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Latest NWEA Research Shows COVID Academic Recovery Still Elusive

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Achievement gains continue to fall short of pre-pandemic trends, particularly for middle schoolers

PORTLAND, Ore., July 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — NWEA, a K-12 assessment and research organization, announced today the latest report in its research series examining the impacts of the pandemic’s disruptions to learning and the status of academic recovery. This new report features data from the 2023-24 academic year and underscores that unfinished learning continues to be a challenge due to lower achievement gains compared to pre-pandemic trends.

The analysis examined test scores from approximately 7.7 million U.S. students currently in grades 3 – 8 in 22,400 public schools who took the MAP® Growth™ assessment in 2023-24. This sample compared scores to a similar group of 10 million students who tested in grades 3-8 in the pre-COVID school years between 2016 and 2019. Key findings highlight persistent achievement gaps and the long road ahead, especially for older students:

Achievement gains during 2023-24 fell short of pre-pandemic trends in nearly all grades. This continues the trend of stalled progress observed in the previous school year and indicates that pandemic recovery remains elusive. The gap between pre-COVID and COVID test score averages widened in 2023-24 in nearly all grades, by an average of 36% in reading and 18% in math.The average student will need the equivalent of 4.8 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.4 months in math. Comparing across race/ethnicity groups, achievement gains for all students lagged pre-pandemic trends in 2023-24. Marginalized students remain the furthest from recovery.

“Achievement disparities that predate the pandemic have been starkly exacerbated over the last four years, and marginalized students are still the furthest from recovery,” said Dr. Karyn Lewis, Director of Research and Policy Partnerships at NWEA and one of the authors of the report. “Pandemic fatigue is real, but accepting a new normal of lower achievement and widened inequities is not an option. We must remain committed to using data-driven strategies, providing our schools with the right scale of support, and integrating sustained recovery efforts into our educational framework so we can make lasting change.”

One insight from the report focused on the continued challenges of current middle schoolers who were in their early years of schooling when the pandemic hit. This group shows the most significant achievement gaps, needing an estimated six to nine months of additional schooling to catch up to pre-pandemic levels. This also highlights the compounding impact of those learning disruptions and the continued need to provide interventions and recovery support to those students who need it most and may need it for years to come.

“As millions of students continue to fall behind academically, schools across the country are grappling with an impending ESSER financial cliff as federal COVID relief funds run out this September,” said Lindsay Dworkin, SVP of Policy & Government Affairs at NWEA. “Even as resources dwindle, districts must try to continue investing in evidence-based strategies that have been proven to improve student outcomes: keeping kids in school, providing high-dosage tutoring, and offering expanded instructional time over the summer or after school. State and federal policymakers also need to recognize the continued urgency and step up with more funding. We must collectively rise to the challenge of supporting this generation of students to reach their full potential.”

Read the full report: https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/recovery-still-elusive-2023-24-student-achievement-highlights-persistent-achievement-gaps-and-a-long-road-ahead/

About NWEA

NWEA® (a division of HMH) is a mission-driven organization that supports students and educators in more than 146 countries through research, assessment solutions, policy and advocacy, and professional learning that support our diverse educational communities. Visit NWEA.org to learn more about how we’re partnering with educators to help all kids learn.

Contact: Simona Beattie, Communications Director, simona.beattie@nwea.org or 971.361.9526

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Huawei Cloud Launches Agentic Infrastructure and CodeArts Agent OBT in Thailand, Accelerating Enterprise AI Innovation

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BANGKOK, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Huawei Cloud hosted Huawei Cloud Summit Thailand 2026, bringing together leaders from government, business, industry partners, and the technology community to exchange views on how cloud and AI can support Thailand’s digital economy. During the event, Huawei Cloud announced “Huawei Cloud Agentic Infrastructure: Now Available for Thailand” and officially launched Huawei Cloud CodeArts Agent Open Beta Testing (OBT) in the country.

Mr. Sunny Shang, President of Huawei Cloud APAC, outlined the company’s commitment to working with customers and partners to build an AI-driven digital future for Thailand. Regarding the government’s direction, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society emphasized the acceleration of digital transformation through national AI policies, public-sector adoption, and stronger public-private collaboration.

The public-sector highlighted how AI can improve government operations and make public services faster and more convenient. NECTEC also presented a Government AI case study covering the development of AI infrastructure and platforms, as well as AI chatbots and intelligent assistants designed to support government officials and improve services for citizens.

Building the Foundation for the Agentic AI Era

Mr. Surasak Wanichwatphibun, CTO of Huawei Cloud Thailand said Huawei Cloud will continue to strengthen its technological capabilities and build a robust computing infrastructure to drive AI innovation across enterprises.

At the center of the announcement is Agentic Infra, a new infrastructure designed specifically for developing and deploying AI agents. It supports efficient token generation, unified scheduling of general-purpose and AI computing resources, continuous learning, and secure and autonomous agent operations.

Mr. Surasak introduced four new features under Agentic Infra:

UnifiedBus-based AI Cluster Service (AICS), which supports highly efficient token generationAgentic Memory Storage Service (AMS), which delivers PB-scale memory storage to address a key bottleneck in agent memory, enabling long-horizon tasks and facilitating continuous learning.AgentSphere, which offers a secure and autonomous runtime environment for AI agentsCCE VolcanoNext, which enables unified scheduling of general-purpose and AI computing resources

CodeArts Agent OBT Launches in Thailand

Another major highlight was the launch of Huawei Cloud CodeArts Agent OBT in Thailand, giving local developers and enterprises an opportunity to experience Huawei Cloud’s coding agent and provide feedback before its wider release.

CodeArts Agent combines IDE functionality, autonomous development capabilities, and coding models. It supports project-level code generation, code completion, R&D knowledge Q&A, and unit test case generation.

The platform also applies Specification-Driven Development (SDD) to help development teams maintain code quality from the requirements stage through to final delivery.

It is worth mentioning that this release also introduces the Agent Team mode, which can automatically form a development team, enabling multiple agents to collaborate concurrently and execute tasks simultaneously.

By reducing repetitive tasks, CodeArts Agent can help developers work more efficiently and allow organizations to bring digital products and services to market faster.

The OBT launch forms part of Huawei Cloud’s efforts to support Thailand’s developer community and make AI-assisted software development more accessible to organizations of different sizes.

Strengthening Security for Enterprise AI

Mr. Surasak also emphasized security, stability, and quality as key priorities for enterprise AI adoption. As cyberattacks become increasingly automated and AI-driven, Huawei Cloud has upgraded its security services in two areas: protecting AI systems and using AI to strengthen cyber defense.

Its model lifecycle security solution covers AI infrastructure, training data, model inference, and agent applications.

For enterprises concerned about data sovereignty and privacy, Huawei Cloud provides dedicated security zones that allow customers to independently manage their encryption keys while preventing platform administrators from accessing customer data. Software-hardware integration and hardware acceleration are also used to maintain encryption performance without compromising service efficiency. Huawei Cloud has also introduced Data Capsule technology, which ensures that data can only be used within authorized environments and automatically becomes invalid if moved outside a designated security zone.

Showcasing AI Use Cases Across Industries

Huawei Cloud Summit Thailand 2026 also featured AI and cloud use cases from organizations in Thailand. These included the development of AI platforms and intelligent assistants for the public sector, the use of AI coding and large language models in banking, and AI-powered learning and skills development platforms for the HR sector.

Huawei Cloud and its partners also shared how ecosystem collaboration can help solve industry challenges and accelerate AI adoption among enterprises.

About Huawei Cloud Thailand

Huawei Cloud Thailand is a leading cloud service provider committed to accelerating Thailand’s digital transformation under the mission of “In Thailand, For Thailand.” According to the latest report from Gartner, Huawei Cloud is ranked No.3 by revenue in Thailand’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market, solidifying its position as one of the most trusted and fastest-growing international cloud providers in the country.

As the first international public cloud vendor to establish local data centers in Thailand, Huawei Cloud now operates three Availability Zones, ensuring high reliability and low-latency connectivity for local users. Leveraging Huawei’s 30-plus years of expertise in ICT infrastructure, it integrates cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud-Native 2.0, and Big Data technologies to empower over 40 government agencies and thousands of enterprises across the Kingdom. By building a robust digital ecosystem and fostering local talent, Huawei Cloud aims to drive Thailand’s “Digital Economy” forward, bringing cloud and intelligence to every corner of the country for a fully connected, intelligent future.

For more information, please visit Huawei Cloud Thailand online at

https://www.huaweicloud.com/intl/th-th/ or follow us on:

https://www.facebook.com/HuaweiCloudTH

https://www.youtube.com/@HuaweiCloudAPAC

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/huawei-cloud-launches-agentic-infrastructure-and-codearts-agent-obt-in-thailand-accelerating-enterprise-ai-innovation-302833957.html

SOURCE Huawei Cloud Thailand

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Huawei Cloud Launches Agentic Infrastructure and CodeArts Agent OBT in Thailand, Accelerating Enterprise AI Innovation

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BANGKOK, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Huawei Cloud hosted Huawei Cloud Summit Thailand 2026, bringing together leaders from government, business, industry partners, and the technology community to exchange views on how cloud and AI can support Thailand’s digital economy. During the event, Huawei Cloud announced “Huawei Cloud Agentic Infrastructure: Now Available for Thailand” and officially launched Huawei Cloud CodeArts Agent Open Beta Testing (OBT) in the country.

Mr. Sunny Shang, President of Huawei Cloud APAC, outlined the company’s commitment to working with customers and partners to build an AI-driven digital future for Thailand. Regarding the government’s direction, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society emphasized the acceleration of digital transformation through national AI policies, public-sector adoption, and stronger public-private collaboration.

The public-sector highlighted how AI can improve government operations and make public services faster and more convenient. NECTEC also presented a Government AI case study covering the development of AI infrastructure and platforms, as well as AI chatbots and intelligent assistants designed to support government officials and improve services for citizens.

Building the Foundation for the Agentic AI Era

Mr. Surasak Wanichwatphibun, CTO of Huawei Cloud Thailand said Huawei Cloud will continue to strengthen its technological capabilities and build a robust computing infrastructure to drive AI innovation across enterprises.

At the center of the announcement is Agentic Infra, a new infrastructure designed specifically for developing and deploying AI agents. It supports efficient token generation, unified scheduling of general-purpose and AI computing resources, continuous learning, and secure and autonomous agent operations.

Mr. Surasak introduced four new features under Agentic Infra:

UnifiedBus-based AI Cluster Service (AICS), which supports highly efficient token generationAgentic Memory Storage Service (AMS), which delivers PB-scale memory storage to address a key bottleneck in agent memory, enabling long-horizon tasks and facilitating continuous learning.AgentSphere, which offers a secure and autonomous runtime environment for AI agentsCCE VolcanoNext, which enables unified scheduling of general-purpose and AI computing resources

CodeArts Agent OBT Launches in Thailand

Another major highlight was the launch of Huawei Cloud CodeArts Agent OBT in Thailand, giving local developers and enterprises an opportunity to experience Huawei Cloud’s coding agent and provide feedback before its wider release.

CodeArts Agent combines IDE functionality, autonomous development capabilities, and coding models. It supports project-level code generation, code completion, R&D knowledge Q&A, and unit test case generation.

The platform also applies Specification-Driven Development (SDD) to help development teams maintain code quality from the requirements stage through to final delivery.

It is worth mentioning that this release also introduces the Agent Team mode, which can automatically form a development team, enabling multiple agents to collaborate concurrently and execute tasks simultaneously.

By reducing repetitive tasks, CodeArts Agent can help developers work more efficiently and allow organizations to bring digital products and services to market faster.

The OBT launch forms part of Huawei Cloud’s efforts to support Thailand’s developer community and make AI-assisted software development more accessible to organizations of different sizes.

Strengthening Security for Enterprise AI

Mr. Surasak also emphasized security, stability, and quality as key priorities for enterprise AI adoption. As cyberattacks become increasingly automated and AI-driven, Huawei Cloud has upgraded its security services in two areas: protecting AI systems and using AI to strengthen cyber defense.

Its model lifecycle security solution covers AI infrastructure, training data, model inference, and agent applications.

For enterprises concerned about data sovereignty and privacy, Huawei Cloud provides dedicated security zones that allow customers to independently manage their encryption keys while preventing platform administrators from accessing customer data. Software-hardware integration and hardware acceleration are also used to maintain encryption performance without compromising service efficiency. Huawei Cloud has also introduced Data Capsule technology, which ensures that data can only be used within authorized environments and automatically becomes invalid if moved outside a designated security zone.

Showcasing AI Use Cases Across Industries

Huawei Cloud Summit Thailand 2026 also featured AI and cloud use cases from organizations in Thailand. These included the development of AI platforms and intelligent assistants for the public sector, the use of AI coding and large language models in banking, and AI-powered learning and skills development platforms for the HR sector.

Huawei Cloud and its partners also shared how ecosystem collaboration can help solve industry challenges and accelerate AI adoption among enterprises.

About Huawei Cloud Thailand

Huawei Cloud Thailand is a leading cloud service provider committed to accelerating Thailand’s digital transformation under the mission of “In Thailand, For Thailand.” According to the latest report from Gartner, Huawei Cloud is ranked No.3 by revenue in Thailand’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market, solidifying its position as one of the most trusted and fastest-growing international cloud providers in the country.

As the first international public cloud vendor to establish local data centers in Thailand, Huawei Cloud now operates three Availability Zones, ensuring high reliability and low-latency connectivity for local users. Leveraging Huawei’s 30-plus years of expertise in ICT infrastructure, it integrates cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud-Native 2.0, and Big Data technologies to empower over 40 government agencies and thousands of enterprises across the Kingdom. By building a robust digital ecosystem and fostering local talent, Huawei Cloud aims to drive Thailand’s “Digital Economy” forward, bringing cloud and intelligence to every corner of the country for a fully connected, intelligent future.

For more information, please visit Huawei Cloud Thailand online at

https://www.huaweicloud.com/intl/th-th/ or follow us on:

https://www.facebook.com/HuaweiCloudTH

https://www.youtube.com/@HuaweiCloudAPAC

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/huawei-cloud-launches-agentic-infrastructure-and-codearts-agent-obt-in-thailand-accelerating-enterprise-ai-innovation-302833957.html

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Loomis Interim Report January – June 2026

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STOCKHOLM, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —

Continued strong growth and record operating margin (EBITA %)

President and CEO Aritz Larrea comments:

“We delivered another very strong quarter reflecting the continued execution of our strategy and the strength of our diversified model. Revenue reached SEK 7.9 billion with a currency-adjusted growth of 9.1 percent. Both segment USA and segment Europe and Latin America contributed to the performance driven by continued strength in our International and Automated Solutions business lines. Operating income (EBITA) exceeded 1 billion SEK and we increased our EBITA margin by more than 1 percentage point year–over–year to 14.0 percent.

Our financial position remains strong. Supported by robust cash flow generation and a solid balance sheet, we continue to invest in long-term growth opportunities, pursue value-creating acquisitions, and maintain our commitment to delivering attractive returns to shareholders.”

Quarter 2, April – June 2026

Revenue for the quarter was SEK 7,891 million (7,407). The currency-adjusted growth was 9.1 percent (4.8), of which organic growth was 6.7 percent (3.8) and acquisitions contributed 2.5 percent (1.0). Including the exchange rate effect, the total growth was 6.5 percent (-3.0).Operating income (EBITA) 1) for the quarter was SEK 1,102 million (944) and the operating margin (EBITA) increased to 14.0 percent (12.7).Operating income (EBIT) before items affecting comparability for the quarter was SEK 1,062 million (882) and operating margin (EBIT) before items affecting comparability was 13.5 percent (11.9).Income before taxes for the quarter was SEK 869 million (664) and profit for the period was SEK 608 million (478).Basic earnings per share for the quarter were SEK 9.09 (7.01) and diluted earnings per share were SEK 9.06 (6.99).Cash flow from operating activities 2) was SEK 683 million (550) in the quarter. The cash flow from operating activities for the rolling twelve months was 95 percent (105) of operating income (EBITA).Net debt in relation to EBITDA was 1.60 times (1.75) in the quarter.Loomis expanded its presence in Latin America through the acquisition of Transportadora del Interior in Argentina and the announced acquisition of Hermes Transportes Blindados in Peru.

1)  Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Amortization of acquisition-related intangible fixed assets, Acquisition-related costs and revenue and items affecting comparability.
2)  Cash flow from operating activities is exclusive of impact from IFRS 16.

Report presentation today at 10.30 a.m. (CEST)

The report will be presented in a webcast conference today at 10.30 am (CEST) by President and CEO Aritz Larrea and CFO Johan Wilsby.

To follow the webcast, please follow this link.

The presentation materials and a recorded version of the conference will be available on https://www.loomis.com/en/investors/reports-and-presentations/ following the presentation.

For more information, please contact:

Jenny Boström
Head of Sustainability and IR
ir@loomis.com
+46 79 006 45 92

Fredrik Hammarbäck
Media and External Communications Manager
media@loomis.com
+46 76 311 56 29

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/loomis-ab/r/loomis-interim-report-january—june-2026,c4377246

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/51/4377246/4201809.pdf

Loomis Interim Report January – June 2026

https://mb.cision.com/Public/51/4377246/940bbe0a24c483c8.pdf

Loomis Interim Report January – June 2026 – press release

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/loomis-interim-report-january–june-2026-302833961.html

SOURCE Loomis AB

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