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Canada News.Net
5 days ago
- Canada News.Net
Should Frances incel threat be treated like terrorism
An 18-year-old Frenchman was detained and charged on July 1 with being part of a terrorist criminal enterprise. Amid reports of an increase in masculinism a belief in the supremacy of men and advocacy of outmoded gender roles among young men, it is the first time that French anti-terror authorities have launched an investigation into someone for activities linked to the "involuntary celibate (incel) movement. France'scounter-terrorismauthority has launched its first investigation into the threat posed by the toxic misogyny of masculinist,incelculture. An 18-year-old identified as Timothy G. was charged and placed in pre-trial detention on Tuesday for being part of a terrorist criminal conspiracy and making threats. He had two knives in his possession when he was arrested on June 28 in the Saint-tienne region by the French domestic intelligence service, the DGSI, near the secondary school he attended. He had no police record and was enrolled in preparatory classes prior to attending university. Timothy G's lawyer, Maria Snitsar, said her client was a young person in distress who has difficulty communicating with young people of his age [and] who is not at ease with himself. She also said his detention was likely related to his activity online. I have the impression that being on social networks played a part in his being placed under investigation. Snitsar says understanding her clients personality would be a key part of the inquiry. Determining the legal categorisation of the charges will be possible only once the investigation has progressed further, she added. Not much precedent Very little information has been made public since Timothy G.'s first appearance before a custodial judge. However, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office confirmed that an investigation had been opened into the young man, who "claims to be a member of the incel movement". Incels feel they have been rejected by women and have adopted aggressively misogynist views in response. According to a source close to the investigation, this is the first time an individual claiming to belong to this movement has been referred to the anti-terrorism prosecutors officefor related activities. Since the creation of the special anti-terror prosecutor's officein 2019, magistrates have mainly focused on the jihadist threat or potential attacksfromfar-right groups. Watch moreFrance arrests teen for plotting attacks on women in landmark 'incel' case There isn't much case law on this type of issue, notesSnitsar. But in recent years, the incel branch of the masculinist movement has stepped up its hateful rhetoric, sometimes leading to acts of violence. In May 2024, a 26-year-old man was arrested nearBordeauxafter a member of the public alerted authorities to his toxic online posts via theinterior ministrys Pharos web portal, a system designed to curb illicit or harmful online content. He had posted a videopraising incel Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old perpetrator of a 2014 mass killing in Isla Vista,California, in which seven people died, including Rodger. Because the terrorist intentions of the young Frenchman from Bordeaux were not established, the anti-terrorism prosecutors officedid not deal with the case. Dehumanisation of women Originating in North America in the 1990s, masculinist ideology has taken off, in part thanks to theinternet. FrancesHigh Council for Equality between Women and Men(HCE) noted in its most recent report in January that "sexist and masculinist discourse has gained in visibility". Read moreFrench man linked to incel movement detained over suspected plan to attack women "Women are more feminist and men more masculinist, especially young people," notes the councils director, Brangre Couillard. According to a 2024HCE survey, 52 percent of men between 25 and 34 felt that "men are being picked on". Among the various branches of masculinism popular on online forums, the "incels" are the most violent. A few hours before going on his killing spree, Rodgerposted a long manifesto, justifying his actions by his hatred of women who had rejected him. I do not know why you girls arent attracted to me, he wroteBut I will punish you all for it. Mlissa Blais, professor of sociology at the Universit du Qubec in Outaouais (UQO) and a specialist in antifeminist movements, says there is something particularly violent about the movements seen today. "In incel communities, there's something going on that's conducive to mass murder. Women are dehumanised, labelled as femoids seen as creatures to be fought. Dehumanisation is an important part of mass murder," Blais says. Canadahas been one of the epicentres of masculinism since a 1989massacreatMontreal's cole Polytechnique that targeted women. "There were two charges of terrorismbrought inconnection with masculinist attacks in Canada in 2023, says Blais. One of the two men involved was a minor who had attempted to murder women in a massage parlour in 2020 in a case also inspired by the incel movement. In that case, an Ontario judge explained during the hearing that the suspect's behaviour did, indeed,meet the criteria to beconsideredterrorismunder the Canadian Criminal Code. An evolving threat that is difficult to track Many countries are now weighing what incel activity meets the criteria to be legally categorised as terrorism. After a mass shooting in Plymouth in August 2021,UKcounter-terrorism police initially felt the attack hadnot been motivated by "incel" propaganda. They backtracked in light of videos found on the suspects computer. "The question is whether or not the authorities wish to treat the incel phenomenon as a terrorist risk," notes the UK's independent terrorism laws auditor, Jonathan Hall. Hall says thedefinition of terrorism in the UKis broad enough to prosecute incel violence under its statutes. The incel threat is difficult for the police to track. Although all are young men, they do not function as an established group or have a hierarchy, unlike a structured terrorist also come from a wide variety of social backgrounds. However, a 2021 report by the Paris public prosecutor's officecited by Mediapartnoted the ideological proximity between the radicalfar rightand masculinist groups. In its 2020 report on the terrorist threat, the European police agencyEuropol categorisedincels as a subset of far-right terrorism. But Eviane Leidig, a researcher at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, an independent think tank, says this classification does not provide an effective understanding of the threat. Movements such as male supremacism and incels can and should be considered as a distinct threat category, and not simply as a gateway to other ideologies, she says. The investigation into Timothy G. could provide the first clues as to how the French justice system willcome to grips with the masculinist threat as well as the role ofsocial networksin recruitment. This article has been translated from theoriginal in Frenchby David Howley.
Canada Standard
5 days ago
- Canada Standard
Should Frances incel threat be treated like terrorism
An 18-year-old Frenchman was detained and charged on July 1 with being part of a terrorist criminal enterprise. Amid reports of an increase in masculinism a belief in the supremacy of men and advocacy of outmoded gender roles among young men, it is the first time that French anti-terror authorities have launched an investigation into someone for activities linked to the "involuntary celibate (incel) movement. France'scounter-terrorismauthority has launched its first investigation into the threat posed by the toxic misogyny of masculinist,incelculture. An 18-year-old identified as Timothy G. was charged and placed in pre-trial detention on Tuesday for being part of a terrorist criminal conspiracy and making threats. He had two knives in his possession when he was arrested on June 28 in the Saint-tienne region by the French domestic intelligence service, the DGSI, near the secondary school he attended. He had no police record and was enrolled in preparatory classes prior to attending university. Timothy G's lawyer, Maria Snitsar, said her client was a young person in distress who has difficulty communicating with young people of his age [and] who is not at ease with himself. She also said his detention was likely related to his activity online. I have the impression that being on social networks played a part in his being placed under investigation. Snitsar says understanding her clients personality would be a key part of the inquiry. Determining the legal categorisation of the charges will be possible only once the investigation has progressed further, she added. Not much precedent Very little information has been made public since Timothy G.'s first appearance before a custodial judge. However, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office confirmed that an investigation had been opened into the young man, who "claims to be a member of the incel movement". Incels feel they have been rejected by women and have adopted aggressively misogynist views in response. According to a source close to the investigation, this is the first time an individual claiming to belong to this movement has been referred to the anti-terrorism prosecutors officefor related activities. Since the creation of the special anti-terror prosecutor's officein 2019, magistrates have mainly focused on the jihadist threat or potential attacksfromfar-right groups. Watch moreFrance arrests teen for plotting attacks on women in landmark 'incel' case There isn't much case law on this type of issue, notesSnitsar. But in recent years, the incel branch of the masculinist movement has stepped up its hateful rhetoric, sometimes leading to acts of violence. In May 2024, a 26-year-old man was arrested nearBordeauxafter a member of the public alerted authorities to his toxic online posts via theinterior ministrys Pharos web portal, a system designed to curb illicit or harmful online content. He had posted a videopraising incel Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old perpetrator of a 2014 mass killing in Isla Vista,California, in which seven people died, including Rodger. Because the terrorist intentions of the young Frenchman from Bordeaux were not established, the anti-terrorism prosecutors officedid not deal with the case. Dehumanisation of women Originating in North America in the 1990s, masculinist ideology has taken off, in part thanks to theinternet. FrancesHigh Council for Equality between Women and Men(HCE) noted in its most recent report in January that "sexist and masculinist discourse has gained in visibility". Read moreFrench man linked to incel movement detained over suspected plan to attack women "Women are more feminist and men more masculinist, especially young people," notes the councils director, Brangre Couillard. According to a 2024HCE survey, 52 percent of men between 25 and 34 felt that "men are being picked on". Among the various branches of masculinism popular on online forums, the "incels" are the most violent. A few hours before going on his killing spree, Rodgerposted a long manifesto, justifying his actions by his hatred of women who had rejected him. I do not know why you girls arent attracted to me, he wroteBut I will punish you all for it. Mlissa Blais, professor of sociology at the Universit du Qubec in Outaouais (UQO) and a specialist in antifeminist movements, says there is something particularly violent about the movements seen today. "In incel communities, there's something going on that's conducive to mass murder. Women are dehumanised, labelled as femoids seen as creatures to be fought. Dehumanisation is an important part of mass murder," Blais says. Canadahas been one of the epicentres of masculinism since a 1989massacreatMontreal's cole Polytechnique that targeted women. "There were two charges of terrorismbrought inconnection with masculinist attacks in Canada in 2023, says Blais. One of the two men involved was a minor who had attempted to murder women in a massage parlour in 2020 in a case also inspired by the incel movement. In that case, an Ontario judge explained during the hearing that the suspect's behaviour did, indeed,meet the criteria to beconsideredterrorismunder the Canadian Criminal Code. An evolving threat that is difficult to track Many countries are now weighing what incel activity meets the criteria to be legally categorised as terrorism. After a mass shooting in Plymouth in August 2021,UKcounter-terrorism police initially felt the attack hadnot been motivated by "incel" propaganda. They backtracked in light of videos found on the suspects computer. "The question is whether or not the authorities wish to treat the incel phenomenon as a terrorist risk," notes the UK's independent terrorism laws auditor, Jonathan Hall. Hall says thedefinition of terrorism in the UKis broad enough to prosecute incel violence under its statutes. The incel threat is difficult for the police to track. Although all are young men, they do not function as an established group or have a hierarchy, unlike a structured terrorist also come from a wide variety of social backgrounds. However, a 2021 report by the Paris public prosecutor's officecited by Mediapartnoted the ideological proximity between the radicalfar rightand masculinist groups. In its 2020 report on the terrorist threat, the European police agencyEuropol categorisedincels as a subset of far-right terrorism. But Eviane Leidig, a researcher at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, an independent think tank, says this classification does not provide an effective understanding of the threat. Movements such as male supremacism and incels can and should be considered as a distinct threat category, and not simply as a gateway to other ideologies, she says. The investigation into Timothy G. could provide the first clues as to how the French justice system willcome to grips with the masculinist threat as well as the role ofsocial networksin recruitment. This article has been translated from theoriginal in Frenchby David Howley. Originally published on France24
Spectator
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Dominic Cummings has run out of answers
On Wednesday, The Spectator dispatched me to Dominic Cummings's Pharos lecture in Oxford. Packed into the Sheldonian theatre were an interesting crowd. I spotted several X anons, my A-Level politics teacher and Brass Eye creator Chris Morris. For many in the audience, this was a rare opportunity to see their hero; for one or two hecklers, it was a unique chance to harrumph at the villain of Brexit, lockdown, and Barnard Castle. You can read a transcript of it here. I'm a Cummings fan. Having first discovered him via our political editor's books, I began reading his blog as a teen. I worked through the reading lists, defended his eye test in my student magazine, and heralded him as the future of the right in an article only last year. Throughout my career, he has been a unique guiding light. Which is why, I'm sorry to report, Wednesday was a disappointment. With the speech being entitled 'What is to be done?' – a nod to the originator by Britain's premier Leninist – one was expecting a call to arms. We sat in the audience sat ready to be given our marching orders. But this was no declaration of revolution. Instead, for those of us habituated into shelling out £10 a month for his Substack, it was dispiritingly familiar. This was Dom's Greatest Hits – David Bowie at Glastonbury, but with more references to the European Court of Human Rights. For 'Starman', take a condemnation of deranged MPs addicted on the old media. For 'Ashes to Ashes', try Whitehall ignoring Cummings over the pandemic and Ukraine. For 'Rebel Rebel', take parallels with post-Napoleonic Europe and the idiocy of a permanent civil service. But unlike with Bowie, one was hoping to hear a few new tunes between the earlier works. There were the usual spicy turns of phrase. The Home Office was said to be waging a 'constant jihad' against talented would-be migrants; Whitehall was condemned for hushing up 'the industrialised mass rape of white English children by Pakistani and Somali gangs over decades' while importing 'people from the exact same tribal areas responsible'. Speak for England, Dom. But as eye-catching as this was – and several other attendees texted me cheering him on – it wasn't new to any habitual X user. We have always known the rape gangs were there; we have always known the state was covering it up; we are now braced for the inevitable whitewash when Keir Starmer's inquiry reports in 2037. Even his concluding recommendations – replacement of senior officials, closing the Cabinet Office and Treasury, reforming procurement, more focus on science and technology, decentralisation, and a wider reading of nineteenth-century Russian literature – were well-trodden. The talk could have been packaged as A Very Short Introduction to Dominic Cummings in the style of the handy, generalist tomes one can pick up at Blackwell's across the street. Yet my trip to Oxford was far from fruitless, and not only because I revisited a couple of my favourite student hostelries. A Q and A with Steven Edginton followed. The US Video Editor of GB News has made a name for himself by asking prominent figures on the right questions the left-leaning media never would. I particularly enjoyed his exchange with Liz Truss, exposing the ex-PM as the clueless, over-promoted and self-obsessed charlatan she is. His approach to Cummings was no different. At times in his speech, the former Number 10 adviser had almost seemed to have forgotten he had been in government: more 'here is what I would do' than 'here is what I should have done'. Edginton pinned him down on his own record, especially on the central and most spectacular failure of the last Conservative government: immigration. Cummings was quick to distance himself from the Boriswave. He was out of government by the time numbers exploded, he argued. Instead, a combination of Boris Johnson's desire to make up with the Financial Times and powerful bureaucratic forces – the Treasury's addiction to human quantitative easing in particular – meant a new immigration system designed to prioritise high-skilled workers was hijacked to take numbers three times higher than the levels that when Britain voted to Leave. Combined with the ECHR preventing the Royal Navy from stopping the 'stupid boats', this meant a total betrayal of the promises Johnson made in 2019. Edginton also asked for Cumming's views on how mass deporations and other remigration policies – citing the US and Sweden as examples – would be with voters. Having tied both Nigel Farage and Richard Tice in knots over this, it was refreshing to hear Cummings explain or why Reform UK are squeamish. Farage formed his views 'in the 1990s and 2000s', and it is 'very hard for [him] to adjust to a world where the conventional ideas of that time are broken down'. Farage and Tice are in their 60s. They are surrounded by a distinctly unimpressive coterie of hangers-on, media personalities and court eunuchs. Are they serious about confronting the institutional resistance and media uproar a sensible centrist approach to immigration would require, or will they fail just as the Tories and Labour have done? The latter, on the available evidence. Will he embrace the vibe shift, or only gesture towards it? They are yesterday's men. Yet seeing Cummings in conversation with Edginton, I couldn't help but get the sense I was watching a new right confronting the old. Edginton ended by asking his interviewee if, after the failure after failure of government after government do what they promised, whether democracy was overrated. Cummings replied by suggesting his hope was to 'find a way of reviving the regime' rather than seeing it 'replaced'. But what does that look like? Another attempted takeover of the Tories? The much-heralded but little-seen Start-Up party? Or a new mass movement, like the 'Looking for Growth' group from academic Lawrence Newport that Cummings has promoted? I've met with Newport and agree with much of his analysis. But Britain's future will not be saved by a few over-eager young men scrubbing the Bakerloo. Who are the coming generation? They have grown up absorbing the analysis of Cummings. They are conscious of living in a Britain blighted by his failure to deliver the reforms of which he has spoken for so long. They live in the Britain of Scuzz Nation, of Yookay Aesthetics, of Nick 30 Ans. Their hope is exhausted. They have enormous respect for Cummings and Vote Leave. But they will not compromise with a regime that they despise. Cummings may still struggle to use the language of mass deportations; to tomorrow's right, they are but a necessary first step. Cummings is still a prophet. Most Brits say the country is in decline, feel poor, hate politicians, and have little hope for the future. For those of us familiar with Cummings, this is all unsurprising. We are a country falling ever further into stagnation and inter-ethnic violence, labouring under a performatively useless political class. A crisis point is being reached. Welcome to Weimar Britain, where politics doesn't work, everyone is getting poorer, and the streets are filled with violence. Can the country be turned around by reviving the existing regime? Or is a different form of government required? And if Cummings was – and is – the man to turn Britain around, why did he allow himself to be outwitted by a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation? Why did he topple Johnson without a clear plan to replace him? Will he embrace the vibe shift, or only gesture towards it? He is a Lee Kuan Yew afficionado. Does he still have that iron in him? He has spoken about stepping back. That would be a waste. Robert Jenrick is only a phone call away. Commentators as disparate as friend-of-The–Spectator Curtis Yarvin, Tory MP Neil O'Brien, and my former colleague Henry Hill have all spoken of the need for an Anglo Meiji Restoration – a hard reset of our governing institutions, political class, and economic geography. It is a project requiring the sort of dedicated revolutionary vanguard that I hoped Cummings would call for on Wednesday. His talk was a missed opportunity. The burning questions of our movement remain to be answered.
Cision Canada
07-05-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Pharos Network Unveils High-Performance Layer 1 Testnet to Unlock RWA Adoption
HONG KONG, May 7, 2025 /CNW/ -- Pharos Network, a high-performance blockchain built for real-world assets (RWAs), announced the launch of its Testnet today. Designed for institutional-grade RWAs and enterprise-scale DeFi, Pharos offers a next-generation, modular infrastructure that addresses the key bottlenecks preventing institutions from entering Web3. The platform powers scalable deployment of decentralized applications, enables efficient payment solutions, and unlocks new use cases for tokenized assets. The Pharos Testnet achieves up to 30,000 transactions per second with one-second finality, setting a new benchmark for Layer 1 blockchain performance. Its GPU-like architecture could support billions of users and reduce storage usage by 80%. The network also features built-in support for decentralized AI and privacy preserving SPN. With ZK-based KYC/AML capabilities, Pharos ensures enterprise-ready security and compliance. It remains fully EVM-compatible, offering faster and cheaper transactions, while enabling flexible, on-chain innovation. Pharos's product stack directly addresses the core bottlenecks in RWA adoption—scalability, compliance, and flexibility—unlocking new use cases across sectors such as renewable energy industry finance, payment, supply chain finance, and tokenized real estate. Its modular, high-throughput infrastructure enables secure deployment of RWA at scale, while meeting the regulatory and performance demands of the financial industry. A growing ecosystem is already emerging on the Pharos Testnet, enabling innovative Defi use cases for RWAs. As an early collaborator of Pharos, OKX Wallet will support Pharos Testnet natively at launch. Early Pharos ecosystem projects include Zenith Swap, ELFi, Buzzing Club, Faroswap, R2, OpenFi, Hemera, Blocksense, Supra, and more. Founded by former AntChain and Alibaba blockchain leaders, the Pharos team brings deep enterprise experience, uniquely positioning it to deliver enterprise-grade solutions for institutions exploring green finance, payments, and new forms of programmable ownership and asset tokenization. "The Pharos Testnet represents a significant milestone in our mission to unlock the true potential of RWAs. By providing a high-performance, scalable, and adaptable platform, Pharos meet the needs of bringing real world assets on a chain and bringing utilities to these assets." said Alex Zhang, CEO of Pharos Network. "We're excited to watch innovation flourish on Pharos and accelerate the convergence of traditional finance and decentralized technology. Developers and users can access and experience the Testnet by visiting About Pharos Pharos Network is a revolutionary Layer 1 blockchain platform that sets new benchmarks in decentralized technology with its extreme performance and scalability. Founded by ex-blockchain leaders from Ant Financial and Alibaba, Pharos aims to build the best chain for RWAs and enterprise-grade DeFi, achieving the highest EVM Layer-1 performance with 50K TPS and being the first to reach 2 gigagas/sec. In addition, Pharos is a co-developer of SmartCogent, an AI toolkit for large language models (LLMs), and the core development team of DTVM technology. For more information, please visit
Reuters
05-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Egypt inflation seen plunging to 14.5% in February
CAIRO, March 5 (Reuters) - Egypt's inflation rate is forecast to have tumbled to 14.5% in February, as the exceptionally high price increases of the last two years are no longer reflected in the statistics, according to a poll released on Wednesday. The median forecast of 15 analysts polled by Reuters was for annual urban consumer inflation to have plunged to 14.5% from 24.0% in January. The data was collected from Feb. 27 to March 5. "February is the month where the annual base effect will finally fade away, resulting in a major drop in headline annual inflation," said Mohamed Abu Basha, of EFG Hermes, who predicted inflation would fall to 13.7%. "We do, though, expect an elevated monthly reading due to seasonality associated with Ramadan." Esraa Ahmed of Pharos said the monthly price increase had been exceptionally high in February of last year. Inflation had been trending downwards since it surged to an all-time peak of 38% in September 2023. Price rises have been fuelled in part by rapid growth in the money supply. M2 money supply rose by an all-time high of 32.1% in the year to end-January, central bank data showed. The economy was boosted by a $24 billion real estate investment on the Mediterranean coast by Abu Dhabi in February 2024 and a subsequent $8 billion financial support package signed with the International Monetary Fund signed on March 6, 2024. The government statistics agency CAPMAS is due to release inflation figures on Monday morning. Six of the analysts predicted that core inflation would decrease to 15.4% in February from 22.6% in January.
