The week of 15–21 June brought fresh movement on the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) case in Crewe, where protests outside Webb House continue alongside court hearings on obstruction charges from April's police raids; Ireland's first labour-exploitation trafficking convictions and a dismantled ring in Athens; openDemocracy's investigation into AllatRa's doomsday climate narrative inside the European Parliament; a leaked guest list for Peter Thiel's secret Dialog retreat near Dublin, with a "Build-a-Cult" session on the programme; and a local history feature on the Buchanite cult expelled from Ayrshire in the 1780s. Summaries draw on monitored European and UK outlets; full source links follow.

Crewe protests persist as 24 AROPL members deny obstruction charges

Protesters outside Webb House in Crewe say nightly demonstrations will continue until the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light leaves town, the BBC reported on 15 June. The group returned to its headquarters after police finished searching the former orphanage in early May following raids on 29 April in which more than 500 officers investigated alleged sexual abuse, forced marriage and modern slavery. Twelve people arrested in that probe remain on conditional bail; seven had interim anti-slavery orders imposed.

Cheshire Police said most protests had been peaceful, but the force has arrested nine people at incidents of disorder outside the gates. AROPL, in a statement through lawyers, said it was a peaceful religion and accused a "violent group" of nightly attacks including fireworks. Protester Anton Johnson, who travelled from Manchester, told the BBC he had attended nearly every night since 3 May and wanted AROPL gone: "I wouldn't call it a religion, I'd say it's a cult." Local residents gave mixed accounts to the BBC, with some saying crowds intimidated children and others supporting the demonstrators.

On 17 June, twenty-four members of the organisation appeared at South Cheshire Magistrates' Court charged with public order offences during the raid, including obstructing officers, failing to comply with directions and assaulting police. All pleaded not guilty. Prosecutor Annika Livermore said residents blocked officers from rooms at Webb House, some linking arms; she named defendants including Dareem Charles, 36, alleged to have kicked police shields, and Ramazan Demirovic, 59, said to have pushed an officer in the face. District Judge Ian Barnes granted unconditional bail; trials are listed for April with case management on 29 September. All defendants are presumed innocent until trial.

Ireland jails labour traffickers; Athens police break exploitation ring

Georgijs Poniza, 37, from Latvia, and Armen Pogosyan, 30, from Uzbekistan, were jailed on 18 June at Donegal Circuit Court for human trafficking for labour exploitation, the first conviction of its type in Ireland, RTÉ reported. Judge John Alymer imposed 13 years on Poniza and 11 years on Pogosyan, suspending the final two years of Pogosyan's term for mitigating factors. The men pleaded guilty to trafficking, money laundering and forgery between December 2020 and October 2023.

Seven victims recruited in Latvia were promised wages and accommodation but controlled in Donegal properties, the court heard. Approximately €750,000 in wages was taken from men aged from their forties to sixties. One victim told the court he was "treated like a slave and an animal"; another said escape attempts were met with beatings. Survivor Mariss Lipiens urged others in similar situations to contact gardaí. Patricia McLaughlin SC, prosecuting, said victims had minimal bedding, inadequate heating and were sent to work across the west, north-west and Northern Ireland.

In Athens, police arrested four people on 19 June as they dismantled a human trafficking ring, eKathimerini reported. Officers said the suspects faced charges including participation in a criminal organisation, human trafficking, sexual exploitation and pimping. Further details of the operation were not immediately available in English-language reporting.

AllatRa cult gains EU Parliament platform for climate disinformation

openDemocracy reported on 19 June that AllatRa, a movement founded in Ukraine in 2014 and now US-based, co-hosted a February conference on nanoplastics inside the European Parliament with far-right Czech MEP Ondřej Knotek. The investigation describes AllatRa as a doomsday cult predicting human extinction by 2036, promoting pseudoscientific claims that plastic pollution and a 12,000-year "external cosmic" cycle—not greenhouse gases—drive climate crisis. Materials removed from its website after openDemocracy's approach warned of catastrophe within a decade, including a deleted claim that nanoplastics would rupture the Mariana Trench and destroy Earth's atmosphere.

Since 2024, AllatRa has also gained access to the US Capitol, US Congress, UN meetings and the Vatican, the outlet reported. Marine biologist Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth told openDemocracy that AllatRa spliced his comments into a documentary to imply causation between ocean plastic and warming where science does not support it; Turkish researcher Sedat Gündoğdu asked for his interview to be removed. UN Human Rights Council advisory committee member Patrycja Sasnal said doomsday disinformation fuels anxiety and exploits how readers lack time to verify claims. AllatRa presents itself as a volunteer climate initiative; scientists quoted in the piece dismissed its core narrative as pseudoscience.

Leaked Dialog retreat list puts Thiel's Irish gathering under scrutiny

A leaked directory of more than 200 names linked to Dialog, the invitation-only society co-founded by Palantir chairman Peter Thiel in 2006, put an August retreat near Dublin under scrutiny this week. EUobserver reported on 17 June that the European Commission denied foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas would attend the 12–16 August gathering at Powerscourt in Wicklow; whether she was invited remains unclear. The Irish Examiner, citing Wired, said the four-day programme lists off-the-record sessions including "Build-a-Cult," moderated by Pray.com's founder, alongside "Bring Back Nuclear," "How's Your Sex Life?" and "Navigating WWIII."

The leak, attributed to Swiss hacktivist Maia Arson Crimew, names Elon Musk, US senators Ted Cruz and Cory Booker, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Germany's Jens Spahn, Britain's Tom Tugendhat and Garry Kasparov among hundreds of listed members or guests. EUobserver noted Thiel appeared in Epstein files and that Dialog invited Jeffrey Epstein to its 2014 retreat. Of 222 people signed up for August, 87 are marked as first-time attendees, the Irish Examiner reported. Powerscourt Estate said it was taking legal advice regarding the private event.

Ayrshire papers revisit Buchanite cult expelled in the 1780s

The Ayr Advertiser published a history feature on 20 June on the Buchanites, the high-control group that scandalised Irvine in the 1780s before magistrates drove founder Elspeth Buchan and about sixty followers from the town. Buchan, who called herself the Woman Bathed in the Sun from Revelation, claimed she could grant immortality by breathing on followers and drew in Rev Hugh White of Irvine's Relief Church; the congregation deposed him. Robert Burns, then studying in Irvine, later condemned Buchan for "postures and practices that are scandalously indecent."

A mob stripped Buchan nearly naked and dragged her toward Stewarton in 1783; burgh authorities eventually expelled the commune at the May Fair in 1784. The group settled at Closeburn and later Crocketford in Dumfriesshire, adopting celibacy and awaiting a failed Second Coming date. Buchan died in 1791; follower Andrew Cairns kept her mummified corpse until his own death in 1846 expecting resurrection. Irvine author John Galt, aged four when the sect left, recalled children's psalm-singing in his autobiography. The piece was syndicated from USA Today network colleagues for local readers.

Source citations

BBC News: "Protests at Webb House will continue 'until religious group leaves'", 15 June 2026.

BBC News: "Twenty-four religious group members deny charges over Crewe raids", 17 June 2026.

RTÉ: "Two men jailed for 24 years for human trafficking", 18 June 2026.

eKathimerini (Greece): "Four arrested as police dismantle human trafficking ring in Athens", 19 June 2026.

openDemocracy: "Inside the doomsday 'cult' spreading climate disinformation to global leaders", 19 June 2026.

EUobserver: "EU denies Kallas attendance at Peter Thiel's secret 'Dialog' society following leaked guest list", 17 June 2026.

Irish Examiner (Ireland): "Palantir", 17 June 2026.

Ayr Advertiser (UK): "History files: The strange sect driven out of Ayrshire almost 250 years ago", 20 June 2026.