US housing starts surge in boost to economy

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. single-family homebuilding surged in July and permits for future construction rose amid an acute shortage of previously owned houses, but mortgage rates climbing back to near two-decade highs could slow the housing market improvement. The sharp rebound in groundbreaking on single-family housing units reported by the Commerce Department…

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Ukraine retakes village but warns of trouble in northeast – Kyiv

By Max Hunder and Vitalii Hnidyi KYIV/KUPIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukraine announced the recapture of the village of Urozhaine from Russian troops in the southeast on Wednesday, but warned the situation on the northeastern front was deteriorating amid Russian counter-attacks. Urozhaine, on the edge of Donetsk region, is the first village Kyiv says it has retaken…

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Chinese duties on U.S. imports ‘inconsistent’ with WTO obligations

GENEVA (Reuters) -A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel on Wednesday found that China had acted inconsistently with its WTO obligations by imposing additional duties on certain U.S. imports in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium. The office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it was pleased with the WTO decision, adding…

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Russia could reintroduce compulsory sale of FX revenues ‘at any moment’ -source

By Elena Fabrichnaya, Gleb Stolyarov and Anastasia Lyrchikova MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian authorities are discussing bringing back the compulsory sale of foreign currency revenues for exporters, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, with one high-level source saying that the change could be made “at any moment”. The need to reintroduce stringent capital controls comes…

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