Across Europe, a number of accidents have occurred, with authorities probing whether they are the result of planned sabotage.
On Friday, 9-11, in the French region of Normandy, a train derailment injured 44 people, and the French police are investigating whether sabotage caused it, after a piece of rail was found on the track.
“The regional train was carrying 186 passengers from Rouen to Caen when it derailed Friday evening at Cléon, in the Seine-Maritime department of northwestern France.
An 18-year-old woman was among the injured and was evacuated by helicopter to Rouen University Hospital, police said.
A spokeswoman for the French national police communications service, known as SICOP, said that the piece of rail found on the track was ‘probably’ linked to the derailment. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to be publicly named in line with police policy.”
Watch:
Déraillement d’un TER en Normandie : les images impressionnantes prises quelques minutes après l'accident
The investigators are probing whether the circumstances were accidental or involved sabotage. The prosecutor’s office is cautious about drawing conclusions.
“A fragment of rail was found on the track, with the possibility of a malicious act being treated as the main line of inquiry as a result, the source said.
Carrying 186 passengers, the train was running between the Normandy cities of Rouen and Caen when it derailed around 7:45pm (12:45pm ET) Friday close to Renault’s factory in the town of Cleon.
Authorities activated a mass-casualty response plan, with 130 firefighters, five medical teams and 80 vehicles drafted in.”
“Your enjoyment of these shows is supporting my eradication.”
Remember The Matrix and Keanu Reeves running around in ‘Bullet Time’. Whatever happened to that? Well as you could have probably guess from the subsequent two movies, this stuff wasn’t exactly being made by the most disciplined minds out there. Somewhere along the way, the Wachowski brothers became the Wachowski sisters and embarked on a series of disastrous projects you’ve probably never heard of.
Recently, Andy Wachowski, who now calls himself, ‘Lilly’ gave an extensive interview to Variety claiming that “billionaires started pumping out negative propaganda against trans people” and contending that Larry Ellison wants to turn CNN into FOX News.
Mostly what he wants to do are transgender movies and shows which it turns out nobody wants to watch because they stopped being edgy sometime during the second term of the Obama administration.
“I’ve pitched a lot of wonderful, cool queer stories and trans stories, and Hollywood didn’t want any of it. There was this TV show based on this comic book “Cosmoknights” that I was going to direct, and it was from me and Emily Andras, who made “Wynonna Earp.” It’s “Star Wars” with lesbians in space… We had this cool adaptation of “Manhunt” by Gretchen Felker-Martin, which was a bestseller on all these top ten lists, and couldn’t get that going.”
That, I believe was the book in which transgender men kill all the normal people along with J.K. Rowling. As in actual fantasy genocide.
Gretchen Felker-Martin’s debut novel, “Manhunt,” follows two trans women “attempting to survive in a world ravaged by a plague which transforms anyone with enough testosterone in their system into a shrieking monstrosity.”
“If you’re sick of gender plague novels written by transphobic dips–ts, try my novel MANHUNT, written by a trans woman for a trans audience. Trans dykes fall in love and f–k and murder TERFs, feral men maraud in the wilderness, J.K. Rowling dies, etc
But, Harry Potter is, according to Andy, the real genocide.
“She is funding trans genocide. J.K. Rowling funds trans genocide, full stop. So, if you support “Harry Potter,” you’re supporting trans genocide. The money that goes into you enjoying these products, a portion of that money goes to J.K. Rowling and that money goes into her funding anti-trans legislation all over the world… So, your enjoyment of these shows, and continued support of these shows, is supporting my eradication.”
If genocide is not letting men use the ladies room, that’s really most of human history once we developed the basics of civilization.
But for a guy who complains about genocide, he seems really amped up about killing people.
“She has a thing called “Billionaire Killers” that we’re excited about. It’s a post-apocalyptic story where all these billionaires are in these bunkers and they’ve got to dig ‘em out of these bunkers.”
Sure, it’s Harry Potter viewers who are killing people..
I’m starting to think therapy and basic standards are the real genocide.
Screengrab Social Media/X, Upscaled by Grok AI / thegatewaypundit
Large crowds of protesters converged on central Portsmouth on Saturday in the wake of a tense standoff last week following a boat carrying illegal migrants being brought ashore, and hundreds of masked men attempted to block authorities from allowing the aliens into the interior.
🚨BREAKING: 10,000 locals takeover Portsmouth City Centre demanding all illegal migrants are deported immediately
The silent majority are done being silent. Something big is happening… 🏴 pic.twitter.com/NPrmjDWRIp
Portsmouth, one of the major hubs of Britain’s Royal Navy, saw hundreds of people gather under the banner of the South Coast Patriots, who called for a peaceful demonstration against the failure of the government to prevent illegal boat migration from France, including the estimated 140 who arrived at Portsmouth’s Eastney Marina on Sunday.
Demonstrators were heard chanting slogans such as “send back the boats” and held placards reading “save our kids” and “stop the grooming gangs”. Counter-protesters also gathered in the city, marching under the leftist Stand up to Racism banner, carrying signs reading “stop the far-right” and “no one is illegal”.
Ahead of the protest, the local Hampshire Police force enacted a ban on face coverings in the protest area under section 158 of the Crime and Policing Act 2025, the Portsmouth Evening Newsreported.
This came in response to the involvement of the recently formed Patriot Platform group in the attempt to block the boat migrants from being allowed into the country on Sunday evening at the Portsmouth marina.
However, the group, which has been characterised by its members dressing in so-called “black bloc” and wearing black balaclavas or masks, said that it would not officially take part in Saturday’s protest.
Patriot Platform leader Danny Tommo, a veteran street organiser and longtime ally of anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson, said the group will not organise or join any protests, adding that the organisation is focused on “lawful, peaceful and disciplined action”.
Nevertheless, some people chose to defy the mask ban. This included an apparently elderly man in a mobility scooter who arrived wearing a plastic mask, which he removed upon threat of arrest from officers.
Another 76-year-old man from Southampton was arrested, however, for wearing an item to conceal his identity at the protest. Footage and pictures shared on social media indicated that the man was wearing a full-face covering burqa, and he was heard telling police that he was “converting” to Islam and was “gender fluid”, while claiming not to be a part of the protest.
One of the “patriots” at the Portsmouth anti-refugee protest has just told the police he identifies as a Muslim woman to get around the face-covering ban.
This will be the next daft tactic the police will have to find a response to. pic.twitter.com/2vul6ShQi8
Some have questioned whether the arrest under the mask ban violated the man’s religious liberties, given that wearing full-face covering religious garb is not illegal in Britain.
Hampshire Police said in a statement per Sky News: “We will support those who want to express their views peacefully and lawfully, but we will not tolerate those whose only aim is to create fear and incite violence.”
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones added: “I’m pleased that today’s protests in Portsmouth took place without major issue.
“Thankfully we didn’t see repeated scenes of Sunday night with assaults on police officers and criminal damage to police vehicles and people’s property.
“Hundreds of people took part in today’s protest, and with the exception of a few people, it was peaceful and conducted in accordance with the new law calling for their faces to be uncovered.”
On today’s show host Rafe Heydel-Mankoo is joined by political commentator and barrister Steve Barrett, independent investigative journalist Steven Edgington and political analyst and columnist Lee Cohen (who is visiting from the USA). This week’s topics:
Home Office scandal exposed: Only 1% of asylum seekers are genuine
Labour Betrayal: Boriswave to be given Indefinite Leave to Remain, making them eligible for billions in welfare and housing
Could A.I. destroy humanity? And within the next decade?
The High Court of Australia has denied an appeal lodged by women’s rights advocate Sall Grover in a landmark case which ruled that “sex is changeable” and ordered her to pay $20,000, and additionally at least $100,000 in court fees, to a trans-identified male for recognizing him as a man. To date, Grover has had to raise over $1.5 million to cover legal costs, and confirmed to Reduxx that she has been ordered to pay a sum that will ultimately amount to around $500,000 in fees to compensate the legal team of the man who sued her.
The case has now set a legal precedent allowing men with a self-declared gender identity, or a legally fictitious recording of sex, to take priority over sex-specific protections for women and girls.
The response comes after years of litigation initiated in December 2021, after Jason “Roxanne” Tickle filed a discrimination complaint through the Australian Human Rights Commission over being denied access to women-only application Giggle for Girls, which was founded by Grover. Tickle had been barred from using the female-only platform, intended as an “online refuge” for women, after Grover identified him as male based on a photo he submitted during the membership application process.
The court case, known as Tickle v. Giggle, tested the meaning and scope of the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA), which was altered in 2013 under the government of prime minister Julia Gillard.
The revisions to the SDA made it unlawful under federal law to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
The High Court’s rejection of Grover’s appeal was released today, and stated, “There is no reason to doubt the Full Court’s construction of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984… Special leave to appeal is refused with costs.”
Grover responded by saying, “I will never stop fighting. Men are not women.”
Tickle, a man who claims to be both intersex and transgender, claimed he attempted to join the female-only app in February 2021 but found that his membership was revoked in September that year. The Giggle app utilizes a screening process which uses AI to determine the sex of an applicant based on a selfie. Tickle was initially granted access to the female-only digital community by the AI.
During an interview with The Australian in April 2022, Grover explained that she took it upon herself to remove Tickle after seeing his photo and identifying him as male. “The person was removed from the Giggle app because they are male, no other reason. The removal was manual. I looked at the onboarding selfie and saw a man. The AI software had let them through, thereby making a mistake that I rectified.” Lawyers defending Grover said that she had been unaware that Tickle identified as transgender during the screening process.
Tickle was therefore was booted from the community, and then made several attempts to contact Grover to complain. He sent Grover multiple emails and called her at her home in October 2021. Tickle first filed the discrimination complaint with the with the Australian Human Rights Commission against Giggle creator and CEO Grover in December 2021.
Jason “Roxy” Tickle
Tickle had, in his first complaint, sought damages from Grover of up to $200,000, alleging that her “persistent misgendering”, or referring to him as male, had prompted “constant anxiety and occasional suicidal thoughts”. He also requested that Grover be made to “seek out education” regarding the concept of gender identity.
“I believe that I am being discriminated against by being provided with extremely limited functionality of a smartphone app by the app provider compared to that of other users because I am a transgender woman,” Tickle wrote in the complaint. “I am legally permitted to identify as female… I believe that Giggle and Sall Grover have decided in error that I am male.”
Tickle bizarrely went on to compare Grover to a white supremacist group, saying, “I have been unable to locate a Facebook page or website for the Ku Klux Klan in Australia. Yet groups that favor discrimination against people based on their gender identity appear to have no need to hide their face.” He then went on to list several Australian women’s rights groups which are critical of males being permitted to identify as female, and referred to this position as “bigotry”.
In July of 2022, Tickle, being unable to bear the costs of pursuing the matter further, filed a Notice of Discontinuance with the court, and the complaint was dropped. But five months later, Tickle filed another complaint, having received a $50,000 grant from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, and assistance from Barry Nilsson lawyers, who run a multimillion-dollar pro bono program.
In contrast, Grover was left with no other option than to crowdfund an incredible $500,000 in order to defend herself against the discrimination claim.
Australian women’s rights advocate @salltweets has been ordered by a court to pay $10,000 to a man who was denied membership on her female-only social media app.
The Tickle v Giggle ruling suggests that humans can change their biological sex.https://t.co/3aNm5uSjlD
In August 2024, after nearly three years of litigation, the Federal Court of Australia ruled that Grover had committed “indirect gender identity discrimination” by rejecting Tickle’s membership. While reading out the verdict and reasons for his decision, Justice Bromwich referred to Tickle with feminine pronouns.
“Roxanne Tickle is a transgender woman whose female sex is recognized by an official updated Queensland birth certificate… I have found that Ms. Tickle’s claim of direct gender identity discrimination fails but that her claim of indirect gender identity discrimination succeeds.”
Justice Bromwich then ordered Grover to pay Tickle $10,000 compensation, in addition to court costs up to $50,000, within 60 days.
“In relation to the direct discrimination claim, the evidence did not establish that Ms Tickle was excluded from the Giggle app by reason of her gender identity, although it remains possible that this was the real, but unproven, reason,” Justice Bromwich told the court.
Justice Bromwich went on to say that “that indirect gender identity discrimination did take place” on the basis that “Tickle was excluded from the use of the Giggle app because she did not look sufficiently female according to the respondents.”
The argument made by Grover’s legal team was that Tickle was discriminated against on the basis of his sex, which is not prohibited, rather than on the basis of gender identity, as he claims. Justice Bromwich’s verdict stated that “these arguments failed” due to a “long history of cases decided by courts going back over thirty years” which he said established that, “in its ordinary meaning, sex is changeable.”
Throughout the court proceedings, Grover refused to refer to Tickle with feminine honorifics or pronouns. “I don’t think it’s kind to expect a woman to see a man as a woman,” she said at a hearing in May 2024.
An Australian entrepreneur has been found guilty of "direct discrimination" after correctly identifying a man as a man.@salltweets has been ordered to pay up to $120,000 for not allowing a trans-identified male to join her female-only social media app.https://t.co/N3hjVOE5kk
Tickle appealed the 2024 verdict of indirect discrimination, seeking a ruling of direct discrimination. In May of this year, Justice Melissa Perry sided with Tickle, doubled the compensation payout from $10,000 to $20,000, found Grover guilty of direct discrimination, and ordered her to pay court costs for Tickle up to $100,000. In her decision, Justice Perry cited the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984, which was significantly amended in 2013 to include explicit protections for “gender identity.”
Under Section 4(1), “gender identity” is defined as: “…the gender-related identity, appearance or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of a person (whether by way of medical intervention or not), with or without regard to the person’s designated sex at birth.”
Section 5B defines what constitutes discrimination in a legal situation and is divided into two categories: direct discrimination, and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination “occurs when someone is treated less favorably than a person of a different gender identity would be treated in the same or similar circumstances.” It can be inferred from this definition that the law is suggesting that all individuals possess a “gender identity.”
Indirect discrimination is said to occur “when a condition or requirement is imposed that is the same for everyone but has the effect of disadvantaging people of a particular gender identity, and that condition is not “reasonable” under the circumstances.”
The final ruling stated that Grover had “engaged in unlawful direct discrimination” against trans-identified male Tickle by “excluding Ms Tickle from access to the Giggle App on the basis of her gender-related appearance,” “refusing to restore Ms Tickle’s access to the Giggle App on the basis of her gender-related appearance,” and “thereby treating Ms Tickle, who is a transgender woman, less favourably than a person designated female at birth seeking access to the Giggle App.”
I am absolutely devastated Men who claim to be women have more rights than actual women in Australia. It is women who are being discriminated against, not the men who claim to be us.
But in a sense, nothing has changed: we will all wake up tomorrow & men will still not be women.
Incredibly, Justice Perry argued that having “male facial features” was a protected characteristic of “transgender women.”
“It is apparent that Ms Grover made her decisions in relation to Ms Tickle solely on the basis of viewing the latter’s onboarding selfie and her conviction that that photograph showed a male person… Ms Tickle’s selfie was in evidence and we were taken to it in the course of argument in the appeal. Although the photograph presents Ms Tickle as a woman (eg hair, clothing), there are features of her appearance that may be considered discordant with that presentation. Ms Tickle’s appearance, it may safely be concluded, was the reason why Ms Grover concluded that she was not entitled to remain as a user of the Giggle App; and that appearance had elements (“characteristics”) that generally appertain to, or at least are imputed to, transgender women – namely, for want of a better expression, male facial features.”
Justice Melissa Perry doubled the amount Sall Grover had been ordered to pay, and found her guilty of “direct discrimination”
In addition to his attempts to access the female-only social networking app, Tickle has been playing field hockey on a women’s team. He has opposed proposed legislation which would have prohibited men from identifying into women’s sports, while boasting of using the women’s change rooms. Tickle took to X to reveal that the youngest girl he competed with on the field hockey team was just 15 years old.
On his personal Instagram account, Tickle has also shared photos of his underwear, jokes about sex toys, and several cartoons drawn by Canadian transgender diaper fetishist Sophie Labelle.
Grover, a former Hollywood screenwriter, created the Giggle app after experiencing “horrific” sexism in the industry, including both sexual harassment and assault.
Speaking with feminist author and activist Julie Bindel, Grover defended the right for women to gather without the presence of men. “The reasons for female-only spaces have not gone away. So we should not be in a position to have to justify them. We do not have to relive the trauma we have gone through at the hands of men every time we want to defend why we want to be away from them occasionally.”
Among the things a police career taught me is that a small number—usually single digits—of felons commit most felonies. They’ll draw in other criminals, involve them in their crimes, and when convenient, abandon them to arrest. There is no honor among thieves. And the number of the most prolific felons increases and decreases slightly from place to place, and in relation to the specific type of crime.
In some places, crooks specialize in home or business burglaries. In others, specialization might involve burglarizing vehicles or carjacking.
But one thing is certain: take these small bands of crooks out of circulation, and the number of their crimes in those areas immediately, dramatically plummets. The trick is identifying the crooks and rolling them over on each other. Catch some in the act or with the evidence, and the second part is usually easier than the first. When they’re put away, innumerable people we’ll never know don’t end up as victims.
Of course, these kinds of positive results also rely on prosecutors willing to prosecute and judges willing to keep criminals in jail and hand down realistic sentences. That’s a real issue in blue cities and states.
Now it seems Sweden is discovering this reality, particularly where gang-committed, immigrant crime is involved. And it’s about time too. Reports out of Sweden, which has shown suicidal empathy for third-world barbarians, indicate that hand grenade(?!) attacks have become common. At PJ Media, Stephen Green explains:
So Sweden elected a conservative prime minister four years ago who promised to send criminal migrants back to their home countries, and you’ll never believe what happened next.
Violent crime went down. Way down. Particularly gang violence, according to a new report out this week.
Imagine that.
Graphic: X Post
When he campaigned for the PM spot in 2022, Ulf Kristersson — then a member of the Swedish parliament or riksdag — said of violent acts: “If you commit such crimes in Sweden and are not a Swedish citizen, you should be thrown out of the country.”
Apparently, Swedes got tired of dodging grenades and having their women raped.
By the summer of ’22, escalating gang shootings and even bombings were commonplace in what had once been a country better known for spas than jihads. In total, Sweden suffered 361 shootings, 62 shooting deaths, and 90 bombings. The problem with migrant gangs escalated so quickly that Swedish authorities didn’t bother to record bombings until 2018.
By the last election, even the governing soft-on-crime Social Democrats promised tougher measures, but that wasn’t enough to stop Kristersson from putting together a coalition big enough to oust the SD.
Sweden didn’t bother to report bombings until 2018? That’s terminal suicidal empathy, but the Swedes had enough. They better funded the police, did more wiretapping, and directly focused on stopping gang recruitment among the young.
As it turns out — and again, you won’t be shocked by this — sending foreign criminals home is just as effective as locking up homegrown thugs. But the numbers must be seen to be believed.
Shootings are down “by 80 per cent since their 2022 peak,” the Financial Times reported on Monday, and Kristersson reduced “the number of asylum seekers to its lowest in four decades.”
It was apparently a huge deal earlier this year when one Swedish paper reported “No shootings in May.”
“The fact that you have headlines saying no shootings at all this month: it says something,” Kristersson told the FT.
Sadly, the national tendency toward suicide may once again assert itself:
Still, Sweden holds another national election on Sunday, and the Social Democrats could very well take power again. “There’s a lot of discussion about the Winston Churchill effect,” Mattias Karlsson, the nationalist Sweden Democrats’ chief ideologue, said.
Having all but won the war, will Swedish voters reject the man who got them this far?
The “Churchill effect” refers to what happened to Winston Churchill after WWII. Without him, England likely would have fallen to the Nazis. He was, during the war, the indispensable man, but once the war was won, he was put out to pasture, and the kinds of political forces that would have lost the war wormed their way back into power.
Having once again discovered the benefits of national sanity, Will Sweden fall back into leftist delusion and defeat? Perhaps there’s a lesson there for our midterms and beyond.
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Muslim classmates beat and ostracized David Brough throughout secondary school because he was gay and German, and then a counselor told him to accept the abuse as part of the school’s commitment to diversity.
“They hated me because I am German, because I was already a homosexual boy back then, and because I did not submit to Sharia, to Islamic laws on German soil,” said Brough, who founded the media outlet Der Volksmut.
“During my school days, I was mistreated, beaten, ostracized, and insulted every day by Muslim classmates,” said Brough.
🇩🇪🔴 Muslim students beat him because he was German and gay.
"They hated me because I am German, because I was already a homosexual boy back then, and because I did not submit to Sharia, to Islamic laws on German soil," said David Brough (@_david_brg).
Brough, who says he attended school in Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia, described years of daily mistreatment that he said began after elementary school. He said he started first grade in 2000.
He said classmates beat, insulted, and isolated him and that he was targeted in physical education class. Brough called the school a “Sharia school,” a term he uses for campuses with a large Muslim student population and, in his account, little protection for students who do not follow conservative Islamic norms.
The claims have not been independently verified. Remix News did not publish records from the school or court, and there was no immediate comment from Wuppertal school officials.
Betrayed by left-wing adult authorities
Brough said he sought help from a guidance counselor and reported homophobic assaults and bullying.
According to Brough, the guidance counselor, who was a card-carrying member of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), replied: “David, we are a school of diversity. You just have to endure it. You have to tolerate other cultural conditions. And in Islam, being gay is haram, a sin.”
In later posts, Brough said the school later received public funding after being designated a “School without Racism.” He said that label, and the political climate in North Rhine-Westphalia at the time, left little room to acknowledge victims like him.
Brough said his class had about 30 students and only two Germans. As Remix News has routinely reported, the German students in such classes often fare poorly and become targets of bullying and sometimes outright physical assaults.
He said girls who wore headscarves were barred from swimming and that some girls were sexually coerced. He also said a Jewish classmate left the school and that three Muslim classmates told him during a trip to the Auschwitz memorial that he would have been killed there. Those accounts likewise could not be independently confirmed.
Brough said he learned Islamic practices such as Ramadan and Friday prayers before he felt any connection to German culture. He said he later had to “re-socialize as a German” while at university.
“This country, Germany, and the politicians of this country, have not only sold out our cultural identity, our dignity, and our pride,” he said. “The worst part is that they sold out our children.”
Other young German men have been targeted in schools, with some of them willing to speak out. In a street interview this year, a young man described how five Syrian classmates raped him in a school toilet in 10th grade and were later acquitted despite DNA evidence.
Germany has seen growing debate over violence, religious norms and integration in schools with high migrant enrollments. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Muslim students made up about 20 percent of the student population in the 2024-25 school year, with higher shares at some schools. Gay teachers have also been victimized by Muslim students.
Brough said he is speaking now because he believes conditions in some German schools have worsened and because other former students have remained silent.
Presiding judge Fabrice Rives referenced Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by an Islamist terrorist | Wikimedia Commons, Photo : Thomas Bresson, CC-BY-4.0
A 47-year-old man in France has been sentenced to just six months in prison after threatening to decapitate his son’s primary school teacher.
Abdelkader B was sent directly to jail in Toulouse after the court determined his threats were too grave to warrant a suspended sentence.
He made the vile threat after his nine-year-old son was transferred to a different class for his poor behaviour.
On September 4, after a teacher told the boy not to “play the tough guy”, his father confronted her in the school car park and made the beheading threat.
“If you were a man, I would have cut your head off,” he told her.
He then continued to issue threats inside the school building, including in the presence of the headteacher.
Presiding judge Fabrice Rives called the threats “extremely worrying” and of “great violence”, saying they inevitably recalled an event “that has remained in the minds of all French people” – the beheading of Samuel Paty.
Mr Paty, a history and geography teacher, was murdered by an Islamist terrorist outside his school near Paris in October 2020 after displaying cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a lesson about freedom of expression.
In a separate Islamist attack in 2023, French teacher Dominique Bernard was fatally stabbed at his school in Arras by a former pupil.
Two years prior, a religious studies teacher at Batley Grammar School was forced into hiding after showing a cartoon of Mohammed during a lesson on blasphemy.
He and his family remain under police protection and new identities, while a 2024 Government review concluded that local authorities, police, and the school trust “totally and utterly failed” him.
Back in France, Abdelkader B’s sentence went further than what prosecutors had sought – they had requested six months under electronic tagging rather than imprisonment.
The teacher’s lawyer described the immediate incarceration order as “very rare”.
Having spent 14 years at the school, the 58-year-old teacher is now on sick leave and “traumatised”, according to her lawyer, and is weighing whether to remain in the profession.
The defendant’s lawyer urged the court to judge his client as a father rather than “in consideration of his Muslim religion”.
Abdelkader B apologised, telling the court: “I am not someone who is violent by nature. I don’t know what happened to me that day.”
Prosecutors claimed he had not understood the seriousness of what he said.
Two of Abdelkader B’s children are being sent to a different school under a decree introduced in July, which allows pupils to be transferred when a parent poses a serious threat to staff.
He was additionally banned from contacting the teacher or approaching the school for three years, and must complete a citizenship course.
French education minister Edouard Geffray, after the 47-year-old’s sentencing, said: “No teacher should be afraid to do their job.
“To attack one of them is to attack the institution as a whole.”
Gubernatorial candidate Ulrich Siegmund and his wife Julia celebrate the historic AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday
The victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6 was not merely another success for the right-wing opposition in eastern Germany. Its significance lies above all in a qualitative shift in the party’s support base. The result of 43.8 per cent is in itself historic for the party (the party received 20.8 per cent of the vote in the 2021 election) and it was achieved amid unprecedentedly high voter turnout. Nearly 78 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, compared to 60 per cent five years earlier – a sign not of the mobilisation of the usual protest core, but of a deeper shift in electoral behaviour.
The AfD has managed to move beyond its circle of committed supporters. It has become attractive to a segment of voters who previously supported other parties and to those who previously distanced themselves from the political process altogether. In the past, backing the AfD was often a way of expressing dissatisfaction with the existing system without actually envisaging a transfer of power to the party. Now, a growing number of voters are signalling their readiness to consider it a fully legitimate participant in governance.
It is precisely this transition – from a party of protest to a party of power – that constitutes the principal challenge to the “mainstream” German political system.
The alternative to the AfD-led government would be an unstable coalition of disparate forces, which would itself struggle to secure a majority. On paper, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Social Democrats (SPD), Greens, Left and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) would together hold 44 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, the same number as the AfD and BSW combined. And yet, what is it that so frightens the German elites, the media and a portion of the public? Let us be honest: What is at stake is not a parliamentary election but a vote in a small, sparsely populated German state. Where, then, does the danger that the AfD is perceived to pose to the “mainstream” lie?
First, the political crisis. It would appear that the German elites have created the current problem themselves, devoting excessive attention to the firewall (Brandmauer), to the AfD, and indeed to every election. Judging by politicians’ statements and media coverage, one gets the impression that the very existence of the Federal Republic is on the line. Keeping the party out of power has become an article of faith, and the firewall has become something close to the country’s foremost measure of stability. The political mainstream has raised the stakes on its own – and now contemplates the result with horror. A potential entry of the AfD into government would deal a severe blow to the firewall. At the same time, it could trigger a political crisis. The state-level party organisations will (with considerable justification) blame the federal government for their electoral results, which means someone in Berlin will have to bear political responsibility.
Second, the Russian factor. One might assume that this is more of a propaganda device in the election campaign than a genuine fear – although it is characteristic of the German elites, in line with constructivist logic, first to advance a thesis and then to come to believe it themselves and become alarmed by it. After all, foreign policy issues are decided at the federal, not the state level. Yet despite this, representatives of various parties and the media did not hesitate to claim that an AfD victory in the east would entrench Russian influence. As Baden-Württemberg Minister-President Cem Özdemir of the Greens put it: “I want Saxony-Anhalt to remain Saxony-Anhalt, and Magdeburg not to become a suburb of Moscow.” This instrumentalisation of the Russian threat seems rather strained.
There are, though, those who attempt to rationalise the link between the AfD and the fear of Moscow, noting that should the party come to power, it would gain leverage over security policy. The party would gain representation in the Bundesrat and the Conference of Minister-Presidents, as well as access to classified information. Accordingly, the AfD is accused of being in a position to pass sensitive data to Russia, sway public opinion or even obstruct the movement of troops through Saxony-Anhalt – which seems entirely far-fetched, yet has repeatedly been discussed in major European media outlets.
It must be said that the attempt by opponents – at the state level, the federal level and beyond Germany’s borders – to portray the AfD on the eve of the election as a party of Nazis and Putin’s puppets proved entirely ineffective in this eastern state. Perhaps its heavy-handedness even provoked irritation and added a few percentage points to the AfD’s result. The drone episode at Leipzig/Halle Airport in August, which Berlin has blamed on Moscow, and the subsequent sharp escalation of tensions with Russia had no effect whatsoever on the voting outcome – or possibly had the opposite effect. It is telling that among the issues voters considered important, the preservation of peace in Europe featured prominently**, second only to social security** – hardly typical of state elections in Germany, which traditionally focus on domestic politics and socio-economic matters. Fifty-seven per cent of surveyed voters supported the AfD’s position against further arms deliveries to Ukraine, and when asked which political force was best equipped to help preserve peace in Europe, 29 per cent named the AfD – more than any other party.
Third, there are areas in which the AfD, once in power, would be able to make decisions. One of these is internal security – particularly policing. As part of a state government, the party would be able to influence personnel decisions within the police, raising concerns about the growth of right-wing sentiment within the force. Furthermore, in Germany, culture and education fall primarily under the jurisdiction of the states. Accordingly, the AfD could begin to deliver on its promise to overhaul school curricula and move away from the agenda that has dominated the educational process for many years.
The CDU’s defeat in Saxony-Anhalt does not pose an immediate threat to Friedrich Merz’s position as Federal Chancellor. State elections do not alter the composition of the Bundestag, nor do they trigger a procedure to remove the government. Yet the CDU’s loss in Saxony-Anhalt represents a strategic problem for him.
The premise underlying Merz’s strategy within the CDU was the notion that the party could strengthen its position on the Right by winning back a portion of the voters who had drifted to the AfD. In Saxony-Anhalt, the opposite occurred: The AfD more than doubled its vote share, while the CDU lost a substantial share of its support**, falling from 37.1 per cent in 2021 to 17.2 per cent, its worst result in the state**.
Now a debate within the CDU is bound to intensify over why the previous strategy failed to deliver. Some will argue that the answer must be an even stricter policy of distancing itself from the AfD. Others will call into question the very efficacy of the policy of isolation if it does not diminish the party’s support but merely turns it into the system’s principal political antagonist. All of this will be accompanied by debates over whether Merz can remain an electoral asset for the bloc and lead it into the next federal election.
The forthcoming state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin on September 20, 2026, will carry particular weight. If a single result can still be attributed to regional particularities, a series of such defeats will be read as a national trend. At the same time, Merz’s standing is determined not only by elections in eastern Germany but also by the federal government’s ability to demonstrate economic and social progress – a prospect, it must be said, in which an ever smaller share of the German population believes.
For the AfD itself, this is only the beginning. At the time of writing, it remains unclear whether it will be able to form a government at all. With 39 seats, short of the requisite 42, there is still room for coalitions formed against it. AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has ruled out a minority government, saying fresh elections could be the alternative. But if the party does obtain executive power, it will confront a problem with which it has thus far had little experience: Power not as an object of criticism, but as a system that must be made to function.
What if it suddenly turns out that the AfD is insufficiently prepared to govern effectively, even at the state level? It is entirely plausible that this is precisely what both the federal authorities and opponents are counting on.
One of the principal challenges will be the party’s relationship with the bureaucracy. In Germany, the state apparatus possesses a high degree of professional autonomy. A new government built around the AfD will inevitably have to work with civil servants, many of whom have no political affiliation with the party. This creates two potential problems: The possibility of resistance from within the apparatus and the risk of the gradual erosion of the party’s own political profile through integration into the existing system.
Herein lies the difference between the AfD and certain other right-wing parties in Europe. The ideologically similar Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), for example, has participated in government for decades and is already embedded in the state system. The German AfD, by contrast, has long existed in a state of conflict with the political mainstream – and it is precisely this that earns it considerable support among a German public weary of the “mainstream parties”.
That said, the party itself is aware of this, thinks about it and speaks of it constantly – and, most likely, has some idea of how to resolve the problem.
The pushback in British society turned out victorious
After 5 hours of debate, the British members of the House of Commons rejected the Assisted Dying Bill again.
Today is a sad day in which we commemorate 25 years of the 9-11 attacks. But on this somber and solemn day, a ray of light pierces the darkness and brings a degree of much-needed hope and joy to the United Kingdom and the world.
The assisted dying bill has been voted down in the House of Commons in a major blow to its supporters.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was opposed by 286 votes to 270 in the Commons on Friday afternoon, following a five-hour debate.
🚨 BREAKING: MPs have voted against the Assisted Dying Bill
In a victory for hope, compassion & life, MPs have voted against assisted suicide by 286 votes to 270, choosing to protect vulnerable people & stop our country going down a dark path that would have changed society forever.🧵1/ pic.twitter.com/T1mi0ocK9E
“MPs had voted in favor of the assisted dying bill last year when it was introduced by Kim Leadbeater, only for the legislation to run out of time in the Lords.
On Friday, Lauren Edwards, a backbench Labour MP, introduced a near-identical bill, in the hope of allowing adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to seek medical assistance to end their lives.
But now it has been rejected by MPs, supporters of assisted dying could find themselves waiting years for another chance to change the law.”
‘The longer this bill was exposed to public scrutiny, there were flaws found in it.’@OliviaUtley reacts as MPs in the House of Commons vote against the assisted dying bill. pic.twitter.com/vXUhp1Qryj
“Two former Labour health ministers used the Commons debate to urge their colleagues to vote down the proposals. Ashley Dalton, who is terminally ill, accused supporters of the bill of ‘scaremongering’, while Dr Zubir Ahmed warned that the NHS was not ready for the introduction of assisted dying.”
Press release – Assisted suicide Bill defeated in major victory for the most vulnerable in our societyhttps://t.co/sqGIJdtIk2
“The last effort to change the law ran out of time to clear all the necessary stages in Parliament.
Proposals tabled by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater in 2024 to legalise assisted dying cleared the House of Commons on 20 June last year with a majority of 23.
But it did not clear all its stages in the Lords, with peers tabling more than 1,200 amendments.
Supporters of the bill accused some peers of using delaying tactics to block the proposals, while critics argued it did not have sufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable people.”
