Society's ChildS


Bad Guys

Tip of the iceberg: 900 suspected pedophiles arrested as 'darknet' child porn kingpin jailed for 30yrs

child running
© Andrey Arkusha / Global Look Press
Nearly 900 members of a global 'dark web' pedophile ring sprawling Europe and the Americas have been arrested following a two-year investigation, the FBI and Europol reported after the website's founder was handed a 30-year jail sentence.

Shedding light on the scope of the operation which is still active, the FBI revealed that in the US alone, 350 arrests were made as part of a wide-ranging investigation into Playpen - a secret website that is being referred to as possibly the biggest child pornography online dump that ever existed.

Comment: 900 arrests from an investigation into a site that had 215,000 members and 50,000 unique weekly visitors is pretty abysmal, and sentencing the 'kingpin' to only 30 years for abetting the abuse of hundreds of children is rather light punishment for such a horrific crime.


Life Preserver

Body cam footage shows cop save lost 4-year-old autistic boy from drowning

Aaron Bulmer
A police officer is receiving much-deserved praise this week after his body camera recorded him save a 4-year-old boy with autism who fell into a pond.

Officer Aaron Bulmer was actually looking for suspects near the Central Park Community Center on April 30, when he noticed the little boy walking dangerously close to the pond.

All of the sudden the boy fell into the water and began bobbing up and down — unable to swim. Bulmer then jumped in, grabbed the little boy and pulled him to safety. The entire dramatic scene was captured on the officer's body camera.

According to police, the boy had wandered off and the parents had been looking for him. The officer not only saved the boy's life but also found a missing child.

Ambulance

Deputies stopped Macon teen's Facebook Live suicide attempt

ambulance
© Laura CorleyAn ambulance and several patrol cars responded after a Macon teen apparently attempted to commit suicide on Facebook Live.
Bibb County sheriff's deputies stopped a Macon teen's apparent suicide attempt that was broadcast on Facebook Live on Tuesday night.

The haunting scene unfolded on digital screens about 7:30 p.m., prompting several to call 911.

Numerous live-streaming suicide attempts have occured since Facebook Live launched last year, but this was the first case here in Bibb County, Sheriff David Davis said.

"It's a good thing that the people watching this called it in," Davis said. "Those people did the right thing."

Stock Down

Financial analyst: "There is a massive amount of financial engineering supporting the stock market right now"

money printing
If you've been following mainstream financial analysts and pundits you'd think that the U.S. economy was booming again. Prices are near all time highs, people are living in fancy homes again, everyone has a brand new car, and official unemployment is below 5%.

Happy days are back again, just like back in the late 1920's.

But Traders Choice analyst and "Fed Predictor" Gregory Mannarino has a different theory, and according to his latest alert, the situation with the U.S. economy and financial markets is critical:

Stop

Despicable: Two Scientology 'rehab facilities' shut down for holding patients prisoner

Scientology
© AP Photo/ Richard Vogel
A pair of Tennessee rehab facilities run by members of the Church of Scientology have been shut down after police discovered that patients there were being held against their will.

The facilities in Cannon County came under investigation after police received a 911 call from a man who claimed to be trapped in one of the facilities. When they came to investigate, they found the man locked in a cabin with no way to escape.

The facilities were little more than a handful of cabins and a double wide trailer concealed in the middle of the wilderness. Police described the supposed path to wellness as "a gated, makeshift paddock secured externally with a steel latch."

Vader

US big pharma Johnson & Johnson loses $110mn talcum powder cancer case

johnson and johnson talcum powder
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
A court in St. Louis, Missouri has ordered the US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) to pay over $110 million to a Virginia woman, who claims she developed ovarian cancer after decades of using its talcum powder.

The verdict is the largest for J&J among nearly 2,400 current lawsuits accusing the company of insufficient warning to consumers about cancer risks connected to products containing talc.

Most of those suits have been filed in St. Louis. The company has already faced four previous trials, three of which resulted in $197 million verdicts against J&J and its talc supplier.

Stormtrooper

No surprise: Clinton allies blame Russia for Macron emails leak

Emmanuel Macron voting poster
© REUTERS/ Gonzalo Fuentes
Hillary Clinton's former campaign aides on Friday accused Russia of masterminding a massive leak of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign emails despite pre-election silence in France.

Tens of thousands of emails were purportedly stolen from accounts of Macron's political movement and posted online late on Friday. The campaign confirmed it had been the target of a massive hacking attack but said the leak was laced with fake papers to spread lies ahead of this Sunday's voting.

"Putin is waging war against Western democracies and our President is on the wrong side," Clinton's former press secretary Brian Fallon tweeted.

Comment: More on the leaks: Macron lied about tax evasion: 4Chan /pol/ posts images from Macron's off-shore bank account


Pistol

At least four dead after gunmen storm office of Mexico's ruling party

gunmen attempted to raid the office of Institutional Revolutionary Party
© Centro de Emergencias México / YouTube
At least three police officers and a civilian were killed in a shootout between armed attackers and police responding to a distress call at the office of President Enrique Pena Nieto's party in the State of Mexico. The shocking attack was captured on video.

The violent scenes took place after the gunmen attempted to raid the office of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the municipality of Netzahualcoyotl, to the northeast of Mexico City. The incident occurred around 10:30am Friday during a training administered for several party members, Ernesto Nemer Alvarez, a campaign coordinator for PRI governor candidate Alfredo del Mazo, said, as reported by El Universal.

According to preliminary reports, the attack was carried out by at least seven people who arrived at the scene in a car and afterwards fled towards the Mexico City.

Bullseye

Election rigging: French voters receive invalid, damaged Le Pen postal ballots; postal ballots for Macron intact

invalid ballot marine le pen, french election anomalies
According to a press statement released by the Le Pen campaign, there have been thousands of reports of invalid ballots being received across such geographically diverse counties as Ardèche, Alliers, Savoie, Loire, Yvelines, Eure-et-Loire, and Hérault – a broad spread across the country.

Reports are emerging of torn - and therefore invalid - Le Pen ballot papers being received by voters ahead of tomorrow's all important French presidential election. In each case, the ballots of rival candidate, Emmanuel Macron, are intact.


David Rachline, Campaign Director for Marine Le Pen, last night called for vigilance on the part of voters receiving their election material, and for those concerned to notify authorities at polling stations of any damaged ballots.


Comment: Just a note that these torn Le Pen ballot papers sent out to French citizens were used only by those who voted by mail. As such, they're postal ballots.


Millions of packs have been sent out to French households in recent days, containing voting information and ballot papers for Sunday's election. According to a press statement released by the Le Pen campaign, there have been thousands of reports of invalid ballots being received across such geographically diverse counties as Ardèche, Alliers, Savoie, Loire, Yvelines, Eure-et-Loire, and Hérault - a broad spread across the country.

Videos are being posted and shared on Facebook of registered voters opening their envelopes to reveal the contents - intact ballot papers for Macron, ripped papers in the case of Le Pen.

Comment: Alarming voter irregularities reported across France as fears mount election being rigged


Bad Guys

'Operation Pacifier': FBI hack of darkweb pedophile network nets 900 arrests

Playpen child porn network
Nearly 900 suspected pedophiles have been arrested and almost 300 children identified or rescued from their abusers following the massive takedown of an underground online pedophile network, US and European police said Friday.

A more than two-year investigation into the notorious Playpen network and its members led to the arrests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Europol said, an announcement that came just days after a US court sentenced Playpen founder and administrator Steven Chase to 30 years in prison.

The arrest of Florida-based Chase in December 2014 set off a sweeping global probe into the users of the members-only forum.

Playpen was buried deep online in what is known as the "darknet," where Tor anonymity software and encryption hide often illegal activities. In this case, it masked participants in a forum where people submitted and traded photographs and videos of the sexual abuse of children.

Comment: See also: FBI ran large child porn site to catch predators, and the accused are crying foul