UK & Europe | Investigations & Public Interest
Telling survivor truths. Protecting sources. Holding cults to account.
Shakahola cult leader jailed for 200 years: Europe cult news, 1–7 November 2026
- Europe & UK Cult News
- Europe
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- Italy
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- UK
- France
- Ireland
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- Chile
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- Paul Mackenzie
- Peter Fitzek
- Bruno Malatesta
- Kingdom of Germany
- Go Church
- Methernitha
- Russell Brand
- Maha Action
- Leo XIV
- Adam Gelhardt
- Brian Carrie
- Abdullah Khan
- ADAPT Kerry Women’s Refuge
- Jehovah’s Witnesses
- Isaac Valdez
- Scientology
- Lori Vallow Daybell
- Han Hak-ja
- Unification Church
- Cahuala
- Sanadores Egipcios
- Álvaro Aparicio Díaz
- Carolina Cannes
- Kitavi Mutua
- Kavonokya
- 764
- No Lives Matter
- Sodalitium Christianae Vitae
- Park Jin-young
- Firstfruits
- JMS
- Jung Myung-seok
- Manosphere
- International Cult Awareness Day
- Good News International Ministries
- Ivo Sasek
- Noah Bubenhofer
- Lois Sasek
- Organic Christ Generation
- Kla.TV

Paul Mackenzie received 200 years for the Shakahola murders as the judge explained why execution would fail to deter the cult’s leaders. In Europe, Peter Fitzek’s Kingdom of Germany went on trial, investigators seized assets in the Almese case and Russell Brand’s rape conviction brought renewed scrutiny of broadcasters and rape-trial safeguards. Six people were killed in Kraków, where prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation.
Go Church lost student recognition in Leuven, Linden’s mayor acknowledged responsibility over Methernitha and European courts sentenced perpetrators of coercive control and terrorist violence. In Texas, Isaac Valdez’s family questioned the Jehovah’s Witness blood rules. New reporting examined Cahuala’s influence over a Chilean school, Argentina’s Sanadores Egipcios convictions, Peru’s clergy-abuse database and the publication of a JMS survivor’s judgment extracts.
Kenya: Why Mackenzie received 200 years rather than a death sentence
Paul Mackenzie, leader of Good News International Ministries, was sentenced to 200 years in prison at the High Court in Mombasa on 6 November for the murders of 190 children and one adult in Kenya’s Shakahola forest. Lady Justice Diana Kavedza-Mochache rejected the prosecution’s request for a death sentence because execution could reward the cult’s beliefs, turn the killers into martyrs and deprive bereaved families of information about missing remains.
The judge imposed one concurrent block of 100-year sentences for 183 murders by starvation, involving 182 children and an adult, and a second concurrent block of 100-year sentences for the direct killing of eight children. The two blocks run consecutively. Mackenzie’s deputy, Smart Deri Mwakalama, received 160 years, while the other prison terms ranged from 10 to 160 years.
Prosecutors had asked on 3 November for Mackenzie to be executed and 27 co-defendants to receive life imprisonment. Kavedza-Mochache said a death sentence would fail to deter people who understood dying as reunion with Jesus and their deceased children. She said:
For persons who regard death as deliverance, a death sentence may be perceived not as punishment, but as a triumph and a form of martyrdom.
She also wanted to preserve the possibility of rehabilitation and of finding children whose bodies remain missing. Of execution, she said:
It would also extinguish the possibility that a living convict may disclose the location of the remains of the missing children.
The judge considered individual culpability rather than giving everyone the same punishment.

For Stephen Mwiti, who lost six children, punishment cannot restore his family. In a Reuters interview published on 5 November, he described having identified only one son’s remains and keeping photographs and school uniforms as reminders of the others. He said:
Even if he were to be hanged, I will never see my children again.
Families interviewed by Citizen TV after sentencing sought action against security officers who failed to intervene. Roseline Asena, whose brother, sister-in-law and their five children died, called for institutional accountability. Michael Ruwa, who lost seven relatives, wanted Mackenzie’s property sold to compensate bereaved families.
Six further cases remain, Citizen Digital reported on 7 November. Decisions in the surviving-children case, terrorism case and manslaughter case were scheduled for 25, 26 and 27 November respectively.
NTV Kenya’s livestream of the sentencing of Paul Mackenzie and his co-accused at the High Court in Mombasa on 6 November 2026.
Germany: Peter Fitzek’s Kingdom of Germany goes on trial

Peter Fitzek and three other alleged leaders of the Kingdom of Germany went on trial at Düsseldorf’s Higher Regional Court on 6 November. Federal prosecutors accuse them of leading a criminal organisation that sought to replace German state authority with its own banking, insurance and registration systems, issued fictitious identity documents and promised businesses freedom from taxes and social contributions.
The organisation, founded in Wittenberg in 2012 and banned in May 2025, combined Fitzek’s claim to sovereign authority with a network of followers, businesses and paid seminars on leaving the state system. Prosecutors say it took in about €10 million between 2020 and 2025 and evaded more than €2 million in taxes. Fitzek rejected the tax-evasion accusation in court.
His lawyers objected to the state-security proceedings, arguing that the allegations concerned economic offences. A defence lawyer ended her opening remarks with a prayer. A branch of the group’s Gemeinwohlkasse banking operation in Menden provided a North Rhine-Westphalian connection for the Düsseldorf prosecution, with fifty-two hearing days scheduled through September 2027.
Italy: Assets seized in the Almese cult investigation

Italian investigators have seized about €700,000 in assets linked to Bruno Malatesta and the Almese cult investigation near Turin. The Carabinieri announced the urgent preventive seizure on 6 November, covering accounts, land, buildings, jewellery and historic coins and watches. One property in Perlo had been intended as a refuge for women subjected to violence.
Prosecutors allege that Malatesta transferred assets to trusted associates and the Fiore della Pace foundation from 2018 while retaining control. The investigation concerns sexual violence, enslavement, mistreatment and fraud, with suspected fraudulent asset transfers now added. The proceedings remain at the preliminary-investigation stage.
La Repubblica reported that the detention order described Malatesta presenting himself as possessing supernatural powers and inducing followers to surrender their property. Colonel Diego Berlingieri said more witnesses had come forward after the arrest and appealed for others to help investigators reconstruct events.
Belgium: Go Church loses student recognition in Leuven

Leuven’s student umbrella organisation LOKO withdrew recognition from Go Church on 3 November after finding that it failed three of its eleven conditions for affiliated associations. The evangelical group had been recognised since 2021 as Pleasant Surprise Church International, enabling it to rent university rooms and have approximately €50 per service reimbursed. The withdrawal took immediate effect, with fourteen days to appeal.
The decision followed the investigation into the isolation, control and financial exploitation of vulnerable young members. University room rentals had already been suspended. The church, led in Belgium by King Appiagyei, has also lost access to venues in other cities, including its largest branch at Sint-Jozefkerk in Merksem after the year’s end.
De Morgen reported that the Protestant church in Boechout warned other congregations after receiving a rental approach under the Pleasant Surprise name. It alerted the Federal Synod, which said it intended to speak to the group and then consider recommendations.
Switzerland: Linden mayor acknowledges responsibility over Methernitha

Linden mayor Ignaz Margelisch has acknowledged the municipality’s responsibility over abuses in the Methernitha cult led by Paul Baumann. In a statement in the municipal Lindenblatt, reported by BERN-OST on 5 November, he condemned what girls and young women suffered and said the community had to confront its past.
Margelisch also wanted the roles of Bern’s cantonal authorities and the justice system examined, rather than responsibility being placed solely on Linden. Baumann, who demanded obedience from followers, was imprisoned for sexual offences against children after a trial that heard of the rape of a twelve-year-old girl. He returned to Methernitha after his release, and the community survived his death in 2011.
Marina Klauser’s documentary series about the survivors, Der Engelmacher (The Angel Maker), won the Swiss Series Storytelling Award at Geneva’s film festival on 7 November. Watson’s report the following day said Bern’s government still had to answer a parliamentary intervention concerning the case.
Ivo Sasek and Kla.TV

The Appenzeller Zeitung published the third part of its series on Ivo Sasek’s Organic Christ Generation (OCG) on 1 November. Samuel Ryter and Davide De Martis report on Kla.TV, the cult’s video portal in St. Margrethen.
Zurich linguist Noah Bubenhofer examined about 6,700 Kla-TV items and nearly 200 of Sasek’s long speeches for the paper. Semrush estimates put the portal’s reach above 20 million people over ten years, with about 2.9 million visits a year and nearly half from Germany.
Organisers said a May online conference drew thousands from 61 countries. The portal claimed 900,000 views of the recording, posted in 35 languages. Bubenhofer’s analysis found media criticism the main Kla.TV theme, ahead of the Ukraine war and vaccine criticism, with religion far lower.
In Sasek’s sermons he problematises the world in 38.6 per cent of the analysed sentences, then offers positive orientation (27.4 per cent), enemy images (21.7 per cent) and mobilisation (12.3 per cent). Production chief Lois Sasek, his eldest daughter, called herself an army commander at a 2019 conference and her staff the “Kla-TV army”.
Bubenhofer said:
Kla-TV führt einen Informationskrieg.
Show English translation
Kla-TV is waging an information war.
UK: Brand convicted of rape as broadcasters face renewed scrutiny

Russell Brand was convicted at Southwark Crown Court on 5 November of one count of rape and three sexual assaults against four women between 2004 and 2009. He was acquitted of two further rape counts and attempted indecent assault, and sentencing was scheduled for 9 November. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that two further rape complaints remained under investigation.
Comedian Katherine Ryan described “grief and relief” after the verdict and spoke of women coming forward despite Brand’s wealth, power and following. His American platform also continued during the trial: a Guardian report described appearances for Maha Action, a group allied with US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Its leader Tony Lyons, who published Brand’s book about his conversion to Christianity, had publicly promised support and did not respond to the newspaper after the conviction.
Andy Burnham said the government would examine how rape trials could avoid leaving women feeling that they themselves were on trial, following Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley’s criticism of victim-blaming. The BBC understood that there were no plans to change the law. Barrister Anna Soubry disputed the police chief’s criticism, saying judges already gave firm jury directions on rape myths.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy urged employers to protect whistleblowers and join the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, which has opened a portal for reporting harassment and abuse. Various Artists Limited asked comedy producer Jack Bayles to step back after trial testimony that he watched and laughed during an assault by Brand. Bayles said he did not remember the incident, was appalled and sickened by Brand’s actions, had cooperated with investigators and was sincerely sorry for failing to recognise the woman’s distress.
Belgium: Brussels exhibition examines modern slavery
A two-part photography exhibition on modern slavery opened at Géopolis in Brussels on 5 November. Organised with the Human Thread Foundation, it brings together work by Lisa Kristine and Élise Blanchard on forced labour, trafficking and forced marriage.
Kristine’s photographs document industries including Nepalese quarries and brick kilns, Ghanaian mining and fishing, Indian manufacturing and Thai fishing fleets. Blanchard’s work follows women and girls in Afghanistan, including families driven by drought to sell daughters into marriage. Brussels Museums describes her fieldwork as covering 2018 to 2025.
France: Pope asks bishops to support victims of abuse and coercive control
Pope Leo XIV has asked France’s bishops to continue supporting people subjected to sexual violence and coercive control. His letter, dated 1 November and published for the bishops’ Lourdes assembly beginning on 3 November, says the faithful should be able to find comfort and healing within the Church.
The letter links that work to charity and truth, following the pope’s September visit to France. It also asks the bishops to consider Catholic education, respect for freedom of conscience and the formation of young people. The assembly ran from 3 to 8 November.
UK: Gelhardt jailed for coercive control and attacks on partners

Adam Gelhardt was jailed for five and a half years at Liverpool Crown Court on 3 November after admitting two counts of controlling and coercive behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and breaching a suspended sentence. Judge Simon Medland KC described a pattern of violence and intimidation affecting three former partners, including an attack on a woman who was seven weeks pregnant.
In interviews published by the Liverpool Echo on 8 November, two survivors described intense early affection followed by jealousy, isolation, financial abuse and violence. One said Gelhardt emptied money saved for their baby’s Christmas presents into gambling. Both women remained anonymous and described the support they had found in speaking to each other.
Gelhardt was also made subject to fifteen-year restraining orders preventing contact with his victims. One woman said the other survivor had helped her understand that the abuse was his responsibility rather than her fault.
Ireland: Carrie jailed for rape, strangulation and threats
Brian Carrie was sentenced at Ireland’s Central Criminal Court on 2 November for raping, strangling and threatening a woman who had offered him a place to stay after addiction treatment. Mr Justice Tony Hunt imposed nine years in prison with the final eighteen months suspended, leaving seven and a half years to serve.
Carrie admitted oral rape, assault, strangulation, knife offences, criminal damage and threats to kill or cause serious harm during their short relationship in October 2024. The judge described violence, intimidation, coercion and control, and said the woman’s hospitality had been abused. She told the court of continuing anxiety, flashbacks and difficulty sleeping.
The suspended portion carries conditions including no contact with the victim indefinitely and participation in domestic-violence and victim-awareness programmes.
Ireland: Khan sentenced for terrorist attacks in Dublin

Abdullah Khan was sentenced on 2 November for two terrorist attacks in Dublin: setting fire to Conor McGregor’s Black Forge pub on 25 July 2025 and attacking two Irish police officers with a knife four days later. He admitted eight offences. At the Special Criminal Court, Ms Justice Karen O’Connor imposed concurrent sentences led by seven and a half years with the final year suspended, followed by four years’ supervision.
Khan declared support for Islamic State ideology and told investigators that the attacks were intended as messages to McGregor and the Government over perceived insults to the prophet Muhammad. Officer Gary Lynch suffered stab wounds and continuing nerve pain. The judge commended him, his colleague Patrick Nevin and a member of the public who helped disarm Khan.
Post-release conditions restrict extremist contacts, weapons, travel and participation in gatherings, and require probation approval of places of worship. Chief Superintendent Brian Woods said the attacks were motivated by an extreme ideology based on a perversion of a legitimate faith. Detective Inspector Gavin Ross said statements by Khan’s associates remained under investigation.
Ireland: Kerry refuge asks survivors to share their stories
ADAPT Kerry Women’s Refuge is asking survivors to share their experiences as it marks thirty years of work. General manager Catherine Casey told the Irish Independent that it wanted to hear from women who used its services and adults who had stayed there as children, to offer encouragement to people considering seeking help.
Casey described fear of an abuser, disbelief and judgement as barriers to reporting, alongside myths about domestic abuse and coercive control. Nearly nine in ten women approaching ADAPT use outreach support rather than staying in the refuge. She said its role was to listen and provide time and space, not make decisions for women.
Poland: Kraków shooting investigated as a terrorist offence

Polish prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation after a gunman killed six people near Kraków’s Main Market Square on the afternoon of 7 November. Police shot and detained the 24-year-old Polish suspect. The Government’s briefing put the injured at sixteen, including the suspect and two police officers.
The dead were four women and two men, including three Polish women, a 32-year-old UK citizen and a 51-year-old Austrian woman. Police also found the suspect’s father, mother and sister shot dead at the family home in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Prosecutors said evidence indicated that the same person was responsible, while investigations continued.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said initial information pointed to very radical views and an interest in far-right ideologies. On 8 November he stressed that these were preliminary hypotheses and evidence still being checked, while saying he was not retracting his earlier assessment. Investigators were examining phones and two laptops, with no group membership, manifesto or cult connection publicly confirmed.
National prosecutor’s office spokesperson Przemysław Nowak said the investigation covered the six murders, attempted murders including attacks on police, and the three deaths in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Two days of national mourning began on 8 November.
Beyond Europe
US: A family questions the Jehovah’s Witness blood rules

The family of Isaac Valdez has questioned the leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses over a change to its blood-transfusion teaching announced twenty-three days after his death. In interviews published by the BBC on 7 November, his twin brother Jacob Valdez described the family’s decision to respect Isaac’s refusal of blood during treatment for a brain haemorrhage. Isaac, 26, died in Texas on 26 August.
The revised teaching leaves decisions about blood components, including plasma, red cells and platelets, to individuals. International spokesman Paul Gillies said the prohibition on whole-blood transfusions remained and described the change as applying biblical principles to modern medicine. Jacob wanted a direct apology from the leadership.

Gillies expressed sympathy for bereaved relatives but did not offer that apology. He also said some Witnesses might still decline treatment permitted under the revised teaching. Jacob believed an earlier change could have allowed his brother to accept the operation doctors said he needed.
US: Clearwater rejects referendum petition over Scientology street deal

Clearwater City Council rejected the Save the Garden referendum petition on 5 November, allowing the Church of Scientology’s planned L. Ron Hubbard Hall to clear another obstacle. The campaign says 7,577 verified voters signed its petition to reverse the decision to give up public rights over part of South Garden Avenue or put it to a vote.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued an advisory opinion that state law barred the referendum because the street decision facilitated development. Mayor Bruce Rector said the opinion was not equivalent to a court determination and wanted the council to repeal the ordinance or seek a judge’s ruling. Save the Garden argues that vacating a street falls outside the statutory definition of development.
Campaign leader Brooks Gibbs said the group planned to seek a declaratory judgment. The Church welcomed the council’s decision and said the law had prevailed.
US: Idaho justices hear Lori Vallow Daybell’s appeal
The Idaho Supreme Court heard Lori Vallow Daybell’s appeal on 2 November, focusing on the removal of her former lawyer Mark Means while proceedings were stayed because she had been found unfit. Her appeal lawyer Craig Durham argued that the decision violated her right to counsel. State lawyer Jeffrey Nye said the court had acted to protect her after Means disclosed confidential information.
Justice Gregory Moeller questioned the procedure used to remove Means, including dealing with the issue through the separate case against her husband Chad Daybell. The justices reserved their decision. Vallow Daybell is serving multiple Idaho life sentences for the murders of her two children and conspiracy to murder Chad Daybell’s former wife, Tammy Daybell.
KIFI reported that Durham also warned a successful appeal could expose Vallow Daybell to the death penalty at a new trial. He said she understood that possibility and wanted to proceed.
South Korea: Han Hak-ja’s medical bail revoked

A Seoul appeals court revoked Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja’s medical bail on 3 November after she left the hospital designated as her residence to visit the church’s Cheonjeonggung complex. The court cited a risk of destruction of evidence and breaches of bail conditions, and ordered her 200 million won bail deposit forfeited.
Han is appealing a two-year prison sentence imposed in August over the church’s political-funding and bribery case. Her bail had restricted her residence to Asan Medical Center and limited contacts beyond medical staff, lawyers and assistants. Her lawyers said they understood the residence restriction but had not realised it also prohibited outings, which they described as daytime rest visits followed by a return to hospital.
Chile: Teachers describe Cahuala’s influence over a school
New testimony reported by Chile’s Teletrece has focused on the influence of the Cahuala cult’s leaders over the school they founded in Castro, Chiloé. A former preschool coordinator and management-team member said she worked for fourteen years without pay or holidays and that staff meetings required women to disclose intimate sexual experiences. She described information about school decisions being passed to community leader Enrique Urrutia.
Former teacher and senior staff member Gloria Rodríguez said learning of childhood-abuse allegations within Cahuala had led her to question the institution’s transparency and leave. The community’s leaders, Urrutia and María Alejandra Pinto, face proceedings connected to alleged sexual and labour exploitation.
The school said it operated autonomously, was not part of criminal proceedings and complied with employment law. It also denied sharing students’ or families’ personal information outside its educational staff.
Argentina: Sanadores Egipcios leaders jailed

Álvaro Aparicio Díaz, leader of Argentina’s Sanadores Egipcios cult, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison by Córdoba’s Federal Oral Court 2 on 6 November. His wife Carolina Cannes received nine years. The convictions covered trafficking for forced labour and servitude, fraud and sexual abuse, with differing responsibility for individual offences.
The couple ran the Fundación Académica Sêshen at Pozos Azules, near Villa Cura Brochero. Followers recruited through supposed Egyptian healing and training were made to carry out unpaid agricultural, clearing and construction work. Eleven people initially accused in the case were ultimately treated as victims.
Prosecutors had sought twenty-five years for Aparicio Díaz and fifteen for Cannes. The court ordered compensation and confiscation of assets, cancellation of victims’ debt records linked to the offences, and closure of the foundation’s digital channels. Lawyers for both defendants said they intended to appeal.
Kenya: Kitavi Mutua’s death prompts questions over medical care
The death of Kenyan journalist Kitavi Mutua after a snakebite has prompted allegations that religious objections delayed his treatment. The Standard reported on 6 November that a relative, Cyrus Kithele, accused the family of keeping him at home for three weeks because of the Kavonokya cult’s teachings against modern medicine. The newspaper could not independently verify that timeline.
Kavonokya elder Fredrick Moton defended the movement as a mainstream church whose Bible-based beliefs should be respected. A local administrator told the newspaper that officials could intervene over children’s welfare but faced limits when competent adults refused treatment.
Kenyan news website TUKO reported on 8 November that Kavonokya members insisted his coffin remain in the hearse during funeral proceedings before his burial the previous day. That dispute centred on burial practices, alongside continuing questions about the response to his illness.
US: FBI agents warn of 764 recruitment through online games
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have warned that networks including 764 and No Lives Matter recruit children through online games and social media before escalating to blackmail, self-harm and violence. In a report published by InvestigateTV on 4 November, agents Heith Janke and Amy Ramsey described a pattern beginning with friendship and moving into private or encrypted conversations.
Ramsey, a supervisory agent in Kansas City, said targets were often aged eleven to eighteen and that the aim could be suicide or a mass attack rather than money or sexual gratification. She urged parents to stay calm if a child disclosed contact, preserve messages and other evidence, stop communication with the perpetrators and report concerns to the FBI or local police.
Peru: Abuse database names 77 accused clergy and religious figures

A database identifying 77 Catholic clergy and religious figures publicly accused of abuse was presented in Lima on 5 November, ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Peru. BishopAccountability co-director Anne Barrett Doyle called for a truth commission and accused church leaders of secrecy and inadequate action. The database includes priests, religious brothers, seminarians and consecrated laypeople.
The initiative draws in part on work by former bishop Reinaldo Nann and was backed by Peru’s survivors’ network, whose president José Enrique Escardó demanded prevention, reparation and accountability. The campaign follows the dissolution of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae after findings of sexual and psychological abuse within the Peru-founded Catholic organisation.
Reuters reported that the Archdiocese of Lima and the Peruvian Episcopal Conference did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Vatican said the pope would meet abuse survivors during his South American visit.
South Korea: Park Jin-young answers Firstfruits cult allegations

JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young has again addressed allegations that his Firstfruits religious meetings constitute a cult. Yonhap reported on 4 November that, in a video released the previous day, the singer and producer described the criticism as persecution and told followers not to respond through organised commenting or doctrinal arguments.
In another video reported by OSEN on 8 November, Park asked critics to listen to his teaching and judge for themselves. He said people should examine religious claims rather than accept them unquestioningly, and that warnings by other pastors had increased attention to the group. The report also recalled his September rejection of the idea that the presence of former Shincheonji members established a connection between Firstfruits and Shincheonji.
South Korea: Survivor permits publication of JMS judgment extracts
Christian news outlet KPortal News has analysed extracts from the judgment against Jung Myung-seok, founder of JMS, also known as the Christian Gospel Mission. Its 3 November report said a survivor asked campaigner Kim Do-hyung to publish the part concerning her because she wanted the abuse made known.
The extracts describe teaching followers to regard Jung as a messiah, presenting sexual acts as religious or medical procedures and using assistants to facilitate abuse and silence women. The court passages quoted by the outlet include pressure on a survivor to sign a false statement denying that she had been assaulted.
Jung had already received a thirty-three-year sentence from Daejeon District Court for rape and sexual assault, in addition to a previously final seventeen-year term. JMS said it would pursue an appeal.
Australia: Manosphere debate follows poll on democracy and violence

A new McKinnon Index survey reported by ABC found that more than 27 per cent of Australian men aged eighteen to twenty-four believed extreme measures, including violence, could sometimes be justified for a cause. Support for democracy in that age group was 54 per cent. More than three-quarters of Australians overall still preferred democracy, and more than three-quarters rejected extreme measures.
McKinnon’s interim executive chairman John Thwaites said young men needed to understand that their voices could be heard. Political scientist Aaron Martin cautioned against reading a long-term trend from only two years of index data. The survey, conducted with Roy Morgan in June and July, involved more than 4,000 people.
In commentary published by Independent Australia on 6 November, Wayne Hawkins compared the manosphere’s recruitment methods with the Third Wave classroom exercise: belonging, escalating commitment and hostility towards outsiders. He argued that podcasts and short-video recommendations could turn self-improvement audiences into recruiters for misogynistic and anti-democratic ideas.
International: Cult Awareness Day appeal for 18 November
Cult News 101 has published an appeal ahead of International Cult Awareness Day on 18 November, asking supporters to share material about psychological manipulation and cultic abuse. The 2 November announcement links the date to remembrance of the victims of Jonestown and other coercive groups.
The campaign asks readers to create or share educational graphics and use its awareness-day hashtag. Its stated aims include recognising coercive control and supporting people recovering from abusive groups.
Source citations
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Daily Nation (Kenya): “Shakahola: Mackenzie begs for mercy as State seeks death penalty”, 3 Nov 2026.
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Citizen Digital (Kenya): “Mackenzie faces six more cases after landmark 200-year prison sentence”, 7 Nov 2026.
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Manchester Evening News (UK): “Thug found out woman was pregnant with his child so stamped and kicked on her stomach”, 4 Nov 2026.
Liverpool Echo (UK): “'I couldn't sleep because what if he kicked me? I made meals and he'd spit it at me'”, 8 Nov 2026.
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The Irish Times (Ireland): “Man jailed for knife attack on gardaí and setting Conor McGregor’s pub on fire”, 2 Nov 2026.
RTÉ (Ireland): “'Jihadi' who stabbed garda jailed for 6 and a half years”, 2 Nov 2026.
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KIFI / Local News 8 (US): “Idaho Supreme Court hears Lori Vallow Daybell’s appeal in child murder convictions”, 2 Nov 2026.
Yonhap (South Korea): “법원, '천정궁 외출' 통일교 한학자 총재 보석 취소”, 3 Nov 2026.
Teletrece (Chile): “EXCLUSIVO | Caso Cahuala: nuevos testimonios apuntan a influencia de líderes de presunta secta en colegio de Chiloé”, 5 Nov 2026.
ElDoce (Argentina): “Condenaron a los líderes de la secta de los “sanadores egipcios” en Córdoba: las duras penas”, 6 Nov 2026.
La Voz (Argentina): ““Sanadores egipcios”: condenaron a 18 años de prisión al líder de la secta, Álvaro Aparicio Díaz”, 6 Nov 2026.
The Standard (Kenya): “Of snakebite, faith and silence: The deadly doctrine behind journalist's death”, 6 Nov 2026.
TUKO (Kenya): “Kitavi Mutua: Bizarre Scene as Kitui Journalist’s Funeral Conducted With Coffin Inside Hearse”, 8 Nov 2026.
InvestigateTV (US): “What to know about extremists recruiting kids through online games”, 4 Nov 2026.
El País (Spain): “Una lista de 77 religiosos acusados de abuso sexual en Perú sacude a la Iglesia antes de la visita de León XIV”, 5 Nov 2026.
Reuters / BishopAccountability (US, syndicated copy): “US watchdog calls for truth commission to investigate Church abuses cases in Peru”, 5 Nov 2026.
Yonhap (South Korea): “박진영, '첫열매들' 이단·사이비 논란에 입 열어”, 4 Nov 2026.
OSEN / Chosun Biz (South Korea): “박진영, 사이비 의혹 또 입 열었다..“한 번만 들어보셨으면 좋겠는데” [핫피플]”, 8 Nov 2026.
KPortal News (South Korea): “정명석 판결문이 밝힌 ‘성착취 메커니즘’”, 3 Nov 2026.
ABC News (Australia): “Rise in young men open to 'extreme measures' for a cause, survey finds”, 2 Nov 2026.
Independent Australia (Australia): “The manosphere's Third Wave threatens democracy”, 6 Nov 2026.
Cult News 101 (US): “November 18th marks International #CultAwarenessDay”, 2 Nov 2026.
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