Faith

Faith

Crowd surge at Hindu festival in India leaves 1 dead and many hospitalized

The Associated Press 2 minute read 10:19 AM CDT

NEW DELHI (AP) — A sudden crowd surge at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India’s Odisha state on Thursday left at least one person dead and many hospitalized, a news agency reported.

The incident occurred as tens of thousands of people gathered in the coastal town of Puri for the annual Rath Yatra chariot festival, according to the Press Trust of India.

The festival is considered one of the world’s oldest and largest religious processions. The centuries-old festival involves the idols of Hindu deities being taken out of the Jagannath Temple and carried through the streets in colorfully decorated chariots.

Videos from the scene showed injured devotees being carried to hospitals as shoes, bags and other belongings were left strewn across the area in the aftermath of the incident.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Weather

Jul. 16, 12 PM: 18°c Cloudy with wind Jul. 16, 6 PM: 28°c Windy

Winnipeg MB

19°C, Light rain with wind

Full Forecast

Faith

Man who housed cult leader in Saskatchewan to go to trial next year

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Man who housed cult leader in Saskatchewan to go to trial next year

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 5:38 PM CDT

SWIFT CURRENT - A man who housed a cult leader in Saskatchewan is to go on trial early next year. 

Ricky Manz faces various charges, including assaulting a police officer, mischief and failing to comply with an undertaking and release order. 

His trial is set to start Jan. 5 in Swift Current.

Manz owns a former school building in the village of Richmound, where he lived with Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed "Queen of Canada," and her so-called Kingdom of Canada followers for two years.

Read
Yesterday at 5:38 PM CDT

Faith

Muslim man in Utah was targeted in stabbing because of his religion, police say

Sarah Raza, The Associated Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 2:17 PM CDT

A Utah man told police he repeatedly stabbed a Muslim man because of the man's faith and intended to kill him, according to court records filed Monday.

The Muslim man survived the attack Monday afternoon at a mall southeast of Salt Lake City. But he's expected to face a long recovery after suffering more than 15 stab wounds, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help with medical expenses.

Bystanders were able to get the knife out of the suspect's hand before police arrived at the scene at Valley Fair Mall, court records show.

The suspect, Peter Michael Larsen, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and carrying a prohibited dangerous weapon. He told police he targeted the employee over his religious beliefs, according to the court records, which didn't list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

Faith

Kenyan court dismisses Rastafari case seeking to legalize marijuana

Evelyne Musambi, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Kenyan court dismisses Rastafari case seeking to legalize marijuana

Evelyne Musambi, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:20 AM CDT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking to legalize the use of cannabis by Rastafarians for religious purposes.

Justice Bahati Mwamuye said Kenya’s laws prohibiting the cultivation and use of marijuana do not violate Rastafarians’ right to freedom of religion. Granting the community an exemption would require a sound constitutional and legal foundation, he added.

Mwamuye, however, said Kenya should hold a national debate on its drug policy.

“This is not just a question for the Rastafari community but one that cuts across society,” he said.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 8:20 AM CDT

Faith

Tai chi practitioners seek balance and well-being in fast-paced Beijing

María Teresa Hernández, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Tai chi practitioners seek balance and well-being in fast-paced Beijing

María Teresa Hernández, The Associated Press 5 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

BEIJING (AP) — One arm raised and the other lowered, hundreds of people move every morning like birds spreading their wings at the heart of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven.

It’s a movement in tai chi, a physical and philosophical practice developed more than 300 years ago that continues to resonate in China today.

“The environment is great and the air is good too,” said Ye Guirong, 64. “You can see we’re surrounded by trees.”

Most practitioners are retirees in their 60s and beyond. Some exercise in groups while a speaker plays relaxing music in the background. Others move silently on their own.

Read
Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

Faith

Israel’s parliament approves laws to enshrine exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from military service

Melanie Lidman And Natalie Melzer, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Israel’s parliament approves laws to enshrine exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from military service

Melanie Lidman And Natalie Melzer, The Associated Press 3 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel's parliament has approved laws that effectively halt the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the country's military in a last-ditch effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition to woo religious political parties ahead of elections in the fall.

Lawmakers voted in a marathon session on Monday and Tuesday to both freeze the arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders and to enshrine Jewish religious studies as a “foundational value” of the state.

Both laws represent significant concessions by Netanyahu's Likud party to ultra-Orthodox politicians seeking to formalize their community's de facto exemption from serving in the military, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel.

The military is already grappling with severe manpower shortages and many Israelis have grown tired of the longstanding system that allowed ultra-Orthodox men to avoid service. Each year, roughly 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the conscription age of 18, but less than 10% enlist, according to a parliamentary committee.

Read
Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

Faith

Caribbean leaders press for slavery reparations, end of islands’ territorial status

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Caribbean leaders press for slavery reparations, end of islands’ territorial status

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press 4 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A group of Caribbean leaders met with senior clergy from the Church of England on Tuesday as the push for slavery reparations intensifies, with activists also calling for the independence of British, French, Dutch and U.S. territories in the region.

The reparations commission from Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc, was scheduled to also meet with British parliamentarians as part of a four-day official trip to the United Kingdom to seek reparations, the second such trip since November.

The group said the commission is creating a framework to launch negotiations because the time for making the case for reparatory justice is overdue.

“We in the Caribbean remain the most colonized part of the world, and this has to stop,” said Hilary Beckles, chairman of Caricom’s reparations commission and vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies.

Read
Tuesday, Jul. 14, 2026

Environment

LDS church would get sacred site, Martin’s Cove, under proposed BLM land trade now gaining steam

Mike Koshmrl/wyofile, The Associated Press 10 minute read Preview

LDS church would get sacred site, Martin’s Cove, under proposed BLM land trade now gaining steam

Mike Koshmrl/wyofile, The Associated Press 10 minute read Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Driving eastbound toward Martin’s Cove, Lloyd Larsen tried to hammer home the profound cultural significance of the place he was headed.

His destination, about an hour’s drive southwest of Casper, is holy ground for nearly 18 million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“If you’re a member of the church and you’re growing up in Moscow, you’ve heard of it,” Larsen said July 6 from the cab of his Ford F-150.

To the LDS member and longtime state representative for Lander, Martin’s Cove is more than a place. It’s also a good story.

Read
Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Faith

UK says an Iran-backed group was behind attacks on Jewish community and bans Revolutionary Guard

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

UK says an Iran-backed group was behind attacks on Jewish community and bans Revolutionary Guard

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 4 minute read Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

LONDON (AP) — A series of arson and vandalism attacks on Jewish sites in Britain were the work of a proxy group backed by Iran, the U.K. government said Monday.

The government said it is banning the group behind the attacks, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, or IMCR, also known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia.

It also banned Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which it said is a threat to national security. The move makes it illegal to support the groups. Committing sabotage on their behalf will be punishable by up to life imprisonment.

Parliament must approve the bans, which the government expects to take place by the end of the week.

Read
Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Faith

Support for Israel isn’t a high priority for younger Jewish Americans, an AP-NORC poll finds

Giovanna Dell'orto And Amelia Thomson-deveaux, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Support for Israel isn’t a high priority for younger Jewish Americans, an AP-NORC poll finds

Giovanna Dell'orto And Amelia Thomson-deveaux, The Associated Press 5 minute read Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Support for Israel is a key component of the religious identity of many Jewish adults ages 45 and older in the United States, but younger Jewish adults are more likely to prioritize other forms of connection, like celebrating Jewish holidays, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

That suggests the generational divide on Israel’s actions since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war in Gaza extends beyond politics to religious identity.

“I pray for people in the land of Israel. I don’t need to pray for the state,” said Cameron Bernstein, a 27-year-old medical student in New Orleans. She was raised with strong ties to Israel, where she celebrated her bat mitzvah, but said that now “it doesn’t play a role in my life, more than another country with people I love.”

The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that this split on support for Israel is particularly apparent among adults like her who identify as religiously Jewish. Jewish adults who are religiously unaffiliated but identify as Jewish in other ways tend to have less of an emotional connection to Israel in general.

Read
Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Faith

Iran persecutes its Baha’i minority fiercely in a year of protests and war, rights groups say

Fatma Khaled, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

Iran persecutes its Baha’i minority fiercely in a year of protests and war, rights groups say

Fatma Khaled, The Associated Press 7 minute read Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Peyvand Naimi has spent more than six months in an Iranian prison, accused of killing state security agents during nationwide protests, although his family says no formal charges or evidence have been presented. “The Baha'is will not be released,” the family says it was told by the prosecutor.

Ever since the Baha’i faith was founded in Persia — now Iran — in the 19th century, its followers there have been persecuted, usually more harshly during times of crisis.

This year, amid massive anti-government protests and war with the United States and Israel, the Islamic Republic has mounted a fierce crackdown on the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, human rights groups say.

Since January, dozens of Baha’is have been imprisoned because of their faith, human rights groups say. Holy books and religious symbols have been desecrated during raids of Baha'i family homes — which these groups say is evidence of authorities' sectarian motivations. Those detained have faced mistreatment ranging from electric shocks to mock hangings, and some have made forced confessions to crimes punishable by death, rights groups say.

Read
Monday, Jul. 13, 2026

Faith

Macron warns of resurgent demons of antisemitism as France honors Alfred Dreyfus

Masha Macpherson, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Macron warns of resurgent demons of antisemitism as France honors Alfred Dreyfus

Masha Macpherson, The Associated Press 3 minute read Sunday, Jul. 12, 2026

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday decried a resurgence of the ″demons of antisemitism″ that have darkened France’s past and present.

The French leader and others were inaugurating a statue honoring Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful 19th century treason conviction exposed deeply rooted anti-Jewish bias in France. Sunday marked 120 years since Dreyfus’ exoneration by France’s highest court, where the statue now stands.

Hours before the ceremony, police evacuated some 300 people from the Paris suburb of Sarcelles because intelligence services identified a suspicious vehicle containing a military weapon near a synagogue. Sarcelles has a significant Jewish population, and prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the vehicle contained a ″long military weapon,″ and that it’s unclear if the weapon was meant to target the Jewish community.

Read
Sunday, Jul. 12, 2026

Faith

Israeli fire in Gaza kills 6 people, including a little girl, health officials say

Wafaa Shurafa And Natalie Melzer, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Israeli fire in Gaza kills 6 people, including a little girl, health officials say

Wafaa Shurafa And Natalie Melzer, The Associated Press 3 minute read Sunday, Jul. 12, 2026

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fire in Gaza on Sunday killed at least six Palestinians, including a 9-year-old girl, and wounded over a dozen others, according to local health officials.

A drone strike on a blacksmith shop in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood killed at least four Palestinians, according to officials at Shifa hospital, where the casualties were taken.

The Israeli military acknowledged striking the area, saying it targeted “terrorist infrastructure,” without elaborating. It later said it struck a Hamas weapon production site.

Palestinians received an evacuation order from the military following the first strikes. Roughly an hour later, intense airstrikes targeted the same blacksmith shop. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance service said the strikes in Gaza City wounded 14 people.

Read
Sunday, Jul. 12, 2026

Faith

Growth in number of people with dementia challenges faith groups

John Longhurst 5 minute read Saturday, Jul. 11, 2026

There are over 770,000 people in Canada today living with dementia. By 2030, that number could be more than a million — a “tsunami” of dementia cases, according to Hope for Dementia, a Canadian advocacy organization.

“Current trends in growth of the number of people affected by dementia present an unsustainable trajectory,” the organization states, adding the cost of dementia care will rise from $12 billion in 2020 to $16.6 billion by 2031.

For Canadian society as a whole, it’s going to be a huge challenge. But it’s also challenging for faith groups — especially those Christian denominations that have large numbers of older members. They will be on the frontline of the increase in the numbers of people with cognitive impairment.

How can they respond? One organization that can help is the Alzheimer Society, through its Dementia Friendly Communities program.

Faith

Medical student association formed in response to antisemitism

Sharon Chisvin 6 minute read Preview

Medical student association formed in response to antisemitism

Sharon Chisvin 6 minute read Saturday, Jul. 11, 2026

Eighty years ago, after months of intensive research, analysis and interviews, a group of Jewish students at the University of Manitoba proved what had been suspected for years — the university’s faculty of medicine had a quota system in place that was restricting entry to Jewish applicants.

Once publicly revealed and condemned, that quota system was quickly revoked, and in the ensuing decades hundreds of Jewish students have passed through the halls of the medical college , graduated as physicians, pursued careers in an array of medical fields, and contributed significantly to the practice of medicine in Manitoba.

Graduates of the college include Dr. Arnold Naimark, who later served as the dean of the faculty of medicine and as U of M president and vice-chancellor, and Dr. Max Rady, an early 20th-century graduate, for whom the Winnipeg medical school is now named.

Thirty-year-old Tim Rozovsky was just a first-year student at the Max Rady College of Medicine last fall, when he determined that it was time for Jewish medical students to organize once again. He was aware that there already existed several student groups associated with the faculty, including a Christian one and a Muslim one, but to his knowledge there hadn’t been a viable Jewish group since the days of the quota.

Read
Saturday, Jul. 11, 2026

Faith

Many US Jewish adults have experienced assault or harassment over the past year, AP-NORC poll finds

Linley Sanders And Amelia Thomson-deveaux, The Associated Press 8 minute read Preview

Many US Jewish adults have experienced assault or harassment over the past year, AP-NORC poll finds

Linley Sanders And Amelia Thomson-deveaux, The Associated Press 8 minute read Friday, Jul. 10, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Jewish adults feel unsafe in the United States, a new AP-NORC poll finds, with a majority saying they feel less safe than they did before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research points to how Jewish adults’ attitudes toward their own personal safety have changed over a relatively short period as more Americans became critical of the United States' close alliance with Israel. The war in Gaza sparked U.S. protests over Israel’s military actions against the Palestinians in Gaza, and coincided with an increase in violent attacks against U.S. Jewish communities.

The findings highlight the vulnerability that many Jewish adults in the U.S. feel as bipartisan support for Israel erodes and significant divides emerge within the Jewish community about what constitutes antisemitism — particularly when it comes to protesting Israel.

A significant share of Jewish adults, about 3 in 10, say they or someone in their household has experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment or damaged property because of their Jewish background over the last year, according to the survey.

Read
Friday, Jul. 10, 2026

LOAD MORE FAITH ARTICLES