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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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Roman Storm’s lawyers signal continuance if court allows hacker’s testimony

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Roman Storm’s lawyers signal continuance if court allows hacker’s testimony

Roman Storm’s lawyers signal continuance if court allows hacker’s testimony

The Tornado Cash co-founder is scheduled to go to trial on Monday, but his defense attorneys are still waiting on rulings for motions over witnesses in the case.

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Migrants deal a win for Starmer – and could help with fight against Reform

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Migrants deal a win for Starmer - and could help with fight against Reform

The bromance between Sir Keir Starmer and President Macron is so apparent – embraces all around.

This is some deft diplomacy from Sir Keir, who has been love-bombing his French counterpart ever since he became prime minister – trying to get closer ties, be it on security, on trade, and now of course on small boats.

And he has got a win today – he’s got President Macron to agree a deterrent deal.

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You remember the Conservatives were trying the Rwanda plan to deter people from coming by sending them back to Rwanda, a third country, if they came here illegally.

What the prime minister has agreed with President Macron today is a big deal. It’s a one in, one out deal.

What they’re going to do is, if someone arrives here illegally, they will be sent back to France, and in return, the UK will accept a legitimate asylum seeker. It might be someone who has family ties.

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It’s going to start off really small – think of it as a pilot – as they’re going to test it out, see if it works.

It might be just a handful of people being sent back, maybe just under a thousand or so by the end of the year. But they will hopefully, for the prime minister, scale it up and it could become a real deterrent.

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I’ll leave you with just one more thought: As Prime Minister Starmer and President Macron were doing this deal today, Nigel Farage was in the English Channel documenting illegal migrants making that crossing – 79 people being picked up by Border Force, taken off a dinghy and into Dover.

Polling out this morning by Portland suggests four in 10 voters who are planning on going to Reform would go back to Labour if the prime minister tackles small boats and drives down the crossings.

There is a real political imperative for him to try to start to resolve this problem. It’s going to count at the ballot box – immigration is a top-three issue in this country when it comes to voters.

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US lawmakers to discuss crypto tax policy amid push to pass three bills

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US lawmakers to discuss crypto tax policy amid push to pass three bills

US lawmakers to discuss crypto tax policy amid push to pass three bills

The hearing notice suggested a focus on a tax framework for digital assets, but did not mention specific witnesses or policies previously proposed.

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