Alibaba Upgrades International AI Tools With Latest Qwen Models
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. 's cloud division is upgrading its suite of artificial intelligence tools and infrastructure offerings for international customers, the company said at its Spring Launch event on Tuesday.
Alibaba Cloud is expanding its platform-as-a-service options and updating its AI capabilities with the addition of its latest proprietary large language models, including its Qwen-Max and DeepSeek-like QwQ-Plus reasoning model. The expansion, through its Singapore availability zones, shows Alibaba pushing for more overseas customers at a time of intensifying competition for AI users and developers at home in China.
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TechCrunch
5 hours ago
- TechCrunch
Week in Review: Why Anthropic cut access to Windsurf
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9 hours ago
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Failed Muni Bond Draws FBI and Sparks `Ponzi-Like Fraud' Claims
(Bloomberg) -- Before the lawsuits started piling up in courtrooms across Connecticut, before his employer accused him of running a 'massive Ponzi-like fraud,' and before the FBI showed up, Robert Cappelletti looked well on his way to pulling off one of the greatest muni-bond coups of all time. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. The plan Cappelletti had put together was so audacious it bordered on the fantastical. The housing agency he ran in Groton, a sleepy town of some 40,000 people along Connecticut's Thames River, would sell $750 million of bonds to jumpstart a $4 billion project to transform a bunch of run-down shopping plazas into a sprawling, up-scale development. There'd be a new train station, a hospital, almost 2,000 apartments and dozens of shops and restaurants. It would have been the biggest local bond issue in the state's history and expanded the tiny Groton agency far beyond its role managing two apartment complexes. And yet Cappelletti — a part-time employee with a mixed record running other housing agencies in the state — breezed through a series of crucial steps needed to complete the sale. He got approval from the five-person board that runs the agency; crafted a brief financial projections statement; scored an investment-grade bond rating; and started the process of lining up buyers for the debt. It was only when the bond sale collapsed this winter and Cappelletti was removed from office that the complex financial web that he had spun across Connecticut for years came to light. Cappelletti engaged in double-dealing, created shell companies and failed to disclose loans he took out, leaving, in the process, a trail of financial wreckage across the state, lawyers for the Groton agency alleged in the most high-profile case against him. In February, they sued Cappelletti for fraud, claiming he borrowed at least $3 million without the commission's knowledge through subsidiaries he controlled. In subsequent court documents, the authority alleged Cappelletti also took 'millions of dollars' from non-commercial lenders and other 'questionable entities' that were then transferred to others, including businesses owned by his brother, David, that received about $1 million. The housing authority's attorneys are working with the FBI, which is investigating, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. 'Everybody is disgusted,' said Ric Silver, who lives in an apartment in Pequot Village, a 104-unit complex managed by the authority. Cappelletti declined to comment through his attorney, Joseph Martini, who also declined to comment. Cappelletti's brother, David, who was named as a co-defendant in the suit last month, also declined to comment. On June 2, in court papers filed in connection with the Groton case, Ivan Ladd-Smith, another lawyer for Cappelletti, said he intends to deny the allegations. A press official for the FBI declined to comment. Robert Frink, the chair of the Groton Housing Authority, said the board has opened an investigation but is 'unable to go into greater detail at this time.' That Cappelletti drew so little scrutiny as he pushed ahead with the deal is a testament to the vulnerabilities in the vast network of government agencies struggling to provide affordable housing to low-income families across America. To finance new projects and try to address the housing crisis, the local agencies routinely sell municipal bonds, a loosely regulated corner of the securities market where deals are often just rubber-stamped. Many of the agencies have been plagued by mismanagement, poor oversight and corruption. Since 2023, prosecutors have brought bribery and fraud charges against housing authority officials in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana and New York, where 70 former and current New York City Housing Authority officials were ensnared in a historic case. In Connecticut, the events in Groton are drawing fresh scrutiny to the more than 100 independent housing agencies across the state, which only has enough affordable rental homes to meet the needs of about one-third of the lowest-income households. 'Until we fix the regulatory disconnect,' said Robert Boris, chair of Groton's economic development commission, 'bad actors will continue to exploit it and working families will continue to the pay the price.' Cappelletti, 58, has worked in public housing for two decades. A graduate of Assumption University, a Catholic school in Worcester, Massachusetts, he joined the housing authority in Stamford, Connecticut, in 2002 to run the city's Section 8 voucher program, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2009, he became the executive director for the Meriden Housing Authority and five years later tacked on a similar part-time job for the Waterbury Housing Authority. Just before starting at Groton in 2016, he left the post in Waterbury. There, an investigation found he had used $56,653 of public funds to buy a Chevrolet Silverado for business and personal use even though he wasn't entitled to a vehicle, had slid someone onto the payroll without the agency's approval and allowed a contractor to live rent-free in an apartment managed by the agency in exchange for painting work. Cappelletti and Waterbury reached a separation agreement that included no admission of wrongdoing. The Groton job was a relatively modest one — mostly the oversight of 174 rental units — that Cappelletti could do while still running the agency in Meriden some 50 miles away. Cappelletti, though, envisioned much bigger things for Groton. A manufacturing hub just off the Long Island Sound, best known for its naval base, General Dynamics Corp.'s submarine factory and the sprawling research facility for the drugmaker Pfizer Inc., the town had a relatively strong economy. But that had left it with a shortage of affordable housing, and its main commercial corridor was lined with aging, strip-style retail. Cappelletti called his development project Groton 2030. It'd reserve 20% of the 1,925 apartments for lower-income residents, a key selling point to the authority's board, which approved the project in June 2023. Per the plan, Cappelletti would oversee the project himself through a development arm of the housing authority instead of hiring an experienced developer or soliciting bids. One of the housing agency commissioners who signed off on the plan, Joe Greene, soon had regrets. In an interview, Greene said he had reluctantly approved the bond during a last-minute video call but had doubts after asking for details. Cappelletti never presented a real business plan, Greene said, and the town had not received formal notice that one of its agencies was planning a massive bond sale. At odds with the rest of the board, Greene resigned that September. Two years later, he remains mystified by it all. 'I still don't know how you're going to pay off a $750 million bond in a five-year timespan when you don't own the property and when there was no business plan,' he said. 'People were amazed at the amount of money.' With the approval in hand, Cappelletti put the deal in motion. He had the Groton authority pay $25,000 to a New Jersey-based investment banker, according to a check register obtained under a freedom of information request. The authority also hired Connecticut law firm Pullman & Comley as bond counsel and obtained an 'A' rating from Egan-Jones based on a few financial projections it turned & Comley declined to comment. Eric Mandelbaum, general counsel for Egan-Jones, said the firm can't comment on particular transactions but 'stands behind its work and record, which are based on methodologies that are publicly available.' Related Story: A New Ratings Game: 3,000 Deals, 20 Analysts, Lots of Questions The sale bogged down after that. Month after month, its completion kept getting delayed. Then, in May 2024, it all started to unravel on Cappelletti when the Groton commissioners received subpoenas ordering them to travel across the state to provide sworn testimony. Months earlier, a lawsuit had been filed against Cappelletti's Meriden Housing Authority and a subsidiary, Maynard Road Corp., that had defaulted on a $16 million loan. The lender, Titan Capital, subpoenaed the Groton commissioners because Cappelletti had made $629,000 of loan repayments with funds pulled from their agency, not Meriden's. The Meriden agency is now on the hook for about $30 million — to repay the Titan loan with interest as well as $12.5 million owed to Citizens Bank for a project in Bristol, Connecticut. Back in a September 2023 board meeting, the Groton commissioners had asked Capelletti about the cash used to pay off Titan, which was recorded as an expense for the Groton 2030 project. They were assured they'd be reimbursed when the bond deal closed, minutes of the meeting show. But the Meriden lawsuit raised new questions, and when Groton commissioners started digging, they found that companies controlled by Cappelletti had bought properties in Winchester, Connecticut, and Fitchburg, Massachusetts to redevelop. Cappelletti also allegedly forged a resolution to approve $2.7 million of lease agreements for the authority, according to the February lawsuit filed by the Groton agency. 'This case involves the discovery of a massive Ponzi-like fraud,' lawyers for the agency said in a court filing. 'Over the course of at least seven years, Cappelletti accepted millions of dollars in funds from non-commercial lenders or other questionable entities.' In January, the agency suspended Cappelletti and canceled his contract. The FBI probe continues and the lawsuits are wending their way through Connecticut courts. 'Our focus now,' said Frink, the chair of the Groton Housing Authority, 'is to ensure a complete and fulsome investigation.' Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
11.4% dividend yield and 17 years of growth — is there passive income potential in a lesser-known FTSE stock?
When searching for passive income stocks, it's easy to be swayed by high dividend yields. The higher the yield, the more the income, right? Technically, yes. However, relying solely on the yield can end in disaster if the company lacks a reliable dividend track record. That's why this lesser-known UK stock with an 11.4% yield and 17 years of uninterrupted dividend growth caught my attention. But is there more to the story? Henderson Far East Income's (LSE: HFEL) a British investment trust that isn't on the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 yet. For that reason, it's flown under my radar for some time. As the name suggests, it invests in major East Asian companies such as TSMC, China Construction Bank and Alibaba. It invests mostly in financial services and technology, with 20% of assets in China, 15% in Hong Kong, 12% in South Korea and the rest spread across the region. The trust's commitment to delivering a high and growing income's evident in its consistent dividend policy, with payments fully covered by revenues. Recently, its revenue reserves have reached an all-time high, providing a cushion for future payouts. This reliability's particularly attractive for investors seeking a steady income. While HFEL's primary focus is income, it also aims for capital growth. In the year to October 2024, the trust achieved a 17.4% net asset value (NAV) return — a notable improvement on previous years. This is attributed to a strategic portfolio shift towards structural growth opportunities in markets like India and Indonesia, and reduced exposure to China. The trust's diversified approach across various sectors and countries positions it to capitalise on Asia's evolving economic landscape. The trust's impressive dividend policy is certainly reassuring, but there are still some areas of concern. For instance, its heavy focus on the Asia-Pacific region exposes it to geopolitical tensions, currency fluctuations and regulatory changes. In the past, economic challenges in China have impacted performance and may well do so again. Additionally, the use of gearing amplifies both potential gains and losses, adding another layer of risk. At times, it can run at a high premium to NAV, which can affect the long-term value of the investment. Unfortunately, the fund's price performance hasn't been spectacular, which weighs on total returns. Over the past 10 years, the share price is down 25%. However, when adjusting for dividends, it's returned around 42% to shareholders — equating to a rather weak annualised return of 3.57%. After being in a steady decline since late 2017, the price is now near a 15-year low. That means it could be a great entry point if Asian markets recover in the coming years. However, if it continues the same performance over the next decade, it's likely to return less than a simple FTSE 100 index tracker. Whether or not an investor wants to consider it would be based on their expectations in that regard. Yes, it may pan out to be a good opportunity, but for now, I'm keeping my sights set on dividend stocks with higher overall returns. The post 11.4% dividend yield and 17 years of growth — is there passive income potential in a lesser-known FTSE stock? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool Mark Hartley has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
