Andy Burnham has received ecstatic praise from the left for his conference speech, promising a national care service, electoral reform and rejoining the EU. Is he a danger to Britain? Is he a greater threat to the right than any of his predecessors since Tony Blair?
The Home Secretary wants to re-open the Resettlement Scheme that would see thousands of “refugees” from Gaza, Afghanistan and elsewhere relocate to the UK.
Harry & Meghan claim the 2 paparazzi photographers hanging around their children’s school were similar to the suspected Iranian terrorists at RAF Fairford.
With host Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, political strategist Peter Barnes, David Oldroyd-Bolt of the International Reagan Thatcher Centre and Col. James Bogle, barrister and author.
When a senior Catholic Archbishop — a former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States — openly accuses global elites of infiltrating Western governments to impose Agenda 2030… the world should stop and listen.
Viganò warns:
“A dangerous subversive elite has infiltrated the highest levels of Western institutions to implement a criminal global plan.”
He says those who expose this “global coup” are silenced through:
And he names a political prisoner the mainstream refuses to talk about:
Rainer Füllmich — imprisoned for the crime of telling the truth.
Then Viganò goes further than almost any church figure in our lifetime:
“It is not Füllmich who belongs in prison, but those who committed the greatest crime ever against humanity.”
And he names them:
Fauci Gates Schwab Soros von der Leyen Bourla …and their accomplices in public office.
This is unprecedented.
A senior Archbishop accusing the globalist power structure of crimes against humanity — and calling the emerging system what it is:
A totalitarian regime spreading across Europe, Canada, Australia and every nation controlled by the UN, NATO, WHO and WEF.
His call to the world is clear:
“Raise your voice. Defend the persecuted. Free Rainer Füllmich.”
History is accelerating.
The Church is speaking.
Whistleblowers are being jailed.
And the globalists are losing their grip.
The truth is breaking through.
🚨 ARCHBISHOP VIGANÒ JUST DROPPED A NUCLEAR TRUTH BOMB
When a senior Catholic Archbishop — a former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States — openly accuses global elites of infiltrating Western governments to impose Agenda 2030… the world should stop and listen.
After a brief recess and a hearing lasting about two hours, the judge of the Kecskemét District Court ruled on Thursday afternoon to remand Balázs Hankó into custody. The former Minister of Culture and Innovation is a suspect in the National Cultural Fund (NKA) case.
Under heavy guard, Balázs Hankó arrived at the Kecskemét District Court building around 10 a.m. from the detention center in Cegléd. Shortly thereafter, the preliminary hearing began, during which the judge decided which coercive measures should be ordered in the case of the former minister suspected in the NKA case.
After the hearing, the press spokesperson for the Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced that
the court had ordered Balázs Hankó to be detained for 30 days.
He had filed an appeal, which the court had taken note of. Criminal proceedings allow for the detention to be served at a police station, which in this case is taking place at the Cegléd police station. If necessary, the prosecutor’s office may file a motion to extend the detention by 30 days. Should the 60 days have elapsed and the detention need to be extended again, the former minister will be transferred to a correctional facility.
Péter Magyar responded to the news of the arrest on his Facebook page within minutes. In his post, the prime minister writes: “Another minister in Viktor Orbán’s government, Member of Parliament Balázs Hankó, has also been remanded in custody by the court. The allegation: embezzlement amounting to 17 billion HUF (46.11 million EUR), committed as part of a criminal organization.” “This stolen money was used to partially finance FIDESZ’s election campaign,” Magyar claimed,
thereby preempting the court’s decision even before the trial on the merits has even begun.
In an exclusive interview with Hír TV, Hankó stated that a politically motivated case is being brought against him, one that has two “main focal points.” He described one as a cultural-political struggle and the other as a cultural-political reckoning.
In connection with the proceedings, the FIDESZ politician also mentioned the “Polish model” and Donald Tusk, and questioned the detention of those involved in the case. Regarding the risk of a repeat offense, he said that those involved no longer held their former positions, and in response to the possibility of flight, he cited his own example. “I have made it clear that I am here and available,” he explained. The former minister also pointed out in the interview that
his colleagues had been threatened and that there were attempts to send him to prison.
The investigating judge of the Kecskemét District Court has ordered the arrest of another person suspected in the NKA case, the press spokesperson for the Bács-Kiskun County Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday. According to press reports, the person in question is Veronika Varga-Bajusz, the former state secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, who was responsible for higher education, vocational training, and adult education, as well as youth affairs. An MTI correspondent saw her at the Kecskemét District Court as she was led away in handcuffs on a lead.
The handling of politically sensitive cases outside the capital, in Kecskemét, has raised questions about the choice of venue. While proceedings in Budapest might attract greater media attention, the reasons for assigning these cases to courts elsewhere have not been publicly established.
Professor Hubert Windisch, a German priest and retired professor of theology at the University of Freiburg, has written a piercing assessment of the situation of the Catholic Church that is at the same time encouraging. He sees the growing loss of substance, clarity, and leadership, not only on the level of the Catholic Church in Germany, but also in Rome.
“Everything is now called a (pastoral) process,” he writes. “Truth is synodal, the journey is the destination. But if the journey is the destination, the journey no longer has a destination. That is the inconsistency of relativism.”
Windisch, even though he argues that the Church is “from a socio-religious perspective … beyond saving,” insists that the Church will survive, and that there will always be pockets of faithful who will continue to hold on to the faith and flock around the few remaining priests, even in the catacombs.
Windisch was a strong defender of the Catholic faith under Pope Francis’ pontificate by signingseveral of the statements issued by clergymen and theologians in opposition to the pope’s novel teachings. He also once published an essay on LifeSite where he discussed the problematic effects that the Second Vatican Council had on the Catholic Church.
Please see here Professor Windisch’s full text:
Beyond Saving: On the Loss of Substance within the Church
Hubert Windisch
Inconsistency exists when something is inherently no longer right, i.e., when the outside and the inside no longer match, when words and actions diverge, and when claims and reality contradict one another. This can be the case with individual persons, groups or political parties, major organizations such as the churches, or it can affect an entire commonwealth—that is, a state.
Let us look, for example, at the designation “RC” [Roman Catholic] of the Church. This designation claims an identity that is often no longer present in reality. This is illustrated by just three examples:
1) In the Diocese of Hamburg, parents are up in arms because their children are now expected to consume non-Christian material (LGBT, etc.) in sex education classes at Catholic schools. They turn to Rome. Rome admonishes the diocesan school authority in a response dated July 6, 2026, to the critical parent network, pointing to Catholic doctrine and the Christian image of man as found in the 2019 guidelines “Male and Female He Created Them.” The new sex education curriculum is mandated anyway. Rome remains silent. Contempt for parents, abuse of children!
2) In the Diocese of Mainz, the bishop notes the new letter from the Roman Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments dated June 17, 2026, banning lay preaching during the celebration of the Eucharist, and even considers it correct, but chooses not to intervene against the now widespread practice of lay preaching. Misplaced tolerance as a pastoral method.
3) The cardinal of Munich issues a guide for the liturgical blessing of irregular, and thus also homosexual, relationships, even though not even the sophisticated Roman document Fiducia Supplicans permits this in this explicit manner. Rome remains silent and tolerates it. Anything goes.
The loss of substance within the Church due to inconsistency is enormous. We can watch the erosion of the “institution of grace” (Michael Ebertz) in fast motion. “RC” is rapidly becoming “DC,” i.e., differently Catholic, as the former chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, once boasted with regard to the Synodal Path. However, this very quickly turns into an “NC,” a no-longer-Catholic. This development hurts all the men who want to be or become priests in an honestly Catholic way; the faithful who want to experience a dignified celebration of the Eucharist with an authentic sermon on Sunday and who try to shape their daily lives through prayer and the sacramental life. For all of them, the Church is often no longer a home, but an externally still-functioning hollow space in which they freeze and starve spiritually.
The background and driving force for this loss of substance is, to put it metaphorically, a Church that has been moved from solid rock onto quicksand, primarily due to the so-called Bergoglian magisterium with its decisions prone to heresy and indeed apostasy (e.g., Abu Dhabi, Pachamama, Singapore, Amoris laetitia, Fiducia supplicans, among others, cf. Gavin Ashenden, The Quicksand Under the Cathedral). Everything is now called a (pastoral) process; truth is synodal, the journey is the destination. But if the journey is the destination, the journey no longer has a destination. That is the inconsistency of relativism. In reality, the so-called Synodal Path in the Church of Germany is nothing other than an attempt to institutionalize this inconsistency. And Rome is rushing to keep up on a global church scale!
From a socio-religious perspective, a Church presenting herself in this manner is beyond saving. This is because the internal events described will create a substantial negative pressure inside the structure of the Church. At a certain point it will rupture the outer shell, and the system will implode. The Church herself, however, will not perish. In oases and on islands of contemporary history, and increasingly in catacombs, a (holy!) remnant of the faithful will gather, celebrating worship reverently with a few priests—whether in the Vetus or the Novus Ordo—having the Word and Sacrament as nourishment for their lives, and hearing anew the word of the Crucified and Risen One: “Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mt 28:20).
Passenger airline crashes are unusual, intentional ones are rare and intentional pilot crashes are virtually unheard of. Passenger planes are generally flown by highly trained airline pilots, many of them are veterans of their respective air forces, and they remain calm in a crisis.
That’s why there hasn’t been a single case of an American airline pilot deliberately crashing a plane and only one case of an airline pilot taking down a western plane with all onboard and that took place in 2015 when a suicidal first officer crashed Lufthansa’s Germanwings Flight 9525.
The only other case involving a western pilot, but not a western airline, was the crash of Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 in Africa by a Portuguese pilot. Every other case has involved non-western pilots with two Asian pilots and four Muslim pilots deliberately crashing or trying to crash planes: including the first known deliberate crash of a passenger plane by an airline pilot that took place in 1994 when Captain Younes Khayati deliberately disabled the autopilot on Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 and crashed the plane into a mountain.
The list of Muslim suicide pilots also includes EgyptAir Flight 990 in 1999 where the first officer kept shouting “Allahu Akbar” while downing the plane as well as Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, the subject of endless fantastic conspiracy theories ranging from UFOs to black holes, but that was actually likely the work of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
After the FlyDubai incident in which an Omani Muslim pilot stabbed an Indian pilot in a reported attempt to hijack Flight FZ1073 bound for Israel and possibly crash the plane, the list of Muslim pilots who tried to bring down airplanes is up to 4.
And that means that 44% of pilots who deliberately crashed tried to crash planes were Muslim.
These statistics are all the more startling since Muslim pilots and airlines make up a very limited percentage of the airline travel sector. The Asian and North American market together account for 66% of flights, Europe adds another 23%, Africa comes in at only around 3% and the Middle East only accounts for 5%. Despite that, the Middle East and Africa account for a disproportionate number of deliberate pilot crashes when they represent a tiny minority of flights.
The troubling statistic that nearly half of pilots attempting to crash their own planes were Muslim does not take into account Muslim hijackings, including the Islamic terror attacks of September 11, or any other hijacking attempts, but is limited only to pilots crashing passenger airline planes.
If we were to count hijackings, 9/11 alone would ensure a much worse track record for Muslims flying planes since these were by far the deadliest cases of pilots, however illegal and illegitimate, weaponizing jet airplanes to cause as much damage and loss of life as possible.
The latest incident raises serious questions about the risk entailed by both Muslim pilots and Muslim airlines operating in the United States of America and other known terror targets.
The EgyptAir Flight 990 crash off Nantucket led to claims of Islamophobia when investigators flagged the shouts about Allah on the cockpit recording as concerning even though the crash predated 9/11. The Egyptians initially refused to cede control of the investigation and experts were dispatched to explain Muslim theology to Americans. We were firmly told that when First Officer Gameel Al-Batouti took the opportunity to seize control of the plane while the captain was in the bathroom and sent the plane diving while shouting about “Allah”, this was normal.
It turned out that Al-Batouti had deliberately crashed the plane. The Egyptians refused to admit it and it took extensive work and an attempt by another Egyptian pilot to defector before we got anywhere close to the truth. Even then there were suspicions that it had been a terrorist act that were never proven, confirmed or even discussed because of the political sensitivity of the crash.
A similar cover-up would likely have ensued had the FlyDubai takeover ended in a crash. But instead the Israeli passengers stormed the cockpit, disabled the attacking pilot and allowed the relief pilots to take control of the aircraft. But it is unlikely that the authorities on the ground, currently the Saudis, will allow the truth about what really happened in the air to come out.
It’s unknown how many of the deliberate Muslim airline crashes were due to pilot terrorism because the Muslim countries involved tended to avoid any discussion of the motives involved.
Some of these crashes by Muslim pilots have been attributed to personal issues, ranging from workplace frustration to a failed love affair, while others, notably EgyptAir Flight 990, were falsely attributed to mechanical failure, but western investigators have rarely had direct access to family members, friends and local officials making it very difficult for them to learn anything.
There have been red flags in some of those crashes that raise the possibility of terrorism.
Is it really a coincidence that intentional pilot crashes began in 1994, two years after the first Al Qaeda attack and a year after the World Trade Center bombing, and further crashes have roughly paralleled an upsurge in Islamic terrorist activity?
The passengers on the Royal Air Maroc Flight 630, apart from a Kuwaiti prince, were mostly Europeans while the passengers on the EgyptAir Flight 990 were a mix of Americans and Egyptians, but notably included 33 Egyptian military officers who would have been seen as targets by the Muslim Brotherhood and its various splinter groups including Al Qaeda.
A plane full of Israelis flying to Israel would be viewed as a golden ticket to Islamic ‘paradise’ for any devout Muslim. Especially when that plane could have also crashed into an Israeli building or facility on the way down. The death toll from such an attack could have been extremely severe and also tempting enough to explain what happened on Flight FZ1073.
The troubling statistic that nearly half of deliberate pilot crashes were carried out by Muslim pilots should make us think about where we fly, who we fly with and whom we allow to fly into America.
A Canadian trans-identified male sex offender who was twice convicted on charges related to child sex abuse material, one of which involved accessing pornography of infants in diapers, is once again in custody after violating conditions of his parole. Laverne Travis Waskahat has repeatedly been released by the Parole Board of Canada, which has considered his “Indigenous status” as a mitigating factor in his repeat offending.
Waskahat, who claims to be transgender and also uses the name ‘Lauren,’ has an extensive history of possessing, making and publishing child pornography involving male and female infants under three years old. Waskahat had also previously committed sexual offenses against children in his care and was known to take voyeuristic photos of infants in public, primarily in bathrooms at malls and grocery stores around Edmonton, Alberta.
Waskahat has been ordered by the court to register as a sex offender for life. But since 2013, he has been released and re-arrested a staggering seven times after being found in violation of the terms of his Long Term Supervision Order (LTSO), according to new information from a recent Parole Board decision.
Waskahat was first convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography in 2011, for which he received a five-year prison sentence. Authorities discovered images of Waskahat performing sexual acts on an infant. Over the next fifteen years, he would become known to Edmonton Police for sexually abusing children while in a position of care, including babysitting, and taking voyeuristic photographs of infants in public.
Canada’s federal correctional system permits statutory release after an offender has served the legislated portion of a federal sentence, subject to supervision and conditions. In December 2013, Corrections Services Canada (CSC) released him into the community under supervision. Within less than a week, he was arrested again after he was found to have been stockpiling baby diapers.
While it is unclear when the Parole Board approved his release, his parole was suspended the following year, in August 2014, after he incurred new criminal charges relating to the production and possession of child pornography.
Waskahat was set free again in August 2019. At the time Edmonton police warned the public about Waskahat. They said he was a threat to commit “significant harm to the community and will commit another sexual offence against a child under the age of 16.” On October 17 of that year, he was spotted by Edmonton police officers using a cellphone in violation of his release conditions. He was arrested, and his devices were seized. Forensic investigations uncovered child pornography images, and Canadian media reported that an “Alberta woman” had plead guilty to three charges related to child pornography, just weeks after Edmonton police warned he would likely re-offend.
In addition to child pornography, investigators noted that there were also a number of photos of diapers and diaper fetish search terms in the laptop’s search history. Other search terms included things like “abuse baby,” “abuse newborn” and “newborn hit.”
CANADA: A transgender pedophile who was re-arrested within days of completing a sentence for hoarding infant abuse material is being released once again into a community facility.
Laverne Waskahat had accumulated hundreds of photos of babies being raped.https://t.co/GXlo90pUVy
In April 2021, Waskahat was arrested after he was discovered to be accessing child pornography online. An investigation revealed 631 images of a variety of sexual assaults on young children, and “written narratives depicting child sexual abuse were also found,” according to court records. Waskahat was additionally accessing messaging apps targeted at children.
On December 11, 2023, Waskahat was released to the community despite Edmonton Police Service being aware of his risk to the public. Just prior to freeing the sexual predator, they issued public statements advising the community to beware of Waskahat. They stated that there were “reasonable grounds to believe [he] is of significant harm to the community” and is at risk of committing a sexual offense against a child under the age of 16.
Just two days later, on December 13, Waskahat was found in possession of child pornography. In a media statement, Edmonton Police revealed they had received a tip that traced Waskahat to a hotel room in the city’s West Side. At the time of his arrest, police found a baby crib, diapers, dozens of alleged pornographic drawings and a laptop in Waskahat’s room.
The following year, in January 2024, CSC released Waskahat into the community while placed on electronic monitoring. By the following week, Waskahat’s parole supervisor was informed that he had been gathering “baby items” at the community-based residential facility where he was placed. A search of his room uncovered “explicit written material depicting child sexual abuse”, and he was again arrested, returned to custody, and charged with breach of LTSO on February 24.
While remanded and awaiting charges, Waskahat’s parole officer was informed by the remand center that the pedophile had been hoarding sexually explicit material in his cell. On May 29, Waskahat was sentenced to an additional year, which amounted to 252 days after credit for time served.
In the Parole Board’s decision, it was noted that “there was a publication ban imposed by the court in relation to one of the current convictions,” indicating that the full extent of Waskahat’s crimes has been hidden from the public.
According to the most recent Psychological Report on file, dated September 27, 2023, Waskahat has demonstrated “deviant sexual interests including diaperism, infantilism, sexual sadism, and pedophilia,” and his likelihood of re-offending was placed in the “well-above” risk category. The assessment concluded that the risk Waskahat poses to the community “would not be manageable in the foreseeable future.”
The psychological assessment noted that Waskahat had consistently produced “creative writing depicting violent, sexual acts towards children,” and that he had “demonstrated predatory intent and a lack of self-control,” which raised “significant concerns regarding the potential for serious harm against a child.”
In November 2024, Waskahat was again released to a community-based residential facility. Within days, he was “quickly found” with photos of babies, cribs, and pregnant women, and was arrested. He was placed in custody after the Parole Board subsequently revoked his release.
Then, after being released at his warrant expiry date on February 5, 2025, he was arrested again on February 19, 2025, just fourteen days later for breaching his long-term supervision order. In a decision made during a September 3, 2026 hearing, the Parole Board says Waskahat was found with a smartphone which “contained a search history relating to infant related sexual assault”.
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨
Police in Edmonton, Canada, have failed to inform the public that a pedophilic trans-identified male has been released into the community.
Laverne "Lauren" Waskahat was twice convicted of making sexual abuse images of babies.https://t.co/0dACFaz56C
The Parole Board has again ordered Waskahat to detention for the next two years. According to the decision, Waskahat “admitted to watching and manufacturing child pornography continuously” and that his sexual preference involves “the sexualization of infants and diapers”.
The document reveals that at the time of Waskahat’s 2021 conviction, the Judge considered as a mitigating factor his “Indigenous status” and the impact serving a prison sentence would have on him.
“You are Indigenous and identify as female,” reads the September 3 Parole Board decision. “You are a treaty member of your First Nation community where you were raised by foster parents after spending your first four months in hospital due to being underdeveloped at birth and abuse. Your biological parents were involved in substance abuse, and you have been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) due to same which has impacted your cognitive functioning and general functioning in the community.”
The Parole Board went on to detail his prolonged use of alcohol and marijuana, which led to a psychotic episode requiring hospitalization at around the age of 30. It further reveals that Waskahat has “had relationships with both men and women” and reports having five children with whom he no longer has contact.
“The Board has considered the file information, your submissions at the hearing as well as your social history as an offender of Indigenous heritage. The Board acknowledges the overrepresentation of Indigenous people within the criminal justice system and that this disproportionate representation is connected to marginalization and systemic racism,” reads the decision.
According to the decision summary, Waskahat claimed to have sexually abused children due to feeling oppressed about his “gender identity”, and that having access to child pornography prevents him from committing homicide.
“At your hearing, you spoke to your upbringing and how you did not feel loved which you connect to writing your written child sexual abuse stories where you are both the child and the adult abusing the child. You connect this to your upbringing but were not clear as to this connection. You also spoke to it being difficult to be transgender in the world and how people laugh at you. You report that this leads to feelings of violence on your part which you grapple with and use child sexual abuse related materials to make you feel better so that you don’t have to kill anyone.”
The Parole Board decision describes how Waskahat has, again, been repeatedly found with written child sexual abuse materials, assaulted a CSC officer, and been found in possession of magazine cut outs of infants and child-related items.
In May 2026, Waskahat completed the Indigenous Sex Offender High Intensity Program, but correctional officials characterized his participation as “largely superficial”. Program facilitators said his “responsivity needs” may have limited his ability to benefit from the treatment. Throughout the program, officials said Waskahat expressed views that justified his offending, denied that his actions caused harm, and placed responsibility on others. Facilitators concluded that he continued to hold beliefs that supported and normalized his offending, demonstrated limited empathy for victims, and externalized blame. The Parole Board said the programming appeared to have had limited impact on his risk.
The Parole Board said Waskahat had repeatedly characterized the material he produced as “victimless” and harmless, despite participating in correctional programming and other interventions. According to the Board, he continued to externalize blame and demonstrated little empathy for victims. The Board said his repeated return to offenses involving child sexual abuse indicated that he had made little progress in understanding the harm caused by his actions. It also noted that Waskahat appeared to believe his written depictions of child sexual abuse did not harm others. During his hearing, he said he intended to continue writing such material daily, despite knowing it was illegal.
The British government is again responding to prison overcrowding by releasing criminals early, with hundreds out as soon as one third through their sentence today, with thousands more to follow in the coming weeks.
Prison gates across England and Wales had a party atmosphere on Thursday morning, with some convicts calling out thanks to the Prime Minister for having slashed their sentences, as the first tranche of early release prisoners were turned out onto the street. The government claims the early releases are necessary because of decades of underinvestment in prisons in Britain, producing practically no new prison places during a time of massive population growth, and rising crime.
Other alternatives exist to letting criminals including violent and sex offenders walk free long before they would otherwise, but they typically involve the government spending money rather than simply externalising the social costs of a collapsing justice system on the wider public. Indeed, Pollster YouGov forThe Times published findings on Thursday morning that stated the most popular solutions to the prison overcrowding crisis are building new prisons and deporting foreign criminals.
The most hated options, on the other hand, are precisely what the government is doing now, with a statistically negligible proportion of Britons thinking slowing down the court process and early prison release are good ideas.
In theory, all prisoners being released should have somewhere to live when they are turned out of jail, or at the least have a hostel or other temporary arrangement set up for them by the probation service, but as stated by The Guardian the system is not working as it should and a considerable proportion of those being released now will end up homeless on the street. Given the difficulty of living within the law without a bed or address, the paper warns many of those being released today will inevitably end back up in prison.
Some of those walking free today clearly linked their freedom with Britain’s Labour government. The Daily Telegraphreports on one serial shoplifter with, reportedly, 100 previous convictions, who thanked the Prime Minister as he left prison this morning and vowed he would now vote for Labour in return. Another told the paper “God bless the Prime Minister” at the prison gates, and a further convict said: “Justice system, what justice system? Thank you Andy Burnham”.
Today’s released are the first tranche of a new series, with 700 out the door today and another 4,500 to follow in the next 10 months. The Guardian states 2,000 to be released in the next month alone will include domestic abusers and violent offenders. Sex offenders are also due to be among those going free, but after previous controversy, killers, rapists, and child sex grooming gang members will not be eligible this time.
Prisoners who have served as little as one third of the sentence handed to them by a court can walk free.
Emptying the prisons is becoming something of a pattern with Britain’s Labour governments, with former Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer having started the mass releases back in 2024. The speed with which the government was emptying cells led to an unprecedented intervention by top police officers and spymasters warning Starmer that he was putting the public at risk, in 2025.
Britain’s Conservative Party has heaped criticism on Labour for its early release programme, suggesting the government buy up defunct conference centres or student accomodation to create temporary, ermegency prisons to overcome overcapacity without having to release criminals into the community before they’ve served their time. Yet with most areas of Conservative criticism, the party ruled the country for 14 years from 2010 to 2024, presided over the prisons crisis then, and never enacted any of these ideas themselves, leaving the boasts ringing hollow.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has a more robust policy approach, having previously promised that should it form the next government it would create 22,000 prison places in five years. This would be achieved by deporting 10,000 foreign criminals, and created a 12,000-cell estate of temporary, emergency prisons.
Based on the short-notice roll-out of ‘Nightingale Hospitals’ created by the British government during the Coronavirus era with thousands of critical care beds in conference halls, sporting facilities, and industrial units, the ‘Nightingale Prisons’ could be built on Ministry of Defence land, Farage said.
On top of this, Farage said his government would consider leasing prison places abroad, such as in Nayib Bukele’s El Salvador, to house foreign-citizen criminals to serve their sentences prior to deportation.
The entrance to Blaise Pascal High School was set on fire on Oct. 1.
The principal of a French high school in Rouen was struck by a firework mortar and the school’s entrance was set on fire, resulting in a massive blaze, on Thursday. The arson attack is one of many targeting schools today, Oct. 1, which also saw mass violence, buses and fire trucks set on fire, and even a case being treated as attempted murder.
The latest incident in Rouen saw a student aim a firework mortar and hit the principal of the Blaise Pascal High School at the school gate shortly before 8 a.m., Paris Normandie reported. A video of the incident showed the principal being hit directly in the face and retreating into the school.
🇫🇷🔴 JUST IN: A school principal was struck directly in the face by a firework mortar during ongoing violent student blockades in France.
The incident happened at Blaise Pascal High School in Rouen.
Later, the entire entrance of the school was set on fire.
Burning trash bins were placed outside the entrance around the same time, producing heavy smoke and causing major fire damage at the doorway. Video of the blaze has also spread on social media.
🇫🇷🔥 BREAKING: Another major school arson attack at Blaise Pascal High School in the French city of Rouen.
Classes were canceled due to the violence. About 30 police officers were nearby, and at least one person was arrested at the school.
The Normandy education authority said the Blaise Pascal principal and the principal of Elisa Lemonnier High School in nearby Petit-Quevilly were both injured in the morning unrest and quickly treated by emergency services.
🇫🇷🚨 BREAKING: Nelson Mandela High School is currently on fire in the French city of Nantes.
Schools across France are being set on fire as student protests and blockades rage on.
Fires and blockades were also reported at other schools in and around Rouen, including Marcel-Sembat High School in Sotteville-lès-Rouen, where bins and barriers burned and mortar shots were heard, and at Flaubert High School and Camille Saint-Saëns High School. In Le Havre, fires damaged entrances or streets outside several high schools, and at least two cars burned near one campus.
The clashes are part of high-school protests that began last week in the Paris region and have spread nationwide. However, what began as protests over overcrowded classes, missing teachers and poor facilities, has come to be described as race-fueled rioting predominantly in schools with large migrant populations.
Critics say the students’ response of burning down schools is especially contradictory when the students are supposedly claiming their schools are in poor condition and not well-maintained.
🇫🇷🔥 BREAKING: Schools are burning across France as violent student blockades grow. The mayhem shows no sign of slowing down despite 625 arrests.
Oct. 1 🔺 Nelson-Mandela high school in Nantes burned, façade and hall destroyed. The school is expected to be closed for several… pic.twitter.com/v1fxbNuWfH
Earlier this week at Blaise Pascal, student Malo Leleu-Marret told Paris Normandie, “There is a lack of staff, we end up with 35 students per class in rooms that are too small.”
It is unclear how shooting the principal with a mortar and burning the school will help deliver a better teaching experience for students.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said fireworks, fires, and violence near schools cannot be justified. Interior Ministry figures from earlier in the week showed over 650 arrests across France, most involving minors, along with injuries to officers, students, and school staff. Up to 50 officers were wounded and multiple teachers and staff were assaulted, including an incident today in Marseille, Oct. 1, in which saw students doused school leaders in gasoline. Police are reportedly treating the case as attempted murder.
Police continued to investigate the Rouen-area attacks Thursday as blockades persisted at multiple campuses.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that the City of Moncton (City) has filed its Statement of Defence in a lawsuit brought by Burn 24/7 Canada Worship Ministries Society over the cancellation of a Christian worship event at Riverfront Park in July 2025.
In its defence, the City claims that it cancelled the event “to ensure public safety and to prevent anticipated hate speech.” It denies that cancelling the event restricted freedom of expression and argues in the alternative that safety concerns justified its decision.
The City says it feared that people near Riverfront Park, “including children,” could face an unsafe environment. Yet its Statement of Defence does not say the City asked organizers for their security plan or worked with them to address those concerns before cancelling the event.
Burn 24/7 Canada, a Christian non-profit, planned a free worship event featuring American musician Sean Feucht at Riverfront Park on July 24, 2025. The Society had hosted Mr. Feucht at prayer events elsewhere in Canada in previous years without incident.
The City approved the booking on April 30, and organizers continued to arrange event details with City staff. On July 22, the City cancelled it, citing messages from opponents who planned to protest and concerns about possible interactions with attendees.
The Society maintains that its event complied with City policies and that organizers had prepared a security plan. It argues that the City yielded to opposition to the event instead of addressing any legitimate safety concerns while protecting peaceful expression.
Constitutional lawyer Hatim Kheir said, “This case concerns a basic constitutional principle: governments cannot suppress peaceful expression simply because others threaten to protest it.”
He added, “Public officials have a duty to protect freedom of expression, not surrender it to those who oppose a speaker’s message.”
Organizers found an alternative venue at Bar None Camp in Taxis River only hours before the event. The Society says the remote location and last-minute move sharply reduced attendance and caused additional expenses and lost donations.
The Society seeks a declaration that the City violated its freedom of expression and $50,000 in Charter damages. The City asks the Court to dismiss the action with costs and argues that the Society should have challenged the cancellation through judicial review.
High-school pupils have blocked hundreds of lycées (state secondary schools) across France for a week, and parts of the movement have turned into fires, mortar fire and assaults on staff.
Interior minister Laurent Nuñez said 356 schools were disrupted on September 30, against 338 the day before.
Nuñez said there were seven incidents on September 29 in which people threw hydrochloric acid at law enforcement officers.
Police detained 625 people on September 30, after 440 the previous day and 164 on September 28, most of them minors.
Eighty-three officers and gendarmes were wounded on September 30, against 48 on September 29 and 12 the day before that.
Education minister Édouard Geffray said 119 pupils and staff had been injured since the blockades began, 34 of them education employees, a figure he called unprecedented in the French school system. He called the attacks indefensible.
A teacher in northern France was beaten, a head was hurt by a firework mortar, and another received a death threat.
Another teacher who wanted to extinguish a fire was jumped on and pushed to the ground.
🔴🇫🇷 𝗙𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢 — Un professeur a été MIS À TERRE et FRAPPÉ alors qu’il tentait d’éteindre un feu de poubelle au lycée Stéphane-Hessel, à Toulouse. pic.twitter.com/nHKp4nWEqp
Ten education staff and several pupils were injured on one day by mortar fire alone.
In Tours, central France, a young person was hospitalised with head injuries.
The IGPN police inspectorate has opened three inquiries after pupils were hurt at Sevran and Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, both in the Paris region, and Tours.
In Marseille, southern France, buses were attacked near high schools on October 1, and one bus driver was assaulted while others had to leave their vehicle in a hurry. A head teacher was sprayed with petrol in the same city and a journalist working for the broadcaster M6 was assaulted while covering the protests there.
The protests began in the Val-de-Marne, southeast of Paris, and spread to Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Marseille and the northern suburbs of the capital.
The stated demands, set out by the Union syndicale lycéenne (school students’ union), are substitute teachers, more staff, fewer pupils in a class, lighter timetables, repairs to buildings the union calls dilapidated, and relief from the stress of Parcoursup, the university-application platform.
A 17-year-old at Paul-Éluard in Saint-Denis told Reuters there were cockroaches and rats in the school.
The union has described the movement as the result of a decade of underfunding.
On October 1, pupils and students called an “act two”.
The Union étudiante (students’ union) said ten faculties were blocked, including Lyon 2 and 3, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Aix-Marseille, Nanterre and Paris 1. By the afternoon about 30 campuses were affected, among them sites in Paris, Reims and Poitiers.
The 2027 budget, presented the same day, sets out €54 billion of savings, freezing most spending increases and seeking contributions from pensioners and companies.
The large number of pupils of a migrant background adds an extra dimension to the blockades. Anti-Israeli chants have been recorded.
🔴🇫🇷 𝗙𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗜𝗡𝗙𝗢 — Des propos antisémites sont scandés lors d’un blocus de lycée à Carpentras, où un drapeau palestinien est brandi :
La France insoumise (LFI) has treated the blockades as a campaign of its own.
On September 28 Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote that the pupils were “harmless”, accused Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu of ordering a crackdown with “an obvious racist aftertaste”, and told LFI elected officials and activists to “place yourselves between” the pupils and the police “wherever you can”.
Mathilde Panot, who leads the party’s group in the National Assembly, told the government it would not be allowed to make life impossible for hundreds of thousands of lycée pupils.
In Saint-Denis, LFI mayor Bally Bagayoko, elected in March 2026, stood with pupils outside Lycée Paul-Éluard and said violence could be a legitimate reaction to police action. “If I slap you, you will react,” he told reporters on September 29.
He was filmed laughing with pupils around a fire, giving high fives and dancing.
Paris police prefect Patrice Faure referred him to prosecutors in Bobigny for suspected provocation to commit an offence, saying he had presented a violent reaction as understandable or legitimate.
Bruno Retailleau, a Les Républicains senator for Vendée and centre-right presidential candidate, raised “the question of banning LFI”, speaking on BFMTV-RMC on October 1. He called them seditious and said it was a party fascinated by violence that was “trying to organise the insurrection”.
Edwige Diaz, who on September 29 became the first president of the National Rally group in the Senate, said the demands of the high school students were “perfectly legitimate”, but that “the radicalised far-left” instrumentalised young pupils and was making “violence its political method”.
En Saint-Denis, la figura del alcalde Bally Bagayoko ha generado debate tras participar en manifestaciones que derivaron en momentos de tensión. Su elección es histórica, ya que se trata del primer alcalde musulmán en una ciudad francesa con más de 100 mil habitantes, lo que… pic.twitter.com/noEXQVoJ1Y
A particular element of the protests has been the use of fire and arson.
In Lille, northern France, protesters set rubbish containers alight and threw bottles and paving stones.
At Le Havre, Normandy, bins were burning outside Porte Océane while firefighters worked and police held the crowd; at Claude Monet, bins and scooters were thrown on a fire.
In Manosque, southeast France, pupils from Esclangon and Martin Bret faced police amid several bin fires and projectiles.
BFM showed a fire in front of Lycée Berthelot in Pantin and mortar rounds.
In Nantes, western France, witnesses and posts on October 1 said part of Lycée Nelson-Mandela had caught fire during the blockade; other accounts said fires of branches and bins had been lit in front of Michelet and other schools.
In Haubourdin, near Lille, municipal buildings were damaged and bins burned; the lycée and two nearby primary schools were closed until Monday.
President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Madrid during a state visit to Spain, said no fear justified violence and that political leaders must not legitimise it.
“We have seen many officials going in front of the lycées to excite the pupils. I think that is serious.”
Lycées, he said, exist to transmit knowledge, “not to be blocked or to burn bins”.
Lecornu wrote that fireworks, fires and violence near schools endangered pupils, staff and police, and accused the left-wing La France insoumise of urging the movement to widen.
He said the difficulties of the lycées “must be heard”.
Mélenchon blamed the government for ordering the crackdown, said the pupils were harmless, and answered that LFI called for non-violent methods.
The government has offered a consultation platform, and Lecornu called an inter-ministerial crisis meeting on October 1. The union wants mass funding and a further day of action on October 6.
