Senate passes bipartisan housing bill

In a rare bipartisan effort for a deeply divided Congress, the Senate has passed a broad bill to make U.S. housing more accessible and affordable.

The bill passed on Thursday would reduce regulations, regulate corporate investors and expand how housing dollars can be used to build affordable homes and rentals.

Lawyers make cases to jury in social media trial

After about a month of hearing from addiction experts, therapists, platform engineers and executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, a jury is listening to closing arguments before heading to the deliberation room to decide whether social media companies should be liable for harms caused to children using their platforms.

Closing statements in the trial began Thursday at the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles.

Oil jumps to $100 per barrel, stocks sink

Worries about the war with Iran sent oil prices back to $100 per barrel and stocks sinking worldwide.

The S&P 500 fell 1.5% Thursday and returned to big swings following a couple days of relative calm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.6%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.8%. The price of a barrel of Brent crude got as high as $101.59.

Iran-linked hackers take aim at US, other targets

Pro-Iranian hackers are targeting sites in the Middle East and starting to stretch into the United States during the war.

Hackers supporting Iran claimed responsibility for a significant cyberattack against a U.S. medical device company. They’ve also tried to penetrate cameras in Middle Eastern countries to improve Iran’s missile targeting and targeted data centers.

US long-term mortgage rate rises to 6.11%

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate rose again this week, reflecting ongoing bond market jitters over the war with Iran.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate ticked up to 6.11% from 6% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the rate averaged 6.65%.

Applications for jobless benefits inch down

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits inched down modestly last week as layoffs remain at historically healthy levels despite a weakening job market.

The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending March 7 fell by 1,000 to 213,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Google overhauls Maps app, adding in more AI

Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled Thursday.

The overhaul driven by Google’s Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide.

Amid soaring oil prices, Trump turns to reserves

Oil prices have soared since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran, and President Donald Trump is now turning to America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a wider agreement from many of the world’s wealthiest countries to tap into emergency stockpiles.

Trump previously downplayed the need of using reserve oil after the Iran war broke out. But that changed Wednesday, when the International Energy Agency

pledged to release 400 million barrels of oil available from stockpiles, the largest volume of emergency oil pulled in the group’s history.