With Pluto in Aquarius and Venus in Leo, there are two highly contrasting energies at play today. Keep things fluid and flexible.

Sagittarius, Scorpio and Libra, this cosmic blend sees you going and getting what you want. Remain in the present moment.

This is a complex and maybe challenging placement, but take your time and all willl be okay. Take a breath.

Ahead, you’ll find all star signs’ horoscopes for today: Tuesday June 23, 2026.

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To order your unique personal horoscope based on your time, date and place of birth, visit patrickarundell.com.

Aries

March 21 to April 20

The next few days see two very contrasting energies competing with one another. Positively, Venus in the sociable Leo, forges a solid link to Saturn in your sign, which can see you enjoy those reliable citizens in your world, but can also help you to appreciate them that much more. Yet those people you find very emotional or complex can prove more challenging.

Head here for everything you need to know about being an Aries

Taurus

April 21 to May 21

The planet of drive Mars has been supercharging your energies in the last five weeks and helping to keep a firmer grip on your life tiller. However, you may now experience a bit of uncertainty. It could be subtle, but you may find yourself starting to second-guess what people think, or what they really feel when you’re chatting to them. Instead, try to stay in the present.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Taurus

Gemini

May 22 to June 21

Past hard work can start to yield rewards in the next days. To really capitalise Gemini, you need to have a clear plan. As the Sun squares off with the dreamy Neptune, it’s not a time to be theoretical. The things you know have worked for you in the past, updated to your current circumstances, will give you the best chance of success. Stay clear-minded and your logical self.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Gemini

Cancer

June 22 to July 23

It’s been a theme for some while, and it can show up over the next two years. Is your job, work, or business aligned with your deeper purpose? If not, you could do some soul-searching this week. The reason is that another way forward could emerge, but it requires you to take the lead and be in touch with your true calling. Can you give up what you have though?

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Cancer

Leo

July 24 to August 23

With the Moon gliding through the most vibrant part of your chart, lots of thoughts can compete for your attention today. Yet as she moves forward, she squares up to Mercury. This can pique your curiosity but also make you a bit bored. This could lead to being distracted by gossip or something salacious someone shares with you. It’ll be best not to pass this on if they do.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Leo

Virgo

August 24 to September 23

With three powerful planets in the most social part of your situation, you could find yourself spoilt for choice when it comes to friendships or group involvements. However, the value of some of the people you are connecting with is something you may mull over. Don’t be too influenced by appearances. Your gift is to cut through to what counts, and that’s key today.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Virgo

Libra

September 24 to October 23

The Moon in your sign can make you more aware of what you need from situations. This is no bad thing for you who can be very mindful of others. With your professional prospects building really well, staying objective and detached about how people view you in a personal context is important. Even if someone isn’t saying it, they may still know your value, Libra.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Libra

Scorpio

October 24 to November 22

You’ve likely got a tremendous appetite to broaden your world and bring a more expansive vibe to bear. However, the Moon today could see you overthink all this or even find it more difficult to articulate exactly what you want. This complexity may also be amped up by the angle between your modern ruler, Pluto, and the Sun. One is reflective, the other adventurous.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Scorpio

Sagittarius

November 23 to December 21

A friendly Moon transit can prime the desire to share and interact. However, the planet of communication, is in the water sign of Cancer, in a deeper part of its journey for you, could make you feel unusually cut off or inhibited with the people you usually gel with. If you feel frustration well up, just know the big picture is a month ahead of transformation, and go with it.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Sagittarius

Capricorn

December 22 to January 21

You may find that your feelings are closer to the surface. This is no bad thing. If you feel bubbly, everyone will know. The to-and-fro with others, though, may not quite chime. With the Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter all in your sector of relating, you could be more conscious and hopeful of your connections. However, if they don’t quite go as usual, tomorrow is another day.

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Capricorn

Aquarius

January 22 to February 19

Duty can clash with your freedom-loving side. With Pluto in your sign powerfully transforming you as an individual, three potent players in your sector of obligations and responsibilities push you to clear up outstanding tasks and be more virtuous. You could resist this, and this Moon prompts you to think of faraway places or faces, so the humdrum can seem dull.

Head here for everything you need to know about being an Aquarius

Pisces

February 20 to March 20

Just because someone from your past comes to mind doesn’t mean rekindling the connection is best for you or even them. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t want to explore the possibility in your mind. Then again, it could be a person you are around now who is capturing your imagination. This could be a smouldering energy. Are you ready to share it openly?

Head here for everything you need to know about being a Pisces

Your daily Metro.co.uk horoscope is here every morning, seven days a week (yes, including weekends!). To check your forecast, head to our dedicated horoscopes page.

Head here for this week’s tarot horoscope reading, and see what the cards have in store for you!

Check out the tarot horoscope reading for the month of June here.

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Lionel Messi set a World Cup record with his 17th and 18th goals, and defending champion Argentina advanced to the knockout stage with a 2-0 victory over Austria on Monday.

Messi had a golden opportunity to break the record in the ninth minute, but went wide to the right on a penalty kick. Almost 30 minutes later, Messi caught Alexander Schlager leaning the wrong way after Thiago Almada let Facuno Medina’s pass go by him directly onto Messi’s left foot.

“There were moments when I was really angry about missing the penalty, but I was able to make up for it,” Messi said.

In the waning seconds of injury time, Messi extended his record by sending a shot through several defenders after Schlager turned away his first attempt. He entered the game even with Germany striker Miroslav Klose, who scored 16 goals over four World Cups from 2002-14.

“Beyond anything I’m so happy for the win,” Messi said. “It was huge, tough and difficult. It would allow us to be relaxed to what’s ahead. All matches in this World Cup are very even, very intense. I’m enjoying this moment and craving to enjoy with my teammates.”

Two days before his 39th birthday and with an ailing father back home, Messi celebrated twice with teammates to the delight of the decidedly pro-Argentine crowd at the sold-out home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Messi has scored all five of Argentina goals in the tournament and has 12 World Cup goals since turning 35. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner as soccer’s best player in Europe had his first World Cup hat trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria in its Group J opener last week in Kansas City.

Trailing by a goal early in second-half injury time, Austria winger Patrick Wimmer went just wide on a header after Kevin Danso had sent a header his direction off a free kick.

“I think that we were in possession of the ball more than other people expected,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to nullify every counter attack.”

Austria, which opened with a 3-1 victory over Jordan, can advance with a win over Algeria on Saturday in Kansas City.

Argentina returns to AT&T Stadium to face Jordan in a group finale Saturday night.

___

AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup

Corrie fans are already wondering if Sarah Platt’s time in Weatherfield could be coming to an end

Coronation Street fans will no doubt be wondering if Sarah Platt’s time in Weatherfield could be coming to an end after it was revealed she killed Theo Silverton.

Theo’s lifeless body was found by a horrified Betsy Swain back in April, on the night of her mum, Lisa Swain’s, wedding to Carla Connor. It came after the storyline was revealed in flash-forward scenes aired in February, in which Betsy was being interviewed by police after discovering the dead body of someone she knew.

At the time, it wasn’t confirmed that Theo was the victim. Instead, it was revealed that it would be his, Carl Webster, Jodie Ramsey, Megan Walsh or Maggie Driscoll, whose lifeless body the teen would stumble across, with the behaviours of the five possible victims showing how they could end up in mortal peril.

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Eventually, a week after the wedding aired, it was revealed that Theo was the victim, which came after he tried to torment Todd one last time.

His death has since triggered a murder investigation, with Corrie confirming Todd as a suspect, along with George Shuttleworth, Summer Spellman, Christina Boyd, Gary Windass and Danielle Silverton.

But the big reveal in Monday’s (June 22) episode of the ITV soap revealed that it wasn’t any of the six, as it was Sarah Platt who appeared to deal the blow that sent a drunk Theo tumbling off the scaffolding outside his flat and plummeting to the ground.

The reveal, albeit only to viewers, came as a dramatic dinner party, hosted by Sarah and her partner, DC Kit Green, saw tensions reach boiling point, while flashback scenes revealed what exactly happened to Theo – and who was responsible.

As the dinner unfolded, a ruthless Maria Windass confronted her husband, Gary Windass, and Sarah about their suspected affair. And the timing couldn’t have been worse, as Kit had been planning to propose.

While the truth wasn’t revealed around the table, for Corrie viewers, it was soon revealed that all their recent hushed conversations and support of one another were for a reason, just not that they were hiding something much more damaging.

A spine-tingling flashback then took us back to the night of Theo’s murder, when Sarah received a suspicious text from Todd’s phone. She headed to the flat he had shared with Theo when she was confronted by the dastardly builder on the scaffolding that had been erected outside.

A drunk Theo prodded and poked Sarah’s emotions, even bringing up the son she and Todd had lost 21 years earlier. But as their confrontation became more sinister, as Theo threatened Sarah with violence, the Underworld factory manager defended herself by grabbing a metal pipe, which she hit on Theo’s head, sending him crashing to the ground below. And upon realising what she had done, she phoned Gary to help her.

With Gary now under pressure to come clean to save his marriage, will Sarah be able to get away with murder, several years after she was involved in the death of her son’s father, Callum Logan?

While fans are worried as to what this could mean for Sarah – and Tina’s – future, the soap star said: “There was a lot of debate in the green room as soon as we were told there was going to be a murderer. A lot of people were playing Cluedo. First off, some of the cast were told they were involved in the storyline, but they weren’t the murderer. So by the time it got to me to go for my meeting, I was a bit like, I think it’s me!

“But I genuinely didn’t worry, at the end of the day, this job is incredible, but to be an actor is not necessarily a job for life. So, I just was really excited to be given the honour of being the murderer, and then hopefully, however it plays out, I’ll enjoy Sarah’s arc.”

That being said, Sarah is still very much at risk of a life behind bars. “The first one she was an accessory! But yeah, absolutely, she could be going to prison this time,” Tina teased.

“If she’d have called the police straight away and explained what happened, she would have been in a much better situation, because it was clearly not premeditated, it was a situation where she felt she had no other choice. But to cover it up, to actively cover something up, she knows that she crossed a line that she can’t come back from.”

And Sarah will be desperate to cover up what she’s done. Tina said of her character: “It’s not just about her now, it’s about her family and her son, and there are times when she can’t cope with the pressure and you think she’s just going to hand herself in. And then she thinks about her son growing up without a mum, if she’s convicted and can’t prove she acted in self defence. And because of those things, she’s so desperate to do whatever it takes to be part of her family’s life.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ruled that a recently revamped version of a federal tool central to the Trump administration’s efforts to nationalize elections can no longer be used.

U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups that argued the recent upgrades to the program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls.

“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said in an order explaining the decision. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

She said Congress had expressly prohibited the government from centralizing Americans’ personal identifying information and that the federal agencies that created the SAVE program “knew that the database violates those statutory protections.”

The decision is a major legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to use federal agencies to encourage a nationwide crackdown on having noncitizens illegally on state voter rolls. The modified SAVE system, which critics had referred to as an unlawful centralized federal database of voter information, had been a key pillar of the second election executive order the Republican president signed earlier this year. The ruling leaves its future uncertain.

“It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist,” James Percival, general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, said of the ruling in a social media post.

The department referred to his post as its comment on the ruling. The Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment.

The executive order seeking to create a national voter list is among numerous steps Trump has taken during his second term to try to overhaul the way elections are run. He also has tried to force voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, ban mail ballots from counting if they are received after Election Day and prohibit the Postal Service from mailing ballots to people not on an approved list of voters. Most of those steps have been blocked by various courts, in part because the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, but provides no such power to the president.

Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and punishable as a potential felony that could lead to deportation. It also is rare, accounting for just a tiny fraction of those on state voter rolls,

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. At least 25 states used it to check their voter rolls since April 2025, after the Trump administration significantly expanded its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls.

The plaintiffs, including the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and five unnamed U.S. citizens, had alleged the revamped SAVE program violated Americans’ privacy and voting rights. The groups also alleged the Trump administration violated federal privacy laws by ignoring transparency requirements about the changes to the system.

“The agencies were scrambling to comply with an Executive Order aimed at reshaping federal elections, which directed them to create a system for mass voter verification,” the judge wrote. “So they haphazardly combined and repurposed the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”

Plaintiffs attorney Nikhel Sus told the court during the October hearing that naturalized citizens face a greater risk of unlawfully being purged from voter rolls.

“They are uniquely vulnerable to errors in the database,” said Sus, an attorney for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Sus said Monday he sees Sooknanan’s ruling as an “across the board victory” and noted the plaintiffs were pleased the judge’s ruling reinforced their argument that the federal government doesn’t have implied authority to freely share sensitive data across agencies.

Mark Johnson, who teaches at the University of Kansas law school and regularly pursues lawsuits over election laws, said “it couldn’t be more clear” that the SAVE program violates federal privacy laws.

He said an executive order from Trump cannot override a federal law.

“It’s an illegal idea. Plus it’s a bad idea,” he said.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, as Trump pushed false claims of widespread noncitizen voting, Republican secretaries of state began requesting improvements to the SAVE system to make it more efficient for catching noncitizens on their rolls. One limitation was that the system had been able to check just a single individual at a time.

DHS, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency delivered on those requests in 2025, according to public announcements. They made SAVE free for election officials, allowed agencies to search voters by the thousands and began permitting queries using names, birthdays and Social Security numbers, as opposed to requiring DHS-issued identification numbers.

Several secretaries of state have said the SAVE overhaul improved its value as one of multiple tools they use to assess voter citizenship. But in her ruling, Judge Sooknanan said the plaintiffs had shown that the updated system had indeed been identifying some lawful voters as noncitizens and that states using it “are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information.”

___

Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

Just the moor stretching in every direction, the wind, and a pub that has been standing on this ridge since the reign of Mary I.

The Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge is one of the most extraordinary places in the North of England and most people have no idea it exists.

Built between 1553 and 1558, the pub is believed to have been constructed by monks as a rest stop when carrying coffins across the moors.

It sits at 1,325 feet above sea level at the highest point of the North York Moors National Park – and is the fourth highest pub in England.

The views from the car park alone are worth the drive.

What it feels like inside

Walk through the door and you walk into another century. Low beamed ceilings, bare stone walls, flagstone floors, and fires burning in ancient stone fireplaces.

The pub is a series of small interconnected rooms, each with its own atmosphere.

There is real ale on the bar – Black Sheep, Theakston’s Old Peculier, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, and a menu that runs from midday to 9pm every day.

“I just love the old feel of the place and the unique layout – the way all the little rooms lead into each other,” wrote one regular visitor on Tripadvisor.

“There’s always a cosy atmosphere and a little corner to sit in.”

Another reviewer, who has been going for years and sees no reason to stop, described it as “exactly the kind of place that’s emblematic of why I love pubs like these” – great atmosphere, wonderful aesthetic and fantastic food.

What to order

Come hungry. Portion sizes at the Lion Inn are a recurring theme across more than 1,000 Tripadvisor reviews.

“The portions are simply huge, even the plates they are served on are bigger than normal dinner plates,” one regular visitor said kindly.

The Sunday roast is what people travel for.

“Fantastic quality with huge slabs of beef,” wrote one reviewer who booked online the night before and was served within 15 minutes of ordering.

The steak sandwich gets its own devoted following, with one visitor, who came after a family celebration from Scarborough, calling it “the best I have ever had.”

The soup is homemade and described as “great” and “thick and hot.”

Jam roly poly and custard is also on the menu for pudding, if you can manage it.

A word on the walk

The Lion Inn sits on the Coast to Coast walking route, one of England’s most famous long-distance walks, and is the highest and most isolated overnight stop on the entire route.

Walkers have been stumbling through that door for generations.

On a wet day on the moors, with the fires going and a pint of Old Peculier on the table, it must feel like salvation. It is, as one reviewer put it, “a real gem of a place.”

Getting there

The Lion Inn is on the road between Castleton and Hutton-le-Hole, near Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, YO62 7LQ. It takes around 45 minutes to drive from Teesside and an hour from York.

Booking ahead is strongly advised.

AV Dawson, which operates the Port of Middlesbrough, scooped the accolade at the North East England Chamber of Commerce Awards last Thursday (June 18).

The port and logistics firm, which employs around 200 people, was praised for its long-standing commitment to supporting communities across Teesside.

Charities supported by AV Dawson include Teesside Hospice, the MFC Foundation, The Teesside Charity and The Headlight Project.

It also works with education programmes such as Tees Maritime, Tees Valley Education and Spark Tees Valley.

AV Dawson’s people and culture director Louise Croce said: “We are incredibly proud of the ways in which our people give back, whether that’s through volunteering their time, sharing their skills or supporting local initiatives.

“For us, community engagement isn’t just about financial contributions; it’s about making a meaningful and lasting impact in the community in which the business was founded and built.

“This award reflects the passion of our team and the pride we take in making a positive, lasting difference in our local area.”

The award ceremony, held at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead, saw AV Dawson triumph over Radisson Blu Durham, Maldron Hotel Newcastle and Media Cultured.

AV Dawson operates a 120-acre multimodal logistics hub on the River Tees and has recently completed a £10m three-year investment plan including a renewable energy plant, a new head office and quayside upgrades to handle larger vessels.

The company says it will continue to measure its success not only in commercial terms but in the positive difference it makes to local people and places.

British households are being warned to familiarise themselves with the signs and symptoms of heatstroke as a life-threatening alert over extreme heat has been issued.According to the NHS, the following symptoms are a sign that you may be suffering from heatstroke:

• a very high temperature
• hot skin that’s not sweating and might look red
• fast breathing or shortness of breath
• a fast heartbeat
• confusion and restlessness
• lack of coordination
• a seizure or fit
• loss of consciousness

If you, or someone nearby, displays any of these symptoms and remains unwell after 30 minutes of resting in a cool spot, being cooled down and drinking fluids, you must seek urgent medical assistance and dial 999.

While waiting for help to arrive, the person suffering from heatstroke should be wrapped in a cool, damp sheet, fanned, or sponged down with cold water.

Stress and anxiety accounted for 46,000 of the 81,000 days lost to absence in the year to 31 March.

Stress continues to be the main reason for sickness absence by council staff in West Lothian though the numbers of days lost last year fell slightly

Stress and anxiety accounted for 46,000 of the 81,000 days lost to absence in the year to 31 March.

Councillors heard that the bulk of calls to a new counselling service related to mental health issues.

Of the days lost due to sickness absence, a significant proportion of the absences are attributable to long term absence, which is defined in the policy as a period of continuous absence ‘in excess of four weeks’.

Education and Operational Services saw the greatest number of days lost. Of the total number of 46,919 days lost in Education Services, 32,482 (69.23%) of those days were due to long-term absence and were accounted for by 510 employees.

Of the total number of 37,593 days lost in Operational Services, 30,892

(82.17%) of those days were due to long-term absence and were accounted for by 458 employees.

A report to the Corporate Policy and Resources PDSP said the figures reflected a national picture. Claire Wallace HR Services Manager said: “This remains reflective of the wider picture in the UK, with mental ill health reported to be the top cause of long-term absence in the context of an on-going increase in sickness absence across sectors.”

Mental and behavioural reasons accounted for around 32% of the number long term absences and staff days lost in the last year with 46,004 lost.

This figure is far ahead of other categories including Musculoskeletal 15,236, Infectious 10,408 and Accidents, Incidents & Poisoning 9,526.

Further breakdown shows that in the Mental and Behavioural category personal stress was the main cause of absence with 21,515 days lost. The next highest was work related stress 7,095, Anxiety 5,970 and work and personal stress 4,374.

Delivering the report Lesley Henderson, the Head of Corporate Services told councillors: “Absence rates for the Council in 2025/26 have seen a slight decrease in comparison to 2024/25.

“Stress continues to be the highest contributor to levels of sickness absence across the council and action continues to focus on support for services reporting high levels of stress related absence, with guidance on identifying early signs of stress and how to develop action plans to effectively address those.”

The report outlined the response to a new assistance programme. “Since 1 December 2025, a new telephone-based counselling service has been in operation, provided by Health Assured.

“Between 1 January 2026 until 1 March 2026 there were 133 calls to the service. Of those, 11 were referred for face to face counselling services, seven for video conferencing counselling, one for online CBT, and one for Right Steps therapy, an online self-help tool.

Call contact reasons indicate that 58.65% related to mental health, 12.03% to life events, 11.28% to legal issues, 6.77% to relationships, 6.02% of work related matters, and 5.26% for service enquiries.

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In the past few weeks Jenny Young visited some renowned businesses in Winchburgh where she met with the owners and discussed the unique things they offer the local community.

Lothians West MSP Jenny Young is urging people to “think local” after visiting local businesses to mark Scotland Loves Local Week 2026

In the past few weeks Young visited some renowned businesses in Winchburgh where she met with the owners and discussed the unique things they offer the local community.

Young, who was newly elected on May 7, met with John Lawson Butchers and Delicatessen and Marley & Co Pet Supplies.

The Labour MSP said: “People are appreciating what they can find in their local community more than ever before”.

Scotland Loves Local is a national annual campaign that celebrates local businesses, social enterprises and community organisations, recognising the important role they play in the community in which they are based.

This year Scotland Loves Local week ran from June 13 to 20.

Ms Young added: “I think now, especially with how much shopping is done online or at huge out-of-town shopping centres, people really appreciate what they’re able to find in their local community more than ever before.”

“Local businesses and organisations contribute a lot to the character of a community and it’s quite right that we take the time to celebrate them for offering something unique that you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.

“I had a fantastic time visiting some of the great local businesses in Winchburgh.

“If you live in Winchburgh or pass through then you’ll know these businesses and how highly they’re thought of in the community.

“Speaking to John and Jordan really made it clear just how much knowledge local business owners have about the community they serve – they know the local issues and they know what their customers want.

“I would urge anyone who has the time to think local, to get out into their local area and visit a business or community group that means something to them.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set to pass a bipartisan housing bill on Monday that aims to bring down prices and increase supply in one of the most sweeping efforts in recent decades to reduce federal regulations and increase local control.

The bill has been the focus of intense House-Senate negotiations in recent weeks as lawmakers in both parties try to address housing costs in an election year. The final version of the legislation bans corporate investors from buying single family homes but doesn’t include a Senate provision that would have required investors to sell newly constructed homes within seven years.

The measure was the result of years of work to “lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership,” said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., who worked with Democrats to get the bill passed.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking panel, told The Associated Press that she believes the bill is significant “because it acknowledges that the federal government has a role to play in lowering housing prices and because for the first time ever, private equity will be blocked from buying up single family homes and trying to turn housing into one more Wall Street investment.”

Senate passage of the bill shapes up as a rare bipartisan legislative achievement when much of Republicans’ agenda has stalled. The House is expected to give final approval later this week and send the bill to President Donald Trump, who has signaled his support.

Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who helped negotiate the legislation, said it was a “huge step toward finally addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country.”

Housing costs are a concern for both parties

Republicans and Democrats have embraced the bill as a way to show they are addressing the nation’s affordability crisis, driven in part by rising home prices due to a shortage of affordable housing. The U.S. housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes have been hovering close to a 4-million annual pace going back to 2023 — well short of the 5.2-million annual pace that’s historically been the norm. Sales slowed last year to a 30-year low and have remained sluggish so far this year, declining in January and February versus a year earlier.

The Economic Report of the President in April found a shortage of 10 million homes, while a report this month from the Joint Center For Housing Studies at Harvard University found sales of existing homes were at three-decade lows and inventories were rising due to high home buying costs. “Cost burdens for both renters and owners continue to climb, while assistance remains profoundly underfunded,” the report said.

While the median U.S. monthly rent has been declining for nearly three years, it was still 17.2% higher in May than it was before the pandemic, according to data from Realtor.com.

Changes for grants, Section 8 and manufactured housing

To increase the supply of housing, the bill would streamline environmental reviews and speed up the construction process.

It would offer funding to local governments that build more housing, including Community Development Block Grant money to places exceeding the median rate of homebuilding. It would also provide money for communities to turn abandoned infrastructure into housing, and offers a framework for communities that want to reform outdated zoning regulations, which often limit larger housing developments.

The legislation would allow banks to invest more in affordable housing and raise limits on the number of public housing units that can receive private financing through Section 8 funding to rehabilitate properties. And it would remove outdated requirements and expand federal financing to make manufactured homes more affordable.

“Manufactured housing produces some of the most cost-effective housing in America, but access to financing has been tightly restricted,” Warren said. “This creates the opportunity for more manufactured housing and, at the same time, creates a structure for people living in manufactured housing communities to organize and protect their investment in their homes.”

Lawmakers compromised on a disaster program

One of the sticking points between the two chambers was over a federal disaster recovery program.

An earlier Senate bill had permanently authorized block grant recovery funds, a change intended to ensure that funding requests aren’t needed after every disaster. House lawmakers opposed that provision because of concerns over how the program was run, so they agreed on a three-year authorization instead.

The final bill has received widespread support in the housing community, both from organizations representing landlords and large property owners as well as groups that advocate for tenants and low-income renters.

“There is no magic wand that will fix this crisis overnight, and no single piece of legislation is perfect,” said David Dworkin, chief executive of the National Housing Conference, the nation’s oldest housing coalition.

“Compromise demands that. But this bill is a significant down payment on a long-term effort to make housing more affordable for all Americans.”