The week opened with Home Office recognition of Al Fayed survivors as modern slavery victims, then moved through Matthis Ternel’s continued detention in the Tréogan case, Spanish speedboat trafficking arrests, Shincheonji’s growth around Paris, and a Troyes yoga teacher charged over alleged abuse.

Europe and the UK also saw reporting on an Italian teenager held in Malta, Tim Booth’s account of Lifewave, Switzerland’s Methernitha documentary trailer, Portuguese commentary on The Com, and Jared Leto’s Obonjan retreat.

Elsewhere in the world: a US extradition request for Apollo Quiboloy, a 764 bomb threat in Pasadena, a Montana parenting ruling over Liana Shanti’s Lemurian Mystery School, death threats after Iglesia ni Cristo criticism in the Philippines, and Mark Vicente’s Narcissist’s Playbook.

Al Fayed survivors recognised under modern slavery framework

At least five women who allege abuse by former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed have received positive “conclusive grounds” decisions from the Home Office, recognising them as victims of modern slavery. The decisions were made through the National Referral Mechanism, the UK framework for identifying victims of trafficking and modern slavery.

The BBC reported that the cases include international and domestic trafficking, including one case in which trafficking occurred wholly within Harrods.

Four members of the survivor advocacy group No One Above were referred by the charity Unseen, while Rachel Louw had already received a positive decision after reporting sexual exploitation in the UK and France by Al Fayed and his brother Salah.

Hundreds of women have alleged rape, sexual assault and trafficking by Al Fayed, who died in 2023 without being charged. The Metropolitan Police investigation, Operation Cornpoppy, is examining whether others enabled or facilitated his alleged offending.

Tréogan mayor Matthis Ternel remains in pre-trial detention

The investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal again rejected Matthis Ternel’s request for release from pre-trial detention. Ternel, the 27-year-old mayor of Tréogan in Brittany’s Côtes-d’Armor, has been held since 30 April 2026.

Nice-Matin describes him as suspected of having led a “mini-cult” in Toulon before his election; French outlets also report allegations of rape and cult-like control involving several alleged victims. He denies the accusations.

His latest application cited health concerns said to be incompatible with conditions at Aix-Luynes prison. The chamber dismissed it on 4 August. Freedom Times previously covered the investigation in our review of the Tréogan case.

Spanish police dismantle Mediterranean people-smuggling network

Spanish police, the Guardia Civil and Europol said they had dismantled a major transnational network accused of smuggling more than 2,000 migrants into Spain. Authorities arrested 77 people in Spain and one in Algeria after an investigation that began in 2023.

Police said the network used high-speed boats to carry synthetic drugs from Spain to Algeria and then smuggled migrants back towards Spain’s south-eastern coast and Ibiza.

Investigators attributed at least 64 crossings to the network and estimated its profits at more than €24 million. Boats carried as many as 50 people, often at speed without lights or life jackets. Police in France, Portugal and Poland took part.

Shincheonji’s growing presence in the Paris region

France 3’s Paris Île-de-France service reported on the expansion of Shincheonji in and around Paris. Shincheonji is a South Korean high-control church founded in 1984 by Lee Man-hee, a pastor who presents himself as the group’s messiah.

France 3 said he claims Jesus appeared to him, that he alone can read hidden biblical truths, and that followers compete to be among those saved at the apocalypse — originally framed as 144,000 elect beside an immortal leader, later widened as the movement internationalised.

In France the organisation operates as Nouveau Ciel Nouvelle Terre (“New Heaven New Earth”) and has more than 1,000 followers in Île-de-France, according to the broadcaster. UNADFI, France’s main anti-cult family association, said it had received about ten testimonies — a number vice-president Marie Drilhon called significant given how few people seek help.

The group has a temple in Vitry-sur-Seine, a larger site in Sucy-en-Brie, rented venues in Paris and exhibition spaces used for its annual Shincheonji Art Expo.

France 3 described a strict pyramid: Korean education chiefs and “tribe” leaders above national officers, with France in the “tribe of Simon.” Shincheonji says it teaches the Bible and describes itself as a church; critics and former members allege opaque recruitment through Bible classes and intensifying control.

A former member identified only as Nathalie told France 3 that she was drawn in after an online Bible session and did not understand what she was joining:

« Je ne savais pas dans quoi je m’embarquais. »

Nathalie said the classes gradually took more of her time, that peers were forbidden from messaging each other outside lessons, and that she was asked for personal information and a copy of her identity card. She said “anti-poison” sessions warned members not to research the group online.

French yoga teacher charged over alleged abuse

A former yoga teacher in Troyes, in north-eastern France, has been placed under formal investigation for rape, sexual assault and abus de faiblesse (abuse of weakness) involving several women, including one who was a minor at the time of the alleged offences. The 74-year-old was placed under judicial supervision in November 2025, according to the Troyes prosecutor.

The oldest allegations under investigation date from 1998. At least five women are said to have come forward, and the prosecutor said the case brings together complaints filed in several parts of France.

Former students described alleged assaults presented as yoga-related therapy. Prosecutor Isabelle Verissimo said the charges did not rule out the possibility that the man exercised cult-like control over the alleged victims.

Italian teenager’s detention in Malta prompts diplomatic intervention

Italian officials continued to press Maltese authorities over the detention of a 15-year-old Italian boy arrested on 25 May after a false bomb alert at his school in Mosta. A Maltese court denied bail and listed the next hearing for 19 August.

The boy’s parents alleged that he was initially held in an adult prison and later spent extended periods separated from other detainees in a youth facility. Italy’s ambassador to Malta, Valentina Setta, visited him and sought treatment respectful of the minor’s human rights.

Corriere della Sera reported that, “according to what has leaked,” he had earlier come into contact with unsavoury people, “a sort of ‘cult’,” and was considered dangerous.

Later Corriere reporting said he appeared to have been groomed and blackmailed online via gaming platforms including Roblox. In a follow-up interview his mother said he had fallen into “the jaws of criminal groups that groom children and teenagers online, on gaming platforms,” who flood phones with illegal material and then coerce victims.

Italian outlets have not named a specific cult or network in this case.

Separately, reliable reporting — including FBI field warnings — has identified the online cult network 764 as befriending children on platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft before moving them to encrypted chats for blackmail and coercion. That pattern matches the methods described around the Malta arrest; it is not, on the sources available here, a confirmed identification of who targeted this boy.

764 appears again this week in the Pasadena bomb-threat item below; Observador’s piece on The Com also places recruitment in gaming spaces.

The parents’ public challenge centres on detention conditions after the alleged false alarm.

Ceuta poll gauges Spanish views on trafficking mafias

An El Mundo poll found that 6.2% of respondents considered people-trafficking mafias the principal cause of the late-July mass crossing into Ceuta. The survey reported that 47.6% saw the event as pressure from Morocco.

Among PSOE voters, 9.9% backed the mafias explanation while 61.9% pointed to Moroccan pressure. The poll formed part of Spain’s public debate on migration and trafficking after the crossing.

Tim Booth discusses Lifewave as James documentary arrives

The Observer’s Miranda Sawyer interviewed James frontman Tim Booth ahead of Chris Atkins’s documentary James: Getting Away With It. Booth said watching the film was upsetting because it brought back “some pretty traumatic memories” and because he and bassist Jim Glennie had long avoided discussing one period in the band’s history.

In Sawyer’s Talk ’90s to Me podcast, Booth went further into Lifewave, the mid-1980s meditation group led by John Yarr that he and Glennie joined. Sawyer framed the band’s story as joining a cult “and emerge intact.” Booth answered by widening the frame and then describing how he arrived:

“We live in a cult. Cult is culture… The heart of every cult, there has to be something powerful to draw people in. We came to Lifewave through a number of, a couple of paths.”

He described a near-death experience at 21, a year spent hunting for proof of meaning, Buddhist and coven dead ends, then initiation: a teacher touched his forehead and “my forehead exploded into light, a giant golden flower.”

After that, he said, came daily meditation, celibacy, and no alcohol or drugs. “I hadn’t swallowed the cult aspect of it at all until that point… And boy, did they.”

The group later collapsed for him when, as he put it, “we found our guru was sleeping around.” Meditation remained: “to this day, I can still meditate on the light and the sound.”

The documentary’s official trailer places the cult years alongside Factory Records, Sit Down and the hedonistic Lollapalooza tour. Cinema premieres are listed for 17 August 2026.

Swiss documentary returns to Methernitha abuse case

Swiss tabloid Blick reported on Der Engelmacher, Zurich director Marina Klauser’s documentary series about Paul Baumann — known inside the group as “Vatti” — and the Methernitha cult at Linden in the Bernese Emmental. The world premiere was at the Locarno Film Festival; SRF 1 is due to broadcast the series from 27 August 2026.

Baumann, born in Linden in 1917, founded Methernitha in the early 1950s. Blick said he built a strict hierarchy, styled himself as a spiritual figure with Egyptian motifs, and cast selected women as “angels.”

The paper said he framed sexual abuse of girls as “spiritual cleansing,” and that he also carried out abortions himself — a double meaning of the title Der Engelmacher (“the angel maker”).

In 1976 Baumann was convicted of multiple sexual offences against minors and sentenced to seven years in prison. Blick said German member Gaby Gerth and others, including survivors Ruth and Béatrice, helped expose him; he was arrested in May 1974 after Béatrice fled and filed a complaint.

After the conviction, about two-thirds of roughly 300 members left; those who stayed, Klauser told Blick, became more extreme.

Klauser began the project after learning her aunt Käthi — given the name Kometria inside Methernitha — had been a central figure. Blick said the film shows for the first time that abuse continued after Baumann’s early release for good behaviour, including anonymous testimony from a woman abused after his release.

Baumann died about 15 years ago at 94; Methernitha still exists. Klauser said administrators she met would not discuss the past, and Linden officials declined to comment.

Portuguese commentary warns of The Com’s online recruitment

In an opinion article, Portugal’s Observador described The Com as a diffuse online ecosystem in which violence, coercion and humiliation can become a route to recruitment. The article said Europol’s operation against the network removed about 4,340 online addresses associated with violent and disturbing material.

The operation, announced on 24 July, involved investigators from nine countries and was organised through Europol’s Internet Referral Unit and Spain’s intelligence centre against terrorism and organised crime. Observador said The Com differs from a conventional hierarchical terrorist organisation, describing recruitment through social media, messaging platforms and gaming spaces.

MISA reporting revisits Gregorian Bivolaru’s Côte d’Azur network

Nice-Matin revisited the French network around Romanian yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru, founder of the MISA cult (Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute).

French examining magistrates have charged him — mis en examen since 1 December 2023 — with aggravated rape (viol aggravé), abuse of weakness (abus de faiblesse), human trafficking and sequestration in an organised gang. He has been held in pre-trial detention in France since that indictment.

A Romanian court previously convicted him of rape of a 17-year-old minor. He denies the French allegations, calls them a conspiracy, and through counsel has argued that participants consented and travelled for sexual contact.

Nice-Matin reported that investigators searched Casa del Sol at Berre-les-Alpes, near Nice, linked to Sorin Turc, described as Bivolaru’s alleged right-hand man in France. Police found photographs of naked, numbered women and €66,410 in cash, three silver bars and 56 gold sheets.

According to the paper and the Paris investigation it tracks, women from several countries were recruited for purported tantric yoga or spiritual “awakening” seminars. Drivers met them at Paris airports, confiscated phones and computers, and made them wear hats and obstructed glasses so they could not locate the houses where they were held.

After days of conditioning in suburban properties, the movement’s so-called initiation ended in rape by Bivolaru, presented to recruits as a spiritual rite. Several women later filed rape complaints. The defence disputes the charges and has argued the contact was consensual.

Northern Echo notes St John of Beverley’s medieval cult

The Northern Echo’s heritage note on St John Lee, a Grade II listed parish church near Acomb, Northumberland, turns on the historical cult of its dedication saint.

The paper said St John of Beverley, an eighth-century bishop and healer who served at Hexham and later York, developed a “cult” that “became one of the most important pilgrimage traditions in northern England,” with miracles recorded by Bede. The present church was rebuilt in 1843 by Newcastle architect John Dobson on a medieval site the Echo links to early Northumbrian Christianity.

French anti-cult policy veteran recalls early parliamentary work

Former Alpes-Maritimes MP Rudy Salles told Nice-Matin that France’s institutional response to cult abuse was built from little more than scattered knowledge three decades ago.

He recalled early parliamentary inquiries, pressure around their work and the adoption of the About-Picard law of 2001, France’s main statute for preventing and punishing cult movements that attack human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Salles said the parliamentary approach shifted away from seeking a legal definition of a cult and towards identifying harmful conduct such as deprivation of liberty, inheritance capture and rupture from family.

Concretely, he said About-Picard let recognised public-interest associations such as UNADFI join criminal cases as civil parties, so families were no longer left without a route into court when an adult relative entered a group.

He said the first inquiry counted about 140 groups involving roughly 300,000 people, figures presented in the context of that historical exercise.

Thierry Ardisson’s Raël comparison resurfaces

Nextplz, an entertainment site, revisited a 2023 France 2 exchange involving French television host Thierry Ardisson and politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Ardisson — the long-running interviewer known as “the man in black,” who died of liver cancer on 14 July 2026 aged 76 — compared Mélenchon, the left-wing founder of La France Insoumise and a declared 2027 presidential hopeful, with Raël, founder of the Raëlian movement. Ardisson called Mélenchon “a guru” and said he led “a cult”.

The comparison was Ardisson’s own television-host opinion and political provocation, not an official characterisation of the party.

Pope Leo addresses Knights of Columbus convention

Pope Leo XIV sent a video message to the Knights of Columbus’ 144th Supreme Convention in Denver, Colorado, on 4 August, urging members to become “prophets of harmony” through dialogue, reconciliation and charity.

The Knights are a US-founded Catholic lay fraternal order, established in 1882 by Blessed Michael McGivney, that combines mutual insurance with parish charity and claims millions of members worldwide. They remain in full communion with Rome.

Vatican News framed the address around the convention theme “In The One, We Are One,” and said Leo praised work with people facing poverty, war, human trafficking and other vulnerability.

In early July Leo’s Vatican excommunicated the Society of St Pius X after unauthorised bishop ordinations at Écône, following papal appeals that the traditionalist fraternity rejected (6 July roundup; 13 July follow-up).

Jared Leto’s Obonjan retreat draws renewed scrutiny

Stern reported on an exclusive gathering involving Jared Leto on the Croatian island of Obonjan, where the actor and musician’s self-styled cult imagery has attracted fresh attention. Leto has used white robes, fan retreats and the hashtag “#YesThisIsACult”.

The German magazine said the presentation has acquired a more troubling resonance amid reporting about allegations concerning Leto and underage girls. It described the phenomenon as a personality cult rather than a confirmed cult organisation.

Beyond Europe

Elsewhere in the world:

US seeks Apollo Quiboloy’s extradition from the Philippines

The United States formally asked the Philippines to extradite Apollo Quiboloy, the detained founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, to face a 2021 federal indictment from the Central District of California.

According to the FBI Wanted listing carried in Philippine and international coverage, the charges include conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling. Those counts put him on the FBI’s most-wanted list.

US prosecutors allege Quiboloy and other Kingdom of Jesus Christ officials recruited women and girls as personal assistants known as “pastorals,” coerced them into sex — including so-called “night duty” — and ran a labour-trafficking scheme that brought members to the United States on fraudulently obtained visas to solicit donations.

Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it had received the request and passed it to the Department of Justice for review under the 1994 extradition treaty.

Quiboloy, 76, has been detained in the Philippines since 2024 on separate local cases of qualified human trafficking and child sexual abuse. He has denied the allegations and said they were fabricated by critics and former members. Philippine authorities may defer surrender until domestic proceedings finish, or consider temporary surrender for a US trial.

Separately, Los Angeles paralegal Maria De Leon was sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to a conspiracy involving sham marriages and visa fraud for Kingdom of Jesus Christ members. Prosecutors said she cooperated with their investigation.

764 linked to Pasadena hospital bomb threat

According to NewsFire.gr, which cited the New York Post and Los Angeles Times, a caller who made a bomb threat against Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California, identified as a member of the online cult 764. The threat prompted a major police response. No injuries were reported.

City spokesperson Lisa Derderian said the caller identified the group and gave details of the threatened attack. Reporting linked 764 to swatting, blackmail and coercion of young people. FBI field offices have previously warned that 764 members often first approach children on multiplayer games including Roblox and Minecraft before moving them onto Discord or Telegram. The FBI and Pasadena police continued their investigation.

Montana court upholds limits on Lemurian Mystery School contact

The Montana Supreme Court, in a 5–2 memorandum opinion decided on 4 August 2026, affirmed a Missoula County order of 1 October 2025 amending the parenting plan for three children of Acacia Jensen (now Alihana Malakai) and Timothy Jensen.

Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Bidegaray, Gustafson, Baker and Rice. Chief Justice Cory Swanson dissented, joined by Justice James Jeremiah Shea.

Under Montana’s internal operating rules the opinion is nonprecedential: it decides this case and may not be cited as binding authority.

The Amended Plan keeps Tim with final authority on school and healthcare (as in the 2023 plan) and adds three enforcement tools the mother challenged on appeal: a Parenting Plan Supervisor as first-line dispute resolution; and a requirement that, if the parents cannot agree on medical or dental care, they follow the treating provider’s recommendation.

It also adds a broader ban that the children “shall no longer be exposed to” or “influenced by” the teachings of online teacher Liana Shanti and the Lemurian Mystery School, including Lemurian nicknames — the children must be called their birth names.

The court did not strip Alihana of parenting time or declare her unfit; both sides had called the other a fit parent. It did uphold those limits on what she may teach or name the children while they are with her.

The majority’s cult-related findings track the trial record. Shanti’s Lemurian Mystery School promotes a strict raw-vegan diet, meditation and recovery of purported past-life memories on a lost continent called Lemuria; Tim called it a cult.

Court-ordered evaluators and CPS found Alihana’s abuse accusations against Tim and her parents unsubstantiated. The majority said followers are encouraged to act on false “repressed memories” of abuse and to sever family ties, and that a preponderance of evidence showed Alihana had embraced such accusations.

It held a parent’s free-exercise and parenting rights may be narrowly limited when children’s best interests require it, that Alihana may still hold her own beliefs, and that the nickname and “influence” bans were narrowly aimed at protecting the children from a pattern the record showed was harmful.

Swanson’s dissent would have reversed the religious-instruction and nickname clauses or remanded for explicit, record-based findings of harm.

He argued the Amended Plan’s language (“no longer be exposed to” / “influenced by”) is broader than the 2023 ban on recorded Shanti meditations, singles out one faith, and effectively stops Alihana practising her beliefs whenever the children are with her.

Absent clear demonstrable harm tied to those specific clauses, he wrote, Montana should follow the majority of states in letting each parent expose children to religious practice.

The majority replied that harm evidence was in the record, that some First Amendment objections were waived because earlier unappealed plan terms already limited Shanti exposure, and that “a parent may [not] practice and teach their religion to their children regardless of the harm it inflicts upon them.”

Philippines church figures report death threats after INC criticism

Crux reported that Filipino Catholic priest Robert Reyes, 71 — the activist known as the “Running Priest” — and Evangelical social anthropologist Melba Maggay, 75, publicly disclosed death threats they said came from alleged members of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). The pair spoke at the Diocese of Cubao headquarters in Manila on 4 August.

Iglesia ni Cristo (“Church of Christ”) is a large indigenous Philippine Christian church founded by Félix Manalo in 1914. It teaches that it is the restored true church and is widely known in Philippine politics for directing members to vote as a bloc — the so-called “Unity Vote.”

Critics, including some mainstream Christian leaders, have long accused it of authoritarian control and of using religious obedience for political leverage; INC presents that unity as a doctrinal strength.

The threats followed a 10 June press conference by the new ecumenical anti-corruption group Kingdom Keepers, which Reyes and Maggay help convene.

There Maggay called INC a “cult” that was “using the name of Christ for its own selfish political interest,” linking the church to reported Senate security fears and talk of an INC-backed “people power” mobilisation amid the country’s political crisis.

Crux’s headline framed their earlier remarks as denouncing a “‘cult’ denomination.” The August event was their decision to go public about the alleged death threats that followed that naming.

Narcissist’s Playbook documentary reaches rental release

NXIVM whistleblower Mark Vicente’s documentary Narcissist’s Playbook moved into general rental from the film’s own site after donor early access in mid-July. Vicente, previously known to cult audiences from HBO’s The Vow, presents the film as interviews with self-described malignant narcissists alongside survivors and clinicians.

Alongside the rental, Isla Traquair released episode 3 of her podcast The Storyteller, made as a companion to the film.

The episode focuses on one participant already in the film: an online commentator who calls himself a pioneer of “narcissistic abuse” language and a self-described narcissist.

After former patients contacted Vicente’s team with allegations of physical, sexual and psychological abuse during years of supposed clinical or advisory contact, the filmmakers said he would answer by text but would not sit for an on-camera interview with them.

Traquair publishes planning audio in which Vicente and producer Scott Altomare ask her to open a long podcast relationship with him first, build trust over months, and only later raise the abuse claims.

In Traquair’s account, that production conflict becomes central to the finished film. A project that set out to survey narcissistic abuse also documents similar patterns in its own making.

Reddit asks why American cults seem more numerous than Europe’s

On r/cults, user macrohatch asked why the United States appears to produce so many cults, especially “healing” groups such as Tony Robbins, NXIVM and Landmark, compared with Europe. The thread had drawn about 48,000 views within days of posting.

Highly upvoted replies clustered on history and material insecurity.

One long answer traced a frontier clergy vacuum during westward expansion and the Great Awakenings. Once mainline churches could not keep up, anyone with a Bible and a sales pitch could start a movement. That fed individualism and a marketplace of fringe faith that Europe’s state-linked churches had long suppressed.

Others pointed to weak US social supports: no guaranteed healthcare or housing, high inequality, and an entrepreneurial culture. They argued wellness pitches sell because real care is expensive. Constitutional religious freedom also came up repeatedly. US authorities often cannot shut groups down without trafficking or other concrete crimes.

Several commenters pushed back on the premise. Europe, they said, has plenty of cults, but they stay quieter, in chateaus, small towns or underground, while US groups recruit with advertising culture. Canada’s empty land undercuts pure geography theories. Others said “Europe,” “cult” and the time frame were never defined. Recommended reading in-thread included Jane Borden’s Cults Like Us.

Source citations

BBC News (UK): “At least five Al Fayed survivors confirmed as modern slavery victims”, 3 Aug 2026.

RTÉ News / AFP (Ireland): “Four Al Fayed survivors recognised as trafficking victims”, 3 Aug 2026.

Evening Standard (UK): “Five Mohamed Al Fayed survivors confirmed as modern slavery victims”, 3 Aug 2026.

Ouest-France (France, paywalled): “INFO OUEST-FRANCE. « Un dossier particulièrement inquiétant » : à nouveau débouté, le maire de Tréogan reste en prison”, 4 Aug 2026.

Paris Match (France): “« Un dossier particulièrement inquiétant » : accusé de dérives sectaires et de viols, le maire de Tréogan restera en prison”, 5 Aug 2026.

Nice-Matin (France, paywalled): “Le vingtenaire soupçonné à Toulon d’avoir été le gourou « d’une mini-secte » avant d’être élu maire en Bretagne a été maintenu en détention provisoire”, 5 Aug 2026.

elDiario.es (Spain): “Desarticulada una de las mayores estructuras criminales especializadas en el tráfico de personas en el Mediterráneo”, 8 Aug 2026.

The Independent (UK): “Spanish police take down speedboat gang trafficking thousands of migrants into Ibiza”, 9 Aug 2026.

France 3 Régions (France): “ENQUÊTE. Shincheonji, cette mystérieuse église qui inquiète”, 8 Aug 2026.

France 3 Régions (France): “TEMOIGNAGE. Au cœur de Shincheonji : ‘Je ne savais pas dans quoi je m’embarquai’”, 9 Aug 2026.

Le Figaro / AFP (France): “Troyes : un ancien professeur de yoga mis en examen pour viols et agressions sexuelles”, 3 Aug 2026.

Le Dauphiné Libéré (France): “Aube. Un professeur de yoga mis en examen pour viols et agressions sexuelles”, 3 Aug 2026.

Corriere della Sera (Italy, paywalled): “In cella a Malta 15enne italiano. Il papà: «Condizioni disumane»”, 5 Aug 2026.

Corriere della Sera (Italy, paywalled): “Così è finito in cella il 15enne italiano a Malta: il videogame trappola e poi il ricatto”, 6 Aug 2026.

Corriere della Sera (Italy, paywalled): “La mamma del 15enne in carcere a Malta: «È stato ricattato da gruppi criminali che adescano bambini e adolescenti online»”, 7 Aug 2026.

La Stampa (Italy): “La disperazione del papà di un 15enne italiano: ‘Mio figlio è in carcere da 70 giorni a Malta’”, 4 Aug 2026.

Quotidiano Nazionale (Italy): “Malta, il 15enne in carcere per il falso allarme bomba a scuola: ‘Sta bene, ma è separato dagli altri detenuti’. Pressing diplomatico”, 5 Aug 2026.

Corriere del Mezzogiorno (Italy): “Bari, il sindaco Bari Leccese in contatto con la famiglia del 15enne detenuto a Malta e con l’ambasciata italiana”, 7 Aug 2026.

WBAL-TV / FBI Baltimore (US): “FBI Baltimore warns of 764 network, group of individuals that coerces children into violent acts”, 30 Sep 2025.

El Mundo (Spain, paywalled): “Sólo un 6% ve culpables a las mafias en la avalancha de Ceuta y casi la mitad cree que hubo ‘presión’ de Marruecos, tesis que secunda el 61,9% de socialistas”, 8 Aug 2026.

The Observer (UK): “‘It brings back some pretty traumatic memories’: Tim Booth on the new James documentary”, 9 Aug 2026.

Talk ’90s to Me / Podmasters (UK): “Tim Booth from James - ‘Sit Down? I’d rather keep dancing.’”, 10 Aug 2026.

WeAreJamesTV (YouTube): “Trailer - JAMES: GETTING AWAY WITH IT documentary”, 2026 [2:12].

Blick (Switzerland): “Dokfilm «Der Engelmacher» über Sekte Methernitha in Linden BE — Neue Erkenntnisse über Guru Paul «Vatti» Baumann”, 7 Aug 2026.

Blick (Switzerland): “«Der Engelmacher»: Das ist der Trailer zur Doku-Serie”, 7 Aug 2026.

Observador (Portugal): “The Com: a seita digital que recruta os nossos filhos”, 8 Aug 2026.

Nice-Matin (France, paywalled): “Dérives sectaires sur la Côte d’Azur : dans l’antre azuréen de Gregorian Bivolaru, ce gourou planétaire accusé de traite d’êtres humains”, 5 Aug 2026.

Le Parisien (France): “Viols et emprise sectaire sur fond de yoga : le gourou roumain du Val-de-Marne crie à la conspiration”, 20 Jun 2026.

The Northern Echo (UK): “The Grade II listed church that tells 800 years of Northumberland history”, 9 Aug 2026.

Nice-Matin (France, paywalled): “« On est vraiment parti de rien » : Rudy Salles raconte les débuts de la lutte contre les dérives sectaires en France”, 5 Aug 2026.

Nextplz (France): “Jean-Luc Mélenchon ‘à la tête d’une secte’ : avant de perdre la vie, Thierry Ardisson l’a comparé à Raël”, 7 Aug 2026.

Vatican News (Vatican City): “Pope to Knights of Columbus: Be prophets of harmony in an age of division”, 4 Aug 2026.

Stern (Germany, paywalled): “Exklusives Treffen auf Obonjan: Was es mit Jared Letos „Sekte“ auf sich hat”, 6 Aug 2026.

Associated Press (US): “US asks Philippines to extradite Filipino church leader accused of sex crimes and fraud”, 6 Aug 2026.

Al Jazeera / AP: “US seeks extradition of Filipino church leader accused of fraud, sex crimes”, 6 Aug 2026.

Tagesspiegel / AFP (Germany): “Wegen Menschenhandels: USA beantragen Auslieferung von philippinischem Sektenführer”, 6 Aug 2026.

Ouest-France (France, paywalled): “Le gouvernement américain demande l’extradition d’un pasteur philippin poursuivi pour exploitation sexuelle”, 6 Aug 2026.

Philippine Daily Inquirer (Philippines): “DOJ to study US request for Quiboloy extradition”, 9 Aug 2026.

Los Angeles Daily News (US): “Paralegal sentenced in marriage fraud scheme involving Philippines-based church in Van Nuys”, 3 Aug 2026.

New York Post (US): “Extremist terror cult 764 revealed as sinister plotters behind bomb threat at SoCal hospital”, 8 Aug 2026.

NewsFire.gr (Greece): “Terror Cult 764 Behind Bomb Threat at California Hospital”, 8 Aug 2026.

Religion Clause (US): “Montana Supreme Court: Parenting Plan May Restrict Mother from Exposing Children to Cultic Religious Beliefs”, 5 Aug 2026.

Montana Supreme Court (US): “In re the Marriage of Acacia Jensen and Timothy Jensen”, 4 Aug 2026.

Crux (US): “Catholic priest, renowned writer expose death threats after denouncing ‘cult’ denomination in Philippines”, 5 Aug 2026.

UCA News (Asia): “New ecumenical group rebukes Philippine senator for ‘blasphemy’”, 11 June 2026.

Film Threat (US): “The Narcissist’s Playbook”, 29 Jul 2026.

Narcissist’s Playbook (US): “Narcissist’s Playbook”, 29 Jul 2026.

The Storyteller / Apple Podcasts (UK): “Ep 3 — The Storyteller: Narcissist’s Playbook”, 4 Aug 2026.

The Storyteller / Audioboom: “Ep 3 — The Storyteller: Narcissist’s Playbook”, 4 Aug 2026.

r/cults (Reddit): “Why are there so many American cults compared to Europe?”, 6 Aug 2026.