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As a potentially life-threatening neuromuscular disease he was born with progresses, Multimedia Entertainment Activist Nicholas Snow is focused on preserving his legacy

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As a potentially life threatening neuromuscular disease he was born with progresses, Multimedia Entertainment Activist Nicholas Snow is focused on preserving his legacy and grateful that his living-powerfully-with-HIV memoir, Life Positive: A Journey to the Center of my Heart; his HIV Testing/safer sex awareness anthem (subtitled in 21 languages), The Power To Be Strong; and four decades Multimedia Entertainment Activism (currently under the banner of PromoHomo.TV®) will live on forever.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., June 28, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — For most of his life, Nicholas Snow has known he had some sort of muscle disease. He’s never been able to do a pull-up, has always been an awkward runner, and despite his basketball player-worthy height of six feet three inches, has never been good at sports.

“Just look around you and every minute you see someone in need. I believe that everybody has talent in some way, so use it to really make this world a better place.” …Bruno Brugnano

In fact, throughout elementary, junior high and high school in the 1970’s in Flagstaff, Arizona, because of his lack of athleticism, Snow was often bullied and called a fag (a decade before he knew he was gay).

Snow struggles from the results of childhood trauma due to bullying to this day, which is one reason he has fought so hard for decades to make the world a better place for LGBTQ+ folks and their allies.

LIFE POSITIVE

Snow’s living-powerfully-with-HIV memoir, Life Positive: A Journey to the Center of My Heart (http://www.LifePositiveBook.com) was published 11 years ago, continuing his quest to inspire voluntary and confidential HIV counseling and testing worldwide, and to further combat stigma faced by people living with HIV/AIDS.

After going public with his HIV status at a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Snow for a time was one of the world’s leading freelance proponents of HIV testing, having reached over 5,000,000 people with his campaign, including on national television in Malaysia and in Thailand (on Modern 9 TV during a telethon for the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre). Snow visited Kuala Lumpur, celebrating the good work of the PT Foundation and Malaysian AIDS Council, generating media impressions reaching 2.5 million people, or about 10% of Malaysia’s population.

In her official synopsis, editor Kristin Johnson writes, “In Bangkok, Thailand, Hollywood’s primo promo homo on the go-go Nicholas Snow is eking out a modest living as a foreign correspondent, actor and media personality when, in a moment of personal desperation, he makes a decision that changes his life forever. Decades into the AIDS pandemic and completely armed with the knowledge to protect himself, during a moment of passion with a man who is unaware of having HIV, Nicholas has a rare slip in his safer sex behavior and becomes HIV positive.”

Johnson continues, ‘What might have been the end of a lifetime of dreams turns out to be only the beginning of a remarkable journey that Nicholas himself chronicles in real time as he is living it. Part 12-step-program 4th-step inventory, part reality-show-on-paper, this is the painful yet triumphant saga of how Nicholas Snow uses his own mistake as an opportunity to empower millions of people throughout the world by disclosing not only his HIV status, but his experience, strength and hope as well.”

Concludes Johnson, “From Hollywood to Bangkok, to Bali and beyond, including Kuala Lumpur and Palm Springs—with profound expansion to Singapore, Mumbai and throughout all of Asia, and ultimately in 21 languages across the globe—Life Positive: A Journey to the Center of My Heart could easily be entitled Eat, Pray, Disclose.”

THE POWER TO BE STRONG

Yes, if you ask your smart speaker to “Play The Power To Be Strong by Nicholas Snow” it will!

Almost 15 years ago—and in support of a key message in his song’s lyrics, “life goes on,” Nicholas Snow and collaborators premiered the HIV testing/safer sex awareness music video, “The Power To Be Strong,” online at Fridae.com, and theatrically with Hindi subtitles at the Kashish—Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.

“‘The Power To Be Strong’ song and music video campaign was created to reach millions of people around the world about the importance of voluntary HIV counseling & testing and increased adherence to safer sex, and to empower the valiant efforts of any organization or individual participating anywhere in the battle against HIV/AIDS,” explains Snow.

Snow chronicles the creation of The Power To Be Strong music video campaign in detail in Life Positive.

“I became HIV positive decades into the AIDS epidemic, completely armed with the knowledge to protect myself. It’s still a bit shocking to me,” explained Snow at the time. Determined to prevent as many people as possible from making his same mistake, and well into his journey as a person living with HIV, Snow and his impassioned friends are presenting to the world “The Power To Be Strong.”

“A lot of people at risk for HIV are isolated, lonely and disenfranchised, and have subconsciously disqualified themselves from life in general,” explained Snow. “I want to get their attention and empower their self-esteem with the lyric, ‘No matter who you are, no matter what you feel, this is your moment now, and your life is real, so get tested and live longer and be strong.'”

With music and lyrics written by Snow in 2009, “The Power To Be Strong” was produced and arranged by Bruno Brugnano, one of Thailand’s music industry leaders who has created over 100 albums for Thai and International artists, including Bird Thongchai McIntyre, Tata Young, Christina Aguilar, and His Majesty the King of Thailand’s oldest daughter, Princess Ubol Ratana. It was Brugnano—who has won several of Thailand’s equivalents of the Academy Award and the Grammy Award—that suggested the song’s opera-backed chorus, provided beautifully by soprano Ayano Kimura who was recommended by Somtow Sucharitkul, conductor of the Bangkok Opera.

The video and song can be viewed and listened to for free at a variety of web sites including http://www.YouTube.com/ThePowerToBeStrong.

The music video was directed by acclaimed film and video director O Nathapon, who was born and raised in Thailand.

Brugnano stated, “This was a great opportunity for me because it combined two of the most important things for me, helping other people through music. What could be better? Everybody put a lot of heart and emotion into the project… Support the cause because nothing is too far from us. Just look around you and every minute you see someone in need. I believe that everybody has talent in some way, so use it to really make this world a better place.”

The Power to Be Strong single is available for preview and purchase on iTunes and Amazon.com. The music video, with 21 subtitled versions, is available at http://www.YouTube.com/ThePowerToBeStrong.

To find out what Snow is up to now, simply visit http://www.PromoHomo.TV to view hundreds of episodes of multiple series he’s produced for the growing online television network.

Media Contact

Nicholas Snow, Nicholas Snow Productions LLC, (760) 808-2787, PromoHomoTV@gmail.com, http://www.promohomo.tv

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SOURCE Nicholas Snow Productions LLC

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Statement – Leaders’ call on the fight against cancer

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ÉVIAN, France , June 16, 2026 /CNW/ – “We, the Leaders of the G7, reaffirm our commitment to accelerate the fight against cancer. Partner countries of the G7, Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, and the Republic of Korea, also support this call on the fight against cancer.

Cancer kills nearly 10 million people each year worldwide and new cases are projected to increase by 80 per cent globally by 2050, given the aging of the population and its interactions with environmental and behavioural risk factors, placing an ever-greater burden on societies, health systems and economies. Improvements in access to cancer prevention – including through screening, diagnosis and care – can and should be made. While major scientific advances have been achieved in several critical areas, progress should be accelerated by alignment of research efforts and faster translation of innovation into care. In this regard, we welcome that such advances have brought the elimination of cervical cancer within reach and we will accelerate our efforts to that end.

We are determined to deepen international scientific cooperation, close persistent gaps in prevention and early detection, and ensure that progress in oncology reaches every patient. While acknowledging our existing financing efforts and the shared global responsibility, where we have taken a leadership role, we commit to strengthening our endeavours to advance cancer research and development.

We commend the scientific advances made through international, regional and national initiatives. We have made concrete progress on aligning our cancer research programmes, strengthening collaboration between leading cancer institutes and advancing interoperable data standards for paediatric and adolescent cancers.  

Accelerating international data access for paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancers

We recognise that no single country possesses sufficient data to generate robust evidence across the full range of paediatric, adolescent and young adult tumour types. Building on existing international, regional and national initiatives – in accordance with our legislation, priorities, capacities and resources, and in compliance with applicable rules on privacy, data protection and intellectual property rights – we intend to work towards:

Promoting collaboration between existing data resources and programmes, where appropriate, to bridge national registries, advance interoperability standards and enable responsible cross-border data collaboration, in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory frameworks while respecting national competences.Supporting large-scale, multi-dimensional data integration, including clinical, genomic and imaging data, which enables safe and secure data use without the necessity for direct data transfer, drawing on artificial intelligence, where appropriate and according to legal regulatory frameworks.Building on existing international, regional and national initiatives to avoid duplication, close gaps and strengthen international research collaboration for paediatric, adolescent and young adult cancers.

Intensifying our fight against cancers with poor prognosis

We recognise that mortality from cancers with poor prognosis is one of the foremost global scientific challenges. Building on existing international, regional and national initiatives, we intend to work towards:

Supporting research on cancers with poor prognosis and the work towards establishing a shared international definition and research agenda for cancers with poor prognosis, recognising them as a major global challenge.Setting ambitious targets for the roll out of screening programmes and for the diagnosis of more cancers at stage 1, as appropriate within national health systems and country contexts, to improve survival rates for cancers with poor prognosis, and in particular to significantly reduce lung cancer mortality in the next ten years.Fostering innovative international research programmes, improving cooperation on clinical trials and accelerating the translation of scientific advances – including through digital technologies, artificial intelligence and quantum research – into clinical practice for patients.

Strengthening access to quality cancer care for all

We recognize that access to quality cancer care for all remains a pressing challenge. We intend to work towards:

Supporting country-led efforts to strengthen resilient and self-reliant health systems capable of delivering high-quality cancer care for all.Encouraging the development of comprehensive cancer centres, as anchors of research excellence, care quality and education internationally.Promoting the secure, responsible and trustworthy use of evidence-based digital technologies, artificial intelligence and quantum research to improve early detection, support clinical decision-making, strengthen palliative care and expand the reach of evidence-based care for all, while preserving patients’ privacy.

We will remain engaged and review progress on these commitments.

This call for action reflects the outcome of the discussion between G7 members, benefiting from productive exchanges of views with partner countries.”

This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister’s Office

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Insight Global Expands Global Operations with New Team in Bogotá, Colombia

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Expansion strengthens operational capabilities and supports the company’s continued global growth

ATLANTA, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Insight Global today announced the expansion of its global operations with the addition of a capability center in Bogotá, Colombia, the latest in a series of global expansion efforts to support clients and consultants.

The Bogotá center, which officially launched on June 1, supports a wide range of functions for the global enterprise, including corporate, client, and consultant delivery functions. With over 1,500 active workers on projects in Latin America, the Bogotá teams will serve as an integral function to ensure the same excellence in employee, client, and consultant experience that Insight Global is known for around the world.

“This location is such a strategic play for us at Insight Global. It will serve as an extension of our middle and back-office functions as well as being our hub for Latin American Operations,” said Chris Abbeduto, Vice President – Global Operations. “The rapid growth that we continue to see for nearshore capabilities really drives the need for a regional center of excellence in LATAM, and we couldn’t be more excited with the amazing talent pool and cultural fit that we see in Colombia.”

The initiative has been more than a year in the making and represents a strategic investment in Insight Global’s future. The Bogotá team is comprised of fully bilingual Insight Global employees fluent in both Spanish and English who are fully integrated into the company’s culture, systems, and training programs from day one. Bogotá was selected in part for its strong talent market and alignment with U.S. business hours, enabling seamless collaboration across teams.

Insight Global’s Staffing, Consulting, and AI services are fulfilled by nearly 40,000 employees in over 40 countries for over 3,200 companies around the world.

To learn more about Insight Global’s international capabilities, visit here.

About Insight Global

Insight Global is an international talent and consulting company that delivers business outcomes in an ever-changing world. We obsess over solving problems and building solutions that move our customers further, faster.

With access to top talent in more than 50 countries, our tech-enabled recruiters can build teams quickly. Our technical experts across Cloud, AI, Data, Enterprise Operations, and Applied Engineering deliver solutions tailored to each customer’s needs. As those needs evolve, so do we.

As we evolve, though, we stay true to our purpose: to develop our people personally, professionally, and financially so they can be the light to the world around them. It shows up in everything we do, from investing in our people to delivering results for our customers to making a meaningful impact in our communities.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insight-global-expands-global-operations-with-new-team-in-bogota-colombia-302802187.html

SOURCE Insight Global

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Opsera Launches BrickForge by Opsera, a Purpose-Built AI Operational Command Center for Enterprise Data Teams, on Databricks Marketplace

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Built on the Databricks platform, BrickForge delivers a unified operational command center for Databricks environments

SAN FRANCISCO, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Databricks Data + AI Summit – Opsera, the leader in AI-powered software delivery, today announced the availability of BrickForge on Databricks Marketplace, an open marketplace for data, analytics, and AI, powered by OpenSharing. A purpose-built AI Application, BrickForge gives enterprise data teams what they have been missing: a native command center to observe, diagnose, fix, and govern their entire Databricks estate — without adding infrastructure or touching business data.

Opsera will showcase BrickForge at the Databricks Data + AI Summit, Booth #223. To learn more, visit opsera.ai/brickforge.

The trigger is real. A recent Databricks State of AI Agents report stated that 80% of databases on its platform are now created by agents, not humans. As organizations produce more data products and pipelines alongside this agentic growth, operational complexity grows with it — compliance posture drifts, SQL workloads accumulate security exposure, recovery plans go untested, and deployments introduce configuration risk.

BrickForge addresses that through the BrickForge Operational Loop — a four-stage continuous process for governing Databricks estates at the pace of AI:

Observe: Live Databricks health monitoring across every cluster, job, Delta Live Tables (DLT) pipeline, warehouse, and AI endpoints. When something drifts or degrades, teams see it before it becomes an incident. No log-diving. No waiting for users to report errors.

Diagnose: AI-assisted root-cause analysis that surfaces the exact issue — configuration drift, a YAML delta, a SQL vulnerability, a compliance control slipping — with prioritized remediation options before engineers are paged.

Fix: Human-authorized remediation in minutes, not hours. Declarative Automation Bundles (DABs) generation, 3-stage YAML validation, multi-environment promotion and migration — every action is version-controlled, auditable, and executed with explicit confirmation.

Govern: Continuous posture monitoring against SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001. Per-control verdicts, evidence citations, audit-ready reporting, AI-generated Disaster Recovery plans, workspace replication, and executable RTO/RPO drills — so compliance and resilience are always current, not a fire drill.

“The way enterprises operate their data estate hasn’t kept pace with how fast AI agents are generating pipelines and products,” said Kumar Chivukula, co-founder and CEO of Opsera. “Bringing BrickForge to the Databricks Marketplace gives data teams an operational command center to observe, diagnose, remediate, and govern — with compliance, policy, operational health and disaster recovery built in.”

BrickForge runs natively inside a customer’s existing Databricks tenant under a Zero Business Data Contact principle — evaluating metadata and infrastructure patterns, not row-level data. No new infrastructure. No data egress Data Processing Agreement (DPA). No new vendor trust boundary. What typically takes weeks of security reviews and months of architecture approvals is compressed to days.

“Customers consistently ask us for easier, more secure ways to discover, access, and share data and AI assets across their organizations and ecosystems,” said Stephen Orban, SVP, Product Ecosystem & Partnerships at Databricks. “By bringing BrickForge to the Databricks Marketplace, Opsera and Databricks are helping our joint customers accelerate innovation and unlock more value from their data on an open, governed platform.”

BrickForge extends the company’s AI-SDLC platform — which includes the Forge AI software factory — to enterprise data teams, adding operational governance and intelligence to the full software and data delivery lifecycles.

About Opsera 
Opsera helps enterprises operationalize AI-driven software delivery through its AI-SDLC platform, combining intelligent orchestration, operational intelligence, and an open ecosystem of AI tools and partners. By understanding the intent and context of development workflows, Opsera empowers teams to embrace spec-driven development and leverage agentic workflows to automate complex pipelines safely. By helping customers navigate their AI journey at their own pace, Opsera enables organizations to govern, measure, and scale AI-generated software with confidence.

Media Contact:
Terri Douglas
Catapult PR-IR
tdouglas@catapultpr-ir.com

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SOURCE Opsera

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