Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against communications app Discord, alleging that the platform allows child predators to exploit children while falsely claiming child safety to parents.

“Discord presents itself to the world as a platform built on community, connection, and safety. It is not,” the lawsuit, filed on May 22 in the District Court of Collin County, Texas, said.

“Behind the safety pages and transparency pages, Discord built and maintains one of the internet’s most efficient hunting grounds for manipulation, grooming, and predatory behavior towards children. Discord did so knowingly, deliberately, and profitably.”

The design choices implemented on the communications platform make it easy for bad actors to locate vulnerable users, build trust quickly, and operate away from public view, the complaint said.

According to a Discord webpage, safety is at the “core of everything” the company does.

In another post, the company claims safety considerations are “fully integrated into our design process.” Discord also says that it has a “zero-tolerance policy” against individuals who engage in sexual grooming or exploitation of minors.

Such promises made to consumers, parents, and regulators were false, the lawsuit alleges.

Discord makes safety an “opt-in rather than default,” the complaint states.

“It chose to leave private servers invisible. It chose to staff its most critical safety function with unpaid volunteers. It chose to expire violations after 90 days. It chose to bury the block button. Discord chose profits and growth over the safety of children,” it states.

A 45-year-old can create a Discord account as a 13-year-old, and the platform has no reliable mechanism to detect or prevent such actions, according to the lawsuit.

While Discord allows channels to be age-restricted if a moderator wishes, this protection depends entirely on the self-reported birthdate entered when a user creates an account. The platform basically created an age-verification system “that a child can defeat in seconds,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit highlights multiple cases of minors being harmed by predators on Discord, including a 13-year-old boy who committed suicide in 2022 after being targeted by the 764 extremist network on the platform.

In another case, a 15-year-old boy committed suicide after he was groomed by a predator on Discord and Roblox to send sexually explicit images and videos, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint noted that Discord has made it into the “Dirty Dozen” list set up by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation for five straight years.

“Sexual abusers return to Discord again and again, thanks to this company’s reputation for lax rule enforcement and dangerous design,” the center said. “Even registered sex offenders have been charged for targeting kids on Discord.”

The lawsuit asks the court to declare Discord’s actions as “unlawful, deceptive, misleading, and unfair” and order the company to implement age verification requirements.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, a Discord spokesperson said the lawsuit’s “characterization of Discord does not reflect the platform we have built or the investments we have made in user safety.”

According to the spokesperson, unlike social media platforms, Discord does not have any algorithmic feeds, infinite scroll, or public “likes” that push content to mass audiences.

“Our safety systems combine advanced technology and human-led investigations, alongside user reports to help identify accounts or spaces engaged in harmful activity, including sharing exploitative and child sexual abuse materials,” the spokesperson said.

“We provide teen users and their parents and guardians with important privacy and safety tools, including Teen Safety Assist and our Family Center. We look forward to collaborating with policymakers in working toward a safer online experience for all users on Discord and across the internet.”

Age Assurance Rollout

On Feb. 9, Discord announced it planned to roll out teen safety features globally to ensure a “safer and more inclusive experience” for users aged 13 and older.

This involves an “age assurance process” in which users must submit identification or agree to use facial age estimation technology. However, only in a minority of cases will age assurance be required, according to Discord.

As part of the update, users will have “teen-appropriate experience, with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering that preserves the privacy and meaningful connections that define Discord,” the company said.

The updates were scheduled to take effect in March. But on Feb. 24, Discord said that the rollout had been extended to the second half of this year.

Meanwhile, Discord was one of the companies targeted by a recent letter from Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson, who asked the platform to comply with the Take It Down Act by May 19.

The Act requires platforms to set up a process that enables individuals, including children, to request the removal of intimate photos or videos shared without their consent. Platforms must make it easy for victims to submit such removal requests.

The FTC warned that it would “vigorously” enforce the Act, with each violation potentially resulting in civil penalties of $53,088.

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.

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.

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.

Authored by Christina Comben via CoinTelegraph.com,

Crypto-backed political groups supported several winning candidates in Texas primary runoffs Tuesday, highlighting the digital asset industry’s growing role in US elections as Congress debates new rules for crypto markets.

Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican US Senate runoff against four-term Senator John Cornyn by a wide margin, according to Texas primary runoff results, and will face Democratic state Representative James Talarico in November.

In Houston’s 18th Congressional District, Democrat Christian Menefee unseated fellow Democrat representative Al Green in a decisive win after Republican-led redistricting forced the two incumbents into the same district, ousting one of the state’s most senior House members.

Democrats and Republicans Alex Mealer and Jon Bonck also secured their party’s nominations in competitive Houston-area House races.

The contests drew heavy spending from crypto-aligned political action committees (PACs) focused on a small number of high-stakes races, and come as Congress debates new rules for digital asset markets, including legislation to define crypto market structure and establish a framework for dollar‑pegged stablecoins.

Victories by candidates backed by crypto-focused PACs in a politically influential state could give the industry additional allies as those measures advance.

Crypto money reshapes key Texas races

Two races in particular show how that money is being deployed.

Protect Progress, an affiliate of the Fairshake super PAC backed by firms including Ripple and Coinbase, reported spending about $5 million to support Menefee and a further $2.8 million on advertising opposing Green in the Houston race.

Another crypto-focused group, Fellowship PAC, funded in part by financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald and crypto custodian Anchorage Digital, reported roughly $500,000 in spending to boost Paxton over Cornyn in the Senate runoff.

Fairshake’s Republican affiliate, Defend American Jobs, also backed four winning Republican candidates, Jon Bonck, Tom Sell, Carlos De La Cruz and Alex Mealer.

Texas runoffs test crypto’s political power

Bitcoin-focused policy advocate Dennis Porter commented on Menefee’s victory, saying, “A pro crypto Democrat just ousted a 20-year incumbent Democrat who was anti crypto. Nature is healing,” a nod to what many in the industry saw as years of Democratic-led “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” campaigns, in which bank regulators and enforcement agencies have been accused of squeezing crypto firms out of the financial system.

While much of crypto PACs’ recent spending in the state has gone to Republican candidates, Menefee’s win gives the groups a high-profile Democratic ally in Texas.

The crypto advocacy group, Stand With Crypto, assigned Green an F grade for his strong opposition to industry-backed legislation, while Menefee is rated as supportive of digital asset innovation.

Stand With Crypto assigned Al Green an “F” rating. Source: Stand With Crypto

Prediction markets had strongly favored the crypto-aligned challengers heading into election day.

Contracts on regulated and crypto-native platforms implied odds of over 90% that both Paxton and Menefee would prevail, with nearly $15 million reportedly traded on markets tied specifically to the Paxton vs Cornyn runoff.

A Russian tanker carrying 270,000 barrels of diesel fuel and which is under US and EU sanctions spent weeks trying to reach crisis-hit Cuba, which is also under US sanctions as well amid what’s essentially become a full energy blockade, but has failed the reach the island nation and turned southward toward Brazil.

The exiled Russian outlet, The Insider, has detailed the following based on maritime tracking data:

The Russian-flagged tanker Universal (IMO: 9384306), which had been drifting for almost a month in the Sargasso Sea approaching the Antilles, has finally moved. However, the vessel is heading south, not toward Cuba, according to data from the Starboard Maritime Intelligence ship tracking service provided to The Insider. The vessel’s current destination is listed as FOR ORDER. Judging by the vessel’s movements, the United States has denied the tanker permission to transit Cuba. (machine translation)

It had been bound for Cuba since its departure from Russia in April, and was for a month drifting in an area some 1,000 miles northeast of Cuba.

Its destination remains listed as “For order” – which means it is still in a holding pattern awaiting routing and final destination instructions.

According to more details of it prior movements via The Moscow Times, “The Universal departed from the Russian Baltic port of Vistino in the Leningrad region on April 6 and, according to Britain’s The Telegraph, was escorted through the English Channel by a Russian military convoy.”

It was the Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate Admiral Grigorovich that accompanied the vessel into the Atlantic. Such extreme measures as a full military escort are deemed necessary due to prior EU country interdictions of sanctioned Russian ships.

Especially going back to April, Cuba and its population have been facing tightening economic strains where rolling blackouts and fuel shortages have intensified public hardship.

This energy crisis has become a central issue in its relations with Washington, as the government seeks relief from sanctions that limit access to fuel imports. A main supplier, Venezuela, has curtailed oil shipments to Cuba since the United States captured dictator Nicolás Maduro in January.

It appears that Russia is not going to try its luck at supplying Cuba with much-needed fuel amid the US-led fuel blockade of the island nation. After drifting for five weeks in the Sargasso Sea, the US-sanctioned, Russian-flagged Handymax tanker UNIVERSAL (9384306) has now… pic.twitter.com/bEIpyblcii

— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) May 27, 2026

The White House has repeatedly proclaimed that the Cuban government is in a weakened state. President Trump has also threatened “Cuba is next”. “The country is very weak. They’re in a very weak position economically, obviously, and financially,” WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said back in April.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

After a mediocre 2Y auction on Tuesday, moments ago the Treasury sold the week’s second coupon auction when it auctioned off $70BN in 5Y paper to solid demand, some superficial weakness notwithstanding. 

The auction stopped at a high yield of 4.182%, up from 3.955% in April and the highest yield since Jan 2025. The auction also tailed the 4.181% When Issued by 0.1bp, which was the 12th consecutive tailing auction for the tenor, the longest stretch on record.

The bid to cover was 2.34, up from 2.33 last month, and right on top of the 6-auction average 2 339. What is notable here is just how much the BTC has flatlined in the past 3 years.

The internals were also solid with Indirects awarded 74.85%, the highest since May 2025 and one of the highest on record. And with Directs awarded 12.34%, the lowest since March 2025, Dealers were left with 12.8% of the auction, up fractionally from 12.7% in April and above the recent average of 12.0%.

Overall, this was a solid auction with impressive foreign demand, where the only blemish was the tiny tail, which however one can ignore considering the impressive foreign bid.