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Jill On Money: Housing affordability still tough

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

If you want to see the effects of the Federal Reserve’s interest policy over the past three years, look no further than the nation’s residential real estate market.In its effort to keep the economy afloat amid the pandemic, the central bank dropped interest rates to zero and purchased bonds. Accordingly, mortgage rates plummeted to all-time lows. As of the beginning of 2021, the average contract rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage tumbled to 2.65 percent.Seeking refuge from crowded cities and untethered by physical workplaces, buyers flocked to the real estate market and prices jumped. The manic housing activity slowed throughout last year, as the Fed embarked on an aggressive rate hike campaign. As the central bank nears the end of its rate hike cycle and given the time of year, it’s time to check in on the housing market.Although activity may have bottomed, there are still problems that leave the residential market out of whack.The first issue is affordability. The Federal Rese...

Dear Abby: She defied me and hung out with this sleaze, and now she says I’m in the wrong

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

DEAR ABBY: My longtime girlfriend and I broke up recently. One of the reasons was because we didn’t agree on a definition of cheating.She met a friend through work whom I met once, and what I saw and heard during that interaction screamed that he was a sleaze who wanted to move in on my girl. I voiced my concerns and asked her to stop seeing this friend, and she agreed.A week later, she renewed the friendship, communicating through Snapchat. For six months she would have drinks with him, go places with him and have conversations with him without telling me. She swears they never did anything physical.I had seen the signs. From time to time I’d notice she wasn’t where she said she would be, the car would smell like smoke, and we were growing apart.One day, I finally had had enough and we agreed to separate. Since our first day apart, they have been together.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: The reason her fiance hid his phone was something she never gue...

Stock market today: Tokyo gains, most world markets closed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

Shares advanced Monday in Tokyo and Sydney while most world markets were closed for May 1 holidays. Traditional Labor Day holidays around the globe limited initial global market reactions to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s announcement that regulators had seized troubled First Republic Bank and will sell its assets to JPMorgan Chase Bank. San Francisco-based First Republic was viewed as the likely weakest link, in an industry strained by surging interest rates, due to its high amount of uninsured deposits and exposure to low interest rates. It would be the third midsize lender to fail in two months after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.The bank’s stock closed at $3.51 on Friday, a fraction of the roughly $170 a share it traded for a year ago.In Asian trading Monday, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 0.9% to 29,123.18 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney advanced 0.5% to 7,344.20. Other markets in the region were closed. The futures for the S&P 500 a...

Turquía mata al líder de ISIS en Siria, dice Erdogan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

(CNN) — El presidente de Turquía, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dijo este domingo que las fuerzas de inteligencia del país habían matado al líder de ISIS en Siria, mientras prometió continuar la lucha del país contra el terrorismo.En una transmisión, Erdogan dijo que la Organización Nacional de Inteligencia de Turquía había estado rastreando a un hombre conocido como Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini Al-Qurshi “durante mucho tiempo”.“Esta persona fue neutralizada en la operación realizada por el MIT (Organización Nacional de Inteligencia Turca) ayer en Siria”, dijo Erdogan. “A partir de ahora, continuaremos nuestra lucha sin discriminación contra las organizaciones terroristas”.Agregó que la lucha de Turquía contra el terrorismo contribuye a la seguridad de Europa y afirmó que Europa “no es consciente de esto o no quiere serlo”.Al-Qurshi fue nombrado líder de ISIS después de la muerte de su predecesor, Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi, asesinado en octubre pasado por el Ejército Sirio Libr...

Virginia Beach stuck by tornado, dozens of homes damaged

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va (AP) — The City of Virginia Beach declared a state of emergency after a tornado moved through the area Sunday and damaged dozens of homes, downed trees and caused gas leaks.City officials said it’s unclear how many homes had been damaged but they estimated between 50 and 100, after the tornado touched down just after 6 p.m., WTKR-TV reported. City Manager Patrick Duhaney declared a state of emergency Sunday night.Much of the damage had been reported in the area of River Road and N. Great Neck Road. It also includes Upper Chelsea Reach and Haversham Close.There were no immediate reports of injuries.Virginia Natural Gas responded to several homes with gas leaks and Dominion Energy was reporting just under 1,000 outages early Monday.Great Neck Road will remain closed between Cox High School and the bridge at Adam Keeling Road until further notice to allow for emergency and debris management work to occur, the city said.Crews will be out at 8 a.m. Monday to begin clea...

JPMorgan Chase comprará la mayoría de los activos del First Republic Bank tras su colapso en marzo

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

(CNN) — JPMorgan Chase comprará la mayoría de los activos de First Republic Bank en un acuerdo anunciado este lunes que fue organizado por la Corporación Federal de Seguros de Depósitos (FDIC, por sus siglas en inglés), la agencia gubernamental independiente que asegura los depósitos de los clientes bancarios.JPMorgan Chase dijo que había adquirido la gran mayoría de los activos y asumido los depósitos y otros pasivos del First Republic Bank de la FDIC.La FDIC tomó el control del prestamista asediado este domingo y luego anunció de inmediato la venta de muchos de sus activos y depósitos. Esto convierte a First Republic en el segundo colapso bancario más grande en la historia de Estados Unidos.ANÁLISIS | First Republic Bank es un gran desastre. Eso se debe, en gran medida, a sus clientes adineradosCaen 60% las acciones del First Republic Bank 1:10La medida representa el último esfuerzo de los reguladores federales para apuntalar la confianza del consumidor en el sistema bancari...

El papa Francisco dice que el Vaticano está involucrado en una misión de paz para poner fin a la guerra en Ucrania

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

(CNN) — El Vaticano es parte de una misión de paz para poner fin a la guerra en Ucrania, dijo el Papa Francisco este domingo.“La misión está en curso ahora, pero aún no es pública. Cuando sea público, la revelaré”, dijo Francisco a periodistas.El pontífice hizo las declaraciones cuando regresaba a Roma después de un viaje de tres días a la capital de Hungría, Budapest.Durante su visita, Francisco se reunió con un representante de la iglesia ortodoxa rusa pro-Kremlin, el Metropolitano Hilarión de Volokolamsk, y por separado con el primer ministro húngaro, Viktor Orbán.El papa rompe a llorar por Ucrania durante un acto público en RomaAsí cerró el papa Francisco la Semana Santa 1:56Cuando se le consultó sobre si los encuentros podrían acelerar la paz, Francisco dijo: “Creo que la paz siempre se hace abriendo canales; la paz nunca puede lograrse mediante el cierre”.También cuando se le preguntó si estaba dispuesto a ayudar a facilitar el regreso de los niños ucranianos llevados a ...

How a rise in Virginia student absences may impact school ratings

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

Virginia public school officials say an increasing number of students are missing many days of class, an issue that may have consequences for a school’s accreditation.In early April, the state’s Board of Education voted against a proposal to suspend the use of attendance as a factor for accreditation, enabling the state to use attendance as a factor for its school review process. It will mark the first time since the pandemic that attendance is used to evaluate schools.The change may negatively impact schools’ accreditation statuses, Northern Virginia school officials say, which in turn could alter public perception of schools. The state uses a series of factors to determine accreditation status, and schools that aren’t fully accredited have to work with the state to resolve any lingering issues.About a quarter of schools in Virginia have reported a chronic absenteeism rate above 25% this year, according to survey data collected by the Virginia Association of...

Food relief agency resumes Sudan operations after staff deaths forced halt

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) has Monday resumed operations in Sudan, two weeks after stopping work when three of its staff members were killed amid fighting which has rocked the country.“As the crisis in Sudan pushes millions into hunger, WFP is immediately lifting the temporary suspension put in place after the tragic deaths of our team members,” Executive Director Cindy McCain wrote on Twitter. “WFP is rapidly resuming our programs to provide the life-saving assistance that many so desperately need right now.”On April 15, clashes broke out across Sudan between forces loyal to two rival generals: Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Other countries have scrambled to evacuate their citizens.The following day, the WFP said three of its staff had been killed and two more injured in “violence” while on duty in the North Darfur region. It called a temporary halt to i...

Inside the group that’s saving Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:08 GMT

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — When U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin brings together the defense chiefs of more than 40 nations here in southwest Germany each month, the hours-long gathering typically ends the same way: Celeste Wallander, the Pentagon’s head of international security affairs, calls on each participant to read out what weapons their nation is ready to donate to Ukraine.It’s a question — perhaps the question — that will help determine Ukraine’s future more than a year following Russia’s invasion.And it’s made the monthly closed-door grouping of leaders — known by the anodyne bureaucratic title of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group — an under-the-radar yet central force in equipping the Ukrainian military with everything from precision rockets to main battle tanks. It’s also helped the nation create an ad hoc yet astonishingly modern military that would be capable of outgunning some long-standing NATO members.But on the sidelines of the group’s April 21 meeti...