Rishi Sunak pushed to back Israel-Hamas ceasefire – as UK sends first flight of aid for Gaza

Published

2 years ago

October 25, 2023

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MPs from all sides of the Commons have continued to add pressure onto Rishi Sunak to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict

Members from a range of parties said there was a “human responsibility” to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip who have had their water and power supplies cut off by Israel following the attacks by Hamas on 7 October.

The prime minister insisted the “first and most important principle is that Israel has the right to defend itself under law”.

However, Mr Sunak agreed humanitarian aid was needed to get to civilians in Gaza, and confirmed an RAF plane was on its way to the region with 21 tonnes of supplies, including medical equipment and water filters.

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Speaking at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the deputy leader of the SNP, Mhairi Black, pointed to warnings from the United Nations that some hospitals in Gaza City had less than 20 hours of fuel left and their electricity “runs out tonight”.

“We have a human responsibility to all the people in Gaza, but we have a particular responsibility for UK citizens, some of whom are in those hospitals with no food, no water, no medicine, and no way out,” she added.

“So I want to ask the prime minister how much worse does the situation have to get before he will join us in calls for a humanitarian ceasefire?”

Ms Black also raised the growing tensions in the West Bank, with UNICEF reporting over 2,000 fatalities and over 5,000 injured children since the conflict began, saying: “If we ignore this, we risk putting petrol on a fire in a place that only requires a spark to ignite.”

The leader of Northern Ireland’s SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party), Colum Eastwood, referenced the Troubles in his question to Mr Sunak, telling the Commons: “A few short months ago the world came to Belfast to celebrate the Good Friday Agreement. At the heart of that agreement was the realisation that we could not use violence as a tool for revenge to achieve our political aims.

“As 1,400 Israelis and almost 6,000 Palestinians lay dying and dead, when will the prime minister say enough is enough? When will he call for a ceasefire?”

Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi also echoed the calls – although the party’s leadership remains aligned with the government in not yet calling for a ceasefire.

She read an email from one of her constituents with relatives in Gaza, that said: “My heart can’t handle this. We are being massacred, relentlessly bombed, homes are being destroyed [and there is] no water, no food, no electricity.”

The MP pointed to a report from Save the Children that said one child is being killed every 15 minutes in the conflict, before adding: “This is collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza for crimes they did not commit.

“How many more innocents must die before this prime minister calls for a humanitarian ceasefire?”

In response to the calls, Mr Sunak urged people to remember that Israel had suffered “a shockingly brutal terrorist attack”, saying: “Hamas is responsible for this conflict and Israel has the right to protect itself line with international law as the UN Charter makes clear.”

But, he added: “It is also clear that we must support the Palestinian people. They are victims of Hamas too. Hamas uses innocent people as human shields.

“We mourn the loss of every innocent life, people of every faith, of every nationality, and we are working as hard as we can to get as much humanitarian aid to Gaza as quickly as practically possible.”

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SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

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1 hour ago

April 30, 2025

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SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

PayPal says the US Securities and Exchange Commission has abandoned its investigation into the payment giant’s US-dollar stablecoin.

PayPal said in an April 29 regulatory filing that the SEC concluded its investigation into PayPal USD (PYUSD) and wouldn’t be taking any action.

The company said it received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement over its stablecoin in November 2023.

“The subpoena requests the production of documents. We are cooperating with the SEC in connection with this request,” PayPal stated at the time.

In its latest filing, the firm said the SEC notified it in February that the agency “was closing this inquiry without enforcement action.”

PayPal has said its stablecoin is 100% redeemable for US dollars and “fully backed” by dollar deposits, including short-term treasuries and cash equivalents.

However, the stablecoin has struggled to gain momentum in a crowded market dominated by rivals Tether and Circle. PYUSD has a market capitalization of just $880 million, less than 1% of Tether’s (USDT) $148.5 billion.

PayPal’s stablecoin has seen better growth this year with a 75% increase in PYUSD circulating supply since the beginning of 2025, according to CoinGecko. It remains down 14% from its peak supply of just over $1 billion in August 2024.

Earnings on PYUSD, Coinbase partnership

That growth could be bolstered by a company announcement on April 23 introducing rewards for PYUSD in a new loyalty offering that will enable US users to earn 3.7% annually for holding the asset on the platform.

Meanwhile, on April 24, PayPal announced a partnership with Coinbase to increase the adoption of PYUSD.

“We are excited to drive new, exciting, and innovative use cases together with Coinbase and the entire cryptocurrency community, putting PYUSD at the center,” said Alex Chriss, PayPal President and CEO.

The payments giant also reported robust first-quarter earnings and the completion of significant share repurchase activities.

The firm beat Wall Street estimates, earning $1.33 per share in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of $1.16. Revenue rose 1% from a year before to $7.8 billion.

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BlackRock files to create digital shares tracking one of its money market funds

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2 hours ago

April 30, 2025

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BlackRock files to create digital shares tracking one of its money market funds

Asset manager BlackRock has filed to create digital ledger technology shares from one of the firm’s money market funds, which will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.

The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the firm said in its April 29 Form N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The money market fund holds over $150 million worth of assets, invested almost entirely in US Treasury bills and cash.

BlackRock said that the shares “are expected to be purchased and held through BNY, which intends to use blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for its customers.”

Unlike the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), DLT shares won’t be tokenized but will instead be used as a transparency tool to verify ownership.

BlackRock will continue to maintain traditional book-entry records as the official ownership ledger.

BlackRock didn’t propose a ticker or set a management fee for the DLT shares in its filing.

A minimum initial investment of $3 million worth of DLT is required for institutions seeking to purchase the digital shares.

BlackRock follows Fidelity’s March 21 filing to list an Ethereum-based OnChain share class, which seeks to track the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) — an $80 million fund consisting almost entirely of US Treasury bills.

While the OnChain share class filing is pending regulatory approval, Fidelity expects it to take effect on May 30.

Wall Street heavyweights continue to explore blockchain use cases

Asset managers have increasingly turned to blockchain to tokenize Treasury bills, bonds and private credit over the past few years.

The treasury tokenization market is currently valued at $6.16 billion, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL at $2.55 billion, while the Franklin Templeton-issued Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (BENJI) secures over $700 million worth of real-world assets, according to rwa.xyz.

Ethereum remains the chain of choice for tokenizing treasury assets, and currently houses over $4.55 billion worth, while the Stellar network and Solana round out the top three at $474.9 million and $274.5 million, respectively.

The potential of RWA tokenization has also been championed by BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, who believes the technology could revolutionize investing.

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US Treasury’s OFAC can’t restore Tornado Cash sanctions, judge rules

Published

3 hours ago

April 30, 2025

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US Treasury’s OFAC can’t restore Tornado Cash sanctions, judge rules

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control can’t restore or reimpose sanctions against the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, a US federal court has ruled.

Austin federal court judge Robert Pitman said in an April 28 judgment that OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash were unlawful and that the agency was “permanently enjoined from enforcing” sanctions.

Tornado Cash users led by Joseph Van Loon had sued the Treasury, arguing that OFAC’s addition of the platform’s smart contract addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list was “not in accordance with law.”

OFAC had sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, accusing the protocol of helping launder crypto stolen by the North Korean hacking collective, the Lazarus Group.

The agency dropped the platform from the sanctions list on March 21 and argued that the matter was “moot” after a court ruled in favor of Tornado Cash in January.

This latest amended ruling prevents OFAC from re-sanctioning Tornado Cash or putting it back on the blacklist.

Initially, the court denied a motion for partial summary judgment and granted in favour of the Treasury. However, the Fifth Circuit reversed the decision and instructed the lower court to grant partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs, which led to the sanctions being revoked.

In March, the Treasury argued there was no need for a final court judgment in the lawsuit.

Crypto body petitions White House over Tornado Cash

On April 28, the DeFi Education Fund petitioned White House crypto czar David Sacks to have prosecutors drop charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm.

Storm was charged in August 2023 with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through the protocol, and his trial is still set for July.

The group said that the Department of Justice was attempting to hold software developers criminally liable for how others use their code, which they argued was “not only absurd in principle, but it sets a precedent that potentially chills all crypto development in the United States.”

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