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”.
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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.
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.
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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.
Iranian President Pezeshkian joins protests against US intervention. Photo: IRIB
Though anti-government protests have largely subsided, Iran claims there still persists a threat of possible external aggression from countries such as the US and Israel and has warned of strong retaliation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the “exploitation of the protests to pursue political agendas, combined with the ongoing effects of illegal unilateral US sanctions, undermines Iranians’ basic rights” and is a “shameful” act.
Araghchi was addressing a letter to the UN Security Council, which is scheduled to meet on the afternoon of Thursday, January 15, to discuss the situation in Iran, where anti-government protests in the last few weeks have captured global attention.
Araghchi expressed concerns over “provocative and irresponsible statements” made by current and former US officials inciting violence and unrest in his country and reiterated accusations of the direct involvement of Israel’s secret agency Mossad in the same.
Earlier, in an interview with US TV channel Fox News, Araghchi reiterated that external elements were responsible for “escalating the situation by carrying out attacks against Iranian security forces and civilians.”
Araghchi reiterated that the protests, which began peacefully, turned violent in order to justify foreign intervention.
“They wanted to increase the number of deaths. Why? Because US President Donald Trump had “stated that if there were killings, he would intervene. Their goal was to drag the US into this conflict,” Araghchi claimed, asserting that it was a plot made by Israel.
Araghchi assured that the Iranian state had full control over the situation now and there were no fresh reports of violence in the country.
Meanwhile, threats of a strike by external forces still continue, with Iranian officials claiming they are fully prepared to face any situation.
Fear of US airstrikes
Though the anti-government protests have largely been replaced with millions-strong pro-government rallies since Monday, Iran is still apprehensive about possible air strikes from the US.
Iran had shut its airspace following strong indications of such possible airstrikes after Trump, addressing the protesters in Iran, claimed “help is on its way” on his social media post on Tuesday, asking the protesters to continue and “occupy institutions”.
The news of the withdrawal of some staff from the US military base in Qatar further escalated the fear of possible US strikes on Wednesday.
Several Iranian officials, including the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that if Iran is targeted with a military strike, US bases and ships in the region, along with Israeli territories, would be a legitimate target.
Several countries, such as India, and some European nations issued travel warnings to their citizens, asking those who are already there in Iran to leave the country on Wednesday.
Though the airspace was opened after Trump toned down his rhetoric, claiming he was briefed that the violence against protesters had abated, Iran remained on high alert on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.
Deliberate exaggerations about the number of casualties
Though anti-government protests have largely subsided, Iran continued to restrict internet services on the seventh day in a row on Thursday, with limited accessibility of international calls gradually being restored.
Iran imposed the restrictions after large-scale violence was recorded across the country on January 8.
During his interview with Fox News, Araghchi claimed that the number of people killed in the protests so far does not exceed a few hundred, which includes innocent bystanders killed and the security forces killed by the violent protesters.
Araghchi promised that the state would announce the exact figure soon, dismissing the very high figures quoted in some media outlets, such as CNN, as false.
CNN and several other US media channels have been quoting the relatively unknown US-based Human Rights Activists New Agency (HRANA), claiming the death toll in Iranian protests was more than 2,400.
Araghchi also dismissed the news in the western media about possible hangings of some of the protesters arrested in the last few days.
Later, Iran’s judiciary also refuted the news reports and social media hype around the possible execution of one such protester, Erfan Soltani, arrested on January 10 for unlawful assembly and false propaganda against the state.
The judiciary’s media center called such reports fabricated as no death penalty exists for the crimes Soltani has been charged for in the Iranian laws.
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.
