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LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the UK ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson Wednesday after details emerged of the diplomat’s friendship with disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson called the late Epstein his “best pal” and an “intelligent, sharp-witted man” in a 2003 letter, released to the public just a week before US President Donald Trump was due to pay a state visit to Britain.
Challenged in parliament about his judgment in appointing the 71-year-old grandee of the center-left Labour party to the key diplomatic post, Starmer insisted that “due process was followed.”
He described Epstein as a “despicable criminal” who “destroyed the lives of so many women and girls.”
But he added: “The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him. He is right to do so. I have confidence in him.”
The letter was one of many included in a book compiled to mark the now notorious financier’s 50th birthday.
The contents were published by a US congressional panel investigating Epstein’s sex crimes case.
Mandelson, an influential former Labour minister and spin doctor, said it was “very embarrassing” to see the letter published, in comments to The Sun daily’s “Harry Cole Saves the West” YouTube channel.
“I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done,” the ambassador said.
He said he had never witnessed any criminal behavior, but added he also felt a deep sense of sympathy for the women “who suffered as a result of (Epstein’s) behavior and his illegal criminal activities.”
Mandelson conceded that further embarrassing correspondence between himself and Epstein will come out, meaning Starmer will likely face further tricky questions about the appointment.
“I have no doubt at all that there’s a lot of traffic, correspondence exchanges between us, absolutely. And we know those are going to surface,” said Mandelson.
“We know they’re going to be very embarrassing, and they know that I’m going to profoundly regret ever having met him and been introduced to him in the first place.”
Those revelations trickled in on Wednesday, as The Sun and other media reported that Mandelson sent Epstein supportive emails as he faced prosecution in a Florida case for soliciting a minor.
Just before Epstein entered a plea deal in 2008 for the case, Mandelson allegedly wrote to Epstein that “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened” and urging him to “fight for early release.”
“Your friends stay with you and love you,” he added.
Mandelson, dubbed the “Prince of Darkness” during his years as a political spinner, was twice forced to resign from Tony Blair’s Labour government in the late 1990s and early 2000s over allegations of misconduct.

LONDON: Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has called for the genocide in Gaza to be taught in schools.

The 22-year-old, speaking while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla that is delivering humanitarian aid to Palestine, said: “I think (schools) should bring up early warning signs of genocide, such as the Holocaust, and apply those to what we are currently seeing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“The current education systems have absolutely failed us in teaching an understanding of the historic times we are living in.”

Teaching pupils about the Holocaust as part of the high school history curriculum is a legal requirement in England. Schools also mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Jan. 27 in commemoration of the millions of people murdered during the Second World War by the Nazis, as well as the victims of later genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Thunberg said that she had been inspired by the example of British people who have protested against the UK government ban on the activist group Palestine Action, The Times newspaper reported.

“I’m very inspired by the huge mobilization that has been happening in the UK for the people of Palestine, which I think we can learn a lot from. People of all ages, not only student encampments but also those brave people who might face terror charges just by saying they support Palestine Action.

“I didn’t learn about what was going on in Palestine in school because it was always portrayed as a conflict.

“Then, when you discover that this is a genocide, this is an occupation, an apartheid, ethnic cleansing, then it is not at all what we have been taught in school.”

International law defines genocide as actions undertaken with the intent to destroy, partly or as a whole, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

The UK government concluded this week that Israel’s actions in Gaza do not constitute genocide. However, a UN special committee previously found the actions to be “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.” Thunberg said it is now “undeniable” that a genocide is happening in Gaza.