ScottishPower apologises for charging error, as millions face higher costs under revised energy price cap The energy bill from ScottishPower sent Richard Palmer into an immediate panic. It said he had to pay more than £8,400 straight away or risk his credit history being impaired for years. The 76-year-old felt he had no option so he paid the bill, using half of his savings to do so, even though i...
ScottishPower apologises for charging error, as millions face higher costs under revised energy price cap The energy bill from ScottishPower sent Richard Palmer into an immediate panic. It said he had to pay more than £8,400 straight away or risk his credit history being impaired for years. The 76-year-old felt he had no option so he paid the bill, using half of his savings to do so, even though it amounted to nine times what his annual payment would normally be. Continue reading...
A celebrity dog in central China was stolen and slaughtered, leaving its owner seeking justice but confronting gaps in the country’s legal protections for pets. Guo, a travel influencer from Henan province, raised Chutou, an eight-year-old Border Collie known for his intelligence, energy and gentle temperament. The dog had amassed more than 1.5 million followers on mainland social media after acco...
A celebrity dog in central China was stolen and slaughtered, leaving its owner seeking justice but confronting gaps in the country’s legal protections for pets. Guo, a travel influencer from Henan province, raised Chutou, an eight-year-old Border Collie known for his intelligence, energy and gentle temperament. The dog had amassed more than 1.5 million followers on mainland social media after accompanying Guo on years of journeys across China, from snowy mountains to deserts, often guarding him...
张亚勤认为，中国科技企业可凭借产业链与创新优势，通过解决人类共同挑战实现深度本地化出海。 “未来机器人的数量可能比人还要多，”近期，清华大学智能产业研究院（AIR）院长张亚勤在接受第一财经记者独家专访时预计，实现物理AI的“ChatGPT时刻”，“估计还需要5年左右”。 张亚勤在出席亚洲公益峰会（Philanthropy Asia Summit）期间，就清华大学人工智能医院的最新进展发表演讲。他向...
Russia Weighs $50 Million Plan To Influence Armenia's Election Via Eurasianet, Reuters reported that Russian officials discussed influence operations aimed at weakening Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary election. One alleged proposal involved temporarily bringing Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia to vote for opposition candidates. Despi...
Russia Weighs $50 Million Plan To Influence Armenia's Election Via Eurasianet, Reuters reported that Russian officials discussed influence operations aimed at weakening Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary election. One alleged proposal involved temporarily bringing Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia to vote for opposition candidates. Despite the reported efforts, polling suggests Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party remains the clear frontrunner as Armenia debates its future relationship with Russia and the West. Russia has mulled an extraordinary measure of exporting humans to Armenia in an effort to undermine Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ’s chances of retaining power in the fast-approaching parliamentary elections on June 7, according to an investigative report published by the Reuters news agency. Despite the Kremlin’s best efforts to manipulate the election’s outcome, recent polling data shows that Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party is pulling away from a collection of opposition forces and appears increasingly likely to have a majority in the next parliament. According to Reuters, citing four sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Kremlin set up an agency in October called the Directorate for Strategic Cooperation and Partnership to run a wide array of influence operations in Armenia, including disinformation campaigns. Another initiative reportedly considered involved transporting Armenian passport holders living in Russia back to Armenia temporarily so that they could vote for opposition candidates. Up to 2 million Armenian citizens are believed to be living and working in Russia. Election rules bar expats from voting. Several Reuters sources said that Russian officials estimated that it would cost about $50 million to send 100,000 Armenians back to their homeland to cast ballots. Reuters could not confirm whether the repatriation-to-vote operation had been set in motion, and, if it had, how man...
jabkitticha/iStock via Getty Images We believe: Alphabet’s ( GOOGL ) proposed $15 billion mandatory convertible issue demonstrates that the convertible market remains a top choice for the most innovative companies. Large-cap companies like Alphabet and Oracle ( ORCL ) (which issued $5 billion in mandatory preferred convertibles earlier this year) could add energy to an already exciting market. The...
jabkitticha/iStock via Getty Images We believe: Alphabet’s ( GOOGL ) proposed $15 billion mandatory convertible issue demonstrates that the convertible market remains a top choice for the most innovative companies. Large-cap companies like Alphabet and Oracle ( ORCL ) (which issued $5 billion in mandatory preferred convertibles earlier this year) could add energy to an already exciting market. These mega-cap issuers are a dynamic complement to the small and mid-cap “leaders of tomorrow” that are well represented in the convertible market. Convertibles are especially compelling for growth investors because, in many cases, their structural features offer built-in risk management. Active management is essential for harnessing the opportunity of the asset class; our nearly 50 years of experience gives us a valuable edge. At Calamos, we believe that convertible securities provide a wealth of strategic asset allocation opportunities. As both students and investors of the asset class, we’re tremendously excited to see dynamic issuance trends energizing the market. This includes bellwether mega-cap tech leaders choosing convertibles to fund their plans for AI expansion. 1 - Growth capital for growth companies . Historically, the convertible market has been home to many of the most innovative companies, and we certainly see that today. The convertible market offers a breadth of ways to participate in secular trends, such as the AI buildout. Many of the names in the convertible market may not be familiar—today—but the market has a long history of being home to the leaders of tomorrow. Convertibles are not only attractive for issuers seeking to fund growth at lower borrowing costs—they also provide appealing opportunities for risk-conscious, growth-oriented investors. One of the most important potential benefits of convertibles is that they provide investors with a way to access higher-growth opportunities with less downside exposure. This is because the fixed-income character...
Early results show Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer emerging in front, with many ballots to be counted The high-stakes gubernatorial race in California remained too close to call on Tuesday night, with early results showing a tight contest in the crowded race. With many ballots still left to be counted, three candidates emerged at the top: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrats Xavier Be...
Early results show Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer emerging in front, with many ballots to be counted The high-stakes gubernatorial race in California remained too close to call on Tuesday night, with early results showing a tight contest in the crowded race. With many ballots still left to be counted, three candidates emerged at the top: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. And results were clear enough that two Democratic candidates – San Jose mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – conceded the race shortly after polls closed. Continue reading...
MF3d/iStock via Getty Images Get ready for a magnificent month, and then some. Mega-cap tech stocks dominate the corporate event calendar in June, already highlighted by Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address at Computex 2026 in Taiwan earlier this week, one of many major conferences. He detailed the future of AI, along with how consumers will use the revolutionary technology. Nvidia d...
MF3d/iStock via Getty Images Get ready for a magnificent month, and then some. Mega-cap tech stocks dominate the corporate event calendar in June, already highlighted by Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address at Computex 2026 in Taiwan earlier this week, one of many major conferences. He detailed the future of AI, along with how consumers will use the revolutionary technology. Nvidia debuted its RTX processor for Windows, effectively taking aim at competitors Intel ( INTC ) and AMD ( AMD ). Shares of Qualcomm ( QCOM ) and Texas Instruments ( TXN ) also traded lower on June’s first trading day. NVDA lifted 6% to kick off the month. What else is on the docket before mid-year? Let’s dive in. The AI Rally Has Been Relentless First, we should catch our collective breath. The S&P 500’s Information Technology sector rallied 50% from its March 30 low, trouncing all other groups. Eye-popping, jaw-dropping, and face-ripping rallies from memory/storage and hardware names such as Micron ( MU ), SanDisk ( SNDK ), Dell Technologies ( DELL ), and now Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) swiped some of the shine off the legacy Mag 7 companies. Indeed, the likes of Micron, SK Hynix ( HXSCL ), and Samsung ( SSNLF ) are now in the vaunted trillion-dollar market-cap club. Semiconductors Face Their First Test Turning back to the calendar, volatility catalysts appear mid-week. On Wednesday, June 3, Samsung presents at the Bank of America Global Technology Conference, with Broadcom ( AVGO ) Q2 results due out after the close. What's more, Taiwan Semiconductor ( TSM ) hosts its Annual General Meeting on Thursday. So, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( SMH ) could swing around amid all micro company and macro jobs data crossing the wires between now and 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Nvidia Takes the Spotlight... Again Nvidia then grabs the mic at the BofA tech event Thursday morning. We could learn more about the world’s most valuable company’s inroads into the PC market. Could there be ...
peshkov/iStock via Getty Images Capital market activity in Europe's IT sector declined on a sequential and year-over-year basis to $804.7 million in April, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. By comparison, the sector raised $4.52 billion through capital offerings in March and $1.50 billion in April 2025. Debt offerings made up the bulk of the total in April at $531.2 million, while ...
peshkov/iStock via Getty Images Capital market activity in Europe's IT sector declined on a sequential and year-over-year basis to $804.7 million in April, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. By comparison, the sector raised $4.52 billion through capital offerings in March and $1.50 billion in April 2025. Debt offerings made up the bulk of the total in April at $531.2 million, while common equity offerings amounted to $273.5 million. German semiconductor company AIXTRON SE's ( AIXXF )( AIIXY ) $530 million convertible bond offering was the largest of the month and the eighth-largest in the sector year to date. The company intends to use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes, which may include investments to support organic growth, acquisitions and share buybacks. REC Silicon ASA ( RNWEF )( RNWEY ), a Norwegian producer and seller of silicon materials for the solar and electronics industries, completed a $100 million common equity offering on April 7. The transaction was a subscription rights offering, with Anchor AS, REC Silicon's largest shareholder, agreeing to fully guarantee the rights issue. Proceeds will be used to repay advance payments on a long-term $30 million offtake contract, repay existing debt facilities and for general corporate purposes. In the same month, Raspberry Pi Holdings PLC ( RPBPF ), a developer of single-board computers, compute modules and semiconductors, completed an $80 million common stock placement. The underwriters were Jefferies International Ltd. and Peel Hunt LLP. Nebius Group NV's ( NBIS ) offerings of $2.59 billion and $1.75 billion in March are the largest so far this year, followed by two Infineon Technologies AG offerings in February, each worth $890 million. Systems software companies in Europe raised the most capital so far this year, at $6.34 billion, while semiconductor companies raised $2.37 billion and communications equipment companies raised $780 million. Original Post Editor's Note: The summary...