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Sales of previously owned homes in the United States slowed last month to their weakest pace in more than a year, as would-be buyers waited for relief on mortgage rates before purchasing.
Contract closings slipped 2 per cent to an annualised rate of 3.98 million in August, data released on Thursday by the National Association of Realtors showed. Last month marked one of only two times since the autumn of 2024 that sales have dipped below 4 million.
The disappointing figures reflect a housing…

Mainland Chinese have paid tribute to Hong Kong’s first chief executive, the late Tung Chee-hwa, for introducing a solo-travel scheme more than two decades ago that opened the city to millions of travellers and created indelible memories for middle-class families.
The Individual Visit Scheme has grown from a handful of cities in Guangdong province in 2003 to its current 59 spanning the country as far west as Urumqi in Xinjiang, contributing to a more than fivefold increase in the number of…

Vinod Khosla tops Indian-origin immigrant billionaires with $13.9 billion fortune. India has emerged as the biggest birthplace of billionaire immigrants living in the United States, with 19 Indian-origin business leaders featuring on Forbes’ 2026 ranking of the country’s richest foreign-born citizens.The number marks an increase from 12 Indian-born billionaires on last year’s list, with seven new names joining the ranking. The new entrants include General Catalyst chief executive Hemant Taneja, Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar and Astera Labs co-founders Sanjay Gajendra and Jitendra Mohan.Israel and Taiwan followed India, with 11 immigrant billionaires each.Among the Indian-origin names, Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla ranked highest, with an estimated fortune of $13.9 billion. He was the 13th richest immigrant billionaire overall, while Tesla chief executive Elon Musk topped the ranking and Google co-founder Sergey Brin also placed ahead of him.Other prominent b..

Photo: https://www.innatlongshore.com/ On the shores of Long Island Sound in Westport, Connecticut, a white clapboard inn has long stood as a quiet reminder of the state’s Jazz Age glamour. For more than four decades, the property operated without a major renovation, its historic rooms and public spaces showing the wear of time even as its reputation endured. Now, after an $8 million restoration, the inn has reopened with its guest rooms, suites and grand ballroom carefully returned to their former elegance while updated for modern comfort. As reported by CT Insider, the project aims to preserve the building’s place in local history while positioning it as a destination for weddings, events and getaways along one of New England’s most scenic coastlines.A waterfront retreat born in the Roaring TwentiesThe inn first opened in the 1920s, when the Connecticut shoreline was becoming a playground for wealthy New Yorkers seeking escape from the city. Trains brought guests from Grand Central t..

An artificial intelligence researcher who left OpenAI to join Anthropic has decided to leave the industry, accusing both US companies of “gambling with our lives” in the race to develop AI models capable of self-improvement.
Jacob Coxon, 27, spent the past three years pretraining AI models, first at OpenAI and then, this year, at its rival Anthropic, which he considered more cautious in its approach.
Pretraining is the stage where AI models absorb vast quantities of data.
“Neither company is…