Sales of previously owned homes dropped 5.4% in June compared with May, to 3.89 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were also 5.4% lower than June of last year. This is the slowest sales pace since December. These are closed sales, so based on contracts signed mostly in April and ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will land in Washington on Monday to far less fanfare than he would have expected just a day earlier. His highly-anticipated visit – chock-full of meetings with top US officials and a prized address to Congress – will now undoubtedly be overshadowed by US President Joe Biden’s stunning decision to drop out of the presidential ...

Eight activists were participating as part of a Palestinian grassroots campaign called Defend Palestine, which calls on international volunteers to travel to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to protect Palestinians from Israeli settler attacks. Two Americans and a German national were taken to hospital with suspected fractures after the attack, their campaign said, adding that another American volunteer suffered minor injuries. ...

Uganda’s hardline President Yoweri Museveni has warned citizens planning anti-corruption protests Tuesday that they are “playing with fire.” The upcoming protests come after a wave of deadly anti-government demonstrations that rattled neighboring country Kenya where at least 50 people were killed in clashes with security forces, according to figures released by the National Commission on Human Rights. Museveni, 79, who ...

The European Union’s next meetings of foreign and defense ministers scheduled in August will be moved from Budapest to Brussels, the bloc’s top diplomat announced Monday, in the latest escalation of a spat between the union and Hungary over its prime minister’s stance on the war in Ukraine. Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ruffled feathers among EU leaders ...

General Min Aung Hlaing, leader of Myanmar’s military junta, became the country’s interim president on Monday after figurehead leader Myint Swe was placed on medical leave, state media reported. “The Interim President’s Office has sent a letter to the State Administration Council Office notifying it to delegate the responsibilities,” government broadcaster MRTV said Monday, referring to the junta council that ...

It would be easy to dismiss this Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela as a fait accompli. The country’s opposition movement is challenging Nicolas Maduro, a strongman who has ruled Venezuela since 2013 and has made clear he intends to keep doing so – saying last week that if he were not re-elected, Venezuela might face a “bloodbath.” Maduro’s government controls ...

Palestinian factions including rivals Hamas and Fatah have signed an agreement on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity,” Chinese broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday, following a deal brokered by China. The announcement followed reconciliation talks involving 14 Palestinian factions in Beijing starting Sunday, according to state media, which come as Israel wages war against militant group Hamas in Gaza and as ...

The Philippines has announced plans to ban offshore gaming operators, targeting an industry that mostly caters to Chinese gamblers and has sparked growing alarm from law enforcement over its alleged connections to organized crime. Known locally as POGOs, Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators have spawned across the country, both licensed and illicit, employing tens of thousands of Chinese and foreign nationals. ...

Protesters in Kenya have vowed “a total shutdown” as they seize control of Nairobi’s main international airport on Tuesday as deadly anti-government demonstrations intensify, now entering their sixth week. At least 50 people have been killed during the protests and more than 400 injured, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Widely shared social media posters encourage protesters to close ...