In a staggering condemnation of Germany’s open borders ideology, Berlin’s paper of record has noted that more Polish citizens have died in Islamist terror attacks in Germany than in Poland.
As a result of yet another deadly terror attack in Germany last weekend, a 65-year-old woman from Warsaw lost her life as a 21-year-old Abdul Ballout rammed a van into crowds at the Christopher Street Day Pride Parade in central Berlin. Among the further 31 injured was the daughter of the 65-year-old Polish woman, both of whom had travelled to the German capital for the annual LGBTQ event.
Remarkably, she was not the first Pole to have been killed in an Islamist terror attack in Germany, with Łukasz Urban, a Polish truck driver, also being killed in a vehicle attack. Urban was among 12 to have lost their lives as Tunisian terrorist Anis Amri used a Semi-trailer truck to plough into pedestrians at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016. A further 56 people were also injured in the attack.
German paper of record Die Weltnoted that this means that more people from Poland have died in jihadi terror attacks in Germany than in their home country, which has so far experienced zero fatal Islamist attacks. This is in large part due to Warsaw’s restrictive immigration policies, which have come in stark contrast to Germany’s open approach towards Islamic immigration.
Indeed, currently, Poland has only roughly between 40,000 and 76,000 Muslims in the country as a whole, compared to a population of around 37.7 million inhabitants. This means that the Islamic community accounts for around 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of the total population.
In contrast, at least 6.6 to 7.0 million Muslims are currently living in Germany, representing between 8 and 8.5 per cent of the population of 82.7 million people. This included the Berlin terror attacker, a Lebanese heritage 21-year-old, who was born in Berlin.
This disparity has arisen almost entirely from different immigration policies in recent years, with Poland being one of the few EU countries to resist mass migration and enforce strict border controls after German Chancellor Angela Merkel essentially opened the gates in 2015, sparking the European Migrant Crisis.
Die Welt notes that there is a growing perception among Polish people that Germany is unsafe, with social media users frequently mocking violent acts in Germany as having been committed by “cultural enrichers” or “engineers”.
This growing sentiment has translated into real-life decisions, with more people choosing to move from Germany to Poland than the other way around for the first time on record.
Indeed, data from Destatis showed that around 90,807 people moved from Germany to Poland, compared to 82,082 per cent of people from Poland moving to Germany in 2024.
Despite conventional wisdom that mass migration is essential to the economy, Poland has consistently outpaced Germany in recent years, with the German economy growing by just 0.2 per cent last year compared to 3.6 per cent in Poland.
The Council of Paris has voted to make gender-based “usage assessments” mandatory before any future public space development, as part of what officials describe as a broader effort to build a “feminist city” and combat what they call the rise of “masculinist” ideas.
The motion, a non-binding resolution known in French as a vœu, adopted at the council session of May 19-20, 2026, requires that all urban planning projects undergo a diagnostic study examining how different groups use public spaces and whether planned developments adequately address gender disparities in safety and accessibility.
The policy also seeks to ensure that recommendations arising from these assessments are actually implemented, something city officials acknowledged has not always happened in previous projects. The city already holds a project-management support contract covering such diagnostics but its use has not been systematic.
Paris published a reference guide on gender and public space in June 2023, launched at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, and had run pilot schemes across six sites in 2021.
Defending the measure, deputy mayor for gender equality Barbara Gomes of the French Communist Party (PCF) argued that public space had been designed neither for women nor by women. She noted that 52 per cent of Parisians are women.
Gomes said the council intends to make Paris a feminist city through education and public planning, by funding feminist associations and by countering what she called masculinist discourse.
The initiative comes as the Socialist-led Paris administration has intensified its focus on gender equality in public policy. Emmanuel Grégoire, who succeeded Anne Hidalgo as mayor on March 29, 2026, campaigned on neighbourhood police kiosks and lighting schemes aimed at women’s safety.
The motion argues that a growing “masculinist” movement, which it links to a reactionary right-wing politics, is increasingly challenging feminist policies.
According to figures cited by the city, 68 per cent of women aged 20 to 25 in the Île-de-France region say they have experienced harassment or sexist or sexual violence in public spaces. The Haut Conseil à l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes, France’s national equality council, has separately found that 76 per cent of French women have been followed in the street at least once.
The city has appointed Gabrielle Siry-Houari of the Socialist Party (PS) as deputy councillor responsible for combating sexist and sexual violence, working alongside Gomes.
Officials said the new assessments could lead to measures including wider pavements, redesigned pedestrian routes and the installation of neighbourhood police kiosks.
The motion states that public transport, the approaches to railway and metro stations, car parks, poorly lit spaces and under-equipped areas are where women most report feeling unsafe.
Siry-Houari has pointed to what she described as the monopolisation of freely accessible sports facilities in parks and gardens by men, saying many women feel illegitimate in using them.
Beyond physical planning, the city intends to expand public awareness campaigns aimed both at potential perpetrators and victims of harassment. Officials said they are examining similar campaigns carried out in London and Brussels.
Siry-Houari has said the aim is to make the public aware that harassment and verbal aggression are criminal offences, and not only rape and sexual assault.
Paris has also begun consultations with feminist organisations, including the Centre d’information sur le droit des femmes et des familles (CIDFF), the information centre on the rights of women and families, Osez le féminisme, À places égales, Sine qua non and the Collectif féministe contre le viol, with further meetings planned. The first of these took place at the Hôtel de Ville on May 21, 2026.
City officials say the strategy extends beyond women, arguing that ethnic minorities and LGBTQIA+ people also experience public spaces differently and should be considered in urban planning decisions.
The Socialist-run city of Nantes, western France, has pledged since 2020 to become the country’s first “non-sexist city” by 2030 and piloted a “gender-sensitive budget” in 2023 to test whether municipal spending benefited women and men equally. Mayor Johanna Rolland was re-elected to a third term on March 22, 2026.
In Belgium, the Flemish government has launched a 2026 funding call for projects improving women’s and girls’ safety, access and participation in public space. Successful bids are required to produce guidelines, methods or tools for use beyond the municipality concerned.
One of Germany’s largest police unions has called for sweeping changes to the country’s citizenship, deportation, and asylum laws following last weekend’s Islamist terror attack in Berlin.
In a letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz published on Wednesday, July 29th, the German Police Union (DPolG) urged swift response from the government.
DPolG chairman Heiko Teggatz said German citizenship should once again be more closely linked to successful integration, with nationality granted only after migrants have fully integrated into German society.
The call comes after Saturday’s Islamist attack on Berlin’s Pride celebrations, in which one woman was killed and dozens of others were injured. The attacker, 21-year-old German-Lebanese Islamist Abdul Ballout, had been classified as a high-risk extremist and was under surveillance before carrying out the assault.
Investigations have since revealed that police monitored Ballout until shortly before the attack, but surveillance footage from a hidden camera outside his home was reviewed only once every 24 hours rather than in real time. Ballout had previously been convicted of preparing a serious act of violence but was released on probation after a court accepted that he had renounced extremism.
Beyond citizenship law, the DPolG is calling for stricter deportation rules, arguing that courts too often block removals because they do not consider individuals to present a sufficient threat to public safety. The union also wants asylum legislation tightened, particularly the rules governing the withdrawal of protection status from refugees who voluntarily return to their countries of origin.
Reacting to the letter, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the opposition Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, said that the police union’s demands have “long been AfD policy,” and stressed that only an AfD-led government would deliver a “U-turn on migration.”
Restriktives Einbürgerungsrecht, strengere Abschieberegeln, Verschärfung des Asylrechts: Was die Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft vergeblich von Merz fordert, ist bei der AfD längst Programm. Mit einer AfD-Regierung kommt die Migrationswende!https://t.co/0h5ezBgzqU
The debate comes as Germany resumed direct commercial flights to Syria for the first time in more than a decade. The new route between Düsseldorf and Damascus follows a bilateral aviation agreement concluded earlier this month and is intended primarily to serve Germany’s large Syrian community and business travellers.
Despite promising to return Syrians back to their home country following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the beginning of international contacts with Syria’s new authorities, there seems to be no desire on behalf of Friedrich Merz’s government to go through with that promise.
Syria itself has no intention in bringing home its citizens who fled the country after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. Syrian foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani recently said that “Syrians in exile are strategic national assets, not burdens.”
Following the restoration of flights to Damascus, the AfD says the routes should be used for deportations rather than enabling holidays for “fake refugees.”
Spain’s radical leftist government, currently facing multiple corruption investigations, has set out to swamp the country with Muslim mass migration, winning the praise of the media and Pope Leo, and the migrants swarming to its shores. In the latest disaster, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that Muslim migrants can’t be sent back home if they arrive by sea. And guess whatthey went and did?
A recent judicial ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court determined that foreign nationals attempting to enter Ceuta and Melilla by sea may not be returned to Morocco. Magistrates ruled that irregular arrivals can only be arrested if established border barriers – such as fences – are breached.
And the Muslim migrants came in vast numbers.
The mass arrival of irregular migrants on the shores of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has reached a tipping point, with local authorities warning of a “state of collapse”.
Last week, 1,500 migrants arrived at the city’s shores. With a population of just 84,000, Ceuta’s reception services have been overwhelmed. Wednesday alone saw more than 800 people attempt to swim to Ceuta – a dangerous stretch of water of a few kilometres which has cost many of their lives.
In a radio interview with Onda Cero on Thursday, the city’s mayor Juan Jesús Vivas likened it to “one million people were entering Spain irregularly.”
Migrants broke through the fences into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 after overwhelming police at the city’s breakwater, Spain’s Guardia Civil police said.
Video footage showed some migrants swimming over from the Moroccan side using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices, and others breaking through a gate in the fence and running into the city.
The scene was reminiscent of the crossing that occurred in May 2021, when some 10,000 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa entered the enclave in days.
Of course the radical open borders regime insists there’s no emergency.
The interior ministry told Euractiv it “is not possible” to declare a national state of emergency since Spanish law does not classify migration flows as a risk under the National Civil Protection System”.
It’s a national emergency, but a political opportunity. This is the plan.
A Tunisian man has been jailed for 12 months and banned from France for five years after deliberately starting a fire near a Lidl supermarket that had refused him entry because he was drunk.
The 39-year-old, who was legally resident in the country, was convicted by the Toulon criminal court on Wednesday over the fire in Ollioules, in the Var region.
According to the Toulon prosecutor’s office cited by CNews, the man started the blaze beside a road shortly after being refused entry to the supermarket by a security guard because he was drunk.
He was arrested by police officers on July 25 and held at Toulon police station before being placed in pretrial detention.
The defendant claimed the fire was accidental, telling investigators that his lighter had “jammed” while he was attempting to light a cigarette, an explanation the court rejected.
Police officers and two fire engines quickly brought the blaze under control. Around 40 square meters of vegetation were destroyed, while an EDF electricity line was also damaged.
The man had three previous convictions for unrelated offenses. A psychiatrist who examined him found no impairment of judgment and he was therefore deemed criminally responsible.
The case comes as French authorities adopt a tougher approach to suspected arson during periods of extreme heat and elevated wildfire risk.
Two other people were arrested on Tuesday over separate fires in Nanterre and Grenoble.
In Nanterre, a suspect allegedly used a lighter to ignite a bush in André Malraux Park, burning approximately 2,000 square meters before firefighters extinguished the flames. The perpetrator’s identity has not been made public.
In Grenoble, a 28-year-old Romanian man riding a scooter allegedly fired fireworks, one of which landed in a bush and started a fire. Passersby prevented the flames from spreading, and the man, who was already known to police, was taken into custody.
In another setback for the European LGBT movement, Poland’s Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that same-sex “marriages” performed abroad cannot be recognized in Poland because the Constitution recognizes marriage as a union of a man and a woman.
The July 28 ruling comes just 11 days after President Karol Nawrocki vetoed two bills that would have recognized “cohabitation contracts” for couples who live together on the same grounds.
Article 18 of the Polish Constitution states: “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.”
On November 25, 2025, the European Union’s Court of Justice ruled that Poland must recognize same-sex “marriages” conducted in other EU member states. The case began when a homosexual Polish couple got “married” in Berlin and requested the transcription of their certificate into Poland’s civil registry. This was denied because Polish law does not recognize same-sex “marriage.” The couple sued, and the court ruled in their favor.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s progressive coalition government backed the court, but took pains to assure the public that the EU could not dictate Polish law (as it was clearly attempting to do) and that the Polish Constitution would be respected. Tusk, who has been waging an extralegal war on Poland’s conservative laws since taking office, added that “respecting tribunals” was also fundamental.
The government has been careful about openly backing a change to Poland’s marriage laws, but their presidential candidate – who lost to Nawrocki – referred to same-sex civil unions as a “logical first step.” Toward what? To ask the question is to answer it. Tusk has been livid at Nawrocki’s vetoes, but that is because the president understands their tactics and their end goal. Poland’s LGBT activists seek to undermine Article 18 before they overturn it.
Initially, it appeared that the incremental strategy was working. Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled in March that same-sex “marriages” contracted outside the country should be recognized by the government, essentially affirming the EU court’s judgement. In May, the government issued a regulation to begin the change administratively, and the ruling was set to take effect on August 23, but the opposition Law and Justice Party successfully appealed to the Constitutional Court.
The three judges held that foreign marriage certificates could only be transcribed if the unions met the definition of marriage under Poland’s constitution. To change this – that is, begin to hollow out Article 18 – would take a constitutional amendment and sweeping legislative change that would include an overhaul of the Family Code.
In response, Tusk’s government launched a direct attack on the legitimacy of the court itself. “Mr. Święczkowski’s illegal tribunal wants to deprive hundreds, perhaps thousands in the future, of the right to happiness,” stated Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski. “They expected that the law would be the law in Poland and that no political influence would matter.” Gawkowksi was referring to Constitutional Tribunal President Bogdan Święczkowski.
Gawkowski continued by stating that his government will ignore the ruling – precisely the sort of disregard for the rule of law that progressive commentators repeatedly accused Poland’s previous conservative government of exhibiting. “Today, Mr. Święczkowski is throwing this opportunity for dignity into the trash, but no one will respect the rulings of the illegal Constitutional Tribunal,” he said. “Work on the regulation on transcription support will continue, and we will not stop there.”
“I am publicly accusing Mr. Święczkowski of violating the Constitution. He is violating Article 30 of the Constitution, the article on human dignity,” Gawkowski said. By definition, however, Gawkowski is violating the Constitution and attempting to circumvent Poland’s top court – and in the process, he is again revealing the government’s ultimate goal: the elimination of Article 18 of the Polish Constitution on the grounds of “human dignity.”
In the aftermath of the Islamic terrorist attack on Berlin’s July 25 Christopher Street Pride festival, in which one woman was killed and 29 people injured, a gay Turkish belly dancer — according to the AP — opted to turn “grief into joy.”
Haidar Darwish, a professional belly dancer and artist, took center stage at a Berlin museum where he went through with his performance despite the tragedy. No doubt he prepped for a long time for his twenty minutes of fame and wasn’t going to let that opportunity go.
The show — his show! — must go on despite the cancellation of the festival. And so, the hairy-chested Darwish mesmerized audiences dressed in a hoop skirt and a red fez hat as he worked his belly button into a zillion undulations.
“Yesterday there was an attack and a hate crime on our community in Berlin during the Pride Parade,” he told AP. (Said under his breath: “But at least I got to preform!”)
Ironically, the former Syrian refugee was on stage with a group called Queens Against Borders, a performance group described by the press as “created to build solidarity with refugees, migrants, and immigrants from the LGBTQ+ community.”
“Without borders” are the key words here, because it is precisely this concept — nations should have no borders and everyone, even those from cesspool countries, should be welcome — that led to the Berlin terrorist attack.
The evasive, milquetoast reaction of many in the LGBTQ world to the Berlin attack shows that LGBT activists and progressives are still in denial when it comes to Islam. Many LGBT outlets downplayed the killer’s ties to ISIS and generalized the attack as generic homophobia, stating: “This is why Pride is necessary!”, rather than state, “Hey, I think we ought to rethink this whole ‘Queers for Palestine’ thing!”
Liberal progressives, especially women, even confessed on social media they were sorry the attacker was not Christian. Convoluted logic went even farther when a few even expressed sympathies for the attacker while blaming Christians for the tragedy.
Years ago, the big threat at Pride events in Philadelphia and elsewhere was the presence of Christian fundamentalist groups with bullhorns and placards quoting Scripture condemning homosexuality.
These groups never threw bombs or drove cars into the festivals; they never produced a surprise machete to cut people up. And yet Christians who opposed homosexuality were framed as the biggest threat to the LGBT movement since the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1953.
Islam, which is really more of a political system than a religion, doesn’t play around. Love and pray for your enemies? Turn the other cheek?
Progressives were shocked when the news broke that the Berlin attacker was not a fundamentalist Christian or a rightwing white supremacist. Having to admit the attack came from an “intersectional” family member was deeply troubling for many activists, as well it should have been.
The attack clearly showed that some cultures are simply not compatible with Western culture. Why? Because many immigrants from the Middle East never fully assimilate into the culture that invited them in but stand in opposition to that culture while attempting to overpower and infuse that culture with its own values and standards.
The Berlin of 2026 is not the Berlin of Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Christopher Isherwood, Thomas Mann, or the hit Broadway play, “Cabaret.”
The cultural and political devastation wrought by the Nazis thankfully ended with the obliteration of that world, but can the same be said for the slow Islamization of Germany?
Immigration in Germany began in massive waves in the 1970s. Under former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015, asylum seekers from Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, and Bangladesh piled into the country in great numbers. In two months’ time, asylum seekers in Germany jumped from 76,000 to 170,000, as Chancellor Merkel encouraged the rush with statements like, “We can do it!”
This is nothing less than suicidal empathy, since even predominately Muslim countries refused the type of migrant Western European countries like Germany invited in.
Today, Islam is the largest minority religion in Germany.
Germany’s coddling of terrorist Abdul Ballout (the suspect in the attack), a 21-year-old Lebanese who tried to join ISIS in 2025 when he traveled to Lebanon, meant that he was allowed to roam free while under a court order to attend a deradicalization program for high-risk offenders.
Ballout was even scheduled to meet with the deradicalization staff after the Berlin Pride festival for his third and final evaluation.
While researching this essay, I came across a reference to Hamtramck, Michigan, a town where the entire city council is Muslim.
In 1970, Hamtramck was 90% Polish, but over the years its population became increasingly politically progressive as the old Poles died off. Hamtramck became a hard-core pro-LGBT town, solidly Democrat, pro BLM, pro-abortion, pro-DEI, with residents supporting Zohran Mamdani-like policies.
Hamtramck was so progressive it was the first town in the U.S. to legalize the Muslim call to prayer in the morning.
But progressives there were shocked when the new mayor, a Muslim, and the full Muslim city council, banned the flying of the Pride flag on city property. They felt betrayed (some in city government quit their jobs), especially when the city maintained that flying the Pride flag would disrespect the religious freedom of others.
How did these stupid progressives not know that Islam, unlike Christianity, isn’t into accommodating lifestyles it considers immoral?
And why were those gender-queer furry idiots in Berlin shocked that the Berlin Christopher Street festival was attacked by an Islamic terrorist and not a so-called far-right Christian?
One final word about Hamtramck: In 2023, the all-Muslim city council there enacted an animal sacrifice option whereby it became legal in that town — a first in the U.S. — to sacrifice animals on private residential properties.
A women’s rights advocate and PhD researcher in Brazil was subject to an investigation over her social media posts after trans activists at her University reported her for advocating against the medical transitioning of children. Celina Lazzari had her research suspended by the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis for her social media posts despite having an outstanding academic track record.
Lazzari is the co-founder of MATRIA Brazil, an independent volunteer-based charity that focuses on advocating for the rights of women and children. The group offers legal and institutional support to women facing persecution, discrimination, or violence for defending their sexual rights and child protection. They also work in the fight against practices such as prostitution, pornography, surrogacy and other forms of female and child exploitation.
Lazzari had completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), earning exceptional grades and academic praise. She chose to continue her studies at the same university, pursuing a PhD in Social Work. Her research, titled The Listening Practices of Social Workers in Childhood and Gender Issues, had been approved by the university’s Human Research Ethics Committee (CEPSH), and Lazzari had successfully passed her doctoral qualification examination in November 2024.
“My doctoral research sought to understand how social workers respond to children and adolescents presenting with gender-related issues,” Lazzari tells Reduxx. “I exclusively interviewed professionals who were already dealing with these situations in their day-to-day practice. The aim was to examine how these professionals listen to, support, and assess such cases, the criteria they use in their decision-making, and the challenges they encounter.”
Lazzari says her research found that there was often a “tendency to identify children as transgender prematurely, that affirmative gender theories exert a strong influence on this process, and that gender-related behaviors, preferences, and stereotypes are frequently interpreted as indicators of a transgender identity.”
But Lazzari’s academic journey would come to a screeching halt in March of 2025 after other graduate students began to focus on her out-of-class advocacy.
Lazzari became the subject of criticism in a WhatsApp group of approximately 90 current and former graduate students. According to court documents reviewed by Reduxx, participants in the group accused her of transphobia, criticized her public statements concerning gender ideology, and discussed filing complaints with university authorities and professional regulatory bodies because of her views.
Screenshots from the graduate student WhatsApp group in which students condemn Lazzari for her pro-woman activism.
Lazzari responded by filing a police report, arguing that the online discussion amounted to coordinated harassment and included accusations that could expose her to criminal and professional consequences. She also informed the graduate program of the incident the following day and offered to clarify any concerns.
Two months later, Lazzari says she hadn’t heard anything from any University department regarding any complaints that had been filed against her, and she initially believed the controversy in the WhatsApp group chat had died down.
On May 30, 2025, the Human Research Ethics Committee approved her doctoral project, concluding that it satisfied the ethical and methodological requirements governing human-subject research, and Lazzari was able to confidently proceed with her studies.
Unbeknownst to Lazzari, however, the complaints about her gender critical beliefs had reached UFSC through a complaint submitted to the university’s Ombudsman’s Office.
While it is impossible to know who ultimately filed the complaint, one student in particular, Rodrigo Faria Pereira, had previously compared Lazzari to the far-right former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. In the graduate student WhatsApp group, Perieira called Lazzari “schizophrenic,” posted links to MATRIA social media posts, and directly threatened to file a complaint with the graduate program.
Pereira’s academic research is focused on health policies for the trans population, and he is a member of the university’s Center for Studies and Research on Social Work and Gender Relations.
Rodrigo Faria Pereira. Photo Source: Instagram
The Graduate Program had quietly investigated Lazzari, but ultimately determined that it lacked jurisdiction because the allegations were related to her statements outside the university rather than her academic work. It closed the matter without disciplinary action
Despite that decision, the Human Research Ethics Committee, which had previously approved Lazzari’s research, initiated its own review.
In December of 2025, the committee ordered the immediate suspension of Lazzari’s research and demanded extensive documentation, including signed participant consent forms, audio recordings of confidential interviews, publications, and social media material. Lazzari was given just two days to produce the requested materials, some of which would have violated research confidentiality agreements and Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (LGPD).
Lazzari says she wasn’t initially provided with the full complaint against her or the technical opinion on which the committee relied. After she submitted a formal response in March of 2026, the university suspended her research the same day she finally received the complete complaint. She contends that this sequence denied her a meaningful opportunity to defend herself before the decision was made.
In March of 2026, Lazzari filed a Writ of Mandamus in Brazil’s Federal Court, arguing that the university had violated her constitutional rights to due process, adversarial proceedings, academic freedom, and protection of confidential research data.
The trial court ruled partially in her favor, finding that the suspension and several of the committee’s demands were unlawful and that the university had to allow her doctoral research to resume. UFSC appealed that decision, but on July 1, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office recommended that the appeal be dismissed and that the lower court’s ruling remain in effect.
Lazzari has now successfully defended her thesis, but the trauma of her experience and uncertainty over her future is lingering.
“I went through these proceedings, publicly disclosed what had happened, sought judicial protection, and was able to finish my PhD. But this does not represent only a victory. I emerge from this as a woman who has been marked within academia,” Lazzari told Reduxx.
“I was subjected to extensive public exposure, profound institutional strain, and the creation of a perception that collaborating with me may entail conflict, complaints, or retaliation. This creates concrete obstacles to my ability to pursue new research in the future,” she explains.
Lazzari emphasizes that her research nor the quality of her academic work was ever the issue, and her completed thesis was “highly praised” by both her supervisor and committee. But despite her academic success, she believes the investigation and controversy may have marred her future prospects.
“I know that other professors and researchers may hesitate to work with me in the future—not because they question my competence or the value of my research, but because they understand that they, too, may face consequences simply for being associated with my name. They may be challenged, pressured, or accused merely for participating in a research project with me,” Lazzari explains.
“This is one of the most damaging consequences of this kind of persecution. Even when a researcher manages to withstand the pressure and ultimately prevails, the informal punishment remains,” she continues. “I was able to defend my dissertation and to have my academic freedom reaffirmed by the courts, but I paid a very high price. And that price will continue to shape my professional and academic career for years to come.”
Clarice Saadi, Lazzari’s colleague and co-director at MATRIA Brazil, called the treatment she had been subjected to “appalling,” and noted that no other Brazilian organization had stepped up to support her.
“The climate in Brazil is one of intense hostility toward any woman who says men cannot turn female. This hostility extends far beyond debate on social media: it’s present within public institutions, universities, professional settings, and even the justice system, all of which have increasingly incorporated the concept of ‘gender identity,’” Saadi says.
“At MATRIA, we support many researchers who have been silenced, pressured, or discouraged from conducting studies that critically examine issues related to the sex-based rights or trans ideology. Some have been warned to change their research topics, abandon certain hypotheses, or avoid conclusions that might generate institutional conflict,” Saadi continues, adding that censorship does not always rely on formal methods.
“More often, suppression occurs through warnings, intimidation, subtle threats, extraordinary demands, or the creation of an environment in which the researcher understands that she may face serious consequences if she proceeds. These consequences may include public attacks, indirect accusations, or other forms of professional retaliation. As a result, self-censorship takes hold. Research projects are never initiated, important questions are left unasked, and findings are never published,” she says.
“Celina’s experience is not an isolated case. It’s simply one example of a broader and institutionalized problem in Brazil: hostility toward women who refuse to comply with rules imposed by men.”
Porsche is preparing to cut more than one in three jobs in Germany under a cost-cutting measure intended to protect its remaining workforce and existing production sites until 2035.
The Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer will eliminate a further 5,000 positions at its main Zuffenhausen plant and Weissach development center. Combined with reductions already announced, around 8,900 employees are expected to leave the company.
The cuts are due to be carried out without compulsory redundancies, primarily through natural attrition, partial retirement schemes, and voluntary severance agreements, Die Zeit reported.
“This package creates the opportunity to strategically realign our company,” Porsche chief executive Michael Leiters said. “Only if we achieve our goals and are economically successful can we also provide our employees with the necessary security.”
The restructuring will also require significant concessions from staff.
Porsche plans to defer 3.5 percent of current and future collectively agreed pay increases for employees covered by company-specific salary arrangements. Senior managers will forgo part of their planned base-salary increases in 2027 and 2028.
The company-funded portion of employees’ Christmas bonuses will gradually be reduced, cutting the maximum payment from the equivalent of a full month’s salary to 60 percent. Future bonuses will also be tied more closely to Porsche’s profitability and overall performance.
Remote working will be restricted to eight days a month, down from 12, while break arrangements and production cycle times will also be revised.
The package was negotiated with the IG Metall union and the Südwestmetall employers’ association. According to Junge Freiheit, IG Metall members will receive an additional annual day off and a €200 voucher. Regular employees will receive a one-off €1,500 transformation payment in August, rising to €1,911 for union members.
Porsche’s latest measures follow a previous agreement to remove around 1,900 jobs in the Stuttgart region by 2029, as well as the expiry of approximately 2,000 temporary contracts. The manufacturer has also cut positions in Leipzig and announced the closure of three subsidiaries employing more than 500 people.
The company has been hit by collapsing sales in China, U.S. tariffs and costly investments in electric vehicles that have yet to produce the expected returns. The saturation of the European auto market by cheaper Chinese imports has further exacerbated problems within the wider German industry.
Audi recently lowered its revenue and profitability forecasts after second-quarter net profit fell by around 21 percent to €563 million.
Volkswagen is also pursuing a much broader restructuring programme that could reportedly eliminate as many as 100,000 jobs by 2030 and result in factories being reduced in size or closed altogether.
Earlier this month, German Association of the Automotive Industry president Hildegard Müller warned that the crisis had become so severe that some German plants may need to be transferred to foreign manufacturers to prevent their complete closure.
“We will not be able to keep all the factories and suppliers open this way,” Müller said, arguing that Germany and Europe now faced “significant changes” and the end of costly habits and entitlements that the country could no longer afford.
Xenia Fedorova interviewing Vladimir Putin in 2018. Social media.
French authorities have ordered the expulsion of Russian journalist and former RT France director Xenia Fedorova, accusing her of acting as a conduit for Kremlin disinformation and threatening France’s public order.
The French interior ministry confirmed today that Fedorova had been served with a ministerial expulsion order, confirming a report by the daily Libération. The order states that her “behaviour undermines the fundamental interests of the State” and that her continued presence in France constitutes “a particularly serious and current threat to public order”.
Authorities accuse the 45-year-old of spreading Russian state narratives through her appearances on French television and radio, alleging she contributed to efforts “to manipulate public opinion”, weaken confidence in French and European institutions and destabilise public order.
Fedorova, who headed the French branch of Russian state broadcaster RT France from 2017, has since become a regular commentator on conservative broadcaster CNews, Europe 1 and weekly magazine JDNews.
The European Union suspended the broadcasting activities of RT and Sputnik on March 2, 2022 under Council Regulation 2022/350, adopted days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. RT France announced its closure in January 2023 after its French bank accounts were frozen, and was subsequently liquidated.
She also presents Lumières orthodoxes, a programme on Orthodox churches broadcast by CNews and CStar, both part of the Canal+ group. In March 2025 she published Bannie, subtitled La Liberté d’expression sous condition, with the Bolloré-owned publisher Fayard.
Her lawyer, Emmanuel Piwnica, condemned the expulsion notice as a serious attack on press freedom and announced that she would immediately appeal the expulsion order.
He told Agence France-Presse: “Xenia Fedorova is a journalist. This decision is a serious attack on the freedom of expression of a journalist who has always practised her profession in the most proper manner possible.”
Fedorova is already barred from German territory, a source close to the case told Agence France-Presse.
The French Government has increasingly targeted Fedorova over her media appearances in recent months.
On May 29, French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot described her as a “fully fledged propagandist” for the Kremlin, accusing broadcasters of helping spread Russian narratives by inviting her onto their programmes.
“Everyone is free to choose their editorial line, but giving this woman airtime and column inches is simply serving Vladimir Putin’s propaganda,” Barrot said on France Inter at the time.
The row followed an investigation published by Le Monde on May 26 that examined her influence within the media holdings of Vincent Bolloré, and a further report on June 1 questioning the ten-year residence permit she obtained in 2024 after RT France was wound up.
On May 13, Renew Europe president and French MEP Valérie Hayer called on France’s media regulator Arcom to investigateCNews and Europe 1 for repeatedly featuring Fedorova without prominently identifying her former role as head of RT France.
She claimed that allowing Fedorova to present views aligned with Moscow risked amplifying Kremlin narratives during wartime and could breach French broadcasting rules on accuracy and pluralism.
