The frequency of acid attacks in London has turned parts of the British capital into “no go zones”, a former Labour minister has said.

The United Kingdom has “the highest rate of attacks per capita” in the world, claimed Stephen Timms, Labour MP for East Ham, in comments to fellow MPs reported by the Daily Mail.

Figures show the number of acid attacks in Britain shot up between 2012 and 2016 by more than 500 per cent. There were just 73 recorded attacks in 2012 but a massive 469 in 2016.

“The UK now has one of the highest rates of recorded acid and corrosive substance attacks per capita in the world and this number appears to be rising,” admitted Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Kearton, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) lead on acid attacks, earlier this month.

Some left-wingers have argued that No Go Zones are an invention of the right, however, they have been written about extensively by journalists who have investigated the issue and visited them.

Politicians had been debating the UK’s problem with acid attacks on Wednesday, and Mr. Timms demanded the government take “significant action”.

He said: “I’ve had a number of discussions with representatives of moped delivery drivers and they say there are now parts of London where their drivers are not willing to go because of the danger of attack.

“I think all of us would regard it as unacceptable that there are no go areas in parts of London and parts of the UK. I think it requires some significant action to deal with the problem.”

London, 2017 ? https://t.co/DQH0Tl7MGR

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 7, 2017

Crime across England and Wales surged by 13 per cent in the year ending in June this year, with violent crime shooting up even more steeply. Offences of violence against the person, for example, increased by 19 per cent on the previous year.

Labour MP for West Ham Lyn Brown joined Mr. Timms in his calls for action during the debate, demanding much tighter regulation.

She claimed that initial steps to counter acid attacks “had been positive”, adding: “changes were made to the law in 2015 as part of the Deregulation Act, the red tape bonfire.

“The Act scrapped the obligation on sellers of dangerous substances, including acids, to be registered with their local council.

“This was despite opposing advice from the medical experts as well as the Government’s own advisory board on dangerous substances. I fear that these changes are partly responsible for the rise in acid attacks.”

In August, London police said they had identified “emerging links” between violent gang crime in the city and the surge in acid and moped attacks across the London area.

Gangs and organised crime groups were increasingly deploying corrosive liquids as a weapon, London’s Metropolitan force said.

Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam has written a book on No Go Zones, which can be found here.

A 600-year-old school in Germany has ditched Christmas celebrations during class time after a Muslim pupil said that carols were incompatible with Islam.

After a stir in local media over reports that the Johanneum Gymnasium in Lüneburg had “cancelled” Christmas following a Muslim girl’s complaint that the songs conflicted with her religion, the school’s headmaster said that the school was taking “a sensitive approach” to the festive season.

Headmaster Friedrich Suhr confirmed that the complaint had taken place, but denied it was behind the decision of management at the school — one of the oldest in northern Germany — to postpone and make voluntary its annual Christmas party.

The headmaster also explained that that music lessons at the school would no longer include songs with religiously-themed lyrics, pointing to regional education board rules which require teachers show consideration to pupils from minority faiths.

A spokesman for the local authority appeared to dispute this interpretation of the rules, noting that while it is up to individual schools to decide how to conform to regulations, the Education Act in no way demands a ban on Christian songs.

Centuries Old Winter Tradition Disappearing Because it’s Too Swedish https://t.co/fnOsrXBhZO http://pic.twitter.com/2B0hT2WytS

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 1, 2016

Bianca Schöneich warned, however, that “religious content in schools should be done in moderation”, and added that “a Christmas party should not have the character of a church service”.

A number of church figures have hit out at the school for taking an overly sensitive approach, with Catholic Bureau of Lower Saxony prelate Felix Bernard pointing out that religious music in Germany “is part of our cultural heritage”.

“The singing of Christmas carols constitutes neither a religious confession nor a service”, he told Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.

Auxiliary Bishop Nikolaus Schwerdtfeger added it should go without saying that Christmas carols would be sung at Christmas celebrations in a Christian country.

“The fact that a school Christmas party can not take place during class time, I find a pity and also a bit absurd,” he said.

Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported that the issue has caused “heated debate” among pupils at Johanneum Gymnasium, with one lamenting to the public broadcaster: “Something that was never a problem before is now being made into one.”

On the other hand, pupil spokesman Thurka Parathaman backed the move to marginalise Christmas at the school, stating that it would not be right to have an event “for Christians that excludes other religions”.

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The Congressional Executive Commission on China has released its 2017 Report, which contains documentation of continued forced abortion under China’s Two-Child Policy.

“Chinese authorities continue to actively promote and implement coercive population planning policies that violate international standards,” the Congressional Report declares in its section titled “Population Control.”

The two-child policy regulations “include provisions that require couples to be married to have children and limit them to bearing two children,” with coercive population control at the heart of enforcement of the new regulations, it states.

“Officials continue to enforce compliance with population planning targets using methods including heavy fines, job termination, arbitrary detention, and coerced abortion,” the report states.

Some provincial-level Chinese population planning rules continue to explicitly instruct officials to carry out abortions, often referred to as ‘remedial measures’ for ‘out-of-plan’ [illegal] pregnancies, with some provinces urging functionaries to “use all means necessary” in enforcing the regulations.

When China announced that it was “abandoning” its draconian one-child policy in 2015, the claim was met with skepticism among critics, who contended that the move substantially changed nothing, since the communist government still asserts absolute control over families and will continue to enforce its will with coercion.

Critics such as Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, have said that the new Congressional Report vindicates their warnings at the time. Littlejohn told Breitbart News: “Under the Two-Child Policy, single women are still forcibly aborted, as are third children.”

Back in 2015, Littlejohn remarked that any mention of human rights was “noticeably absent” from the Communist party’s announcement. “Even though it will now allow all couples to have a second child, China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, or forced contraception,” she said.

The news media at the time bought into the story that China had “abandoned” or “scrapped” its One-Child Policy, a depiction that Littlejohn called “demonstrably false.”

The new report also states that the sex ratio at birth reported by the Chinese government themselves indicates that the selective abortion of baby girls continues unabated under the new policy.

Although Chinese authorities continue to officially frown on sex-selective abortion, “some people reportedly continue the practice in response to government imposed birth limits and in keeping with a traditional cultural preference for sons,” the report declares.

According to a National Bureau of Statistics Report, the sex ratio at birth in 2015 was 113.5 males born for every 100 females born, a disproportion that could only be achieved through sex-selective abortion.  Years of such sex-selective favoring of boys has resulted in an estimated 33 to 37 million more males living in China than females. This imbalance is fueling sex trafficking from multiple nations into China “for forced marriage or commercial sexual exploitation” to help fill the gender gap.

“China’s Two-Child Policy continues the human rights abuses and gender-based violence of the One-Child Policy,” Littlejohn stated, while noting that “China remains firmly on the path to demographic disaster” due to its dangerously low birthrate.

China “should be offering incentives for couples to have babies, not forcibly aborting ‘illegal’ pregnancies,” Littlejohn added.

Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome

President Donald Trump challenged Democrats over rumors of a government shutdown, suggesting that they might fail to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government.

“House Democrats want a SHUTDOWN for the holidays in order to distract from the very popular, just passed, Tax Cuts,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “House Republicans, don’t let this happen. Pass the C.R. TODAY and keep our Government OPEN!”

Republicans do not have a firm solution to prevent a shutdown, despite promises from leaders that it will not occur.

“I don’t see a shutdown happening,” Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows said in an interview on CNN. “We were negotiating into the late hours to make sure that we at least have 218 votes on the House side and send it over to the Senate hopefully as early as today.”

Funding for the government ends on Friday after Congress passed a short continuing resolution in September which was a plan favored by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and agreed to by Trump.

On December 7th, Congress passed a two-week extension to keep the government open until December 22.

The latest plan from House leaders proposes a new funding extension that will fund the government through January 19.