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2 years ago

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The Tory candidate for London mayor has been urged to apologise after she claimed that Jewish communities were “frightened” by Sadiq Khan.

Susan Hall, who was selected as the Tory candidate in July, made the comments at the Conservative Friends of Israel event on the fringes of the Tory Party conference in Manchester.

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She told the audience that one of the “most important” things she would do for Londoners would be to make the city “safer” – particularly “for our Jewish communities”.

She asked for “as much help as [she] can get in London” because Mr Khan “needed to be defeated”.

“I know how frightened some of the community is because of the divisive attitude of Sadiq Khan,” she said.

“One of the most important things that I will do when I become mayor of London is to make it safer for everyone, but particularly for our Jewish community.

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“I will ask for as much help as I can get in London, because we need to defeat him.”

Her comments immediately drew criticism from politicians and Jewish groups.

Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said her remarks were “divisive and disgusting”.

“Sadiq Khan has repeatedly stood by London’s Jewish communities in the fight against antisemitism,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Susan Hall’s dog whistle politics have no place in London. Will decent Conservatives ever call this out?”

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Mike Katz, the chair of Jewish Labour, said Ms Hall was “vile, ignorant and wrong” and urged her to apologise.

“Sadiq has consistently gone out of his way to work with the Jewish community. He stood with Jewish Labour when we spoke out on antisemitism in Labour.

“For Susan Hall to try to use this as a dog whistle is beneath contempt. She should apologise.

The Jewish Labour Movement accused Ms Hall of “gutter divisive politics that seeks to use the Jewish community as political pawns”.

“We had quite enough of this from Jeremy Corbyn and saw him off – and have no patience for it from Susan Hall,” it said.

Sky News has approached Ms Hall for comment and the Conservative Party has declined to comment.

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South Korea to impose bank-level liability on crypto exchanges after Upbit hack: Report

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5 hours ago

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December 7, 2025

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South Korea to impose bank-level liability on crypto exchanges after Upbit hack: Report

South Korea is preparing to impose bank-level, no-fault liability rules on crypto exchanges, holding exchanges to the same standards as traditional financial institutions amid the recent breach at Upbit.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is reviewing new provisions that would require exchanges to compensate customers for losses stemming from hacks or system failures, even when the platform is not at fault, The Korea Times reported on Sunday, citing officials and local market analysts.

The no-fault compensation model is currently applied only to banks and electronic payment firms under Korea’s Electronic Financial Transactions Act.

The regulatory push follows a Nov. 27 incident involving Upbit, operated by Dunamu, in which more than 104 billion Solana-based tokens, worth approximately 44.5 billion won ($30.1 million), were transferred to external wallets in under an hour.

Related: Do Kwon says five-year US sentence is enough as he faces 40 years in South Korea

Crypto exchanges face bank-level oversight

Regulators are also reacting to a pattern of recurring outages. Data submitted to lawmakers by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) shows the country’s five major exchanges, Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, reported 20 system failures since 2023, affecting over 900 users and causing more than 5 billion won in combined losses. Upbit alone recorded six failures impacting 600 customers.

The upcoming legislative revision is expected to mandate stricter IT security requirements, higher operational standards and tougher penalties. Lawmakers are weighing a rule that would allow fines of up to 3% of annual revenue for hacking incidents, the same threshold used for banks. Currently, crypto exchanges face a maximum fine of $3.4 million.

The Upbit breach has also drawn political scrutiny over delayed reporting. Although the hack was detected shortly after 5 am, the exchange did not notify the FSS until nearly 11 am. Some lawmakers have alleged the delay was intentional, occurring minutes after Dunamu finalized a merger with Naver Financial.

Related: South Korea targets sub-$680 crypto transfers in sweeping AML crackdown

South Korea pushes for stablecoin bill

As Cointelegraph reported, South Korean lawmakers are also pressuring financial regulators to deliver a draft stablecoin bill by Dec. 10, warning they will push ahead without the government if the deadline is missed.