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BBC News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Leeds: 'Otley Run attack shows misogynistic violence is growing'
Before two women were shot with a crossbow in Headingley two weeks ago, Owen Lawrence – the suspected attacker – posted a hate-filled online "manifesto" on detailed plans for "The Otley Run Massacre" and listed "students, nightclub goers", "neurotypicals" and "police" among his post described the planned violence as "terrorism, revenge and misogynistic rage".In the two weeks since the attack, residents, police, politicians and experts have been discussing how future incidents of this nature can be this week, mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin called for tougher laws around crossbows, and Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel said he supported more security around the Otley Run pub what about the ideology behind Lawrence's manifesto? 'It could have happened anywhere' Dr Anna Kruglova, a lecturer in terrorism studies from the University of Salford, says we need to be concerned about a rise in "misogynistic violence"."We should be mindful of this phenomenon being again on the rise," she says."It is a random attack in the sense that it can happen anywhere. You have disenfranchised, upset and hateful people. So unfortunately it could have happened in any corner of the UK or elsewhere."But it's hard to estimate the level of threat. It's not an organised phenomenon. It's a lone-wolf attack. It's not something that is inspired by a particular organisation."Dr Kruglova studies the "manosphere", a term used to describe online communities that promote anti-feminism, misogyny and hateful ideas about women, trans and non-binary says: "The manosphere is not an organised movement. That's kind of a loose group of people who are hating women and some of them, not all of them, will be willing to take this further and become violent."There's been a growing body of research and interest from all kinds of communities, practitioners and governments looking into this."So it does seem like gender-based violence, misogynistic violence is growing, or has become more and more concerning in the last few years." Psychologist Leona Deakin started her career with West Yorkshire Police. She says it is easy to think these ideas are "silly" until they become violent reality."If we're not in a community, or close to a community and their beliefs, then it's easy to think it's a small group of people being a bit silly until something like this happens. Then that makes us all take a closer look," she says."There is a community out there for men who feel they are isolated or rejected by society and more immediately by women and girls."Some of these men call themselves "incels", which stands for "involuntarily celibate".Ms Deakin explains why this ideology can be attractive."There is a theory in that community that 80% of women are only attracted to about 20% of men, and those men are highly attractive and usually very wealthy."So if you're a young man who sees himself as not so attractive, and doesn't have much money or the capacity to earn much money, then you start to feel quite aggrieved."And social media is like an echo chamber, so you find one person who agrees with your sense of isolation and frustration, and then you find a dozen of them and then hundreds of them and that has a huge validation impact on the human brain."We start to think we must be right because everyone I'm talking to online agrees with me, so this must be correct." A government report by the Commission for Countering Extremism, "Predicting harm among incels (involuntary celibates)", concluded that men who fell into these groups were in need of mental health support more than counter terrorism report studied 561 men and concluded that there was likely to be tens of thousands of incels across the found these men made up a "relatively small proportion" of the number of cases referred to the anti-terrorist government organisation Prevent (77 in total, or 1.2% of all referrals). Dr Kruglova says incels are not violent generally but suffer from mental health issues and very low self-esteem."It's more of a psychological and personal problem," she says."A lot of these people don't need to be referred to Prevent [government anti-terrorism organisation] or be interviewed by police forces, they need someone to share their concerns and pain and problems and be listened to and probably be shown the situation is not as dire as they see it."But then unfortunately there is also someone who is willing to take it further and use violence as a way to address their issues." Are our young boys 'robust'? Ms Deakin says the solution, therefore, is not about security but society."We need better role models of what a good man looks like," she says."So, a kind, compassionate, emotional man, to counter these ideas that men have to be attractive, strong, in control, wealthy, all of those stereotypical ideals."The family and schools are key places because young, teenage boys, 15/16 is where we need to start the process of avoiding falling down this rabbit hole."Role modelling from dads, uncles, big brothers talking about their emotions. Talking about what makes a good relationship, that it is about partnership and love and respect."But we need to make sure young boys are robust in the face of disappointment."Do your boys understand how to bounce back from disappointment? Do they understand resilience? Do they feel a deep sense of self-worth, do they feel loved for who they are?" Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Sun
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
TikTok dodges UK ban fter ministers blocked move to stop British data being sent to China
TIKTOK has dodged a potential UK ban after ministers blocked a cross-party move to stop British data being sent to China. The proposal would have seen tech firms banned from sending UK user data to countries with no legal protections - including authoritarian states where the government can access it without warning. 2 2 Campaigners warned it would have forced TikTok to either overhaul how it handles British data or quit the UK altogether. Labour MP Alex Sobel, who tabled the amendment to the Data Bill, said firms are exploiting loopholes that let them claim data is safe - even when it's handed to regimes with sweeping surveillance powers. Speaking in the Commons, he pointed to a €530 million fine TikTok received from Irish regulators for mishandling user data, including transfers to China. Ex-Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith also backed the plan, saying: "British governments have been very slack about protecting data being used by foreign powers which have no regard for people's human rights, such as China." Campaigner Luke de Pulford, founder and executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, added: "Parents need to understand that the Chinese Communist Party has access to their kids' most intimate details. "The preferences, anxieties, obsessions of our children should not be in the hands of our biggest security threat: Beijing." Despite those concerns, a Science and Technology spokesperson rejected the amendment, arguing existing protections are sufficient. They said: "The UK has one of the most robust data protection regimes in the world, with all organisations required to comply with our legislation to safeguard UK personal data when transferring it overseas."
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Counter-terrorism police examine Facebook ‘massacre' posts after Leeds attack
Facebook posts appearing to contain plans for a 'massacre' are being examined by counter-terrorism police investigating an attack in which two women were seriously injured in Leeds. A man, 38, who suffered a 'self-inflicted injury' was arrested and two weapons – a crossbow and a firearm – were recovered from the scene, on the popular Otley Run pub crawl route in the north of the city. He was described on Sunday as a 'key suspect' by police who said that he remained in hospital in a critical condition. One of the two women – who are aged 19 and 31 – has been discharged from hospital, but the other underwent surgery after suffering life-threatening injuries and is in a stable condition. Police also said they were aware of video being circulated on social media, a reference to footage which appeared to have been taken from a passing car and shows a black-clad man carrying an implement and with a carry case slung over his shoulder. The head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, said officers were working at pace to establish the full facts and circumstances of Saturday's incident, but he added: 'We are not currently seeking anyone else in connection with this matter, which has caused understandable concern. We believe it was an isolated incident.' Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, said he had spoken to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, on Sunday afternoon and would remain in touch with her as well as the security minister, Dan Jarvis, regarding aspects of the incident. 'I want to thank local people and the blue light services in how they responded to this and the fact that the area has now been cleared and is no longer a live crime scene,' he said. 'The broader implications of an attack in which lethal weapons were found in a very busy area where the country's most populous pub crawl takes place is a real concern,' he added. Sobel said he would be raising the issue of the availability of weapons linked to the incident, and how to keep people safe when they are standing in large groups and queueing. Counter-terror police are examining a number of Facebook posts – including one which appeared to include plans for a 'mass-murder' attack – to determine if they are linked to the attacker or the incident. The post appeared before the attack on a Facebook account that indicated far-right sympathies as well as reflecting the 'mixed ideology' that has increasingly been on the radar of counter-terrorism police. The posts listed as 'targets' students, nightclub goers and 'neurotypicals'. Reference was made to a 'manifesto' written by a man who killed 51 people during shootings at a mosque and Islamic centre in New Zealand in 2019. Facebook's parent company, Meta, told the Guardian that it had taken action to remove an account apparently associated with the incident. The home secretary received further updates on Sunday from counter-terrorism police after she was first briefed in the wake of the attack. The incident caused shock across the community in the Headingley area of Leeds over the weekend, where large numbers of students and others routinely take part in the pub crawl route, days before the summer term starts for many university courses. One venue, Taylor's Sports Bar and Grill, remained closed all weekend due to the police investigation but posted on Facebook that it intended to reopen on Monday, 'While appalling to witness some of the scenes first-hand, lowlife scum like this will never win in our society,' the statement added. A member of staff at another bar told the Guardian they had seen dozens of emergency service vehicles descend on the area on Saturday afternoon after the attack, although it took hours for people to become fully aware of what had happened. 'We were told and were on high alert, but otherwise you wouldn't have known. It wasn't until the evening that people started asking about it,' they said. 'I think people have been really shaken by it.' A fortnight ago, the Guardian revealed that counter-terrorism police and the National Crime Agency had set up a new joint taskforce to tackle young males fixated with violence online which is often also fuelled by 'strongly misogynistic' online material.
The Guardian
27-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Counter-terrorism police examine Facebook ‘massacre' posts after Leeds attack
Facebook posts appearing to contain plans for a 'massacre' are being examined by counter-terrorism police investigating an attack in which two women were seriously injured in Leeds. A man, 38, who suffered a 'self-inflicted injury' was arrested and two weapons – a crossbow and a firearm – were recovered from the scene, on the popular Otley Run pub crawl route in the north of the city. He was described on Sunday as a 'key suspect' by police who said that he remained in hospital in a critical condition. One of the two women – who are aged 19 and 31 – has been discharged from hospital, but the other underwent surgery after suffering life-threatening injuries and is in a stable condition. Police also said they were aware of video being circulated on social media, a reference to footage which appeared to have been taken from a passing car and shows a black-clad man carrying an implement and with a carry case slung over his shoulder. The head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, said officers were working at pace to establish the full facts and circumstances of Saturday's incident, but he added: 'We are not currently seeking anyone else in connection with this matter, which has caused understandable concern. We believe it was an isolated incident.' Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley, said he had spoken to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, on Sunday afternoon and would remain in touch with her as well as the security minister, Dan Jarvis, regarding aspects of the incident. 'I want to thank local people and the blue light services in how they responded to this and the fact that the area has now been cleared and is no longer a live crime scene,' he said. 'The broader implications of an attack in which lethal weapons were found in a very busy area where the country's most populous pub crawl takes place is a real concern,' he added. Sobel said he would be raising the issue of the availability of weapons linked to the incident, and how to keep people safe when they are standing in large groups and queueing. Counter-terror police are examining a number of Facebook posts – including one which appeared to include plans for a 'mass-murder' attack – to determine if they are linked to the attacker or the incident. The post appeared before the attack on a Facebook account that indicated far-right sympathies as well as reflecting the 'mixed ideology' that has increasingly been on the radar of counter-terrorism police. The posts listed as 'targets' students, nightclub goers and 'neurotypicals'. Reference was made to a 'manifesto' written by a man who killed 51 people during shootings at a mosque and Islamic centre in New Zealand in 2019. Facebook's parent company, Meta, told the Guardian that it had taken action to remove an account apparently associated with the incident. The home secretary received further updates on Sunday from counter-terrorism police after she was first briefed in the wake of the attack. The incident caused shock across the community in the Headingley area of Leeds over the weekend, where large numbers of students and others routinely take part in the pub crawl route, days before the summer term starts for many university courses. One venue, Taylor's Sports Bar and Grill, remained closed all weekend due to the police investigation but posted on Facebook that it intended to reopen on Monday, 'While appalling to witness some of the scenes first-hand, lowlife scum like this will never win in our society,' the statement added. A member of staff at another bar told the Guardian they had seen dozens of emergency service vehicles descend on the area on Saturday afternoon after the attack, although it took hours for people to become fully aware of what had happened. 'We were told and were on high alert, but otherwise you wouldn't have known. It wasn't until the evening that people started asking about it,' they said. 'I think people have been really shaken by it.' A fortnight ago, the Guardian revealed that counter-terrorism police and the National Crime Agency had set up a new joint taskforce to tackle young males fixated with violence online which is often also fuelled by 'strongly misogynistic' online material.
Telegraph
25-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour MPs block ban on Chinese solar panels ‘made by slaves'
Ministers said they would take steps to ensure more stringent procurement rules, such as appointing a senior figure within GB Energy (GBE) to lead on examining 'ethical supply chains and modern slavery'. They also said that companies would have to demonstrate that they had undertaken their own assessment of their supply chains, but stopped short of supporting the Lords' ban. Critics, including on the Labour benches, said that the Government should look to mirror laws in the US, where it is presumed that goods produced in Xinjiang are made with forced labour unless otherwise proven and are subject to an import ban. The amendment was voted down by 314 votes to 198. It had proposed that public money 'must not be provided if there exists credible evidence of modern slavery in the energy supply chain of any company designated Great British Energy'. No Labour MPs defied the Government by voting for the amendment, but several abstained, including prominent backbench critics such as Rachael Maskell and Alex Sobel, a member of the parliamentary joint committee on human rights. Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, told the Commons: 'It was on this day in 1807 that the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act received royal assent, on this day. 'And 218 years on, Labour MPs are going to be whipped to allow the state to directly fund imports of goods built by slave labour in China.' 'A ridiculous position' He added that the amendment would have sought 'to protect some of the most oppressed people in the world' and 'to ensure that our net zero objectives, whatever your view on them, won't be built on the back of slave labour, on the backs of the Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang and elsewhere'. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who is sanctioned by China, told the Commons: 'Many in this House will not stop until the Government faces up to one thing and one thing only: not one life through modern slavery is worth a lower cost of a solar panel. 'And that should be an epitaph of this ridiculous position the Government is in.' Michael Shanks, an energy minister, told the Commons: 'I want this House to be in no doubt that this government is absolutely committed to confronting and tackling modern slavery in energy supply chains.' He added: 'We do expect Great British Energy to take a leading role in ensuring that any companies in which it invests can demonstrate their own assessment of their own supply chains for exposure to forced labour. 'I can assure the house that with these tools, GBE will tackle modern slavery head-on and where there is credible evidence that of involvement anywhere in the supply chains, GBE will not only make sure that it does everything within its power to combat the scourge of modern slavery but also pull up the standards expected for the wider UK energy sector in the process.' A £200 million investment by the Government-funded budget for GBE announced on Friday, will place solar panels on school roofs and on NHS hospitals to try and save money on energy bills. A minister insisted that there would be no material in government-purchased solar panels made by slaves. 'We need to see action' Matthew Pennycook, a housing minister, when asked if he could guarantee materials would not have been 'provided by slaves in China ', told Times Radio: 'Absolutely.' He said: 'I understand the concern that people have out there about the use of the Uyghur region. What I'm saying I suppose is we need to see action across the whole of the energy industry and that's why we're working across government to tackle the issue of forced labour in supply chains.' A 2023 report from the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University said: 'In 2020, China produced 75pc of the global supply of solar-grade polysilicon, with manufacturers in the Uyghur region accounting for over 45pc of the total global production. 'There is overwhelming evidence that major producers and manufacturers have actively recruited and employed 'transferred surplus [slave] labour' from rural villages.' In December, The Telegraph reported that tomato and pepper products sold in British supermarkets were secretly produced using forced labour in China, an investigation has found.
