Viennese entrepreneur Peter Schaider is facing preliminary proceedings before the Administrative Senate following the rejection of an applicant for a hairdressing apprenticeship. This stems from allegations of discrimination, as the rejection was based on the applicant wearing a headscarf. Speaking to the daily newspaper Heute, Schaider expressed his lack of understanding regarding the legal proceedings surrounding the matter. He emphasised that the hairdressing profession is characterised above all by the presentation of hairstyles:
I was told that this is discrimination. But we make our living from styling, from beauty, from hair fashion. People can’t stand there wearing a headscarf. I’m sorry, but that’s just unacceptable.
Schaider defended his stance on staff selection and drew comparisons with other service sectors. In his view, personal appearance plays a crucial role in establishing credibility when selling hairdressing services:
We sell hair accessories. You can’t sell slimming products when you weigh 130 kilos either. That won’t work either.
As well as the proceedings before the regulatory body, Schaider touched upon the general changes in the training of junior staff. Over the course of his decades-long career as a trainer, he noted that the focus at the start of an apprenticeship had shifted noticeably:
We used to start by teaching them how to wash hair. Today, we teach them how to greet people, shake hands and make eye contact.
He also spoke of the expectations held by some applicants which, in his view, were not compatible with the traditional day-to-day work in a salon:
A hairdressing apprentice wanted to work from home for two days – how on earth could anyone come up with an idea like that? Another wanted a part-time apprenticeship. People are a bit daft.
It remains to be seen whether the employer’s objectively justified rejection of the headscarf-wearing applicant will have any consequences.
A recent case of refusal to work on religious grounds has met with a lack of understanding. A woman who had converted to Islam had refused to accept a job as a kitchen assistant at a fast-food chain, which had been arranged by the social security office. She stated that, due to her faith, contact with pork and meat not slaughtered in accordance with halal practices was strictly forbidden.
However, anyone living in Austria who claims financial support from the state must adapt to local customs and be available for work. The social security office therefore did not accept this excuse and consequently suspended the woman’s emergency benefit for 42 days.
The case eventually reached the Supreme Court after lower courts had reached differing conclusions on the matter. The Administrative Court made it unequivocally clear that one cannot simply evade the requirements of employment in this country on religious grounds. The woman should at least have applied for the post and clarified during the interview whether it would have been possible to work without coming into contact with meat. The blanket refusal to accept a post that complies with local standards and the normal day-to-day work routine in the catering industry was deemed inadmissible. The ruling clearly demonstrates that religious sensitivities do not provide a free pass to refuse to participate in the labour market or to reject job offers. Anyone who receives support from the community must adapt to the rules and realities of the country. The Federal Administrative Court must now rehear the case, taking these clear guidelines into account.
A Facebook comment containing strong language has led to legal consequences for a woman from Vienna. Towa Lemberger is due to appear before the Vienna Regional Criminal Court on Monday. The plaintiff is an influencer and pro-Palestine activist who feels offended by her remarks. The timing of the trial is also significant: on this day, Austria commemorates the November pogroms of 1938. The incident was triggered by a post by the activist last July. In it, he accused Israel of genocide and called for support for Gaza. Lemberger responded with a lengthy Facebook post. In it, she described him, amongst other things, as a “complete idiot” and “stupid”, reports the newspaper Krone.
The Viennese woman makes no secret of her choice of words. “Perhaps my words weren’t particularly polite,” she admits. She says she reacted spontaneously because she was outraged by the sweeping accusation of genocide against Israel, whilst, in her view, the massacres carried out by Hamas were being downplayed.
Lemberger has just become a grandmother. Her father survived the Mauthausen concentration camp. She herself witnessed the attack by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023, at first hand.
Her defence lawyer, Klaus Ainedter, nevertheless expects a guilty verdict. “Based on previous case law, we must assume a guilty verdict despite having strong arguments on our side,” he explains. For Ainedter, this is about more than just the insult to a single person. He criticises the increasing number of private lawsuits, which he says place an additional burden on the courts. Whilst the internet should not be a legal vacuum, the lawyer argues that action is needed regarding lawsuits of this kind. He alleges that they are brought for financial gain.
The claimant himself is also a controversial figure: he described Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger as ‘Beate Genocide Cleaner’ and, according to the report, got off with a diversion order. Now he sees himself as the victim of an insult.
Lemberger also intends to use the trial to draw attention to the consequences of such proceedings. She wants to protect others from being pressured or silenced by what she considers to be unjustified lawsuits.
News from the colourful gutter: an “enticing opening promotion” ended in chaos in Dortmund on Sunday. The new takeaway “Food Lover Döner” on Körner Hellweg, near the Zehnthof bus stop, had been advertising a halal or steak döner for just one euro and an iPhone prize draw – heavily promoted via TikTok and Instagram. As reported by the newspaper “Bild”, a long queue had already formed before the shop opened, consisting mainly of young people and minors. According to the police, up to 300 people gathered; the operator spoke on social media of “around 1,000 people” and posted cries for help such as “SOS!”, “Huge chaos” and “State of emergency! – please take your kebabs and go!”.
When the doors opened, the crowd pressed against the windows. An eyewitness described the scene: “The kids are completely out of control, with no manners and no decorum.” An attempt was reportedly made to smash the windows of a pharmacy opposite; according to the chain’s marketing team, chairs were thrown at cars, and weapons were found in rucksacks. The private security team was almost overwhelmed, and the operator himself called the police at around 2.15 pm. Dortmund.
When the officers intervened, they were pelted with bottles, stones, fireworks, e-scooters, a chair and nitrous oxide canisters. A patrol car sustained damage from stones. The police deployed a hundred-strong contingent of riot police (some in pairs) and a helicopter. The situation quickly calmed down; no one was seriously injured. One person was arrested, and an alarm gun was seized from another. Several criminal proceedings are underway for breach of the peace, criminal damage and insulting behaviour. Chief Constable Tim Frommeyer made it clear: anyone who uses violence against the police is not an ‘adventure-seeking young person’, but a criminal. The Public Order Office has suspended further operations for the time being; the operator’s liability for the online advertising is being investigated. The owner, who had prepared 45 kebabs, intends to distribute them to homeless people. The scenes are reminiscent of previous bargain promotions (e.g. 1-cent kebabs), though this time with significantly more violence. It just goes to show that things can always get a touch more antisocial…
The British state is openly conditioning the country for multi-day darkness, water failure and chaos — and it is making sure only its own voice reaches citizens when the grid dies.
A secretive “Black Sky” plan puts 100 BBC staff inside a hardened bunker with fuel, food and water for at least three days. Their job: broadcast pre-written government orders over FM the moment the lights, internet and mobile networks collapse. Transmission towers are already stocked with thousands of litres of diesel so the official message never goes silent.
At the same time, the “Be Ready” campaign is ordering every household to hoard three days of bottled water, food, cash and a wind-up radio. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told the public that unexpected events “seem to becoming more common” and urged people to keep emergency supplies ready “to get you through those moments.” Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has gone further, warning that Britain faces a more dangerous world and has barely 1,000 days left before “adversaries” could strike — demanding the nation be ready “to fight and win.” Army chiefs are already warning that the public must accept “sacrifices” and die for their country.
A prolonged blackout does not just switch off the lights. It stops the water supply and freezes sewage systems solid. Officials claim a total grid failure has never happened, yet they are publicly detailing the exact machinery to keep control when everything else fails.
The UK is ensuring the BBC alone tells its citizens what to do when the collapse arrives.
Radiet Meles went on to commit further sexual offences after being released from prison | GWENT POLICE
Yet foreign criminals represent fewer than 30 per cent of total removals from Britain.
Of the 773 Nigerian offenders awaiting deportation, just 37 were returned in the preceding 12 months, a rate of 4.8 per cent.
Algeria fared even worse, with 569 offenders residing in the community and a removal rate of only 4.2 per cent.
Yet foreign criminals represent fewer than 30 per cent of total removals from Britain.
Of the 773 Nigerian offenders awaiting deportation, just 37 were returned in the preceding 12 months, a rate of 4.8 per cent.
Algeria fared even worse, with 569 offenders residing in the community and a removal rate of only 4.2 per cent.
Yet foreign criminals represent fewer than 30 per cent of total removals from Britain.
Of the 773 Nigerian offenders awaiting deportation, just 37 were returned in the preceding 12 months, a rate of 4.8 per cent.
Algeria fared even worse, with 569 offenders residing in the community and a removal rate of only 4.2 per cent.
Bangladeshi criminals could expect a return rate of roughly 6 per cent.
Removals of European nationals were much more successful.
Romania alone saw 990 deportations in the year to June 2025, against 1,399 Romanian offenders living in the community.
That progress on EU deportations now faces a direct challenge from Brussels as European officials are demanding that ministers abandon plans to increase the number of EU criminals removed from Britain, positioning the concession as part of the price for a broader Brexit reset.
The demand clashes with legislative changes introduced this year, under which the government intends to deport all foreign criminals receiving prison sentences exceeding 12 months, including those given suspended terms.
Official returns figures include offenders removed directly from prison as well as those deported from the community, meaning they are an approximation rather than a precise measure.
Some offenders living freely may also be subject to electronic tagging.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp condemned the government’s record, telling the Times: “Only a tiny fraction of criminals from countries like Jamaica, Nigeria, Somalia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or even India get returned.”
He added: “Endless human rights claims and the absurd Labour belief that it is somehow racist to return criminals to Jamaica mean these dangerous men stay in the UK and have gone on to commit crimes like rape and murder here after they should have been deported for previous offences.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has refused to rule out expanding deportations to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, despite opposition from humanitarian organisations.
Some 225 Afghans were sent back between 2025 and June 2026, marking a sharp increase.
Ms Mahmood also declared last month that all Eritrean nationals would be barred from entering Britain until a returns agreement covering criminals and irregular migrants was reached.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Any foreign national who receives a prison sentence in the UK is referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity and will be barred from ever returning.
“Returns are at their highest level in nearly a decade. Nearly 12,000 foreign criminals, including murderers and rapists, have been returned or deported in the two years since the last election– a 41 per cent increase on the two years prior.”
Meet the new generation of European intellectuals: fluid in principles, fragile in identity, relativist in morals
GROK
In Syria, the Islamic dictatorship has just removed the Mona Lisa from school textbooks.
Meanwhile, thanks to Art Basel, some of the world’s most precious works of art arrived in Paris. Most of the art fair continued as planned at the Grand Palais, but the weekend was cancelled.
An art critic named Louisa Buck, who writes for The Art Newspaper, speaking about the chaos in the city and Art Basel, posted admiration– — not for the art, but for the vandalism.
Buck wrote:
“For me the most powerful work of art encountered in the last 48 hours was the defaced sculpture under threatening skies in Place de la République, passed while I was heading to Gare du Nord, which speaks of the fury and disillusionment toward indifferent governments and a savage police force and is not limited only to France.”
To express such sentiments, any person-especially an art critic-must have completely lost their mind. The monument in question is one of Paris’s landmarks, the statue of Marianne.
Édouard Louis, the French literary phenomenon translated all over the world, defended the looting and riots in the city that made him rich and famous:
“I am in favor of setting the streets of Paris on fire; I am in favor of going and smashing things. Doing politics means having, or not having, blood on one’s hands. There is no great revolution without excesses.”
Which “things”? Dior shops? Police stations? Why not the Louvre? Or the libraries.
Free Free Paristein!
Édouard Louis embodies with didactic precision the psychology of the postmodern intellectual: fluid in principles, fragile in identity, relativist in morals.
Meanwhile the barbarians roam unpunished under Palestinian Arab flags. Politicians are impotent, the forces of order are defenseless, and the media complain about the “difficult conditions” in which these “poor children” live in their schools.
Barbarians just set fire to the entrance of the Édouard-Herriot high school in Lyon.
They shout, celebrate, exult, while inside the firefighters rushed to save the lives of other students who had decided to enter.
If it is not yet a total collapse, it is certainly its harbinger.
One day, perhaps not far off, it will therefore be we who turn off the lights. We will have done so with the best intentions, in the name of sensitivity, coexistence, “complexity.” The veil on the Mona Lisa will not arrive as a decree from an emir, but as a recommendation from one of our “ethics committees,” or perhaps a judge.
Every living culture has its forms of refusal and its symbols that cannot be profaned without heavy consequences. When these boundaries are declared arbitrary or oppressive, one does not obtain greater freedom: one obtains a void in which the strongest advance.
The Israeli embassy in Dublin published a series of posts depicting European works of art-including the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo’s David-reworked in an Islamist key. The images were accompanied by the caption: “Israel is the last frontier of the free world.”
The statue of Molly Malone, symbol of Dublin, was depicted wearing a niqab, accompanied by the text: “Israel now, Dublin will be next.”
An image of the statue of David, portrayed with an explosive belt and a Palestinian keffiyeh, was addressed to Italy-“Israel now, Italy will be next”-while the Mona Lisa, wearing a hijab and holding a large rocket, bore the caption: “Israel now, Paris will be next.”
Ten years ago, a headline of this kind might have sounded delusional to some prophetic to others. Today it is simply chronicle.
Very, very difficult times await us, at the conclusion of this drama without mercy. Because it is impossible to feel mercy for those who have condemned themselves to such an absurd end.
Women working in a garment factory. Image: Stock Photo
A woman in Santa Catarina, Brazil, was arrested on suspicion of criminal “transphobia” this week after being reported to police by a transgender colleague for “offensive” comments.
According to reports from local news outlets, Military Police officers were called to a clothing-manufacturing factory in the Indaial neighborhood on November 2 over a dispute involving two employees. The alleged victim, a 28-year-old male who identifies as a woman, told police that a 48-year-old female worker had made derogatory remarks about his gender identity. The woman was subsequently arrested.
The confrontation reportedly stemmed from a workplace incident involving the woman’s elderly mother, who is also employed at the factory. The trans-identified male, who works as a supervisor, had allegedly reported the mother to the foreman over suspicions that she had engaged in “offensive gossip,” prompting her to be questioned. The meeting reportedly left the elderly woman visibly distressed. After finding her mother in tears, the female worker approached the transgender supervisor to discuss the incident.
The exchange quickly escalated, prompting the man to call the police and allege that the female worker had offended him.
🚔⛓️ PM prende operária a pedido de capataz sob a desculpa de ‘transfobia’
Uma operária de 48 anos foi presa pela Polícia Militar, na segunda-feira (2), em Indaial, Santa Catarina, após reagir ao tratamento dispensado à sua mãe por uma superiora dentro de uma confecção. A… pic.twitter.com/MvQ221rzg3
When police arrived, the worker told them that she believed her mother was being professionally harassed by the man, and that she had become upset because she believed he had caused her mother considerable distress. She denied intending to offend him and maintained that she had merely referred to the fact that he was transgender at one point during the conversation.
The man, however, claimed she had called him a “man in a dress,” and questioned his use of the women’s restrooms at the factory. Notably, according to Jornal Razão, the supervisor has not changed his name or sex marker, meaning he is still legally male.
Local reporting indicates that employees who were present refused to provide statements, while the company’s security cameras apparently could not provide footage because the necessary memory cards were not installed. But despite having no way to substantiate what the man had said, Military Police opted to arrest the 48-year-old female worker, taking her to the Civil Police station in Blumenau.
The incident was provisionally classified as a “suspected offense of transphobia” under Law No. 7,716 of 1989, commonly known as Brazil’s Racism Law. Originally enacted to criminalize discrimination based on race, color, ethnicity and national origin, the law was expanded by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court in a landmark 2019 ruling. The Court broadened its interpretation to homophobic and transphobic discrimination, treating such conduct as a form of what is now referred to as “social racism.”
It is unknown if the female factory worker is still in police custody.
News of the arrest has prompted backlash amongst advocates for both workers’ and women’s rights in Brazil.
Diário Causa Operária, an independent communist newspaper associated with the Partido da Causa Operária (PCO), called it a “clear case of political persecution against a poor worker,” adding that “the mother was humiliated by the supervisor inside the company, the daughter reacted, and ended up arrested. The ‘transphobia’ accusation was just the excuse to call the police and punish both workers.”
The Brazilian branch of Women’s Declaration International similarly condemned the arrest. In an X post, the organization wrote: “The women most harmed by having direct contact with men who lie about their own sex are those who have the least knowledge about the subject, and the least chance of defending themselves.”
Uma mulher de 48 anos foi presa porque um homem ficou ofendido ao ser reconhecido como homem.
As mulheres mais prejudicadas por ter contato direto com homens que mentem o próprio sexo são as que têm menos conhecimento a respeito do assunto, e menos chance de se defender. pic.twitter.com/iiQW6dPZmx
The case of the factory worker is far from isolated, and there have been multiple incidents of people being arrested and prosecuted over “transphobic” speech in Brazil.
Last month, Reduxx reported that federal prosecutors in Brazil were aggressively seeking to put a veterinary student back on trial for “transphobic” social media posts despite a unanimous court ruling earlier this year stating that she had committed no crime. Isadora Borges faced up to ten years in prison before the prosecution was halted in March, but prosecutors are still pushing for her criminalization.
Halmstad District Court. Bengt Oberger / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
On Friday, November 6, 2026, the Swedish Public Prosecution Service announced that charges had been brought against a 19-year-old man suspected of having planned a knife attack on a secondary school in Halmstad, in the south-west of the country, on behalf of the Islamic State organisation.
According to the prosecution’s indictment, the young man prepared an attack on a secondary school between March 1 and April 13, 2026. The alleged aim was to kill or seriously injure several people.
He is being prosecuted for preparing a terrorist attack, membership of a terrorist organisation and terrorism. Prosecutor Henrik Olin believes that the evidence gathered during the investigation makes it possible to establish the terrorist intent attributed to the suspect. It is up to the court to rule on these charges.
The trial is due to open on November 19, 2026, at Halmstad District Court. Four days of hearings are scheduled.
Lord Biggar, author of Reparations: Slavery & the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt, and NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo are two of Britain’s most prominent speakers on slavery reparations and the positive legacy of the British Empire. They join forces for this special conversation so that they can spend more time expanding on their arguments, something not possible in traditional interviews and debates. This discussion is all the more important given the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua & Barbuda, which was dominated by the issue of slavey reparations. Lord Biggar’s new book: Reparations: Slavery & the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt, may be purchased here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reparations-…
