The view of the ceasefire vote from a Birmingham mosque

Published

1 year ago

February 21, 2024

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It’s a rainy day in Birmingham and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the vote tonight in the House of Commons over support for a ceasefire in Gaza is not the first thing on people’s minds.

But make no mistake, this is a huge issue here for voters of all stripes – and particularly important to the Muslim community.

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Ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year, interested parties have been watching not only the UK government’s response to Israel and Gaza, but the opposition’s stance too.

This is partly because the Muslim community is one of Labour’s most loyal voter bases, which has almost exclusively stuck with the party in recent elections.

But potentially, no more.

I’m invited into the Green Lane mosque where there are several events going on in the expansive and beautifully preserved Victorian building.

There’s a cancer support awareness event in the basement, and in one wing of the building, a coffee morning for women to gather and chat.

Mustafa Hussain, the imam here, says the issue has been coming up repeatedly at the mosque. They’ve even had fundraising events and collections for donations towards aid going to Gaza.

But he says there’s only so much he can do, and he believes it is leaders who have the biggest responsibility.

“What we’re doing is to make our voices loud enough so they can make the right decisions,” he told me.

“You saw how the streets were filled all over Europe, in London, you would think that with that amount of noise being made on a local level, or a community level, the decision to help save lives would have been made earlier?”

But while Imam Mustafa says he believes this should have come earlier, he will take Labour at its word.

“When I hear Labour is going to be calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, I mean, great,” he said. “But I hope this is not just optics and will lead to actual change.”

Labour has been reportedly worried about losing voters in their stronghold with a high Muslim population for some time.

A recent survey by Survation added to that fear when it indicated only 60% of British Muslims who voted Labour in the last election would back the party again.

The politically active organisations in Birmingham say that figure could even be an underestimate.

Azhar Qayum, chief executive of the Muslim Engagement and Development organisation, worries about the wording of the Labour amendment.

He said the addition of the word “humanitarian” in “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” allows for “further quibbles” and even some “wiggle room”.

Mr Qayum added: “What does it even mean? It’s too much politicising this, it should be simple. The fighting needs to stop.”

So it seems this could be about a lack of trust for him and the delay from Labour to come to this position means he’s unable to take Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at his word.

He will be watching closely at which Labour MPs vote for what he says is a “simpler” SNP amendment, calling for an immediate ceasefire, and he says this will “undoubtedly” have an impact on the Labour vote from British Muslims.

‘Do the right thing’

Back in the mosque, a community organiser named Sidrah tells me why she welcomes Labour’s position today.

Calling for a ceasefire was important because of what she hopes for next: more aid into Gaza, more medics allowed inside and more equipment for hospitals.

“It has been a lot for the community to deal with,” she said.

It’s clear Labour has work to do to retain support among Muslim voters, but today at the Green Lane mosque, Imam Mustafa accepts this is a start.

“Lest we start assuming that decisions are being made for voters,” he said. “I’d like to believe decisions are being made to save lives.

“At the end of the day I don’t want you to win my vote, I want you to do the right thing and I think that’s the message from our community. Do the right thing.”

Politics

Bakkt investors file class-action lawsuit after loss of Webull, BoA contracts

Published

2 hours ago

April 4, 2025

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Bakkt investors file class-action lawsuit after loss of Webull, BoA contracts

A group of investors with cryptocurrency custody and trading firm Bakkt Holdings filed a class-action lawsuit alleging false or misleading statements and a failure to disclose certain information.

Lead plaintiff Guy Serge A. Franklin called for a jury trial as part of a complaint against Bakkt, senior adviser and former CEO Gavin Michael, CEO and president Andrew Main, and interim chief financial officer Karen Alexander, according to an April 2 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The group of investors allege damages as the result of violations of US securites laws and a lack of transparency surrounding its agreement with clients: Webull and Bank of America (BoA).

Law, Investments, United States, Bakkt — *April 2 complaint against Bakkt and its executives. Source: PACER*

The loss of Bank of America and Webull will result “in a 73% loss in top line revenue” due to the two firms making up a significant percentage of its services revenue, the investor group alleges in the lawsuit. The filing stated Webull made up 74% of Bakkt’s crypto services revenue through most of 2023 and 2024, and Bank of America made up 17% of its loyalty services revenue from January to September 2024.

Bakkt disclosed on March 17 that Bank of America and Webull did not intend to renew their agreements with the firm ending in 2025. The announcement likely contributed to the company’s share price falling more than 27% in the following 24 hours. The investors allege Bakkt “misrepresented the stability and/or diversity of its crypto services revenue” and failed to disclose that this revenue was “substantially dependent” on Webull’s contract.

“As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” said the suit.

Other law offices said they were investigating Bakkt for securities law violations, suggesting additional class-action lawsuits may be in the works. Cointelegraph contacted Bakkt for a comment on the lawsuit but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Prices affected by Trump Media reports

Bakkt’s share price surged roughly 162% in November 2024 after reports suggested that then-US President-elect Donald Trump’s media company was considering acquiring the firm. As of April 2025, neither company has officially announced a deal.

Shares in Bakkt (BKKT) were $8.15 at the time of publication, having fallen more than 36% in the previous 30 days.

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Politics

Trump tariffs squeeze already struggling Bitcoin miners — Braiins exec

Published

9 hours ago

April 4, 2025

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Trump tariffs squeeze already struggling Bitcoin miners — Braiins exec

The new trade tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump may place added pressure on the Bitcoin mining ecosystem both domestically and globally, according to one industry executive.

While the US is home to Bitcoin (BTC) mining manufacturing firms such as Auradine, it’s still “not possible to make the whole supply chain, including materials, US-based,” Kristian Csepcsar, chief marketing officer at BTC mining tech provider Braiins, told Cointelegraph.

On April 2, Trump announced sweeping tariffs, imposing a 10% tariff on all countries that export to the US and introducing “reciprocal” levies targeting America’s key trading partners.

Community members have debated the potential effects of the tariffs on Bitcoin, with some saying their impact has been overstated, while others see them as a significant threat.

Tariffs compound existing mining challenges

Csepcsar said the mining industry is already experiencing tough times, pointing to key indicators like the BTC hashprice.

Hashprice — a measure of a miner’s daily revenue per unit of hash power spent to mine BTC blocks — has been on the decline since 2022 and dropped to all-time lows of $50 for the first time in 2024.

According to data from Bitbo, the BTC hashprice was still hovering around all-time low levels of $53 on March 30.

“Hashprice is the key metric miners follow to understand their bottom line. It is how many dollars one terahash makes a day. A key profitability metric, and it is at all-time lows, ever,” Csepcsar said.

He added that mining equipment tariffs were already increasing under the Biden administration in 2024, and cited comments from Summer Meng, general manager at Chinese crypto mining supplier Bitmars.

“But they keep getting stricter under Trump,” Csepcsar added, referring to companies such as the China-based Bitmain — the world’s largest ASIC manufacturer — which is subject to the new tariffs.

Trump’s latest measures include a 34% additional tariff on top of an existing 20% levy for Chinese mining imports. In response, China reportedly imposed its own retaliatory tariffs on April 4.

BTC mining firms to “lose in the short term”

Csepcsar also noted that cutting-edge chips for crypto mining are currently massively produced in countries like Taiwan and South Korea, which were hit by new 32% and 25% tariffs, respectively.

“It will take a decade for the US to catch up with cutting-edge chip manufacturing. So again, companies, including American ones, lose in the short term,” he said.

Csepcsar also observed that some countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States region, including Russia and Kazakhstan, have been beefing up mining efforts and could potentially overtake the US in hashrate dominance.

“If we continue to see trade war, these regions with low tariffs and more favorable mining conditions can see a major boom,” Csepcsar warned.

As the newly announced tariffs potentially hurt Bitcoin mining both globally and in the US, it may become more difficult for Trump to keep his promise of making the US the global mining leader.

Trump’s stance on crypto has shifted multiple times over the years. As his administration embraces a more pro-crypto agenda, it remains to be seen how the latest economic policies will impact his long-term strategy for digital assets.

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Politics

Malta regulator fines OKX crypto exchange $1.2M for past AML breaches

Published

9 hours ago

April 4, 2025

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Malta regulator fines OKX crypto exchange .2M for past AML breaches

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is under renewed regulatory scrutiny in Europe after Maltese authorities issued a major fine for violations of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.

Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) fined Okcoin Europe — OKX’s Europe-based subsidiary — 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million) after detecting multiple AML failures on the platform in the past, the authority announced on April 3.

While admitting that OKX has significantly improved its AML policies in the past 18 months, the authority “could not ignore” its past compliance failures from 2023, “some of which were deemed to be serious and systematic,” the FIAU notice said.

OKX was among the first crypto exchanges to receive a license under Europe’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation via its Malta hub in January 2025.

The news of the $1.2 million penalty in Malta came after Bloomberg in March reported that European Union regulators were probing OKX for laundering $100 million in funds from the Bybit hack.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou previously claimed that OKX’s Web3 proxy allowed hackers to launder about $100 million, or 40,233 Ether (ETH), from the $1.5 billion hack that occurred in February.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

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