https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/blackstone-bets-6-billion-on-u-s-suburban-home-rentals-1.1620196

(Bloomberg) – Blackstone Group Inc. agreed to buy single-family rental company Home Partners of America Inc. for $6 billion, betting the demand for suburban housing will stay hot even as the pandemic eases.

Home Partners, which is being acquired by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc., owns more than 17,000 homes across the U.S., according to a statement on Tuesday. The company gives tenants the option of buying their rental, making it unique among its peers.

Blackstone, which built Invitation Homes Inc. into the largest single-family landlord following the U.S. foreclosure crisis, has rekindled its interest. Last August, it led a group of investors that acquired a minority stake in Toronto-based Tricon Residential Inc., which owns and operates more than 31,000 homes and apartments.

The flood of investor capital comes as low inventory pushes prices higher at the fastest pace ever, and tenants opt for rental houses over apartments. Invitation Homes posted an occupancy rate of more than 98% in the first quarter, allowing the industry giant to increase rents on new leases at a record rate.

Rising rents and low inventory have also made single-family landlords a target across the political spectrum. Conservative book author J.D. Vance started a firestorm on Twitter recently by arguing that Wall Street investors were making it hard for regular Americans to buy homes.

Home Partners of America, which received backing from KKR & Co. and BlackRock Inc., has a business model that may help its new owner sidestep some criticisms. The company’s leases give tenants an option to buy their home, and Blackstone said it intends to continue the program.

The option allows Home Partners of America, which explored an initial public offering in 2018, to charge above-market rents, according to a recent ratings company report.

https://www.metro.us/iran-seizes-7000-cryptocurrency/

Iran seizes 7,000 cryptocurrency computer miners, largest haul to date

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian police have seized 7,000 computer miners at an illegal cryptocurrency farm, their largest haul to date of the energy-guzzling machines that have exacerbated power outages in Iran, state media reported on Tuesday.

In late May, Iran banned the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for nearly four months as part of efforts to reduce the incidence of power blackouts blamed by officials on surging electricity demand during the searingly hot and dry summer.

Tehran police chief General Hossein Rahimi said the 7,000 computer miners were seized in an abandoned factory in the west of the capital, the state news agency IRNA reported.

According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, around 4.5% of all bitcoin mining takes place in Iran, giving it hundreds of million dollars in revenue from cryptocurrencies that can be used to lessen the impact of U.S. sanctions.

https://www.metro.us/bitcoin-sinks-below-30000-2/

LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) -Bitcoin on Tuesday fell below $30,000 for the first time since January, adding to losses sparked a day earlier when China’s central bank deepened a crackdown on cryptocurrencies.

The sell-off was sparked by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) urging China’s largest banks and payment firms to crack down harder on cryptocurrency trading, the latest tightening of restrictions on the sector by Beijing.

Crypto exchanges were effectively pushed out of China by a 2017 rule change, but over-the-counter (OTC) platforms based overseas have sprung up to receive payment from people based in China and buying cryptocurrencies on their behalf.

“It basically says now OTC transactions are not legitimate … we are not allowed by the banks to transfer money for cryptocurrency purchases and sales,” said Bobby Lee, chief of cryptocurrency wallet app Ballet and formerly CEO of BTC China, China’s first bitcoin exchange.

After Monday’s PBOC statement, banks including Agricultural Bank of China and Ant Group’s ubiquitous payment platform Alipay said they would step up monitoring to root out crypto transactions.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/559545-long-serving-chinese-ambassador-to-us-to-leave-post

China’s longest serving ambassador to the U.S. confirmed on Tuesday that he is leaving his post, amid one of the most tense periods in relations between Washington and Beijing.

Cui Tiankai, who has served in Washington for eight years, reportedly issued a farewell letter in which he raised concern about the future relations between the U.S. and China.

“China-US relations are at a critical crossroads, with the US engaging in a new round of restructuring in its government policy towards China, and it is facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation,” Cui wrote in the farewell letter, the South China Morning Post reported.

“At this moment, overseas Chinese in the US have to shoulder a greater responsibility and mission, and I hope you will defend your right to be in the US and to develop your own interests, with the starting point of helping to safeguard the fundamental interests of the people in China and the US.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/06/22/drought-emergency-project-to-protect-california-water-supplies-being-built-in-delta/

In a new symbol of California’s worsening drought, construction crews are putting the finishing touches on a $10 million emergency project to build a massive rock barrier through part of the Delta in Contra Costa County to preserve water supplies for millions of people across the state.

The 800-foot long barrier — the size of San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid laid on its side — is essentially a rock wall, 120 feet wide, built in water 35 feet deep.

Its purpose: To block salt water from the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay from flowing too far east and contaminating the huge state and federal pumps near Tracy that send fresh water south to 27 million people — from San Jose to Los Angeles — and to millions of acres of farmland in the Central Valley and beyond.

In a worst-case scenario, if too much salty water reached the pumps, they might have to be shut down.

It would be a real bad situation,” said Jacob McQuirk, a principal engineer for the state Department of Water Resources who is leading the barrier project. “Water would be too salty for irrigation. Municipal supplies wouldn’t be able to draw from the Delta. Once you lose control, the only way to get it back is through big winter storms. And we don’t know when those are coming.”

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/smallville-actress-allison-mack-gave-government-key-tape-that-brought-down-nxivm-sex-cult-leader-prosecutors/

Smallville Actress Allison Mack Gave Government Key Tape That Brought Down NXIVM Sex Cult Leader: Prosecutors

A week before Smallville actress Allison Mack’s sentencing, federal prosecutors revealed previously unknown details about her cooperation against NXIVM cult leader Keith Raniere. She gave the government a recording roughly a month before his trial showing the branding ceremony into the secret sisterhood of sex “slaves” that burned women with the cult leader’s initials.

Prosecutors revealed the extent of Mack’s cooperation for the first time in a memorandum on Monday evening, which argues for some leniency at her upcoming June 30th sentencing in light of her “substantial assistance to the government.”

The memo explores how Mack detailed the inner workings of the “secret sisterhood” of Raniere’s slaves known as DOS, short for Dominus Obsequious Sororium, which was exposed by the New York Times in 2017:

obama-task-force-member admits democrat defund police campaign had opposite effect

https://www.theblaze.com/news/obama-task-force-member-police-crime-spike

The context of Cunningham's argument was a question from show host Stephanie Ruhle about the implications of the "defund the police" movement considering skyrocketing violent crime rates has become the primary issue in the New York City mayoral election.

Cunningham built her argument on the fact that police departments have not been defunded, but have, in fact, had their funding increased since 2020. In reality, cities are pumping more cash into law enforcement to battle violent crime and a shortage of police officers. Cunningham failed to mention that fact, instead outright suggesting that more funding, plus increased crime rates, means police officers are responsible.

"I think that there are a lot of police unions and GOP operatives that would like for us to believe that this recent crime wave has everything to do with this idea of defunding the police. But guess what… The police haven't been defunded," Cunningham said.

How bad is the officer shortage?

The shortage is so bad, in fact, that Atlanta, for example, "remains more than 400 officers under its authorized level, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The New York Times captured the gravity of the situation, "A survey of about 200 police departments indicates that retirements were up by 45 percent and resignations by 18 percent in the period between April 2020 and April 2021, when compared with the preceding 12 months."

Cunningham built her argument on the fact that police departments have not been defunded, but have, in fact, had their funding increased since 2020. In reality, cities are pumping more cash into law enforcement to battle violent crime and a shortage of police officers. Cunningham failed to mention that fact, instead outright suggesting that more funding, plus increased crime rates, means police officers are responsible.