Category: South Africa

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, June 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Orano Canada Inc. (Orano Canada) and Cameco Corporation (Cameco) have reached an agreement to jointly acquire TEPCO Resources Inc. (TEPCO) 5% ownership in the Cigar Lake Joint Venture. Orano is pleased to announce that, upon closing, this transaction will increase its share by 2.129% to a total of 42.582% of the joint venture. Cameco’s ownership will also rise to a total of 57.418%.

“This agreement reflects the strength of our long-term relationship with Cameco and our shared commitment to supporting energy security through reliable, low-carbon nuclear energy. At Orano, we remain focused on investment and operational excellence in support of our customers worldwide,” said Xavier Saint Martin Tillet, Senior Executive Vice President, Orano Mining Business Unit.

“We are pleased to increase Orano’s ownership stake in the Cigar Lake mine,” said Pascal Bastien, President and CEO, Orano Canada. “This investment reflects our long-term confidence in Saskatchewan and its importance to Orano’s future growth in the global nuclear fuel cycle. We thank our long-standing partner, TEPCO, for its contribution to this operation over many years. Together with Cameco, we remain committed to the safe and reliable operation of the Cigar Lake mine and McClean Lake mill, while continuing to support our employees and the communities where we operate.”

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and standard closing conditions and should be closed in the third quarter of 2026.

About Orano Canada

Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Orano Canada Inc. is a leading producer of uranium, accounting for the processing of 19.8 million pounds of uranium concentrate produced in Canada in 2025. Orano Canada has been exploring for uranium, mining and milling in Canada for more than 60 years. Orano Canada is the operator of the McClean Lake uranium mill and a major partner in the Cigar Lake (currently 40.453% increasing to 42.582%), McArthur River (30.2%) and Key Lake (16.7%) operations. The McClean Lake joint venture is owned by Orano Canada (77.5%) and Denison Mines (22.5%). Orano toll mills the ore from the Cigar Lake mine at the McClean Lake mill.

The company employs about 500 people in Saskatchewan, including nearly 400 at the McClean Lake operation where over 44% of employees are self-declared Indigenous. As a sustainable uranium producer, Orano Canada is committed to safety, environmental protection, and contributing to the prosperity and well-being of neighbouring communities.

Orano Canada Inc. is a 100% subsidiary of Orano Mining, part of the multinational Orano group. As a recognized international operator in the field of nuclear materials, Orano delivers solutions to address present and future global energy and health challenges. Its expertise and mastery of cutting-edge technologies enable Orano to offer its customers high value-added products and services throughout the entire fuel cycle. Every day, the Orano group’s 18,500 employees draw on their skills, unwavering dedication to safety and constant quest for innovation, with the commitment to develop know-how in the transformation and control of nuclear materials, for the climate and for a healthy and resource-efficient world, now and tomorrow.

Visit Orano at www.oranocanada.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: @oranocanada

Media Contact
Carla Vipond
T: +1 (306) 343-4518
C: +1 (306) 260-9976
[email protected]

 

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9729767

• Generally available today, ZoomMate combines agentic search, AI-generated presentations and deliverables, and automated execution in Salesforce, Jira, Slack, ServiceNow, and more

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Zoom Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) announced the launch of ZoomMate, an agentic AI work surface to help people move from workplace conversations to execution without losing context along the way. Built on Zoom’s system of action vision announced in March, ZoomMate connects live conversational context to agentic search, workflow execution, custom agents, and AI content creation.

ZoomMate helps users overcome the friction introduced by fragmented tools and incomplete workflows by surfacing information across Zoom and connected business systems, creating deliverables from meeting and enterprise context, and coordinating follow-through across workflows without switching tools. This shift reflects Zoom’s long-term vision for a system of action that moves conversations into completed work.

“What drew me to Zoom was a simple truth: no other company sits where Zoom sits — at the center of every conversation where work decisions get made,” said Russell Dicker, chief product officer at Zoom. “ZoomMate is built on this insight. Before, during, and after the meeting, ZoomMate connects what was decided to what needs to happen next across every system where your work lives.”

“The market is moving away from isolated AI helpers and toward tools that can better connect decisions, data, and workflows across an organization,” said Melody Brue, vice president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Many AI offerings operate on the edges of work, with limited access to the real-time context affecting decisions. ZoomMate approaches this differently because it sits inside the conversations where those decisions unfold. This can give it live business context and help make its recommendations more grounded in the work that teams are actually doing.”

ZoomMate capabilities: Search, orchestrate, and complete

ZoomMate introduces advanced agentic AI capabilities that help teams move from insight to completion.

Agentic Search: Bring enterprise knowledge into every conversation

• ZoomMate helps users search across Zoom, the web, and third-party systems to find the most relevant information for a project, account, ticket, policy, or business question.
• By connecting to data sources such as ServiceNow, Salesforce, and Workday, and indexing across users’ integrated enterprise systems, ZoomMate can surface information from enterprise files, including customer records, open issues, service tickets, knowledge articles, project updates, files, and other business content.
• Relevant context from Zoom Meetings, Phone, Chat, and other connected collaboration platforms — including Google and Microsoft — can be directly integrated into the flow of work, so users always have what they need without switching tools or breaking focus.
• Results are grounded in the organization’s connected knowledge and designed to respect enterprise access controls, permissions, and governance.
• Unlike enterprise search tools that index documents alone, ZoomMate connects the files, the records, and the conversations behind them.

Orchestrate: Coordinate follow-through across teams, apps, and systems

• ZoomMate’s agentic layer enables proactive coordination and execution across systems, combining AI workflows with intelligent agents that can act, learn, and adapt within enterprise environments.
• Agents can monitor ongoing projects, identify next steps from meeting context, and automatically initiate follow-up actions, ensuring continuity from conversation to completion.
• Coordinates real-time task execution across meetings, apps, and systems to turn recurring processes into repeatable workflows.
• Schedules events in Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook and routes requests to appropriate systems.
• Updates records, creates follow-up tasks, drafts customer communications, and triggers onboarding or support workflows.
• Reduces handoff gaps by connecting conversational context with execution.

Complete: Turn meetings and enterprise context into finished deliverables

• ZoomMate turns meetings into finished work, automatically creating presentations, documents, spreadsheets, reports, and project plans from meeting conversations and enterprise context so teams can move from discussion to execution faster.
• Leveraging Zoom’s AI Productivity Suite, ZoomMate can update deliverables as decisions evolve, keeping plans, documents, and other outputs current in real time without manual syncing.
• Unlike AI tools that solely rely on prompts or manual context, ZoomMate understands what was discussed to generate grounded, relevant outputs directly from meeting context, delivering content in the form of presentations, documents, and spreadsheets.

How teams can use ZoomMate

ZoomMate integrates into existing team workflows to provide real-time assistance and continuity from the first meeting to the final deliverable. By connecting conversational context with enterprise data, teams can automate repetitive administrative tasks and focus on high-value execution.

• Knowledge workers: Users can ask ZoomMate to pull key information from Google Docs, open Jira issues, and surface recent Slack discussions before a meeting starts. Then, they could ask ZoomMate to manage and schedule events in Google Calendar or Outlook without having to hunt down each person’s availability. And finally, ZoomMate can help users track down specific information across various documents and data sources, such as Google Drive and SharePoint, for project updates, while using the conversation as the source of truth.
• Sales teams: ZoomMate can retrieve account details from Salesforce before a call, update opportunity records immediately after, and draft follow-up proposals using the meeting transcript, without the rep switching applications.
• Product and engineering teams: ZoomMate can pull project background from Google Docs, identify open Jira issues, surface relevant discussions from collaboration tools, and turn action items into structured plans or status updates that reflect the latest decisions.
• HR and operations teams: ZoomMate can answer general policy questions from connected knowledge bases, route employee requests to the appropriate system, and automatically trigger onboarding workflows when a new hire’s start date is confirmed.

Conversations as the orchestration layer for modern work

As AI becomes embedded across workplace software, the next challenge is not simply generating more content or summarizing more meetings — it is helping teams complete the work that conversations create. Zoom believes that conversations are the context layer for modern work because they capture decisions, intent, approvals, objections, and next steps that drive meaningful business outcomes.

ZoomMate is built around that idea. By connecting conversational context with enterprise systems and agentic execution, ZoomMate helps teams move from discussion to action without rebuilding context across disconnected tools. It reflects Zoom’s broader platform vision: a conversation-centric system of action where live collaboration becomes completed work.

ZoomMate is available today for online and direct customers in North America, starting at $20 per user per month with included AI credits. Availability for additional industry verticals and regions, including EMEA and APAC, is expected to roll out later this year.

*Note: While ZoomMate is generally available, it may not be accessible to all users right away, as it is being rolled out gradually.

About Zoom
Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) is a system of action for modern work, turning live collaboration into completed results. From entrepreneurs to global enterprises, customers choose Zoom to seamlessly collaborate, communicate, and drive outcomes across meetings, phone, contact center, and more — all with the built-in assistance of Zoom AI. Founded in 2011, Zoom is headquartered in San Jose, CA. For more information, visit zoom.com.

Zoom Public Relations
Lacretia Nichols
[email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9729472

The Pod Hotel. Perfected

LONDON, June 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Redefining the modern city stay from £70 per night, Otherwander opens in Soho, London.

In the electric heart of Soho, London, a new chapter in modern hospitality begins.

Opening on 92 Dean Street, Otherwander Soho introduces a seamless, design-led stay in one of the world’s most dynamic neighbourhoods, from £70 per night. It is a stay designed for the way people move today; reimagining the role of the hotel in modern travel, not as a destination, but as a base that keeps guests connected to the beating heart of the city.

 

At the core of the concept is the pod, which are called nests. Available as single or double, each pod is designed to optimise comfort, safety and efficiency. Premium bedding, lighting and temperature controls, blackout windows, sound-softened walls and integrated storage creates a calm, enclosed space that contrasts with the pulse outside.

From booking to arrival, the experience is fully digital. Guests check in online and access both the building and their private pod using a QR-enabled Wanderpass stored in their mobile wallet. The result is a frictionless journey that removes traditional barriers, allowing guests to move through the city on their own terms.

Otherwander opens in Soho (c) Ruth Ward

Built for a life in motion

Just moments from the Elizabeth line at Tottenham Court Road station, Otherwander Soho places guests at the centre of it all. Surrounded by theatres, cafés, boutiques, restaurants and nightlife, it offers a seamless way to arrive, reset, and step straight back into the city. Inviting you to stay out longer, and to say yes more often.

Born from the belief that travel should feel effortless, Otherwander Soho features 566 pods and strips the hotel experience back to its essentials.

Social by Design

Beyond the pods, Otherwander Soho offers a guest-exclusive social hub where guests can hang out, access fresh coffee, pastries, snacks, and a self-serve bar offering beers, wines, and cocktails.

Shared spaces are designed with the same attention to detail, featuring spa-quality bathrooms with rain showers and dedicated vanity areas, making it easy to reset before heading back out.

Otherwander Soho CEO, Fredrik Korallus says: “Otherwander Soho represents a distillation of what guests truly need – and should pay for. No frills, no wasted space, no friction. We offer a seamless, fully digitised guest journey, considered design, a comfortable night’s sleep, and exceptional value in the epicentre of one of the world’s greatest cities.”

And Soho is just the beginning.

Designed with global scalability in mind, Otherwander Soho aims to grow beyond the UK into major cities worldwide, carrying the same spirit of freedom, discovery, and effortless living wherever it goes.

Otherwander Soho is open from 1^st June 2026.
To discover more and book your stay, visit here.
For more information or to book a press stay, please contact: [email protected]

About Otherwander Soho
Otherwander Soho is a next-generation pod hotel brand for modern explorers, redefining urban stays through smart design, seamless technology, and cultural immersion. Born in the heart of Soho, London, Otherwander Soho offers efficient, design-led accommodation for travellers who value experience over excess. From private pods to intuitive self-service amenities, every detail is designed to remove friction from travel and make space for discovery.

Notes to editors

• Otherwander Soho is located on Dean Street, adjacent to the Elizabeth line entrance at Tottenham Court Road station
• Accommodation includes single pods for solo travellers and double pods for couples or friends
• Pod features include: premium bedding, blackout window, sound-softened walls, luggage storage, USB charging ports, and superfast Wi-Fi
• Shared facilities include spa-quality bathrooms with rain showers, touch-free taps, and toxin-free toiletries, plus dedicated vanity areas with hair dryers
• Social spaces include on-demand vending (coffee, pastries, snacks) and a self-serve bar with beers, wines, and cocktails
• Sustainability is integrated throughout the building, including multi-stage filtered water systems to reduce single-use plastics and smart sensors that optimise energy use by powering down spaces when not in use
• Prices start from £70 per night

Media Contact: [email protected]

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
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GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 1001185178

BEIJING, May 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — This year marks the 70th anniversary of China-Africa relations. CGTN has published an article highlighting Africa’s priority role in China’s overall foreign policy, while tracing how the China-Africa partnership has been forged and strengthened over decades. The article also explores how deepening cooperation in recent years has helped enhance the voice and representation of the Global South, and contributed to advancing a more balanced and democratic international order.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi exchanged congratulatory messages on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of China-Egypt ties, the occasion also highlighted a broader milestone: seven decades of China-Africa relations.

Xi noted that over the past 70 years, China-Egypt relations have become a model of amity, solidarity and cooperation among developing countries, as well as a benchmark for cooperation between China and Arab states and between China and Africa.

Today, China-Africa relations have evolved from a friendship forged in shared struggles into a dynamic partnership dedicated to development, modernization and the rise of the Global South.

From solidarity to strategic partnership

The foundations of China-Africa friendship were laid during a period of profound political change.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, China firmly supported African countries in their struggles for national independence and liberation. African nations, in turn, played a decisive role in restoring the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China at the United Nations in 1971. Of the 76 votes cast in favor of the resolution, 26 came from African countries – laying a strong foundation for China-Africa mutual trust.

Earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Africa, continuing a 36-year tradition of making the continent the destination of China’s foreign minister’s first overseas trip each year, highlighting the importance of China-Africa relations.

Over the past two decades, China-Africa cooperation has expanded rapidly. The establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000 provided an institutional framework for cooperation, while China’s Africa policy of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith further guided bilateral relations. In 2015, the two sides elevated their ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and launched the “Ten Cooperation Plans,” setting a strong foundation for rapid modernization across the African continent.

At the 2024 FOCAC summit, China and Africa further upgraded their relationship to an all-weather community with a shared future for the new era. China also expanded duty-free access from 33 African countries to all 53 African countries with diplomatic ties by 2025, becoming the first major economy to grant unilateral zero-tariff treatment across all product categories to every African country with which it has diplomatic relations.

Humphrey Moshi, a prominent Tanzanian economist, described China-Africa cooperation as a significant example of Global South solidarity. He said such solidarity helps transform developing countries from “passive participants” into “active shapers” of international rules.

Advancing modernization through practical cooperation

While political trust forms the foundation of China-Africa relations, economic cooperation has become both the stabilizer and growth engine of the partnership.

According to data released by China’s General Administration of Customs, China-Africa trade reached a record $348 billion in 2025, up 17.7% from the previous year, with China remaining Africa’s largest trading partner for the 17th consecutive year. The momentum has continued into 2026. In the first quarter alone, China’s trade with the African countries totaled 646.56 billion yuan ($92.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 23.7%.

At the same time, the Belt and Road Initiative has reshaped connectivity across the continent by upgrading the railway system with projects such as the Tazara Railway and the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, which are flagship projects that set examples for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Africa.

According to China’s Foreign Ministry, China has signed debt-relief agreements or reached debt-relief understandings with 19 African countries as of 2023, making it the largest contributor to debt-service suspension efforts under the G20 framework.

Meanwhile, China has trained tens of thousands of African professionals through scholarships, vocational training and educational exchange programs. As of June 2025, China has established 17 Luban Workshops across 15 African countries, while the China-Africa university cooperation plan, a higher education initiative pairing Chinese universities with African institutions, has connected 114 higher education institutions.

Paul Frimpong, executive director and senior research fellow of the Africa-China Centre for Policy & Advisory, said China’s contribution to Africa’s development is increasingly visible.

“China’s sharing of knowledge, skills and experience in sectors such as manufacturing and green energy is having a profound impact on Africa’s journey toward modernization and self-reliance,” he added.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-05-30/China-Africa-ties-at-70-Path-to-a-shared-dream-of-modernization-1NzbT7rDWhy/p.html

CGTN Digital [email protected]

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 9729282