News

Beachwood, Ohio – September 24, 2026 -- OneSeven has launched AdvisorGrowth IQ, an AI-powered marketing and prospecting engine built to help financial advisors and independent RIAs generate qualified client meetings without expanding internal marketing staff.

Platform combines brand strategy with AI-driven prospect targeting

AdvisorGrowth IQ integrates financial advisor marketing strategy, brand positioning, thought leadership, audience targeting, prospect intelligence, personalized outreach, automated follow-up and appointment generation into a single connected system. The tool addresses a gap OneSeven identified among advisors who excel at client service but lack the time, technology and data infrastructure to grow their practices organically.

Providenciales – – September 24, 2026 -- KuCoin has upgraded its Wallet Management Services from CCSS v8.1 Level 2 to CCSS v8.1 Level 3, the highest tier of the Cryptocurrency Security Standard, the exchange announced.

KuCoin secures full-system certification under the CCSS v8.1 framework

The Level 3 rating, assessed under the same v8.1 standard as the prior certification, verifies stronger controls across the full cryptographic key lifecycle, from generation and storage to access, backup and recovery.

New controls target key-compromise response and personnel access

Compared with Level 2, the Level 3 certification requires greater separation of responsibilities, stricter access and personnel controls, regular testing of key-compromise response procedures, broader independent assurance, and continual backup of operational logs. KuCoin said the measures reduce single points of failure and improve traceability and resilience.

Las Vegas – September 24, 2026 -- BOXABL Inc. (Nasdaq: BXBL) has appointed Timothy Goldsmith, CPA, to its board of directors, naming him chair of the Audit Committee effective Sept. 24, 2026, as the modular housing manufacturer builds out financial and governance infrastructure two months after its Nasdaq debut.

Goldsmith brings two decades of EY audit leadership to BOXABL's board

Goldsmith spent nearly 21 years at EY, serving as audit partner from 2018 to 2026, where he oversaw more than 20 complex public and private company audits and led a team of over 30 audit executives. He directed audit strategy for companies ranging from $200 million to over $3 billion in revenue, with technical expertise spanning U.S. GAAP, IFRS, SEC and PCAOB standards, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, and M&A accounting. Earlier in his career he worked as a U.S. SEC capital markets senior in Hong Kong, advising on cross-border IPOs involving U.S. operations.

Princeton, N.J. – September 24, 2026 -- Refuel Agency has introduced Afro-Latino consumers as a standalone research segment for the first time, finding this group leads all measured multicultural audiences in AI tool adoption at 31%, using platforms such as Gemini.

Afro-Latino consumers combine top AI adoption with strong home-centered habits

Despite ranking highest in AI tool usage, 58% of Afro-Latino respondents live in households with children and show a strong preference for entertaining and cooking at home, according to the 2026 Multicultural Explorer study. Refuel's analysts said this combination of digital-forward behavior and traditional household patterns made the segment impossible to keep classified under a broader "other" category.

Malmö – September 24, 2026 -- The EU's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo) takes effect September 27, 2026, requiring companies to substantiate any environmental claims made to consumers with clear, specific and credible evidence, a rule change welcomed by Duni Group.

Directive bans vague labels like "eco-friendly" without proof

EmpCo strengthens existing EU consumer protection law by targeting misleading environmental claims, unreliable sustainability labels and generic terms such as "green" or "eco-friendly" when unsupported by recognized environmental performance data. Companies will no longer be able to rely on broad or generic claims unless properly explained and substantiated; claims must instead be tied to specific products, packaging, materials or verified improvements.

Princeton, N.J. – September 24, 2026 -- Young adults aged 18-24 have overtaken teens as the primary drivers of brand discovery on TikTok and Instagram, according to Refuel Agency's newly redesigned 2026 Youth, College & Young Adult Explorer study of 1,545 respondents.

Social media engagement now peaks in young adulthood, not the teen years

Young adults lead brand discovery on TikTok at 30% versus 28% for teens, and on Instagram at 29% versus 23%. Adults log nearly double the weekly social media hours of teens -- 40 hours versus 24 -- with college students matching adults at 40 hours weekly. Liz Carmo, EVP Audience & Brand at Refuel Agency, said brand media plans still treating the teen years as the social-media high-water mark are reaching audiences at the wrong intensity.

Shanghai – September 24, 2026 -- WhalesBot has launched EliteMind, a modular Physical AI robot that lets elementary and middle school students deploy AI models built on-screen into real-world sensing and action tasks.

EliteMind runs on WhalesBot's proprietary W-Hong LLM

The robot integrates intent recognition, voice interaction, visual understanding, and AI-powered creation with physical control, forming a complete perception-reasoning-action loop. Its lightweight, modular design allows sensors and actuators to be reconfigured across different robotic builds, letting students test varied real-world AI applications.

Hamburg – September 24, 2026 -- Envision Energy has launched the EN-252/16.7, a 16.7 MW offshore wind turbine engineered for high-wind sites, with the company projecting a 2-4% reduction in levelized cost of energy for gigawatt-scale wind farms.

Turbine cuts unit count by roughly 10% while lifting energy output

The EN-252/16.7 carries a swept-area-to-power ratio of approximately 2.99 square meters per kilowatt. For a gigawatt-scale offshore project, Envision states the turbine can generate 1-2% higher annual energy output while requiring around 10% fewer units than currently available turbines, translating into the estimated LCOE reduction depending on site conditions and project configuration. The design also allows uprating at suitable sites, offering further scope to cut turbine numbers and capital expenditure.

Hamburg, Germany – September 24, 2026 -- CRRC Corporation Limited (SHA: 601766) has completed production of a 110-meter recyclable wind turbine blade in Sheyang, Jiangsu Province, achieving a recovery rate exceeding 95% for key raw materials. The blade, developed in-house, targets commercial-scale recycling of ultra-large turbine blades as China's decommissioning volumes rise.

China faces nearly 1 million metric tons of wind-related solid waste by 2030

Industry estimates cited by CRRC project that more than 30,000 wind turbines, representing 44.73 GW of capacity, will be retired in China by 2030, generating 947,900 metric tons of solid waste. New onshore and offshore installations in China are expected to exceed 470 GW in the years ahead, intensifying pressure on end-of-life blade management.

Amman and Abu Dhabi – September 24, 2026 -- Bank al Etihad, one of Jordan's largest banks, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Abu Dhabi-based Ethmar International Holding (EIH) and other UAE investors to establish a new bank in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), marking the Jordanian lender's first entry into the United Arab Emirates.

New ADGM entity to operate under a Category 1 banking license

The proposed bank will hold a Category 1 banking license within ADGM and fall under the supervision of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), while also complying with regulatory requirements in both the UAE and Jordan. The launch remains subject to obtaining all necessary official approvals.