Day: June 22, 2026

Scaled for Global Commerce: PhotonPay Reinforces Market Leadership at 2026 WAVES Summit

HONG KONG, June 22 -- PhotonPay, a next-generation financial operating system powered by stablecoins, achieved significant recognition at the 2026 WAVES Summit hosted by 36Kr, a pioneering platform dedicated to serving New Economy participants. PhotonPay's Founder and CEO Lewison Chen was selected for 36Kr's "2026 36Under36" Entrepreneurs List, while Sales VP Joey Xu joined a featured panel discussion to unpack the strategic resilience and high-conviction execution required to scale a business.     Visionary Leadership: Driving the Next-Generation Financial OS The annual "36Under36" list recognizes 108 young leaders driving innovation across AI, deep technology, globalization, and emerging industries. This year's cohort highlights entrepreneurs who are not simply pursuing market opportunities, but building the foundational systems that enable long-term economic transformation. For Lewison, this recognition underscores his strategic foresight in anticipating the deep structural shifts of global commerce. It validates his leadership in transitioning payments from a fragmented network of disconnected tools into an intelligent, unified operating system.   Under Lewison's guidance, PhotonPay has established a robust global footprint, expanding to 14 strategic operational hubs across major financial jurisdictions, with a team of over 500 professional employees. Through deep technical and commercial partnerships with world-leading financial institutions, global card networks and banks, the platform now supports more than 60 major currencies, with its full product suite covering over 200 countries and regions. Today, this institutional-grade infrastructure is trusted by more than 200,000 businesses worldwide to secure, manage and optimize their cross-market financial operations. Abstracting the friction of legacy global banking, PhotonPay operates as a unified financial operating system, which encapsulates multi-currency banking networks and stablecoin rails into a single, programmable infrastructure layer. Clients can run their capital workflows via an intuitive portal, or seamlessly extend these capabilities to their business applications via robust APIs. This modular OS coordinates the entire lifecycle of corporate capital, enabling multi-currency collections, real-time global payouts, card issuance, on/off-ramping, FX conversions and automated reconciliation within a secure and efficient ecosystem. "Long-term infrastructure is never built on static formulas — it's built on the conviction to turn macroeconomic uncertainty into operational certainty," said Lewison Chen, Founder and CEO of PhotonPay." Being recognized on the 36Under36 list reflects not just what PhotonPay has built, but what we believe the next generation of global financial infrastructure must become: programmable, adaptive, and borderless. We are investing heavily in our global network and technical architecture so that payments stop being a cost center and start being a strategic engine for growth." On the WAVES Stage: Redefining Capital Velocity for Global Businesses Addressing the summit's flagship panel, "Riding the Waves Before Anyone Believes," PhotonPay's Sales VP Joey Xu aligned these capabilities with real-world market execution. "Global financial giants and legacy banks established the foundational networks of digital trade," Joey noted during the discussion. "PhotonPay's mission is not to disrupt this baseline, but to provide precise ecosystem adaptation. We translate complex, fragmented global banking structures into a tailor-made financial operating system optimized for the exact workflows of international businesses." Joey highlighted that multi-market organizations routinely drain liquidity and lose days of transaction velocity when transferring funds across disconnected collection, FX, and disbursement applications. PhotonPay resolves this by enabling businesses to retain global earnings in a multi-currency wallet, allowing balances to be instantly deployed for real-time operational expenses — such as global digital ad spends or logistics payouts. Unified approach like this has allowed PhotonPay to reduce global capital costs for its clients by more than 75% while boosting treasury operational efficiency by 60%. When discussing long-term execution in a volatile market, Joey identified three core pillars of PhotonPay's operational ethos: Long Cycle: Building institutional-grade payment networks, technological foundations, and international regulatory licenses requires years of deliberate cultivation rather than reliance on short-term market trends. Granularity: Global infrastructure success depends on a meticulous focus on hyper-local compliance matrices, regional clearing frameworks, and real-time FX fluctuations. Continuous Listening: Sustainable growth relies on maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the market to capture the shifting realities of global commerce. Moving forward, PhotonPay will continue to anchor its strategy in long-term infrastructure evolution, expanding the boundaries where payment technology intersects with core corporate operations. By pioneering the convergence of traditional finance with programmable architecture, stablecoin and agentic commerce, the company aims to deliver sustained value to the global trade ecosystem. About PhotonPay PhotonPay is a stablecoin-powered financial operating system built for the stablecoin era. Designed for modern enterprises, PhotonPay enables businesses to send, receive, convert, and settle funds across both fiat and stablecoin rails through a single, compliance-first integration, spanning 200+ countries and territories. For more information, visit [www.photonpay.com]. -- PRNewswire -- Source : PhotonPay   

HONG KONG, June 22 — PhotonPay, a next-generation financial operating system powered by stablecoins, achieved significant recognition at the 2026 WAVES Summit hosted by 36Kr, a pioneering platform dedicated to serving New Economy participants. PhotonPay’s Founder and CEO Lewison Chen was selected for 36Kr’s “2026 36Under36” Entrepreneurs List, while Sales VP Joey Xu joined a featured panel discussion to unpack the […]

Malaysia in strong position to lead energy transition financing – TNB

KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 22 -- The encouraging response to two Islamic bond issuances by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) totaling RM2.5 billion for energy transition projects shows that Malaysia is in a strong position to lead the financing of energy transition in the region. TNB's new Chief Energy Officer, Mohd Zarihi Mohd Hashim, said the two sukuk issuances in 2026, which included RM1 billion for a solar project in May and RM1.5 billion for a hydro project in March, were each oversubscribed five times. He said that TNB's recent experience illustrates this trend, showing that there is a huge demand from investors that is increasing regionally and globally. "This achievement shows that investors are very interested in renewable energy assets (REAs) that are well-prepared and bankable, supported by a clear structure and solid business partners," he said. Mohd Zarihi shared his views on how Malaysia can channel available funds into well-structured projects to support the country's aspirations to achieve net zero carbon emissions, at the Energy Transition Conference 2026 (ETCon26) held recently. He said the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) estimates financing needs of RM1.2 trillion to RM1.3 trillion over the next 25 years or approximately RM50 billion per year. Globally, US$2.3 trillion has been channeled into energy transition projects by 2025, demonstrating that the availability of capital is not a major constraint. Mohd Zarihi said that the panel discussion session held at ETCon26 concluded that the more pressing challenge lies in the speed and scale of project implementation. Projects require stronger preparation, clearer contractual arrangements and stable policy signals to enable capital to be invested more efficiently. Risk-sharing mechanisms, including blended financing, are expected to play an important role, especially among small developers and new technologies, he said. The encouraging response to TNB's two sukuk issuances indicates strong demand among investors. The high interest reflects the institution's confidence in the utility company's energy transition initiatives as well as NETR's target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Energy transition financing includes renewable energy projects such as solar and hydro, green hydrogen, carbon capture, energy efficiency, electric mobility advancements and energy-related initiatives. Mohd Zarihi said that financing for energy transition projects is growing rapidly, placing greater emphasis on whether the project can be financed by banks and is ready to receive investment capital. Commenting on Malaysia's readiness to be a leader in financing the energy transition in the region, he said that the regulatory framework and climate-related guidelines have been put in place while the capital market has shown support for transition-focused instruments. "The priority at this time is to accelerate the channeling of capital into bankable projects, resilient infrastructure and large-scale implementation that support the country's transition aspirations," he said. -- BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 22 — The encouraging response to two Islamic bond issuances by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) totaling RM2.5 billion for energy transition projects shows that Malaysia is in a strong position to lead the financing of energy transition in the region. TNB’s new Chief Energy Officer, Mohd Zarihi Mohd Hashim, said the two […]

Explosion, fire at gas facility in Qatar

ISTANBUL, JUNE 22 -- An explosion at a gas facility in Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City injured several people following a technical malfunction during operations, authorities said on Sunday. Anadolu Agency reported that Qatar's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the incident occurred at a factory in the industrial area and did not cause any dangerous leaks that threatened public safety. The Ministry informed that the relevant authorities are still continuing their efforts to deal with the incident. Meanwhile, QatarEnergy said the explosion and fire at the Barzan local gas supply facility occurred during start-up operations in the evening. The company said emergency response teams had the fire under control and promised to release more information as soon as it was available. -- BERNAMA-ANADOLU

ISTANBUL, JUNE 22 — An explosion at a gas facility in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City injured several people following a technical malfunction during operations, authorities said on Sunday. Anadolu Agency reported that Qatar’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the incident occurred at a factory in the industrial area and did not cause […]

Allianz Partners Responds to Cost Living Crisis with refreshed Overseas Visitor Health Cover for Australia’s International Workers

BRISBANE, Australia, June 22 -- Allianz Care, part of global leader in insurance and assistance services Allianz Partners, has unveiled a refreshed Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) portfolio with new product 'Everyday Care Workers',  designed to better cater to a range of budgets in Australia's international workforce. This product offers practical and accessible health coverage, including uncapped general practitioner (GP) visits and admitted hospital benefits,  affordably priced from AUD 93 per month for Single policyholders.   The launch follows findings from Allianz Partners' customer research, which identified a growing group of recent graduates and skilled workers seeking affordable GP access without the higher costs of specialist coverage. The 2025 State of Student Healthcare Report identified 85% of respondents underestimated the cost of living. With rising living expenses and more than 59% of international students planning to stay in Australia after graduation, the Everyday Care Workers product responds directly to this shift by offering a streamlined, cost-effective health cover option. "Allianz Care has a long history of supporting international communities in Australia," said Miranda Fennell, Executive Head of Health, Allianz Partners Australia. "These updates demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing health insurance that's clear, flexible, and truly focused on care, whether supporting international students transitioning from their studies into the workforce or welcoming international workers and visitors to Australia." This product launch forms part of a broader refresh of Allianz Care's OVHC range, featuring simplified product names and a redesigned online purchasing experience. The updates make it easier for international visitors and workers to compare plans, understand inclusions, and choose cover aligned with their visa, lifestyle, and budget. Demand for such coverage continues to grow. In 2025 133,891 temporary graduate visas were issued, up over 7% from grants in 2024 (124,687). This sustained demand for skilled migration underscores the importance of affordable health insurance as international students transition into the Australian workforce. International students and workers also make a notable contribution to Australia's economy. According to the Australian Government Department of Education,  international education was worth almost $55.0 billion to the Australian economy in 2025. The Business Council of Australia estimates that for every 1,000 migrants, there is approximately AUD 124 million in economic value per year. Through the new Everyday Care Workers product, and refreshed OVHC portfolio, Allianz Care continues to deliver on its ambitions to make health insurance accessible, practical, and supportive for migrants. For more information about the new OVHC portfolio, visit allianzcare.com.au. About Allianz Partners Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C insurance and assistance, offering global solutions that span international health, travel insurance, automotive and assistance. Customer-driven, our innovative experts are redefining insurance services by delivering future-ready, high-tech, high-touch products and solutions that go beyond traditional insurance. Our products are embedded seamlessly into our partners' businesses or sold directly to customers, and are available through two commercial brands in Australia: Allianz Global Assistance and Allianz Care. Present in over 75 countries, our 19,400 employees speak 70 languages, handle over 58 million cases each year, and are motivated to go the extra mile to offer assistance to our customers around the world.    For more information, please visit:  https://www.allianz-partners.com/en_AU.html. -- PRNewswire  -- Source: Allianz Partners 

BRISBANE, Australia, June 22 — Allianz Care, part of global leader in insurance and assistance services Allianz Partners, has unveiled a refreshed Overseas Visitor Health Cover (OVHC) portfolio with new product ‘Everyday Care Workers‘,  designed to better cater to a range of budgets in Australia’s international workforce. This product offers practical and accessible health coverage, including uncapped general practitioner […]

Cape Verde Scores Historic First World Cup Goal in 2-2 Draw with Uruguay

MIAMI, June 22 — Cape Verde continued its remarkable FIFA World Cup debut by scoring its first-ever goal at the tournament and securing a hard-fought 2-2 draw against two-time world champions Uruguay in their Group H clash on Sunday. After earning widespread praise for holding European champions Spain to a goalless draw in their opening match, the African nation once again impressed with a spirited performance to claim another valuable point. Cape Verde made history when Gilson Tavares found the net in the 31st minute, giving his side a surprise lead and marking the country's first goal in a World Cup finals tournament. Uruguay responded just before halftime, with Maxi Araújo leveling the score in the 44th minute. The South American side then completed the turnaround moments later when Agustín Canobbio struck to hand Uruguay a 2-1 advantage heading into the break. However, Cape Verde refused to back down and restored parity in the 61st minute through substitute Hélio Varela. The equaliser came after a misplaced pass by the Uruguayan defence allowed Varela to break into space before calmly slotting the ball past veteran goalkeeper Fernando Muslera. The draw extends Cape Verde's unbeaten start to its maiden World Cup campaign, following its opening stalemate against Spain. In Group H, Spain sits atop the standings after a convincing 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia. Uruguay and Cape Verde are level on two points each, while Saudi Arabia remains bottom of the group with one point. The result leaves qualification to the knockout stage finely balanced heading into the final round of group matches. -- MINUTESMY

MIAMI, June 22 — Cape Verde continued its remarkable FIFA World Cup debut by scoring its first-ever goal at the tournament and securing a hard-fought 2-2 draw against two-time world champions Uruguay in their Group H clash on Sunday. After earning widespread praise for holding European champions Spain to a goalless draw in their opening […]

Korea Deep Learning Secures Back-to-Back Global AI Benchmark Wins Over Big Tech

SEOUL, South Korea, June 22 -- Korea Deep Learning, a pioneer in enterprise-grade Document AI and vision intelligence solutions, today announced that its proprietary Document AI has secured the #1 overall ranking on ParseBench, a premier global document parsing benchmark organized by LlamaIndex.     ParseBench evaluates AI models on their ability to read, structure, and extract information from approximately 2,000 pages of complex, real-world enterprise documents across finance, insurance, and government sectors. In the latest evaluation, Korea Deep Learning ranked #1 overall in the VLM category with a score of 76.4, ahead of the next-highest-scoring models (75.0 and 67.8). The company also secured the top spot in Visual Grounding with a score of 78.8, establishing a commanding 19-point lead over the next-highest-scoring model (59.8). The win was driven by KDL-Frontier-Parser-nano, a 1.2-billion-parameter single model. Despite its compact size, it delivered superior accuracy against massive Big Tech systems at a fraction of the operational cost, proving that specialized AI tailored for business workflows can outperform broad, general-purpose LLMs. Its core edge lies in Korea Deep Learning's Near-Zero Hallucination technology, which simultaneously analyzes layout, field relationships, and spatial positioning to minimize error rates and extract data with context-aware precision. Trained on over 400 million images and documents, Korea Deep Learning's solutions support secure on-premise and SaaS deployments. Validated across major enterprise and public sectors, the technology powers administrative data restructuring for the Gyeonggi Provincial Government and serves over 80 major corporations, including Hyundai Capital and LG CNS—slashing document-processing times by up to 96%. Today's ParseBench victory builds on a consecutive string of global milestones. In March 2026, the company's proprietary Vision-Language Model, KDL Frontier, clinched the #1 spot in the English category of OCRBench v2 with a score of 68.1, outperforming other leading models. In recognition of this sustained technological leadership, Forbes Asia officially named CEO Jihyun Kim to its prestigious 2026 '30 Under 30' list in the Consumer & Enterprise Technology category last month. "Our strategy has always been to build specialized AI that decodes complex document structures as intuitively as a human, rather than focusing on massive LLMs," said Jihyun Kim, CEO of Korea Deep Learning. "This milestone validates our architecture as the most practical solution for the 'AI Agent' era, enabling autonomous decision-making and total workflow automation." Backed by an $8 million (KRW 12 billion) Series A funding round secured in December 2025 and a strategic partnership with NVIDIA, Korea Deep Learning is aggressively accelerating its global expansion into international enterprise markets. About Korea Deep Learning Founded in 2019, Korea Deep Learning is a premier vision intelligence and Document AI company developing enterprise-grade AI agents that automate document-based workflows. Its proprietary DEEP Agent platform combines advanced OCR, document parsing, and vision-language models to help organizations seamlessly extract, structure, and act on information from complex documents, images, and visual data. -- PRNewswire -- Source: Korea Deep Learning    

SEOUL, South Korea, June 22 — Korea Deep Learning, a pioneer in enterprise-grade Document AI and vision intelligence solutions, today announced that its proprietary Document AI has secured the #1 overall ranking on ParseBench, a premier global document parsing benchmark organized by LlamaIndex. ParseBench evaluates AI models on their ability to read, structure, and extract information from […]

Integrated Op Cantas: 349 individuals including wanted persons arrested in Selangor

KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 22 -- Police arrested 349 individuals in 235 raids and inspections through Op Cantas Bersepadu at business premises, residences and construction project sites in Selangor. Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director Datuk M. Kumar said that those arrested in the four-day operation starting last Thursday consisted of 280 men and 69 women aged between 20 and 83, including 85 foreigners. "Five of those arrested are on the list of wanted persons under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA) while another 34 are wanted for violent crimes and property crimes," he said in a statement on Sunday. He said investigations were being conducted against the 349 individuals, covering various offences under the Penal Code, Immigration Act 1959/63, Secondhand Dealers Act 1946, Societies Act 1966 and Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Kumar said the operation, which was carried out with strategic cooperation from the Criminal Investigation Department, Special Branch, Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department and Bukit Aman Air Operations Force, the Malaysian Immigration Department and local authorities, focused on tracking and arresting individuals listed as wanted persons. He said the operation also aimed to track down identified organised crime groups, including crippling financial sources through enforcement actions against premises suspected of being a source of funding for the group's activities. Kumar said that in the same operation, two entertainment centres inspected were found to be operating without an entertainment licence, while 13 business premises were believed to be employing foreign workers without valid passes or permits. "Compound actions have been issued by local authorities against business owners who committed various license-related offenses," he said. The success of the operation, he said, proves the police's continued commitment in strengthening efforts to prevent and combat crime, especially involving organised criminal activities through the cooperation of various enforcement agencies. He also called on the public to continue to provide information regarding criminal activities to help strengthen prevention and suppression efforts for the well-being of society. -- BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 22 — Police arrested 349 individuals in 235 raids and inspections through Op Cantas Bersepadu at business premises, residences and construction project sites in Selangor. Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director Datuk M. Kumar said that those arrested in the four-day operation starting last Thursday consisted of 280 men and 69 […]

PM Anwar Reaffirms Commitment to Sarawak Development at Gawai Dayak Celebration

KUCHING, June 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to Sarawak’s development and praised the state’s role as a future energy powerhouse during a Gawai Dayak celebration dinner attended by leaders and communities from diverse backgrounds in Kuching on Sunday night. The event was also attended by the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sarawak, Tun Pehin Sri Dr Haji Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, and Toh Puan Datuk Patinggi Hajjah Fauziah Mohd Sanusi. Anwar said that since assuming office, he has made it a priority to attend both the Gawai Dayak and Kaamatan celebrations annually, describing them as important symbols of Malaysia’s unity in diversity. He noted that Gawai Dayak embodies Sarawak’s spirit of harmony and inclusiveness, highlighting the state's “Segulai Sejalai” philosophy as a foundation for strengthening understanding, friendship and cooperation among people of different races and cultures. The Prime Minister also highlighted the progress achieved under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), saying the MADANI Government has successfully implemented several long-standing matters that had previously remained unresolved. While acknowledging that some issues still require careful negotiations and detailed consideration, Anwar said the strong relationship built on trust, friendship and mutual understanding between the Federal Government and the Sarawak Government has enabled significant progress to be made. Among the key achievements, he cited the transfer of the Bintulu Port to the Sarawak Government as an important step reflecting confidence in the state's ability to manage its own strategic assets. “I believe that when a state is governed effectively, led by capable leaders who understand the principles of good governance, the benefits will be visible and felt by the people,” he said. Anwar also reiterated Sarawak’s growing importance in the global energy sector, revealing that he has consistently highlighted the state’s vast potential during meetings with world leaders and major industry players, including during his recent visits to Russia, Turkmenistan and Japan. He said Sarawak possesses significant advantages and has the potential to emerge as one of the leading energy hubs in the region. On the ongoing relationship between national oil company PETRONAS and Sarawak-owned PETROS, Anwar said he and Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Tun Openg agreed that all remaining issues should be resolved fairly and equitably through a spirit of teamwork and cooperation. He stressed that close collaboration between both companies is crucial to enhancing the prosperity and standing of both Sarawak and Malaysia. “It can be done, it has been done, and it must be done,” Anwar said. The Prime Minister further assured Sarawakians that the Federal Government would continue contributing to the state's development agenda. “We are one team. We work together and we achieve success together,” he said, expressing hope that ongoing efforts would help Malaysia, including Sarawak, continue to grow as a peaceful, just and prosperous nation that benefits all its people. Anwar concluded by extending Gawai Dayak greetings to the people of Sarawak, wishing them prosperity, happiness and harmony as they celebrate the harvest festival. -- MINUTESMY

KUCHING, June 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to Sarawak’s development and praised the state’s role as a future energy powerhouse during a Gawai Dayak celebration dinner attended by leaders and communities from diverse backgrounds in Kuching on Sunday night. The event was also attended by the Yang […]