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OneSoil and Rainbow Weather partner to bring hyperlocal AI-powered rainfall forecasting to farmers worldwide

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ZURICH, June 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Driven by climate change, extreme rainfall events have spiked since the early 2000s, delaying planting seasons and ruining crop yields. In the EU alone, extreme weather costs farmers about €28 billion every year, around 6% of total agricultural production. Zurich-based precision agtech company OneSoil has partnered with Polish climate tech startup Rainbow Weather to address this issue.

Farmers could already track wind speed and temperature via the ‘Virtual Weather Station’ OneSoil’s existing app. What the collaboration brings is a ‘Hyperlocal Precipitation Forecast’ feature to the platform. This new layer shows clouds motion and, therefore, predicts rainfall probability and intensity down to a specific four-hour window for exact coordinates, whether it’s a particular section of a sunflower field in France or a cornfield in South Africa.

This precision and speed are possible thanks to machine learning models trained to analyze large volumes of radar, satellite, and atmospheric data to detect patterns in how precipitation develops and moves, Alexander Matveenko, co-founder and CEO at Rainbow Weather, explains.

For modern farmers, this ultra-short-term data is financially crucial, CEO at OneSoil Stepan Zulynskyi notes, “Knowing what will happen in the next few hours is more valuable than a general daily forecast.” He further explains that operations like fertilizing and chemical spraying are highly sensitive to rain. If an unexpected downpour hits immediately after a tractor completes a pass, thousands of dollars in inputs can wash away, forcing farmers to re-apply chemicals, waste labor, and damage soil health. According to the team, the new feature has already been used by more than 15 000 farmers monthly.

Alexander Matveenko adds that more accurate forecasts can bring new value to farmers given that, over the last few years, weather has become one of the biggest sources of risk in agriculture: “In these conditions, farmers are looking for tools that could help them access granular data on upcoming precipitation, as well as historical data on how much rainfall has already occurred, so they can better plan fieldwork. Rainbow Weather is exactly what they need.”

About Rainbow Weather

Rainbow Weather is a next-gen climate tech startup for ultra-accurate short-term forecasts founded in 2021 by Yuriy Melnichek, who previously built AIMatter (acquired by Google), a neural network-based AI platform, as well as the video creation and editing app Vochi (acquired by Pinterest), and fashion marketplace Wanna (acquired by Farfetch), and Alexander Matveenko, a founder of artificial intelligence mapping startup MapData that he sold to Mapbox in 2017. The company has raised a €4.87M ($5.5M) seed funding round, with main investors including Yuri Gurski, founder and president of Flo Health, the first purely digital consumer women’s health app to achieve unicorn status. Today, Rainbow Weather’s forecasting is available globally, with more than 1 million installs and over 120,000 active users. The company also works with 400 B2B clients sharing its forecasting via API.

In addition, the team runs weatherindex.ai, an open-source tool that evaluates the accuracy of short-term precipitation predictions from providers like AccuWeather, Vaisala, and The Weather Company in real time. It pulls live data from public APIs and compares forecasts with verified airport weather reports using standard metrics such as accuracy and F-score (a measure of predictive performance).

About OneSoil

OneSoil is a Zurich-based agtech company developing AI-driven solutions for precision agriculture. Its flagship product is OneSoil Pro, a digital farming platform that offers farmers tools for field monitoring, productivity analysis, variable-rate application maps, soil sampling, and field trials. Over the years, OneSoil’s products have been adopted by more than 1.16M users across Europe, Latin America, the US, Africa, and Australia. Annually active users account for virtually 140,000 farmers worldwide. Beyond individual growers, OneSoil’s solutions are used by major agricultural holdings and global enterprise clients specializing in seeds, crop inputs, machinery, and food production. Those include Corteva, BASF among others. The company is backed by Almaz Capital, PortfoLion, Bulba Ventures, and Yuriy Melnichek (founder of AIMatter (acquired by Google), Vochi (acquired by Pinterest), and Wanna (acquired by Farfetch)).

Media contact:

Country:
Switzerland, Zurich
Company name: OneSoil
Kareena Starkova
Email: ks@ze-comms.com
Website: https://onesoil.ai/

Image – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2995205/OneSoil.jpg

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China Xplained | The China Squeeze, or the China Opportunity?

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GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — This is a news report from South: 

Is China’s manufacturing rise squeezing out or creating opportunities for other economies?

Ahead of the 2026 APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in China this November, journalists and experts from around the world gathered in Guangdong for the Asia-Pacific Media Forum (APMF) 2026.

The forum opened in Shenzhen on September 5, bringing together more than 400 representatives from across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as from international organizations.

Before the opening of the forum, participants travelled across Guangdong to see China’s industries and development first-hand.

In this episode of China Xplained, we look at the numbers, supply chains, investment and voices from across the developing world—to ask a bigger question: Is China squeezing out room for other economies?

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SOURCE South

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PUDU D7 Named Honoree in IFA Innovation Awards for Best in IFA Next & Emerging Technologies

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BERLIN, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Pudu Robotics, a global leader in commercial service robotics, today announced that its PUDU D7 Semi-humanoid Intelligent Robot has been named an Honoree in the Best in IFA Next & Emerging Technologies category of the IFA Innovation Awards. The recognition highlights PUDU D7’s ability to combine mobile navigation, dexterous manipulation and intelligent sensing to perform a range of tasks in real-world industrial and commercial environments.

The IFA Innovation Awards recognize outstanding innovations across the global technology landscape. Entries are evaluated by an independent international jury based on criteria including technology and functionality, innovation and originality, and the potential to create tangible value for users and the market. The recognition places PUDU D7 among emerging technologies demonstrating new possibilities for the future of robotics.

From Industrial Operations to Guest Interaction

PUDU D7 is designed for industrial, warehouse, retail and hospitality environments, where it can move through human-oriented spaces and perform tasks that require both mobility and dexterous manipulation.

In industrial and warehouse settings, D7 can handle materials, pick items from shelves, replenish inventory, transport goods between work areas and push carts. With a payload capacity of up to 20 kg (44.1 pounds) and an operating height of up to 2 meters (6.6 feet), it can work with a range of storage systems and materials.

In retail, D7 can support shelf replenishment, item handling and store organization, moving products between storage areas and shelves and helping maintain product displays.

In hotels and hospitality, PUDU D7 can take on the role of an intelligent front-desk host, welcoming guests, preparing and serving coffee, interacting with visitors and providing engaging experiences. Its semi-humanoid form and dual-arm capabilities allow it to combine practical service tasks with natural human-robot interaction, bringing a more personable and engaging presence to the guest experience.

Designed for Adaptable Performance

PUDU D7 combines a dual-arm manipulation system, tactile sensing and a 360-degree perception system to support these applications. Front- and rear-facing LiDAR and other sensors enable navigation around people and obstacles, while tactile sensing provides precise control when handling objects.

The robot also features autonomous battery swapping, allowing it to independently replace its battery and reduce downtime during extended operation.

Together, these capabilities enable D7 to support different tasks across a range of environments without being limited to a single application.

PUDU D7 Makes Its European Debut at IFA

IFA 2026 marks the first time PUDU D7 is being showcased in Europe. At the Pudu Robotics booth, visitors can experience live demonstrations highlighting the robot’s capabilities and its potential for human-robot interaction.

D7 interacts directly with visitors through demonstrations including waving, making heart gestures and picking up objects. These demonstrations showcase the robot’s ability to combine movement, manipulation and interaction in a human-oriented environment.

Advancing the Next Generation of Intelligent Robotics

The IFA Innovation Awards recognition marks another step in Pudu Robotics’ expansion from service delivery, commercial cleaning and industrial delivery into embodied intelligent robotics.

PUDU D7 is part of Pudu Robotics’ broader strategy to develop a portfolio of specialized, semi-humanoid and humanoid robots, building on its capabilities in embodied navigation, manipulation and interaction. This approach enables the company to address a broader range of applications across commercial and industrial environments.

Pudu Robotics will continue working with customers and partners worldwide to explore new applications for embodied intelligence and bring increasingly capable robots into real-world environments.

About Pudu Robotics

Pudu Robotics is a global leader in commercial service robotics and the industry’s first company to offer a full portfolio spanning specialized, semi-humanoid, and humanoid robots. According to Frost & Sullivan’s latest market report, Pudu Robotics ranks No. 1 globally in commercial service robotics by both revenue and shipment volume. Built on its One Brain, Multiple Embodiments architecture, Pudu offers robots for service delivery, commercial cleaning, industrial delivery, and general embodied AI applications across hospitality, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, education, public services, and more. To date, Pudu Robotics has shipped over 130,000 robots to customers across 85+ countries and regions.

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SOURCE Pudu Robotics

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Asia-Pacific Media Forum held in China’s Guangdong

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SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from Xinhuanet: 

The Asia-Pacific Media Forum opened on Saturday in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, with the theme of “Building a Path to Shared Prosperity for the Asia-Pacific Community: Media Consensus and Action.”

Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the forum and delivered a keynote speech. Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, attended the forum and delivered a speech.

Participating guests noted that this year marks 2026 APEC “China Year,” during which China will host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. They expressed their belief that with support from all sides, the summit will yield fruitful outcomes and elevate Asia-Pacific cooperation to new heights.

Participating guests emphasized that development and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region depend on the active participation of media. The media are expected to share stories of openness and integration, provide comprehensive coverage of the region’s progress and achievements across various fields, and help foster a favorable public opinion environment for the region’s open development.

Participating guests noted that the media should actively promote outcomes of the series of APEC activities, interpret policies and measures of various economies to support scientific and technological innovation, and build regional consensus for innovative development.

They also called for deepening results-oriented cooperation in joint reporting, technological innovation and personnel training, and leveraging media exchanges to carry forward civilizations, spread culture and convey goodwill, so as to enhance mutual understanding and closer bonds among the peoples of the Asia-Pacific.

The forum was co-hosted by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Xinhua News Agency and the Guangdong provincial government, and organized by the Shenzhen municipal government.

More than 400 representatives from over 40 countries and regions, as well as UN agencies and international organizations, attended the event. At the opening ceremony, 16 founding organizations from China and abroad jointly formed the Organizing Committee of the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Program.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/asia-pacific-media-forum-held-in-chinas-guangdong-302870809.html

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