Category: Africa

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Agora, the Denodo Cloud Service, now available on the Microsoft Marketplace to Power Agentic AI Use Cases

Agora enables Microsoft Azure customers worldwide to leverage their full data estate across hybrid, multi-cloud, and data-sovereignty environments to accelerate agentic AI initiatives

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Denodo, a leader in data management and a Microsoft AI Cloud Partner, announced that Agora, the Denodo Cloud Service — a fully managed platform — is now available on the Microsoft Marketplace. Agora provides native integrations with Microsoft services including Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen2, Power BI, and Azure Synapse Analytics, as well as partner services such as Azure OpenAI and Azure Databricks. Agora, combined with Microsoft’s AI and data services, enable organizations to extend their agentic AI capabilities to critical data residing in 200+ source systems across on-premises systems, SaaS offerings, and other cloud platforms while facilitating compliance with regulatory, data sovereignty, and security requirements.

Agora complements Microsoft Fabric’s semantic intelligence capabilities by providing the logical data access layer that connects AI agents to operational and analytical data outside Microsoft systems. While Microsoft Fabric delivers semantic understanding and orchestration capabilities for AI agents through Fabric IQ, Agora enables those agents to access live, trusted data from non-Microsoft sources — including SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Snowflake, and hundreds of additional systems across on-premises and hybrid environments. This complementary architecture supports multiple agent consumption patterns, from Microsoft Copilot agents accessing enterprise-wide data through Agora’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration to custom AI agents built with Microsoft Foundry leveraging Agora’s APIs for real-time data retrieval. Agora also includes a data marketplace that enables PowerBI and other business users to find, access, and utilize enterprise data through the same semantic layer that powers AI agents, enabling humans and AI agents to share consistent business definitions and context.

Together, Agora’s agentic-AI-ready data foundation and Microsoft’s AI and data services power real-time decision-making, hyper-personalized experiences, agentic workflows, and other hybrid and multi-cloud use cases that depend on live, governed access to distributed data. This approach minimizes latency, reduces data drift risk, and ensures mission-critical insights and automated actions are always based on the most current information available. To support secure, governed access and enable seamless compliance, Agora integrates with Microsoft Entra ID and delivers fine-grained data governance capabilities such as attribute-based access control, end-to-end lineage, and policy enforcement for non-Microsoft sources.

“Microsoft is pleased to welcome Agora to Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft Marketplace,” said Jake Zborowski, general manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. “Together with Denodo, we look forward to helping enterprises accelerate agentic AI initiatives — especially those operating in complex hybrid, multi-cloud, and data-sovereign environments.”

With Agora available on the Microsoft Marketplace, organizations can get started quickly with options ranging from free trials to private offers for annual contracts and consumption-based pricing. These options enable customers to choose the model that best fits their business needs, while streamlining procurement and enabling customers to apply their Denodo purchase — an Azure IP co-sell-eligible solution — toward their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).

“With Agora’s availability on the Microsoft Marketplace and seamless integrations to Microsoft’s AI and data services, we offer our mutual customers a powerful solution for agentic AI use cases that leverage an organization’s entire data estate across hybrid and multi-cloud environments,” said Suresh Chandrasekaran, executive vice president, Denodo. “Agora on the Microsoft Marketplace delivers new levels of agility, scalability, cost-efficiency, and ease-of-use.”

For more information

About Denodo
Denodo is a global leader in data management, powering trustworthy AI agents and applications. The Denodo Platform, an award-winning logical data management solution, transforms enterprise data into reliable insights for AI, analytics, and self-service initiatives. Organizations worldwide use Denodo to deliver AI-ready, business-ready data in a fraction of the time compared to traditional data lakehouses, achieving up to 4x faster time-to-insight, 345% ROI, and 10x better performance. For more information, visit denodo.com.

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GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9727203

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Holafly partners with Valientes Colombia to support community-led initiatives and address the social impact of tourism

Partnership for Responsible Tourism in Colombia

Holafly partners with Valientes Colombia to support community-led initiatives and address the social impact of tourism.

DUBLIN, May 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As discussions about responsible travel move beyond sustainability toward real impact, Holafly, the global eSIM provider for travelers, announces a partnership with Valientes Colombia, a locally led organization that prevents exploitation and supports vulnerable communities through education and long-term initiatives.

The collaboration comes as destinations such as Colombia see strong growth in international tourism, creating new opportunities while also revealing realities that are harder to ignore in certain regions. Among these realities, the presence of exploitative dynamics linked to tourism, including forms of sexual exploitation, remains a complex issue that cannot be addressed from a distance and requires sustained, on-the-ground work.

Holafly approaches this partnership with a clear conviction: that travel should care, not only about the experience itself, but about the people, communities, and environments that make it possible. “As a global travel brand, we see our role as extending beyond enabling travel and taking an active position in promoting a more responsible, conscious, and safe way of moving across borders, particularly in contexts where mobility and digital environments can intersect with social risks that are not always visible to travelers,” said Pedro Maiquez, co-founder and VP of Growth at Holafly.

This perspective reflects a growing awareness that travel can shape local realities in different ways, and that being part of the industry requires engaging with those contexts in a more thoughtful and consistent manner. The partnership with Valientes Colombia supports an organization that works directly with communities and combines research, school-based prevention programs, and on-the-ground action to better understand these challenges, raise awareness, and respond when needed.

The collaboration also reflects Holafly’s commitment to understanding responsibility beyond environmental terms, and to being part of a broader conversation about the role travel plays in society, one that increasingly includes people, communities, and local contexts.

By supporting Valientes Colombia, Holafly aims to contribute to a more responsible and inclusive approach to travel; one that extends beyond the experience itself and considers the lasting impact on the communities that make those journeys possible.

About Holafly
Holafly is the global leader in eSIMs for travelers, delivering coverage in over 200 destinations. With an outstanding 4.6/5 rating on Trustpilot and more than 15 million satisfied users, it has become the preferred eSIM choice for international travelers. Its unlimited data and build-in back up plan offering ensures peace of mind anywhere in the world.

About Valientes Colombia
Valientes Colombia is a locally led organization dedicated to preventing exploitation and supporting vulnerable communities through education, awareness, and long-term development programs. By working directly with communities, the organization creates opportunities that strengthen social resilience and promote safer, more sustainable local environments.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af655282-d5a8-4df5-9cb0-1d282914357c

Media contact: [email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1001183322

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AACSB and Scholarly Societies Release Framework to Advance Research Impact in Business Education

Collaborative report provides guidance, resources, and practical pathways for business schools seeking to broaden the impact of their research

TAMPA, Fla., May 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Business schools are under growing pressure to demonstrate that their research matters beyond academia, yet most lack a clear framework for doing so. Today, a coalition of 10 global academic organizations is offering a path forward through the release of A Framework for Research Impact: Insights, Pathways, and Calls to Action.

The report coincides with AACSB’s inaugural Research Impact Conference, offered in partnership with the Academy of Management, and provides business schools with an actionable approach and resources to help broaden how they define, assess, and communicate research impact.

Developed by AACSB’s Global Research Impact Task Force, the framework presents an expanded understanding of the research impact ecosystem, one that connects scholarship to business practice, public policy, teaching, and society.

Global Research Impact Task Force

  • AACSB International
  • Academy of International Business
  • Academy of Management
  • American Accounting Association
  • American Marketing Association
  • Asia Academy of Management
  • Association for Information Systems
  • European Accounting Association
  • Journal of Operations Management
  • Production and Operations Management Society

The framework reflects months of work by the task force and includes extensive input from across the business education ecosystem through global surveys, roundtables, focus groups, advisory discussions, and feedback on an exposure draft released in October 2025. It encourages institutions to adopt more intentional and mission-aligned approaches to supporting, evaluating, and communicating research impact.

“For too long, research impact has been defined too narrowly,” said Lily Bi, president and chief executive officer of AACSB. “I am excited to share the work of the task force from over the last year. This framework helps institutions move from measuring outputs to understanding and a outcomes and impact.”

The report, which is just phase one of an ongoing effort to drive systemwide change, emphasizes that impactful research often emerges through ongoing engagement among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, learners, and communities. It also highlights the importance of aligning institutional strategy, incentives, culture, and infrastructure to support multiple forms of research impact.

Among its recommendations, the framework encourages business schools to:

  • Develop mission-aligned research impact strategies
  • Strengthen connections among research, teaching, and external engagement
  • Adopt more balanced approaches to evaluating research impact
  • Recognize both quantitative and qualitative evidence of impact
  • Create institutional environments that support diverse forms of impactful scholarship

To support business schools in implementation, the framework includes practical resources such as a Research Impact Assessment Tool and a Research Impact Ecosystem Guide. Together, these resources help schools evaluate current practices, identify opportunities for improvement, and strengthen institutional alignment around research impact.

The framework also aligns with AACSB’s 2026 Global Standards for Business Education™ and associated Pathways to Impact model, which call for a broader understanding of impact by business schools.

The report concludes with a series of strategic imperatives for stakeholder groups across the research ecosystem—including scholarly associations, publishers, journals, media, ranking bodies, and others—calling for a more collective and coordinated approach to advancing research impact and building on the momentum generated by the task force.

For more information and to access the full report, visit aacsb.edu/research-impact-framework.

About AACSB

Established in 1916, AACSB International (AACSB) connects educators, learners, and businesses to create the next generation of great leaders. With more than 2,000 member organizations and over 1,000 accredited business schools worldwide, AACSB is the world’s largest business education network. Through its global standards, accreditation, and thought leadership, AACSB fosters engagement, accelerates innovation, and amplifies impact in business education.

aacsb.edu
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9726585

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Elevate Your Strategy: Global Trading Competition Launch with Major Cash Prizes

EBC Financial Group initiates dual-track events across Asia and Africa, offering both risk-free simulated environments and high-stakes market showdowns to empower traders of all experience levels

LONDON, May 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — EBC Financial Group (EBC), the World’s Best Broker according to World Finance, has launched two multimarket trading competitions designed to support trader engagement and broaden participation across emerging trading communities in Asia and Africa. The promotion is provided by EBC Financial Group (SVG) LLC under the EBC Financial Group brand and includes two distinct events: the EBC Trading Masters Competition and the EBC Elite Demo Trading Competition.

Structured to accommodate participants across varying levels of trading experience, the dual-track initiatives reflect EBC’s continued commitment to fostering a trader-first ecosystem grounded in transparency, accessibility, and continuous learning.

Through both competitions, participants will have the opportunity to benchmark their trading strategies within structured environments where rankings are determined by return rate rather than account size, reinforcing a performance-based framework where discipline and strategy remain central to competitive outcomes.

EBC Trading Masters Competition: Recognising Performance in Live Market Conditions

Targeted at experienced participants, the EBC Trading Masters Competition introduces a live trading environment where traders compete using real funds across Mongolia, Taiwan, and Thailand from 11 May to 5 June 2026.

The competition is open to PRO and STD account holders, with minimum equity requirements beginning from USD100 in Mongolia and USD200 in Taiwan and Thailand.

The competition will be conducted through eligible PRO and STD trading accounts, providing participants with direct exposure to live market conditions within a professionally structured environment. To encourage transparency and shared learning across the trading community, all participants will be required to publish trading signals throughout the competition period.

Across Taiwan and Thailand, prize pools will reach up to USD7,000 per session, with top-performing participants eligible to receive prizes of up to USD3,000. Rankings will be determined by return rate performance, reinforcing a competition structure where trading discipline and strategy take precedence over account balance size.

Participants may register multiple eligible accounts, with awards determined by their best-performing account, while structured risk controls and monitoring mechanisms are implemented throughout the competition period to maintain fairness and accountability.

EBC Elite Demo Trading Competition: Accessible Participation in a Risk-Free Environment

Designed for new and developing traders, the EBC Elite Demo Trading Competition offers participants the opportunity to engage with live market conditions through simulated accounts without real capital exposure.

The competition will run from 11 May to 22 May 2026 across Vietnam, Indonesia, Africa, and South Korea, with participants competing using newly created demo accounts funded with a simulated fixed starting equity of USD10,000.

Competition participants will begin with equal simulated starting capital of USD10,000, creating a level playing field where rankings are determined by return rate performance rather than account size. Across the regional sessions, participants will compete for prize pools of up to USD1,700, including a top prize of USD1,000 in the South Korea session. The competition framework is further supported by structured participation guidelines designed to uphold transparency, fairness, and disciplined trading engagement throughout the campaign period.

By creating a controlled environment focused on strategy development and performance benchmarking, the initiative aims to encourage informed market participation while helping traders build confidence and trading discipline.

“At EBC, we believe trader development is built on transparency, discipline, and access to structured opportunities that encourage continuous growth,” said Lewis Tang, Brand Director at EBC Financial Group. “These competitions are designed not only to recognise trading performance, but also to foster greater engagement, knowledge sharing, and responsible participation across diverse trading communities.”

Both competitions incorporate standardised ranking methodologies and operational safeguards, including return-rate-based evaluations and volume-based tiebreaker mechanisms, ensuring outcomes are determined by measurable trading performance.

The launch of the initiatives further reflects EBC’s ongoing efforts to strengthen trader engagement across key international markets while supporting broader participation within the evolving global trading landscape.

For more information regarding eligibility requirements, competition rules, and registration details, please visit EBC Financial Group website at www.ebc.com.

Risk Disclaimer
Trading foreign exchange (FX) and contracts for differences (CFDs) on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Losses can exceed deposits. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consider your investment objectives and risk tolerance carefully before trading.

About EBC Financial Group

Founded in London, EBC Financial Group (EBC) is a global brand known for its expertise in financial brokerage and asset management. Through its regulated entities operating across major financial jurisdictions—including the UK, Australia, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, and others—EBC enables retail, professional, and institutional investors to access global markets and trading opportunities, including currencies, commodities, CFDs and more.

Trusted by investors in over 100 countries and honoured with global awards including multiple year recognition from World Finance, EBC is widely regarded as one of the world’s best brokers with titles including Best Trading Platform and Most Trusted Broker. With its strong regulatory standing and commitment to transparency, EBC has also been consistently ranked among the top brokers—trusted for its ability to deliver secure, innovative, and client-first trading solutions across competitive international markets.

EBC’s subsidiaries are licensed and regulated within their respective jurisdictions. EBC Financial Group (UK) Limited is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); EBC Financial Group (Cayman) Limited is regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA); EBC Financial Group (Australia) Pty Ltd, and EBC Asset Management Pty Ltd are regulated by Australia’s Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC); EBC Financial (MU) Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Commission Mauritius (FSC).

At the core of EBC are a team of industry veterans with over 40 years of experience in major financial institutions. Having navigated key economic cycles from the Plaza Accord and 2015 Swiss franc crisis to the market upheavals of the COVID-19 pandemic. We foster a culture where integrity, respect, and client asset security are paramount, ensuring that every investor relationship is handled with the utmost seriousness it deserves.

EBC is a proud official foreign exchange partner of FC Barcelona and continues to drive impactful partnerships to empower communities – namely through the UN Foundation’s United to Beat Malaria initiative, Oxford University’s Department of Economics, and a diverse range of partners to champion initiatives in global health, economics, education, and sustainability.

https://www.ebc.com/

Media Contact: 
Aldric Tinker Toyad
Global PR Lead
[email protected]

Faiz Alavi Sulaiman
Senior PR Executive
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9726311

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CGTN: Putting people first: A guiding principle in China’s governance

CGTN published an article showcasing how the people-centered governance approach has significantly improved living standards in China, and how it is expected to bring further tangible improvements to people’s lives in the future

BEIJING, May 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ahead of this year’s Spring Festival, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited a community canteen at an apartment complex for seniors to learn about local efforts to improve public convenience services and elderly care. He also had a warm conversation with delivery workers taking a break at the canteen, asking about their work and daily lives.

Xi stressed that Party committees and governments at all levels must care for them and provide better services to support their lives, work and education.

The year 2026 marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Xi once pointed out that people represent the nation, and the nation is made up of people. He also said the survival of a party depends on the support of its people, adding that with people’s confidence and support, the CPC is invincible in the face of any obstacles.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, nearly 100 million people have been lifted out of poverty, China has completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and the country has established the world’s largest systems for education, social security, healthcare and urban housing support.

Access to education at all levels has reached or surpassed the average for middle- and high-income countries. Basic medical insurance coverage has remained above 95%, life expectancy has risen above 79 years, and the middle-income group now exceeds 400 million people.

The emphasis on putting people first is more evident as China is in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). More than one-third of the plan for national economic and social development is related to people’s livelihoods, covering employment, income, education, healthcare, elderly care and childcare – issues that are of the greatest and most immediate concern to the public.

Regarding food delivery couriers, ride-hailing drivers and e-commerce workers, known as the “new forms of employment” and representing a fast-growing part of China’s labor market that has emerged with the rise of the internet and digital economy, the plan stressed efforts to boost the sound development of flexible and new forms of employment and support people in flexible and new forms of employment to participate in insurance schemes for employees and further improve the policies for transferring social security accounts.

Zhang Linshan, a researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said the 15th Five-Year Plan sends a strong signal that China remains committed to a people-centered approach, with high-quality development focused on improving the quality of people’s lives and ensuring that development outcomes benefit all people more broadly and more fairly.

Zhang said this also reflects China’s shift in development from pursuing whether there is growth to pursuing whether growth is of higher quality.

The goal is to ensure that economic growth and improvements in people’s livelihoods advance in tandem, creating a virtuous cycle and enabling people to feel more secure and more confident about the future, Zhang added.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-05-24/Putting-people-first-A-guiding-principle-in-China-s-governance-1NpJlbWbCUM/p.html

 

Contact:
CGTN Digital
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9725899

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Google Cloud Security Uses Instruqt Platform to Train 150+ Practitioners on Agentic AI at Google Next 2026

Instruqt’s hands-on platform delivers a dedicated Vertex AI environment per participant, demonstrating a new operational model for closing the AI-adoption gap at conference scale

AMSTERDAM, May 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Instruqt, the hands-on product experience platform used by MongoDB, Elastic, Google, and SUSE, today announced that Google Cloud Security used Instruqt to train more than 150 practitioners on Agentic AI capabilities at Google Next 2026. The session, branded the Agentic SOC Experience, is one of the largest hands-on Agentic AI training sessions delivered at a major industry conference this year.

Using Instruqt, participants created a dedicated Google Cloud Vertex AI environment, building their own agents from scratch and exploring Google’s agentic capabilities in isolated sandbox environments rather than watching slide-based demos.

“On the AI front, Instruqt is fantastic because it allows us to spin up a dedicated Vertex environment per participant,” said Keith Manville, a Pre-Sales Engineer on Google Cloud Security’s customer-facing team, who led the session. “Participants walked away with understanding what an agent is, what those primitive features are that we build into an agent, and how to use them. Everyone learns differently. Because the technology is complex, if you’ve never seen it before, you really don’t know where to click or what to do. Instruqt helps us seamlessly move the user through that journey of learning how to operate the product.”

Closing the AI adoption gap

The workshop reflects a broader operational shift across the software industry. AI is shipping features faster than customers can adopt them, and the gap between product released and product adopted is where pipeline, retention, and revenue are being lost. According to SlashData’s 2026 State of Developer Adoption Report, 92% of practitioners face at least one significant adoption challenge, with technology complexity (26%), team misalignment (27%), and outdated content (25%) cited as the top causes.

“The companies that win the AI era won’t just ship the best products. They will be the ones who help their customers actually use them,” said Tyler Crumpler, VP of Marketing at Instruqt. “What Google Cloud Security did at Google Next is a model for what every AI-led company should be doing. Put customers into a real environment, with real tools, and let them build something they can take back to work. That’s how adoption compounds, that’s how skills compound, and that’s how pipeline compounds.”

About Instruqt

Instruqt is the hands-on product experience platform that helps the world’s leading software companies turn complex products into confident customers. Marketing, sales, and education teams at MongoDB, Elastic, Google, SUSE, and others use Instruqt to deliver scalable, browser-based experiences that drive product adoption, generate qualified pipeline, and accelerate skills development. Founded in Amsterdam, Instruqt is the platform of record for developer-led growth in the AI era. Learn more at instruqt.com.

Media Contact

Tyler Crumpler, VP of Marketing, Instruqt
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1001183741