By Samantha Delouya, CNN

(CNN) — The war in the Middle East — and the economic uncertainty it has fueled — is clouding what is usually the hottest season for home sales, leaving some sellers facing a dwindling pool of buyers.

The conflict with Iran has driven up borrowing costs and rattled markets, adding to economic uncertainty. The shift is already visible: Existing home sales fell to a nine-month low last month, according to the National Association of Realtors.

“Lower consumer confidence and softer job growth continue to hold back buyers,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a statement.

Markets are closely following the conflict in the Middle East and, after the United States and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire last week, Wall Street reversed most of its losses since the start of the war. Treasury yields, the main benchmark for mortgage rates, have also eased. That shift could offer some relief to buyers, potentially giving the spring housing market a late boost.

Eric Haugen doesn’t want to take any chances right now, though. He was planning to list his Parker, Colorado, home this spring so that he and his wife could relocate to Texas. But he’s been watching the housing market in his area and has decided to wait it out for now.

“I don’t think people feel safe or ready to make a big purchase,” Haugen told CNN. “We just want to have a little bit more competition in the market to hopefully drive up more bids.”

Just seven weeks ago, before the United States and Israel began joint attacks on Iran, the average 30-year mortgage rate fell to 5.98%, dipping below 6% for the first time in three years and offering a hopeful signal for the spring housing market.

This week, the rate was 6.30%, according to Freddie Mac. It has eased slightly from a recent peak of 6.46% earlier this month as markets have steadied.

“Compared to one year ago when rates were at 6.83%, this is a meaningful improvement for homebuyers during what is typically the busy spring homebuying season,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

‘If we walk away with zero, we’re fine’

When Brent Wachter, an Air Force servicemember, bought a home in Albuquerque in 2023, he expected to stay for years. His previous posting, in Wichita, Kansas, had lasted more than a decade.

But a new overseas assignment upended those plans. He listed his home in November for $689,000, just above the $679,000 he paid — and found few takers.

Wachter said he would have been content to break even on the sale since the main goal had been to make space for his mother to live comfortably.

“It’s not like we’re trying to make money here. If we can walk away with zero, we’re fine,” he added.

With his May move approaching, he grew increasingly anxious. A handful of offers came in below asking; one buyer backed out.

This week, he accepted $620,000 – less than he hoped, and well below his list price.

The slowdown hasn’t been uniform. While higher mortgage rates have sidelined some buyers, they have also kept many homeowners from listing at all, reluctant to give up the ultra-low mortgage rates they locked in during the early years of the pandemic.

In some markets, that scarcity of listings has helped sustain competition. Nationally, home prices are still climbing, though growth is slowing. The median home price rose to a record high for March at $408,800, according to NAR.

When her mother passed away last summer, Jennifer Moriarty and her brother decided to fix up their parents’ home they lived in for more than 50 years in Springfield, Mass

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Por Issy Ronald, CNN

El príncipe Harry y su esposa Meghan, duquesa de Sussex, revelaron este jueves más detalles sobre la infelicidad que experimentaron como miembros activos de la realeza. Harry afirmó que no deseaba “este trabajo” tras la muerte de su madre, mientras que Meghan aseguró haber sido “la persona más troleada de todo el mundo”.

Los comentarios de la pareja se produjeron durante un viaje de cuatro días, de carácter semioficial, a Australia, donde asisten a una combinación de compromisos públicos y eventos comerciales.

Al intervenir este jueves en la Cumbre InterEdge en Melbourne, Harry rememoró el dolor que sintió tras la muerte de su madre, la princesa Diana, en un accidente automovilístico cuando él tenía apenas 12 años.

“Después de que muriera mi madre —justo antes de mi decimotercer cumpleaños— pensé: ‘No quiero este trabajo. No quiero este papel; vaya a donde vaya esto, no me gusta’”, declaró, según informa PA Media.

“Acabó con la vida de mi madre y yo estaba totalmente en contra de ello; durante años y años opté por esconder la cabeza bajo la arena. Finalmente me di cuenta de algo: ‘Espera un momento; si otra persona ocupara esta posición, ¿cómo aprovecharía al máximo esta plataforma, esta capacidad y los recursos que conlleva para marcar la diferencia en el mundo?’”.

Harry ha hablado extensamente sobre el impacto devastador de la muerte de su madre, citándola como la razón detrás de la actitud protectora que mantiene hacia su esposa y su joven familia.

Él y Meghan renunciaron a sus funciones como miembros activos de la realeza hace seis años; posteriormente, alegaron en entrevistas, en un documental de Netflix y en unas memorias, que se vieron forzados a tomar esa decisión debido a un cóctel tóxico compuesto por la intrusión de la prensa sensacionalista, un racismo arraigado en las instituciones británicas, el troleo y complejas dinámicas familiares, sumado a su deseo de lograr la independencia financiera.

Este jueves, Meghan reiteró el efecto que tuvo dicho troleo sobre ella, afirmando: “Durante 10 años, todos los días he sido objeto de acoso y ataques. Y fui la persona más troleada de todo el mundo, sin distinción de género”. “Ahora, sigo aquí”, añadió, dirigiéndose a los jóvenes vinculados a la organización australiana de salud mental Batyr y hablando sobre la pionera prohibición de las redes sociales para menores de 16 años en Australia.

“Cuando pienso en todos ustedes y en lo que están viviendo, creo que gran parte de ello consiste en tener que asumir que esa industria —esa industria multimillonaria que está completamente anclada y fundamentada en la crueldad para conseguir clics— no va a cambiar”.

La gira de Harry y Meghan por Australia —donde están poniendo el foco en el deporte, la salud mental y los veteranos— ha suscitado una recepción dispar. Sin embargo, a pesar de que la cobertura mediática presenta este viaje como una maniobra para lucrar, no está claro en qué medida la pareja se beneficiará económicamente.

Su gira se financia con fondos privados; Harry no recibió remuneración alguna por intervenir este jueves en la cumbre InterEdge, y diversas fuentes aseguran que son falsos los rumores de que Meghan cobró una suma astronómica por aparecer en “MasterChef Australia”.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Con información de Hilary Whiteman, de CNN.

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Por Gonzalo Jiménez, CNN en Español

Hawai, Sicilia y Koh Samui en Tailandia. Cada temporada de la serie “The White Lotus” transcurre en un destino paradisíaco. Y ahora la acción se desplazó a la Costa Azul francesa, específicamente al Festival de Cannes, donde el miércoles comenzó el rodaje de la cuarta temporada, según dio a conocer HBO en Instagram.

“The White Lotus” cambia cada temporada de elenco y de ubicación. Lo único que se mantiene constante en la serie creada por Mike White es que la historia sucede en un hotel de una exclusiva cadena llamada The White Lotus… en el que ocurre un crimen.

La novedad que introduce la cuarta temporada es que la trama tiene lugar en dos hoteles: el Airelles Château de la Messardière, en la exclusiva Saint-Tropez, y el histórico Hotel Martinez, en la Croisette, epicentro del Festival de Cine de Cannes, cuya edición de este año comienza el 12 de mayo. Así que “The White Lotus” contará con escenas grabadas en Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Mónaco y París.

Además, en línea con anteriores temporada de la serie, la cuarta temporada se destaca por contar con un elenco numeroso y repleto de estrellas: Helena Bonham Carter, Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan, Caleb Jonte Edwards, Dylan Ennis, Corentin Fila, Ari Graynor, Marissa Long, Alexander Ludwig, Chris Messina, A. J. Michalka, Kumail Nanjiani, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Chloe Bennet, Sandra Bernhard, Heather Graham, Max Greenfield, Frida Gustavsson, Charlie Hall, Jarrad Paul, Rosie Perez, Ben Schnetzery Laura Smet.

A continuación, el video del detrás de cámara del comienzo del rodaje.

La cuarta temporada de “The White Lotus” no tiene por ahora fecha oficial de estreno, pero se estima que se emitirá en el primer semestre de 2027 en HBO. (HBO, al igual que CNN en Español, forma parte de Warner Bros. Discovery).

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™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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By Laura Paddison, CNN

(CNN) — The critical system of ocean currents which loops around the Atlantic Ocean is weakening and could be far closer to collapse than previously thought, according to two new studies — an event which would have catastrophic impacts on the planet’s weather and climate.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, known as the AMOC, functions like a vast conveyor belt, transporting heat, salt and freshwater through the ocean and influencing climate, weather and sea levels around the planet.

A growing body of research suggests it’s weakening as human-driven global warming disrupts its delicate balance of heat and salinity, with one study even predicting it could collapse as soon as next decade. But the AMOC is complex and has only been continuously monitored since 2004. Climate models generally agree it’s on course to weaken this century, but there is a huge amount of uncertainty about the extent of its decline.

The stakes are incredibly high; an AMOC collapse, which last happened roughly 12,000 years ago, would cause chaos. It would push Europe into a winter deep freeze, accelerate sea level rise along the East Coast of the US and drive prolonged droughts across a swath of Africa.

The two new studies — one which focuses on the AMOC’s future, the other on its present — provide new and alarming evidence of its decline.

The findings are “important and concerning,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, an oceanographer at Potsdam University who has studied the AMOC for decades and was not involved in either report.

In the most recent study, published Thursday in the journal Science Advances, scientists combined climate models with real world data, including ocean temperature and salinity, to map out the AMOC’s future over the next several decades.

They found most climate models underestimate its decline. The AMOC is on course to slow by more than 50% by the end of the century, a “substantial weakening” that’s 60% stronger than that estimated by the average of all climate models, according to the study.

The findings show “pessimistic” climate models, those which show a strong weakening of the AMOC, “are unfortunately the realistic ones,” Rahmstorf said. It heightens fears that it could pass a tipping point as early as the middle of this century, he added, the point at which shutdown “basically cannot be stopped anymore.”

Alarmingly, the AMOC’s weakening could even be more pronounced than the study found because meltwater from Greenland is not included in the climate models, Rahmstorf said.

Thursday’s study follows research published last week by scientists from the University of Miami, who looked at what is currently happening to the AMOC.

They analyzed real world data from four moorings along the western boundary of the North Atlantic Ocean, which have measured water temperature, salinity and the velocity of ocean currents since 2004. They found the AMOC has been weakening at four different latitudes over the past two decades.

The fact that weakening was observed at all four locations is significant, said Shane Elipot, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami and a report author. Although the results only focus on the western boundary of the Atla