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“These young people aren’t celebrating together. They aren’t building anything. They aren’t defending any idea. They’re destroying.”

by Marie-Estelle Dupont,* France

(19 June 2026) (CH-S) France has long been familiar with violent riots following major events, even when, for example, a football match has ended in victory for the French team. Nationwide, 22,000 police officers were recently deployed; hundreds of rioters were arrested; and there was widespread damage to property and several injuries.

Middle East

Joint statement on humanitarian access in Gaza and the registration law affecting INGOs

Diplomatic statement, 8 June 2026

(19 June 2026) (CH-S) The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian Gaza Strip is dire. This is the assessment of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in Bern. In a joint statement with the foreign ministers of 19 countries, Switzerland has expressed its concern about the situation.

Torture programmes and missile attacks on hospitals in Gaza

Oxford surgeon Nick Maynard on Tucker Carlson

by Peter F. Mayer*

(12 June 2026) A leading British surgeon from the University of Oxford has, in a sensational interview with Tucker Carlson, described in detail what he witnessed with his own eyes in Gaza: the systematic destruction of the healthcare system, targeted shootings of children at food distribution points, and an institutionalised torture programme against Palestinian doctors. The West looks the other way – and funds the whole thing.

Digitisation in education has produced a generation with limited intellectual abilities

by Norbert Häring,* Germany

(12 June 2026) US schools are already spending ten times as much on digital learning software and hardware as they do on textbooks. Instead of increasing pupils’ academic achievement, as promised, it has actually declined. An analysis of PISA results confirms that academic achievement decreases as screen time at school increases.

When health policy becomes a question of power

by Ralph Studer*

(5 June 2026) Mandatory vaccinations, liability issues and new technologies are causing unease across Switzerland. Whilst cantons are tightening their health laws and the federal government is revising the Epidemics Act, concerns are growing that state intervention could go too far. Initial consultations have led to restrictions on the state’s scope for intervention.

The disappearance of teachers – a play in four acts

by Christine Staehelin*

(5 June 2026) Teachers embody the subject. They stand for the content. It is their task to pass on culture and tradition so that something new can emerge. In addition to knowledge, this requires, above all, pedagogical and methodological-didactic skills. Teachers can be great role models or the opposite. They can encourage or discourage, be taken seriously or ridiculed. As counterparts in the educational context, they always play a role, yet in recent decades this has increasingly been pushed off the stage. We present Christine Staehelin’s speech, which she delivered at the press conference of the “Bildungswende” group [turning point in education].