Cunningham, a British-born Muslim of Egyptian descent, has faced Islamophobic abuse since her candidacy was announced. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Reuters
Laila Cunningham accused of endangering Muslims after saying it ‘has to be assumed’ people hiding their face for a criminal reason
Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for London has been accused of endangering Muslims after she said women wearing the burqa should be subject to stop and search.
Laila Cunningham, who was announced as Reform’s candidate for the 2028 mayoral elections last week, said no one should cover their face “in an open society”, adding: “It has to be assumed that if you’re hiding your face, you’re hiding it for a criminal reason.”
Cunningham told the Standard podcast: “If you go to parts of London, it does feel like a Muslim city. The signs are written in a different language. You’ve got burqas being sold in markets.” She said there should be “one civic culture” and it “should be British”.
…
The crossbench peer Shaista Gohir, who is the CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, called Cunningham’s comments “dangerous” and a “dog whistle” to racists and said they would further alienate Muslim women, including the minority who wear a burqa.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
A taped off section inside a school which has been affected with sub standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac)
Campaigners dismayed as government plans to replace hospitals built with Raac delayed again
FURTHER delays in replacing hospitals built with Raac concrete are a “blow” to NHS staff, as campaigners wanted to prevent the “severe risk of collapsing floors and ceilings.”
The government’s spending watchdog announced today that a pledge to deal with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in seven hospitals by 2030 would not be met.
A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the infrastructure plans, drawn up by the previous Conservative government, would only be completed by 2032 and 2033.
Despite the new timeline, the NAO also claimed that some new building projects are already facing pressure to finish for their revised deadline.
The watchdog also said that by the end of 2025, works to alleviate the risks of Raac have already cost more than £500 million.
Campaigners and unions hit back, warning that longer delays will mean “greater risks” for patients and NHS staff, and will mean “higher costs” to fix the issues plaguing NHS hospitals.
Raac is a lightweight material which was used widely in the 1960s and ’80s to build public buildings such as hospitals and schools.
The beach in the Gaza Strip has become a makeshift camp for displaced people whose homes were destroyed. Photograph: Omar Ashtawy/APAImages/Shutterstock
White House says seven-strong board, chaired by Trump, will steer Gaza through next phase of reconstruction
Donald Trump has appointed the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and former British prime minister Tony Blair to a newly created Gaza “board of peace”, a body he claims will steer the next phase of reconstruction and governance in the war-ravaged territory.
The White House said the seven-strong “founding executive board” will also include Trump’s special envoy, the property developer Steve Witkoff; the World Bank president, Ajay Banga; and the president’s son-in-law and long-time adviser Jared Kushner. Trump himself will serve as chair, with further appointments expected in the coming weeks.
“Each executive board member will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success, including, but not limited to, governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization,” a White House statement said.
…
Blair’s inclusion is likely to prove contentious in the region. The former Labour leader remains a divisive figure in the Middle East for his role in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Soon after leaving office in 2007 he became special representative of the Quartet, a group composed of the US, EU, Russia and the UN seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But he became seen as too close to the Israelis and stepped down in 2015.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
If you cannot imagine living without being subordinate to the Fascist United States, then you have a poor imagination
Briefly,
While it’s readily apparent that Resident Trump was a total assole before developing dementia, he’s a double fekk total assole now. It’s not strictly necessary to have a developed understanding of why the Fascist United States is behaving so badly, that it’s behaving so badly is enough.
It is worth appreciating that since the Trump administration is composed of total assoles, it’s unlikely to improve significantly with his removal or death i.e. it is likely to continue in a similar way.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
I’ll say it. All nations should distance themselves from, have nothing to do with and impose boycotts and sanctions against the Fascist United States because it’s president and current policies are Fascist disregarding acceptable norms of behaviour. There is the support and complicity in Israel’s genocide, destroying the climate and disregarding the scientific consensus that urgent climate action is needed and there is unprovoked, Fascist, imperialist invasions for oil and likely for oil and other resources in Greenland.
Unfortunately, many governments have supported this Fascism e.g. my own so-called Labour government under Keir Starmer in UK. It’s clear that they must be dismissed too. I am pleased to say that that is underway in UK.
The Fascist United States is a bankrupt failed state. Call those debts in.
To be continued …
19 Jan 2026: Insolvent rather than bankrupt? Insolvent is potentially bankrupt of course. Failed state is correct with poor governance due to corruption, instability, human rights abuses, Fascist authoritarianism.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Minnesota community calls for economic blackout and mass march to demand the removal of ICE from the state. Photo: screenshot
Faith groups, labor unions, community organizations, businesses, and more have come together to mobilize millions to withdraw from the economy on the day of action.
“We are going to leverage our economic power, our labor, our prayer for one another,” said JaNaé Bates, co-executive director of Isaiah MN, an interfaith and multiracial community organizing network.
“We are not going to shop, we are not going to work, we are not going to school on Friday, January 23.”
Dozens of labor unions, faith groups, businesses, and community organizations across the state are backing the call, with many more joining by the hour. Bates added, “Some people they call that a strike. For many of us, we say this is our right to refusal until something changes.”
Instead of participating in the economy, the organizers are calling on people to use the day to be conscious of the community. Faith groups will be fasting and praying. And at 2pm in downtown Minneapolis, organizers hope millions will gather for a mass march.
“Now is the time,” said the minister. “If you ever wondered for yourself: ‘When is the time that we do something different? When is the time that we stand up and say that this has to change? That this needs to end?’ The time is now.”
Violence in Minnesota backed by Nazi rhetoric in Washington
Speakers at the press conference expressed outrage at the ICE killing of Renee Good, whose “whistle blowing was returned by bullets”. They also described the escalating violence by ICE agents against the community in recent days. According to videos on circulating on social media from Minneapolis, ICE is raiding homes, separating families, dragging employees from their workplaces, pepper spraying people, assaulting high school students and staff, shooting activists with flashbangs, and more.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has continued to defend the ICE operations with far-right rhetoric. US Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino recently called Minnesotans who oppose ICE “weak-minded”, echoing Nazi-era language about degeneracy and social cleansing. During a press conference on January 12, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had the line “One of ours, all of yours” on her podium. A shocking moment given that the slogan is directly linked to Nazi collective-punishment doctrine. The line comes from an atrocity known as the Lidice Massacre. After one Nazi soldier was killed in a Czech village, the Nazis massacred 170 men and boys of that village, deported 200 women, and killed 82 children in gas chambers.
On the morning of January 13, in a post on his Truth Social platform, US President Trump again claimed that there are thousands of violent criminals in Minnesota that ICE is removing.
Responding to Trump, Bates declared that Minnesotans do want to remove the criminals: “Those thousands of people committing crimes in the state are the ICE officers! Who have been ramming their cars into our people, who have been stealing our people, kidnapping folks, who have been beating folks up and dropping them off in random locations.”
“The beauty about Minnesotans is that we have stood up for each other. We have come together,” she said. The minister was flanked by business owners, faith leaders, and community figures who echoed the demand for ICE to leave Minnesota and any other state in which it is operating.
Faith-labor unity: “Prayer is not a passive activity. It is one that is of action.”
James Earl Johnson, pastor at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Saint Paul, said that January 23 will be a day to reflect on the truth and the call from God to love our neighbors.
“We will pray for the power we have as people of faith to stop this madness, and for ICE to leave Minnesota and any other state where their actions are abusing the children of God.”
Pastor Brian, of Zion Baptist Church, described the ICE presence in Minneapolis as “spiritual warfare”.
“Darkness can’t drive out darkness, right? Only light can break darkness. And we choose to be light today. We choose to speak peace and not hate. We choose unity and not division. And so we will collectively come together on the 23rd.”
JaNaé Bates underlined the duty of faith leaders and congregations in this moment to use fasting and prayer to mobilize the community against the militarized federal forces in the twin cities.
“Prayer is not a passive activity. It is one that is of action. It is one about transformation. It is one where we get to transform ourselves and this world.”
She also highlighted that faith communities are not in this fight alone, listing dozens of unions, businesses, and inter-faith organizations that have already joined the “Day of Truth and Freedom”.
Day of Truth and Freedom
Amid the “lies” by the Trump administration framing Renee Good as a “domestic terrorist”, leaders say truth is essential at this moment.
“The truth is … that life is sacred,” said Bates. “In no way, shape or form should we dismiss someone being killed. In no way, shape or form should we give excuses to people being harmed every day, right? That is the truth.”
The faith leader added: “We need to take a real pause, a real time to step away and say, you know what? Here is actually what is happening.”
Bates also made the point that to live in fear, surrounded by violence, is not freedom.
“Freedom is not just the freedom from constraints. It is the freedom to have safety. It is the freedom to have joy. It’s the freedom to be able to thrive. That is why we are choosing this day of freedom and truth.”
Community leaders reiterated the call for every single Minnesotan who loves “this notion of truth and freedom”, to refuse to work, shop, or go to school on January 23.
Organizers asked people to spend the next ten days before the day of action talking to businesses, small and large, and ask them what their plan is for Friday, January 23, and how they are standing up to demand that ICE leave Minnesota.
“I am a woman of faith. And there’s this thing we talk about called hope,” Bates said, in response to a reporter asking if she thinks the strike day will work to drive ICE out.
“I believe this is going to rock this state in the most beautiful and glorious of ways. It is going to open our eyes to what is possible,” the minister said.
“For too long we have been told nothing is possible. Bow down. Obey. And do whatever it is that somebody at the top says to do. But we know that that is a lie from the pit of hell. And let me tell y’all this, there is so much that is able to be accomplished when we come together and say no more to what is awful and yes to what is possible.”
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.
A taped off section inside a school which has been affected with sub standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac)
