UK ex-envoy’s ties to Epstein spark political storm
NewsFeed UK PM Keir Starmer says he regrets appointing Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US after documents showed Mandelson maintained a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, shared sensitive information, and received payments linked to Epstein. Police are investigating. Published On 5 Feb 20265 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
New Trump administration rule makes it easier to fire career civil servants
The Office of Personnel Management’s new rule would reclassify high ranking officials as at-will and they could be fired for ‘intentionally subverting Presidential directives’. By Reuters Published On 5 Feb 20265 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share The administration of United States President Donald Trump has finalised its overhaul of the US government’s civil service system, according to a government statement, giving the president the power to hire and fire an estimated 50,000 career federal employees. The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Thursday is set to create a new category for high-ranking career employees involved in carrying out administration policies, the Wall Street Journal reported. Personnel in that category would be exempted from longstanding civil service protections that make federal workers difficult to fire. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list OPM officials said the rule is aimed in part at “disciplining” federal workers who stand in the way of Trump’s policies, the paper reported. It added that the new category applies to senior positions that are policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating in nature. “People can’t be conscientious objectors in the workforce in a way where it interferes with their ability to carry out their mission,” OPM’s director Scott Kupor said in an interview with the WSJ. “These positions will remain career jobs filled on a non-partisan basis. Yet they will be at-will positions excepted from adverse action procedures or appeals. This will allow agencies to quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives,” the more than 250-page directive from OPM claimed. The federal government has long been seen as a stable employer, with staff commonly spending decades working at US agencies. Trump and his team sought to change that at the start of his second term, as he argued that the federal government was bloated and inefficient. Advertisement In 2025, the White House made aggressive cuts to the federal workforce, with more than 300,000 people leaving the nation’s largest employer. The OPM did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. Adblock test (Why?)
Starvation by design: How Israel turned food into a weapon of war in Gaza
In the first three months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2023, only four deaths were officially attributed to starvation by health officials in Gaza. By 2024, that number rose to 49. But it was in 2025 – the year the siege reached its suffocating zenith – that the death toll exploded, reaching 422 deaths in a single year. This represents a staggering 760 percent increase in starvation deaths in just 12 months. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri told Al Jazeera in August 2025 that the global standard for famine analysis, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), tends to be “conservative”. “The reality on the ground was unequivocal. We raised the alarm when we started seeing the first children dying,” Fakhri explained, noting that the crisis met the strict technical criteria for famine. The Health Ministry in Gaza gave the breakdown of the victims: 40.63 percent were elderly (over 60), and 34.74 percent were children. In 2025 alone, cases among children under five spiked from 2,754 in January to 14,383 in August. Legal experts said that what occurred in Gaza wasn’t just “food insecurity”; it met the strict technical criteria for famine, a designation often delayed by political bureaucracy. “In the human rights community, we don’t wait as long … we don’t have to focus on measuring pain, suffering, and death,” Fakhri explained. “We raised the alarm when we started seeing the first children dying … because when a parent is holding their child in their arms, and that child is wasting away, that means an entire community is under attack.” Anatomy of a strategy Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory have accused consecutive Israeli governments of a decades-old policy to use food and aid as a weapon of war. Advertisement Suleiman Basharat, a Palestinian commentator and researcher on Israeli affairs, traces this strategy to the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel in 2007. “It was based on the idea of starvation and narrowing daily life,” Basharat noted. This doctrine was infamously summarised in 2006 by Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister, who said the goal was “to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger”, adding that the war marked a shift from “management” to “elimination”. Senior Israeli ministers made their intentions clear at the very start of the genocidal war on Gaza. Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had declared a complete siege against “human animals“. His remarks were quickly reinforced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who argued that blocking aid to Gaza was “justified and moral“, even if it meant starving millions. Israel’s moves to ramp up this policy were thorough. Before the war on Gaza began in 2023, the United Nations said 500 trucks carrying aid and food were needed to keep the people in Gaza sustained. But during the war, an average of 19 trucks a day were allowed in the Strip – a 96 percent reduction – which some Israeli media have referred to as the “calorie collapse”. The Calorie Collapse: Before the war, 500 trucks sustained Gaza daily. During the conflict, this dropped to an average of 19 trucks a day – a 96 percent reduction. The Thirst War: Water availability plummeted from 84 litres per person to just 3 litres during the siege. Scorched Earth: Israel systematically destroyed infrastructure for agricultural production. By August 2025, 90 percent of agricultural land was razed, 2,500 chicken farms were destroyed (killing 36 million birds), and the fishing port was obliterated. “If Israel wanted to do it, every child in Gaza could have breakfast tomorrow,” de Waal observed. “All they need to do is to open the gates”. [Al Jazeera] In addition to food, people in Gaza witnessed a sharp decrease in water releases from Israel. Rights group Oxfam said that, 100 days into the “ceasefire”, Gaza is still deliberately deprived of water as aid groups are forced to scavenge under an illegal blockade. Israel also employed a “scorched earth” policy, systematically destroying the infrastructure for agricultural production. By August 2025, estimates suggest that the Israeli army had destroyed 90 percent of agricultural land and 2,500 chicken farms. The army focused its campaign on areas near the security barrier in the north, south and east of the Gaza Strip. Advertisement The spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Agriculture, Mohammed Abu Odeh, has warned that the Israeli army’s destruction and control of the farmland will affect the chain of food and supply of vegetables for nearly two million people in the Strip. The illusion of aid Palestinian officials and analysts suggest Israel has had a strategy of blocking aid and, at times, manipulating how it is delivered. Political analyst Abdullah Aqrabawi told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israel and the US have tried to create their own aid-delivering system, such as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but failed. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed at GHF sites trying to access food. “The United States came with a pier and contracted companies … and failed,” Aqrabawi said. He noted that these initiatives were attempts to “support criminal pockets” or specific families to distribute aid, “thereby isolating Hamas – the resistance”. Re-engineering society Analysts say that the starvation tactics were used, not just for military leverage, but also to create an “anti-resistance” sentiment in Gaza. “The goal is to break the Palestinian resistance by affecting the social base that embraces it,” Basharat explained. He argues that Israel aimed to “re-engineer the Palestinian human” into a being whose sole cognitive focus is basic survival, rendering them incapable of political thought. Analysts described a host of policies adopted by Israeli officials to push Palestinians out of Gaza, cloaking them in misleading terms, such as encouraging “voluntary migration“. Israeli affairs expert Mohannad Mustafa said this was a cynical euphemism for forced displacement. “You starve the people, destroy the infrastructure … and in the end, you ask them: ‘Do
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,442
[unable to retrieve full-text content] These are the key developments from day 1,442 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Australia charges teen over online threat as Israeli president due to visit
‘Mass, peaceful’ demonstration are planned across Australia to protest the visit of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. Published On 5 Feb 20265 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share An Australian teenager has been charged for allegedly making online threats against Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose visit to the country on Sunday has been met with planned protests, police complaints over alleged war crimes, and efforts to have his invitation revoked. Australian Federal Police said in a statement on Thursday that the 19-year-old allegedly made the threats on a social media platform last month “towards a foreign head of state and internationally protected person”. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Police did not name the intended target of the alleged threats, but Australian media widely reported they were directed at Herzog. The teenager was refused police bail and will appear before a court in Sydney on Thursday. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, police said in the statement. Herzog is due to arrive in Australia on Sunday for a five-day visit, following an invitation by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of the shooting of 15 people attending a Jewish festival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December. The visit by Herzog – who is expected to meet survivors and the families of the victims of the shooting – has drawn strong opposition from pro-Palestine groups and those opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with protests against the visit planned across some two dozen Australian cities, according to reports. David Shoebridge, Greens party senator for New South Wales (NSW), home to Sydney, said the Albanese government “needs to withdraw this invitation now”. “They should not have invited Herzog to Australia. Now the police are saying they have concerns about how his visit will cause ‘significant animosity’,” Shoebridge said in a post on social media on Wednesday. Advertisement Shoebridge had tried in the state Senate to move a motion calling on Prime Minister Albanese’s government to revoke Herzog’s invitation. “He has literally signed bombs used in the genocide in Gaza,” Shoebridge said of the Israeli president. NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon announced on Tuesday that restrictions on protests would be extended in advance of the Israeli leader’s visit, stating, “I know that there is significant animosity about President Herzog’s visit.” The Palestine Action Group has called on supporters to attend a rally in Sydney on Monday, urging people to march to the New South Wales state parliament in what is described as a “mass, peaceful gathering”. An Australian and two Palestinian legal groups formally called on the Australian Federal Police last month to investigate Herzog for his alleged role in war crimes in Gaza. The Australian Centre for International Justice, Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said that they had written to “urgently alert” Australian police of their concerns “in light of serious and credible criminal allegations of incitement to genocide and advocating genocide” by Herzog amid Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023. Adblock test (Why?)
Nike probed by Trump appointee over claims of bias against white workers
US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s probe seen as latest effort by Trump administration to roll back diversity and inclusion policies. Published On 5 Feb 20265 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Nike is being investigated in the United States over claims that it discriminated against white workers through its diversity and inclusion policies. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said on Wednesday that it had filed a court motion to compel Nike to produce information related to allegations of “intentional race discrimination” against white employees. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The allegations relate to a suspected pattern of discrimination in “hiring, promotion, demotion, or separation decisions, including selection for layoffs; internship programs; and mentoring, leadership development and other career development programs”, the US government agency said. The agency said it took the action after Nike had failed to respond to a subpoena for various information, including the criteria used in selecting employees for redundancies and setting executives’ pay. EEOC chair, Andrea Lucas, an ardent critic of racial diversity initiatives who was appointed last year by President Donald Trump, said US anti-discrimination law is “colour-blind” and protects employees of “all races”. “Thanks to President Trump’s commitment to enforcing our nation’s civil rights laws, the EEOC has renewed its focus on even-handed enforcement of Title VII,” Lucas said in a statement, referring to a section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion or sex. Nike, based in Beaverton, Oregon, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The EEOC’s action is seen as the latest move by the Trump administration to roll back policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Advertisement In one of his first acts upon returning to the White House, Trump signed an executive order to abolish “radical” and “wasteful” DEI initiatives introduced under his predecessor, Joe Biden. Like many corporate giants in the US, Nike publicly backed social justice causes such as Black Lives Matter prior to Trump’s re-election in 2024. Between 2020 and 2021, Nike’s share of non-white employees rose more than four percentage points, the most among firms apart from healthcare provider Danaher, according to a Bloomberg analysis of company data reported to the EEOC. Adblock test (Why?)
Can India switch from Russian to Venezuelan oil, as Trump wants?
New Delhi, India – When US President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with India on Monday this week, he declared that New Delhi would pivot away from Russian energy as part of the agreement. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said, had promised to stop buying Russian oil, and instead buy crude from the United States and from Venezuela, whose president, Nicolas Maduro, was abducted by US special forces in early January. Since then, the US has effectively taken control of Venezuela’s mammoth oil industry. In return, Trump dialled down trade tariffs on Indian goods from an overall 50 percent to just 18 percent. Half of that 50 percent tariff was levied last year as punishment for India buying Russian oil, which the White House maintains is financing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. But since Monday, India has not publicly confirmed that it has committed to either ceasing its purchase of Russian oil or embracing Venezuelan crude, analysts note. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, told reporters on Tuesday that Russia had received no indication of this from India, either. And switching from Russian to Venezuelan oil will be far from straightforward. A cocktail of other factors – shocks to the energy market, costs, geography, and the characteristics of different kinds of oil – will complicate New Delhi’s decisions about its sourcing of oil, they say. So, can India really dump Russian oil? And can Venezuelan crude replace it? US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on Saturday, January 3, 2026 at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the US as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens [Alex Brandon/AP] What is Trump’s plan? Trump has been pressuring India to stop buying Russian oil for months. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the US and European Union placed an oil price cap on Russian crude in a bid to limit Russia’s ability to finance the war. Advertisement As a result, other countries including India began buying large quantities of cheap Russian oil. India, which before the war sourced only 2.5 percent of its oil from Russia, became the second-largest consumer of Russian oil after China. It currently sources around 30 percent of its oil from Russia. Last year, Trump doubled trade tariffs on Indian goods from 25 percent to 50 percent as punishment for this. Later in the year, Trump also imposed sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies – and threatened secondary sanctions against countries and entities that trade with these firms. Since the abduction of Maduro by US forces in early January, Trump has effectively taken over the Venezuelan oil sector, controlling sales cash flows. Venezuela also has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, estimated at 303 billion barrels, more than five times larger than those of the US, the world’s largest oil producer. But while getting India to buy Venezuelan oil makes sense from the US’s perspective, analysts say this could be operationally messy. A man sits by railway tracks as a freight train transports petrol wagons in Ajmer, India, on August 27, 2025. US tariffs of 50 percent took effect on August 27 on many Indian products, doubling an existing duty as US President Donald Trump sought to punish New Delhi for buying Russian oil [File: Himanshu Sharma/AFP] How much oil does India import from Russia? India currently imports nearly 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude, according to analytics company Kpler. Under Trump’s mounting pressure, that is lower than the average 1.21 million bpd in December 2025 and more than 2 million bpd in mid-2025. One barrel is equivalent to 159 litres (42 gallons) of crude oil. Once refined, a barrel typically produces about 73 litres (19 gallons) of petrol for a car. Oil is also refined to produce a wide variety of products, from jet fuel to household items including plastics and even lotions. Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet each other before a meeting in New Delhi, India, on December 6, 2021 [File: Manish Swarup/AP] Has India stopped Russian oil purchases? India has reduced the amount of oil it buys from Russia over the past year, but it has not stopped buying it altogether. Under increasing pressure from Trump, last August, Indian officials called out the “hypocrisy” of the US and EU pressuring New Delhi to back off from Russian crude. “In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict,” Randhir Jaiswal, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said then. He added that India’s decision to import Russian oil was “meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer”. Advertisement Despite this, Indian refiners, currently the second-largest group of buyers of Russian oil after China, are reportedly winding up their purchases after clearing current scheduled orders. Major refiners like Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) halted purchasing from Russia following the US sanctions against Russian oil producers last year. Other players like Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation, and Reliance Industries will soon stop their purchases. A man pushes his cart as he walks past Bharat Petroleum’s storage tankers in Mumbai, India, December 8, 2022 [File: Punit Paranjpe/AFP] What happens if India suddenly stops buying Russian oil? Even if India wanted to stop importing Russian oil altogether, analysts argue it would be extremely costly to do so. In September last year, India’s oil and petroleum minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, told reporters that it would also sharply push up energy prices and fuel inflation. “The world will face serious consequences if the supplies are disrupted. The world can’t afford to keep Russia off the oil market,” Puri said. Analysts tend to agree. “A complete cessation of Indian purchases of Russian oil would be a major disruption. An immediate halt would spike global prices and threaten India’s economic growth,” said George Voloshin, an independent energy analyst based in
US border security chief withdrawing 700 immigration agents from Minnesota
United States border security chief Tom Homan has announced that the administration of President Donald Trump will “draw down” 700 immigration enforcement personnel from Minnesota while promising to continue operations in the northern state. The update on Wednesday was the latest indication of the Trump administration pivoting on its enforcement surge in the state following the killing of two US citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Homan, who is officially called Trump’s “border czar”, said the decision came amid new cooperation agreements with local authorities, particularly related to detaining individuals at county jails. Details of those agreements were not immediately available. About 3,000 immigration enforcement agents are currently believed to be in Minnesota as part of Trump’s enforcement operations. “Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration, and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced, effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people effective today – 700 law enforcement personnel,” Homan said. The announcement comes after Homan was sent to Minnesota at the end of January in response to widespread protests over immigration enforcement and the killing of Renee Nicole Good on January 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and Alex Pretti on January 24 by a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer, both in Minneapolis. Homan said reforms made since his arrival have included consolidating ICE and CBP under a single chain of command. Advertisement He said Trump “fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration, and immigration enforcement actions will continue every day throughout this country”. Immigration rights observers have said the administration’s mass deportation approach has seen agents use increasingly “dragnet” tactics to meet large detention quotas, including randomly stopping individuals and asking for their papers. The administration has increasingly detained undocumented individuals with no criminal records, even US citizens and people who have legal status to live in the US. Homan said agents would prioritise who they considered to be “public safety threats” but added, “Just because you prioritise public safety threats, don’t mean we forget about everybody else. We will continue to enforce the immigration laws in this country.” The “drawdown”, he added, would not apply to what he described as “personnel providing security for our officers”. “We will not draw down on personnel providing security and responding to hostile incidents until we see a change,” he said. Critics have accused immigration enforcement officers, who do not receive the same level of crowd control training as most local police forces, of using excessive violence in responding to protesters and individuals legally monitoring their actions. Trump administration officials have regularly blamed unrest on “agitators”. They accused both Good and Pretti of threatening officers before their killings although video evidence of the exchanges has contradicted that characterisation. Last week, the administration announced it was opening a federal civil rights investigation into the killing of Pretti, who was fatally shot while he was pinned to the ground by immigration agents. That came moments after an agent removed a gun from Pretti’s body, which the 37-year-old had not drawn and was legally carrying. Federal authorities have not opened a civil rights investigation into the killing of Good, who they have maintained sought to run over an ICE agent before she was fatally shot. Video evidence appeared to show Good trying to turn away from the agent. On Friday, thousands of people took to the streets of Minneapolis and other US cities amid calls for a federal strike in protest against the Trump administration’s deportation drive. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other state and local officials have also challenged the immigration enforcement surge in the state, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the CBP, has been violating constitutional protections. Advertisement A federal judge last week said she will not halt the operations as a lawsuit progresses in court. Department of Justice lawyers have dismissed the suit as “legally frivolous”. On Wednesday, a poll released by the Marquette Law School found wide-ranging disquiet over ICE’s approach, with 60 percent of US adults nationwide saying they disapproved of how the agency was conducting itself. The poll was conducted from January 21 to January 28, with many of the surveys conducted before Pretti’s killing. The poll still found widespread support for ICE among Republicans, with about 80 percent approving of its work. Just 5 percent of Democrats voiced similar approval. Perhaps most worryingly for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms in November, just 23 percent of independents – potential swing voters in the upcoming vote – approved of ICE’s actions. Adblock test (Why?)
Russian shelling kills seven in Ukrainian market, clouding Abu Dhabi talks
Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin accused Moscow of carrying out ‘another targeted war crime’. Published On 4 Feb 20264 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Russian forces have shelled Ukraine’s eastern city of Druzhkivka, killing at least seven people at a crowded market, according to the regional governor. The attack, using cluster munitions, targeted the market during a typically busy time on Wednesday morning, Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin said. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list In addition to the seven killed, 15 others were injured, he said. The eldest victim was 81. Separately, Russia’s military dropped two aerial bombs on the city, which advancing Russian forces are seeking to capture, damaging several homes and buildings, said Filashkin. The attacks came as Russian and Ukrainian officials took part in a second round of United States-brokered negotiations in Abu Dhabi, further angering Ukrainian officials who claimed Moscow had already violated a one-week pledge to cease attacks on its energy facilities. “This is another targeted war crime and further proof that all Russian statements about a ‘truce’ are worthless,” said Filashkin. Elsewhere, Russian strikes hammered the central Dnipropetrovsk region, killing a 68-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man in a residential area, as well as the southern city of Odesa, damaging some 20 residential buildings, according to local officials. On the ground, Russia’s military also claimed its forces seized control of Ukraine’s eastern settlements of Staroukrainka and Stepanivka, adding to a slow, bloody advance that Moscow feels can boost its position in negotiations. European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of abusing the negotiations in the United Arab Emirates by continuing attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. Advertisement “Putin can end this war right now. He doesn’t show any signs of wanting to do so. He misuses even the discussions on the ceasefire to continuously attack the civilian infrastructure and kill innocent people,” said Hipper. While Russia hopes it can outlast and outgun Kyiv’s stretched army, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing his Western backers to boost their own weapons supplies and heap economic and political pressure on the Kremlin to halt its invasion. Adblock test (Why?)
Who was Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the man once seen as Libya’s next leader?
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed in the country’s western city of Zintan. Saif al-Islam, who was 53 when he was killed, was Gaddafi’s second son and had been based in Zintan since 2011 – first in prison, and then, after 2017, as a free man, plotting a return to politics. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Figures close to him, including his political adviser, Abdullah Othman, and his lawyer, Khaled el-Zaydi, confirmed his death on Tuesday, although the exact circumstances are still unclear. Saif al-Islam had been seen by many before the 2011 uprising as his father’s heir-apparent and the second-most powerful man in Libya. He remained prominent throughout the violence that gripped Libya in the wake of the Arab Spring protests, which led to a civil war. There were numerous allegations against him of torture and extreme violence against opponents of his father’s rule. By February 2011, he was on a United Nations sanctions list and was banned from travelling. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (left), son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, registers to run in presidential elections in 2021 [Libyan Electoral Commission Handout via EPA-EFE] In March 2011, NATO began bombing Libya after the UN authorised “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from Gaddafi’s forces in the civil war. In June 2011, Saif al-Islam announced that his father was willing to hold elections and to step down if he did not win them. However, NATO rejected the offer, and the bombardment of Libya continued. Advertisement By the end of June, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued an arrest warrant against Saif al-Islam, but he remained at large until after the death of his father and his brother, Mutassim, in Sirte, on October 20, 2011. Prison Following long negotiations with the ICC, which had been calling for his extradition, Libyan officials were granted the authority to try Saif al-Islam in Libya for war crimes committed during the 2011 uprising. At the time, Saif al-Islam’s defence lawyers feared that a trial in Libya would not be motivated by justice, but a desire for revenge. The UN estimated that up to 15,000 people were killed in the conflict, while Libya’s National Transitional Council placed the figure as high as 30,000. In 2014, Saif al-Islam appeared via videolink in the Tripoli court where his trial was held, as he was imprisoned in Zintan at the time. In July 2015, the Tripoli court sentenced him to death in absentia. However, in 2017, he was released by the Abu Bakr as-Siddiq Battalion, a militia that controlled Zintan, as part of an amnesty issued by Libya’s eastern authorities, which are not recognised internationally. But he did not re-emerge publicly for years, and continued to be wanted by the ICC. In July 2021, Saif al-Islam gave a rare interview to The New York Times, in which he accused authorities in Libya of being “afraid of … elections”. Explaining his underground persona, he said he had “been away from the Libyan people for 10 years”. “You need to come back slowly, slowly. Like a striptease,” he added. He went on to make his first public appearance in years in November 2021, in the city of Sebha, where he filed to run for the Libyan presidency in an attempt to resurrect the ambitions of his father’s former supporters. Initially banned from taking part, he was later reinstated, but the election did not take place as a result of Libya’s tumultuous political situation, with two rival administrations vying for power. ‘Progressive’ face A Western-educated and well-spoken man, Saif al-Islam presented a progressive face to the oppressive Libyan government. He received a PhD from the London School of Economics in 2008. His dissertation dealt with the role of civil society in reforming global governance. He was prominent in his calls for political reform, and was extremely visible and active in the drive to repair Libya’s relations with the West between the year 2000 and the start of the 2011 uprising. The London School of Economics was later condemned for having sought a relationship with the Libyan regime, namely for accepting Saif al-Islam as a student, who had signed an agreement for a $2.4m gift from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation on the day of his doctorate ceremony. Advertisement As an internationally prominent negotiator and influencer, Saif al-Islam could claim a number of victories and prominent roles. He played a pivotal role in the nuclear negotiations with Western powers, including the United States and the UK. He was also prominent when negotiating compensation for families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing, the Berlin nightclub attack, and the UTA Flight 772, which detonated over the Sahara Desert. And he mediated the release of six medics – five of whom were Bulgarian – who were accused of infecting children with HIV in Libya in the late 1990s. The medics were imprisoned for eight years in 1999 and, upon their release, announced that they had been tortured while in detention. He had several other proposals, including “Isratine”, a proposal for a permanent resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through a secular one-state solution. He also hosted peace talks between the Philippine government and leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which resulted in a peace agreement that was signed in 2001. Adblock test (Why?)