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Tag: iab-real estate

  • Over 100 people trapped for several hours in mystery writer Agatha Christie’s former home | CNN

    Over 100 people trapped for several hours in mystery writer Agatha Christie’s former home | CNN

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Over 100 people were trapped for several hours in Greenway, the former home of famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie, in the English countryside on Friday.

    In a series of events which could have been lifted straight out of the pages of one of Christie’s mystery novels, the group of tourists were left stranded after stormy weather knocked down a tree, blocking the road leading down to the property in the county of Devon, southwest England.

    Caroline Heaven, a tourist who was visiting Greenway, contacted local news outlet Devon Live to spread the word that roughly 100 tourists were trapped in the grounds of Christie’s former holiday home.

    Britain’s National Trust which manages the historic site quickly put a message on its website, announcing that a large tree had fallen on the single-track road leading into Greenway.

    A spokesperson for the National Trust said it was aware that there were “visitors, staff and volunteers still at Greenway unable to leave,” adding that the National Trust was “doing everything” to ensure their comfort whilst they waited.

    The stranded tourists kept themselves busy, drinking cups of tea in the houses’ tearoom and playing rounds of croquet on the lawn, Heaven told Devon Live.

    Heaven, who arrived at the house around 11.30am local time (6.30aET) on Friday, commended the efforts of staff to look after the tourists.

    “They are doing a great job, they are giving us free teas and things. It’s a bit bleak,” she remarked.

    Christie herself was known to while away the hours on Greenway’s lawns, playing clock golf and croquet and entertaining guests with snippets from her latest mystery novels, according to the National Trust website.

    The trapped tourists would also have had the time to explore the estate’s walled gardens and famous boathouse which serves as the scene of the crime in Christie’s novel, “Dead Man’s Folly.”

    Despite the seemingly calm atmosphere, some social media users couldn’t help but draw a parallel with Christie’s iconic novel “And Then There Were None,” which sees ten strangers inexplicably invited to a remote mansion off the Devon coast. As members of the party are mysteriously killed off, the group soon realizes there is a killer in their midst.

    One social media user shared a link to the Devon Live article with a tweet counting down, “99, 98, 97, 96, 94 (grisly), 93.”. Another user shared the article, advising the trapped tourists to “implement a buddy system immediately.”

    However, the tourists ending up meeting a less grisly fate than that of Christie’s characters, managing to leave the estate on Friday evening after local rescue services managed to reopen the road.

    Those looking to get a taste of Christie’s murder mystery magic will have to wait a bit longer, however, as the National Trust warned prospective visitors in an update Saturday that Greenway is set to remain closed due to the “extensive storm damage” it sustained.

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  • In world’s most expensive property market, homes for the dead can cost more than for the living | CNN

    In world’s most expensive property market, homes for the dead can cost more than for the living | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Starting at $53,000 for a space not much larger than a shoebox, it is a pricey place to stay, even in a city famed for the world’s most expensive property market.

    But then the ornate white marble interiors of the 12 story Shan Sum tower in Hong Kong are not aimed at your average sort of buyer. They are meant for a more discerning type of customer altogether, one seeking that little something extra: a resting spot for the afterlife.

    This privately run high-rise columbarium, housed in a wavy, fan-shaped building designed by a German architect, is meant to store the cremated remains of 23,000 people. And it doesn’t come cheap.

    In addition to its single urn entry units, niches that can store two urns can go for up to $76,000 (HK$598,000), while family units that can house the ashes of up to eight people reach as much as $430,000 (HK$3.38 million).

    With standard niches measuring about one cubic square foot, it could be argued that a spot in this tower is relatively more costly than the city’s most expensive property for the living – a mansion in the ultra exclusive area of The Peak that in March attracted a bid of US$32,000 per square foot.

    But Shan Sum, which is tucked away in an old industrial district of Kwai Chung is not even Hong Kong’s most expensive place for the dead.

    According to Hong Kong’s Consumer Council, the most expensive niche of all is at a temple-like complex in the northern outskirts of Fanling. That auspicious resting spot goes for $660,000 (HK$5.2 million) – and that figure doesn’t even include the management fees of at least $25,000 (HK$200,000) to cover the upkeep and surcharges.

    Such an investment might still not seem too bad, given the long-term horizon of the afterlife, but private columbariums like Shan Sum are not offering a resting place for eternity. Ashes can be stored there only for the duration of the facility’s private license, which is issued by Hong Kong government. These licenses have a limit of 10 years and can take years of inspections to obtain. Shan Sum’s runs through 2033.

    Even so, at Shan Sum – whose name translates to “benevolent heart” – it’s more than just the urn space you pay for.

    Its architect Ulrich Kirchhoff told CNN there is an accessible rooftop and winding balconies lined with pocket gardens for families visiting their ancestors, while about a fifth of the building’s area is open space.

    The wavy exterior of Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    It has also been designed with aesthetics in mind, with its wavy, high-rise profile intended to mimic traditional Chinese graveyards and their preferred location on mountainsides to attract good Feng Shui.

    There are hints of modernity, too, such as dehumidifiers and air-conditioning systems and even an app through which families pre-book a time slot to bring offerings to deceased ancestors.

    The tower is the brainchild of Margaret Zee, a septuagenarian businesswoman who made her fortune in the jewelry and real estate businesses and now runs a charitable foundation in her name.

    Paying respect to the dead is important in Chinese culture, Zee told CNN, and many people are willing to go all out to honor the tradition.

    “Our loved ones’ last journey is not just so they can cross over to the afterlife, but it’s also for us who are left here on Earth to bid them farewell,” Zee said. “It’s not only to lay them to rest, but to give peace to those they’ve departed from.”

    Zee realized there was a shortage of homes to honor the dead when she struggled to find a place to hold a memorial for and bury her late husband in 2007 and she felt compelled to act.

    Architect Ulrich Kirchhoff at Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    In Hong Kong, the same mismatch of supply and demand that has driven up real estate prices to nosebleed levels also affects columbariums.

    Essentially, in a city home to more than 7 million people and some of the world’s most densely populated neighborhoods, competition for space is heating up – for both the living and the dead.

    While Hong Kong is not a small place – its area of 1,110 square kilometers is about 1.4 times the size of New York City – its mountainous terrain makes much of its land unsuitable for development.

    With space at a premium, property developers have traditionally favored high-rise towers that – not unlike the Shan Sum building – can pack in as many plots as possible. As a consequence, the average home size is just 430 square feet, according to the 2021 census, among the tiniest in the world, even though average home prices are north of a million dollars.

    This squeeze on space continues in the afterlife, exacerbated by Hong Kong’s rapidly aging population. More than one in five Hong Kongers is over 65, according to census data, and that number is projected to jump to more than one in three by 2069.

    Cemeteries in Hong Kong are running out of space.

    Even though more than 90% of Hong Kongers opt for cremation, space to store their remains is running out. This is partly because, rather than scattering the ashes, traditionally minded Chinese prefer a physical place where they can pay respects and give offerings to the dead.

    With the city’s death rate running at about 46,000 per year (roughly double the capacity of Shun Sum) in the past decade urn capacity has at times struggled to keep up.

    There are currently just under 135,000 public niches available in government-run facilities, where a 20-year lease goes for about $300, but competition for these is fierce and in recent years some families have reported waiting years to get a spot.

    The response by the government has been two-fold, boosting the number of public facilities while also approving the licenses of 14 privately-run columbarium operators, including Shan Sum, since 2017.

    The entrance of Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    A spokesperson for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department told CNN that between 2020 and 2022, around 77,000 urns had been allocated a niche “without the need to wait.” Another four new locations to be completed by 2025 would provide a further 167,000 units.

    “There is a marked improvement in the supply of public niches over the past few years. As of now, the supply of public niches is adequate,” the spokesperson said.

    Still, as with many things in this commercially-minded city, where the median monthly wage is just US$2,400 but there are plenty of billionaires (more than 100, according to Wealth X, a company that tracks high-net-worth individuals), there are options for those eager to splash out on something a little more distinguished.

    And that’s where places like Shan Sum really come in to their own.

    Niche compartments to store urns at Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.

    At the tower in Kwai Chung different floors are dedicated to different religions to suit a range of death customs, said Pan Tong, Zee’s son and the operational director of the building.

    For instance, he says, there are light and bright airy nooks designed to appeal to Buddhists and a section for followers of Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy, whose image adorns the doors of the small compartments.

    There is even a separate secular floor, where each compartment has a Chinese-style “roof” and double doors decorated with gold coins to symbolize a prosperous afterlife.

    “I really had to imagine myself as someone ‘living’ inside one of these niches, and think about what kind of home I wanted to stay at when I’m gone,” Tong said.

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  • How charging drivers to go downtown would transform American cities | CNN Business

    How charging drivers to go downtown would transform American cities | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden’s administration is set to allow New York City to move forward with a landmark program that will toll vehicles entering Lower Manhattan, after a public review period ends Monday.

    The toll is formally known as the Central Business District Tolling Program — but it’s commonly called “congestion pricing.”

    In practice it works like any other toll, but because it specifically charges people to drive in the traffic-choked area below 60th street in Manhattan, it would be the first program of its kind in the United States.

    Proposals range from charging vehicles $9 to $23 during peak hours, and it’s set to go into effect next spring.

    The plan had been delayed for years, but it cleared a milestone last month when the Federal Highway Administration signed off on the release of an environmental assessment. The public has until Monday to review the report, and the federal government is widely expected to approve it shortly after.

    From there, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) can finalize toll rates, as well as discounts and exemptions for certain drivers.

    New York City is still clawing out of from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Congestion pricing advocates say it’s a crucial piece of the city’s recovery and a way to re-imagine the city for the future.

    “This program is critical to New York City’s long-term success,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said last month.

    The plan would also mark the culmination of more than a half-century of efforts to implement congestion pricing in New York City. Despite support from several New York City mayors and state governors, car and truck owners in outer boroughs and the suburbs helped defeat proposals.

    In 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg called congestion “the elephant in the room” when proposing a toll program, which state lawmakers killed. A decade later, Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who had long resisted congestion pricing — said it was “an idea whose time has come” and declared a subway state of emergency after increased delays and a derailment that injured dozens. Two years later, the state gave the MTA approval to design a congestion pricing program.

    Ultimately, it was the need to improve New York City’s public transit that became the rallying cry for congestion pricing.

    Each day 700,000 cars, taxis and trucks pour into Lower Manhattan, one of the busiest areas in the world with some of the worst gridlock in the United States.

    Car travel at just 7.1 mph on average in the congestion price zone, and it’s a downward trend. Public bus speeds have also declined 28% since 2010. New Yorkers lose 117 hours on average each year sitting in traffic, costing them nearly $2,000 in lost productivity and other costs, according to one estimate.

    The toll is designed to reduce the number of vehicles entering the congestion zone by at least 10% every day and slash the number of miles cars travel within the zone by 5%.

    Congestion comes with physical and societal costs, too: more accidents, carbon emissions and pollution happen as belching, honking cars take up space that could be optimized for pedestrians and outdoor dining.

    Proponents also note it will improve public transit, an essential part of New York life. About 75% of trips downtown are via public transit.

    But public-transit ridership is 35% to 45% lower compared to pre-pandemic levels. The MTA says congestion fees will generate a critical source of revenue to fund $15 billion in future investments to modernize the city’s 100-year-old public transit system.

    The improvements, like new subway cars and electric signals, are crucial to draw new riders and improve speed and accessibility — especially for low-income and minority residents, who are least likely to own cars, say plan advocates.

    New York City is “dependent on public transit,” said Kate Slevin, the executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association, an urban planning and policy group. “We’re relying on that revenue to pay for needed upgrades and investments that ensure reliable, good transit service.”

    Improving public transportation is also key to New York City’s post-pandemic economic recovery: If commutes to work are too unreliable, people are less likely to visit the office and shop at stores around their workplaces. Congestion charge advocates hope the program will create more space for amenities like wider sidewalks, bike lanes, plazas, benches, trees and public bathrooms.

    “100 years ago we decided the automobile was the way to go, so we narrowed sidewalks and built highways,” said Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner and founder of an eponymous consulting firm. “But the future of New York City is that the pedestrian should be king and queen. Everything should be subservient to the pedestrian.”

    While no other US city has yet implemented congestion pricing, Stockholm, London and Singapore have had it for years.

    These cities have reported benefits like decreased carbon dioxide pollution, higher average speeds, and congestion reduction.

    Just one year after London added its charge in 2003, traffic congestion dropped by 30% and average speeds increased by the same percentage. In Stockholm, one study found the rate of children’s acute asthma visits to the doctor fell by about 50% compared to rates before the program launched in 2007.

    Some groups are fiercely opposed to congestion charges in New York City, however. Taxi and ride-share drivers, largely a low-income and immigrant workforce, fear it will hurt drivers already struggling to make ends meet. The MTA said congestion pricing could reduce demand for taxis by up to 17% in the zone.

    Commuters and legislators from New York City’s outer boroughs and New Jersey say the program hurts drivers who have no viable way to reach downtown Manhattan other than by car, and that this would disproportionately impact low-income drivers. (But out of a region of 28 million people, just an estimated 16,100 low-income people commute to work via car in Lower Manhattan, according to the MTA.)

    Other critics say it could divert more traffic and pollution from diesel trucks in Manhattan into lower-income areas like the Bronx, which has the highest rates of asthma hospitalization in the city.

    The MTA and other agencies have plans to mitigate many of these adverse effects, however.

    Taxis and for-hire vehicles will be tolled only once a day. Drivers who make less than $50,000 a year or are enrolled in certain government aid programs will get 25% discounts after their first 10 trips every month. Trucks and other vehicles will get 50% discounts during overnight hours.

    Additionally, the MTA pledged $10 million to install air filtration units in schools near highways, $20 million for a program to fight asthma, and other investments to improve air quality and the enviornment in areas where more traffic could be diverted.

    The stakes of New York City’s program are high, and leaders in other cities are watching the results closely.

    If successful, congestion pricing could be a model for other US cities, which are trying to recover from the pandemic and face similar challenges of climate change and aging public infrastructure.

    “It’s good to see New York City’s program is moving forward,” said the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board last month. “Los Angeles should watch, learn and go next.”

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  • New York lawmaker connected to nonprofit accused of lying about homeless vets being pushed out of hotel for migrants says he’s no longer affiliated with foundation | CNN

    New York lawmaker connected to nonprofit accused of lying about homeless vets being pushed out of hotel for migrants says he’s no longer affiliated with foundation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A New York state assemblyman and former volunteer spokesperson for the nonprofit accused of lying about homeless veterans being pushed out of a hotel to make room for migrants is no longer affiliated with the foundation, he told CNN.

    Republican State Assemblyman Brian Maher said in a statement to CNN he was devastated and disheartened” to learn claims homeless veterans were pushed out of the hotel to make room for migrants were false.

    On Friday, CNN reported two homeless men said they were part of a group of 15 who were offered money to pose as veterans and say they were asked to leave the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York. They claimed Sharon Toney-Finch, a nonprofit leader who houses the homeless, was the person who allegedly offered the money and never paid up.

    Toney-Finch is the founder and chairman of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, which helps veterans in need of living assistance. On Friday, she denied the allegations to CNN, saying she never offered money to homeless men to say they had to leave the hotel.

    CNN reached out to Toney-Finch on Saturday regarding Maher’s statement and did not receive an immediate response.

    The situation elevated tensions between the area and New York City, as earlier this week a New York state Supreme Court judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to send asylum seekers to Orange County, where Newburgh is located.

    Maher said in his statement Saturday, “I am devastated and disheartened upon a conversation with Sharon Toney-Finch at approximately 3:15 p.m. Thursday, May 18, where I learned that the information regarding the YIT Foundation about homeless veterans being displaced is false. Their gross misrepresentation of the facts surrounding our homeless veterans is appalling.”

    “The YIT Foundation purports to protect and support veterans, but the dishonest claims and fabrication of the facts by YIT does enormous harm to our homeless veterans by creating mistrust,” the statement continued.

    On Friday, Toney-Finch said, “I never promised to pay anybody,” adding that she only told Maher that she had homeless veterans who were displaced, not that it was because of asylum seekers.

    Maher, who was a volunteer spokesperson for the nonprofit, said he is “no longer affiliated in any capacity with YIT nor offering it any more of my help.”

    The state assemblyman called for an investigation into the nonprofit by the New York State Attorney General’s office and the Orange County District Attorney “based on the new information that came to light today,” his statement said.

    A spokeswoman for New York State Attorney General Letitia James told CNN Friday the office is reviewing the details of the incident to determine whether they will open a formal investigation.

    “While I believed Sharon was telling the truth, I do want to apologize for those that have been negatively impacted since this news broke,” Maher wrote in the statement.

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  • New York City plans to temporarily house migrants in hotels in other counties. Two counties are suing to stop it | CNN

    New York City plans to temporarily house migrants in hotels in other counties. Two counties are suing to stop it | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Following New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement last week that the city will bus some migrants to hotels in nearby counties temporarily, officials in Orange County and Rockland counties filed lawsuits attempting to stop the plan – even as some migrants have already arrived.

    The counties have also issued executive orders barring the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers.

    Filed in state court in Orange County, one of the lawsuits obtained by CNN alleges that the city’s plan exceeds its authority, violates a county executive order and bypasses shelter licensing requirements. It asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the city’s plan while the proceeding is pending.

    Orange County officials “oppose the City Respondents’ illegal and misguided attempts to manage their burdens and assumed responsibilities within their borders by offloading them onto the County, which is already overburdened with responsibilities to its own citizens, with no planning whatsoever,” according to the lawsuit.

    Adams had said the new program intends to provide up to four months of temporary shelter for adult men seeking asylum who are already in the city’s care while they try to secure work permits.

    Days after Adams announced plans for Orange and Rockland counties, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus issued an executive order stating the migrants would not be permitted to stay in hotels there.

    Rockland County filed its own lawsuit on Tuesday night. The suit, filed in Rockland County Supreme Court, alleges Mayor Adams’ plan to bus migrants to a hotel in the exceeds the city’s legal authority.

    On Friday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against the Adam’s plan, blocking the city from transporting migrants to a hotel in Rockland County. The city has said it plans to appeal the restraining order. A court hearing is scheduled for May 30 to determine if the order will be extended.

    The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday against Orange and Rockland counties for blocking the arrival of asylum seekers from New York City, according to court documents.

    In issuing orders “expressly seek[ing] to ‘bar migrants’ and ‘asylum seekers’ from coming to the counties from New York City and that further seek to bar local hotels from making their rooms available to migrants for any period of time,” the counties violated due process and equal protection clauses under the US Constitution, the lawsuit says.

    When reached by CNN for comment Thursday, Neuhaus said, “We have not been served with any lawsuit.” CNN on Saturday reached out to Rockland and Orange county officials for further comment on the NYCLU’s lawsuit.

    Rockland County officials said in a statement that while they don’t typically comment on pending litigation, they “feel strongly that what [they] are doing is right and legal as witnessed by the court’s Temporary Restraining Order granted Thursday.”

    The Orange County complaint details multiple examples of the city’s alleged “subterfuge.”

    Orange County authorities believed the city planned to move 60 people to one hotel in the county, according to the lawsuit, but then later learned the city planned to send more than 600 individuals to two hotels. The county claims this would more than double its homeless population, which was about 437 last month, according to the lawsuit.

    After the county issued its executive order, officials were “expressly assured” by the city that buses would not be sent for the time being, according to the lawsuit.

    “Nonetheless, and despite these assurances, busses showed up at the hotel on May 11, 2023, with no notice, and unloaded homeless men pursuant to the City’s illegal Proposed Transfer plan,” the lawsuit says.

    On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams’ office said that the city was “discussing legal and safety concerns with our state partners,” adding that while the city temporarily paused busing migrants to locations outside of New York City, their “plans have not changed.” A spokesperson for Mayor Adams’ office said Thursday that Neuhaus’ statement about alleged assurances that no asylum seekers from the city would arrive in Orange County is inaccurate.

    “New York City has cared for more than 65,000 migrants – sheltering, feeding, and caring for them, and we have done so largely without incident,” spokesperson Fabien Levy said in a statement on Friday.

    “We need the federal government to step up, but until they do, we need other elected officials around the state and country to do their part. Right now, we’re asking Orange County to manage less than ¼ of 1% of the asylum seekers who have come to New York City, with New York paying for shelter, food, and services. We are reviewing our legal options.”

    Orange County also filed a separate complaint Friday against the two hotels within the county planning to house migrants from New York City. The complaint seeks to block the hotels from accepting asylum seekers and “converting” into homeless shelters, alleging it violates the county’s executive order.

    The town of Newburgh, which is located in Orange County, also filed a complaint against one of the hotels. The lawsuit claims that housing the migrants is not permitted under the building’s certificate of occupancy and would violate the town’s municipal and building construction codes.

    “The Mayor’s program did not consider or address the local zoning, building, or fire codes governing the proposed or ‘selected’ housing sites,” the complaint says.

    After Orange County issued its executive order, Newburgh inspectors visited the hotel and noticed “the alterations of beds, insertion of additional bedding, and the alteration of room accommodations,” the lawsuit says. The next day, the hotel received two busloads of people from the city, according to the complaint.

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  • Where to travel in 2023: The best destinations to visit | CNN

    Where to travel in 2023: The best destinations to visit | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As peak vacation season sails into view and the world shakes off the last shackles of the pandemic, it feels like the appetite for hitting the road has never been greater.

    International tourism reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, with an estimated 235 million tourists traveling internationally in January, February and March. And experts are cautiously optimistic about a continued travel rebound.

    Demand is high, with many popular destinations booking out earlier in the year.

    Thankfully, there’s so much out there still to see and do.

    Travel expert explains why you should book your dream vacation now

    Here are 23 destination ideas from CNN Travel to get you started:

    From the main square in Krakow, pictured, to forests, lakes and mountains, Poland invites exploration.

    We could list new openings in Poland – such as Hotel Verte, the new Autograph Collection property in Warsaw, which threw open its gilded doors (it’s in a humongous Baroque palace) last August. But the reason you should visit Poland in 2023 isn’t for the chance to stay in a place fit for royalty. It’s to show solidarity with a country which has, in turn, shown solidarity to the people of Ukraine.

    Sharing a 300-plus-mile border with a country under attack has meant that Poland has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than anywhere else. Add to that plummeting tourist numbers (though they’re on the rise again), and you have a tricky situation.

    So whether you fancy that Warsaw palace, a city break to the likes of Krakow, Gdansk, Wrocław or Poznań – all hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border – or to get away from it all in the forests, lakes and mountains of the countryside – now’s your chance to do some good by taking a vacation. – Julia Buckley

    A full solar eclipse will be visible in April in Exmouth, Western Australia. The landscape is worth a long look, too.

    Back in April, thousands of people descended on the town of Exmouth and the greater Ningaloo Peninsula, to witness a rare total solar eclipse as it became visible over the northwestern edge of Australia.

    Organizers spent more than a year planning for the event, which lasted about a minute, and featured musical performances, educational opportunities to learn about science and astronomy, and a three-day festival.

    But the state of Western Australia offers much more than some 60 seconds of wonder.

    Spanning one-third of the entire continent of Australia, it stretches from the lively, growing state capital of Perth across deserts including the Great Victoria and Great Sandy to the wine country of Margaret River, the dramatic clifftops of the Kimberley and the quokka-covered Rottnest Island. – Lilit Marcus

    Mersey paradise: Liverpool.

    England’s port city of Liverpool, best known around the world as the birthplace of The Beatles, has added another chapter to its musical legacy.

    It’s the host city of Eurovision 2023, the spangly extravaganza of song that brings an influx of thousands of flag-waving fans from across the continent. The annual event is an opportunity for the city to bounce back after the ignominy of being stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage status in 2021.

    In June, the city will celebrate 25 years of the Liverpool Biennial contemporary visual arts festival, as more than 30 international artists and collectives take over spaces in the city until September.

    England is also marking the Year of the Coast in 2023, with food festivals and beach cleans taking place along the country’s shores. Just a half hour from Liverpool city center by train, Crosby Beach is the permanent home of sculptor Antony Gormley’s “Another Place,” where 100 cast-iron figures stand facing out to sea. – Maureen O’Hare

    Charleston, a city of undeniable refined, historic beauty, is also looking more closely at its troubled past.

    Charleston parades its past like no other US city, but it often glossed over the history of its Black residents. It’s been taking steps to fix that.

    Enter the much-delayed International African American Museum, which is now expected to open in late June.

    Located on the shoreline of the Cooper River in the spot where many Africans first set foot in North America, it will explore the lives of slaves and their descendants.

    Visitors in late May and early June can enjoy the world-renowned Spoleto Festival featuring opera, theater, dance, musical acts and artist talks.

    In March, foodies headed to the Charleston Wine and Food Festival to sample Lowcountry favorites.

    For fancy Southern fare, try Magnolias. Opened in 1990, it helped spur the city’s culinary renaissance. For something informal, try Bertha’s Kitchen in North Charleston, where red rice with sausage, fried chicken and lima beans rule. The eatery even caught attention of “Roadfood” author Michael Stern. – Forrest Brown

    Self-effacing Vilnius admitted in an ad campaign this year that nobody really knows where it is. If their brilliant video didn’t make you want to book a trip there immediately, perhaps this will: the capital of Lithuania celebrated its 700th anniversary on January 25, 2023.

    To mark the milestone, a packed program of events, including music festivals and exhibitions, are being held throughout the year. But use the anniversary as a push to visit rather than following a program religiously.

    The entire city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – putting it up there with its fellow V-cities, Venice and Vienna. Vilnius makes it on the list thanks to its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings, all sitting on a medieval street plan, but it’s best known for its Baroque architecture.

    Don’t miss the frothy bell tower of St. John’s church (you can climb it for sweeping city views) or the church of St. Casimir, topped by a giant crown. Got an eye for social media? This is Europe’s only capital city that allows hot air balloons to cruise over the city skyline. – JB

    Scenes like this await visitors to Fiji.

    Brilliant blue waters, expansive coral reefs and hundreds of peaceful islands: Fiji is not a hard sell. But why go there in 2023? For one, the country only reopened post-Covid at the end of 2021, meaning that visitor numbers to the South Pacific paradise have yet to fully rebound.

    While the country is spoiled for underwater beauty, take an opportunity to explore its above-ground treasures, too. The country’s lone UNESCO World Heritage site is the town of Levuka, a former capital and an important port, which is studded with British colonial-era buildings amid coconut and mango trees.

    To learn about the local Indigenous communities, travelers can take part in a kava welcoming ceremony – named for the traditional drink at its center – or enjoy a lovo, a meal cooked by hot coals in an underground pit covered with banana leaves.

    Fiji Airways now has direct flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco, making it relatively easy to get to the islands. As the Fijians say, bula! – LM

    As the fate of the Amazon rainforest hangs in the balance, two eco-lodges around Manaus – the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state, and gateway to the river – have used their pandemic pause to get even more environmentally friendly.

    Juma Amazon Lodge, about 50 miles south of the city, is now fully powered by a new $400,000 solar plant, whose 268 double panels swagger nearly 40 feet into the air above the canopy (meaning no trees had to be cut). They’ve also built a biogas system to increase the efficiency of organic waste treatment, reducing annual carbon emissions by eight tons.

    Meanwhile, Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, northwest of Manaus on the Rio Negro river, opened an off-grid “advanced base” during the pandemic that’s 30 miles from the main lodge and accessible only via river.

    Guests can take long jungle hikes through territory home to jaguars, pumas and giant armadillos in what’s one of the Amazon region’s most remote hotel facilities, then spend the afternoon in a hammock or by the pool. For 2023, the lodge is planning overnight stays in a creekside tent for small groups.

    Don’t miss Manaus itself – eating behemoth Amazonian fish outside the pink 1896 opera house is a bucket list experience. – JB

    Enticing flavors, history and proximity to beaches and mountains are just a few factors working in this Greek city's favor.

    There’s been no shortage of reasons to visit Greece’s second city in recent times, with a UNESCO-endorsed local food scene that recently celebrated the refurb and reopening of its century-old Modiano food market.

    Throw in a popular waterfront and proximity to beautiful beaches and inland mountains, Thessaloniki is surely a contender for one of Europe’s best city-break destinations.

    What could make it even better? How about a gleaming new metro system? All being well, November 2023 should see the opening of the main line of an infrastructure megaproject that will eventually connect the city’s downtown to its international airport. Driverless trains will whisk passengers through tunnels whose excavation has added to Thessaloniki’s already rich catalog of archeological discoveries, many of which will be on display in specially created museum stations. – Barry Neild

    January 2023 saw the official opening of Rwanda’s most exciting hotel yet: Sextantio Rwanda, a collection of traditionally crafted huts on an island on Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s largest lakes.

    It’s the first project outside Italy for Daniele Kihlgren, whose part-hotel, part-living history projects keep local tradition alive. A nonprofit delivering money straight to local communities, Sextantio sees guests fishing on the 1,000-square-mile lake, paddling in dug-out canoes, trying local banana beer and wildlife-spotting – and not just the chickens, cows, pigs and goats that roam around the property.

    Of course, you’ll want to see gorillas. Adjoining Volcanoes National Park, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund opened the 4,500-square meter Ellen DeGeneres Campus in 2022. Its visitor center includes exhibits, virtual reality gorilla “encounters” and nature trails.

    Over in Akagera National Park, white rhinos – transferred from South Africa in 2021 to aid conservation – are already calving. It’s easier to get there, too. A new route from London joins Brussels, Dubai, Guangzhou and Mumbai as the only direct flights to Kigali from outside the African continent. – JB

    Voted the world’s most sustainable destination in the world for six years running, Sweden’s second-biggest city is finally emerging from the shadow of Stockholm.

    Once a major trading and shipping town, Gothenburg is now considered to be one of the greenest destinations in Europe, with 274 square meters (2,950 square feet) of green space per citizen, while 95% of its hotels are certified as eco-friendly.

    Although Gothenburg officially turned 400 in 2021, the celebrations were put on ice because of the global pandemic. But they’re finally taking place in 2023, so it’s a great time to visit.

    Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustav, who celebrates 50 years on the throne this year, will be in town on June 4, Gothenburg’s official birthday, and the city’s major anniversary festival is being held in the Frihamnen port district from June 2 to 5, with concerts and art events among the activities on offer.

    The festivities will continue throughout the summer until the September 3 kick off of Göteborgsvarvet Marathon, a new 26-mile race following on from the city’s popular half marathon on May 13. – Tamara Hardingham-Gill

    The Dhayah Fort in Ras al-Khaimah is one of the few remaining hill forts in the United Arab Emirates.

    When travelers think of the United Arab Emirates, the dazzling skyline of Dubai is usually what springs to mind.

    But the UAE has a lot to offer nature lovers too – particularly the northernmost emirate Ras al-Khaimah, which is aiming to become the Middle East’s most sustainable destination by 2025 thanks to a new “Balanced Tourism” strategy.

    Just 45 minutes from Dubai, it’s often called the “adventure Emirate,” and for good reason. Offering beaches, deserts and mountains, outdoor attractions abound, such as sand boarding, trekking, wakeboarding, skydiving, scuba diving and even the world’s longest zipline.

    But it’s not all about the adrenaline rush. Ras Al Khaimah is where you’ll find the highest restaurant in the United Arab Emirates, 1484 by Puro, which sits in the emirate’s Jebel Jais Mountains. Culture seekers can head for the historic Dhayah Fort, which dates back to the Late Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC).

    Where to stay? Luxury hospitality brand Anantara is opening a fabulous new resort there later this year that will offer 174 guestrooms, suites and overwater villas along with specialty restaurants and a spa. – Karla Cripps

    Three-tiered Kuang Si Falls is just south of UNESCO-listed Luang Prabang.

    Sharing borders with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Myanmar, landlocked Laos has long been a must-hit spot for time-rich travelers making their way through the Southeast Asia circuit.

    But now, thanks to the 2021 opening of a semi-high-speed railway, it’s easier than ever to get around the country at a quicker pace, shaving hours off journeys that previously took full days to travel.

    You’re still going to have to make some hard choices – there’s a lot to see in Laos.

    Towering karst peaks await visitors to adventure-haven Vang Vieng, while UNESCO-listed Luang Prabang is filled with French-colonial heritage, Buddhist ritual and natural beauty. (Luxury seekers will want to check into the Rosewood Luang Prabang, with its stylish hilltop tents)

    The mysterious Plain of Jars, a megalithic archaeological site, can be found in the Xiangkhoang Plateau. For a once-in-a-lifetime experience that makes a difference, head for Bokeo Province and join one of the Gibbon Experience’s overnight treks. Guests of this tourism-based conservation project spend the night in the world’s tallest treehouses – only accessible by zipline – among wild, black-crested gibbons. – KC

    Rolling hills, medieval buildings – and the officially crowned world’s best cheese. Welcome to Gruyères, Switzerland.

    Everywhere you look in this tiny, hilltop town, there’s a different picture-perfect view – from the medieval market square to the turreted 13th-century castle. A doable day trip from Geneva, summer promises hiking opportunities aplenty, while winter allows for venturing to the nearby Moléson-sur-Gruyères ski resort.

    To taste Gruyères’ namesake fromage, stop off at the wood-lined Chalet de Gruyères. And to learn how cheesemakers perfect this creamy goodness, head to La Maison du Gruyère factory. For further foodie delights, there’s the Maison Cailler chocolate factory – from the outside it looks like something from a Wes Anderson movie, inside it offers a glimpse into the secrets of Swiss chocolate making.

    Gruyères is also home to the surreal HR Giger Museum, celebrating the work of the acclaimed Swiss artist behind the eponymous alien in the 1979 movie “Alien.” A drink at the museum’s bar, designed by Giger in an eerie skeletal aesthetic, offers an antidote to Gruyères’ fairytale vibe. – Francesca Street

    A modern Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis has earned one of the culinary world’s highest honors, and it’s not alone in shining light on Native communities in the area.

    At Owamni, a James Beard Award winner for best new restaurant, Indigenous ingredients – trout, bison, sweet potatoes and more – make up “decolonized” menus where ingredients such as wheat flour and beef are absent. The restaurant is a partnership between chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota and Dana Thompson, who is a lineal descendant of the Wahpeton-Sisseton and Mdewakanton Dakota tribes.

    Earlier this year, one of the pair’s community-owned initiatives, Indigenous Food Lab, opened a market in Minneapolis’ Midtown Global Market, a former Sears building housing businesses that represent more than 22 cultures.

    The open-air Four Sisters Farmers Market (Thursdays June through October) also focuses on Indigenous products. And at the Minnesota History Center in neighboring St. Paul, the exhibit “Our Home: Native Minnesota” looks at thousands of years of Native history in the state. – Marnie Hunter

    While Colomia's busy capital can be congested, it's also home to the historic neighborhood of La Candelaria.

    Caribbean coast destinations such as the Rosario archipelago or the UNESCO heritage list city of Cartagena are rightly top of most Colombia travel wish lists, but also deserving a look-in is the country’s somewhat unsung capital of Bogotá.

    Yes, it’s a messy, traffic-snarled urban sprawl, but it’s also a high-altitude crucible of culture and cuisine. There are tours that chart the city’s transformation from graffiti wild west to incredible street art gallery.

    Equally colorful are the restaurants that make the most of Colombia’s diverse natural larder of flora on menus that range from delicious peasant dishes to mind-blowing Michelin-level gastronomy. And then there’s the coffee!

    The congestion (except on regular cycle-only days) thins quickly on its outskirts, allowing day trips to see historic and modern treasures. Itineraries include Lake Guatavita, where conquistadors once plundered sunken gold offerings left by indigenous Muisca people, or the majestic subterranean Zipaquirá salt cathedral. – BN

    Famed for its mountain treks through ancient trails that once facilitated trade between the Himalayas and India, Nepal’s stunning Mustang Valley sits on the doorstep of Tibet.

    Expect to hear a lot more about this remote destination in the coming months thanks to the arrival of the soon-to-open Shinta Mani Mustang. Part of the Bensley Collection, this all-inclusive resort perched above the small town of Jomsom in the Lower Mustang will offer luxury seekers 29 suites inspired by traditional Tibetan homes.

    In addition to trekking, Mustang visitors can explore ancient villages and Buddhist monasteries. Also not to be missed, the man-made Mustang Caves sit above the Gandaki River and are filled with 2,000-year-old Buddhist sculptures and paintings.

    Getting to the Mustang Valley is part of the adventure. Travelers will need to take a 25-minute flight from capital Kathmandu to Pokhara then hop on another plane for the 20-minute journey to Jomsom. The views alone might make this option more pleasing to some than the alternative – a 12-hour drive from Kathmandu. – KC

    From the spectacular wildlife to the beautiful national parks and beaches, Tanzania is absolutely bursting with visual splendor.

    The East African country holds a seemingly endless list of incredible sights, with Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, UNESCO world heritage site Serengeti National Park, and the Zanzibar Archipelago, among its many highlights.

    This year, flag carrier Air Tanzania will launch new routes to West and Central Africa, along with the UK, in a bid to transform the country’s largest airport in Dar es Salaam into a transport and logistics hub, while construction on the country’s first toll expressway is also scheduled to begin.

    Meanwhile, the Delta Hotels by Marriott brand made its Africa debut with the opening of its Dar es Salaam Oyster Bay property earlier this year. –– THG

    Cairo is pulsing with life and a rich blend of cultures.

    Could this finally be the year tourists can see the Grand Egyptian Museum? After delay upon delay, the museum is expecting a 2023 opening.

    GEM will be the largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, costing around $1 billion and holding the entire King Tut collection. See video here of a CNN insider visit.

    If you arrive in Cairo before it opens, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square can still scratch your antiquity itch.

    While the Pyramids of Giza are the city’s tour-de-force, there’s still more to see. Start with Islamic Cairo. This area has one of the largest collections of historic Islamic architecture in the world. While there, visit the Al-Azhar mosque, which dates back to 970.

    The city also has a rich Christian tradition. Coptic Cairo, part of Old Cairo, has a concentration of Christian sites that pre-date the arrival of Islam.

    If you need a respite from Cairo’s cacophony, Al Azhar Park has a nice expanse of greenery and a design inspired by historic Islamic gardens. And the affluent neighborhood of Zamalek, which sits on an island in the Nile River, serves up restaurants, antique stores and swanky hotels. – FB

    Yayoi Kusama has the distinction of being the best-selling living female artist on the planet. In particular, she has become a global icon for her sculptures of giant polka-dotted pumpkins, one of which was reinstalled at the pier of Naoshima, one of Japan’s “art islands,” in 2022 after being swept into the sea the year before.

    However, Naoshima is so much more than its famous yellow gourd or its works by Kusama.

    There are five small, walkable “art islands” in the Seto Inland Sea, which is located between the main islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku in southeastern Japan. The largest collection of things to see – not to mention the only hotel – is on Naoshima. Together, the five champion modern and contemporary art, with emphasis on Japanese artists.

    Don’t come here expecting calligraphy and other classical forms. Instead, be awed by Tadao Ando’s massive stone monoliths, a tiny gallery where patrons can listen to nothing but the beats of human hearts, a makeshift thunderstorm created inside a wooden house and an exhibit where jumping in and taking a bath is intended to be part of the artistic experience. – LM

    With direct flights to Belize City from about a dozen North American airports, this Central American country is a low-hassle hop for many travelers during the November to April high season.

    Most visitors head directly to Belize’s Caribbean coastline. The country’s largest island, Ambergris Caye, sits next to Belize Barrier Reef – the world’s second largest coral reef system. Margaritaville Beach Resort opened on the island in March, and “eco-luxury” resort Alaia Belize opened in 2021.

    Farther south, the Great Blue Hole – a massive underwater sinkhole – is an aquatic magnet for both scuba divers and aerial photographers.

    But Belize offers way more than its enticing islands.

    Lush rainforests, cave networks, winding rivers and rich Mayan archaeological sites invite exploration in a country that’s had an evolving sustainable tourism master plan since 2012. Ruins of the Mayan city of Altun Ha are just about an hour north of Belize City. Or farther west, Lamanai is one of Belize’s largest and most fascinating Mayan sites. – MH

    Mexico is arguably as rich in culinary heritage as it is in Mesoamerican archaeological treasures, and Eva Longoria explores many distinctive flavors in her series “Searching for Mexico,” which aired on CNN this year.

    The state of Oaxaca, which Longoria visits, has an especially deep well of culinary traditions. Plus, Oaxaca produces most of the world’s mezcal.

    Tlayudas, known as Oaxacan pizzas, are a street food staple. A large corn tortilla is typically layered with lard, beans, traditional Oaxacan cheese, pork and other toppings such as avocado and tomato. The state is also renowned for its seven mole sauces, with recipes that may call for dozens of ingredients from chiles and sesame seeds to chocolate and dried fruit.

    In the city of Oaxaca, Mercado Benito Juárez is one of many markets across the state selling items such as dried chiles, fresh produce, handicrafts and crunchy grasshoppers. To sample the state’s increasingly popular beverage, the town of Santiago Matatlán is the place for mezcal distillery tours and tastings. – MH

    In the winter, the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa becomes the world's largest skaing rink.

    It doesn’t have Montreal’s French flair or Toronto’s international oomph, so the Canadian capital can get overlooked. That would be a mistake. Graceful and understated, Ottawa has its own draws.

    Music lovers should take note of two Ottawa Jazz Festivals. The winter edition took place in February, and the summer edition will run from June 23-30.

    If you love hockey, watch the Ottawa Senators do their NHL thing at the Canadian Tire Centre in the western suburbs. If that ticket is too pricey, check out the Ottawa 67’s, a more affordable option of junior men’s hockey games at downtown’s TD Place Arena.

    The Rideau Canal turns into the world’s largest skating rink from sometime in January to late February or early March, depending on ice thickness. It’s free and accessible 24/7. When it’s warmer, it’s a great spot for people and boat watching.

    A don’t-miss is Parliament Hill, home to Canada’s federal government and the visually striking Parliament buildings on a promontory overlooking the Ottawa River. – FB

    Treks through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest are among Uganda's highlights.

    There’s considerable change brewing in Uganda’s travel offerings at the moment with the East African country looking beyond the traditional staples of safari and wildlife spotting to appeal to both regional and international visitors.

    Keen to revitalize post-Covid tourism in all corners of the country, not just the big-ticket businesses offering wealthy visitors a glimpse of the Big Five beasts or mountain gorillas, it’s turned to marketing its other attributes.

    And why not? From the expansive shores of Lake Victoria to the snowy Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda is a beautiful wilderness playground, with opportunities for adventure including treks through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest or up to the craters of the Virunga volcano chain or whitewater rafting along the Victoria Nile.

    There’s also an emphasis on connecting visitors with Ugandan communities – promising tastes of Ugandan food, music and culture. Last year saw the launch of the Uganda Cycling Trail, a 1,600-kilometer mainly unpaved 22-stage route designed to appeal to all levels of cyclist from hardcore solo bikepackers to fully-guided easy riders. – BN

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  • 7 dead after car plows into a crowd in front of a Texas shelter that was housing migrants | CNN

    7 dead after car plows into a crowd in front of a Texas shelter that was housing migrants | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A driver plowed into a group outside a shelter that had been housing migrants in a Texas border town on Sunday, leaving seven people dead – including several immigrants – and others injured, authorities say.

    Authorities in Brownsville, Texas say they got a call around 8:30 am CT about a Land Rover that hit multiple people who were waiting at a bus stop across the street from the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, a non-profit homeless shelter that has been helping house migrants.

    The crash left seven dead and others injured, Martin Sandoval, a Brownsville police spokesperson, told CNN. Sandoval added that several migrants were among the dead and Border Patrol was working to confirm the identities of the victims. It’s unclear whether the crash was intentional.

    CNN interviewed migrants staying at the center in December. At the time, the center’s director told CNN that migrants from all over the world were beginning to stay at the shelter and they were seeing an uptick in stays. The shelter is equipped to house and feed 200 people, according to its website.

    Witnesses at the scene detained the driver until officers arrived, Sandoval said during a Sunday news conference. He said the driver of the vehicle received medical care and has been arrested on a reckless driving charge. “More than likely” there will be other charges added, Sandoval said.

    Police have not released the name of the driver, but say it was a Hispanic man, Sandoval told CNN. Brownsville police are investigating with the help of Border Patrol, he added.

    Sandoval said authorities are still investigating whether the crash was intentional or accidental. He said witnesses described seeing the driver ignore a red light, drive up on a curb and run over a group of people waiting at the bus stop. Police are checking the driver’s toxicology, Sandoval added.

    The shelter has been housing immigrants while they wait for more permanent housing, he said.

    Brownsville, Texas is located on the southern tip of Texas, just across the Rio Grande River. The town’s population is nearly 95% Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2022 census.

    The crash happened just days before a Trump-era immigration restriction dubbed Title 42 is set to expire. The pandemic-era policy allowed immigration agents to swiftly return migrants to their home countries. Officials have predicted a rise in immigration in coming weeks when the restrictions are lifted Thursday.

    Victor Maldonado, the director of the Ozanam Center, told CNN that about 20 to 25 migrants were sitting on the curb waiting for a bus across the street from the shelter. He said surveillance video captured the deadly wreck with footage showing a vehicle driving very quickly, crashing about 30 feet from where the migrants were sitting and then losing control.

    Police took Maldonado’s copy of the surveillance video, he said.

    The migrants were from Venezuela and had arrived at the shelter about two or three days ago, Maldonado said.

    Maldonado said after the crash, he and a staff member at the shelter ran outside to find a very graphic scene, with body parts spread across the area.

    “I’ve got a staff [member] who is in shock,” Maldonado said, adding that he, too, was in shock.

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  • Ohio’s governor wants Norfolk Southern to pay for toxic derailment’s long-term impacts, including lowered home values and potential health issues | CNN

    Ohio’s governor wants Norfolk Southern to pay for toxic derailment’s long-term impacts, including lowered home values and potential health issues | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Ohio’s govenor said Friday evening that he wants Norfolk Southern to pay East Palestine residents for the long-term impacts the February 3 toxic train derailment may have caused on the community.

    The rail operator should pay residents selling their house the difference of what their home value used to be in comparison to what it’s worth now, nearly three months since the accident, Gov. Mike DeWine told CNN’s Jake Tapper. Norfolk Southern should also set up a fund specifically for impacts on residents that may arise in the future, including medical issues, that could be connected to the derailment, he added.

    Since the accident, officials have said tests showed the air and municipal water were safe and allowed residents to return to their homes after a brief evacuation order. But those living in East Palestine have for months expressed concerns and frustration about both the economic impacts the crash had on their community and health problems, including rashes and nausea, they worry are linked to the derailment.

    Norfolk Southern has vowed to help East Palestine fully recover and has said it will remain in the community for “as long as it takes.”

    DeWine said Friday he has met with Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw and discussed those issues recently.

    “One of the things that I said to him is, if people sell their house and they do not get what that house was worth before the train wreck, I think you owe them the difference,” DeWine said. “I fully expect them to pay for that.”

    CNN reported on Friday about East Palestine residents who were concerned with their home values, including one woman whose home is just about a mile away from the derailment site and proved to be a “nightmare” to sell in the past few weeks.

    When asked for comment on that report, Norfolk Southern directed CNN to a statement from mid-March: “We are committed to working with the community to provide tailored protection for home sellers if their property loses value due to the impact of the derailment.”

    While the company has said it will work with the community to address concerns about losses in home values, details on the issue have been slow to materialize.

    “Everything we’ve asked (Norfolk Southern) to pay for so far, they’ve paid for,” DeWine said Friday. “And we expect them to continue to do that.”

    The governor said he also told Shaw he expects to see a fund set up “fairly quickly” for residents affected by the derailment, including those who may have health problems connected to the accident in the future.

    “(Residents) need to be reassured,” DeWine said. “I think that’s another thing that we can do to help assure the people in the community that we’re going to do everything and that we’re not going away.”

    Officials are continuing to conduct air, water and soil testing and have worked to set up a full-time clinic in the community in the aftermath to the derailment to address health concerns and to improve “the quality of life in the community,” the governor said.

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  • Texan turned Italian princess evicted from villa with original Caravaggio in Rome | CNN

    Texan turned Italian princess evicted from villa with original Caravaggio in Rome | CNN

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    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    Princess Rita Jenrette Boncompagni Ludovisi – formerly Rita Carpenter, the former wife of Republican US Rep. John Jenrette – has been evicted from the home she once shared with the late Prince Nicolo Boncompagni, after an inheritance dispute with his children.

    Princess Rita confirmed her eviction from the historic Casino dell’Aurora in central Rome to CNN on Wednesday. The home features an original Caravaggio ceiling painting—the only known ceiling work from the master—and a Michelangelo statue recently unearthed in the garden.

    Rita was escorted from the home along with her dogs on Thursday. “I’ve been up for 72 hours, I’m being brutally evicted from a home [in] which I’ve lovingly taken care of for the past 20 years,” she tweeted early Thursday morning.

    The eviction was ordered by Rome Judge Miriam Iappelli, and carried out by Roman law enforcement, who also changed the locks per standard procedure for court-ordered evictions.

    A general view shows a room, with frescoes on the ceiling by Italian artists including Guercino and Domenichino, inside Villa Aurora.

    A view of the

    Italian courts have previously ruled that the home must be sold to resolve an inheritance dispute between the Texan and the prince’s children. Prince Nicolo Boncompagni died in 2018.

    The Casino dell’Aurora was put up for auction by state authorities four times in 2022 – its estimated value declining precipitously as bidders proved elusive.

    The first auction on January 18, 2022, estimated the home’s value at €471 million. A second auction April 30 set the price at €376 million, a third auction reduced the price to €301 million on June 30, and a final auction October 18 set the price at €180 million.

    No one bid on any of the auctions, and Princess Rita told CNN she believed that the Italian state auction house did not adequately advertise it.

    A statue of Pan by Michelangelo is seen outside Villa Aurora.

    Before becoming a princess, Rita Carpenter was married to John Jenrette, the former US lawmaker who was enmeshed in the Abscam corruption scandal, resigned in 1980 and subsequently went to prison.

    In 1981, she gave an much-publicized interview to Playboy magazine that detailed having sex with Jenrette on the steps of the US Capitol building. The episode led to a not-so-best selling memoir “My Capitol Secrets” published that year.

    She appeared in plays and movies, including Zombie Island Massacre, according to her official biography.

    Princess Rita told reporters at the Casino dell’Aurora as she left on Thursday that she is writing a new book about her latest ordeal.

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  • Some Black families say they are ‘whitewashing’ their homes to get higher appraisals | CNN

    Some Black families say they are ‘whitewashing’ their homes to get higher appraisals | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Erica and Aaron Parker first had their Loveland, Ohio, home appraised in 2020. It was a competitive selling market, they had made several renovations to the home, and houses in the neighborhood were generally selling above the asking price.

    The couple expected the house to be valued at the list price of $525,000, but when the initial appraisal came back $60,000 short, the Parkers knew something wasn’t right.

    So they tried a different approach and also hired a different appraiser. The Parkers removed all items from the home that might signal they were Black, including artwork and family photos, and replaced them with photos and memorabilia borrowed from a White neighbor.

    The White neighbor sat in for the couple when the new appraiser came, and the result was a home appraisal of nearly $92,000 more than the first.

    “It was a weird feeling but we felt vindicated,” Erica Parker told CNN. “We were like, ‘Oh my God, we really were discriminated against.’”

    Parker’s account backs recent data showing that homes owned by Black people are significantly undervalued compared to White-owned homes. According to the Brookings Institute, homes in Black neighborhoods are valued at 23% less than those in non-Black neighborhoods despite having similar quality and amenities.

    Advocates for Black homeowners say this bias contributes to the racial wealth gap because it limits the financial returns of real estate for Black families.

    Some say it’s a systemic issue that industry leaders blame on a lack of diversity and a methodology that gives appraisers too much discretion in deciding the value of a home.

    According to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 92% of property appraisers and assessors in 2022 were White and 4% were Black.

    Lydia Pope, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, says her organization is working to recruit more Black people into the appraisal industry. The association hosts annual summits at HBCUs to encourage students to join the field, and Pope offers workshops and training for people already working in the real estate industry who want to learn how to do appraisals.

    “Our concern is that there aren’t enough Black appraisers in the business,” Pope says. “We just want to make a stand that we have to change the culture of appraising.”

    Pope calls it “disturbing” and “discouraging” that Black homeowners are having to “whitewash” their homes or conceal their race to get a higher appraisal.

    She says appraisers typically assess factors such as the condition of the property, upgrades and the value of recently sold comparable properties nearby.

    Jillian White, a Black appraiser who heads a consultancy that advises homeowners on disputing low appraisals, says, however, that appraisers are able to use their own discretion and opinion to make adjustments to the value of a home, and that leaves room for bias.

    “I think it’s systemic, implicit, explicit and structural,” White says of appraisal bias. “You have all these inflection points where making different decisions can lead to a very different result. The methodology is not so hard and fast that every appraiser is going to come up with the same value.”

    White says the industry needs to implement more guidance and protections so that appraisers have less autonomy in the process.

    Joshua Walitt, president of the National Association of Appraisers – which condemned discrimination among professional appraisers last year – says the methodology is not the problem. Instead, Walitt blames “bad apples” working in the profession for instances of bias.

    And even if there is bias, Walitt says it should have no influence on appraisal results given that these are based on market data.

    “If we follow methods and techniques which is what we focus on in education, then what it does is it pushes aside any bias that a person could have,” Walitt says. “If there is bad behavior then we need to let the investigations go through and take care of that.”

    Still, Walitt acknowledges that there is a need for more diversity in the industry. He says he is committed to expanding recruitment and supports programs such as Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal (PAREA) that make it easier for people to gain experience and join the industry.

    The issue of bias in home appraisals has gained the attention of President Joe Biden’s administration, which launched the Action Plan to Advance Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) last year to promote equity in the home appraisal process. In late March, the administration announced progress in this effort including publishing guidance so Federal Housing Administration (FHA) borrowers know how to request a “Reconsideration of Value” if they suspect bias in their appraisal.

    White says she wants Black homeowners to know their options when appraisals come in low. She advises her clients to appeal the first appraisal and if that doesn’t work request a second appraisal. If nothing changes, White says homeowners can file complaints with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state appraiser board, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    Claims of bias have also to led to successful legal challenges from some homeowners. In March, San Francisco area Black couple Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin settled a discrimination lawsuit against a real estate appraisal company after their home was undervalued by nearly $500,000. As part of the settlement, the couple is set to receive an undisclosed amount of money and the firm is required to attend housing discrimination prevention training.

    “Having to erase our identity to get a better appraisal was a wrenching experience,” Tate-Austin said in a statement released by her lawyers to the San Francisco Chronicle. “We hope by bringing attention to our case and this lawsuit settlement, we can help change the way the appraisal industry operates.”

    Erica Parker says they ultimately sold the house in Loveland for $507,500 and bought a new home in Westchester, Ohio. However, she filed a discrimination complaint with both HUD and the Ohio Department of Commerce. Neither has yet been settled, she said.

    She says her experience only affirms that racism still exists in real estate.

    “We want the bank and appraisal company to be held responsible for what they did and to prevent this from happening to other people of color,” Parker said.

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  • Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose 2014 real estate deal with GOP megadonor, ProPublica report finds | CNN Politics

    Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose 2014 real estate deal with GOP megadonor, ProPublica report finds | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 real estate deal he made with a GOP megadonor, according to a ProPublica report published Thursday.

    The deal involved the sale of three properties in Savannah, Georgia, that were owned by Thomas and his relatives to the megadonor, Harlan Crow, according to ProPublica, which said that tax and property records showed that Crow made the purchases through one of his companies for a total of $133,363.

    But Thomas “never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties,” the report said, noting that ethics law experts told the outlet that his failure to report it “appears to be a violation of the law.”

    “The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice,” ProPublica said in its report.

    Thursday’s report comes on the heels of a bombshell investigation published last week by ProPublica that detailed Thomas and his wife’s luxury travel with the Crows, which included trips on the donor’s yacht and private jet. The justice also did not disclose that travel, and he later defended the decision not to, saying in a rare statement last week that he was advised at the time that he did not have to report it.

    CNN has reached out for comment from the Supreme Court and Thomas.

    Crow said in a statement to CNN that he purchased the properties to “one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice.”

    He added that he made the purchases at “market rate based on many factors including the size, quality, and livability of the dwellings.”

    Though two of the properties were later sold by Crow, according to his statement, the real estate magnate still owns the property on which Thomas’ elderly mother lives. Citing county tax records, ProPublica said one of Crow’s companies pays the “roughly $1,500 in annual property taxes on Thomas’ mother’s house,” which had previously been paid by the justice and his wife, Ginni.

    Experts told ProPublica that Thomas’ failure to disclose the 2014 deal raises more questions about his relationship with Crow.

    “He needed to report his interest in the sale,” Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who now works for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told the outlet. “Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets.”

    The report has already prompted the watchdog group to call for an investigation into Thomas’ decision not to disclose the real estate deal and the various trips and gifts.

    In a letter sent Friday to Chief Justice John Roberts and Attorney General Merrick Garland, CREW said that Thomas may have violated the Ethics in Government Act. The group said Roberts also should investigate whether Thomas violated his “ethical obligations” under Judicial Conference regulations.

    In the wake of last week’s revelations, congressional Democrats have also called for an investigation into the matter and for a stronger ethics code for the justices, and some federal judges have also spoken out.

    Earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it plans to hold a hearing “on the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards,” and at least one watchdog group has urged lawmakers to call Thomas as a witness in the upcoming hearing.

    This story has been updated with additional details Friday.

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  • What markets are watching after digesting the US jobs data | CNN Business

    What markets are watching after digesting the US jobs data | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    In an unusual coincidence, the US jobs report was released on a holiday Friday — meaning stock markets were closed when the closely-watched economic data came out.

    It was the first monthly payroll report since Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed. It also marked a full year of jobs data since the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in March 2022.

    While inflation has come down and other economic data point to a cooling economy, the labor market has remained remarkably resilient.

    Investors have had a long weekend to chew over the details of the report and will likely skip the typical gut-reaction to headline numbers.

    What happened: The US economy added 236,000 jobs in March, showing that hiring remained robust though the pace was slower than in previous months. The unemployment rate currently stands at 3.5%.

    Wages increased by 0.3% on the month and 4.2% from a year ago. The three-month wage growth average has dropped to 3.8%. That’s moving closer to what Fed policymakers “believe to be in line with stable wage and inflation expectations,” wrote Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM in a note.

    “That wage data tends to suggest that the risk of a wage price spiral is easing and that will create space in the near term for the Federal Reserve to engage in a strategic pause in its efforts to restore price stability,” he added.

    The March jobs report was the last before the Fed’s next policy meeting and announcement in early May. The labor market is cooling but not rapidly or significantly, and further rate hikes can’t be ruled out.

    At the same time Wall Street is beginning to see bad news as bad news. A slowing economy could mean a recession is forthcoming.

    Markets are still largely expecting the Fed to raise rates by another quarter point. So how will they react to Friday’s report?

    Before the Bell spoke with Michael Arone, State Street Global Advisors chief investment strategist, to find out.

    This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    Before the Bell: How do you expect markets to react to this report on Monday?

    Michael Arone: I think that this has been a nice counterbalance to the weaker labor data earlier last week and all the recession fears. This data suggests that the economy is still in pretty good shape, 10-year Treasury yields increased on Friday indicating there’s less fear about an imminent recession.

    There’s this delicate balance between slower job growth and a weaker labor market without economic devastation. I think this report helps that.

    As it relates to the stock market, I would expect the cyclical sectors to do well — your industrials, your materials, your energy companies. If interest rates are rising, that’s going to weigh on growth stocks — technology and communication services sectors, for example. Less recession fears will mean investors won’t be as defensively positioned in classic staples like healthcare and utilities.

    Could this lead to a reverse in the current trend where tech companies are bolstering markets?

    Yes, exactly. It’s difficult to make too much out of any singular data point, but I think this report will hopefully lead to broader participation in the stock market. If those recession fears begin to abate somewhat, and investors recognize that recession isn’t imminent, there will be more investment.

    What else are investors looking at in this report?

    We’ve seen weakness in the interest rate sensitive parts of the market — areas that are typically the first to weaken as the economy slows down. So things like manufacturing, things like construction. That’s where the weakness in this jobs report is. And the services areas continue to remain strong. That’s where the shortage of qualified skilled workers remains. I think that you’re seeing continued job strength in those areas.

    What does this mean for this week’s inflation reports? It seems like the jobs report just pushed the tension forward.

    it did. I expect that inflation figures will continue to decelerate — or grow at a slower rate. But I do think that the sticky part of inflation continues to be on the wage front. And so I think, if anything, this helps alleviate some of those inflation pressures, but we’ll see how it flows through into the CPI report next week. And also the PPI report.

    Is the Federal Reserve addressing real structural changes to the labor market?

    The Fed was confused in February 2020 when we were in full employment and there was no inflation. They’re equally confused today, after raising rates from zero to 5%, that we haven’t had more job losses.

    I’m not sure why, but from my perspective, the Fed hasn’t taken into consideration the structural changes in the labor force, and they’re still confused by it. I think the risk here is that they’ll continue to focus on raising rates to stabilize prices, perhaps underestimating the kind of structural changes in the labor economy that haven’t resulted in the type of weakness that they’ve been anticipating. I think that’s a risk for the economy and markets.

    A few weeks ago, Before the Bell wrote about big problems brewing in the $20 trillion commercial real estate industry.

    After decades of thriving growth bolstered by low interest rates and easy credit, commercial real estate has hit a wall. Office and retail property valuations have been falling since the pandemic brought about lower occupancy rates and changes in where people work and how they shop. The Fed’s efforts to fight inflation by raising interest rates have also hurt the credit-dependent industry.

    Recent banking stress will likely add to those woes. Lending to commercial real estate developers and managers largely comes from small and mid-sized banks, where the pressure on liquidity has been most severe. About 80% of all bank loans for commercial properties come from regional banks, according to Goldman Sachs economists.

    Since then, things have gotten worse, CNN’s Julia Horowitz reports.

    In a worst-case scenario, anxiety about bank lending to commercial real estate could spiral, prompting customers to yank their deposits. A bank run is what toppled Silicon Valley Bank last month, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a recession.

    “We’re watching it pretty closely,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede, a wealth manager. While he doesn’t expect office loans to become a problem for all banks, “one or two” institutions could find themselves “caught offside.”

    Signs of strain are increasing. The proportion of commercial office mortgages where borrowers are behind with payments is rising, according to Trepp, which provides data on commercial real estate.

    High-profile defaults are making headlines. Earlier this year, a landlord owned by asset manager PIMCO defaulted on nearly $2 billion in debt for seven office buildings in San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Jersey City.

    Dig into Julia’s story here.

    Tech stocks led market losses in 2022, but seemed to rebound quickly at the start of this year. So as we enter earnings season, what should we expect from Big Tech?

    Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, says that he has high hopes.

    “Tech stocks have held up very well so far in 2023 and comfortably outpaced the overall market as we believe the tech sector has become the new ‘safety trade’ in this overall uncertain market,” he wrote in a note on Sunday evening.

    Even the recent spate of layoffs in Big Tech has upside, he wrote.

    “Significant cost cutting underway in the Valley led by Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others, conservative guidance already given in the January earnings season ‘rip the band- aid off moment’, and tech fundamentals that are holding up in a shaky macro [environment] are setting up for a green light for tech stocks.”

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  • FBI and Army members raided the wrong hotel room during a training exercise and detained a guest inside | CNN

    FBI and Army members raided the wrong hotel room during a training exercise and detained a guest inside | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Members of the FBI and the US Army Special Operations Command who were conducting a training exercise in downtown Boston raided the wrong hotel room and detained the person inside before realizing their mistake, the FBI said in a statement to CNN.

    The FBI said its Boston division was helping the military with a training exercise around 10 p.m. Tuesday “to simulate a situation their personnel might encounter in a deployed environment.”

    “Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player,” the FBI said.

    “First and foremost, we’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the individual who was affected by the training exercise,” USASOC Lt. Col. Mike Burns told CNN.

    The exercise was meant to “enhance soldiers’ skills to operate in realistic and unfamiliar environments,” Burns said, adding the incident is under review.

    No one was injured, the FBI said.

    The incident took place at the Revere Hotel Boston Common, according to the Boston Police Department. CNN has reached out to the hotel for comment.

    A Boston police incident report said officers were called to the hotel around 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, and were met by law enforcement agents conducting a training exercise.

    Local news reports said the person who was in the hotel room and detained by federal law enforcement is a Delta Air Lines employee.

    The Atlanta-based airline told CNN it is looking into the “alleged incident in Boston that may involve Delta people.”

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  • Here’s why beef is still pricey | CNN Business

    Here’s why beef is still pricey | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A slowing economy may lead to a decline in sales of pricey beef cuts, but don’t look for any bargains just yet.

    Market forces that have been building for a long time, including devastating droughts, will likely keep hamburger and steak prices steady — and relatively expensive.

    In part, that’s because there’s less beef. A contraction in beef supplies “has been coming for a while,” said David Anderson, a professor in Texas A&M University’s agricultural economics department. “We’re starting to see the effects that we knew were going to be coming for a couple of years.”

    When extreme drought hit the United States in recent years, farmers started to rapidly sell cattle because the dry conditions, along with higher feed costs, made it expensive or impossible to maintain their herds. That wave of sales, particularly of cows used to breed, has led to supply constraints this year.

    “Tightening cattle supplies are expected to cause a significant year-over-year decrease in beef production, the first decline since 2015,” a March market outlook from the US Department of Agriculture noted.

    “If we produce less beef, the pressure’s on for higher prices,” said Anderson. The “big unknown is going to be consumer demand.”

    The beef supply tends to grow and shrink in roughly 10-year cycles, said Lance Zimmerman, senior beef analyst for the North American market with Rabobank. When supply shrinks, consumer prices tend to go up. But with people nervous about the economy, this year’s more complicated.

    “The biggest thing that looms large, in all of our minds as market analysts right now, is do we have recession risk that we need to price into the market for next year,” Zimmerman said. “If that’s the case, beef prices may be steadier.”

    And with food inflation stubbornly high, consumers are already cutting back on certain items, including beef.

    Tyson

    (TSN)    , which processes about a fifth of the country’s beef, poultry and pork, noted a sales dip in beef in the three months ending December 31, 2022.

    With grocery inflation stubbornly high, some consumers trade down.

    Beef sales “were down 5.6% compared to record high sales in the prior year,” said CFO John Tyson during a February analyst call discussing the quarterly results, noting that prices were down in the quarter due to “softer domestic demand for beef.” The company said that it expects its beef margins to fall this year because of the smaller domestic supply.

    “Retailers through last year continued to push price on the consumer,” said Adam Speck, senior livestock analyst at Gro Intelligence. Now they have to answer a question as they plan for the year: Will demand be high enough to warrant raising prices even more?

    “The answer is probably no,” said Speck. That may not be a huge relief, as beef prices are still relatively high. In 2022, fresh choice beef retailed for $7.59 per pound, according to March data from the USDA. That’s up from $7.25 per pound the previous year.

    Stores may try to test the waters during barbecue season.

    In the spring, “we’re at the bottom of our traditional seasonal demand,” said Bernt Nelson, an economist with American Farm Bureau Federation. Demand for beef typically dips after the holidays, and picks up when people fire up their grills in the summer, he noted. If demand remains strong, “we may see some higher beef prices,” towards the fall and later, Bernt said.

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  • What the OPEC cuts mean for Putin and Russia | CNN Business

    What the OPEC cuts mean for Putin and Russia | CNN Business

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    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Some of the world’s largest oil exporters shocked markets over the weekend by announcing that they would cut oil production by more than 1.6 million barrels a day.

    OPEC+, an alliance between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of non-OPEC oil-producing countries, including Russia, Mexico, and Kazakhstan, said on Sunday that the cuts would start in May, running through the end of the year. The news sent both Brent crude futures — the global oil benchmark — and WTI — the US benchmark — up about 6% in trading Monday.

    OPEC+ was formed in 2016 to coordinate and regulate oil production and stabilize global oil prices. Its members produce about 40% of the world’s crude oil and have a significant impact on the global economy.

    What it means for Putin: OPEC+’s decision to cut oil production could have big implications for Russia.

    After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the United States and United Kingdom immediately stopped purchasing oil from the country. The European Union also stopped importing Russian oil that was sent by sea.

    Members of the G7 — an organization of leaders from some of the world’s largest economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — have also imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel on oil exported by Russia, keeping the country’s revenues artificially low. If oil prices continue to rise, some analysts have speculated that the US and other western nations may have to loosen that price cap.

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that the changes could lead to reassessing the price cap — though not yet. “Of course, that’s something that, if we’ve decided that it’s appropriate to revisit, could be changed, but I don’t see that that’s appropriate at this time,” she told reporters.

    “I don’t know that this is significant enough to have any impact on the appropriate level of the price cap,” she added.

    Russia also recently announced that it would lower its oil production by 500,000 barrels per day until the end of this year.

    Just last week Putin admitted that western sanctions could deal a blow to Russia’s economy.

    “The illegitimate restrictions imposed on the Russian economy may indeed have a negative impact on it in the medium term,” Putin said in televised remarks Wednesday reported by state news agency TASS.

    Putin said Russia’s economy had been growing since July, thanks in part to stronger ties with “countries of the East and South,” likely referring to China and some African countries.

    Russia, China and Saudi Arabia: The OPEC+ announcement came as a surprise this week. The group had already announced it would cut two million barrels a day in October of 2022 and Saudi Arabia previously said its production quotas would stay the same through the end of the year.

    “The move to reduce supply is fairly odd,” wrote Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING in a note Monday.

    “Oil prices have partly recovered from the turmoil seen in financial markets following developments in the banking sector,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, oil fundamentals are expected to tighten as we move through the year. Prior to these cuts, we were already expecting the oil market to see a fairly sizable deficit over the second half or 2023. Clearly, this will be even larger now.”

    Saudi Arabia stated that the cut is a “precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market,” but Patterson says it will likely “lead to further volatility in the market,” later this year as less available oil will add to inflationary feats.

    Still, the changes signal shifting global alliances with Russia, China and Saudi Arabia around oil prices, said analysts at ClearView Energy Partners. Higher-priced oil could help Russia pay for its war on Ukraine and also boosts revenue in Saudi Arabia.

    The White House, meanwhile, has spoken out against OPEC’s decision. “We don’t think cuts are advisable at this moment given market uncertainty – and we’ve made that clear,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

    – CNN’s Paul LeBlanc and Hanna Ziady contributed to this report

    The crisis triggered by the recent collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank is not over yet and will ripple through the economy for years to come, said JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday.

    In his closely watched annual letter to shareholders, the chief executive of the largest bank in the United States outlined the extensive damage the financial system meltdown had on all banks and urged lawmakers to think carefully before responding with regulatory policy.

    “These failures were not good for banks of any size,” wrote Dimon, responding to reports that large financial institution benefited greatly from the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank as wary customers sought safety by moving billions of dollars worth of money to big banks.

    In a note last month, Wells Fargo banking analyst Mike Mayo wrote “Goliath is winning.” JPMorgan in particular, he said, was benefiting from more deposits “in these less certain times.”

    “Any crisis that damages Americans’ trust in their banks damages all banks – a fact that was known even before this crisis,” said Dimon. “While it is true that this bank crisis ‘benefited’ larger banks due to the inflow of deposits they received from smaller institutions, the notion that this meltdown was good for them in any way is absurd.”

    The failures of SVB and Signature Bank, he argued, had little to do with banks bypassing regulations and that SVB’s high Interest rate exposure and large amount of uninsured deposits were already well-known to both regulators and to the marketplace at large.

    Current regulations, Dimon argued, could actually lull banks into complacency without actually addressing real system-wide banking issues. Abiding by these regulations, he wrote, has just “become an enormous, mind-numbingly complex task about crossing t’s and dotting i’s.”

    And while regulatory change will be a likely outcome of the recent banking crisis, Dimon argued that, “it is extremely important that we avoid knee-jerk, whack-a-mole or politically motivated responses that often result in achieving the opposite of what people intended.” Regulations, he said, are often put in place in one part of the framework but have adverse effects on other areas and just make things more complicated.

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has said it will propose new rule changes in May, while the Federal Reserve is currently conducting an internal review to assess what changes should be made. Lawmakers in Congress, like Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, have suggested that new legislation meant to regulate banks is in the works.

    But, wrote Dimon, “the debate should not always be about more or less regulation but about what mix of regulations will keep America’s banking system the best in the world.”

    Dimon’s letter to shareholders touched on a number of pressing issues, including climate change. “The window for action to avert the costliest impacts of global climate change is closing,” he wrote, expressing his frustration with slow growth in clean energy technology investments.

    “Permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way,” he wrote.

    One way to do that? “We may even need to evoke eminent domain,” he suggested. “We simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.”

    Eminent domain is the government’s power to take private property for public use, so long as fair compensation is provided to the property owner.

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  • ‘This is a social emergency’: Thousands protest in Portugal over housing crisis | CNN

    ‘This is a social emergency’: Thousands protest in Portugal over housing crisis | CNN

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    Lisbon
    Reuters
     — 

    Thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other cities across Portugal on Saturday in protest against soaring rents and house prices at a time when high inflation is making it even tougher for people to make ends meet.

    “There is a huge housing crisis today,” Rita Silva, from the Habita housing group, said at the Lisbon protest. “This is a social emergency.”

    Portugal is one of Western Europe’s poorest countries, with government data showing more than 50% of workers earned less than 1,000 euros ($1,084) per month last year. The monthly minimum wage is 760 euros ($826).

    Rents in Lisbon, a tourist hotspot, have jumped 65% since 2015 and sale prices have sky-rocketed 137% in that period, figures from Confidencial Imobiliario, which collects data on housing, show. Rents increased 37% last year alone, more than in Barcelona or Paris, according to another real estate data company, Casafari.

    The situation is particularly hard on the young.

    The average rent for a one-bedroom flat in Lisbon is around 1,350 euros, a study by housing portal Imovirtual showed.

    The Socialist government announced last month a housing package that, among other measures, ended the controversial “Golden Visa” scheme and banned new licenses for Airbnb properties but critics say it is not enough to lower prices in the short term.

    At the protest, which was organised by the movement “Home to Live” and other groups, 35-year-old illustrator Diogo Guerra said he hears stories about people struggling to access housing every day.

    “People who… work and are homeless, people are evicted because their house is turned into short-term accommodations (for tourists),” he said.

    Low wages and high rents make Lisbon the world’s third-least viable city to live in, according to a study by insurance brokers CIA Landlords. Portugal’s current 8.2% inflation rate has exacerbated the problem.

    “With my salary, which is higher than the average salary in Lisbon, I cannot afford renting a flat because it’s too expensive,” said Nuncio Renzi, a sales executive from Italy living in the capital.

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  • What the banking crisis means for mortgage rates | CNN Business

    What the banking crisis means for mortgage rates | CNN Business

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Mortgage rates have taken would-be buyers on a ride this year — and it’s only March.

    Generally, home buyers can anticipate mortgage rates to move down through the rest of this year as the banking crisis drags on, which could cool down inflation.

    But there are bound to be some bumps along the way. Here’s why rates have been bouncing around and where they could end up.

    After steadily rising last year as a result of the Federal Reserve’s historic campaign to rein in inflation, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage topped out at 7.08% in November, according to Freddie Mac. Then, with economic data suggesting inflation was retreating, the average rate drifted down through January.

    But a raft of robust economic reports in February brought concerns that inflation was not cooling as quickly or as much as many had hoped. As a result, after falling to 6.09%, average mortgage rates climbed back up, rising half a percentage point over the month.

    Then in March banks began collapsing. That sent rates falling again.

    Neither the actions of the Federal Reserve nor the bank failures directly impact mortgage rates. But rates are indirectly impacted by actions that the Fed takes or is expected to take, as well as the health of the broader financial system and any uncertainty that may be percolating.

    On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it would raise interest rates by a quarter point as it attempts to fight stubbornly high inflation while taking into account recent risks to financial stability.

    While the bank failures made the Fed’s work more complicated, analysts have said that, if contained, the banking meltdown may have actually done some work for the Fed, by bringing down prices without raising interest rates. To that point, the Fed suggested on Wednesday that it may be at the end of its rate hike cycle.

    Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds, which move based on a combination of anticipation about the Fed’s actions, what the Fed actually does and investors’ reactions. When Treasury yields go up, so do mortgage rates; when they go down, mortgage rates tend to follow.

    Following the Fed’s announcement on Wednesday, bond yields — and the mortgage rates that usually follow them — fell.

    But the relationship between mortgage rates and Treasurys has weakened slightly in recent weeks, said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow.

    “The secondary mortgage market may react to speculation that more financial entities may need to sell their long-term investments, like mortgage backed securities, to get more liquidity today,” he said.

    Even as Treasurys decline, he said, tighter credit conditions as a result of bank failures will likely limit any dramatic plunging of mortgage rates.

    “This could restrict mortgage lenders’ access to funding sources, resulting in higher rates than Treasuries would otherwise indicate,” Divounguy said. “For borrowers, lending standards were already quite strict, and tighter conditions may make it more difficult for some home shoppers to secure funding. In turn, for home sellers, the time it takes to sell could increase as buyers hesitate.”

    Inflation is still quite high, but it is slowing and analysts are anticipating a much slower economy over the next few quarters — which should further bring down inflation. This is good for mortgage borrowers, who can expect to see rates retreating through this year, said Mike Fratantoni, Mortgage Bankers Association senior vice president and chief economist.

    “Homebuyers in 2023 have shown themselves to be quite sensitive to any changes in mortgage rates,” Fratantoni said.

    The MBA forecasts that mortgage rates are likely to trend down over the course of this year, with the 30-year fixed rate falling to around 5.3% by the end of the year.

    “The housing market was the first sector to slow as the result of tighter monetary policy and should be the first to benefit as policymakers slow — and ultimately stop — hiking rates,” said Fratantoni.

    In second half of the year, the inflation picture is expected to improve, leading to mortgage rates that are more stable.

    “Expectations for slower economic growth or even a recession should bring inflation down and help mortgage rates decline,” said Divounguy.

    That’s good news for home buyers since it improves affordability, bringing down the cost to finance a home. It also benefits sellers, since it reduces the intensity of an interest-rate lock-in.

    Lower rates could also convince more homeowners to list their home for sale. With the inventory of homes for sale near historic lows, this would add badly needed inventory to an extremely limited pool.

    “Mortgage rates are steering both supply and demand in today’s costly environment,” said Divounguy. “Home sales picked up in January when rates were relatively low, then slacked off as they ramped back up.”

    But with cooling inflation comes a higher risk of job losses, which is typically bad for the housing market.

    “Of course, much uncertainty surrounding the state of inflation and this still-evolving banking turmoil remains,” said Divounguy.

    In his remarks on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said estimates of how much the recent banking developments could slow the economy amounted to “guesswork, almost, at this point.”

    But regardless of the tack the economy and banking concerns take, their impact will quickly be seen in mortgage rates.

    “Evidence — in either direction — of spillovers into the broader economy or accelerating inflation would likely cause another policy shift, which would materialize in mortgage rates,” said Divounguy.

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  • Items from Murdaugh Moselle property will be auctioned on Thursday | CNN

    Items from Murdaugh Moselle property will be auctioned on Thursday | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The contents of the home of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh and his family will be auctioned off on Thursday, according to a South Georgia auction house.

    The house is located in Colleton County, South Carolina, on a hunting property called Moselle. The property became a household name during the nationally televised trial of its former occupant, Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh was convicted earlier this month of shooting and killing his wife and son on the property.

    The Savannah-based Liberty Auction house was hired to clean out the home and sell all its contents, according to owner Lori Mattingly. Cleaning out the Moselle estate was “just like any other job,” she said to CNN over the phone on Tuesday.

    “Their things are not any better or nicer than any other things that we pick up from other people’s homes,” Mattingly added. “We go into a lot of very nice expensive homes … And we’ve had much nicer things than theirs, but their things are nice.”

    Among the items being auctioned are beds, chests, tables, chairs and picture frames that once hung on the walls of the Moselle estate. The Murdaugh items will be sold among items from other estates, and each item will be identified by a lot number, according to Mattingly. The auction house did not have an exact number of items being auctioned from the Murdaugh estate.

    Photos of some of the items up for sale have been posted online and there are plans to post more photos in the coming days, Mattingly told CNN.

    Bids will only be taken in-person, according to Liberty Auction, which is selling the contents of the home

    The auction will take place on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Pembroke, Georgia, a small town just outside of Savannah. Bids will only be accepted in-person.

    “It’s unbelievable how many phone calls I have had, and I have only been able to answer so many,” said Mattingly. She told CNN the auctions usually draw a few hundred people, but they expect many more than normal for this sale.

    Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found fatally shot on the property on June 7, 2021. He has maintained that he did not kill them. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh committed the murders to distract and delay from investigations into his long string of alleged financial crimes and lies.

    Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murders. He is appealing the conviction. The former attorney is also facing additional charges for other alleged financial crimes for which he has yet to face trial.

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  • Norfolk Southern balks at compensating homeowners in East Palestine | CNN Business

    Norfolk Southern balks at compensating homeowners in East Palestine | CNN Business

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    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    Jim Stewart was getting ready to sell his home in East Palestine, Ohio, and retire. Then came the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train on February 3, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and nearby water, and he fears crashing the value of his home.

    He and his wife hoped to put their three-bedroom home on the market this spring, as prices were still high and inventory was low. Alternatively, they talked about his son’s family buying a house that was on the market down the street from Stewart.

    But even though state officials are saying the water is safe to drink, convincing potential homebuyers otherwise is an uphill battle.

    “Since the derailment, I lost all those options,” he said. “Who is going to buy contaminated land? The older people are willing to stay and live it out. The younger bunch, they are smarter. They’re thinking of their families. I wouldn’t want my grandchildren here. We don’t know if the ground is going to be good enough to grow grass. There are too many unknowns.”

    Stewart, 65, recently voiced his fury and sadness about what he lost to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on a February 22 Town Hall about the derailment on CNN.

    “You burned me,” he told Shaw. “We were going to sell our house. Our value went phoom,” pointing his hands down.

    Shaw was asked point blank by another resident if Norfolk Southern was ready to buy Stewart’s house, he replied only, “we’re going to do what’s right for this community.” That wasn’t satisfactory for Stewart or many of the other participants at the Town Hall.

    “I lost everything now,” Stewart says he told Shaw.

    Stewart works as a manager at a commercial baking company.

    “I worked hard. I’m still working,” he says he told Shaw. “I’m in the 44th year at my job. I wanted to get out. Now I’m just stuck.”

    Stewart fears he lost a tremendous amount of the value of his home, which he bought in 2016 for $85,000.

    The property was worth about $135,000 a month ago, according to an estimate from Zillow. Lack of transactions since then make a current estimate difficult.

    “I’ll never get that. I’ll be lucky to get what I paid for it, if that,” he said of the estimate. In addition, Stewart believes it would cost a lot to do the repairs and tests to ensure the home is safe.

    “At whose expense? That’s the biggest issue right now,” said Stewart. “At whose expense are we going to do things to make sure it’s okay?”

    Stewart isn’t the only one that was angry with Shaw and Norfolk Southern for the railroad’s refusal to offer to compensate the community for the property value that has been destroyed by the derailment.

    At Thursday’s Senate hearing on the crash, Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Shaw four different times to commit to compensating homeowners, only to hear Shaw repeatedly reply, “Senator, I’m committed to do what’s right.”

    Markey said that wasn’t an acceptable answer.

    “Will you commit to insuring that these families, these innocent families do no lose their life savings in their homes and small businesses? The right thing to do is to say, ‘Yes we will.’” Markey told Shaw. “These families want to know long term are they just going to be left behind. Once the cameras move on, once the national attention dies down, where will these families be? I think they’re going to be in the crosshairs of the accountants of Norfolk Southern saying ‘We’re not going to pay full compensation.’”

    Paying the homeowners and businesses wouldn’t necessarily be difficult for Norfolk Southern.

    With a population of about 5,000 people, there are roughly 2,600 residential properties in East Palestine according to Attom, a property data provider. The average value of a property there in January of this year, prior to the derailment, was $146,000, according to Attom.

    Taken together, the value of all residential real estate in the town adds up to about $380 million, including single family homes and multi-family properties.

    Those values are only a fraction of the money that Norfolk Southern earns. Last year it reported a record operating income of $4.8 billion, and a net income of $3.3 billion, up about 9% from a year earlier. It had $456 million in cash on hand on its books as of December 31.

    It’s been returning much of that profit to shareholders, repurchasing $3.1 billion in shares last year and spending $1.2 billion on dividends. And it announced a 9% increase in dividends just days before the accident.

    A year ago its board approved a $10 billion share repurchase plan, and it had the authority to buy $7.5 billion of that remaining on the plan as of December 31.

    Asked by Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, at Thursday’s hearing, “Will you pledge to no more stock buybacks until a raft of safety measures have been completed to reduce the risk of derailments and crashes in the future,” Shaw again dodged the question by answering only with, “I will commit to continuing to invest in safety.”

    And the company also invests a great deal of money in lobbying, spending $1.8 billion on lobbying in 2022, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks lobbying and political contributions expenditures.

    Those lobbying expenses also came under attack by senators at the hearing, especially since Shaw would not commit to supporting the bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate since the derailment to improve railroad safety. Asked if he would support or oppose the legislation, Shaw wouldn’t endorse all of the provisions of the bill, but he responded “we are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer.”

    A big payout probably isn’t what many in East Palestine are looking for, said Jim Warren, manager and co-owner of Kelly Warren and Associates Real Estate Solutions, in Boardman, which is about 15 miles away from East Palestine. They just want a home that’s safe to live in and to be made whole on its value, he said.

    “The people around here don’t want a lot,” he said. “We don’t chase the flashy items like other places in the world. We want to grow up, raise our kids, make a living, and have a nice place to live, that’s all we want.”

    This area, like the rest of the country, saw the real estate market heat up over the past few years with multiple offers on homes and properties selling over the asking price. But, Warren said, unlike other parts of the country the market stays fairly steady in this part of Ohio.

    “Our area doesn’t move up as much and it doesn’t move down as much,” he said. “We don’t have the big swings.”

    Warren’s firm currently has two listings in the town.

    “That’s no more nor less than usual,” he said. There are only ever about ten properties on the market there, he said.

    But, he added, “if your property is contaminated, that is a concern for yourself and for any buyer.”

    As with any real estate purchase, an appraisal and tests for safety would need to be done for homes in East Palestine. But like Stewart, Warren said it is not yet clear who will pay for the additional tests on water and ground contamination for that peace of mind.

    “For all we know, the county might cover it, or the EPA or Ohio state government. That remains to be seen,” he said.

    Overall, Warren said, he expects homes to continue to be bought and sold in East Palestine.

    “We don’t foresee the market tanking, we foresee steady growth,” he said. “After all the hype is gone, we are still living here. We’re going to have to figure it out because this is our home.”

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  • Woman missing more than 30 years and thought to be dead found living in Puerto Rico nursing home | CNN

    Woman missing more than 30 years and thought to be dead found living in Puerto Rico nursing home | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Pennsylvania woman who disappeared more than 30 years ago and was believed to be dead by her family was recently found living in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, her family and police said at a news conference Thursday.

    Patricia Kopta, 83, was last seen in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1992, according to a missing person flier posted by the Pennsylvania Emergency Response Center.

    Her husband, Bob Kopta, reported her missing a few months later in the fall. At the time, he advised authorities that it wasn’t uncommon for his wife to “drop out of sight for short periods,” according to the flier.

    “I come home one night and she’s gone, and nobody knew where she was at,” Kopta said at the news conference with Ross Township Police.

    Police said they were first informed about the discovery of the missing woman when an agent from the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and a social worker from Puerto Rico contacted them last year saying that they believed Patricia was living in an adult care home in Puerto Rico.

    “What they reported to us was that she came into their care in 1999, when she was found in need in the streets of Puerto Rico,” Ross Township Deputy Chief Brian Kohlhepp said.

    INTERPOL and the social worker said Patricia was found wandering the streets and through the years she had “refused to ever discuss her private life or where she came from,” Kohlhepp said.

    In her advanced age, Patricia started revealing nuggets that would eventually spur those around her to contact Ross police, Kohlhepp said.

    When she was in Pittsburgh, Patricia was a “well-known street preacher,” according to the missing person flier. She would approach strangers, telling them she had visions of the Virgin Mary and that the world was coming to an end, the flier said.

    Police said her disappearance wasn’t overtly suspicious because they “knew she had a mental health history and she had made statements to other family individuals that she was leaving, that she was concerned that she was going to be placed into a care facility here,” Kohlhepp said. Kohlhepp said police knew she had likely left of her own volition.

    Her husband said that his wife had talked about wanting to go to Puerto Rico to live in a tropical environment.

    “I even advertised in the paper down in Puerto Rico looking for her,” Kopta said at the news conference, adding that he spent a lot of money over the years searching for her.

    Patricia and Bob were married for 20 years before she went missing, Kohlhepp told CNN. He added that Patricia had no known family or connections in Puerto Rico.

    Police determined the woman was in fact Patricia through a nine-month-long process in which they compared DNA samples provided by her sister, Gloria Smith, and her nephew.

    “We really thought she was dead all those years,” Smith said at the news conference.

    Even before DNA testing was completed, the family knew it was Patricia as soon as they saw her photo, Kohlhepp said.

    Smith said that she has called the adult care home in Puerto Rico several times but has been unable to hold a conversation with her sister because she has dementia.

    “We didn’t expect it. It was a very big shock to see – to know that she’s still alive,” her sister said. “You know, we’re so happy and I hope I can get down to see her.”

    CNN has not been able to directly contact the woman’s family.

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