GENEVA (AP) — A blue diamond weighing nearly 10 carats has sold at auction in Switzerland for 20.5 million Swiss francs ($26.6 million) including fees.

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The pear-shaped 9.51-carat “Mellon Blue” — named for the late American arts patron Rachel “Bunny” Mellon — had been expected to fetch $20-$30 million at the Christie’s auction on Tuesday.

The house said the stone came in on the estimated range. The final price includes the “buyer’s premium” and other fees.

“Not the dazzling moment I expected,” said Tobias Kormind, managing director of online jeweler 77 Diamonds. He said the gem was “tipped as the season’s headline act” but was weighed down by a broader market mood.

“Geopolitical tensions — from the war in Ukraine to Trump’s tariffs — and a weakened Chinese economy that kept many usual buyers away, left the room distinctly cautious,” he said in a statement.

Auctioneer Rahul Kadakia, chairman of the global luxury group at Christie’s, hailed a “notable moment” for his team, “evidencing the elite appetite among collectors for extraordinary and storied gems.”

It was a far cry from the peak sale for a blue diamond: Christie’s says its highest price for a vivid blue diamond was set in Geneva in 2016 when the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue sold for more than $57 million.

The Mellon Blue was previously sold in 2014, the year that Mellon died, for $32.6 million, which was one of the highest prices ever paid for a colored diamond at auction, Christie’s says.

For decades, the stone was part of Mellon’s private collection.

Max Fawcett, Christie’s global head of jewelry, said the Mellon Blue was unlike the vast majority of other modern gems that have had facets added and been modified to enhance the color.

“When you have great shape and great color, you’re looking at the gem of gems,” he said Friday, noting the stone’s grade of Fancy Vivid Blue and Internally Flawless by the Gemological Institute of America. “That’s what this is.”

The auction was the first installment of two days of jewelry auctions in Geneva. On Wednesday, rival Sotheby’s is putting up the “Glowing Rose” pink diamond that’s expected to draw bids of around $20 million.

MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and founding member of the glam rock band Kiss, died from blunt force injuries to the head that he suffered in a fall earlier this year, an autopsy has determined.

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Frehley died peacefully on Oct. 16 surrounded by family in Morristown, New Jersey, a few weeks after the fall occurred, according to his agent.

The Morris County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Frehley’s death was an accident. The report said Frehley, 74, suffered facial fractures near the eyes and left ear and also had bruising on his left abdomen and thigh area and his right hip and upper thigh.

Kiss, whose hits included “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” was known for its theatrical stage shows, with fire and fake blood spewing from the mouths of band members dressed in body armor, platform boots, wigs and signature black-and-white face paint.

Kiss’ original lineup included Frehley, singer-guitarist Paul Stanley, tongue-wagging bassist Gene Simmons and drummer Peter Criss. Frehley’s is the first death among the four founding members.

Band members took on the personas of comic book-style characters — Frehley was known as “Space Ace” and “The Spaceman.” The New York-born entertainer and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer often experimented with pyrotechnics, making his guitars glow, emit smoke and shoot rockets from the headstock.

Born Paul Daniel Frehley, he grew up in a musical family and began playing guitar at age 13. Before joining Kiss, he played in local bands around New York City and was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix at age 18.

Kiss was especially popular in the mid-1970s, selling tens of millions of albums and licensing its iconic look to become a marketing marvel. “Beth” was its biggest commercial hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1976.

Frehley frequently feuded with Stanley and Simmons through the years. He left the band in 1982, missing the years when they took off the makeup and had mixed success, while Frehley performed both as a solo artist and with his band, Frehley’s Comet.

But he rejoined Kiss in the mid-1990s for a triumphant reunion and restoration of their original style that came after bands including Nirvana, Weezer and the Melvins had expressed affection for the band and paid them musical tributes.

He would leave again in 2002. When the original four entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, a dispute scrapped plans for them to perform. Simmons and Stanley objected to Criss and Frehley being inducted instead of then-guitarist Tommy Thayer and then-drummer Eric Singer.

By CHAN HO-HIM

BANGKOK (AP) — Apple said it has pulled two of China’s biggest gay dating apps, Blued and Finka, under pressure from Chinese authorities, in the latest sign of a tightening grip on the LGBTQ+ community.

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An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company removed the two dating apps from China “based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China”, without further elaborating.

“We follow the laws in the countries where we operate,” the spokesperson told The Associated Press.

A check by The Associated Press on Tuesday found that the two apps are not available on Apple’s app store in China, although an “express” version of Blued could still be found. It was unclear what the difference is between the full and express versions or if an Android version might be available.

Blued was available “only in China,” Apple said. Finka’s developer “elected to remove the app” outside of China earlier this year, the company added.

Another popular gay dating app, Grindr, was pulled from Apple’s app store in China in 2022.

China’s LGBTQ+ community and advocacy groups are under intensifying pressure from authorities, even though the country decriminalized homosexuality in 1997. Some LGBTQ+ groups have been forced to cease operations in recent years in China and activism has been constrained.

Blued and Finka have the same parent company, BlueCity, a China-founded company that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in China and abroad. BlueCity was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2022, when it was taken private.

Last year, Apple also reportedly removed apps including WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China under an order by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

“Among all foreign tech companies that provide services to Chinese users, Apple is probably the one which is most willing to comply with Chinese internet regulations,” said George Chen, partner and co-chair of digital practice at The Asia Group.

Apple “rarely pushes back on Chinese government’s takedown requests as Chinese markets,” including sales of iPhones, is “too important” for them, Chen added.

AP writers Kelvin Chan in London and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this story.

By KEN SWEET

NEW YORK (AP) — The White House says it is considering backing a 50-year mortgage to help alleviate the home affordability crisis in the country. But the announcement drew immediate criticism from policymakers, social media and economists, who said a 50-year mortgage would do little to resolve other core problems in the housing market, such as a lack of supply and high interest rates.

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Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said on X over the weekend that a 50-year mortgage would be “a complete game changer” for homebuyers. FHFA is the part of the federal government that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy and insure the vast majority of mortgages in the country.

The 30-year mortgage is a uniquely American financial product and the default way to buy a home since the New Deal. Politicians and policymakers at the time wanted to create a standardized mortgage that borrowers could afford and pay off during their working years, when the average lifespan for an American was 66 years old.

Lower payment

Extending the life of a mortgage to 50 years does decrease a borrower’s monthly payment.

The average selling price of a home in the U.S. was $415,200 in September, according to National Association of Realtors. Assuming a standard 10% down payment and an average interest rate of 6.17%, the monthly payment on a 30-year mortgage would be $2,288 while the payment on a 50-year mortgage would be $2,022. That’s presuming a bank would not require a higher interest rate on a 50-year mortgage, due to the longer duration of the loan.

But significantly higher interest

Because even more of the monthly payment on a 50-year mortgage would go toward interest on the loan, it would take 30 years before a borrower would accumulate $100,000 in equity, not including home price appreciation and the down payment. That’s compared to 12-13 years to accumulate $100,000 in equity when paying off a 30-year mortgage, excluding the down payment.

A borrower would pay, roughly, an additional $389,000 in interest over the life of a 50-year mortgage compared to a 30-year mortgage, according to an AP analysis.

Other analysts came to a similar conclusion.

“Extending a mortgage from 30 years to 50 years could double the (dollar) amount of interest paid by the homebuyer on a median priced home over the life of the loan and significantly slow equity accumulation,” wrote John Lovallo with UBS Securities.

Broader housing issues

A 50-year mortgage does nothing to solve one critical issue when it comes to housing affordability — the lack of supply of homes. States like California and cities like New York have recently passed legislation or made regulatory changes to allow builders to build homes faster with less regulatory red tape.

There’s also the raw cost of homebuilding in the country. Products such as steel, lumber, concrete, copper and plastics that go into home construction are now subject to tariffs under President Trump. Further, many construction jobs were being done by undocumented workers, particularly in the Southwest, where deportations are impacting the ability for homebuilders to find enough labor to build homes.

“Many of the big things that would address supply right now are going in the wrong direction,” said Mike Konczal, senior director of policy and research at the Economic Security Project.”

Pulte said on X that the introduction of a 50-year mortgage was just a “potential weapon,” among other solutions the White House has considered to combat high housing prices.

American don’t live long enough

The average age of a first-time homebuyer has been creeping up for years and is now roughly 40 years of age. A 50-year mortgage would be difficult to underwrite for a bank for a 40-year-old first-time homebuyer, who would be 90 years old by the time that home is paid off. The average life expectancy of an American is now roughly 79 years, meaning there’s 11 years of life expectancy not covered in a 50-year loan.

“It’s typically not a goal of policymakers to pass on mortgage debt to a borrowers’ children,” Konczal said.

Others have tried longer loans

Other parts of the financial system have extended loan terms, to mixed results. The seven-year auto loan has become increasingly common as car prices have risen and Americans keep their cars longer. Despite longer loan terms, auto loan delinquencies have been rising, and the average price of a new car is now $49,740 compared to a price of $38,948 for a new vehicle five years ago.

Student loans were originally designed to be paid off in 10 years, and now there are multiple payment options that extend repayment out to 20 years.

Economists pointed out that a 50-year mortgage may do the opposite of helping with home affordability: by causing home price inflation by introducing more potential buyers into a market struggling with supply.

Trump downplays idea

After significant criticism, President Trump seemed less enthused about the 50-year mortgage. When asked by Laura Ingraham of Fox News about the idea, President Trump said it “might help a little bit” but seemed to brush it off.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot insure a mortgage that is longer than 30 years, so any 50-year mortgages issued before Congress amends the law would be considered a “non-qualifying mortgage” and would be more difficult to sell to investors. Congress would have to amend U.S. financial laws in multiple places to allow 50-year mortgage, and there seems to be little appetite for Congress to take this on immediately.