CultNEWS101 Articles: 1/27/2026

[Patrick Ryan]

Here is a summary of the latest news reports and articles related to cults, religious movements, and legal developments:

Asia Times: Kishi-Moon tie still afflicts Japan as Abe assassin faces verdict

“Coming events cast their shadows before.” This remark is attributed to the Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. Essentially it says that historical events, while occurring with no advance notice, are actually foreshadowed by auguries. With the passing of time, reflecting the wills of various players, the drama gains momentum and reaches its climax.

In other words, the past offers an understanding of the present. This likely holds true with the assassination three and a half years ago of Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, by Tetsuya Yamagami. Nara District Court will hand down its verdict in the case this coming Wednesday, January 21.

On July 8, 2022, then-41-year-old Yamagami, armed with a homemade firearm, shot and killed Abe in front of Yamato-Saidaiji train station in Nara Prefecture, while Abe was campaigning on behalf of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate in the upper house election.

According to media reports, Yamagami told interrogators that his mother had made sizeable donations to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification – previously known as the Unification Church – and thereby forced his family into bankruptcy.

“I believed Abe was tied to the Unification Church,” Yamagami was alleged to have said, in justifying his actions. He explained further that Nobusuke Kishi, Japan’s prime minister from 1957 to 1960 and Abe’s grandfather, had “brought the Unification Church to Japan. That’s why I killed him.”

During some research research five years before Abe’s shock assassination, I stumbled upon a document that would cast its shadow on subsequent events.

I had found the document, a personal letter from Nobusuke Kishi to US President Ronald Reagan dated November 26, 1984, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. In the letter, Kishi requested Reagan’s assistance in obtaining the release from a US federal prison of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, often colloquially known as the Moonies.

Kishi wrote: “Rev. Moon is now under unjust confinement. With your cooperation, I would like to ask that he be released by all means from his unfair imprisonment as soon as possible.” The letter went on to say: “My understanding of Rev. Moon is that he is a genuine man, staking his life on promoting the ideals of freedom and correcting communism.”

Two years before Kishi wrote that lettter, at the Southern District Court in Manhattan, New York, Moon had been convicted of tax fraud, sentenced to an 18-month prison term and fined $25,000. He’d been charged with failure to report interest income from bank accounts in New York and shares from a company with ties to his church. The defense had contended that Moon was holding the funds as a trustee of the church, but his conviction had been upheld on a split decision, Moon sent to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, from July 1984.

It was four months after Moon had started serving his sentence that Kishi sent the letter to Reagan, requesting Moon’s release."

ABC: Jewish leaders call for vilification offence to be revisited as Coalition splits over watered-down hate laws

Jewish groups have welcomed new laws that give the government powers to ban so-called hate groups, but say Labor's earlier plan to outlaw racial vilification should be revisited after it was dumped to secure the opposition's support.

The hate law reform portion of Labor's legislative response to the Bondi terror attack passed the Senate late on Tuesday night, with the support of the Liberal Party but not the Nationals.

What's next? Nationals leader David Littleproud says the Coalition's failure to arrive at a unified position does not reflect the state of the two parties' relationship. 

World Atlas: 7 Under-The-Radar Retirement Towns In Iowa

"Fairfield is well known for its association with Transcendental Meditation, a practice introduced decades ago when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi purchased the former Parsons College campus and established what is now Maharishi International University. Two golden domes stand on the university grounds, where group meditation sessions are held, contributing to Fairfield’s reputation as one of the most unusual and distinctive small towns in the Midwest.

The Maharishi Vedic Observatory occupies open-air grounds near the university's neighboring Vedic City, its collection of outdoor sundials displaying the universe's structure alongside movements of sun, planets, and stars in formats designed for visual comprehension rather than technical mastery. Retirees can wander between instruments without guides or schedules dictating their pace.

Typical home values rest around $155,000 per Zillow, letting retirement budgets avoid the strain felt in Des Moines metro counties just two hours northwest. The Fairfield Loop Trail connects downtown to university grounds through woodland sections that bloom with wildflowers from May to September, though the paved portions accommodate those avoiding uneven terrain.

Every first Friday, Downtown’s monthly Art Walk attracts thousands of visitors from neighboring counties. Galleries stay open late, and street musicians perform outside storefronts along the courthouse square."

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