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Chipotle Mexican Grill is hoping that Americans’ love for ranch will boost its sales.

On June 17, the burrito chain is launching Adobo Ranch, a spicier take on the iconic condiment that has transcended salads to adorn pizza, chicken wings and chips. The menu item is Chipotle’s first new dip since queso blanco, which launched in 2020.

The debut comes as Chipotle tries to recover from a rough start to the year. In the first quarter, the company reported its first same-store sales decline since 2020. Executives cited a pullback from consumers who had become more concerned about the economy.

The company also lowered the top end of its outlook for full-year same-store sales growth and said traffic wouldn’t grow until the second half of the year.

Shares of Chipotle have fallen 12% this year, dragging its market cap down to $71 billion.

But Adobo Ranch could help to boost the company’s sales if it draws cautious diners back to the chain’s restaurants.

The dipping sauce is made with adobo peppers, sour cream and herbs and spices, according to the company. Adding Adobo Ranch to an order will cost an extra 75 cents.

Ranch outsells ketchup, although NIQ retail sales data shows that mayo still holds the top spot as the favorite condiment of U.S. consumers.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Walmart’s majority-owned fintech startup OnePay said Monday it was launching a pair of credit cards with a bank partner for customers of the world’s biggest retailer.

OnePay is partnering with Synchrony, a major behind-the-scenes player in retail cards, which will issue the cards and handle underwriting decisions starting in the fall, the companies said.

OnePay, which was created by Walmart in 2021 with venture firm Ribbit Capital, will handle the customer experience for the card program through its mobile app.

Walmart had leaned on Capital One as the exclusive provider of its credit cards since 2018, but sued the bank in 2023 so that it could exit the relationship years ahead of schedule. At the time, Capital One accused Walmart of seeking to end its partnership so that it could move transactions to OnePay.

The Walmart card program had 10 million customers and roughly $8.5 billion in loans outstanding last year, when the partnership with Capital One ended, according to Fitch Ratings.

For Walmart and its fintech firm, the arrangement shows that, in seeking to quickly scale up in financial services, OnePay is opting to partner with established players rather than going it alone.

In March, OnePay announced that it was tapping Swedish fintech firm Klarna to handle buy now, pay later loans at the retailer, even after testing its own installment loan program.

In its quest to become a one-stop shop for Americans underserved by traditional banks, OnePay has methodically built out its offerings, which now include debit cards, high-yield savings accounts and a digital wallet with peer-to-peer payments.

OnePay is rolling out two options: a general purpose credit card that can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted and a store card that will only allow Walmart purchases.

Customers whose credit profiles don’t allow them to qualify for the general purpose card will be offered the store card, according to a person with knowledge of the program.

OnePay hasn’t yet disclosed the rewards expected for making purchases with the cards. The Synchrony partnership was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

“Our goal with this credit card program is to deliver an experience for consumers that’s transparent, rewarding, and easy to use,” OnePay CEO Omer Ismail said in the Monday release.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Synchrony to launch a program at Walmart that checks each of those boxes and will help serve millions of people,” Ismail said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

Sector Rotation: A Week of Stability Amidst Market Dynamics

Last week presented an intriguing scenario in our sector rotation portfolio.

For the first time in recent memory, we witnessed complete stability across all sector positions — no changes whatsoever in the rankings.

  1. (1) Industrials – (XLI)
  2. (2) Utilities – (XLU)
  3. (3) Consumer Staples – (XLP)
  4. (4) Communication Services – (XLC)
  5. (5) Financials – (XLF)
  6. (6) Technology – (XLK)
  7. (7) Real-Estate – (XLRE)
  8. (8) Materials – (XLB)
  9. (9) Consumer Discretionary – (XLY)
  10. (10) Healthcare – (XLV)
  11. (11) Energy – (XLE)

Weekly RRG: Steady as She Goes

The weekly Relative Rotation Graph (RRG) continues to paint a picture of gradual shifts. Utilities and Consumer Staples, while still occupying high RS ratio levels, are moving lower on the chart. Utilities clings to the leading quadrant, but Consumer Staples has just crossed into weakening territory.

Financials and Communication Services remain in the weakening quadrant, but their RS momentum levels have stabilized. Communication Services shows a slight uptick, while Financials maintains a negative heading — albeit well above the 100 mark.

Industrials, our current star performer, continues its reign in the leading quadrant. It’s gaining ground on the RS-ratio axis while experiencing a minor dip in RS momentum. All in all, the weekly picture remains essentially unchanged from last week.

Daily RRG

Shifting our focus to the daily RRG, we start to see more nuanced movements:

  • Staples and Utilities are rotating within the improving quadrant, losing ground on the RS momentum axis without gaining in RS ratio. This suggests further weakening on the weekly chart is likely.
  • Financials have made their way into the improving quadrant — a positive development that builds on last week’s progress.
  • Communication Services is practically aligned with the benchmark (SPY), showing little distinctive movement.
  • Industrials continues deeper into the weakening quadrant, but — and this is crucial — its RRG velocity (the distance between tail nodes) is very low. This keeps the door open for a potential curl back up before hitting the lagging quadrant, which would reinforce its strong position.

Industrials: Breaking New Ground

The price chart for Industrials is confirming its current strength with a break above overhead resistance. This breakthrough is likely to unlock more upside potential, keeping the sector firmly at the top of our list. The relative performance continues to reflect this positive momentum.

Utilities: Struggling at Resistance

Once again, Utilities tested its overhead resistance (between 83 and 84) but failed to break higher. Prices retreated into the range by week’s end. This setback is causing relative strength to drop back into its sideways trading range, with RRG lines rolling over. The sector needs a swift improvement in both price and relative strength to maintain its recent strong position.

Consumer Staples: Déjà Vu

Consumer Staples finds itself in a similar boat to Utilities. Another attempt to break overhead resistance around 83.5 was met with a pullback. This pattern has been repeating for weeks, and it’s taking its toll on the raw relative strength line.

While the RS ratio remains high — a legacy of strength since the year’s start — the rapid loss of relative momentum is causing the RS ratio to roll over. Like Utilities, consumer staples need a quick price improvement to maintain its top-five position.

Communication Services: Closing In

Communication Services had a strong week, closing near the range’s high end and approaching its previous peak just above 105. This improvement has kept the raw relative strength line against SPY within its rising channel. Continued strength, especially if XLC breaks above 105, should keep relative strength in an uptrend and likely cause the RRG lines to curl back up soon.

Financials: Battling Resistance

Financials continue to struggle with an old rising support line, now acting as resistance near the 52 area where the previous high is located. This price stagnation has caused the raw RS line to break its rising support, leading the RRG lines to roll over. The RS momentum line has already dropped below 100, and the RS ratio is starting to move lower.

We’ve seen the daily tail for XLF pick up slightly — this acceleration needs to continue in the coming weeks for XLF to maintain its top-five position.

Portfolio Performance

Due to the positions of Consumer Staples and Utilities, our top five remains defensively positioned. This has caused our underperformance versus SPY to widen slightly — we’re now just over 6% behind since the start of the year.

Is this ideal? Of course not. But here’s the thing — trend-following systems need time to play out. The worst thing you can do is abandon a strategy just because it’s going against you for a few months. (And let’s be honest, it’s only been since May — so two months.)

I will stay the course, maintain discipline, and continue to track this portfolio based on our established metrics. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for this strategy to come back on top and start outperforming SPY again. Patience is key in these situations.

#StayAlert and have a great week. –Julius


There are a few very different setups unfolding this week that are worth a closer look: two software-related names that are struggling to reclaim their winning ways, plus one lovable and reliable stock wagging its tail in the spotlight. 

Let’s break it down.

Adobe (ADBE): Mind the Gaps

Adobe Systems, Inc. (ADBE) has been a heartbreaker for investors over the last several years. ADBE stock has traded lower after six of its last seven quarterly reports. That includes consecutive losses of nearly -14%. So what should investors be watching this time around?

Coming into Thursday’s release, shares are lower by 6.4% for the year and have just made back their losses from last quarter. Overall, shares remain -35% from all-time highs set back in January 2024.

Investors will be looking for progress on the AI monetization front. Is annual recurring revenue from Adobe’s Firefly and Acrobat products showing a strong growth projection? And, perhaps more importantly, what’s the guidance going to look like? Last quarter, Adobe issued conservative guidance, and shareholders were punished as a result. Will forward-looking guidance meet investor expectations?

Technically, ADBE shares are trying to find that bottom (see chart below). Progress has been made, as the stock is taking minor steps to climb back from the morass.

FIGURE 1. DAILY CHART OF ADBE STOCK. The stock is trading between the 100- and 200-day moving averages. The stock price could gain momentum and move higher or lower after earnings.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

On the chart, we’re seeing the following signs:

  • Shares have broken their intermediate downtrend.
  • Shares have recaptured the 50-day moving average.
  • Shares have almost filled the downward gap caused by last quarter’s results.
  • Shares have recaptured the 100-day moving average and held for now.

That said, there’s still work to be done, and knowing how this stock gaps in earnings means a move may be coming.

Let’s examine those last three gaps. Each one has been negative, and each time, price action continued in the trend’s direction for several weeks before making a bottom and rallying back. The same thing happened on the last gap up, as momentum in the direction of the gap continued for weeks. Point being, it’s a good idea to watch those gaps. 

ADBE is in a “no man’s land” between key moving averages. The longer-term trend remains down, and it may take a huge report to stay above the 200-day moving average on a rally. It’s one to avoid for now, but the short-term play after earnings may be to go with the momentum of any gap.

Chewy (CHWY): Any New Tricks in Store?

Chewy Inc. (CHWY), the online retailer of pet food and pet-related products, broke out to new highs just last week ahead of this week’s earnings. Shares have been on a roll since their April 7 low, gaining over 60% in that time (see chart below).

FIGURE 2. DAILY CHART OF CHWY STOCK. The stock price has been in beast mode since early April, up more than 60%. With the stock in overbought territory, it could pull back to $44 or $40. Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

Technically, the stock broke out of a textbook rounded bottom base and zoomed to its anticipated upside target of $50. CHWY shares seem overextended as they have been overbought for weeks (Relative Strength Index > 80). The stock price could roll over even on good news, given its recent run. Long-term investors may want to stay in the name and sit on gains.

For those begging for a pullback, there are nice levels of support at $44 and ultimately at $40 if earnings bite investors. This should be a good opportunity to consider this name for your portfolio as the long-term technicals look great, and the company is known for its loyal user base.

Oracle (ORCL): Time to Flip the Script?

Oracle Corp. (ORCL) will report earnings on Wednesday, looking to snap a two-quarter losing streak. Shares of the software giant have rallied nicely off their lows, but are still -13% from their December peak. Investors would like to see its cloud revenue growth continue to expand thanks to agreements with OpenAI, Meta, and Nvidia.

The one concern is the continued capital spending necessary to power the data centers required to meet AI demand. Are the company’s recent capital expenditures putting pressure on margins and impacting ORCL stock’s bottom line? 

Technically, shares have been on a nice run, eclipsing key levels to get back on track. Longer-term, the stock price started the week above its downtrend line, with respect to annual highs.

FIGURE 3. DAILY CHART OF ORCL STOCK. From a technical perspective, the stock price has broken above a long-term downtrend. Will upside momentum continue after earnings? Keep an eye on this stock.Chart source: StockCharts.com. For educational purposes.

The rally looks similar to many other technology names that are trying to get back to their old highs. The good news is that, given the change in trajectory, even weakness looks to have a soft landing spot and good entry point from a risk/reward perspective.

The stock reminds me of the S&P 500 ($SPX) a little bit — struggling to get to new highs and losing a bit of momentum. A pullback to its 200-day moving average around $163 would be a natural retracement — a flag if you will — and a good entry point on any drawdown after positive news.

If any signs of strength emerge, look for shares to run into the $190s before stalling again.

The Bottom Line

We have three different stories unfolding:

  • ADBE’s stock needs to clear earnings hurdles and reclaim trust.
  • CHWY’s stock is on fire, but might need to cool down.
  • ORCL’s stock is rebuilding momentum, and has potential upside if cloud numbers impress.

The family of an Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas has released new footage of the moment he was pulled from his tank and captured by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks.

The video shows the soldier, Matan Angrest, surrounded by a dozen men atop the turret of an Israeli tank. The men, whose faces are blurred in the video, then lower Angrest, head first, off the tank into the arms of Palestinian militants, who barely catch him.

It is unclear whether Angrest is conscious in the video. His body is limp and tumbles forward as he is tossed off the side of the tank.

One man can be seen kicking Angrest before he is thrown off the tank. Another man below appears to slap Angrest as he falls to the floor.

In an interview, Angrest’s mother said she decided to publish the video because she fears that her son has been “left behind” and wants the public to know that he is in a critical situation.

“I don’t feel the commitment of the government for Matan as an Israeli soldier like I felt the commitment of Trump to American citizens – a big gap,” Anat Angrest said. “If the government wants soldiers to still serve her, she has to worry about the soldiers and to bring them home like the other citizens.”

While her husband saw the video months ago, she only watched it for the first time on Sunday night.

“For me as a mother, it’s the hardest thing to watch – to know about my son. Every mother knows that her kid from the first cry of a baby, we are worried about our children,” Anat Angrest said. “It’s the hardest situation for me as a mother.”

This is the latest attempt by Angrest’s family to sound the alarm about his deteriorating medical condition in captivity. They say he is suffering from chronic asthma, has untreated burns and has suffered infections during his captivity, according to the testimony of hostages who were held with Angrest.

The video released Monday appears to have been recovered by the Israeli military from the belongings of Palestinian militants, according to the watermark on the video.

Angrest said her family did not release the video for months at the urging of the Israeli military, but said she now feels she has no choice as the Israeli government pushes for yet another partial deal that would see about half the remaining hostages released.

“We were quiet about it for a year and a half, but we understood that our quiet is very comfortable to leave Matan behind,” she said.

Angrest is one of 55 hostages still held by Hamas and one of 20 still believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government.

As a male Israeli soldier, Angrest is believed to be at the bottom of the list of hostages to be released – considered a high-value hostage by Hamas and one for whom the Israeli government will likely have to pay a steep price. Anat Angrest believes her son’s concerning medical condition should be taken into account and, like many of the hostage families, called for the release of all the hostages and an end of the war.

Ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas have sputtered along in recent weeks, yielding no agreement. A framework proposed by the US would see about half the living and deceased hostages released in exchange for a 60-day temporary ceasefire. Hamas has insisted on stronger guarantees from the US that negotiations to end the war will continue – and the fighting will not resume – after that temporary ceasefire expires.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

A new prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia has begun, officials in both countries said Monday, with Ukrainian soldiers who have spent nearly the entire duration of the war in captivity among those returning home.

The exchange, agreed last week during talks in Turkey, involves detained people under the age of 25, as well as those who are seriously wounded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Telegram.

It follows a dispute at the weekend during which Moscow accused Ukraine of holding up the exchange — a claim that Kyiv denied.

“Our people are home,” Zelensky wrote. “Ukrainians are returning home from Russian captivity. The exchange began today and will continue in several stages over the next few days.”

Among those being released are Ukrainian soldiers who defended the city of Mariupol, which suffered a brutal Russian assault in the first few weeks of the war, the Ukraine Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said.

The vast majority of those being released have been in captivity since 2022, according to Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense also confirmed that the exchange is underway. “The Russian servicemen are currently in the Republic of Belarus, where they are receiving the necessary psychological and medical assistance,” the ministry said.

Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said last week that the exchange would be the largest since the start of the three-year war. He said Russia would transfer the bodies of more than 6,000 killed Ukrainian troops, plus an unspecified number of wounded servicemen.

Monday’s news comes after a weekend of accusations being hurled between both Moscow and Kyiv in relation to the exchange.

Russia accused Ukraine of unexpectedly postponing the transfer of dead Ukrainian soldiers’ bodies, leaving hundreds of body bags inside refrigerated trucks waiting at an exchange point it said Kyiv had agreed to.

Ukrainian officials rejected Russia’s account of events, saying that the two sides had agreed to exchange seriously wounded and young troops on Saturday, but a date had not yet been set for the repatriation of soldiers’ remains.

The prisoner swap was a result of a second set of direct peace negotiations that took place last Monday in Istanbul. Though the exchange was agreed upon, there were no major breakthroughs, with talks lasting a little over an hour.

As the prisoner exchange will last multiple days, and is “quite complex,” negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will “continue virtually every day,” Zelensky said Monday.

“We count on the full implementation of the humanitarian agreements reached during the meeting in Istanbul. We are doing everything possible to bring back every single person. We are working toward this at every level,” he added.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

China said that by the end of this year all tertiary level hospitals must offer epidural anesthesia during childbirth, a move it said would help promote a “friendly childbearing environment” for women.

Tertiary hospitals – those with more than 500 beds – must provide epidural anesthesia services by 2025 while secondary hospitals – those containing more than 100 beds – must provide the services by 2027, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement last week.

Authorities are struggling to boost birth rates in the world’s second largest economy after China’s population fell for a third consecutive year in 2024 with experts warning the downturn will worsen in the coming years.

Around 30% of pregnant women in China receive anesthesia to relieve pain during childbirth, compared with more than 70% in some developed countries, the official China Daily said.

The World Health Organization recommends epidurals for healthy pregnant women requesting pain relief and it is widely utilized in many countries around the world, including France, where around 82% of pregnant women opt to have one, and in the United States and Canada where more than 67% do.

The move will “improve the comfort level and security of medical services” and “further enhance people’s sense of happiness and promote a friendly childbearing environment,” the NHC said.

A growing number of provinces across China are also beginning to include childbirth anesthesia costs as part of their medical insurance schemes to encourage more women to have children.

High childcare costs as well as job uncertainty and a slowing economy have discouraged many young Chinese from getting married and starting a family.

In June, health authorities in China’s southwestern Sichuan province proposed to extend marriage leave up to 25 days and maternity leave up to 150 days, to help create a “fertility-friendly society.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Canada will meet NATO’s military spending guideline by early next year and diversify defense spending away from the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday, asserting that Washington no longer plays a predominant role on the world stage.

The announcement means Canada will achieve NATO’s spending target of 2% of gross domestic product five years earlier than previously planned.

“Our military infrastructure and equipment have aged, hindering our military preparedness,” Carney said. “Only one of our four submarines is seaworthy. Less than half of our maritime fleet and land vehicles are operational. More broadly, we are too reliant on the United States.”

According to NATO figures, Canada was estimated to be spending 1.45% of GDP on its military budget, below the 2% target that NATO countries have set for themselves. Canada previously said it was on track to meet NATO’s target by the end of the decade.

“Our goal is to protect Canadians, not to satisfy NATO accountants,” Carney said in a speech at the University of Toronto.

Canada is about to host US President Donald Trump and other leaders at a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations in Alberta on June 15-17, and before the NATO summit in Europe. NATO allies are poised to increase the commitment well beyond the 2% target.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that most US allies at NATO endorse Trump’s demand that they invest 5% of gross domestic product on their defense needs and are ready to ramp up security spending even more.

“We are meeting 2%. And that is the NATO target as it is today,” Carney said at a later news conference. “We will need to spend more.” He said there will be discussions on the increased spending amount and its timeline at the NATO summit.

Carney has said he intends to diversify Canada’s procurement and enhance the country’s relationship with the EU.

“We should no longer send three-quarters of our defense capital spending to America,” Carney said in a speech at the University of Toronto. “We will invest in new submarines, aircraft, ships, armed vehicles and artillery, as well as new radar, drones and sensors to monitor the seafloor and the Arctic.”

Canada has been in discussions with the European Union to join an EU drive to break its security dependency on the United States, with a focus on buying more defense equipment, including fighter jets, in Europe. Carney’s government is reviewing the purchase of U.S. F-35 fighter jets to see if there are other options.

“We stood shoulder to shoulder with the Americans throughout the Cold War and in the decades that followed, as the United States played a predominant role on the world stage. Today, that predominance is a thing of the past,” Carney said in French, one of Canada’s official languages.

He added that with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the United States became the global hegemon, noting that its strong gravitational pull became virtually irresistible and made the US “our closest ally and dominant trading partner.”

“Now the United States is beginning to monetize its hegemony: charging for access to its markets and reducing its relative contributions to our collective security,” Carney said.

Trump’s calls to make Canada the 51st US state have infuriated Canadians, and Carney won the job of prime minister after promising to confront the increased aggression shown by Trump.

The prime minister said “a new imperialism threatens.”

Carney said the long-held view that Canada’s geographic location will protect Canadians is increasingly archaic. The government is adding $9 billion Canadian (US$6.6 billion) in spending this year and Carney said the Canadian Coast Guard will be now be a part of the military.

European allies and Canada have already been investing heavily in their armed forces, as well as on weapons and ammunition, since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv overnight into Tuesday, with air raid sirens blaring for hours and residents hearing regular explosions, and local officials reporting damage to residential buildings and at least two people wounded.

A large number of unmanned aerial vehicles are still reaching the capital, said Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko in a post on Telegram. At least two people have been wounded so far in the capital, Klitschko added.

Preliminary damage was reported in the Desnianskyi, Obolonskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv city military administration.

In the southern port city of Odesa, Russian attacks struck a maternity ward, according to Andriy Yermak, Chief of Presidential Staff. A residential building was also hit, according to Odesa mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov, adding at least one person was killed based on preliminary reports.

The overnight attacks follow Russia’s biggest drone strike on Ukraine on Monday, where Russia fired 479 UAVs at Ukraine in an overnight aerial assault, surpassing the highest number of drones Moscow has launched in a single day for the second consecutive weekend.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

When Sana Yousaf turned 17, she posted a video of her birthday celebrations to more than a million followers on TikTok.

They saw her cutting a pink and cream cake beneath a matching balloon arch, the June breeze ruffling her long hair as she beamed against the backdrop of the cloud-covered Margalla Hills in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Less than 24 hours later, Sana was dead, a bullet through her chest and graphic images of her dead body going viral on Pakistani social media, outraging women across the country, who fear there are no safe spaces for them anymore – in reality, or online.

As Sana’s family prepared for her funeral, disturbing comments started popping up on her TikTok and Instagram posts, most in Urdu, celebrating her killing. “Happy to see these things happening,” read one. Another stated, “My heart is happy today, I’m going to turn on music and dance with joy.”

Under a picture of Sana wearing traditional Pakistani clothes covering her entire body, a comment said, “encouraging young women to seek attention or expose themselves can have serious negative consequences.”

The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), a women-led nonprofit that promotes online safety, said such rhetoric “dangerously links a woman’s online presence or perceived morality to justifications for violence.”

“This form of digital vigilantism contributes to a broader culture of victim-blaming, where abuse is normalized and accountability is shifted away from the perpetrator,” the DRF said in a report released soon after Sana’s death.

Alongside toxic online comments, rage has simmered among women across Pakistan, who are demanding justice for Sana, pointing to a crisis of masculinity in the South Asian nation.

And Pakistan is far from alone in seeing heated debates over the prevalence of violence against women.

Recent multiple murders in Latin America, including a Mexican influencer who was shot dead while livestreaming, has sparked indignation and highlighted the high rates of femicide across the continent.

British miniseries“Adolescence” became a global hit this year with its raw depiction of the damage caused by online misogyny while a recent largescale Australia study found one in three men saying they have committed intimate partner violence at some point in their lives.

Few safe spaces online

Sana’s TikTok content would be familiar to any teenager online. Her recent shorts included showing off her fashionwear, singing songs while driving, and filming a blowdry at the salon.

But for prominent women’s rights campaigners, Sana’s death was the ultimate outcome of unrestricted online abuse of women in a patriarchal country.

Amber Rahim Shamsi, a prominent journalist and Pakistan editor of a news digital platform, Nukta, says she was relentlessly harassed online in 2020 for a variety of issues, including her views on women’s rights.

Shamsi agrees that there is a crisis in masculinity, “especially in how it plays out in our digital spaces.” And that it needs to be talked about “not just for women’s sake, but for men’s, too.”

According to Shamsi, “social media has amplified women’s voices – especially those of young women – who are increasingly educated, politically aware, and unafraid to own their choices. That visibility, that confidence, is unsettling for some men who have grown up believing their authority, their control, is a given.”

“It’s an identity crisis,” says Shamsi. “A subset of men is reacting with anxiety and aggression to this shift in gender dynamic as though the solution is to shrink women’s spaces, rather than question why so many boys are being raised to feel threatened by equality.”

The DRF’s report stated that since 2017 its helpline “has documented over 20,000 cases of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and online threats, numbers that have only grown.”

Kanwal Ahmed, a Pakistani social entrepreneur and storyteller, runs Soul Sister Pakistan, a Facebook group created in 2013 with over 300,000 followers. For years, it’s operated as a popular safe digital space for Pakistani women online, but Ahmed says the criticism of her page has been unrelenting.

“We have been called a man-hating, trauma-bonding club where all women do is gossip,” said Ahmed, who works with volunteers to help women in need who post on the page.

Sana is not alone when it comes to unwanted online attention that’s moved to real life. Ahmed recalled a case in 2019 of a young woman who had been stalked by a man after her friend leaked her number online.

“The only difference between her and Sana is that she wasn’t killed, the stalker turned up at her door,” said Ahmed. “You don’t have to be an influencer to face this, it can happen to anyone.”

There’s a perception in Pakistan that “violence that takes place online is not ‘real’ and is therefore less harmful,” Tariq said. But she added that what are sometimes seen as “merely virtual” online threats can often turn to physical violence.

Putting the focus on men

Much praise has been heaped on Pakistani authorities for their sensitive and swift handling of Sana’s murder, but some commentators say that’s missing the point.

Usama Khilji, the director of Bolo Bhi, a digital rights advocacy group Bolo Bhi, says Pakistan should be talking about educating boys about online harassment.

“Men in leadership positions need to be talking about these issues,” according to Khilji.

Khilji said hate speech against women in Pakistan is still “not a priority, and he’s called on the government to “show leadership in combatting online crimes against women.”

Sana’s murder comes less than two weeks after a landmark ruling by the country’s Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for Zahir Jaffer, who murdered Noor Mukkadam, the daughter of a distinguished diplomat, in 2021.

The brutal beheading horrified the country and renewed calls for better protection for victims of gender-based violence.

Noor’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, has been lauded for his relentless campaign for justice for his daughter. After the ruling, Noor’s family issued a statement saying the verdict was a “powerful reminder that women’s lives matter.”

“Every moment with her was unforgettable,” he said.

This post appeared first on cnn.com