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Home sales fell again in August as homebuyers grapple with rising mortgage rates and prices

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell for the third month in a row in August, as higher mortgage rates, rising prices and a dearth of properties on the market discouraged many would-be homebuyers.Existing home sales fell 0.7% last month from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.04 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s below the 4.10 million pace that economists were expecting, according to FactSet.Sales slumped 15.3% compared with the same month last year. The national median sales price rose 3.9% from August last year to $407,100, marking the third month in a row that the median price remained above $400,000. “Home prices continue to march higher despite lower home sales,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. “Supply needs to essentially double to moderate home price gains.”The shortage of homes for sale has kept the market competitive, driving bidding wars in many places, especially for the most affordable ...

Murray returns to China and wins 1st-round match at Zhuhai. Linette advances to Guangzhou semifinals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

ZHUHAI, China (AP) — Returning to China for the first time in four years, Andy Murray won his first-round match at the Zhuhai Championships on Thursday, beating local wild card Mo Ye Cong 7-5, 6-3.Murray, bidding for his fifth tour title in China and the first there since the Beijing Open in 2016, edged a tight first-set by breaking in the 12th game. The seventh-seeded Brit then overpowered his 23-year-old opponent in the second set to take the match in 1 hour and 42 minutes.The 36-year-old Murray next plays 63rd-ranked Aslan Karatsev, who defeated Matteo Arnaldi 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2.Fifth-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Australian Luke Saville 6-4, 6-4.Other winners included Kimmer Coppejans, Cristian Garin and qualifiers Marc Polmans and Alex Bolt.Top-seeded Karen Khachanov faces Australia’s Bolt in the second round, while second-seeded Cameron Norrie plays Polmans on Friday. At the Chengdu Open, American Marcos Giron defeated fifth-seeded Alexander Bublik 7-6 (6), 6-3,...

Stock market today: Stocks slump worldwide as allure grows to buy a Treasury bill and chill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is falling again Thursday as stock prices slump worldwide on expectations that U.S. interest rates will stay high well into next year.The S&P 500 was 0.9% lower in morning trading. That follows a 0.9% drop from Wednesday after the Federal Reserve indicated it may cut interest rates next year by only half of what it had earlier predicted. The Fed has already hiked its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001, which helps slow inflation but at the cost of hurting investment prices.Big Tech stocks again took the brunt of the pain because they’re seen as some of the biggest victims of high rates. The Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, as Amazon fell 3.2% and Nvidia dropped 1.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 121 points, or 0.4%.Stock prices tend to fall when rates rise because stocks are historically risky investments. Why stomach the chance of their big swings when Treasurys are paying more in interest t...

Chicago-based Portillo's may be coming to Denver

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver may be getting a taste of Chicago. In late September, Portillo's announced Denver as a possible new location for its fast-casual restaurant.The restaurant started out as a small hot dog stand in Villa Park, Illinois called "The Dog House." It originated in a trailer with Dick Portillo's investment of $1,100. 2 Denver restaurants make The New York Times’ best restaurant list Now, there are 77 restaurants across 10 states, and it's eyeing Denver as its next location.Mostly known for its Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers and chocolate cake, Portillo's claimed Chicago's heart in less than 60 years. Most of the locations are either in or around Chicago, but the restaurant has a national fan base. Portillo’s delivers favorite menu items to all 50 states. Coloradans may not have to wait much longer. This Colorado city has one of the longest commutes in the nation According to Portillo's account director, the restaurant is loo...

Keir Starmer says UK Labour doesn’t want to ‘diverge’ from EU if it wins power

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

LONDON — Labour leader Keir Starmer suggested his party does not “want to diverge” from the European Union if it wins power in the U.K.In his latest comments on the U.K.’s post-Brexit relationship with the bloc, Starmer — whose party has a commanding lead over the governing Conservatives ahead of an expected 2024 election — said most of the “conflict” between Britain and Europe comes from the U.K. trying to “do different things to the rest of our EU partners.” And he talked up the need for “common ground” between the two sides.In a video clip shared by Sky News Thursday, Starmer — who was speaking at the Global Progress Action Summit in Montreal last weekend — said: “Most of the conflict with the U.K. being outside of the [EU] arises insofar as the U.K. wants to diverge and do different things to the rest of our EU partners.“Obviously the more we share values, the more we share a future together, the less the conflict,” he added....

EU judges slam France’s migrant pushbacks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

The EU’s top court ruled against France’s policy of turning away migrants at its borders.The European Court of Justice announced on Thursday that those actions breached the EU’s rules on migrant returns.The ruling comes as France closed its border to Italy amid a recent surge in migrant arrivals to the Italian island of Lampedusa.  France’s center-right Home Affairs Minister Gerard Darmanin had on Monday vowed that “France will not take in a single migrant from Lampedusa” after meeting his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi in Rome.But EU rules compel member countries to initiate a formal procedure when expelling an irregular migrant, and give that person sufficient time to leave the country.So-called pushbacks of migrants, or forcing a migrant directly back across a border, may only be carried out as a last resort, the judges in Luxembourg ruled. They also noted that non-EU citizens who lack permission to stay may not be turned away at internal EU borders. Commenting on the...

Ethics watchdog presses Brussels to disclose secret Mercosur protocol

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

The European Ombudsman has called on the European Commission to publish a secret protocol sent to South America’s Mercosur bloc as part of negotiations on a landmark trade deal, according to letters obtained by POLITICO. Brussels sent the addendum in March to the Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — seeking assurances over deforestation in the Amazon amid French worries that its farmers could suffer from a glut of Latin American produce.Friends of the Earth filed a complaint to the Commission in July in which it sought public access to the document. The Commission refused the request and the NGO missed the deadline to seek a review of that decision.Despite that rejection, ethics watchdog Emily O’Reilly — clearly sympathetic towards the original complaint — took the unusual step of writing to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling for greater transparency.“It is difficult to reconcile the refusal to disclose this docume...

FAA investigating after flight crews report green laser flashes at Logan Airport

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

Federal authorities are investigating after the crews of two flights at Logan Airport said they were flashed by what appeared to be a green laser.The Federal Aviation Administration said the crews for JetBlue Airways Flights 494 and 972 reported being “illuminated by a green laser” around 5:40 a.m. on Thursday.According to the FAA, no injuries were reported in either cases.In addition to local authorities being alerted, the agency announced it had started its own investigation into the matter.No additional details were released.

Manhunt underway for suspected killer after jail in Indianapolis releases him because of clerical mistake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

(CNN) — A manhunt is underway for a suspect in a 2021 killing who was accidentally released from a detention center in Indianapolis last week, a sheriff’s office said Tuesday, asking for the public’s help finding him.Kevin Mason, 28, was “mistakenly released” from an adult detention center in Marion County on September 13, two days after his arrest, “due to a faulty records review” by staff, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.It’s unclear whether he’s still in the county, sheriff’s Col. James Martin said in a news conference Tuesday.Mason was arrested in Indiana on September 11, having been sought on three Minnesota warrants, including one asking he be held on suspicion of murder in connection with a 2021 shooting in Minneapolis, the sheriff’s office said. The other warrants relate to an alleged parole violation and firearms possession, Martin said.He was released after a Marion County sheriff’s clerk thought she was correcting duplicate bookings for the ...

Alex Murdaugh pleads guilty to financial crimes — the first time he’s admitted blame to a judge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:56 GMT

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh did something Thursday he hasn’t done in the two years since his life of privilege and power started to unravel — plead guilty to a crime.Murdaugh admitted in federal court to 22 counts of financial fraud and money laundering.Murdaugh, 55, is serving life without parole in a South Carolina prison for shooting his wife and son. He has denied any role in the killings since their deaths in June 2021 and insisted he was innocent in two days of testimony earlier this year before he was convicted of two counts of murder.The federal guilty plea likely locks in years if not decades in prison for the disbarred lawyer, even if his murder conviction and sentence in state court are overturned on appeal.Murdaugh told the judge he wanted to be held accountable for stealing from his clients and do right by his surviving son.“I want to take responsibility. I want my son to see me take responsibility. It’s my...