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By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press

Two of the nation’s biggest real estate services companies are combining in a deal that will bring Century 21, Compass and several other major brokerage brands under the same umbrella.

New York-based Compass has agreed to acquire rival Anywhere Real Estate in an all-stock transaction that will create a combined company with a total value of roughly $10 billion, including debt, the companies said Monday.

Shares in Anywhere Real Estate soared more than 48% in afternoon trading Monday. Compass shares slid about 16%.

Compass runs a platform for use by real estate agents in customer relationship management, marketing and other tasks. It also operates its namesake real estate brokerage and Christie’s International Real Estate.

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NASA named 10 new astronaut candidates for its 24th class of astronauts Monday, including one person who has already been to space.

Anna Menon, 39, a SpaceX engineer from Houston, was one of the four crew on Jared Isaacman’s Polaris Dawn mission that launched from Kennedy Space Center in 2024 and was one of the six women and four men announced to join the astronaut corps.

The others were Ben Bailey, 38, of Charlottesville, Virginia; Lauren Edgar, 40, of Sammamish, Washington; Adam Fuhrmann, 35, of Leesburg, Virginia; Cameron Jones, 35, of Savanna, Illinois; Yuri Kubo, 40, of Columbus, Indiana; Rebecca Lawler, 38, of Little Elm, Texas; Imelda Muller, 34, of Copake Falls, New York; Erin Overcash, 34, of Goshen, Kentucky; and Katherine Spies, 43, of San Diego.

“We picked the best and brightest, the most skilled, the best looking, the best personalities to take these 10 spots, and again, you represent your country,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy during the ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “You are America’s best and brightest and we’re going to need American’s best and brightest because we have a bold exploration plan for the future.” read more

By The Associated Press

Chipmaker Nvidia will invest $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership announced Monday that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centers to ramp up the computing power for the owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

Per the letter of intent signed by the companies, the first gigawatt of Nvidia systems will be deployed in the second half of 2026. Nvidia and OpenAI said they would be finalizing the details of the arrangement in the coming weeks.

“This partnership complements the deep work OpenAI and Nvidia are already doing with a broad network of collaborators, including Microsoft, Oracle, SoftBank and Stargate partners, focused on building the world’s most advanced AI infrastructure,” the companies said in a release.

The Nvidia-OpenAI partnership comes about 10 days after OpenAI said it had reached a new tentative agreement that will give Microsoft a $100 billion equity stake in its for-profit corporation. OpenAI is technically controlled by its nonprofit. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors said Monday that the central bank’s key interest rate should be much lower than its current 4.1% level, staking out a position far different than his colleagues.

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Stephen Miran, who is also a top economic adviser to Trump, said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York that sharp declines in immigration, rising tariff revenue, and an aging population all suggest that the Fed’s rate should be closer to 2.5% instead. According to projections released last week, that’s almost a full percentage point lower than any of his 18 colleagues on the Fed’s rate-setting committee, an unusually high divergence. read more

Legoland Florida theme park has revealed the name of its under-construction, space-themed indoor roller coaster. The ride, set to open in early 2026, will be called Galacticoaster.

“Galacticoaster marks the first indoor coaster built inside the main park since Legoland Florida opened in 2011. From the very beginning, we aimed to create an immersive experience for our guests from the moment they step inside,” Blake Boyter, senior project manager at Merlin Magic Making, said in a news release.

“From the engineering precision to the Lego DNA woven throughout, guests will experience more Lego storytelling, more excitement, and more out-of-this-world fun than ever before,” he said.

The Winter Haven park, owned by Merlin Entertainments Group, also said Galacticoaster will be the “most ambitious and technically advanced ride ever built at any Legoland Resort.”

Legoland also released some stats for the family-friendly coaster. It will have almost 1,500 feet of track, reaching a height of 50 feet.  (Sister attraction Dragon is similar length and stands at 42.7 feet, according to Roller Coaster Data Base.)  Galacticoaster’s 48 track sections are supported by 120 columns. The building’s footprint is the size of 10 basketball courts. The station’s conveyor belt weighs 9 tons. read more