His arc of success was legendary: a crude and ambitious hustler like Putin, Prigozhin rose from convict to wiener salesman to warlord. On behalf of Putin’s agenda, Prigozhin built Wagner shortly after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. As long as Putin controlled Prigozhin, Wagner was allowed to grow, reaching an estimated 50,000 fighters at its peak. Aiding a flailing Russian war operation starved for personnel, Prigozhin recruited convicts, who fought the long, horrible battle of Bakhmut. Putin needed time to secure Kremlin control of Wagner’s complicated empire so Prigozhin survived for two months before his elimination.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a directive that requires his office to approve all covert political talks in advance amid uproar over the disclosure of an unprecedented meeting between top Israeli and Libyan diplomats. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Topaz Luk, said on Tuesday that in addition to prior approval, the order also mandated the Israeli premier personally allow the publication of news on secret meetings. In a press statement released on Sunday, Cohen announced that the “historic” sit-down took place in Rome last week. Israeli opposition and coalition figures also lashed out at Cohen for damaging the regime’s foreign ties and endangering the Libyan foreign minister. A US official said Cohen’s revelation “killed” the conversation channel with Libya about possibly normalizing ties with Israel.

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. Schneider and Berman take us through the past 72 hours since Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s decision to publicize his recent meeting with Libyan counterpart. They also explain how Cohen’s conduct may impact efforts by Israel to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia and expand the Abraham Accords more broadly. They highlight Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s plan to head to DC next week and what’s behind his anticipated meetings with US officials. Check out yesterday’s Daily Briefing episode:

Shocking footage has emerged of a woman lying dead on the floor of a migration detention centre in Libya. This horrifying video sheds light once again on the hellish conditions inside #Libya’s detention centres. According to the Guardian, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and a UN source confirmed the video's authenticity and said it was filmed at Abu Salim. Detention centres across Libya are used to house people whom the EU-backed Libyan coastguard has forcibly returned after trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean. Hence, hundreds of migrants were sent back to the detention centres they once escaped.

Appointed in March 2021 she was much celebrated as the fifth woman to hold the position of a foreign minister in the Arab World, until now, that is. Apparently, it was “coordinated at the highest level” between the two countries and took place with the knowledge of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, it has been alleged, Libyan Prime Minister Dbeibeh. As in Libya, Patel’s secret meetings fuelled all sorts of rumours and speculation about what was discussed. There have already been several false rumours, spread by Israel, about secret meetings between Netanyahu and the Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammad Bin Salman. The now former foreign minister knows all about Tel Aviv’s tactics.

(Photo by Jekesai NJIKIZANA / AFP)Harare: Zimbabwe’s main opposition party on Tuesday demanded fresh elections supervised by neighbouring countries, digging in on its rejection of last week’s polls that saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa win re-election and his long-ruling ZANU-PF party retain its majority in a vote criticized by international observers. President Cyril Ramaphosa of neighbouring South Africa has already congratulated Mnangagwa’s government on the elections, as has Namibian leader Hage Geingob. Although SADC’s observer mission criticized the elections, the body doesn’t have a history of interfering to force a rerun. Opposition spokesman Siziba also didn’t rule out approaching the courts, saying the party “will employ all necessary measures” to ensure there is a fair election. They accused Mnangagwa’s administration and the ruling party of weaponizing the police and courts to arrest opposition figures, ban and break up opposition party rallies, and intimidate its supporters.

Netanyahu instructed all government ministers to seek approval from his office before conducting any confidential meetings, according to a statement released by the PM's office. In addition, public statements regarding such meetings would need to receive approval from the prime minister's office ahead of their publication, according to the statement. The Israeli Foreign Ministry revealed in an official press release on Sunday that Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush met in Rome last week. Shortly later, Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, Libya's prime minister in Tripoli, announced the suspension of al-Mangoush. The Libyan foreign minister fled to Türkiye out of fear for her safety after the meeting triggered an uproar in Libya.

Their statement ended media speculation on where and when Prigozhin would be laid to rest, with his funeral shrouded in secrecy. Russian media cited unidentified sources as saying Prigozhin was laid to rest Tuesday without any publicity, per his family's wishes. Just before the crash, Prigozhin had reportedly returned from a trip to Africa, where he sought to expand Wagner Group’s activities. The crash came exactly two months after the brutal and profane mercenary boss launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. Putin said Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Russian military, move to Belarus or retire from service.

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat returned to the parliamentary public accounts committee in his fourth appearance as a witness on the NAO report dealing with the procurement of the Electrogas gas plant. Caruana Galizia public inquiry | Edward Scicluna admits Panama Papers was ‘elephant in the room’With some questions based on conclusions emanating from the Caruana Galizia assassination public inquiry, Muscat at one point expressed his disagreement with the conclusions of the three-judge panel. While the inquiry’s conclusions remarked at the “utter lack of involvement” of then finance minister Edward Scicluna from the negotiations on the Delimara gas plant with Electrogas, Muscat said this was “totally incorrect”. “The public inquiry is not understanding the remit of the ministry and the extent of its involvement. Former prime minister Joseph Muscat returns to the parliamentary public accounts committee in his fourth appearance as a witness on the NAO report dealing with the procurement of the Electrogas gas plant.

The reports confirmed the belief of analysts that it’s unlikely either Mangoush or Cohen would have held the unprecedented meeting without informing their respective premiers. However, two senior Libyan government officials told The Associated Press the prime minister knew about the talks between his foreign minister and the Israeli chief diplomat. The second official said the Mangoush-Cohen meeting lasted for about two hours and Mangoush briefed the prime minister directly after her return to Tripoli. They “have used Libya’s first female foreign minister as the fall person for decisions they all partook in,” Gomati said. While Israel and Libya have never had ties, there have long been reported contacts between Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and Israeli officials.

The exposure of the first-ever known encounter between Israeli and Libyan foreign ministers ignited angry street protests in several Libyan cities and sent Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush fleeing to Turkey for fear of her safety. Netanyahu sent the directive Tuesday to all government ministries, requesting they receive approval from his office before conducting any covert political talks. A Netanyahu aide, Topaz Luk, said Netanyahu issued the order in response to fallout from the Libya scandal. It was not known if Netanyahu knew about Foreign Minister Eli Cohen's meeting with Mangoush ahead of time. Israeli media said the acting United States ambassador to Israel, Stephanie Hallett, had expressed American displeasure with the Israeli announcement in a meeting with Cohen on Monday.

(JTA) — Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush has been fired and has fled to Turkey following a meeting last week with Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen. Libya and Israel do not have diplomatic relations, and when he first announced the meeting on Sunday, Cohen hailed it as another breakthrough in Israel’s growing ties with its neighbors. The Israel-Libya meeting, which took place in Rome last week, seemed to fall in the same vein. The New York Times quoted unnamed Libyan foreign ministry officials saying Mangoush had flown to Turkey because of safety concerns. Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition who preceded Cohen as foreign minister, wrote on social media that Cohen’s conduct was “amateurish, irresponsible and a serious error of judgment.”

A botched push for improved Libya-Israeli relations will chill their covert ties while potentially fueling instability in Libya as opposition groups use the scandal to undermine the Tripoli-based government. On Aug. 28, Libya's internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah fired Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush for meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Italy the preceding week. The firing took place after Israel's Foreign Ministry published a statement confirming the meeting on Aug. 27, causing an uproar in Libya and sparking protests in cities including Tripoli, Misrata and Zintan. Libya's House of Representatives, which supports Libya's Benghazi-based rival governing faction, also slammed the move, while at least one Islamist politician in Tripoli called for the dismissal of Dbeibah's government. According to Israeli media, the meeting between Mangoush and Cohen focused on areas of cooperation for the preservation of Jewish heritage sites in Libya, Israeli aid for Libyan agriculture, water ...

“It was in the 2000s and early 2010s, when Colonel Gaddafi was still in power,” said Ben Attiya, 62, head of the city’s Libyan Jewish congregation, called Or Shalom. They have hurt us greatly, but we Libyan Jews have become a success story in Israel,” said Netanya’s Daniel Mimun, 77, who fled Libya for Italy in 1967 with his family before later moving to Israel. To visit, but not to returnDespite the bad memories, some Libyan Jews are interested in ties with Tripoli, especially as it may allow the community to preserve its heritage sites. There is also a Jewish-Arabic dialect spoken by Libyan Jews, which is used in a magazine put out by the Or Shalom community. ‘We cannot forget their cruelty’Other Libyan Jews reacted with less enthusiasm to the news of high-level Israeli-Libyan contacts, or with outright rejection.

When the Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen ran to tell everyone under the sun about his meeting with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush, he probably hadn’t imagined that it would result in Mangoush being suspended and having to flee her country to Turkey. It appears that for the moment, despite Cohen’s celebratory announcement, Libya is still far from normalizing its relations with Israel.