(Bloomberg) -- Barely six weeks out from the midterm elections, housing costs that many Americans have long said are too high are looking even more out of reach.
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#buyers

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge suggested a court-appointed "neutral" overseer could allay concerns that the Justice Department might use a long-standing US fund to revive plans to compensate supporters of President Donald Trump as victims of government "weaponization."
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#revive #justice #department #Trump

(Bloomberg) -- The first junk-bond offering for a data center tied to Meta Platforms Inc. attracted demand more than four times the deal's size, with juicy yields helping to lure investors.
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#bloomberg #meta #month

CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia accused Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels overnight of trying to attack Islam's holiest city, prompting condemnation from countries in the region but no sign of military support. The kingdom, a key U.S. ally, declared Mecca a "red line" as it slid deeper into the new front of the Iran war.
With the world's biggest oil exporter under fire from the rebels backed by the Saudis' regional adversary, Tehran, the kingdom needs a safe outlet for its crude as well as military ******* istance. A path to either one remains unclear.
A crucial Saudi pipeline has reportedly been shut down for weeks after an attack by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The Yemen-based Houthis have been targeting infrastructure in the kingdom as well as its shipping on the Red Sea, where they have seized several islands on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. And Iran is still targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices remain above $100 a barrel.
The Houthis denied firing drones toward Mecca, about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) from Yemen's border. The Saudis said they intercepted and destroyed the drone before it entered the airspace over the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.
The attacks are the first test of a new defense pact among Saudi Arabia, NATO member Turkey and nuclear power Pakistan. But officials from Turkey and Pakistan told The ******* ociated Press they have not received a Saudi request for support in response to the Houthis' escalation.

#arabia #saudis #turkey

LIV Golf officially filed for bankruptcy this week, hoping to rebuild a self-sustaining world golf tour from the ashes of Saudi Arabia's most infamous sportswashing attempt.
Ever since the Saudis pulled their billions of dollars in funding, the tour has faced an existential crisis. As its 2026 season concluded, it canceled its team championship event and ended the campaign early. LIV then laid off most of its workforce before ultimately filing for bankruptcy.
While LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil has hyped a potential new investor that could save the tour, the reality paints a far different picture.
According to the bankruptcy filing, LIV has until Oct. 13 to meet several criteria for BC Partners to make their investment official. At least half the players with outstanding claims against LIV, including top stars like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, must sign on to the new agreement in order to make it valid.
Incredibly, LIV doesn't just owe money to players it forked over millions of dollars to in order to join its rebel tour. It also owes money to other people and entities, including YouTube content creator Rick Shiels. LIV still owes him $1.4 million as an ambassador, in one of the clearest signs of the wasteful spending that doomed the league.

#golf #including

The severe disruption of oil and gas flows out of the Persian Gulf resulting from the war between the U.S. and Israel and Iran, has saddled energy-importing nations with soaring bills, supply uncertainty, and a murky outlook. However, there has been a silver lining: a rush to build alternative conduits for bringing oil and gas out of the Middle East.
The global total energy import bill swelled by $330 billion over the six months between March and August, Finnish climate outlet Centre for Energy Research and Clean Air reported earlier this month. This would not have been the case had the Strait of Hormuz remained open, the outlet noted in its report, highlighting the world's reliance on an energy export corridor vulnerable to adverse geopolitical events and their fallout.
Because of the closure of Hormuz, Persian Gulf oil producers had to idle wells and find ways to slip their stored oil out of the Gulf on tankers with their transponders switched off. Yet they also started working on alternative routes that bypassed the Strait of Hormuz altogether.
Saudi Arabia demonstrated foresight with its East-West pipeline that it used to reroute its export flows from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea in the first weeks of the war, ramping up to some 7 million barrels of crude daily along the pipe that had previously handled much lower volumes. The only major constraint in that rerouting was the capacity of the loading facilities at Yanbu Port.
Later, of course, Saudi Arabia had to discover that the Red Sea is not safe because of the presence of the Yemeni Houthis in the Bab el-Mandeb strait and their affiliation with Iran. So, the Saudis had to reroute again, this time to the Suez Canal, which has an even more constrained tanker passage capacity. In other words, alternative routes are not perfect, but it is a good thing to have them.

#persian #hormuz

As Ollie Watkins continues to be linked to Saudi Pro League side, Al-Hilal, many Aston Villa fans will wonder why this could turn their centre forward's head.
Saudi football expert Mohamed Qutob told Radio WM that the Saudi side are in the market to replace five-time Champions League winner, Karim Benzema.
"They're a little disappointed with their main man. They want a replacement and Ollie Watkins is top of the list," said Qutob.
"What we also know is the Saudis have plenty of money. If they really, really need Ollie, they might be able to match the valuation after all."
One English forward who was tempted to join the Saudi Pro League was Ivan Toney, who has gone on to win back-to-back Asian Champions League ****** les with Al-Ahli, whilst also still being called up to Thomas Tuchel's England squad.

#qutob #hilal

In his memoir of life in the tech industry, "Chaos Monkeys," Antonio Garcia Martinez wrote that it's not the rats who first abandon a sinking ship but rather the crew members who know how to swim.
By that measure, Brooks Koepka made like Michael Phelps, presciently jumping overboard early from LIV Golf and stroking his way to safe harbor. Now that the Good Ship Yasir seems doomed for the sea floor — the bullshit that long acted as ballast having shifted to expose the dead weight of washed-up hangers-on — those who remained are left eyeing leaky life rafts.
Just two members of LIV's roster matter, no matter how much its CEO, Scott O'Neil, blathered about the importance of Dean Burmester on the South African stop. They are Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. The former because every carnival needs a barker, the latter because leagues need credible competitors. While DeChambeau remains welded to LIV, Rahm's tone has been lukewarm and several sources in his orbit are convinced he'll exit soon. He has alternatives, but they're not painless and require accepting conditions that the prideful Spaniard might balk at.
Rahm's obvious first choice for life after LIV would be returning to compete on the PGA Tour. He lives in the U.S., and it's the most lucrative, competitively demanding and commercially relevant circuit. But no one around the Tour thinks Rahm will be offered the terms Koepka accepted, and many believe he'd be asked to pay stiffer financial penalties, accept restricted playing privileges and perhaps even apologize (for what, and to whom, is unclear). How would that sit with a man who went to war with the DP World Tour in Europe over comparatively modest fines?
Koepka chose to leave LIV with time remaining on his contract. Rahm would be leaving by necessity, knowing he won't see all of the cash promised and that the league, if it survives, would do so only because someone wanted to leverage its losses to dodge taxes elsewhere in their investment portfolio. His former peers haven't forgotten that he went to LIV months after the Framework Agreement was announced, willingly becoming leverage for the Saudis, and that he later said (with amusing self-regard) that he felt his leaving would be the catalyst to uniting the game. Rahm thought he could take the bag and return as a hero. No one did more to ensure there'd be no deal between the Tour and the Saudis (with the possible exception of Patrick Cantlay in the boardroom). He chose his side and the guys he left behind were determined to make him live with the decision. Plenty remain so, and are disinclined to roll out the welcome mat too quickly.

#first

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Madden NFL, the video game that allows you to escape reality by doing things like coaching the Jets to a Super Bowl, now belongs to Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and, in a small but well-compensated way, the President of the United States' son-in-law.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia closed its $55 billion purchase of Electronic Arts on Tuesday alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. Shareholders collected $210 a share in cash. EA's stock stopped trading and comes off the Nasdaq, ending a 36-year public run.
It's the largest leveraged buyout in history, a phrase worth sitting with, because the previous record holder was the 2007 buyout of Texas utility TXU, which ended in one of the biggest bankruptcies in American history.
The financing is where this gets video game-level fun. PIF (which already owned roughly 9.9% of EA) borrowed $20 billion from JPMorgan, which also advised the consortium, so JPMorgan earned a fee for recommending the deal and now earns interest funding it. Kushner, who reportedly brokered the introduction between the Saudis and EA, runs a fund that PIF seeded with $2 billion in 2021 over the objections of PIF's own advisers. The money left Riyadh, hired a Kushner, and came home with EA Sports FC and Jedi Survivor.

#billion #public #Stock

Were it not for Brian Rolapp's disinclination to even mention LIV Golf, you'd be forgiven for thinking the PGA Tour's CEO had spent the past week trolling his opposite number with a carpet bombing campaign of upbeat commercial announcements.
On Monday, the Tour said that Sompo, an insurance company, will sponsor an event next season and an elite Championship Series tournament starting in 2028. On Tuesday, it was confirmed that Travelers will level up to the same tier. Wednesday brought news that Sentry will underwrite another of the silk-stocking stops. On Thursday, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard was added to the public list of tournaments comprising the Tour's premier schedule. (Friday was seemingly a day of rest for sales and marketing folks at the GloHo.) Each announced tournament has a $20 million purse, though total fees incurred by sponsors run closer to $30 million.
By comparison, LIV Golf's CEO, Scott O'Neil was silent since he had no good news to share and presumably little enthusiasm for addressing damaging speculation swirling around his business. One claim — amplified by his own players — is that the team finale scheduled for August 27 to 30 in Michigan will be canceled. Then came a cautionary rumor that it might happen after all, despite no build-out having commenced at the venue. A report followed that LIV is on the cusp of signing investors to keep it afloat into 2027, an infusion pegged at $250-$300 million, or about a quarter of what the Saudis have been torching annually for the past few years. Lastly, there was renewed anticipation of a bankruptcy filing as a step toward realigning the league's financial obligations.
No wonder the PGA Tour was so eager to position itself as surging in the right direction just as its antagonist is battling the narrative that it's in a death spiral. Whether both circuits remain on their respective trajectories is another matter.
Rolapp clearly has traction with sponsors to finance the Championship Series of a restructured PGA Tour, though it's possible some incumbents were offered a friends-and-family discount rather than asked for the full $30 million.

#past #tournament #though #brian

Saudi ‌Arabia will organise the next three ⁠editions ⁠of the Asian Champions League Elite finals after the Asian Football Confederation's ⁠executive committee confirmed the country's provisional hosting rights had been made permanent.
The Saudis have hosted the first two editions of the event, which sees the quarterfinals, semifinals and final played in ‌a centralised venue, since the continent's premier club competition was restructured before the 2024/2025 season.
Jeddah-based outfit Al-Ahli have won the **** le on the two occasions the city has hosted the ⁠finals, defeating **** an's Kawasaki ⁠Frontale in 2025 before beating Machida Zelvia, also from **** an, in May.
The upcoming edition of the tournament, which ⁠features the domestic champions of the leading competitions from ⁠the region, will ⁠see the league phase expanded from 24 to 32 teams.
The qualifying rounds will start on August 11, ‌with the draw for the league phase to be held in Kuala Lumpur ‌on ‌August 18 and play commencing on September 14.

#league #arabia

By Nayera Abdallah and Timour Azhari
DUBAI, July 20 (Reuters) - Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi ‌Arabia, drawing a warning from the Saudi-led coalition that it would respond "firmly", ‌in a move that threatens to disrupt global energy supplies beyond the Gulf.
The Houthis' armed forces in a statement said they were declaring "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of 'an eye for an eye', effective immediately".
They said the decision was in response to what they called "an unjust and oppressive siege" imposed on Yemen by the Saudis. ‌A full closure of the ⁠Bab el-Mandeb strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, would halt Saudi oil exports to Asia and could reduce global ⁠oil supply by 7%.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen vowed to respond to the threat to its commercial ships with firmness.

According to the Swiss branch of Sky Sport, Al Hilal has contacted Harry Kane's representatives to explore a possible transfer.
Kane reportedly wants to consider the sporting and financial offer from the Saudis before deciding on his future.
Bizarrely, it is also reported that the 32-year-old marksman is available for a fixed fee of €65million thanks to a release clause.
However, this exit option reportedly had to be exercised by the end of January and has therefore long since expired.
Regardless, it remains doubtful that Kane will turn his back on European football while at the peak of his career with Bayern Munich.

When the UAE said it was leaving OPEC so it could boost production as much as it wanted, it sparked speculation, yet again, that OPEC was falling apart. The peace deal between the United States and Iran was a done deal in the eyes of oil traders, and the race for market share was on. Then the missiles started flying again, the U.S. president said the ceasefire is dead, and long-term oil disruption in the OPEC heartland came to the fore.
Reuters' Ron Bousso earlier this week suggested OPEC was on course to turn "from market manager to paper tiger" as the UAE left, Iraq hinted it might leave, too, if it couldn't be allowed to ramp up production, and other Gulf members may be unhappy with leader Saudi Arabia because they also want to pump more while the Saudis prioritize restraint.
The suggestion that OPEC may end up as a loser from the Iran war and the massive global oil disruption it caused hinges on two ***** umptions, however. One is that demand for oil will be recovering much more slowly than supply, as laid out in a series of reports warning of a glut as stranded tankers began to leave the Strait in Hormuz after the U.S. and Iran struck their preliminary ceasefire deal in mid-June.
That ***** umption is an interesting one based on history and the fact that when oil prices fall, demand recovers quite quickly, given the centrality of the commodity for the global economy—even those parts of it that have been hard at work to reduce their reliance on oil. In fact, history suggests it is the opposite: demand is slow to decline when prices surge, as evidenced by the series of emergency measures that governments around the world rushed to implement to secure oil supply for their economies, including stock draws and rationing.
But there is another ***** umption here, and it is a far more damaging one, potentially. This is the ***** umption that the ceasefire deal would hold, which we have just seen is not the case. As the U.S. started bombing Iran again, following Iran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz that had refused to follow orders of the country's armed forces that control the waterway, that ceasefire deal was dead. Now, even Reuters' Bousso is talking about long-term disruption in global oil supply.

Following Portugal’s untimely elimination from the FIFA World Cup, FC Barcelona are speeding up their pursuit of João Cancelo. The fullback played on loan from Al Hilal last season, and the Catalans are keen on making the deal permanent following impressive performances.
According to RAC1, Barcelona have reached a verbal agreement with Al-Hilal that will see them pay no more than 10 million euros including bonuses for the defender. He had trouble settling in in Saudi Arabia, but he surprised Hansi Flick by putting in impressive performances when he returned to the top five leagues.
The player himself reportedly felt let down by the Saudis, who left him out at a time he needed match rhythm to arrive at the World Cup. He made it clear to them that he was unwilling to return, which left Barcelona in a good negotiating position.
Cancelo will likely sacrifice quite a bit in salary to make the transfer work, but he’s willing to do it to continue playing at the highest level and be at a club he feels comfortable in. He will sign a two-year deal with the option for one more year at Camp Nou.
His transfer means likely exits for Héctor Fort and Xavi Espart, with both a transfer or a loan possible for either. Barça had looked at other options for a left-back in the transfer market, but ultimately their first choice was Cancelo.

A group of companies claiming that they first came up with the idea of a world golf league has filed a lawsuit against LIV Golf, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and others seeking up to $630 million in damages, according to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers representing the World Golf Group and Premier Golf League. They accused LIV Golf, the PIF, Golf Saudi and others of breach of confidence and unlawful means conspiracy. More specifically, two former World Golf Group founders, Richard Marsh and Jed Moore, are accused of breaching fiduciary duty for helping the Saudis launch LIV Golf in the first place.
"The Claimants conceived the idea for a new golf league called the Premier Golf League," the complaint says. "Over the course of several years, the Claimants refined the format of this league and produced business plans, contracts, financial models and other intellectual property belonging to the Claimants, which provided the blueprint for its launch and success.
"The Defendants conspired together to use the Claimants' confidential information without the permission of the Claimants to launch the LIV Golf League."
The lawsuit was filed in Commercial Court in London on April 16. They are seeking between $210 and $630 million in damages.

Lamine Yamal made a goalscoring return for Spain as the European champions got their World Cup campaign back on track with a 4-0 drubbing of Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Yamal, 18, opened the scoring after just 10 minutes of the Group H game in Atlanta to put La Roja on course for a comfortable victory against an outclassed Saudi team.
Spain had been determined to bounce back after being held to a shock 0-0 draw by lowly Cape Verde in their opening game last week, when their much-vaunted attack drew a blank.
But with teenaged starlet Yamal making his first start in two months since recovering from a hamstring problem, Spain launched an early onslaught that left the Saudis reeling.
Yamal ghosted in at the back post to tuck away Mikel Oyarzabal's low cross before Oyarzabal scored twice in three minutes to leave Spain 3-0 up after just 24 minutes.

Spain are almost guaranteed a place in the World Cup Round of 32 after thrashing Saudi Arabia 4-0 in Atlanta
After an underwhelming opening Group H draw with Cape Verde, La Roja needed a statement win to restore confidence - and they got it.
Rodri, wearing the captain’s armband, gave a commanding display as Spain put the Saudis under pressure from the word go.
And it took just 10 minutes to make that pressure pay, as Mikel Oyarzabal ‘s cross was turned in by Lamine Yamal at the far post.
The Spanish then effectively ended the contest with two goals in three minutes on 21 and 24 minutes, with Mikel Oyarzabal the scorer on each occasion and former City favourite Aymeric Laporte providing an ******* ist for one of the goals.

Spain star Lamine Yamal said Friday it is "too soon" for him to play a full 90 minutes as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury, ahead of the European champions' World Cup game against Saudi Arabia.
Luis de la Fuente's men were held to a surprise goalless draw by debutants Cape Verde in their Group H opener and will be hoping to get up and running on Sunday when they face the Saudis.
On Monday, Barcelona winger Yamal made his first appearance since suffering the injury in mid-April, coming on as a 71st-minute substitute against Cape Verde .
"It's very early, it's unnecessary," the 18-year-old told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE about his readiness to play an entire game.
"It's not the time to play a whole match, but I can play whatever minutes the coach wants."

Uruguay and Saudi Arabia faced off on Monday evening in Miami knowing that at win by either would place them at the top of Group H following Spain’s surprising scoreless draw against Cabo Verde earlier in the day. The Saudis looked most threatening in the first half, largely through set pieces. Georgios Donis’ team eventually opened the scoring in the 41st minute after 40-year-old Uruguayan goalkeeper Fernando Muslera was unable to hold onto Mohamed Kanno’s header following a corner which Saudi midfielder Abdullah Al-Khaibari expertly slotted home.
Uruguay started the 2nd half in much more promising fashion with forward Fernando Viñas attempting two headers from close range within the first 5 minutes. Uruguay kept the pressure on the Saudis with Manchester United midfielder Manuel Ugarte unfortunate not to score in the 60th minute following a sensational strike from approximately 20 meters that hit the post. The Uruguayans eventually tied the match in the 80th minute following a goal eerily similar to Saudi Arabia’s goal. Viñas third header in the 2nd half, this one from inside the goalkeeper’s box, proved too difficult for Saudi keeper Mohammed Al Owais to handle, the ensuing rebound pushed to the back of the net by Uruguay’s Maxi Araújo.
Fede Valverde was largely inconspicuous in the 1st half, the Real Madrid star playing principally in a right midfield role. However, the Uruguayan captain was omnipresent in the 2nd half playing in a more central midfield role as Uruguay attempted 23 of their 28 shots in the match after halftime. That included 3 shots from Valverde, forcing a save from keeper Al-Owais in the 67th minute from a free kick and the save of the match from the Saudi keeper in the 93rd minute following a splendid shot from outside the box.
Saudi Arabia next faces Spain on Sunday in Atlanta while Uruguay stays in Miami to face Cabo Verde later that same day.