Algeria's Imane Khelif, one of two boxers participating in the Paris Olympics disqualified last year from the 2023 Women's Boxing World Championships for failing gender eligibility tests, crushed yet another female competitor over the weekend. After the beating, Khelif assumed the mantle of victim.
Criticism has mounted in recent days over the recently reinforced allegations that Khelif, like Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, is an individual possessing male sex chromosomes thrashing his way through a women's sporting competition.
International outrage reached fever pitch when Khelif hammered Italy's Angela Carini hard enough Thursday to prompt the 25-year-old Italian to abandon the fight after 46 seconds.
'Refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects.'
The Hungarian Boxing Association reportedly sent letters of protest to the International Olympic Committee and to Hungary's Olympic committee ahead of Khelif's Saturday match in the women's 66 kg welterweight quarterfinal with Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori.
The Hungarians evidently failed to sway the relevant authorities, as Khelif ultimately entered the ring with Hamori and beat her 5-0. Khelif is now guaranteed to take home a medal and will now fight Thailand's Janjaem Suwannapheng in the semifinals.
After beating the female Hungarian boxer, Khelif fought to reshape the narrative surrounding the Olympics gender controversy.
According to the Associated Press, Khelif said in an Arabic interview, "I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects."
"It can destroy people, it can kill people's thoughts, spirit, and mind," continued Khelif. "It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying."
Khelif also thanked the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, stating, "I know that the Olympic Committee has done me justice, and I am happy with this remedy because it shows the truth."
At a press conference Saturday, Bach defended Khelif and Yu-ting, saying, "We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman."
"We will not take part in a sometimes politically motivated cultural war," said Bach.
In addition to suggesting that criticism of the allegedly male boxers amounted to "hate speech," Bach alleged that the International Boxing Association, which expelled Khelif and Yu-ting last year and was itself banished by the IOC over a long-standing dispute, was waging a "defamation campaign against France, against the games, against the IOC."
'They are impostors promoting gender parity while deliberately deceiving the public and athletes about the true sex of competitors.'
Reuters indicated that Khelif's coach, Mohamed Chaoua, similarly attempted to paint his fighter as a victim.
"It is hard, she has suffered a lot — as a child and now as a champion, she has suffered so much during these games," said Chaoua. "Where is the humanity? Where are the associations for women's rights? She is a victim."
Associations for women's rights are speaking up, but not expressing the sentiment Chaoua likely wants to hear.
Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women's Sports, recently told the feminist publication Reduxx, "The cover-up and championing of male athletes in women's Olympic sports is the greatest sports scandal of our lifetime."
"The IOC MUST reinstate sex verification testing TODAY to begin to prove their commitment to the rights of female athletes," continued Smith. "They are impostors promoting gender parity while deliberately deceiving the public and athletes about the true sex of competitors in the world's most elite and dangerous competition."
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A 16-year-old boy was savagely murdered at a French village's annual winter ball earlier this month. According to witnesses, the gang of young men responsible for the boy's death and the corresponding rampage on Nov. 18 made clear they were out to "stab white people."
In the days since, tensions in the European nation have begun to boil over, prompting the French regime to clamp down on so-called "far-right" groups and to urge citizens not to take the law into their own hands.
Olivier Véran, a socialist spokesman for the French government, stressed Tuesday, "We are lucid. There is a violent minority, which sows terror. But there is no justification for taking the law into your own hands. It is up to the rule of law to provide answers."
The demands for order issued by Véran and other officials are in response to alleged threats of vigilantism and protests loud with chants including, "Justice for Thomas," "Islam out of Europe," "Immigration kills," and "French, wake up, this is your home."
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Véran has acknowledged that Thomas' murder may amount to a "tipping point for French society," reported the Telegraph.
Given the French government's trouble containing Algerian race riots in July, which almost did as much damage to France as the BLM riots dealt to the United States throughout 2020, it's unclear what success the government will have in halting the pendulum on its return.
The French village of Crépol in the southwestern Drôme region had a winter ball on Nov. 18. Roughly 300 out of the village's 532 residents were in attendance. A gang of of approximately ten young men — reportedly from the epicenter of July's Algerian race riots — descended on the village dance, attacking 17 individuals in attendance between the ages of 16 and 65.
On their way in, the group of thugs stabbed a guard, slicing through his fingers.
According to France24, the attackers ultimately murdered a 16-year-old high school student named Thomas. A witness named Hugo indicated that Thomas was stabbed in the heart and throat.
One of Thomas' friends told Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper that he heard a commotion outside where Thomas, a beloved rugby player who wasn't "the type to dance," had gone out for a smoke. Thomas' friend quickly went outside to investigate.
"I was stabbed in the shoulder and in the back," said the unnamed teen. "I saw my friend Thomas being stabbed. ... I saw another friend of mine get stuck in the back, I compressed his wound to make a tourniquet; he was hit in the kidney. It was horrific."
The teen recalled the attackers saying, "'We're here to stab white people.'"
According to prosecutors, eight other witnesses reported hearing the attackers signal anti-white hatred during their rampage.
The Telegraph reported that one witness told the French press, "There was a fight between the assailants and those who were brave enough to face them."
A young woman in attendance told Le Dauphiné Libéré, "I heard people say, 'It's crashing! It's crashing! They've got knives, leave!' ... There was blood everywhere. It was horrible, it wasn't something to experience at 16."
"It was a bloodbath," said another witness. "Youths from the suburbs surrounded the party hall, blindly stabbing people. ... One youth received a heart massage on the floor. It was chaos."
In addition to murdering Thomas, the outsiders injured eight revelers, two seriously. One of the two victims left in critical condition was stabbed several times in the throat.
Martine Lagut, the mayor, stressed that the "gang turned up to kill."
"They didn't come to have fun but to harm," added the mayor.
Police spokeswoman Marie-Laure Pezan indicated the violence "was quite incredible for a village of 500 people."
Josette Place, a pensioner and member of Crépol's events committee, told the French press, "This wasn't a fight, it was an attack."
Government spokesman Véran said, "Thomas was 16 years old. He loved rugby, his family, his friends, whose pain and anger I share. He is a victim of the savagery that fell in Crépol. Suspects have been arrested. Justice will punish. Answers will be provided. We owe them."
Alex Vignon, the coach of Thomas' rugby team, said, "He was an endearing boy who had values that we instill in rugby."
The victim's rugby club, RC Romans-Péage, indicated they were visited by "barbarity and tragedy" and noted that the sport seemed trivial in the wake of Thomas' murder.
Days after the attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin revealed to French parliamentarians that police had arrested seven people believed to have had a hand in "this odious crime." A total of nine suspects are now in custody.
Three of the suspects are minors. The others are between ages 19 and 22.
France24 reported that the suspected killer was arrested near the city of Toulouse, some 250 miles away, during raids conducted by the country's elite GIGN unit.
Darmanin made clear, "People came from elsewhere, wanted to force their way into this party and stabbings started. It's called savagery," reported the Telegraph.
The interior minister added, "It is a general failure of our society. There is a need to rethink the framework of authority."
Despite the efforts of law enforcement to capture those responsible, protesters have taken to the streets demanding "justice for Thomas."
Over the weekend, around two dozen protesters were reportedly arrested, six of whom were fast-tracked through court proceedings and sentenced to several months in jail.
Fearing a "mobilisation within the exreme right ... would have us tip into civil war," Darmanin indicated the government is looking at clamping down on groups perceived to be far right and potentially even arresting their members, reported the Local.
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The race riots that kicked off in France last Tuesday following a police-involved shooting of a motorist of Algerian descent have proven ruinous for the national successor of the Fourth French Republic, which coincidentally collapsed in 1958 following a conflict with Algerians.
Thousands of buildings have been torched and thousands more have been looted. Historical sites have been razed and memorials desecrated.
The cost of the damage so far is reportedly closing in on that dealt to the United States by the 2020 BLM riots.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFMTV that rioters ravaged nearly 400 bank branches and 500 corner shops. As of Wednesday, the total number of looted stores was at least 1,000.
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Geoffrey Roux de Bézieux, the head of France’s largest employer federation, the Movement of the Enterprises of France, told Le Parisien that the rioters' modus operandi was "absolute violence. Everything was stolen, even from the cash registers, before setting fire to destroy."
Bézieux estimated the damage inflicted on the nation by the race rioters now exceeds €1 billion or $1.1 billion. This estimate does not reflect the financial impact on tourism.
"Videos of the riots, which have circulated around the world, degrade the image of the France. It's always hard to know if the impact will be lasting, but there will certainly be a drop in bookings this summer when the season was promising. Trips have already been canceled," said Bézieux.
By July 3, over 5,662 vehicles had been torched and over 1,000 buildings damaged, reported Le Parisien.
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TheBlaze previously reported that buildings that survived the worst of World War II have been reduced to rubble and cinders in recent days. One of the country's biggest libraries, which contained a wealth of cultural artifacts, including but not limited to millions of books, was similarly burned to the ground.
254 attacks were waged on law enforcement facilities, leaving 722 police personnel with injuries.
The worst of the violence and pillaging took place late on Thursday and Friday nights.
In the first six nights of the riots, police made 3,354 arrests throughout the country, including 1,282 in Paris.
The death of Nahel Merbouz, shot by police after reportedly ignoring their demands to stop his vehicle after driving recklessly, resembles in consequence another police-involved fatality that was seized upon in the West for its perceived racial significance.
In September 2020, Axios reported that the BLM riots inside the U.S. incurred $1 billion in damage and was the "most expensive in insurance history."
Fox Business indicated that this estimate was the result of figures originally sourced by the Insurance Information Institute from Property Claim Services, which tracks insurance claims related to civil disorder, and accounted only for damage from unrest incurred between May 26 and June 8, 2020.
Other estimates put the cost closer to $2 billion.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association revealed that of the 8,700 BLM-related events between May 25 and Jul 31 in MCCA member cities, 574 were declared riots.
One police officer was killed and 2,037 officers were assaulted or injured. At least 97 police cars were torched and another 300 were damaged.
RealClear Investigations reported that between 6 and 20 persons were killed in the riots.
16,241 arrests were made, and 2,385 incidents of looting and 624 arson incidents were reported inside that time period.
According to Newsweek, over 1,500 businesses were damaged in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, alone during the riots. Many businesses never recovered.
Other major cities across the country, including Chicago and New York City, similarly witnessed pillaging during the demonstrations.
Although the BLM riots may have been more costly than the recent rash of European violence, the French rioters are terrorizing above their weight class, per capita. After all, France is a significantly smaller nation with population only 20% the size of America's.
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