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Seattle Residents Forced To Barricade Their Streets To Protect From Gun Violence

Zero Rss
3 weeks 6 days ago
Seattle Residents Forced To Barricade Their Streets To Protect From Gun Violence

Fed up with years of gun violence and repeated shootings near Aurora Avenue, some residents in North Seattle have started installing their own street barricades in an effort to protect their neighborhoods, KOMO News writes. 

Neighbors living near North 97th, 98th, and 102nd streets recently placed large planter boxes, piles of dirt, and gravel across parts of residential roads that connect to Aurora Avenue North. The goal, residents say, is to make it harder for shooters to speed through side streets during violent incidents linked to ongoing prostitution and human trafficking activity in the area.

Tensions escalated again over the weekend after another shooting near Aurora Avenue N and N 98th Street. Seattle police said officers found around 40 shell casings at the scene after multiple people exchanged gunfire. Security footage reportedly captured several seconds of rapid shooting, with bullets hitting nearby apartments, homes, and parked cars. In one recent case, a stray bullet entered a family’s home and came to rest near the bassinet of a 6-week-old baby.

The KOMO report says that many residents say the violence has become unbearable and accuse city leaders of failing to respond effectively despite years of complaints and calls for stronger enforcement. In response to the latest incidents, Seattle police said they are increasing overnight patrols along Aurora Avenue and assigning additional resources from the department’s Gun Violence Reduction Unit.

The homemade barriers, however, have sparked disagreement within the community. Some residents worry blocked streets could slow firefighters, ambulances, or police responding to emergencies. Others point out that Seattle requires permits for any structures placed in public roadways, meaning the barricades could eventually be removed by the city.

Still, supporters argue the measures are necessary to keep residents safe, especially children and families living near the repeated violence. They say enough routes remain open for emergency vehicles and believe the immediate threat from ongoing shootings outweighs concerns about the temporary roadblocks.

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/27/2026 - 18:00
Tyler Durden

NYC Council fighting back on Mamdani’s parks budget cuts — with plan to fund hundreds more quality of life officers

NY Post
3 weeks 6 days ago
They want to see more green! The City Council is pushing back against Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s cuts to the Parks Department — seeking to fund an additional 200 officers to monitor quality-of-life issues across the Big Apple’s green spaces, The Post has learned. The New York City Council is seeking to fund an additional 200...
Nicole Rosenthal, Matthew Fischetti

Mexico Hosts Iranian World Cup Team After Training Camp Switched From US

Zero Rss
3 weeks 6 days ago
Mexico Hosts Iranian World Cup Team After Training Camp Switched From US

Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times,

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country had agreed to host Iran’s World Cup soccer team this summer after Washington decided it did not want the players to stay in the United States overnight.

“The United States doesn’t want the Iranian national team to stay overnight in the United States,” Sheinbaum told reporters on May 25.

She said a FIFA representative had asked, “Can they stay overnight in Mexico?”

“And we said, ‘Yes, no problem. We have no issue with that,’” she said.

“We have no reason to deny them the possibility of them staying in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said, before saying the details were being sorted out by Gabriela Cuevas, the Mexican representative to FIFA, and the tourism minister, Josefina Rodríguez Zamora.

FIFA announced on May 25 that the training camps for the 48 teams had been finalized, and Iran’s base had been moved to Tijuana, which is just over the border from San Diego, California.

Since the United States started Operation Epic Fury against Iran on Feb. 28, there have been doubts about whether the Iranian team could compete in the World Cup.

Trump wrote on Truth Social On March 12 that the Iranian team is “welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.”

On April 23, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for global partnerships, Paolo Zampolli, suggested to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the White House that four-time winner Italy—who failed to qualify—should replace Iran at the World Cup.

On the same day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington had no objection to Iran taking part in the soccer World Cup in North America but that nobody with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would be allowed entry into the United States.

FIFA decided in 2018 to let the United States, Canada, and Mexico co-host the World Cup tournament.

World Cups are typically hosted by only one country, with the exception of the 2002 tournament, which was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea. But because FIFA had decided to expand the size of the tournament from 32 to 48 teams, it agreed that the 104 matches could be shared between three countries.

Iran’s 3 Games in US

Iran qualified for the World Cup in March 2025, and in December, when the draw for the tournament was made, their three group games were placed in Seattle and Los Angeles.

At the draw, Trump was awarded with the inaugural FIFA peace prize by the organization’s president, Gianni Infantino.

The teams who have all their group games in the United States have training camps there, with the exception of Iran, who was originally scheduled to be based in Tucson, Arizona.

Iran’s first game will be in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15.

Six days later, they will play at the same venue, against Belgium, and their final group game will be against Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

The World Cup runs from June 11 to July 19, and if Iran finishes in the top two in their group, they will go through to a second round match.

Players from Iran's national soccer team stand onstage as they are greeted by a crowd—before their departure for training and friendly matches in Turkey—at Islamic Revolution Square in Tehran, Iran, on May 13, 2026. Vahid Salemi/AP

If Iran finishes their group in second place, they could play the United States on July 3, in Dallas.

Iran has qualified for the World Cup six times—in 1978, 1998, 2006, 2014, 2018, and 2022—but has never progressed beyond the group stage.

The U.S. State Department said on May 25 that Trump had made it clear the Iranian team was welcome to participate in the tournament.

The Epoch Times reached out to the State Department for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/27/2026 - 17:40
Tyler Durden

China's Crackdown On Online Foreign Trades Will Increase Capital Flight

Zero Rss
3 weeks 6 days ago
China's Crackdown On Online Foreign Trades Will Increase Capital Flight

Authored by Anders Corr via The Epoch Times,

The regime in China imposed a crackdown against three online brokers that serve mainland Chinese clients by facilitating their foreign securities trades.

The crackdown worries the Hong Kong financial industry with the threat of harming liquidity, initial public offerings (IPOs), and cross-border capital flows in the world’s top capital market for the first quarter of 2026. An estimated $1 trillion of “hot money” seeking short-term investments in high-interest assets flowed out of China in 2025.

The firms are Tiger Brokers, Futu Holdings, and Long Bridge Securities, which together hold as much as $32 billion in assets under management for mainland clients. The May 22 crackdown by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), coordinated with other regime organs, is over the firms’ alleged facilitation of unregulated overseas trading, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. The regime confiscated “illegal gains” from the three firms. For two years, the mainland accounts in question are banned from making new purchases and are only allowed to sell their assets and withdraw funds.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regulates international capital flows in an attempt to accumulate wealth in China and tax overseas investments. The controls apply to international transfers of foreign exchange above $50,000 per mainland Chinese per year. Regulators in Beijing are forcing the three brokers to sell many of their overseas assets, putting downward pressure on the firms’ share prices, on popular (among Chinese investors) overseas-listed Chinese companies, and on the Chinese and Hong Kong stock indexes.

The regime’s targeting of the firms seeks to force the flow of investment into official channels more easily regulated and taxed, including Hong Kong’s Stock Connect, Wealth Management Connect, and Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) programs.

The first two only allow Hong Kong-listed securities, while QDII has quotas.

The crackdown comes approximately a year after at least some of the firms received increased interest in the Hong Kong IPOs of “star” Chinese companies and overseas transfers due in part to higher interest rates abroad.

Mainland investors are particularly interested in U.S. fixed income and equities.

Quantitative strategies, hedge funds, and gold are also popular. In response to growing demand for private wealth, brokers have increased their presence in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Last June, Tiger reportedly planned to double the number of its employees in Hong Kong to target offshore Chinese wealth in the city. The company was founded twelve years ago in Beijing, but is now headquartered in Singapore. Last year, it employed 60 people in Hong Kong, where it began operations in 2022. Tiger’s assets under management were north of $50 billion, including in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The company’s parent firm, UP Fintech Holding, is U.S.-listed.

Tiger will likely pay about $60 million in fines and confiscated income to the regime. UP Fintech’s ADRs and Futu shares fell as much as 47 percent and 35 percent in premarket trading following news of the crackdown.

Insiders may have profited from the crackdown as buying of put options expiring on May 22 surged the day prior to the announcement to 600,000 shares of Futu alone. Gains on those shares led to paper gains of as much as 3,400 percent. This raises questions about insider risks to U.S. and other investors in public companies over which the CCP has so much control and foreknowledge.

The proposed fine for Futu is approximately $271 million, plus a personal fine of $184,000 for the company’s CEO. The Tiger CEO will likely pay about the same.

In August, Futu executives reportedly noted that high U.S. interest rates were driving client interest in fixed-income assets. The comment came in the context of reporting on the company’s growth, including through an eighth retail location in Hong Kong, as well as expansion in Malaysia and Singapore. The firm’s private wealth services are available to persons with at least $640,000 in investable assets, many of whom are considered part of China’s “new wealth” clients who often invest online. Futu is headquartered in Hong Kong but is U.S.-listed.

In 2022, the regime banned Futu and other such companies without mainland licenses from adding new mainland clients, though old clients could still trade, and some new clients could evade the controls if they had access to a Hong Kong address. Now, even pre-2022 accounts may be deemed “illegal” and banned from unregulated foreign trades.

Stricter capital controls will likely increase demand in China for capital flight even more, as investors worry that the few exit options left to them will eventually close as well.

This could increase the use of remaining avenues for wealth transfers out of China. Traders may attempt to change the identities on the brokerages to legalize and manage the risk of their Hong Kong accounts, or move their assets through a custodian transfer (without the need to sell stocks) to brokers at Bank of China’s Hong Kong branch or HSBC Holdings PLC, which may have more permissive controls on foreign trades.

Others may seek to move their assets to brokers in the United States or Singapore, including through the use of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin rose for at least two days after the announced crackdown.

China has banned much crypto trading and mining since 2021, but two years later, Hong Kong attempted to become an Asian crypto-trading hub through permissive legislation and regulations. The latest crackdown will not help this goal. Neither will it ease downward pressures on China’s economy.

Prior communist crackdowns against banks, online education companies, and property developers have hurt China’s economy, and this will likely be more of the same.

Tyler Durden Wed, 05/27/2026 - 17:00
Tyler Durden

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