By Hanna Ziady , CNN Business Updated 0914 GMT (1714 HKT) May 13, 2021 It wasn't long ago that real estate experts were bracing for the worst. The coronavirus pandemic had sent large parts of the world into lockdown, shuttering businesses, costing tens of millions of workers their jobs and putting the housing market into a deep freeze . The number of people asking lenders for more time on their mortgage payments surged as the global recession hit. "This time last year we thought it was going to be 2008 all over again," said Kate Everett-Allen, the head of international residential research at real estate consultancy Knight Frank. The fear was that house prices would collapse, as they reliably had done in past economic downturns. An increase in bankruptcies and unemployment would squeeze disposable incomes and make it difficult for highly indebted homeowners to keep up with their mortgages. Those fortunate enough to own second homes would be forced to sell to … [Read more...]

(CNN) When astronauts venture outside of the International Space Station to go on spacewalks, the most important thing they have to do is focus. This may sound simple, but imagine trying to focus on a memorized set of tasks while stepping out of an airlock and wearing a 300-pound spacesuit -- with the glow of planet Earth and the sun and the dark void of the universe all around you. A tether connects you to the space station, and the absence of gravity keeps you from falling. "There's a lot of things that you really need to do, one of which is just keep your focus, even though it's amazing out there," said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. "It's really truly breathtaking. The only thing between you and the rest of the universe, seeing the whole cosmos of creation, is the glass faceplate of your visor on your helmet, and it's just awe-inspiring." Astronaut Mike Fincke conducted a spacewalk on August 3, 2004, while wearing the Russian Orlan spacesuit. You … [Read more...]

(CNN) The holidays may look a little different this year due to the pandemic, but they will still happen -- even in space. The International Space Station will host seven crew members throughout the holiday season, the most ever for the orbiting laboratory in its 20 years of having humans living aboard. The international crew includes NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi; and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Ryzhikov. The international crew will take the day off from working on the space station and sit down for a special meal together, as well as calling home to talk with friends, family and loved ones. It's a full house on the International Space Station with 7 people — and Baby Yoda "I'm very happy to be on the space station this year because I get to share American traditions with my international crew … [Read more...]

(CNN) Cutting the hair of another astronaut on the International Space Station is one of the most stressful things US Air Force Col. Terry Virts has ever done -- even above spacewalking, flying F-16s, piloting a space shuttle and enduring multiple rounds of survival training around the world. Virts, a NASA astronaut selected in 2000, had to do it twice for Italian European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti while on the space station between November 2014 and June 2015. He was afraid of messing it up. NASA-SpaceX launches will boost science research on the space station What is it like to cut hair in space? A lot like cutting it on Earth -- except it stands straight up, which made it easier for Virts to layer her hair. Meanwhile, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov stood by with a spray bottle and a vacuum, keeping her hair wet during the cut and vacuuming up pieces of hair so they wouldn't fly around the station. "Both times … [Read more...]

Sal Khan has interesting ideas about what constitutes riveting dinner conversation. At the moment, he’s partial to “mind-blowing” similarities between Greek, Latin, Germanic languages and ancient Sanskrit as well as the fact that Iran and Ireland are the only countries with names that mean “land of the Aryans.” “That’s still my favorite thing to share in conversations,” said the founder of Khan Academy, a free, online learning platform serving 15 million people a month. “The other thing is you can get hypothermia (and die) in 80-degree water.” Khan smiled. “I’m a nerd,” said Khan, who is a nominee for the 2018 Visionary of the Year award sponsored by The Chronicle. The winner of the award will receive a $25,000 grant that can be applied to the cause of his or her choice. In Silicon Valley, nerds like Khan — with companies whose users number in the many millions — are often billionaires. While Khan isn’t poor, he falls well short for any list featuring big-money moguls in … [Read more...]

A group of Senate Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday that intends to block funding for the 2026 World Cup unless the U.S. women’s national soccer team receives equal pay. The bill , dubbed the Give Our Athletes Level Salaries (GOALS) Act, calls for prohibiting “the use of funds for the 2026 World Cup unless the United States Soccer Federation provides equitable pay to the members of the United States Women’s National Team and the United States Men’s National Team.” The Washington Post reported in 2019 that a player on the women's team would learn about 89 percent of the compensation of a similarly situated men's team player. ADVERTISEMENT The push for equal pay for the national women's team was first sparked after the team secured its fourth World Cup victory in 2019. Following the win, team co-captain Megan Rapinoe said "it's time for action" to secure equal pay for her and her female teammates. President Biden Joe Biden Mellman: Trump voters … [Read more...]

There is no question among European leaders preparing for President Biden’s arrival in Brussels this week that reinstating the United States in the global conversation is a good thing—especially after a largely glowing G7 reception in the U.K. But Brussels is different, and in many ways the stakes are much higher for Biden, who just spent the weekend focused on China and will have to pivot to Russia, another country that evokes different opinions. This is especially true when it comes to energy politics: Russia is building a gas pipeline to supply Europe with Russian gas. At the end of the summit of the world’s wealthiest nations, Biden proudly touted his success in persuading the others to explicitly condemn China in the joint statement. But the EU leaders who signed on seemed to be backing away immediately. Biden said in his closing remarks: “Everyone at the table understood and understands both the seriousness and the challenges that we’re up against, and the responsibility of … [Read more...]

For those of us who follow golf, pleasure rarely comes as pure as it did a few weeks ago, when some golf-world insider leaked an unaired confrontation between the sport’s most notable warring hulks. Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are the P.G.A.’s No. 5 and No. 8 ranked players, respectively. Both are very beefy and very good — two figures on the leading edge of golf’s turn toward overwhelming power as the tactic of choice — and they have been openly feuding since 2019, when Koepka publicly complained about DeChambeau’s overly deliberate pace of play. Since then the rivals have badgered each other on Twitter to great comic effect, but an in-person confrontation, much longed for by fans, has proved elusive. Then the moment arrived. Koepka was being interviewed following his Friday round at the P.G.A. Championship at Kiawah Island, providing standard-issue responses to standard-issue questions about course conditions and putting surfaces. Suddenly DeChambeau’s massive figure … [Read more...]

PARIS — The 2021 French Open will be remembered for its endless surprises. Stars withdrew. Top players lost early. The trend continued Thursday as two long shots surged into the women’s championship match. Elite women’s tennis has been without clear and consistent winners for a while now, but a final between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic was a scenario no one would have predicted. Pavlyuchenkova, seeded 31st, defeated the unseeded Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia, 7-5, 6-3, in the semifinals. Krejcikova , also unseeded, upset the No. 17 seed, Maria Sakkari of Greece, 7-5, 4-6, 9-7, in a match with wild momentum swings and match points on both sides of the net, even one that involved an overturned line call. Pavlyuchenkova, 29, is a veteran, having turned professional in 2005. Krejcikova , 25, is more of a late bloomer, having arrived in 2014. But neither had reached a Grand Slam semifinal before, and it showed as they triumphed … [Read more...]

Actress Ellen Page appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Thursday to sound the alarm about global warming and “environmental racism,” claiming that the world was going to end in just about a decade. “I just want to say, too, people, particularly the most marginalized people and particularly people in the world that have nothing to do with this are the ones suffering the most currently, including in Canada, including the environmental racism that’s happening in Canada, including the province I’m from,” Ellen Page said. “What’s environmental racism?” Stephen Colbert asked. “It disproportionally affects people of color, whether it’s like, the disproportionate amount of landfills that are placed next to communities of people of color in Nova Scotia, or whether it’s about a pulp mill in [Nova Scotia] that’s been there forever and has destroyed the environment and the land of First Nations people, you know, it’s like, this is something that’s happening, and it’s happening … [Read more...]