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Japan likely sold a portion of its U.S. Treasury holdings to finance its currency intervention over the past month, as its foreign reserves posted their largest decline in August.
Tokyo’s reserve assets totaled ~$1.21T at the end of August, down 6.2% from a
AN emotional Stacey Solomon has revealed that she’s sold £1.3m ‘dream home’ Pickle Cottage.
The Sort Your Life Out presenter, 36, took to her Instagram story alongside husband Joe Swash, 44, to share the news.
The pair, who tied the knot in the garden of their former home in 2022, bought the property back in 2021.
Now, five years later, they have decided to “start a new chapter” with their three kids Rex, Rose and Belle, as well as Stacey’s older children Zachary and Leighton.
Speaking to her 6.1 million followers, Stacey said: “We are leaving Pickle Cottage, we are moving out of Pickle Cottage, which I never thought I’d say, imminently.
“The reason we haven’t said anything up until this point is, anyone who has moved before knows what it is like. You don’t know if it is going to actually happen before it happens.
“Also, leaving Pickle Cottage was a massive, massive, decision for us, we had a lot of people we needed to speak to, we needed to get the kids around to the idea and speak to all our neighbours and lovely friends in the area. There were so many people we needed to speak to before we told everybody.
“Then also, even the thought of selling Pickle Cottage would be impossible if everyone knew we were selling Pickle Cottage.
“Does that make sense? We have just waited until someone amazing come along and fell in love with the cottage.”
Stacey continued: “Pickle Cottage is our dream house, as soon as we moved here we fell in love with it and I still love it so, so, so, so much.
“It’s a really special place to us. I gave birth to both of the girls there, we got married there, it’s just so special to us.
“But for a little while we have always wanted to rescue more animals, grow more vegetables, my vegetable patch, I have got so much joy out of it, but it’s on Farmer Scott’s land. So if he decides to do something with that land, it’s gone.
“So we have always been thinking if there was ever a chance to move further out and to get a bit more land, then we would consider it.
“We saw somewhere, found somewhere, and I was like ‘Oh my God’ and I was like, we could have a massive vegetable patch and we could offer our land to animals who need it and stuff like that.
“We could bring the horses back there, the ponies, and we went to see it…”
Joe chimed in: “We fell in love. It wasn’t an easy decision, like we said, we’re leaving behind somewhere we built our lives together at Pickle Cottage but now we have find somewhere where we can see our family growing and really flourishing. And this is the place.”
Stacey ended the video with: “So it’s time to say goodbye to Pickle Cottage, which feels so weird and basically move across to our new chapter.
“It’s a project, we’re moving somewhere really, really different. And it needs a lot of love. What I can say is I loved bringing Pickle Cottage back to life.
“I had so much joy from that. I genuinely, every single thing I did there, I loved.
“I will truly miss Pickle.”
Stacey captioned the post: “A new chapter…”
Fans rushed to the comments section to share their love and support about their huge move.
One said: “Good luck on your new journey.”
Another wrote: “Can’t wait to see it!! Happy for you all!”
A third chimed in: “You did such a great job before and you will again.”
“Living the dream guys,” a fourth added.
Over the years Stacey has shared her renovations online.
CAROLINE Quentin has revealed she may never buy another home after selling her sprawling six-bedroom farmhouse, art collection and jewellery.
The Men Behaving Badly actress, 66, has deliberately stripped back her lifestyle after admitting her huge Devon property and its grounds had become “a bit too much”.
She and husband Sam Farmer now rent a smaller home in Somerset, with Caroline saying they are perfectly happy to remain tenants.
Speaking to Saga, she said: “We’ve been in Somerset for just over a year, with a more manageable garden. We’re really happy. I don’t think we’ll buy again.”
Opening up about her former property, she added: “It had a two-acre vegetable garden, a two-acre orchard and a pool. The veg alone was exhausting.”
Caroline also revealed she auctioned off her art collection and jewellery after deciding possessions were no longer important to her.
She said: “Possessions aren’t important to me any more. I got rid of a lot of things two years ago. I took them to auction and sold them.
“I had quite a big art collection and a lot of jewellery, and I sold it all.
“Now we live in a rented house and I don’t have much stuff. That was very deliberate.”
It marks a change of heart for the actress, who previously said she and Sam hoped to buy a smaller cottage and create a new garden.
Speaking to Gardens Illustrated in February 2024, she said: “My big beautiful garden in Devon came with a big house and it was all getting a bit too much for me.
“My husband Sam and I are renting a lovely cottage in Somerset and are looking for a cottage nearby where I can start a new garden and a new gardening adventure.”
Caroline is best known for playing Dorothy in Nineties sitcom Men Behaving Badly, as well as starring in Jonathan Creek and Blue Murder.
She married Sam in 2006 and the couple share two grown-up children, Emily Rose and William.
NFL owners have approved the $9.612bn record sale of the reigning Super Bowl champions Seattle Seahawks to a group led by billionaire Vinod Khosla.
The deal, which required the support of at least 24 of 32 owners, is currently the second highest amount paid for a franchise in North American sports history.
The estate of Paul G. Allen, which inherited the NFL team after the death of the Microsoft co-founder in 2018, agreed to terms with the Khosla family on 11 July after a search for a new owner.
And now approved, the sale surpasses the $6.05bn the Washington Commanders fetched when they were sold in 2023, although the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were subsequently sold for $10bn in 2025 and are currently in the process of changing ownership again for a reported $12.5bn.
“We are honoured to be entrusted as the next stewards of the Seattle Seahawks. How often do you get to buy a franchise that just won the Super Bowl?” said Khosla.
“We are incredibly lucky and humbled by this gift, I would say, from the Allen trust.”
“We look forward to building on the winning legacy Paul Allen created and to earning the trust of the Seahawks organisation and fans everywhere.”
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Khosla, who will have to relinquish a minority stake in the San Francisco 49ers as part of his agreement to buy the Seahawks, added: “The task ahead is actually pretty simple – keep the winning streak alive, get another Super Bowl.
“Our approach is generally going to be long-term focused, that’s our inclination always. So, keep winning, take a long-term approach, and learn a lot. We don’t know enough, and the other owners have been incredibly welcoming and willing to teach us, so we’ll learn a lot.
“We’ll learn from management and see what they are recommending.”
Khosla, 71, was the co-founder of US technology company Sun Microsystems and the founder of the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures and has a net worth of $13.2bn, according to Forbes. , external
Former owner Allen saved the Seahawks from relocating to Southern California when he bought the team from Ken Behring in 1997.
His sister, Jody Allen, took control of the Seahawks and the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers as chair of both teams upon her brother’s death with a directive to eventually sell both and donate the proceeds to charity.
In the 29 seasons in which Paul or Jody Allen were in charge, the Seahawks made the play-offs 17 times and won two of the four Super Bowls they contested.
Dodgers president Stan Kasten wants to make it clear that majority owner Mark Walter will not sell the team.
Following Walter’s decision to sell his majority stake in the Lakers, questions about his majority ownership of the Dodgers were raised amid his company’s financial difficulties, which include a federal probe of his businesses. But Kasten said it will have no effect on Walter’s majority ownership of the Dodgers.
“The Dodgers are not being sold,” Kasten said. “They’re not going to be sold. They’re not for sale. There’s no process that has been started to sell [the franchise]. Period. … I just wanted this to be clear because this question keeps coming up. I understand the questions; I do. The Lakers thing was what we call sui generis, one of those one-of-a-kind things. Really has nothing to do with what’s happening with [the Dodgers] or the other teams.
“I wanted you to hear it definitively: We are not selling the Dodgers. We are continuing with our plans going forward, like we always have had them. This comes from Mark. He’s gung-ho about continuing to try to win, again, including next year, subject to whatever next year’s climate looks like.”
Kasten added that he doesn’t expect the Dodgers’ operations to be interrupted, describing the franchise as “very stable, well-managed, and [with] very solid ownership.”
“I know nothing involving the Dodgers is part of the investigation,” Kasten said. “I’m promising you, when it’s over, you’re going to realize [things] are being mischaracterized. You don’t have to trust me, but I’m telling you.”
When Kasten was asked about reports Walter is trying to sell his stake in English Premier League team Chelsea FC and tried to cash out of lucrative TV deals with Charter Communications, he said they were mischaracterized.
“Those things don’t go together for a bunch of reasons I’m not going to get into today,” Kasten said.
Kasten took a similar tone when asked about reports of Walter having to repay insurance companies.
“I’m not in that part of the investigation,” Kasten said. “Things are going on behind the scenes, obviously, in connection with that. I’m not privy to all of them, don’t need to know, don’t want to know. But one thing we are all certain about: the sports portfolio is going to remain intact.”
Walter has additional ownership stakes in the Sparks, the Cadillac Formula One team, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the Billie Jean King Cup tennis event.
“I can tell you from the guy running the team, knowing how the business runs and what it can support in terms of revenues and expenses — the Dodgers aren’t going anywhere,” Kasten said. “I feel that very strongly, and Mark feels even stronger than I do. I’m 74. I don’t know how long I’m going to be running it, but Mark, I think, is going to be running it a lot longer.
“I think Mark has done an extraordinary job as an owner, and all he’s ever cared about is providing the best experience in order to make us more money, to make this project successful,” Kasten added. “I think so far it has been; I expect that to continue far into the future.”
Past the halfway mark of the Olympic quadrennial, LA28 has passed its own halfway point for ticket sales.
LA28 announced Friday it sold more than 6 million tickets during its first two drops, accounting for more than half of the expected Olympic ticket availability.
The remainder of an estimated 10.5 million Olympic tickets will move to first-come, first-served sales beginning in 2027. Additional inventory across every sport will be added during the next stage and ticket limits will be lifted, but LA28 did not announce the opening date.
“Overall the level of enthusiasm, the interest in the Games, the excitement to commit this far out from the Games has all been really affirming for how LA28 is coming together and the excitement everyone’s feeling about it,” said Allison Katz-Mayfield, LA28’s senior vice president of Games delivery revenue.
More than 700,000 of one million $28 tickets were sold during the first two drops. While fans have clamored for tickets, many were disappointed and frustrated with high prices and limited availability that seemed to sell out almost instantaneously. Each LA28 ticket drop came with the fine-print condition of “subject to availability.”
LA28 wanted to be “conservative” with the initial inventory available during the first two drops, Katz-Mayfield said, because organizers didn’t want to sell tickets only to discover later that fans might be stuck with limited visibility of an event. For example, Crypto.com Arena’s footprint will be changed to accommodate artistic gymnastics, with up to six apparatuses on the floor along with areas for judges, broadcast positions and media. The seating plan, which will be different than ones used for Lakers games or concerts, is still being developed. The same goes for the planning of temporary venues.
“It’s a fan-focused approach from my perspective,” Katz-Mayfield said. “We don’t want to be in a position where we sell something that doesn’t equate to the experience that someone is expecting to have.”
LA28 said more tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis for every sport next year as organizers refine venue layouts. Tickets that appear unavailable one day could go on the market weeks later as organizers gain a clearer picture of setups. With first-come, first-serve purchasing, the ticketing platform will remain open continuously through the Games.
“If you’re one of those people that has a very, very specific idea of what they want and they don’t want to move off that at all … then continue to check back because we’ll have tickets on sale through Games time,” Katz-Mayfield said. “So you can check on that first day. But you could also check two months later, and it could be different.”
New sports remained a hit for fans, who scooped up all available tickets to softball, lacrosse, flag football and squash during the second drop, LA28 reported. All tickets available for Oklahoma City’s softball and canoe slalom events were sold through for both drops. More tickets for those events will be added in 2027.
Although many fans have their hearts set on a single, high-demand Olympic event, others might be open to discovering different sports during the Paralympics. Tickets for the Paralympics will also go on sale in 2027, beginning with a lottery for assigned time slots, similar to the first Olympic ticket drops. About 25% of the total 14 million tickets between the Games are earmarked for the Paralympics, which will be in L.A. for the first time.
The Paralympics are typically priced at much lower prices than the Olympics. The Paris Olympics had single tickets as high as $1,065 (980 euros in July 2024) for swimming and track and field and as low as $26 across all sports. Half a million tickets for the Paris Paralympics were $16 and half of all tickets were priced less than $27. There were also Paralympic ticket packages for multiple sports and families. The strategy paid off with approximately 2.5 million tickets sold, the second-most ever for a Paralympic Games, and a record 12 million total tickets sold between the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
Despite starting earlier than previous Games, LA28 said it is already on pace to surpass Paris’ sales record after the 2024 Games sold 5.39 million tickets through their second drop in May 2023. Paris sold 9.5 million Olympic tickets total.
Fans who registered for Olympics tickets will already be registered for the Paralympic lotteries and LA28 is working to open registration specifically for the Paralympics.
“[Don’t] forget how great the Paralympics are,” Katz-Mayfield said, “and how much opportunity there’s going to be there to see different sports, new sports, be a part of the Games, and see world-class athletes compete, maybe in a way that you haven’t seen before if you’ve only seen the Olympics.”
Selling millions of tickets before schedules or matchups are even set has “given [LA28] a lot of confidence in where we’re at today,” Katz-Mayfield said. The early ticket sales have given the private organizing committee a strong foundation for one of its largest revenue drivers.
Ticketing and hospitality are expected to cover almost $2.5 billion of LA28’s total $7.1-billion budget for the Games. It is the second-largest source of expected revenue to help cover what LA28 has promised will be a privately funded Games.
