. This is a testament to the country’s growing strength and innovation in digital infrastructure on the global stage.”

As one of Asia-Pacific’s most agile telecommunications companies, MyRepublic has built a reputation for disrupting traditional broadband markets, championing gamer-grade connectivity, and offering tailored solutions for SMEs and enterprises. This accolade from Ookla marks a major milestone in MyRepublic’s journey to transform digital experiences.
Hashtag: #MyRepublic #Ookla #SpeedTestAwards #BestFixedNetwork #BestBroadband #SpeedWinner





The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Ookla®

Ookla, a global leader in connectivity intelligence, brings together the trusted expertise of Speedtest®, Downdetector®, Ekahau®, and RootMetrics® to deliver unmatched network and connectivity insights. By combining multi-source data with industry-leading expertise, Ookla transforms network performance metrics into strategic, actionable insights.

Speedtest Awards, presented by Ookla, are an elite designation reserved for fixed and mobile providers in a market. Based on consumer-initiated tests and background scans from Speedtest applications, Speedtest Awards represent real world network performance provided to customers.

About MyRepublic

MyRepublic is an award-winning telecom operator whose values lie in the future of connectivity, the next opportunity to disrupt, and innovations that will make a real difference. The provider’s priority is to redefine broadband and mobile connectivity in the markets it operates and empower customers to understand what a true modern connectivity experience can be.

Soul App Redefines Human-AI Interaction with Full-Duplex Technology at WAIC 2025

SHANGHAI, July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — At the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) on July 26th, Soul App unveiled its AI-powered social solutions. In a live demonstration of its “Audio Partyroom”, the platform showcased its upgraded end-to-end full-duplex voice large language model (LLM), where an AI host seamlessly moderated group voice chats. The session highlighted how AI reshapes content and social dynamics — delivering smarter, more authentic, and deeply immersive emotional experiences.

“In this era where technology redefines human connection, AI-powered social networks aren’t just the future—they’re the present”, declared Tao Ming, Chief Technology Officer of Soul App. “We’re architecting a revolutionary paradigm where AI beings and humans don’t merely interact but thrive together. Through intelligent connection mapping, contextual understanding, and experience augmentation, Soul is cultivating a new dimension of digital belonging—one that delivers genuine joy and transforms how we perceive community”.


Toward More Natural AI Interaction: Full-Duplex Voice & Video for Genuine Emotional Connection

As technological advancements mature in 2025, the “AI application explosion” has become an industry consensus. Amid AI’s sweeping transformation across sectors, a question remains: What concrete value does “AI+” bring to individuals?

Representing the forefront of AI social exploration, Soul App presented its vision at WAIC 2025, demonstrating social solutions that redefine AI’s role in human connections.

At the exhibition themed “Soul’s AI Social Practice”, the platform highlighted how its full-duplex audio/video capabilities enable hyper-realistic and deeply immersive social experiences. Soul’s AI serves dual roles: as a caring companion that analyzes users’ social challenges to provide emotional support, and as an efficient connector that identifies mutual interests between users to foster genuine friendships.

The event marked the debut of Soul’s self-developed, end-to-end full-duplex voice model. Recently upgraded, this innovative model redefines the interaction paradigm by eliminating traditional reliance on Voice Activity Detection (VAD) mechanism and latency control logic. It breaks away from the industry’s prevalent turn-taking dialogue mode, empowering AI to autonomously determine conversation rhythms.

Social interaction involves the exchange of both emotional and informational value. By endowing AI with autonomy and warmth, Soul enables truly reciprocal social engagement and emotional symbiosis between humans and AI, moving beyond the transactional turn-based dialogues of the past.

The full-duplex voice model will soon enter beta testing before being implemented across various scenarios, including virtual human real-time calls and AI-assisted matching in both one-on-one and group settings. At WAIC, attendees experienced this technology firsthand through an AI host managing group voice chats on Soul’s platform.

In multi-user voice interactions, the AI host demonstrates human-like moderation capabilities, naturally engaging participants, energizing conversations, and encouraging discussion—significantly enhancing engagement and experience quality. “Applying full-duplex voice technology to group scenarios represents a crucial step in integrating AI into social networks, enhancing real connections, and enabling diverse experiences”, said Tao Ming, Soul’s CTO.

Recognizing users’ inherent preference for face-to-face interaction, Soul is also advancing multimodal capabilities. The exhibition featured the company’s latest progress in full-duplex real-time video call, combining audio technology with real-time video generation to let users see “the AI’s visual presence and digital environment,” creating more dimensional digital personas that deepen relational bonds. This builds on Soul’s recent achievement of having its real-time portrait video generation research accepted by CVPR 2025, a top-tier international academic conference.

Soul Reimagines Social Networking: Building an AI-Powered Playground for Chinese Gen Z

Since its launch in 2016, Soul has been at the forefront of reinventing social discovery, connection, and relationship-building through AI. The platform empowers users to express themselves in a pressure-free environment while forming diverse social networks based on shared interests—exemplified by its Lingxi Engine, the foundation of its current relationship model.

Soul’s AI journey accelerated in 2020 with systematic AIGC R&D, yielding cutting-edge capabilities in intelligent dialogue, voice technology, and 3D digital humans. The 2023 introduction of its proprietary Soul X model marked a turning point, followed by breakthroughs including voice generation, voice call, and music generation models. By 2024, Soul had consolidated these into a comprehensive multimodal end-to-end AI system supporting text/voice conversations, multilingual understanding, and hyper-realistic digital humans.

The platform’s competitive edge stems from three pillars: in-house R&D, unique public social data assets, and rapid application iteration. As a social networking platform, Soul continuously refines its “Emotional Intelligence Model” to precisely identify user needs and deliver lasting emotional value through AI.

Soul’s deep market insights—drawn from its user community—directly inform product development. Notably, 18% of new posts on Soul Square address real social challenges (making friends, starting conversations, workplace relationships). These authentic user stories and the emotional connections they spark form a valuable “social behavior database”.

Building on these insights, Soul is deepening AI-community integration by developing content recommendations and AI-assisted creation tools that lower expression barriers, while also cultivating an ecosystem of “Virtual Influencers” capable of delivering warm, nuanced emotional support—all working in concert to create authentic senses of emotional closeness within digital spaces.

At its core, the platform operates on a dual approach: facilitating human connections through AI assistance while simultaneously fostering meaningful “AI-as-companion” relationships”. True AI integration isn’t just about technology—it’s about weaving genuine emotional connections into the very fabric of users’ social networks”, explained Tao Ming, Soul’s CTO. “As AI becomes deeply embedded in every aspect of modern interaction—from socializing to digital lifestyles and consumer behavior—it’s giving rise to what we call emotional-value commerce. This evolution isn’t merely creating new market opportunities; it’s fundamentally reimagining the paradigms of social products”.

 

State Grid Jinchang Power Supply’s “Project Manager” Helps Enterprises with Production

JINCHANG, China, July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — During the surge in major project construction in Jinchang City, Gansu Jinchang Power Supply has adopted the “project manager” service model to meet customer needs, provide timely services to users, and help enterprises solve difficulties. While providing technical transformation schemes, it also carries out “one-stop” electricity services for enterprises, popularizes knowledge on the charging method of basic electricity fees for enterprises, guides enterprises to save electricity costs through time-of-use electricity prices, capacity-to-demand conversion and other methods, continuously improves the efficiency of installation and connection, promotes the early power transmission of power supply projects, and enables customers to reach production ahead of schedule, thus contributing to the steady growth of the province’s economy.

At the beginning of the year, Gansu Jinhongxiang New Energy Co., Ltd. officially resumed work and production. Jinchang Power Supply took prompt action, setting up a special service team composed of technical experts from marketing, operations and maintenance and other professions, and took the initiative to connect with the project manager to get involved in the pre-production planning of the project in advance. Members of the service team visited the project site many times, communicated with the project party, learned in detail about the project’s electricity demand, construction progress and production plan, and customized a scientific and reasonable power supply scheme for the project.