All posts tagged: religion

Cheshire Police issue dispersal order after Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light protests

Cheshire Police issue dispersal order after Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light protests

Published by Sam Flores

A dispersal order has been issued following an incident at the home of a religious group in Cheshire. Officers were called to Webb House in Crewe on Sunday (May 31). Police say the order covers the Victoria Avenue area in order to reduce the “likelihood of members of the public being harassed, alarmed or distressed, or to prevent crime and disorder.” In May, ten people were released on bail pending further enquiries after they were arrested during a raid of Webb House, the base of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light. Click here to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter Cheshire Police say they were made aware of allegations of serious sexual offences, forced marriage and modern slavery, reported to have taken place in 2023. Police say the latest dispersal order is not linked to any previous investigations. The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light say the incident was caused by “approximately 30–40” protesters gathered outside Webb House, “violently shaking gates and throwing bricks and rocks over the …

Palestinian Man Is Shot and Killed at a West Bank Barrier Near Jerusalem

Palestinian Man Is Shot and Killed at a West Bank Barrier Near Jerusalem

Published by Sam Flores

CAIRO (AP) — A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Sunday at a concrete barrier separating the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The ministry identified him as 26-year-old Imad Haroun Ishtayeh from the village of Salem, east of Nablus. It said Israeli forces shot him in a thigh in al-Ram town, and he was pronounced dead at the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah. Footage circulating online showed people carrying his body and climbing down a ladder that had been placed against the wire-topped barrier, while traffic continued to roll by and a horn blared. Israeli police said the man tried to unlawfully enter Israel by crossing the barrier. Ishtayeh was attempting to cross from the West Bank to Israel. Many people have been shot trying to cross the barrier, including a 44-year-old father who was killed earlier this month. Ishtayeh previously ran a poultry slaughterhouse in his home village of Salem, financially supporting his ill father. But business deteriorated as an economic crisis hit the West …

AfD, Vox mingle with ex-US Border Patrol chief, white nationalist leader at ‘remigration summit’  – POLITICO

AfD, Vox mingle with ex-US Border Patrol chief, white nationalist leader at ‘remigration summit’  – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Two years later, a confident Sellner made himself available to journalists for interviews at the remigration summit, dwelling on concepts that he says are now going mainstream. “We have a very neurotic relationship to our own ethnicity, our own ethno-cultural identity and I think we need to overcome that,” Sellner told reporters at the summit, calling on Europeans to overcome their “guilt complex” and “self-loathing” stemming from “post-war consensus.” At least three AfD politicians attended the event, including Kay Gottschalk, a member of the Bundestag and one of the party’s cofounders. Gottschalk said he was there “to listen” as “a visitor.” Lena Kotré, an AfD member and representative in the Brandenburg state legislature, spoke on stage with Sven Tritschler, a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia parliament, also in attendance. Vox MPs Rocío de Meer and Carlos Quero featured on the summit’s speakers list. Activist Sammy Woodhouse, a supporter of U.K. right-wing party Restore Britain, was also among the speakers. Tensions emerged when reporters who had been accredited to cover the event were not allowed in …

The Vatican’s Man Inside Anthropic

The Vatican’s Man Inside Anthropic

Published by skeptic

The Catholic ethicists even had a say in Anthropic’s recent update to Claude’s constitution, which sets the behavioral parameters for the company’s AI model. Olah sent a draft to the San Jose crowd. The pastor, McGuire, sent back a 28-page commentary which, by his own description, was less a technical critique than “wisdom from the mystics in the dark ages, from the perspective of the tension between knowing and not knowing.” Both Green and McGuire are credited in the constitution’s acknowledgements. Undoubtedly those conversations brought Olah to the attention of those secretly organizing the rollout of Leo’s encyclical. (I wasn’t able to speak to Olah this week and don’t know exactly how the invitation arrived.) In a sense it was a risky choice. Some people who otherwise found Leo’s words inspiring were disappointed that he invited an industry representative to speak. Meanwhile, AI accelerationists felt that Olah had betrayed the AI world by endorsing a document that suggested that AI developers take a pause. But the Pope had good reason to single out Olah. The …

Iran government sells subsidised meat for Eid al-Adha under blockade | US-Israel war on Iran News

Iran government sells subsidised meat for Eid al-Adha under blockade | US-Israel war on Iran News

Published by Sam Flores

Eid al-Adha, one of the most important dates in the Islamic calendar, comes at a critical time for Iranians this year. Meat from sacrificed animals is often eaten at Iranian tables, but a blockade on Iranian ports and sanctions by the US has led to escalating costs across the country. Unlike Nowruz, the Persian New Year, Eid al-Adha is not as widely celebrated in Iran, but mosques and other institutions still observe the ritual of animal sacrifice, known as qurbani, through authorised livestock and slaughter centres. Here, animals are sacrificed according to Islamic law in a hygienic environment. But another goal of the network is to control runaway inflation by offering meat at lower prices than market rates. Meat substitutes A Tehran municipality body announced on Tuesday that each kilogramme of sacrificial meat would be sold at 7.4 million rials ($4.30) at designated shops. The price for a similar cut on the market can be more than three times that, depending on its quality and the location of the butchers. The minimum wage is currently …

Muslims worldwide celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice | Religion News

Muslims worldwide celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice | Religion News

Published by Sam Flores

Published On 27 May 202627 May 2026 Muslims around the world have begun celebrating Eid al-Adha, the “Festival of Sacrifice”, which falls on the 10th day of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Muslim lunar calendar. One of the biggest holidays in the Muslim calendar, it coincides with the last day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. In Gaza, where Israel’s months-long offensive has devastated neighbourhoods and displaced most of the population, many families are marking Eid in tents and crowded shelters, with little meat or festive clothing. More than 1.7 million people are taking part in the Hajj this year, slightly up from 2025, even as a war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran casts a long shadow across the Middle East. On Tuesday, pilgrims prayed on Mount Arafat, where Prophet Muhammad is believed to have delivered his final sermon. They then spent the night out in the open at Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and Mina, where they collected pebbles for the symbolic stoning of the devil. …

Muslim pilgrims participate in stone-throwing ritual on third day of Hajj | Religion

Muslim pilgrims participate in stone-throwing ritual on third day of Hajj | Religion

Published by Sam Flores

NewsFeed More than a million Muslim pilgrims are participating in the stone-throwing ritual on the third day of Hajj. Pilgrims throw pebbles at stone pillars in Mina, Saudi Arabia to symbolise the stoning of the devil and the rejection of temptation. Published On 27 May 202627 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Source link

Pope Leo Schooled the Tech Bros on Tolkien

Pope Leo Schooled the Tech Bros on Tolkien

Published by skeptic

Nobody was surprised that Pope Leo XIV cited well-known saints and previous pontiffs in his first encyclical, or papal letter of spiritual guidance, “Magnifica humanitas,” released Monday. But the name that immediately jumped out to many readers is one synonymous with high fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, the Catholic author of The Lord of the Rings. Leo’s letter is concerned with “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” a major theme of his first year as leader of the Catholic Church. Drawing from his predecessor, Pope Francis, he warns of “the growing dominance of a technocratic paradigm,” one capable of “reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” He again compares the rise of AI to the Industrial Revolution that spanned from the mid-18th century to the beginning of the 20th, alluding to the teachings of his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, who in his own 1891 encyclical asserted the importance of workers’ rights and dignity during a time of technological …

Pope’s AI warning latest feud between Trump Administration and Vatican

Pope’s AI warning latest feud between Trump Administration and Vatican

Published by Sam Flores

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum opened a new front Tuesday in the Trump administration’s public feud with the Vatican, dismissing Pope Leo XIV’s warning about artificial intelligence as the White House resists new guardrails on the rapidly evolving technology. “I didn’t know that tech editorializing was part of the role of being pope,” Burgum said in an interview on Fox Business, referring to Leo’s first encyclical, a 42,300-word document that called for stronger AI oversight and warned the technology could displace workers, deepen inequality and put lethal weapons decisions beyond human control. But Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the Trump administration and one of its most prominent links to Silicon Valley, in an interview with NBC praised the same message as “profound” and the kind of “moral leadership” the church should offer at the start of the AI age. The split response underscores the delicate politics facing President Donald Trump as he makes AI dominance and deregulation central to his second-term economic agenda while navigating an increasingly public feud with the first American …