Here are three of the week’s top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web: New homes get more affordable New homes are no longer selling at a premium, said Matt Phillips in Axios. “The median price for an existing single-family home stood at $416,000 in June,” according to FactSet. That’s almost exactly the…
Peace of a sort may be at hand between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Wall Street Journal reported the two longtime antagonists are preparing to normalize relations, with Saudi Arabia finally giving formal recognition to Israel in return for “concessions to the Palestinians, U.S. security guarantees and civilian nuclear help.” There are still “long odds,”…
1 Congress breaks for August recess without path to avoid shutdown Lawmakers left Congress for their August recess at the end of this week without a clear path forward to avoid a looming government shutdown. Both the House and Senate had entered recess by Saturday, and are not due back in the nation’s Capitol until…
After months of bombastic (and frequently convoluted) messaging from Ohio conservatives, a mid-summer push to head off a November ballot initiative to enshrine abortion access into the state’s constitution failed dramatically, with voters rejecting a Republican-led proposal to significantly raise the threshold for constitutional amendments by a double-digit margin as of Wednesday morning. Opponents of the measure heralded the…
More than 6,180 United Methodist congregations in the U.S. have been granted permission to leave the denomination in a schism that began in 2019 over the role of LGBTQ Methodists in the church and other theological issues, according to an unofficial tally kept by UM News. The bulk of the departures, 4,172, were approved in June, in…
AI is transforming education from grade school to grad school and making take-home essays obsolete. Here’s everything you need to know: How is AI changing schooling? It’s raising questions about whether age-old methods of educating people can or should survive in a world where sophisticated answers to virtually any question are just a few keystrokes…
First Look Italy’s double trouble: Soaring migration meets labor shortage Despite her campaign pledges, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has struggled to control a surge in migration. Due to the country’s growing labor shortages, her administration has been compelled to issue a larger number of work visas for migrants. | View caption Hide caption |…