U.S. long-term mortgage rates rose moderately this week, remaining at historically low levels that can lure potential purchasers in the spring homebuying season.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage increased to 4.12% from 4.08% last week.

To date, three countries have landed on the moon. Today, that number may become four.
Israel launched its first lunar mission, a spacecraft called Beresheet, on Feb. 21, riding piggyback on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
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China said Thursday that trade talks with the U.S. are “moving forward” after nine rounds of consultations aimed at ending a standoff that has shaken the world economic outlook.
The latest discussions had achieved “new substantial progress,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily news briefing.
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The Treasury Department has missed a deadline to deliver President Donald Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee chairman. It’s another early step in a battle between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats over access to Trump’s business and financial dealings, with the dispute likely to end up in court.

The number of people applying for unemployment aid fell last week to its lowest level in nearly five decades, solid evidence that the job market is healthy and layoffs scarce.
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Former Obama administration White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be charged in a foreign lobbying investigation spun off from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, his lawyers said.
“Mr.
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Facebook said Wednesday it is rolling out a wide range of updates aimed at combatting the spread of false and harmful information on the social media site — stepping up the company’s fight against misinformation and hate speech as it faces growing outside pressure.

Attorney Avraham Yustman send a letter on Thursday afternoon to the Justice Chanan Meltzer, Chairman of the Central Election Committee (CEC), requesting a delay in publishing the official results of the Knesset election.
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The Satmar Rebbe, Hagaon HaRav Yoel Teitelbaum’s letter explaining his psak against participation in Israeli elections, is going to be auctioned off after Pesach.
The auction, which is being organized by the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem, was revealed to the public on Tuesday, election day in Israel.

New York City’s effort to halt a measles outbreak by ordering mandatory vaccinations in one Brooklyn neighborhood is facing opposition, with lawyers for parents opposed to vaccinations promising to file a lawsuit challenging the order by Friday.
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