LONDON: Sadiq Khan, who was Saturday re-elected for a record third term as London mayor, rose from humble roots to spar with world leaders and bring consequential change to the British capital.
The 53-year-old Labor party politician – a former human rights lawyer brought up on a London public housing complex – comfortably defeated Conservative rival Susan Hall for a third stint at City Hall.
He now overtakes predecessor Boris Johnson as the longest-serving holder of the post, which notably has powers over the emergency services, transport and planning in the city of nearly nine million.
Victory continues a remarkable journey for the Pakistani immigrant bus driver’s son, who became the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when initially elected in 2016.
As mayor, he has made a name for himself as a vocal critic of Brexit and successive Conservative prime ministers, including Johnson, as well as for a feud with former US president Donald Trump.
The pair became embroiled in an extraordinary war of words after Khan criticized Trump’s travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries.
Trump then accused Khan of doing a “very bad job on terrorism” and called him a “stone cold loser” and a “national disgrace.”
The mayor in turn allowed an infamous blimp of Trump dressed as a baby in a nappy to fly above protests in Parliament Square during his 2018 visit to Britain.
“He once called me a stone cold loser. Only one of us is a loser, and it’s not me,” Khan told AFP during his 2021 campaign.
But Khan’s own tenure has not been without its controversies, particularly over last year’s expansion of an Ultra-Low Emission Zone into the largest pollution-charging scheme in the world.
The daily toll on the most-polluting vehicles prompted a fierce backlash in outer boroughs of Greater London, with anger at the extra financial burden during a cost-of-living crisis.
Khan has also been criticized for failing to get to grips with high levels of knife crime and since last year, his handling of large weekly pro-Palestinian protests.
Born in London in 1970 to parents who had recently arrived from Pakistan, Khan was the fifth child out of seven brothers and one sister.
He grew up in public housing in Tooting, an ethnically mixed residential area in south London, and slept in a bunk-bed until he was 24.
His modest background plays well in a city that is proud of its diversity and loves a self-made success story.
Khan still regularly recalls how his father drove one of London’s famous red buses, and his mother was a seamstress.
He is a handy boxer, having learnt the sport to defend himself in the streets against those who hurled racist abuse at him, and two of his brothers are boxing coaches.
He initially wanted to become a dentist, but a teacher spotted his gift for verbal sparring and directed him toward law.
He gained a law degree from the University of North London and started out as a trainee lawyer in 1994 at the Christian Fisher legal firm, where he was eventually made a partner.
He specialized in human rights, and spent three years chairing the civil liberties campaign group Liberty.
He represented Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam movement, and Babar Ahmad, a mosque acquaintance who was jailed in the United States after admitting providing support to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Khan joined Labor aged 15 when Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was in her pomp.
He became a local councilor for Tooting in the Conservative-dominated Wandsworth local borough in 1994, and its member of parliament in 2005.
He still lives in the area with his lawyer wife Saadiya and their two teenage daughters.
Labor prime minister Gordon Brown made him communities minister in 2008 and he later served as transport minister, becoming the first Muslim minister to attend Cabinet meetings.
In parliament, he voted for gay marriage – which earned him death threats.
As mayor, he vowed to focus on providing affordable homes for Londoners and freezing transport fares, but – like many in power around the world – saw his agenda engulfed by the pandemic.
He is London’s third mayor after Labor’s Ken Livingstone (2000-2008) and Johnson (2008-2016), with widespread speculation he could eventually try to follow in his predecessor and become prime minister.
Sadiq Khan, Pakistani immigrant bus driver’s son, makes history by winning third term as London mayor
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Sadiq Khan, Pakistani immigrant bus driver’s son, makes history by winning third term as London mayor
- Khan, an official with global renown, became the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when elected in 2016
- Born in London in 1970, he grew up in public housing the Tooting area and slept in a bunk-bed until he was 24
S.Sudan opposition MP accuses government of ‘mapping genocide’
- South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011
JUBA: A South Sudan opposition lawmaker on Sunday accused President Salva Kiir’s government of preparing a “genocide” of his rival Riek Machar’s Nuer community by classifying their homelands as “hostile.”
Months of clashes between Kiir’s forces and those loyal to the first vice president Machar, who was arrested in March, have stoked fears of a return to civil war in the world’s newest country.
Kiir’s allies have accused Machar’s forces of threatening that deal by fomenting unrest in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, in league with the so-called White Army, a loose band of ethnic Nuer armed youths in the region.
“The Nuer ethnic group, one of the largest in South Sudan, played a significant role in the liberation struggle,” read a government statement.
“The community spans 16 counties... out of these, nine are considered hostile,” meaning aligned with Machar’s party, the statement added.
Nasir County was among those considered hostile.
That designation was “reckless and malicious,” said Reath Muoch Tang, a deputy and top official in Machar’s party who is Nuer himself.
“This dangerous labelling... this sinister plan constitute(s) nothing short of a mapping for genocide against the Nuer community,” Tang said in a statement published on Facebook.
“It is a deliberate and calculated attempt to justify collective punishment, instigate violence, and destroy an entire society under the false cover of security measures.”
In a statement, Oyet Nathaniel Pierino, acting chairman of Machar’s party, cited a 2014 African Union report that found that “male Nuers were targeted, identified, killed on the spot or gathered in one place and killed” at roadblocks, checkpoints and house-to-house-searches.
“We warn and strongly condemn (this) perpetuation of State Policy and of ethnic and tribal profiling, targeting and cleansing,” said Pierino.
He said the party was taking steps toward filing charges of crimes against humanity and genocide, among others, at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Clashes around Nasir contributed to the unraveling of Kiir and Machar’s fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement, which had put an end to a civil war that killed around 400,000 people.
Some 6,000 White Army fighters are estimated to have stormed a military camp in Nasir in early March, with a top-ranking general among the victims.
The government said the attack killed 400 members of the armed forces, and has said it has since retaken the city, as well as Ulang, nearly a week ago, with the support of Ugandan forces.
Since March the violence has led to the deaths of at least 200 people across several South Sudan states and displaced around 125,000 more, according to the United Nations.
South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.
Between 2013 and 2018, the fighting pitted the supporters of Machar against those of Kiir, who is from the Dinka ethnic group.
The Dinka and Nuer communities are the two largest groups in ethnically diverse South Sudan.
The president has moved to sideline Machar, who was placed under house arrest.
On Saturday, the South Sudanese government also discussed a “plan of action” to restore the peace agreement.
It suggested that it could choose which of the divided opposition factions is legitimate, potentially paving the way for Machar’s ousting, according to South Sudanese media.
Pierino, Machar’s ally, warned that “any attempt to change the structure” of the transitional government, “or replace the appointments therein... shall be rejected and resisted by all means at our disposal.”
Bessent does not back up Trump on China tariff discussions
- Trump’s erratic, and often confusing, rollout of tariffs has hit many countries including the largest US trading partners, like Canada, Mexico and China
WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday did not back President Donald Trump’s assertion that tariff talks with China were under way and said he did not know if the US president had talked to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Trump administration signaled openness last week to de-escalating a trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has raised fears of recession. Trump himself has said talks on tariffs were taking place with China and that he and Xi have spoken.
Yet Beijing has denied that any trade talks are occurring.
Bessent, a key player in US trade talks with multiple countries, said that he had interactions with his Chinese counterparts last week during International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, but did not mention tariffs.
“I had interaction with my Chinese counterpart, but it was more on the traditional things like financial stability, global economic early warnings,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I don’t know if President Trump has spoken with President Xi,” Bessent added. “I know they have a very good relationship and a lot of respect for each other.”
Asked why the Chinese were denying talks, Bessent said. “I think they’re playing to a different audience.”
Bessent, who said last week that tariff negotiations with Beijing would be a “slog,” did not give a timetable for any potential agreement with China.
He said a trade deal can take months, but a de-escalation and an agreement in principle can be achieved sooner and would keep tariffs from ratcheting back to the maximum level.
Trump’s erratic, and often confusing, rollout of tariffs has hit many countries including the largest US trading partners, like Canada, Mexico and China. The result has been almost unprecedented market volatility and serious damage to investor trust in US assets.
In a separate television interview on Sunday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the United States was holding daily conversations with China over tariffs, but did not elaborate.
“Every day we are in conversation with China, along with those other 99, 100 countries that have come to the table,” Rollins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
AU calls for action to tackle extremist threat in Sahel region
- The attack “highlights the urgent need for enhanced cooperation between neighboring states to address the growing threat posed by terrorist groups operating in the Sahel,” a statement read
NAIROBI: The African Union hs called for urgent cooperation to tackle extremist violence in the Sahel region, after a recent attack blamed on militants killed 54 soldiers in northern Benin.
The region, which borders both Niger and Burkina Faso, has seen a recent rise in strikes targeting army positions and on April 17, suspected extremists attacked military posts in a national park.
Benin’s government blamed the attacks on a spillover from Niger and Burkina Faso, both ruled by army officers who took power in coups on the promise of quashing the long-running extremist scourge in the Sahel.
The AU commission’s chairman, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, condemned the latest attack and called it “cowardly.”
The attack “highlights the urgent need for enhanced cooperation between neighboring states to address the growing threat posed by terrorist groups operating in the Sahel,” a statement read.
On Wednesday, Benin criticized the lack of cooperation with authorities in Burkina Faso and Niger, which have been hit by violence from armed groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
Burkina Faso and Niger have turned their backs on the West and accuse Benin of harboring foreign military bases to destabilize them. Benin has denied the accusations.
The April 17 attack was claimed by an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group which claimed that 70 Beninese soldiers were killed.
Rwanda’s actions in DR Congo unjustified: Belgian top diplomat
- UN experts and some Western countries have accused Rwanda of backing the M23, whose lightning offensive has raised fears of a regional war
KAMPALA: Belgium’s foreign minister said that Rwanda’s “legitimate” security concerns in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo could not justify its former colony’s backing for the M23 armed group.
In an interview, Maxime Prevot urged both sides to negotiate an end to the conflict in the DRC’s troubled east, where the M23 has seized swathes of territory from the Congolese government.
“There will be no military solution in the east of the Congo. We need dialogue,” Prevot said after meeting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the capital Kampala on Friday.
“The situation there remains extremely precarious and the local population pays the price every day,” the minister added, raising concerns of human rights abuses.
FASTFACT
President Paul Kagame’s government denies offering the M23 military support, but argues it faces threats from armed groups linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide present in the DRC’s east.
“There is an urgent need to act.”
Since the beginning of 2025 the M23 armed group has forced the Congolese army out of swathes of the DRC’s mineral-rich east, triggering a worsening humanitarian crisis and displacing hundreds of thousands.
UN experts and some Western countries have accused Rwanda of backing the M23, whose lightning offensive has raised fears of a regional war.
President Paul Kagame’s government denies offering the M23 military support, but argues it faces threats from armed groups linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide present in the DRC’s east.
Prevot said Rwanda’s security concerns were understandable, but its actions in the eastern DRC were unacceptable.
“I think that Rwanda, and it is legitimate, is looking for security,” Prevot said.
“But I fully disagree with Rwanda considering the way it is acting in the east of Congo.”
Prevot denied Belgium’s position was linked to its colonial history. Belgium ruled Rwanda and neighboring Burundi from 1916 to 1962.
Rwanda, which according to UN experts maintains 4,000 troops in the DRC to support the M23, severed diplomatic links with Belgium in March because of its stance on the conflict.
“We do not have any feeling of past colonialism regrets,” Prevot said. “And certainly not for me. I have a lot of respect for Rwanda.”
Prevot welcomed mediation efforts by Qatar and the United States between the DRC, the M23 and Rwanda but cautioned against false optimism.
“I hope I’m not being naive with the positive announcements” made this week, the minister said.
The DRC and the M23 issued a statement this week pledging to work toward a ceasefire and to engage in dialogue to end the conflict, with Qatar facilitating the talks.
Responding to suggestions that the parties to the talks were using a lull in the fighting to prepare a further military offensive, Prevot said: “I hope that this is not a kind of smokescreen and that everybody is sincere.”
Prevot acknowledged Belgium’s limited influence, given diplomatic tensions with Rwanda, but said efforts should continue.
“I hope it will be possible in the coming months to reopen, maybe discreetly, maybe informally, communication channels,” the foreign minister said.
“The way Belgium is reacting is not against Rwanda, it’s for the defense of international law, humanitarian law, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Kristof Titeca, a Belgian academic specializing in the African Great Lakes region, told AFP that Belgium has played a key role in Europe advocating for sanctions against Rwanda.
But he warned that the situation on the ground remains fragile, while domestic Congolese politics complicated the picture.
“It has become close to impossible for Kinshasa to regain the territories lost to M23 and Rwanda,” Titeca said.
Any outside power hoping to intervene would have “to navigate both Rwanda’s support for M23 and the structural weaknesses in the Congolese political system,” he added.
Titeca said Rwanda’s minimum objective appears to be the establishment of a “buffer zone” in the eastern DRC, either through the M23 or through influence over a local administration.
Following his visit to Uganda, Prevot will continue his tour in Burundi and the DRC.
Millionaire donor of Lebanese heritage defects from Conservatives to Reform UK
- Tech mogul Bassim Haidar announces intention to give £1m, making him party’s biggest donor
- He plans to leave Britain over tax changes but believes party leader Nigel Farage can return country ‘to its glory’
LONDON: A major donor to the Conservative Party has switched allegiances to Reform UK.
Bassim Haidar, born in Nigeria to Lebanese parents, has pledged £1 million ($1.33 million) to Nigel Farage’s party, having previously donated more than £700,000 to the Conservatives.
The Conservative Party has “lost its way,” Haidar told the Telegraph on Sunday, adding that he believes Farage could become prime minister and “bring this country back to its glory.”
The move makes Haidar Reform’s biggest donor, with £200,000 already delivered to aid the party at upcoming local elections.
The tech mogul, who moved to the UK in 2010 and made his fortune modernizing communications networks in Nigeria, became disillusioned with the former Conservative government after it changed Britain’s tax laws for non-domiciled individuals.
He now plans to move his family, including three school-aged children, out of the UK following the election last year of the Labour government, whose non-dom and inheritance tax policies he disagrees with.
“I’ve always been pro-business and I always supported parties that supported businesses,” he told the Telegraph. “The Conservative Party stopped listening and, for me, I had to go with the party that I believe can actually reset and change the status quo in the UK.
“Nigel and Reform are the only ones that can do this and that’s why I’m supporting them. If we want a better future, we have to stop funding the past.”
Labour’s economic strategy “defies all logic” and will make the country poorer, he said. Farage, though, is “listening to the people, he is addressing their concerns, he is talking about immigration in a way that no one has actually spoken about, he is willing to do things that I think the other parties aren’t willing to do.”
Haidar, whose business empire includes a vast property portfolio worth over £100 million, a Caribbean hotel and a loans company, added: “I believe he would reform tax, he would encourage investment, maybe come up with a new non-dom tax regime, so hopefully once he becomes prime minister we’re going to see the UK becoming great again.”
On the subject of Farage potentially becoming prime minister, Haidar said he is “very convinced” of his chances.
“Nigel has all it takes, and if funding is an issue, I don’t think he will have that issue going forward,” he added.
“They (Reform) have a lot of momentum behind them. Yeah, they are a small party, but what does that actually mean? It means nothing. All of us were small once.
“It’s the same thing I said to people who thought I would never make it in life, when I was in my 20s and I was starting out in business and I had something to prove, and look where I am today.”
Reform UK is expected to perform well at local elections across the UK next week, and currently leads the Conservatives by a considerable margin in a number of opinion polls.
Haidar believes that success over Labour and the Conservatives could lead to even more financial support for Reform from wealthy donors.
“I have a few friends that are seriously, seriously considering (donating to Reform),” he said. “Some of the statements that Nigel made recently have resonated with them and I have got calls and they have told me they really believe that he is on the right track and they have become very encouraged.
“I know it will come. Like everything else you have to be a pioneer, you have to lead and once you lead people will follow. Nigel has done it from a politics point of view, I want to do it from a support point of view.”
He added: “There is absolutely nothing in it for me besides me believing that Nigel can turn it around and bring this country back to its glory.”
Farage told the Telegraph: “Reform has achieved a huge amount on a small budget so far. With a donation like this, we can rapidly build out our team and professionalise further as we head towards the next general election. This is especially true if others follow Bassim’s lead.”
