Government Corruption News Stories

Excerpts of Key Government Corruption News Stories in Major Media

Below are key excerpts of revealing news articles on government corruption from reliable news media sources. If any link fails to function, a paywall blocks full access, or the article is no longer available, try these digital tools.

Note: This comprehensive list of news stories is usually updated once a week. Explore our full index to revealing excerpts of key major media news stories on several dozen engaging topics. And don't miss amazing excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.

There is an epidemic of child sex crimes in and around Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Since 2021, and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, dozens of elite soldiers stationed at the military base have been convicted of raping children, distributing child pornography, and other similar offenses. Many of these soldiers served in Afghanistan, where ... the U.S. military aided their local allies in "bacha bazi" (boy play): the practice of kidnapping and keeping boys as sex slaves, large numbers of whom were enslaved on U.S. military compounds. According to investigative journalist Seth Harp, who uncovered a massive narcotics smuggling and distribution network run by elite military operators ... there has been a tenfold increase in such cases since 2021. [Former United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, Special Forces Green Beret, and a former Battalion Commander at Fort Bragg Anthony] Aguilar notes: "When you deploy as a military and you have all of your 90 cubic inch containers that get locked up will all your stuff in it. Those don't get inspected when they fly back over on a military aircraft and land at Fort Bragg…[They learn] How easy it would be to transport and traffic weapons, drugs, and yes, even humans, back and forth, from country to country. It is all very doable. And it is all very lucrative." "Military leadership at the highest ranks are aware of what is happening, and they choose to cover it up. The whole time that the U.S. was in Afghanistan, they were working with, protecting, funding, and arming guys who were systematically raping little boys, keeping them in chains on U.S. military bases – chained children on U.S. bases who were raped on a nightly basis!" At Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar Province in 2014, [former Fort Bragg paratrooper Jordan] Terrell recalls seeing a group of young bachas running around the base. One, he noticed, "had something hanging out of his butt." At first confused by the site, he later realized that what he saw was the child's prolapsed anus from being repeatedly sodomized.

Note: The State Department belatedly released a report admitting that, for nearly 20 years of occupation, there existed, "a government pattern of sexual slavery on government compounds." US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal that American contractors at DynCorp engaged in drug use and the exploitation of young "dancing boys" in Afghanistan. At the same time, US soldiers were formally ordered not to intervene as Afghan police and militia allies sexually abused children on US bases. Dyncorp was also involved in child sex slavery rings in Bosnia and Colombia, where US military soldiers and international contractors working under DynCorp bought, raped, and trafficked kids as young as 12.

The AI surveillance platform provider Palantir is no stranger to controversy. It brings in billions each year from controversial partnerships with groups like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Israeli Defense Forces, something CEO Alex Karp isn't keen on changing anytime soon. In an interview ... this week, Karp even took it a step further, arguing that legalizing US war crimes would open up a whole new market for Palantir. Unlike other moguls profiting off the military industrial complex who hide behind concepts like "democracy" and "national security," the Palantir CEO isn't afraid to put his mouth where his money is with disarmingly bombastic language. In a letter to shareholders earlier this year, for instance, Karp quoted hawkish political scholar Samuel Huntington in arguing that the "rise of the West was not made possible ‘by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion… but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.'" While this could be seen as a damning indictment of Western civilization and its violent stranglehold over the world economy, Karp instead positions it as a source of inspiration. In another part of his interview ... the Palantir CEO reaffirmed his commitment to ICE, emphasizing the important role he plays in making immigrants lives worse. "I'm going to use my whole influence to make sure this country stays skeptical on migration and has a deterrent capacity that it only uses selectively," Karp said.

Note: Listen to an audio clip of Jeffrey Epstein promoting Palantir to Ehud Barak. Read how Palantir helped the NSA spy on the entire planet. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and the disappearance of privacy.

Jeffrey Epstein celebrated Britain's decision to leave the European Union in the wake of the 2016 referendum, hailing a "return to tribalism", newly released documents suggest. The latest tranche of documents released by the US Department of Justice, part of the Epstein files, appears to show the convicted paedophile emailing tech billionaire Peter Thiel, describing Brexit as "just the beginning". On June 26 – just three days after Britain voted to leave the EU – Epstein appears to have written an email to Mr Thiel, saying: "Brexit, just the beginning." The venture capitalist appears to respond: "Of what," to which Epstein says: "Return to tribalism, counter to globalisation, amazing new alliances." He added: "You and I both agreed zero interest rates were too high, and as I said in your office. finding things on their way to collapse, was much easier than finding the next bargain." Millions of emails released on Friday show the influence of the disgraced paedophile. There are now growing calls for former government minister, Lord Mandelson, to face a criminal investigation over his links with Epstein after emails emerged suggesting he forwarded him an internal No 10 email sent to then prime minister Gordon Brown by one of his special advisers. The note, which included an assessment of the state of the UK economy in the wake of the financial crisis, suggested the government had "saleable assets" that could be sold to the private sector to reduce debt.

Note: Read our latest in-depth Epstein files investigation, titled "Beyond Sex Trafficking–Zorro Ranch and a Darker Scientific Agenda." Epstein and Steve Bannon were very close. Bannon was a key advisor to Robert Mercer's Cambridge Analytica, the company at the center of the public opinion manipulation behind Brexit. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's crime ring and intelligence agency corruption.

On July 31, 2019, just eleven days before Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell, his connection to the Rothschild banking dynasty became the subject of major public controversy. Anonymous sources informed Bloomberg of a 2015 visit to Epstein's New York mansion by baroness Ariane de Rothschild, the CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Group, a storied private bank and one of the largest Swiss financial institutions by assets under management. Newly released documents reveal that Epstein and de Rothschild's personal relationship was much closer than the bank previously acknowledged. According to emails released by the U.S. House Oversight Committee on November 12, Epstein planned to see a Broadway play with de Rothschild in January 2014, and scheduled a private trip with her to Montreal. A second set of documents–the leaked inbox of former Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak ... sheds light on Epstein's efforts to leverage his personal friendship with de Rothschild to raise funds for the development of Israeli cyberweapons. It's not clear whether the Rothschild bank ultimately participated directly in Epstein and Barak's cyberweapons efforts–but in October 2015, de Rothschild negotiated a $25 million contract with Epstein's Southern Trust Company, the same entity Epstein used to fund Barak's intelligence-linked security startup Reporty Homeland Security (now known as Carbyne) earlier that year.

Note: Read more about the vast influence of the Rothschild empire. Israeli cyberweapons have been sold to the FBI and used against journalists and activists. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's crime ring.

Newly surfaced audio recordings appear to capture Jeffrey Epstein advising former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak on the tech company Palantir, raising fresh questions about Epstein's global intelligence connections and influence. The recordings feature Epstein attempting to introduce Barak to Peter Thiel, Palantir's billionaire co-founder, describing the company and its potential board positions. Epstein's pitch highlighted the influence of major venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, positioning himself as the connector for powerful business and intelligence networks. Barak, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, later founded a security company reportedly invested in by Epstein, further fueling speculation about Epstein's ties to intelligence operations. Analysts note that Epstein's discussions with Barak blend technology advisory with geopolitical reach, suggesting that Palantir's capabilities may have been leveraged as part of broader influence operations. Previously released documents indicate he filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the CIA in 1999 and again in 2011, seemingly seeking acknowledgement of past affiliations. Additional FBI reports, now partially confirmed by the recordings, describe Epstein as a confidential human source with ties to both US and allied intelligence services. Conversations with Alan Dershowitz reportedly involved debriefs with Mossad.

Note: Read our latest in-depth Epstein files investigation, titled "Beyond Sex Trafficking–Zorro Ranch and a Darker Scientific Agenda." Listen to the audio clip of Jeffrey Epstein promoting Palantir to Ehud Barak. Read how Palantir helped the NSA spy on the entire planet. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's crime ring and intelligence agency corruption.

The Central Intelligence Agency reportedly had credible evidence that at least 10 members of its staff, some of whom were contracted employees, committed sex crimes involving children, but only one individual was ever charged. Senior investigative reporter Jason Leopold and investigative reporter Anthony Cormier with Buzzfeed News detailed their findings in an article after combing through hundreds of internal agency reports they obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits. Leopold and Cormier say the declassified reports "show a pattern of abuse and a repeated decision by federal prosecutors not to hold agency personnel accountable." One employee was accused of having sexual contact with both a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old before he was fired. Another employee resigned after being accused of purchasing sexually explicit videos of "young girls" filmed by their mothers. A contractor had his contract revoked after allegedly arranging to have sex with an undercover FBI agent who was posing as a child. Only one of the people cited in the documents was actually charged. Prosecutors sent the rest of the cases back to the CIA to handle internally, meaning few faced any consequences beyond the possible loss of their jobs and security clearances," said Leopold and Cormier. "CIA insiders say the agency resists prosecution of its staff for fear the cases will reveal state secrets".

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and sexual abuse scandals.

On November 18, Donald Trump suffered a major political defeat when the House of Representatives passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act by a nearly unanimous vote: 427–1. But the final version specified that the Department of Justice must make public "all unclassified" documents on Epstein. The word unclassified potentially gives Trump and the CIA wide latitude to hold back Epstein-related materials that they claim are too sensitive to release. People have linked Epstein to the spy world for years. In 2019, Vicky Ward, writing in The Daily Beast, reported that Trump's then–labor secretary, Alex Acosta–who, as a federal prosecutor, had cut a notorious sweetheart plea deal with Epstein before his trial in 2008–had made some startling comments about Epstein when he was being vetted for his role in the first Trump administration. As Ward noted, Acosta claimed that he had "cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein's attorneys because he had ‘been told' to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. ‘I was told Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and to leave it alone,' he told his interviewers in the Trump transition [team]." Just as much of the policing of the American empire is now done by private military companies (notably Constellis, formerly known as Academi and Blackwater), billionaires like Epstein have their own private foreign policy. Whatever work Epstein did with the CIA or the Mossad would have been as a peer rather than an employee.

Note: Our latest 7-min video with Joe Martino of Collective Evolution explores compelling evidence that Epstein was heavily involved in both CIA and Mossad operations. Even after his conviction as a sex offender, Epstein was meeting with top officials at the CIA and the White House. Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.

A federal statement announcing Jeffrey Epstein's death has surfaced in newly released Justice Department files but it carries a date that appears to precede the moment he was officially found dead inside his New York prison cell. The document, issued by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and dated Friday, August 9, 2019, states that Epstein had already been found unresponsive and pronounced dead. But prison records and official accounts show Epstein was not discovered unresponsive until the morning of August 10, 2019. According to official accounts, Epstein was discovered unresponsive in his cell shortly after 6.30am on August 10 by a corrections officer. Medical personnel attempted to revive him, but he was pronounced dead soon afterward. Epstein's death came amid a cascade of failures inside one of the federal government's most secure detention facilities. Prison records show that guards assigned to monitor Epstein did not conduct required checks during the overnight hours before his body was discovered. Scheduled rounds at 3am and 5am were missed, according to official findings. Furthermore, cameras positioned outside Epstein's cell were not functioning properly that night. Investigators later confirmed that at least two surveillance cameras had malfunctioned, leaving critical gaps in visual monitoring. Because of those failures, officials were unable to establish a definitive timeline of Epstein's final moments.

Note: Mark Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein's brother, believes that his death involved an official cover-up. An email thread between high-level federal investigators discusses what appears to be an unnamed individual attempting to extort Mark Epstein. The sender claims: "with the coordination of the director of prison regulations, the cameras were tampered with and some the videos of the prison cameras were cut. At that time, prison guards [redacted] were paid $6,500 so that they would not visit prisoners at this time. Within 15 minutes, a man named [redacted] entered your brother's prison cell and strangled him." For more, internal US Bureau of Prison (BOP) documents suggest a possible cover-up, while a 60 Minutes 2020 investigation uncovered compelling evidence that challenges the official suicide ruling in Epstein's death–including suspicious neck fractures, missing surveillance footage, and a series of unexplained security failures.

The day before Jeffrey Epstein reported to a Florida jail in June 2008 to begin serving time for soliciting sex from a minor, he received an outraged message from a friend anguished at the injustice of it all. "I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened," Peter Mandelson wrote, in an email obtained by Bloomberg News. "I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain." At the time, Mandelson was European Commissioner for Trade. Today he is the UK's ambassador in Washington, the most prestigious posting in Britain's diplomatic service and the latest in a decades-long career of high-profile positions in government and politics. And he finds himself at the center of a furor over his links to the serial sex abuser, after the publication this week of a 2003 birthday book in which Mandelson penned a 10-page tribute calling Epstein his "best pal." In one cryptic [email] exchange, Epstein referred to an upcoming meeting between his lawyer and somebody he called "mr. big," and told Mandelson, "I need your guy to remind him one time before the meeting.. then we are done." Mandelson replied, "I will get a message. He is travelling at moment." Neither "mr. big" nor "your guy" are named. News accounts in the early 2000s describe how Mandelson helped persuade Queen Elizabeth to appoint Prince Andrew, her second son and the Duke of York, to an influential role as an international trade ambassador.

Note: This article is also available here. Following publication of this article, Peter Mandelson was fired as UK ambassador to the US. Don't miss Part 1 and Part 2 of our in-depth investigative series on this massive elite crime ring now coming to light in the documents being made public. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking ring.

The name of Former US President George Bush has allegedly appeared in the latest tranche of Epstein Files released by the US authorities. The files linked to Jeffrey Epstein include a reference to "George Bush 1" in a complaint filed with the New York Police Department. The mention has reignited online attention and prompted fresh scrutiny of what the files actually show – and what they do not. The latest tranche contains police reports, witness statements and investigative notes in which a purported victim's account names several highprofile figures. In one document, an email or interview summary records the victim saying he "was also raped by George Bush 1," and the name appears as a referenced party rather than in Epstein's own logs. The files also include other sensational claims attributed to the same source. On social media platform X, a user shared the screenshots from the document showing an email correspondence which contains the purported Epstein victim's account notes "Thanks M, I didn't realize Bush raped him too. Ok." It also mentions some more details like - While on this yacht he witnessed African American males having sex with white blonde females, all of whom were bleeding during intercourse. "He was a victim of a type of ritualistic sacrifice in which his feet were cut with a scimitar but left no scarring. On the yacht he witnessed babies being dismembered, their intestines removed, and individuals eating the feces from these intestines," it adds.

Note: Don't miss Part 1 and Part 2 of our in-depth investigative series on this massive elite crime ring now coming to light in the documents being made public. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking ring.

A confidential informant told the FBI in 2017 that Jeffrey Epstein had a "personal hacker," according to a document released by the Department of Justice on Friday. The document, which was released as part of the Justice Department's legally required effort to publish documents related to its investigation into the late sex offender, does not identify who the alleged hacker was, but does include several details about them. According to the informant, the hacker was an Italian born in the southern region of Calabria and specialized in finding vulnerabilities in iOS, BlackBerry devices, and the Firefox browser. The hacker allegedly developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold them to several countries, including an unnamed central African government, the U.K., and the United States. The informant told the FBI that Epstein's hacker sold a zero-day to Hezbollah, which paid him with "a trunk of cash." Per the informant, the hacker "was very good at finding vulnerabilities." It's important to note that this document contains allegations from only the informant, not from the FBI directly, so it's unclear how trustworthy the information and allegations are.

Note: A zero-day hack is when attackers secretly exploit a software flaw before the company even knows the flaw exists or has time to fix it. Don't miss Part 1 and Part 2 of our in-depth investigative series on this massive elite crime ring now coming to light in the documents being made public. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking ring.

In mid-December, as negotiations to end Russia's war in Ukraine gathered pace, a group of Ukrainian officials sat in a conference room in New York for a meeting with senior executives at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager. They had come to discuss a crucial element of a peace plan drafted by Kyiv and Washington: Ukraine's postwar recovery. BlackRock had been enlisted to help build a strategy for what President Volodymyr Zelensky has called an $800 billion "prosperity plan." The meeting, held at BlackRock's headquarters, kick-started work on identifying funding sources and investment priorities. BlackRock's role has generated more questions than answers, as the Trump administration steers plans for rebuilding Ukraine toward American business interests. Seven European and Ukrainian officials ... voiced doubts about BlackRock's ability to attract the enormous investments envisioned. The involvement in the talks of a private firm whose main business is to maximize financial returns has reinforced concerns that the Trump administration views Ukraine's reconstruction as a profit-making opportunity for the U.S. government and American companies, rather than as primarily a humanitarian or security matter. Last year, President Trump pushed for a deal granting the United States a stake in Ukraine's mineral wealth. In peace talks with Kyiv, the president's main negotiators have been real estate developers.

Note: First, Blackrock buys up government bonds used to finance military spending, meaning it directly profits from the debt created by war itself. Then, after the war, Blackrock is set to profit again – this time from reconstruction contracts, land grabs, and privatization efforts. Read about this and more with our Substack, Working Together To End the War On Peace in Ukraine, which challenges the dominant narrative on the Ukraine war, arguing that US and NATO policies, covert intelligence agency operations, media censorship, and corporate profiteering have fueled the conflict while blocking genuine peace efforts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will launch a study on cellphone radiation, a department spokesman said on Thursday, building on Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr's criticism linking them to neurological damage and cancer. Last year, the department said 22 states had restricted cellphone use in schools to improve the mental and physical health of children under the "Make America Healthy Again" movement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also took down old webpages saying cellphones are not dangerous. "The FDA removed webpages with old conclusions about cell phone radiation while HHS undertakes a study on electromagnetic radiation and health research to identify gaps in knowledge, including on new technologies, to ensure safety and efficacy," said HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon. "The study was directed by President Trump's MAHA Commission in its strategy report," Nixon added. However, some webpages of agencies such as the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to say that to date there is no credible evidence pointing to health problems from cellphone radiation. The National Cancer Institute, under the National Institutes of Health, says "evidence to date suggests that cellphone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans."

Note: Unlike the US, many countries have regulations in place to protect people from cell phone radiation exposure. Check out this comprehensive list of countries with official recommendations and policies on cell phone radiation exposure. A ProPublica investigation found that the FCC brushed aside findings from other government scientists showing evidence of rare cancers linked to cellphone radiation. In 2011, the World Health Organization's cancer research arm classified wireless radiation as "possibly carcinogenic to humans," and in 2018 a major US government study found "clear evidence" that cellphone radiation caused cancer in laboratory animals. Read more about how Big Wireless made us think cell phones carry no cancer risks.

Even as US beef prices have continued to surge, American cattle ranchers have come under increased financial pressure–and a new report from More Perfect Union claims that this is due in part to industry consolidation in the meat-packing industry. Bill Bullard, the CEO of the trade association R-CALF USA, explained to More Perfect Union that cattle ranchers are essentially at the bottom of the pyramid in the beef-producing process, while the top is occupied by "four meat packers controlling 80% of the market." "It's there that the meat packers are able to exert their market power in order to leverage down the price that the cattle feeder receives for the animals," Bullard said. To illustrate the impact this has had on farmers, Bullard pointed out that cattle producers in 1980 received 63 cents for every dollar paid by consumers for beef, whereas four decades later they were receiving just 37 cents for every dollar. "That allocation has flipped on its head because the marketplace is fundamentally broken," Bullard [said]. Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action, recently highlighted the role played by the four big meatpacking companies–Tyson, Cargill, National Beef, and JBS–in hurting US ranchers. Dan Osborn, an independent US Senate candidate running in Nebraska, has made the dangers of corporate consolidation a central theme of his campaign. "If you're a farmer, your inputs, your seed, your chemicals, you have to buy from monopolies," he said.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on food system corruption.

The relatively small Somali community in the U.S., estimated at 260,000, has lately been receiving national attention thanks to a massive fraud scandal in Minnesota. A central theme of Trump's anti-Somali rancor is that they come from a war-torn country without an effective centralized state, which in Trump's reasoning speaks to their quality as a people, and therefore, their ability to contribute to American society. It is worth reminding ourselves, however, that Somalia's state collapse and political instability is as much a result of imperial interventions, including from the U.S., as anything else. Cold War geopolitical machinations partly created the contextual background to the 1977-78 Somalia-Ethiopia war. Somalia's defeat in this war set the stage for the disintegration of the state in 1991. This threw the country into a prolonged state of conflict, resulting in mass displacement and migration. U.S. drone strikes in Somalia have continued over the past two decades with varying degrees of intensity at different times. Since Trump returned to office, his administration has dramatically increased the drone campaign, while the transparency of the decision-making process and consequences of these strikes have become more opaque. Recent scholarship has noted the link between U.S. militarism in Somalia and the policing and surveillance of Somali immigrants in the U.S. Trump's xenophobic rhetoric ... conveniently omits the U.S role in fomenting instability.

Note: Read about the terrible consequences of US policy in Somalia. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption.

"We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I've never seen anything like it," a Venezuelan security guard says in a video widely shared on social media and promoted by the White House. His account tells how U.S. special forces in Venezuela captured then-President Maduro using new technology which incapacitated the entire protective team and allowed two dozen U.S. troops to easily defeat hundreds of defenders. Guard: "At one point, they launched something–I don't know how to describe it... it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move." In the 90's and early 2000s, the Pentagon poured resources into the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, now rebranded the Joint Intermedia Force Capabilities Office. Their task was to develop non-lethal, or less-lethal weapons which ... would disable or incapacitate people. The Pentagon worked on a wide variety of concepts, including strobe dazzlers, malodorants and electroshock projectiles. One of the biggest was the millimeter-wave Active Denial System or ‘pain beam' which could inflict severe pain and drive back rioters from several hundred meters away. A patented device known as Electromagnetic Personnel Interdiction Control (EPIC) ... uses radio waves "to excite and interrupt the normal process of human hearing and equilibrium."

Note: Acoustic or sonic weapons can vibrate the insides of humans to stun them, nauseate them, or even "liquefy their bowels and reduce them to quivering diarrheic messes," according to a Pentagon briefing. These devices can also cause excruciating pain, with some able to heat up skin from a distance and others that can beam sound into the skull of a human. Learn more about non-lethal weapons in our comprehensive Military-Intelligence Corruption Information Center.

The Defense Department has spent more than a year testing a device purchased in an undercover operation that some investigators think could be the cause of a series of mysterious ailments impacting US spies, diplomats and troops that are colloquially known as Havana Syndrome. A division of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, purchased the device for millions of dollars in the waning days of the Biden administration, using funding provided by the Defense Department, according to two ... sources. Officials paid "eight figures" for the device, these people said, declining to offer a more specific number. The device is still being studied and there is ongoing debate ... over its link to the roughly dozens of anomalous health incidents that remain officially unexplained. The device acquired by HSI produces pulsed radio waves, one of the sources said, which some officials and academics have speculated for years could be the cause of the incidents. Although the device is not entirely Russian in origin, it contains Russian components. The device could fit in a backpack. Havana Syndrome, known officially as "anomalous health episodes" ... first emerged in late 2016, when a cluster of US diplomats stationed in the Cuban capital of Havana began reporting symptoms consistent with head trauma, including vertigo and extreme headaches. In subsequent years, there have been cases reported around the world.

Note: Read more about Havana Syndrome. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption.

The police department in Heber City, Utah, was forced to explain why a police report software declared that an officer had somehow shapeshifted into a frog. As Salt Lake City-based Fox 13 reports, the flawed tool seems to have picked up on some unrelated background chatter to devise its fantastical fairy tale ending. "The body cam software and the AI report writing software picked up on the movie that was playing in the background, which happened to be ‘The Princess and the Frog,'" police sergeant Rick Keel told the broadcaster, referring to Disney's 2009 musical comedy. "That's when we learned the importance of correcting these AI-generated reports." The department had begun testing an AI-powered software called Draft One to automatically generate police reports from body camera footage. The goal was to reduce the amount of paperwork – but considering that immense mistakes are falling through the cracks, results clearly vary. Draft One was first announced by police tech company Axon – the same firm behind the Taser, a popular electroshock weapon – last year. The software makes use of OpenAI's GPT large language models to generate entire police reports from body camera audio. Experts quickly warned that hallucinations could fall through the cracks in these important documents. Critics also argue that the tool could be used to introduce deniability and make officers less accountable in case mistakes were to fall through the cracks.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on AI and police corruption.

More than a decade ago, I walked into the Challenger Memorial Youth Center in Los Angeles County to gather data for a lawsuit related to their "failure to provide an adequate education to detained youth." What our team found was much more horrifying: masses of teachers not showing up or late to work, leaving youth in their cells; children in solitary confinement for weeks; sexual assault by probation officers and detention staff; teacher-run fight clubs during class; and more. These abuses continue even today, as exposed earlier this year by sex tapes recorded in a juvenile detention facility in Seattle and videos of gladiator fights between teens in custody in Los Angeles County. The juvenile justice system was originally designed to be supportive and child-centered, but it became increasingly punitive and harsh through the War on Drugs in the 1980s, which resulted in exponentially higher rates of arrests and imprisonment. As a result, children with externalizing symptoms of trauma – abuse, neglect, domestic violence – have been incarcerated without treatment for their behavioral and mental health symptoms. Youth incarceration is extremely harmful to communities, causing worse adult health and functional limits. If we want a healthy society, we need to address trauma through treatment, not incarceration. Punishment provides immediate, visible results, while empowering youth requires patience, understanding and time.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and sexual abuse scandals.

New York State's Bedford Hills Correctional facility, Illinois' Pontiac Correctional Center and Albion Correctional Facility in New York State are the three U.S. prisons with the highest reported rates of sexual victimization. These are the findings of a new Department of Justice (DOJ) report about sexual victimization in state and federal prisons, as reported by inmates. The Justice Department carried out a National Inmate Survey in 177 federal prisons. The annual survey is required by the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The survey of 27,541 state and federal inmates found that some 4.1 percent of adult prison inmates reported being sexually victimized in state and federal prisons during the prior 12 months. Furthermore, 2.3 percent of inmates reported sexual victimization by another inmate while 2.2 percent reported sexual victimization by facility staff. Meanwhile, 17 prisons had rates defined as high compared to other facilities. The data pertains to prisons that participated in the survey so the data may not accurately capture those with the highest sexual victimization in America. The prison with the highest proportion of prison inmates reporting sexual victimization was Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a female prison in New York where 18.6 percent of inmates reported sexual victimization. Pontiac Correctional Center, a men's prison in Illinois was second, with 15.9 percent of inmates reporting sexual victimization.

Note: These numbers represent a small number of institutions that voluntarily provided survey data for this study. The actual incidence of sexual violence in correctional facilities may be much higher. To understand how disturbing and common sexual abuse in prison is, read this Human Rights Watch report that documents dozens of first-hand accounts of rape and sexual slavery in prison systems across 34 states. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and sexual abuse scandals.

Important Note: Explore our full index to revealing excerpts of key major media news stories on several dozen engaging topics. And don't miss amazing excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.