Spy-powers law gets a six-week reprieve

Published

2 months ago

May 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Lawmakers now have until June 12 to hash out a long-term extension of the Section 702 surveillance program…
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The Muslim manosphere and Achraf Hakimi

Published

1 minute ago

July 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The World Cup quarter-final against France folds every saga about Moroccan defender and captain Achraf Hakimi into a single frame.

France is the team that ended Morocco’s historic 2022 run, the country where Hakimi became a global star at Paris Saint-Germain — and the legal system now charging him with rape over a 2023 allegation.

Hakimi denies any wrongdoing. But if convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison. A quarter-final loss Thursday would raise the possibility that this becomes Hakimi’s last World Cup game and that Moroccan football loses one of its clearest throughlines from its 2022 breakthrough as a global football power to its role as a 2030 World Cup co-host.

A global vessel for Arab, African and Muslim pride in the last World Cup in Qatar, Hakimi soon emerged as a different kind of icon elsewhere: In 2023, amid his divorce in Spain, online manosphere circles obsessively embraced an unverified rumor that he shielded assets from his wife by placing them in his mother’s name. Lauded by figures including controversial online influencer Andrew Tate, Hakimi was cast as a masculine legend imagined to have outsmarted a woman in a rigged gendered battle. This lore has been resurfacing the past three weeks, since a French court ruled Hakimi would stand trial for the rape charge.

While Hakimi’s exploits clash for some fans, they are congruent enough for others. Within Muslim manosphere circles, there is no contradiction between Hakimi the superstar and Hakimi the defendant.

Western manosphere ideologies frame men as individuals dispossessed by the state and by women who have gained too much power, with divorce law, false allegations, dating culture and economic independence among major fixations.

In specific Muslim contexts, manosphere beliefs echo similar gripes but center them around a restored family unit and the sharper absolutism that gender roles have strayed from divinely sanctioned hierarchy. More than a simple misogyny flanked by cherry-picked Quranic verses, it is a politics of anti-liberal gender views, minority resentment and secular distrust.

French courts strike a particular nerve: State secularism promises neutrality toward religion, but many deem that neutrality a guise to police Muslim communities and their racial minorities. Hakimi will be adjudicated in what some defenders consider an inherently hostile judicial order — one shaped by modern Western feminism and refracted through older tropes of the “dangerous Muslim man” in Europe, where biases pull on centuries of migration, empire and civilizational suspicion.

The cultural politics of Hakimi’s case extend beyond the star athlete. Patriarchal interpretations of Islam can mobilize new support for right-wing parties in Western democracies, even amid otherwise exclusionary stances. And Muslim women are left with a pointed dilemma: Naming gender violence within their communities can be read as feeding anti-Muslim sentiment, while not naming it feeds the silence that insulates perpetrators.

That tension between gender and religion, defense and accountability, surrounds the Hakimi case during this unresolved period. The verdict isn’t likely to lead to a resolution that satisfies all — acquittal will look to many as if his status protected him, and conviction will suggest to others that no status would ever be enough to earn fair treatment.

Politics

Mbappé-Paraguay racism row rumbles on

Published

31 minutes ago

July 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Remarks by Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla shocked France — and much of the world — earlier this week after she branded Kylian Mbappé a “brute,” mocked his intelligence and questioned his French identity.

Days later, the fallout has spiraled from international condemnation to criminal investigations and extraordinary South American threats to extradite the France captain.

Amarilla’s comments landed against an already charged backdrop after France’s World Cup tense knockout victory over Paraguay. Hours after the match, revelers at Paraguay’s annual San Juan Ara festival burned an effigy labeled “Kylian Mbappé.” But once the senator’s remarks sparked international outrage, Paraguay’s government moved to distance itself Monday, calling them “contrary to the values and principles” of the country and insisting they reflected neither the government’s views nor those of the Paraguayan people.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in an Instagram story on the same day that he “unequivocally condemned” the abuse, adding: “All of football and society stand in solidarity with the France captain — we need to fight racism and defeat it all together.”

France hit back just as forcefully. Mbappé accused Amarilla of being a “despicable woman” unworthy of office, while the French Football Federation announced it would take the case up with prosecutors. By Tuesday, French prosecutors had opened an investigation into alleged racist abuse following the complaint from the FFF, citing an offense punishable by up to one year in prison and a €45,000 fine.

French President Emmanuel Macron weighed in on X the same day: “Another goal for Kylian Mbappé. Against racism this time.”

Amarilla, meanwhile, responded with a lengthy open letter on Tuesday in French and Spanish after deleting some of her original posts. While saying she regretted insulting Mbappé “with the same insults” she had herself endured as a mixed-race woman, she spent much of the letter demanding that the France captain apologize to her, accusing him of insulting her and threatening legal action if he refused.

Hours later, speaking to reporters, she struck a different tone acknowledging that her posts “were racist” and “unfortunate.” But she again stopped short of apologizing. “I’m trying to build a different Celeste Amarilla,” she said, blaming the attitudes she grew up with. “Have patience. I’m trying.”

The condemnation only widened. Paraguay’s Senate on Wednesday formally rejected Amarilla’s remarks, saying they did not represent the chamber. The U.N. human rights office warned that “language that dehumanizes people because of their race or ethnic origin has no place in sport or public discourse,” while World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the episode “a disgrace,” adding that “racism is not a joke, a personality trait, or an excuse rooted in ‘where I come from.’”

The saga may not be over just yet. Speaking to ABC Cardinal on Tuesday, Amarilla said she was considering suing Mbappé, arguing that his response constituted “gender violence” and “political violence.”

The following day, her lawyer, Guillermo Duarte Cacavelos, told the broadcaster they would meet to discuss the case and that no decision had yet been made. But he also laid out an expansive legal argument, claiming Mbappé’s description of Amarilla as a “despicable woman” could amount to criminal defamation in Paraguay because the comments had legal effects there — and suggesting the France captain could ultimately even face extradition to stand trial.

Politics

The great France-Morocco reconciliation faces a World Cup test

Published

46 minutes ago

July 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The newfound harmony between France and Morocco will be tested Thursday night when the two nations clash in the World Cup quarterfinals in Boston.

Relations between Paris and Rabat have rarely been warmer, after President Emmanuel Macron recognized Morocco’s disputed sovereignty plan for Western Sahara in 2024. During a state visit to Rabat that year, Macron hailed a deep connection between the two countries “that stretches back to time immemorial.”

But the propensity of French police to crack down on exuberant football fans, along with recurring violent incidents after big matches involving French teams, and the scorching summer weather baking France all add up to a potential tinderbox across the country.

Due to France’s large Moroccan community — which numbers at least 1.7 million people, according to 2019 data — and the country’s recent difficulties managing post-match celebrations, authorities have put some security precautions in place. The Paris police department has banned flares and fireworks on the night of the match, warning that “numerous incidents of violence occur regularly during the final stages of major soccer tournaments.”

In May, 20,000 people took to the streets to celebrate Paris Saint-Germain’s second straight UEFA Champions League title, leading to unrest and clashes between supporters and police. Far-right chief Jordan Bardella seized on the violence to blame France’s population of immigrant descent.

Asked whether Thursday night’s game carried any particular security risk, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez replied “like any match” during an interview this week on French public television.

Nuñez said police would be “extremely vigilant during the celebrations” regardless of the result but would not automatically move to disperse public gatherings. He added that the same approach had been used for France’s previous matches, while noting that fixtures generally become higher risk as tournaments reach their final stages.

French outlet Le Parisien reported Wednesday evening that in private authorities had compiled a document that noted: “This match presents an increased risk due to its knockout nature and the stakes of qualifying for the semi-finals.”

France and Morocco have shared unusually close ties for decades, shaped by Morocco’s status as a French protectorate from 1912 until its independence in 1956. France remains one of Morocco’s largest trading partners, while security and intelligence cooperation has long been a cornerstone of the relationship — even if political disputes have periodically strained it.

In 2021, media investigations alleged that Moroccan authorities had used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to target phones belonging to Macron and other French officials. Ties remained frosty after a devastating earthquake struck Morocco in 2023, when Rabat declined France’s offer of aid.

Macron’s Western Sahara gambit in 2024, which aligned France with Spain, the U.S. and dozens of other countries around the world, helped to quell the tensions between the two countries — an important matter for France, which seeks Morocco’s cooperation on topics ranging from trade to migration. Western Sahara is mostly controlled by Morocco, but Rabat’s sovereignty over the territory is not internationally recognized.

The connection between France and Morocco runs all the way to the pitch: France captain Kylian Mbappé and Morocco skipper Achraf Hakimi — former teammates at Paris Saint-Germain — are close friends off the field.

Previous France-Morocco encounters, including in the 2022 World Cup semifinals, led to some arrests but no major public unrest. Morocco’s big games in other competitions, like the African Cup of Nations, have also largely passed off without trouble in France.

A law enforcement official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said any concerns were more likely to center on possible tensions between Morocco supporters and members of the French-Algerian community, given the diplomatic angst between the North African neighbors.

A center-left parliamentarian, who also spoke to Blue Light News on the condition of anonymity, said they would expect France’s powerful far right — which is leading the race for the French presidency in 2027 — to try to score political points off any unrest that occurs, as they did after the Champions League final. “Morocco, Algeria or any other African country, I don’t think they care about the distinctions,” the lawmaker said.

But what is perhaps most striking about the Paris-Rabat reconciliation is that even the anti-immigrant far right is on board. The French-Moroccan friendship committee in parliament is chaired by Hélène Laporte, a senior member of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s National Rally.

Laporte has said “the relationship between France and Morocco is strong and enduring,” describing it as built on “deep human bonds and a sincere friendship.”