Month: April 2026

Premiered 2 hours agoPhilip Kiszely, Peter Lloyd, Peter Barnes and William Clouston debate

The youth organization of the Social Democratic Party of Germany has demanded the abolition of marriage.

The young socialists (Jusos) of Berlin have brought forward a resolution titled, “Down with patriarchy, even if it feels romantic: Abolish civil marriage, implement ‘communities of responsibility.’”

The Jusos are the youth organization of the Social Democrats (SPD), who are currently in a government coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU).

The SPD youth wing claims that the institution of marriage has a “millennia-long history of oppressing women.” According to the socialists, marriage is an instrument that perpetuates the oppression “of women by cis men,” the latter being a term to describe men who know they are men. The group complained that women would give up their rights to self-determination when entering into marriage. In doing so, marriage serves “the chauvinistic, capitalist nation-state as an instrument for enforcing misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ, classist, and racist policies.”

The Jusos note that many of what they describe as “oppressive regulations” have “been abolished or weakened in recent decades.” Nevertheless, “patriarchal structures of power and violence continue to unfold, particularly in the domestic context.” The authors also acknowledge in the motion that the security provided by marriage can be particularly valuable for women. However, these rights should no longer be reserved exclusively for marriage, but for everyone who enters into a “community of responsibility.”

In these “communities” that are supposed to replace marriage, people could “take responsibility” for one another, “regardless of occasion, kinship, gender, or number [of people].”

The socialists also call for the abolition of the tax privileges associated with traditional marriage, as they claim this system pushes women “from paid work into unpaid care work or (involuntary) part-time work,” which they say would lead to poverty and financial dependency for women.

Existing marriages are to remain in effect; however, tax or other financial benefits would no longer be granted, according to the Jusos’ measures.

According to German newspaper WELT, it is unlikely that the motion will be voted on at the convention of the SPD Berlin in May. Following the motion committee’s recommendation, the motion is deferred to the state party convention in 2027.

Catholic journalist and commentator Anna Diouf commented on the Jusos’ idea on X, recalling that the Soviets had already tried the abolition of marriage.

“Finally, the socialists are saying out loud what they want,” Diouf wrote. “Incidentally, attempts were made to abolish marriage in Bolshevik Russia, with such dire consequences that the idea was quickly abandoned. However, it is … unlikely that German socialists will abandon an idea that has proven to be misguided.”

lifesitenews

New figures from Eurostat show that sexual violence offences across Europe continued to rise in 2024, with sharp differences between Western and Eastern countries likely to intensify debate over the link between crime and migration.

Police recorded 256,302 sexual violence offences in 2024, including 98,190 cases of rape. This represents a 5% increase in sexual violence overall and a 7% rise in rape compared with 2023.

Over the past decade, the trend has been sharply upward: sexual violence offences have nearly doubled since 2014, while rape cases have surged by 150%.

In 2024, police recorded 256 302 sexual violence offences, among which 98 190 (38% of the total) were rape offences.

🔹Between 2014 and 2024, sexual violence offences jumped by 94% (+124 350 cases) and rape offences by 150% (+58 983).

Read more 👉https://t.co/O3qO9YcBjo pic.twitter.com/5hnZ1dUOlJ

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) April 29, 2026

A breakdown by population highlights striking regional disparities.

Nordic and Western European countries dominate the top of the list, with Sweden reporting 200.98 cases of sexual violence per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Iceland, Finland, France, and Belgium.

By contrast, several Central and Eastern European countries report significantly lower rates, including Hungary (5.10), Lithuania (5.79), and North Macedonia (7.17).

Similar patterns appear in other categories of crime. Spain, Belgium, Portugal, France, and Germany rank among the highest for robbery, burglary, and theft, while Montenegro, Slovakia, and Hungary sit at the lower end.

Drug-related offences also show similar gaps, with Sweden, France, and Belgium reporting far higher rates than countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.

Rising crime levels in Western Europe have been increasingly linked to increased migration. Reports from countries such as Spain, Italy, France, and Germany have indicated that foreign nationals are overrepresented among suspects in certain categories of violent crime.

In France, non-European foreigners make up 5.7% of the French population, but account for 14% of homicides and up to 30% of vehicle thefts.

In several German states, including Bavaria, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg, roughly half of all suspects in violent crimes are non-German nationals.

As we reported earlier, reports of sexual violence have increased alongside rising immigration levels in countries such as Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany.

europeanconservative

A Polish liberal magazine has published an opinion piece saying journalists and readers of a right-wing papers are only fit for “beating and murder”.

Tomasz Jastrun, a poet who is currently a columnist for the weekly Przegląd, in a piece published on April 27 in print and online, wrote that  journalists at conservative weekly Gazeta Polska and its readers cannot be debated with, only beaten or killed. 

“Gazeta Polska gives the impression of a publication driven mad by hatred of [Prime Minister Donald] Tusk and of people with liberal views,” claimed Jastrun before stating what he thought should happen with regard to the paper and its readers. 

“With the authors of Gazeta Polska, just like with its readers, it is no longer possible to discuss anything; there is no common ground for debate, only a beating or simply murder remains,” he wrote.

The editor-in-chief of Gazeta Polska, Tomasz Sakiewicz, went further and said that the matter showed how an atmosphere of impunity had been created for such outbursts in liberal media backing the centre-left government led by Tusk. 

“If anything bad happens to any of our journalists or readers, responsibility will lie not only with Mr Jastrun and the media that publish his texts, but also with the current authorities, because they create an atmosphere of impunity which encourages such a campaign, ” he said.

Sakiewicz, who is also the CEO of Poland’s most popular news channel, TV Republika, told portal Niezalezna that the liberal media seemed to feel normal rules of public debate no longer applied to them. 

“It seems that the liberal left has reached a point where the desire to prove they are better, that their way of thinking about life is superior, is beginning to eliminate anyone who thinks differently,” he said.

Sakiewicz also accused the authorities of not only engaging in a hate campaign against his paper and TV Republika but also of  the hounding of its journalists by prosecutors and of putting pressure on advertisers to withdraw their business from the channel.  

Responding to questions on what steps he planned to take against the column in which his journalists and readers were threatened Sakiewicz suggested ramping up private security. 

“We will certainly have to increase security for our media outlets, because we cannot rely on protection from the authorities, who are wiretapping, tracking, searching for compromising materials,and staging provocations.”

He also said that it was likely that he would be reporting Jastrun’s column to the public prosecutors. 

“We will also consider reporting the case to prosecutors, although in Mr Jastrun’s case, a psychiatrist might also be needed,” he concluded.

The head of the Association of Polish Journalists (SDP), Jolanta Hadasz, has said she expects a reaction from the authorities with regard to the Jastrun article because the safety and wellbeing of journalists was under threat. 

“Such words are particularly damaging at a time when public figures are receiving death threats and have in the past actually been killed. Jastrun’s remarks mark the crossing of yet another red line in public debate,” she said.

According to Hadasz, Jastrun may have a feeling of being immune from prosecution because he is a supporter of the Tusk government.

She recalled how the authorities have in the past clamped down on instances of alleged “hate speech” against public figures who support the government. 

“An elderly woman suffering from cancer was arrested, prosecuted and convicted for criticising the CEO of Poland’s biggest charity Jerzy Owsiak when she used the expression ‘perish man’, which was interpreted as wishing Owsiak to die. One should expect some reaction to Jastrun’s remarks.”

Polish public prosecutors have not, thus far, though, found time to investigate the Jastrun column, although they have in the last few days called in the Chief of Staff of the opposition Conservatives (PiS)-aligned President Karol Nawrocki for questioning in a probe over advice given to Nawrocki on the matter of the appointments of constitutional court judges. 

Former state broadcaster TGVP senior journalist Krzysztof Ziemiec, commenting on Jastrun’s column, asked: “Where was the editor in charge of the issue, where?”, before condemning the article as a classic case of hate speech. 

brusselssignal

Juanjo Marcano DaSilva, a Socialist member of Madrid’s regional assembly, said opponents of Spain’s mass migrant regularization should be struck when they claim the policy amounts to a large-scale amnesty

A Socialist lawmaker from Pedro Sánchez’s governing party has urged supporters to physically confront Spaniards who criticize the government’s mass regularization of illegal immigrants, telling them to hit opponents when they complain about the highly controversial measure.

Juanjo Marcano DaSilva, a Socialist (PSOE) member of the Madrid regional assembly, made the remarks while defending the Sánchez government’s migration policy, which has opened the door for hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants to obtain legal status in Spain.

Spain’s Socialist-led government finalized the measure in April, allowing undocumented migrants who arrived before Dec. 31, 2025, and can prove at least five months of residence, as well as a clean criminal record, to apply for temporary legal status and work permits. The government estimates around 500,000 people could qualify, although experts have suggested the figure could be considerably higher, possibly up to 1.6 million people. The measure was pushed through by decree, bypassing a normal parliamentary vote.

In the remarks, Marcano DaSilva mocked those who argue that the program is a mass amnesty and said they deserved to be “denied” or shut down.

“When they come with the nonsense that this is massive, please deny them, because it is what they deserve,” he said, according to a recording made during an internal meeting held in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, published by Frontera.

He then claimed some critics were speaking out of ignorance, while others were acting in bad faith.

“There are people among them, many do it out of ignorance, but others do it with bad intentions,” he said.

DaSilva can then be heard saying that when a “fascist” argues the policy is massive, supporters should “pick up something big and hit him in the face.”

He then repeated the call to use a book against opponents, saying: “So, take a bigger book and give the fascist another slap in the face.”

“Make it even bigger when they come with the nonsense that migrants are criminals,” he added.

Spain’s General Commissariat last month suggested the real figure of regularizations could be up to 1.6 million potential applicants.

These figures come against the backdrop of a sharp rise in illegal immigration. According to estimates cited from the Funcas think tank, the number of undocumented migrants in Spain has surged from around 107,000 in 2017 to nearly 840,000 in 2025 — an increase of almost 685 percent. Funcas also estimates that illegal migrants now account for 17.2 percent of the non-EU foreign population.

Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, said, “The Spanish people have not given permission for this. If the illegals ‘already form part of our daily life,’ it is only because you and the [center-right] PP have let them in against our laws and against our interests.”

Earlier this month, Vox announced it would appeal the passing of the royal decree to the Supreme Court, and effectively ask for an injunction on its implementation while the judicial review is being conducted.

rmx

German chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) took advantage in a recent interview with the magazine Der Spiegel to complain about the criticism directed at him on social media. He said he only visits the internet occasionally and explained:

“But if you take a look at what is being spread about me there, how I am attacked and disparaged – no chancellor before me has ever had to endure anything like this.”

With these words, Merz positions himself in the interview published on April 29 as a martyr of an allegedly unprecedented smear campaign.

At the same time, Merz stresses that he speaks openly about what he believes to be right and is prepared to face controversial debates. He does not want to compromise his principles. In an interview with Der Spiegel, Merz himself admits that the coalition often struggles to reach agreement on positions with “a grim face” and thus acknowledges a significant rift between the coalition partners, the CDU and the SPD.
In a recent Forsa poll for RTL and ntv, Merz’s approval rating stands at just 15 per cent, with 83 per cent dissatisfied. The INSA politician ranking for the Bild newspaper places him in last place for the first time. In the ARD Deutschland-Trend, satisfaction with his work has fallen to 21 per cent. Internationally, Merz even tops the list of the most unpopular heads of government, with 76 per cent dissatisfaction.

unzensuriert

Muslims defend Sharia law and ‘honour killings’ on television: in her programme ‘Klar’, journalist Julia Ruhs examines the spread of Islamism. A visit to Berlin-Neukölln offers insights into the fundamentalist milieu.
‘If the Basic Law and German laws conflict with Sharia law, which takes precedence? Sharia or German laws?” This was the question posed by the Syrian Sami Alkomi to Arab men in Berlin – on camera for the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation’s programme “Klar” with journalist Julia Ruhs. Alkomi is involved in an organisation called Demokratielotsen, which campaigns against Islamism. He is one of the protagonists of the new episode of “Klar”.
The programme is titled “Where Islamists are infiltrating Germany”. It is likely to spark debate. Ruhs gives a voice to Berlin primary school pupils whose Islamist-minded classmates tried to ban them from eating during break times during the fasting month of Ramadan. She investigates Islamist organisations that award the “halal” seal to food products sold in supermarkets. In the Berlin district of Neukölln, she filmed in shops with a hidden camera and bought books and accessories that openly glorify violence.

The programme draws a strict distinction between Islam as a religion and extremist Islamism – not only through explanations, but also through the choice of participants: almost all of them are Muslims themselves who have either been threatened or attacked by Islamists, or who, as Muslims, see through the extremists’ methods – such as Sami Alkomi.
When asked whether German law or Sharia law applies to him, a man replies: “Sharia, of course.”
Alkomi asks further: What if his sister were to live with her boyfriend without being married to him? The man replies: “Adulterers are stoned to death. Unmarried couples are flogged. 900 lashes.” Then he qualifies this: “I exaggerated that,” meaning the number of lashes. Alkomi presses him: “How many?” The man replies: “It’s 99. But I’ll add one more.”

Another man interjects. “Her brother should kill her,” he says. The questioner asks: “Why should her brother kill her? We’re in Germany.”
The man replies, referring to the global Muslim community: “She would dishonour the entire Ummah. That is haram. I’ll kill her.” – “Here in Germany?” – “Yes, I swear by God.”
The starting point is Hermannplatz on the border between the Berlin districts of Kreuzberg and Neukölln. There, Ruhs interviewed the political scientist Gülden Hennemann, who sees the square as a “dividing line” between the part of Berlin “that is still very democratic in character, and a part that unfortunately harbours groups of people and ideologies that are not necessarily compatible with our democracy.” Hennemann is herself Muslim.
Islamism starts as early as in schools, she says. It is Islamist, she explains, when pupils act as religious enforcers and, during the fasting month of Ramadan, forbid other pupils from eating during break times. This is exactly what happened at the Elbe Primary School in Berlin, says its headteacher, Deniz Taner. She, too, says she has her roots “in the Islamic cultural sphere”.

For the “Klar” report, she reads out a letter she sent to parents at the school. “During Ramadan, we are seeing worrying developments,” it states. “Parents, and pupils too, are complaining that some children who are fasting are telling other pupils not to eat during break times.”
Several pupils confirm this on screen. One girl says: “That felt uncomfortable. Quite a lot of people in our class are fasting, and when you’re told things like that – that it’s stupid if you’re not fasting – it feels a bit odd.”
While shopping in Neukölln’s shops with a hidden camera, Ruhs’ team bought a scarf embroidered with the silhouettes of three men on paragliders.

“The image is very strongly reminiscent of the attack on October 7,” says political scientist Hennemann, referring to the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, in which around 1,200 people were murdered and hundreds were abducted to the Gaza Strip. “This scarf looks like a trophy of horror and is being sold right in the heart of Berlin,” the editorial team has the voice-over narrator explain. In the same shop, there was also a necklace featuring the outline of a map of Palestine without Israel and a bullet as a pendant.

The selection also included books, among them a standard work by the Iraqi Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who is generally regarded as moderate. It is entitled “Fiqh for Muslims in the West” – fiqh being Islamic jurisprudence. “I believe it is not enough to focus solely on aspects of violence in the context of Islamism,” says political scientist Hennemann as she leafs through the pages. “We need to look at what the ideological basis is.” The image shows a highlighted sentence that does, after all, sound prone to violence: “Jihad also involves taking up arms to defend Islam or a Muslim country.”
As evidence of increasing infiltration by Islamists, Ruhs cites the certification of food as “halal”, i.e. permissible under Islamic law. Such products have long been common in supermarkets. According to research by “Klar”, certification is mainly offered by organisations that are not under suspicion, but also by extremists such as the “Islamic Centre Munich”, which is monitored by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or the group Milli Görüs, which is classified as extremist nationwide.

Ruhs illustrates the deadly side of Islamism using the example of the attack on a group of striking members of the Verdi trade union in Munich in February 2025. Farhad N., an Afghan man aged 24 at the time, had driven a car into the group. “Who actually died in the end?” asks one of the participants on camera, answering his own question: “A Muslim woman, my colleague. Her Muslim child.” And he continues: “Who is the injured one? Me, the Muslim.”
Farhad N. is currently on trial in Munich. The eyewitness recalls the moment immediately after the attack, when the perpetrator was lying on the ground: “He was talking to himself. To me, what he was saying sounded more like a prayer. I recognise that from our own practice when I attend the mosque.”

WATCH “Klar – Where Islamists are infiltrating Germany” with Julia Ruhs”

archive.is

The suspect in the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, London, on Wednesday has been identified as a 45-year-old migrant from Somalia.

In what is being treated as a terrorist incident, two men, identified as Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were stabbed in the Golders Green area of North London. Both suffered injuries, forcing them to be hospitalised; however, both are now said to be in stable condition.

Londres : une attaque au couteau dans un quartier juif fait deux blessés, un suspect arrêté https://t.co/ETMVdmGXP4

— Fdesouche.com est une revue de presse (@F_Desouche) April 29, 2026

In dramatic scenes plastered across social media, police were filmed using tasers and kicks to incapacitate the suspected knifeman after he apparently attempted to stab officers as well and was suspected of carrying an explosive device, the BBC reported.

On Wednesday evening, the Metropolitan Police identified the suspect as a 45-year-old immigrant from Somalia who has since become a British national. He has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. While police have yet to disclose a motive, Met Police Chief Mark Rowley said that he had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues.”

Watch as police officers confront a man suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack in north London where two men were stabbed.

The suspect refused to show his hands, was violent and continued to pose a clear threat. Using only their training, courage and tasers, they detained… pic.twitter.com/hQegUvqOZH

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 29, 2026

Police now say they are investigating a third incident that took place in a separate part of London in the south-east earlier the same day, which they believe may have involved the same suspect.

Shortly after the attack, the terror group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), which is said to have ties to the Islamist regime in Iran, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram account.

The group has also claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on Jewish targets throughout Europe since the conflict in Iran began, including on a Jewish ambulance service just yards away from Wednesday’s stabbings.

However, according to The Guardian, investigators have found no evidence of Iranian involvement and therefore believe that the posts may have been opportunistic rather than credible claims.

Nevertheless,  the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) force has been tasked with investigating the stabbings as a potential terror attack.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also held an emergency COBR meeting attended by Cabinet Ministers, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and top members of the Metropolitan Police.

Following the meeting, the Prime Minister said: “I am deeply concerned about the terrorist attack that took place today. This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a spate of utterly vile attacks on the Jewish community.”

He added that on Thursday, he will call together various criminal justice agencies to “ensure we have effective and swift justice.”

Yet, it is unclear how much the response from the government will go to quell local anger in Golders Green over the recent spate of attacks on Jews in the area.

During a press conference in the area on Wednesday, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was heckled by locals who demanded his resignation and shouted “shame on you”.  Similar chants were made when Labour MP for Golders Green, Sarah Sackman, attempted to speak.

Attack victim Shloime Rand, who was repeatedly stabbed yesterday, spoke from his hospital bed to broadcaster ITV to say it was a “miracle” he had lived and said the government had let down the Jewish community. He said: “I definitely feel that the government has let us down … If the streets of London are not safe for Jewish people then it’s definitely the government that are able to take care of the problems and they are not doing their job.”

According to data from the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) charity, there were 3,700 antisemitic incidents in Britain last year, the second highest on record, only behind 2023, which saw a surge in the wake of the October 7th terror attacks on Israel.

Speaking from Golders Green on Wednesday, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice blamed the attack and the rising number of attacks on Jews in Britain on “weak leadership” from the government. He said that a Reform government would ban the anti-Israel “hate marches”, ban the Muslim Brotherhood, and ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Tice added that the jail sentence for attackers has to be so long to actually act as a deterrent, and added that “these foreign nationals who are committing these horrific crimes, they have to be deported.”

“I ask a simple question: the alleged attacker, Sir Mark Rowley said, had a history of serious violence and mental illness. [How] on earth is a man like that allowed to roam the streets?”

Overnight, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism Jonathan Hall KC spoke out on the surge in attacks on Jewish communities in recent months. He said: “we’re now in a period of national security emergency. I think 2017 was a massive uptick where everyone around the country felt very unsafe because of what happened in Manchester and London. Now you’ve got repeated attacks against Brits in London, you know, day after day. So I think that we now qualify as an emergency.”

The senior lawyer said that after the 2005 London bombings the government moved decisively to crush the “cause” of terrorism, “Islamist preachers”, and extremist groups, and the government should “go after” the causes of this new spate of attacks today. He identified this as “very, very vicious antisemitism on the streets, probably in homes, probably in certain mosques”.

In separate remarks to Times Radio, Hall said there is an “ambient antisemitism that exists in some parts of the Muslim community” and political leaders weren’t calling that out. He said that while it “pains” him to say so, it appeared the country had got to the point where the frequent anti-Israel, pro-Palestine marches that have been taking place should be banned. He said: “It pains me to say this, but I think we may have reached a point where we need to have a moratorium on the sorts of marches that have been happening.

“It’s clearly impossible at the moment for any of these pro-Palestine marches not to incubate within them some sort of anti-Semitic or demonising language.”

breitbart

Children have been told to welcome migrants and even share their toys with them under a new scheme in schools.

More than 1,000 schools have signed up to a scheme by the Schools of Sanctuary network to promote positive attitudes towards migration.

The scheme includes a book list sent to secondary schools, primary schools, and nurseries.

One of the books, “Kind” by Alison Green, teaches children to be kind to the “brave and amazing people” people who have had to “leave their countries because of danger”.

Kind asks children how they can welcome these people who have “extraordinary stories to tell” and if they can “share toys” with them.

The book, targeted at readers as young as five, illustrated this with a flotilla of small boats filled with cartoon animals, including lions and giraffes.

The next page warns of how critics might say “we don’t have enough to share” and “there’s no room for anyone more”, suggesting to children to respond by saying: “There’s plenty of room! Come on in!”

It continues: “After all, if you don’t let people in, you’ll never know what you’re missing.”

This is accompanied by an illustration of a raccoon opening a door to a large bear.

Schools of Sanctuary aims to to turn children into “ethically informed change-makers”.

Other books on the list include Bobble, a story about a blue creature who uses a small boat to escape from difficult circumstances “far away”.

Bobble’s boat lands on a beach but is told by the island’s population: “There’s no room for you here with us, you’ll have to try elsewhere. Travel to the next island, and ask if there’s space there.”

The creators of the book state that it aims to make “big conversations about migration a little easier” and give young readers a way to “connect with refugees and asylum seekers”.

Another book on the list is Everybody’s Welcome, a book about a woodland mouse who invites animals to join him “no matter who they are “or where they come from”.

It also includes Elmer and The Hippos, a book where a herd of elephants, upset that a group of hippos who have “come to live with them” have made their river “too crowded”, eventually accept the semiaquatic mammals after Elmer plays peacemaker.

The programme is part of the larger City of Sanctuary scheme, an advocacy group subscribed to by 60 local authorities.

Local authorities which have signed up to scheme to be named as Cities of Sanctuary include Brighton, Manchester, Newcastle, and Westminster – while Wales is seeking to be the first “Nation of Sanctuary”.

Schools apply separately to be accredited for a similar programme to welcome refugees and asylum seekers and foster a broader “culture of belonging”.

Typical Sanctuary activities include English language classes and cultural events to raise awareness for new arrivals.

Schools also commit to celebrating events such as Refugee Week, an annual event which begins on July 15 and has a theme of “Courage”.

Kind and Bobble appeared on reading lists for Refugee Week 2025.

City of Sanctuary UK said that the network “works with schools to support a culture of welcome, inclusion and understanding for all members of the community”.

The organisation added: “Our suggested educational resources, including book recommendations, are designed to help children develop empathy, critical thinking, and awareness of the experiences of others.”

Hannah Broadway, illustrator of Bobble, told The Telegraph: “Bobble is a picture book for children and grown-ups. It was created to make big conversations a bit easier. Much about migration and displacement is complicated and confusing, but we hope this book’s message is simple: act with compassion and love.”

She added: “I’m a big fan of picture books and believe they are a powerful tool to help us learn and reflect on things. I think if we treated adults like children, and children like adults, we might find a better way to communicate.”

gbnews

Headteacher Christian Klar, who was able to recount a series of real-life incidents to the astonished audience, described a particularly horrific incident in the Simmering district of Vienna. There, a pupil of the Islamic faith, aged under 14, had raped a fellow pupil in a park. Nothing happened at the school as a result, because the offence was committed outside the school grounds. No criminal proceedings were brought because the perpetrator is not yet of criminal age. The girl who was raped and her attacker are still in the same classroom today.
The only thing that has changed at this school is that there are now more girls wearing headscarves in the class, Klar continued, asking: “Have you ever heard of a girl wearing a headscarf being raped?”[…]

That was one of the many incredible but true stories that members of the audience heard during the discussion “Vienna’s Schools: Between Falling Standards and Islamisation”, held yesterday, Wednesday, at Vienna City Hall. It is hardly surprising that nobody wants to become a teacher anymore, said Maximilian Krauss, the FPÖ’s education spokesperson in Vienna.

Unzensuriert