Society's ChildS


Gavel

USAID official, 3 execs plead guilty in bribery scheme with over $550 million in contracts

WatsonBrittBarnes
L to R: Roderick Watson • Darryl Britt • Walter Barnes
A United States Agency of International Development (USAID) official as well as three corporate executives have pleaded guilty in a decades-long bribery scheme connected to over $550 million in contracts.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, four men pleaded guilty to the charges of being part of the bribery scheme. The USAID official in the case was Roderick Watson, 57, of Maryland, who was a contracting officer and pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official.

Walter Barnes, 46, of Maryland; Darryl Britt, 64, of Florida; and Paul Young, 62, of Maryland all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official while Barnes also pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

Barnes and Britt were the owners of PM Consulting Group LLC (doing business as Vistant) as well as Apprio, Inc. respectively while Young was a subcontractor for both Vistant and Apprio. Both firms were certified businesses with the Small Business Administration 8(a) contracting program.

Comment: This case, likely one of many, reveals how loosely USAID was managed and how easy it was to manipulate contracts for personal gain via bribery and fraud.


Revolver

Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and State Rep. Melissa Hortman shot at their homes

minnesota state senator shot
© KMSPThe crime scene in Brooklyn Park, where state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot, June 14, 2025
Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and State Representative Melissa Hortman, along with their spouses, have been shot by a man dressed as a police officer who showed up at their homes in Brooklyn Park and Champlin, according to law enforcement sources. The suspect is still at large.

The first shooting happened just after 2 a.m. on Saturday at the Champlin home of State Senator John Hoffman, a Democrat who has served in the Minnesota Senate since 2013. Hoffman suffered at least two gunshot wounds while his wife Yvette was shot three times.

A second shooting happened a few miles south, near the Edinburgh Golf Course in Brooklyn Park, at the home of State Representative Melissa Hortman, who has served in the House since 2005. She's also the Democratic leader in the Minnesota House. Both Hortman and her husband Mark were shot.

Comment: Sadly Ms. Hortman has died of her injuries:


Motive?





Attention

Impervious to Suffering

Surveillance
© Off-Guardian
Can I be so bold as to say I may have figured something out? It is probably something all of you already know, as I can be a bit slow on the uptake. I keep hearing from the sheep-types that they really don't care if we lose all of our freedoms. They don't care about losing privacy because they don't have anything to hide, they don't care about losing free speech because people should be punished for saying bad and/or dangerous things (and they have nothing to say that would be considered bad and/or dangerous).

They have no fear of the government getting too much control because there will never be a reason the government would want or need to control them. They don't fear communism or fascism primarily because they don't know what those two ideologies clearly mean, and besides, that would never happen in a free society — which they are ready to give up anyway.

Of course, to all of us shrew-types, we practically lose our cookies thinking about living in a society where basic freedoms have been stripped away, or where the government, or any other authority, has power over our movements, our money, and our fundamental existence. When we hear someone say, "I don't care how much control the authorities have, I have nothing to hide, and I do nothing wrong, therefore it is not something to worry about for me," we blow a gasket.

Don't they know?

Don't they know that when the control over the masses surely does take effect it won't matter a tinker's damn if they "have nothing to hide" or "don't do anything bad." Oppression comes in many flavours, and its primary purpose is not to punish wrongdoing, but rather to keep people, in a very general way, compliant and under control.

Control sets the tone of the behaviour of a society. A good example of this came about during the Canadian Trucker's Convoy. People who donated to that cause ran the risk of having their bank accounts frozen. (I was one that this happened to.) Was donating to a "cause" such as the Trucker's Convoy a "bad thing" — was it against the law, was it criminal? In a free society, protesting (peacefully) and standing up against any sort of injustice an individual finds abhorrent is one of our fundamental rights as citizens of a free country.

Eye 2

Flashback Israel is turning into 'refuge for pedophiles,' warns child abuse prevention activist

Yifat Shasha-Biton Manny Waks
© Aimee AmigaMK Yifat Shasha-Biton (Kulanu) and Manny Waks at a Knesset pre-hearing on child sex abuse in Jewish communities, Jerusalem, March 21, 2016.


At a Knesset pre-hearing, groups working to prevent the abuse suggested there may be a 'significantly higher proportion' of cases in the ultra-Orthodox community.


Israel has become a safe haven for Jewish pedophiles from around the world, a leading advocate for child sexual abuse victims warned Monday at a Knesset committee pre-hearing on pedophilia in the ultra-Orthodox community.

"Sex offenders tend to move from country to country to avoid jail, but what makes Israel unique is the Law of Return, which essentially grants unhindered access to anyone who is Jewish to come here without any real screening," said Manny Waks, the chief executive officer of Kol v'Oz, a newly formed nonprofit that aims to prevent child sexual abuse in the global Jewish community.

The Law of Return grants automatic citizenship in Israel to those who meet its definition of a Jew.

Comment: Another negative effect of the disastrous idea of creating a state for one religious group only. Why? Because any Jew gets a free pass into Israel, regardless of the sort of person they are or the crimes they have committed. Newsflash: Being Jewish doesn't automatically turn you into a good and decent citizen.


Star of David

Best of the Web: 'Bottom of darkness': Children raped in ritual ceremonies expose the horrors of Satanic child abuse in Israel

Multiple women recount organized abuse including ritual ceremonies conducted by people they knew, even close family members - after months of interviews with victims, their families, treatment professionals and experts in Israel and abroad, a disturbing picture emerges with descriptions difficult to read.
Isaac
© Luc/Getty ImagesAn Illustration of the attempted sacrifice of Isaac from the 19th century.
"I suffered painful sodomy, truly felt like I was splitting in two. It's a terrible experience, but there's something about these things, perhaps in their strangeness, that's like... maybe the hardest component is that if you tell people about these things, they'll think you're crazy. I remember many types of severe sexual abuse, but there's something about these ritualistic abuses that makes them the bottom of darkness."

In direct words and with a clear voice, Emunah (pseudonym, like all victims' names in this article) describes the severe abuse she allegedly experienced in her childhood. Organized sexual abuse that included "ceremonies" with supposed religious significance. Horrifying ceremonies in which religious people, some from her own family, sacrificed her as an offering for spiritual transcendence or redemption.

Emunah is not alone. More than ten women between the ages of 20-45 with whom we spoke describe a severe phenomenon raising serious concern that in Israel, like many countries worldwide, organized sexual abuse of children is occurring right under everyone's nose.

Comment: See also:

Rabbi exposes rampant child sex abuse in the Ultra-orthodox Jewish community
US: Child sex abuse scandal rocks Orthodox Jewish community after 85 arrested Orthodox Jewish Community Struggles With Abuse Allegations


Family

'Sumoud' aid convoy heads to Egypt seeking to break the siege on Gaza

Sumoud Convoy Gaza aid famine
© Press TV TG ChannelSumoud Convoy to Gaza
An overland aid convoy of buses and cars crossed into Libya on Tuesday as it makes its way to Egypt, aiming to break Israel's crippling humanitarian siege on the Gaza Strip.

Consisting of 12 buses and 100 private cars, the Sumoud (resilience in Arabic) convoy of more than 1,000 participants, led by Tunisian civil society as well as participants from Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and Libya, set off from the Tunisian capital on Monday.

"We crossed through several Libyan cities and are now close to Al-Zawiya, 51 km west of Tripoli," Mohammed Ameen Binnour, a medical coordinator of the convoy, told the Anadolu news agency.

Comment:


Egypt, doubtless under Israeli and U.S. pressure, has stymied the relief effort's progress:





Sheriff

Texas Gov. Abbott deploys National Guard to San Antonio ahead of ICE Protest

greg abbot national guard texas ice protests
© Raquel Natalicchio for the Houston ChronicleGov. Abbott with Texas National Guard troops at the border town of Eagle Pass amid a Biden-era surge of illegal immigrants
Setting himself in stark contrast to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered a contingent of National Guard soldiers to San Antonio ahead of protests against the apprehensions of illegal aliens planned for Wednesday night and Saturday.

"Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles," Abbott's press secretary said in a Tuesday night statement. "Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be swiftly held accountable to the full extent of the law."

News of the deployment of National Guard soldiers comes after lawless conduct by demonstrators in Austin on Monday night. Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers aided local police in managing a response that kept the theft and destruction to a minimum. "During Monday evening's response, DPS personnel deployed tear gas and pepper ball projectiles to ensure officer safety and maintain order," said DPS in a statement. Five arrests were made, with charges including felony criminal mischief and resisting arrest. Here's video of the tear-gas deployment:

Russian Flag

Best of the Web: Siberianisation and the pursuit of a new civilisational platform

Professor Sergey A. Karaganov
© Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul ChamasProfessor Sergey A. Karaganov: This is a civilizational struggle against techno-barbarism and techno-paganism, against the new Nazism, against dehumanization.
Following our first two interviews here and here, we wish to turn once again to esteemed luminary, political scientist and senior political advisor, Professor Sergey A. Karaganov* to discuss the topics of Russia's historic civilisations, Siberia and the process of Siberianisation, and the essence of a New Civilisational Platform for the Russian Federation.

Prof. Sergey Karaganov, in an interview with Nora Hoppe and Tariq Marzbaan, outlines Russia's civilizational turn: rejecting Western liberalism, embracing its multiethnic spiritual heritage, Siberian future, and its Eastward path to revive a mission of service over consumption.

* * *

Russia's historical civilisations

HOPPE/ MARZBAAN: You mentioned in our last interview with you that Russia is the proud heir of two great civilisations - the Mongol and the Byzantine civilisations...

The Byzantine legacies...
eastern rome byzantine empire kyivan rus map
© Google Maps/Batoul Chamas
What did Russia inherit from Byzantium beyond Orthodox Christianity, other than its influence on the arts and architecture?

PROFESSOR KARAGANOV: Let me begin by saying that if we want to get to the deep origins of the identity of Russia, the Russians and other peoples of the Russian Empire and the USSR, as well as very many other peoples of Eurasia, we must go back to the end of the first millennium BC and the beginning of the first millennium AD. At that time, the vast spaces from Mongolia to the Carpathians and beyond, and then toward Iran and even India to the forests of today's Russia were roamed by Scythian tribes that left a significant cultural layer and a huge number of burial mounds. The Scythians were a very interesting people. Unfortunately, they did not leave literary texts, although they left a lot of household items testifying to their high culture. There is also the famous Scythian gold. These tribes, which made up a soft empire, laid the foundation for most of the peoples in Central Eurasia from Mongolia through Iran, Phoenicia, Byzantium, and Southern Russia, approximately to present-day Hungary. The Scythians spoke a language that apparently had Eastern Iranic roots. Now we are rediscovering within ourselves these roots that unite us with the peoples of Eurasia.

Jet2

Ukrainian Air Force admits modern Russian jets trump F-16s

Two F-16 Fighting Falcons at an air demonstration, Ukraine, August 4, 2024.
© Getty Images / Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/AnadoluTwo F-16 Fighting Falcons at an air demonstration, Ukraine, August 4, 2024.
Moscow's newer fighter planes outrange their US-made counterparts in both radar and strike capability, Colonel Yury Ignat has said.

Ukraine's Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets are outmatched by Russia's newer aircraft and missile systems, the head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yury Ignat, has said.

Washington gave its NATO allies the green light to send their surplus US-made jets to Ukraine in 2023.
"We are getting Western equipment, we are getting aircraft. Today, we have F16s, we already have Mirages," he said in an interview with the outlet Ukrainian Pravda published on Tuesday. "They have already been in use. We understand that they are not the newest."
Ignat stressed the importance of the detection range of the jets' radar, and the strike range of its weapons.
"Unfortunately, Russia has planes today that see further, and missiles that shoot further. Even compared now with the F-16," he said.

Pistol

At least ten killed in school shooting in Austria

police
© Getty Images / welcomia
At least ten people have been killed in a shooting at a school in the Austrian city of Graz, according to local authorities. The incident occurred around 10am local time at BORG Dreierschutzengasse, a secondary school in the Lend district.

Police confirmed that shots were fired inside the building, prompting a major response involving multiple units, including Cobra special forces and police helicopters.

Graz Mayor Elke Kahr later confirmed ten people have been killed in the attack: one adult and nine students, including the suspected gunman. Media reports state that about 30 more people, both students and teachers, were injured in the shooting and taken to hospitals in Graz, with at least two in critical condition.

According to police, the shooter was a 21-year-old Austrian citizen from the Graz-Umgebung district. His name has not been released. He used two legally owned firearms in the attack before shooting himself in a restroom. Authorities said he had no prior police record.