• Lawsuit claims dance group Shen Yun engaging in child labor exploitation
    2025-04-30

    Shen Yun colors itself as a dance company working to keep traditional Chinese culture alive while assailed by the Chinese government. But a recent lawsuit filed by two former dancers paints a different picture, according to The New York Times and AOL News. Accused of building an “army of forced labo...

  • We Went to Shen Yun So You Don't Have To
    2025-04-28

    The Shen Yun show is a relentless, ubiquitous, and unavoidable marketing force, especially in any city where one of their eight companies are performing. I love many kinds of live shows, and have long been curious about this, but–ethically–could I go? I knew that Falun Gong aka Falun Dafa, which pro...

  • Fringe religious group sentenced over girl's 'slow and painful' death
    2025-04-18

    Eight-year-old Elizabeth Rose Struhs died in Rangeville, west of Brisbane, in January 2022.Credit:Nine News As a girl lay dying in pain on a mattress on the floor at home, her parents and their fringe religious group withheld the medication that would have saved her. Now, three years after the...

  • Member of Zizian group says she did not kill her parents
    2025-04-16

    In this combination of undated photos provided by the Pennsylvania State Police, Richard Zajko, left, and his wife Rita Zajko, who police say were shot to death in their home in suburban Philadelphia on Dec. 31, 2022, are shown. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP, File CONCORD, N.H. AP — The daugh...

  • Shen Yun: The Dark Side of a Dance Troupe
    2025-04-14

    What a Times investigation has found about abusive conditions at the secretive enterprise. This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and ...

  • Shen Yun performances a 'disguised proselytism' for Falun Gong, Korean church group warns
    2025-04-14

    Rev. Jong-hyeok Kim, Chairman of the Korean Christian Council. Christian Daily Korea The United Christian Churches of Korea UCCK, which is currently led by President Rev. Kim Jong-hyuk, issued an official notice on April 11 to member denominations, expressing concern over Shen Yun Performing Arts...

  • Shen Yun's Latin America tour sparks local controversy
    2025-04-11

    As Shen Yun Performing Arts hereinafter referred to as Shen Yun, a self-claimed "real Chinese culture" troupe, prepares for its Latin America tour from April 17 to May 10, quite a few local residents are voicing concerns regarding the performance and the scandals it has been involved in. "I was h...

  • Accused murder suspect and Zizian cult member accuses jailers of 'detransitioning' her in court outburst
    2025-04-09

    One of the suspected cult members who is set to stand trial for the attempted murder of Curtis Lind and the murder of fellow Zizian Emma Borhanian in 2022, Alexander "Somni" Leatham, had another outburst in a court appearance Tuesday.

  • Devouring of human nature: Lee Wei incident and cults’ dark influence
    2025-04-08

    The “Jingshe Murder Case” in Taipei, Taiwan, shocked society, bringing former actor Lee Wei, who had faded from the public eye, back into the spotlight. This violent event, disguised as a spiritual practice, tore off the cult’s veil, revealing its hypocrisy and exposing the devastating impact of m...

  • What is the Unification Church and why does it face dissolution in Japan?
    2025-04-08

    The Tokyo District Court ordered the church's legal status be revoked, meaning it will lose its tax-exemption privileges and require its assets to be liquidated.

  • Aum Shinrikyo successor groups still dangerous, justice minister says
    2025-04-08

    Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki called for caution over the three successor groups to Aum Shinrikyo, ahead of the 30th anniversary on Thursday of the doomsday cult's sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.

  • Unification Church faces dissolution in Japan
    2025-04-08

    The Unification Church has come under intense scrutiny in Japan since a former prime minister was assassinated, but it could soon fall even further from grace.

  • Japan cult widow speaks 30 years after subway attack
    2025-04-07

    Yuki Niimi is the widow of Tomomitsu Niimi who was executed in 2018 for his role in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo metro system Richard A. BrooksRichard A. BrooksAFPAFP Only seven years into her marriage did Yuki Niimi first touch her husband -- at a morgue where she collected his body a...

  • I joined a cult (accidentally)
    2025-04-07

    I pride myself on researching things before I buy them. Is it a good value? Are there better products out there? Do I really need it? You know, the cringe millennial minimalist lifestyle. However, when it comes to experiences,I like to be surprised. I wrote before that I buy a lot of tickets...

  • Court in Japan orders the dissolution of the Unification Church
    2025-04-07

    Nobuya Fukumoto, foreground center, a lawyer for the Unification Church, is surrounded by reporters after the church was ordered dissolved by the Tokyo District Court, in front of the court in Tokyo TOKYO AP — The Unification Church in Japan was ordered dissolved by a court Tuesday after a gover...