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NPower Awarded a $4 Million Grant from Department of Labor to Increase Reach and Impact of its Tech Fundamentals Training Program

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NEW YORK, July 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — NPower, a leading, national tech training nonprofit focused on increasing economic mobility for young people and military-connected individuals through tech jobs, has been awarded a $4 million Apprenticeship Building America, Round 2 (ABA2) grant from the US Department of Labor (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA).

The grant will support NPower in expanding its existing program to tech train an additional 8,656 low-income and unemployed young adults (ages 18-26), veterans and other military-connected individuals, through its Tech Fundamentals program. To date, NPower has supported over 10,000 students in 13 cities in receiving tech training in IT, cyber, software engineering, AI fundamentals and other vital tech skills.

Over the next four years, the grant will support NPower in bolstering partnerships with apprenticeship intermediaries and minority-serving institutions to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds participating in its Tech Fundamentals training program, a strategy that helps move students from unemployment and underemployment to prosperity by launching careers in tech.

Specifically, with the support of the new grant, Tech Fundamentals students will receive:

Stackable certifications – Students have an opportunity to complete CompTIA ITF+, CompTIA A+, Google IT Support and Google Project Management Certificates.Wraparound social services – By utilizing a trauma-informed framework, NPower will be able to meet students where they are at, both personally and professionally, to best support them in their training.Job or Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) placement assistance – NPower aims to have 85 percent of graduates be placed in an RAP, enrolled in post-secondary or credential-based education or hired directly into a full-time job in tech within six months of graduation.

“As the tech sector continues to expand and evolve into areas such as AI, and with cyber workers and software engineers in high demand, we’re ensuring our students have the skills, training and support to participate in these dynamic, high-growth opportunities,” said Bertina Ceccarelli, CEO, NPower. “We’re honored that the US Dept. of Labor has recognized NPower’s work and impact in helping non-pedigreed, underrepresented individuals and military-connected individuals receive IT skills, the foundational training they’ll need to step into entry level tech jobs, and to add additional skills for a range of middle-income, in-demand areas, such as cybersecurity.”

NPower is one of 52 grantees across the country recognized by the current administration as part of the Investing in America agenda, with a goal of rebuilding the middle class and increasing opportunity for underrepresented populations to enter in-demand occupations and careers that offer family-supporting wages. The Department of Labor has invested over $244 million to help modernize, diversify and expand registered apprenticeships in growing U.S. industries, such as tech.

To learn more about NPower’s Tech Fundamentals program, visit: https://www.npower.org/apply/tech-fundamentals/

About NPower
NPower is a national nonprofit that provides free tech training, support services, and job placement assistance to young adults, military-connected individuals, and women from under-resourced communities. Since their founding in 2000, they’ve offered tech fundamentals and advanced career training opportunities to over 10,000 students in 13 cities. NPower’s unique approach combines rigorous training, and trauma-informed support services, addressing the academic, social, and emotional needs of our students. Their strength is seeing students of non-traditional backgrounds through pivotal life transitions. The organization empowers students to drive change in their own lives and communities. As NPower expands to serve 15,000 students annually by 2030, they’re ensuring they create a tech workforce that mirrors the world around us. To learn more about NPower, visit http://www.npower.org.

Contact:
Hillary Ovalle
hillary.ovalle@finnpartners.com 

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SOURCE NPower

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Baidu Announces Inclusion of Its Class A Ordinary Shares in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Programs

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BEIJING, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Baidu, Inc. (“Baidu” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: BIDU; HKEX: 9888 (HKD Counter) and 89888 (RMB Counter)), a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, today announced that the Company’s Class A ordinary shares traded on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Hong Kong Stock Exchange”) have been included in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect program, effective today, September 7, 2026 (Beijing time). The previously announced inclusion of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares in the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program also became effective today. Eligible investors in the Chinese Mainland now have direct access to the trading of Baidu’s Class A ordinary shares through both programs.

The inclusion of Baidu’s Class A ordinary shares in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect program is pursuant to the Announcement on Adjustment of the List of the Eligible Stocks in Hong Kong Stock Connect under the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect issued by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on September 7, 2026.

Taken together, the inclusion in the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect marks an important step toward expanding the Company’s reach among Chinese Mainland investors and is expected to further diversify its investor base and enhance the liquidity of its shares.

Baidu appreciates the continued support of its shareholders and investors and remains committed to driving sustainable growth and creating long-term value for shareholders.

About the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect

The Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect is a mutual stock market access mechanism between the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong under which the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange have established technical connectivity to enable investors in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong to trade eligible shares listed on the other’s market through their local securities companies or brokers.

About the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect established a two-way trading link between the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The stock connect allows qualified Chinese Mainland investors to access eligible Hong Kong shares (Southbound) as well as Hong Kong and overseas investors to trade eligible A-shares (Northbound), subject to a certain amount of daily quota.

About Baidu

Founded in 2000, Baidu’s mission is to make the complicated world simpler through technology. Baidu is a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, trading on Nasdaq under “BIDU” and HKEX under “9888”. One Baidu ADS represents eight Class A ordinary shares.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “confident” and similar statements. Among other things, Baidu’s and other parties’ strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Baidu may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in announcements made on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including but not limited to statements about Baidu’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Baidu’s growth strategies; its future business development, including development of new products and services; its ability to attract and retain users and customers; competition in the Chinese Internet search and newsfeed market; competition for online marketing customers; changes in the Company’s revenues and certain cost or expense items as a percentage of its revenues; the outcome of ongoing, or any future, litigation or arbitration, including those relating to intellectual property rights; the expected growth of the Chinese-language Internet search and newsfeed market and the number of Internet and broadband users in China; Chinese governmental policies relating to the Internet and Internet search providers, and general economic conditions in China and elsewhere. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company’s annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and announcements on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Baidu does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of the press release, and Baidu undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.

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People See One Brand. The Internet May Show Them Hundreds More.

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The gap between what organisations control and what people trust may be larger than many realise.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Every day, consumers decide whether to trust a website, email, link or digital service. What they rarely see is where an organisation’s official digital presence ends and similar-looking identities begin.

For most people, trust is not determined by ownership records or technical boundaries. It is shaped by what appears familiar, legitimate and connected to the organisation they believe they are engaging with. As digital interactions continue to grow, the gap between what organisations control and what people trust may become increasingly important.

The inaugural ONESECURE’s The State of Digital Trust in Singapore 2026 found that each reference organisation domain was associated with a median of 151 similar-looking domains across the public internet. The study analysed 120,702 distinct lookalike domains associated with 448 reference organisation domains and found that 82% had observable internet or email infrastructure, or both. While this does not indicate malicious activity, it demonstrates how external identities can possess the technical characteristics needed to establish an online presence that people may encounter and interact with.

While organisations typically have visibility over the websites, systems and accounts they own, customers, employees and members of the public make trust decisions based on what they encounter online. Similar-looking identities can exist beyond those organisational boundaries, creating a broader challenge around how trust is recognised, monitored and governed.

“People don’t experience organisations through asset inventories or security diagrams. They experience them through names, emails, websites and links,” said Edmund How, Managing Director of ONESECURE Asia. “The findings suggest organisations may need to think differently about trust. The challenge is no longer just securing what belongs to you. It’s understanding what exists around you, recognising when an external identity becomes relevant, and having a consistent way to determine when action is needed.”

The report found external identity exposure across multiple sectors, including financial services, healthcare, education, public services, transportation and information services, suggesting the issue is not confined to any single industry.

While the findings are drawn from a Singapore-focused dataset, the underlying question is relevant wherever people rely on digital identities to access services, conduct transactions and engage with organisations online regardless of geography.

Understanding and monitoring that broader identity landscape may become an important part of how organisations safeguard trust, protect reputation and fulfil their responsibilities to the people they serve.

If Singapore’s benchmark is 151 distinct lookalike domains per organisation, what could yours be? The question is not simply what your organisation owns, but whether you understand the wider identity landscape that exists around it.

Download the full ONESECURE’s The State of Digital Trust in Singapore 2026 report.

About ONESECURE Asia

ONESECURE Asia, headquartered in Singapore, is a managed security services provider helping organisations strengthen security and resilience as digital risks evolve. Its capabilities span managed security operations and Webyith, a digital trust platform designed to protect the integrity and authenticity of digital environments. Bringing together technology, intelligence and human expertise, we serve as a trusted and accountable partner in addressing critical security gaps across Asia.

Visit www.onesecureasia.com

About This Report

The State of Digital Trust in Singapore 2026 examines observable external digital identity exposure across 448 Singapore-focused reference organisation domains as of August 2026.

The analysis covers 144,134 observed domain records, representing 120,702 distinct lookalike domains after exact self-domain records were excluded. It assesses domain registration, DNS resolution, mail-routing configuration and supporting infrastructure patterns.

The research distinguishes exposure from investigative or operational relevance. A lookalike domain is not automatically malicious, and observable infrastructure or registration characteristics do not by themselves indicate phishing, abuse or malicious intent. They provide context for understanding which external identities may warrant closer examination.

The findings represent a Singapore-focused, point-in-time baseline, not a population-wide survey or measure of confirmed malicious activity. Lookalike volumes may be influenced by reference-domain characteristics and study methodology; comparisons should not be interpreted as rankings of malicious activity or security performance.

The study provides a basis for organisations to better understand, prioritise and govern external digital identity exposure beyond environments they directly control.

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SOURCE ONESECURE Asia

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Asia Fintech Forum 2026 to Convene Regulators, Bankers and Fintech Leaders in Kuala Lumpur on 2 October

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Inaugural forum from Singapore’s Responsible Fintech Institute, title-sponsored by Remi Technology, puts AI, stablecoins and financial inclusion on a single agenda

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia and SINGAPORE, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) today opened registration for the inaugural Asia Fintech Forum 2026, a one-day summit on Friday, 2 October at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur.

The forum will bring together 40 speakers from regulators, banks and fintech firms across Asia, and is expected to draw 1,000 delegates. Remi Technology, the Singapore-headquartered cross-border settlement provider, joins as title sponsor.

Convening under the theme “Architecting Asia’s Financial Frontier: AI, Digital Assets, and Inclusive Banking,” the forum is RFI’s first flagship event outside Singapore. The choice of Kuala Lumpur is deliberate: Malaysia is licensing a new generation of digital banks while ASEAN member states negotiate the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), and the forum’s regulatory track is built around that gap between national rulemaking and regional interoperability.

Confirmed speakers include Mohammad Ridzuan Abdul Aziz, Chief Executive Officer of Aeon Bank; Aaron Tang, General Manager of Luno Malaysia; Kenneth Chan, Chief Executive Officer of Webull Malaysia; Victoria Wymark of PwC South East Asia; and Affendi Rashdi, Director-General, and Ja’afar Rihan, Head of Islamic Business Development at Labuan Financial Services Authority. The full roster of the speakers is published at https://asiafintech.org/#speakers.

“Asia is writing the rules for digital finance faster than any other region, and it is writing them in several places at once — a stablecoin framework in Hong Kong, digital banking licences in Malaysia, payment corridors out of Singapore,” said Chia Hock Lai, Chairman of RFI. “The risk is not that innovation outpaces regulation. The risk is that a dozen regulators solve the same problem a dozen different ways, and the cost of that lands on consumers and on any firm trying to operate across borders. We chose Kuala Lumpur for our first forum because that conversation has to happen where the market is growing, not only where the rules are already written.”

Main-stage sessions, hands-on workshops, and closed-door roundtables span:

ASEAN fintech and the Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA)Agentic AI in financial servicesStablecoin clearing, settlement and cross-border paymentsIslamic fintech and digital bankingReal-world asset (RWA) tokenisation and its legal frameworksPost-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) migration and defense strategies for banksStrategic fintech branding, positioning, and market communicationGovernance standards and institutional frameworks for permissionless blockchains in APAC (Project Pigeon)Digital banks and financial inclusion

“Banks do not need another payment rail that routes around them. They need settlement infrastructure that runs inside their own compliance perimeter,” said Sam Su, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Remi Technology. “That argument only gets properly tested in a room that has regulators and bank treasurers in it, not just builders. That is why we are title sponsor: this is one of the few forums in the region that puts all three on the same agenda on the same day.”

“Malaysia has long flown under the radar in regional fintech, and hosting this forum in Kuala Lumpur—with the backing of regional regulators and industry leaders—signals its coming of age,” said Farah Jaafar, Co-Chair of the organising committee, Independent Non-Executive Director of Webull Securities (Malaysia), and Co-Chair of the Women in Fintech group within the Asia Fintech Alliance. “We built this agenda for practitioners, not the conference circuit. Malaysia brings critical pillars the regional dialogue needs: a mature Islamic finance ecosystem and proactive regulators willing to give digital models room to scale.”

“Real-world asset tokenisation and next-generation capital markets cannot scale in silos; they require shared liquidity, robust custody, and cross-border regulatory clarity,” said Calvin Ng, Chairman of NexStox. “As both strategic partner and venue sponsor, NexStox is proud to anchor this dialogue at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur. The Asia Fintech Forum provides the institutional bridge APAC needs to transition tokenised assets and digital market infrastructure from pilot concepts into live capital deployment.”

NexStox, RegTank, Sumsub and VerifyVASP join as sponsors.

Supporting partners include the Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA), International Digital Economics Association (IDEA), the Digital Assets Association (DAA), Thailand Fintech Association (TFA), Fintech Philippines Association (FPA), Hong Kong Fintech Industry Association (HKFTA), Unified Fintech Forum (India), ACCESS Malaysia, Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM) and Taiwan Fintech Space.

Registration is now open at https://asiafintech.org/. Exhibition packages and speaker nomination forms are available on the same site.

Media accreditation: Journalists may request onsite access, interview slots with RFI and sponsor spokespeople, and the full press kit (logos, speaker headshots, agenda) from the contact below.

About Responsible Fintech Institute

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) is a global nonprofit organisation based in Singapore. Its goal is to create a safe, trustworthy and reliable future for digital finance by building the digital utilities that support responsible innovation. RFI brings together public and private sector stakeholders to help build the rules and technology needed for new digital financial tools, and to make the digital asset sector sustainable and inclusive. Learn more at responsiblefintech.org.

About Remi Technology

Remi Technology is a Singapore-based fintech company that delivers stablecoin clearing and settlement infrastructures for banks and financial institutions worldwide. Find us at www.remitech.ai or www.linkedin.com/company/remi-tech.

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SOURCE Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI)

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