The average rate on a 30-year mortgage moved back above 7% this week, a setback for home shoppers at a time when the U.S. housing market is already slowing under the strain of elevated home loan borrowing costs and rising prices. The rate rose to 7.03% from 6.94% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.79%. This is the first increase after a three-week pullback. Higher mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing options. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose this week, pushing up the average rate to 6.36% from 6.24% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.18%, Freddie Mac said.

The IDF spokesperson said on Monday morning that Israel’s Arrow missile defense system intercepted a surface-to-surface air missile on the way to Israel from the Red Sea. The missile, which was launched by the Houthis in Yemen, was headed toward Eilat, triggering sirens in the city. The Houthis have fired several missiles and drones at Eilat since October 7th. All of them were shot down by Israel’s air defense sytems except for one long-range cruise missile that landed in an open area north of Eilat in March. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Claudia Sheinbaum was elected by a landslide on Sunday as the first Jewish and first female president in Mexico’s 200-year history. The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor said Sunday night that her two competitors had called her and conceded her victory after she won around 58-60% of votes, according to a preliminary count. Sheinbaum, formerly the mayor of Mexico City and a scientist by training, was born to a Jewish family in Mexico City. Her paternal Ashkenazi grandparents emigrated from Lithuania to Mexico City in the 1920s, while her maternal Sephardic grandparents emigrated there from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in the early 1940s to escape the Holocaust. She celebrated all the Jewish holidays at her grandparents’ homes.

Scaling back treatment for three kinds of cancer can make life easier for patients without compromising outcomes, doctors reported at the world’s largest cancer conference. It’s part of a long-term trend toward studying whether doing less — less surgery, less chemotherapy or less radiation — can help patients live longer and feel better. The latest studies involved ovarian and esophageal cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma. Thirty years ago, cancer research was about doing more, not less. In one sobering example, women with advanced breast cancer were pushed to the brink of death with massive doses of chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants. The approach didn’t work any better than chemotherapy and patients suffered.

Iran’s hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation’s president. The populist former leader’s registration puts pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities. The firebrand, Holocaust-denying politician’s return comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, its arming of Russia in its war on Ukraine and its wide-reaching crackdowns on dissent.

The White House is finalizing plans for a U.S.-Mexico border clampdown that would shut off asylum requests and automatically deny entrance to migrants once the number of people encountered by American border officials exceeded a new daily threshold, with President Joe Biden expected to sign an executive order as early as Tuesday, according to four people familiar with the matter. The president has been weighing additional executive action since the collapse of a bipartisan border bill earlier this year. The number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border has declined for months, partly because of a stepped-up effort by Mexico. Still, immigration remains a top concern heading into the U.S. presidential election in November and Republicans are eager to hammer Biden on the issue.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant conducted an operational meeting on Sunday at the Southern Command headquarters, accompanied by Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Bachar, and other command staff officers.
During the meeting, Gallant was updated on the military’s efforts to dismantle Hamas battalions throughout the Gaza Strip, with a particular focus on Rafah.

Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province. The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people. Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers. Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts.