WASHINGTON: A US judge on Wednesday released a suicide note purportedly written by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein weeks before his death in a New York jailhouse. Epstein&#39;s cellmate has said that he found the letter in a book following a failed suicide attempt by the disgraced financier, several weeks before his eventual August 2019 death. &quot;They investigated me for months &mdash; Found NOTHING!!!&quot; the text of the letter, written on lined paper, reads. &quot;It is a treat to be able to choose one&#39;s time to say goodbye.&quot; The text concludes with, &quot;Watcha want me to do &mdash; Bust out cryin!! No fun &mdash; NOT WORTH IT!!&quot; The letter had been sealed for years as part of the cellmate&#39;s criminal proceedings, but was released by Judge Kenneth Karas of the US District Court for Southern New York after a request by the New York Times. While the document has not been authenticated, its release comes as questions continue to swirl about the well-connected financier&#39;s death while awaiting sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide, but numerous security lapses at the jail and missing CCTV footage have led to persistent doubts about the official account. Epstein was found injured in his cell in late July 2019, in what officials said was a failed suicide attempt. It was ahead of this earlier incident that the letter was purported to be written and stuffed into a graphic novel. The Epstein saga has continued to roil American and British politics, as documents related to the expansive investigation into the financier&#39;s life have been released in previous months.

Americas

Epstein's cellmate has said that he found the letter in a book following a failed suicide attempt by the disgraced financier, several weeks before his eventual August 2019 death.



US court releases purported Epstein suicide note

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Pulitzer board awarded a Special Citation to Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown for reporting that, as cited by the committee, exposed Jeffrey Epstein&#39;s abuse of young women, the system that protected him, and his network of enablers. Her series, &quot;Perversion of Justice,&quot; published in 2017 and 2018, revealed how prosecutors shielded Epstein from federal sex trafficking charges and gave direct voice to scores of victims &ndash; work the board recognized nearly a decade after its publication. The citation arrived as accountability and conflict-of-interest journalism swept the 2026 awards. The Washington Post took Public Service (the field&#39;s highest honor) for what the Pulitzer board described as &quot;piercing the veil of secrecy around the Trump administration&#39;s chaotic overhaul of federal agencies and chronicling in rich detail the human impacts of the cuts and the consequences for the country.&quot; The New York Times won Investigative Reporting for stories the committee said &quot;exposed how President Trump has shattered constraints on conflicts of interest and exploited the moneymaking opportunities that come with power, enriching his family and allies.&quot; National Reporting went to a Reuters team consisting of Ned Parker, Linda So, Peter Eisler, and Mike Spector for, as the board cited, &quot;documenting how the president used the US government and the influence of his supporters to expand executive power and exact vengeance on his foes.&quot; Gaza and global investigations Saher Alghorra, a New York Times contributor, won Breaking News Photography for his &quot;haunting, sensitive series showing the devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel,&quot; according to the committee.&nbsp; The Associated Press team of Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal, and contributor Yael Grauer won International Reporting for what the board called &quot;an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance, created in Silicon Valley, advanced in China, and spreading worldwide before returning to America for secret new uses by the US Border Patrol.&quot; Other major awards The Minnesota Star Tribune won Breaking News for its coverage of a shooting at a Catholic school that, as reported by the board, killed two children and wounded 17. Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham of Reuters took Beat Reporting for reporting the committee said revealed Meta&#39;s &quot;willingness to expose users, including children, to scams and AI manipulation.&quot; The San Francisco Chronicle&#39;s &quot;Burned&quot; series won Explanatory Reporting for exposing how insurance algorithms systematically undervalued fire-loss properties, according to the Pulitzer board. In books, Daniel Kraus won Fiction for &quot;Angel Down,&quot; Jill Lepore won History for &quot;We the People: A History of the US Constitution,&quot; and Yiyun Li won Memoir for &quot;Things in Nature Merely Grow,&quot; described by the committee as a &quot;moving and revelatory account&quot; of losing two sons to suicide. The music prize went to Gabriela Lena Frank for &quot;Picaflor: A Future Myth,&quot; a symphonic work the board said was informed by her personal experiences with California wildfires. Opinion Writing went to M Gessen of The New York Times for essays on rising authoritarian regimes. The Audio Reporting prize went to the podcast &quot;Pablo Torre Finds Out,&quot; produced by Meadowlark Media and licensed by The Athletic, for investigating how the Los Angeles Clippers &quot;seemingly evaded the NBA&#39;s salary cap by funneling money to a star player,&quot; as cited by the Pulitzer board.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K Brown receives a Pulitzer Special Citation for reporting on Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of young women and the network that enabled and protected him, as stated by the Pulitzer committee. (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Nearly a decade after her series dismantled a prosecutor-shielded abuse network, Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown received a Special Citation at the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes, as accountability journalism dominated this year's honors.

Reporter who exposed Epstein finally gets a Pulitzer

ISLAMABAD: India&#39;s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said the country&rsquo;s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was compromised through the Epstein files on Saturday, accusing him of signing deals that surrendered India&#39;s energy security, farming sector and data to foreign interests. The Indian Opposition Leader delivered his sharpest attack on the Indian prime minister yet as he campaigned across Tamil Nadu ahead of the state&#39;s April 23 assembly election, with his speeches shared on Indian National Congress&#39;s official YouTube channel.&nbsp; &quot;He controls him through the Epstein files,&quot; Rahul Gandhi told a rally in Ranipet, referring to US President Donald Trump&#39;s alleged&nbsp;leverage over Modi. &quot;He controls him because he knows Narendra Modi&#39;s financial system.&quot; &quot;He [Modi] signed a deal between India and the United States that sold our country out,&quot; Rahul&nbsp;Gandhi told the crowd. &quot;He handed out our energy security. He gave away our data. He sold our farmers. He sold our small and medium industry.&quot; The 55-year-old, who is the&nbsp;parliamentary face of the opposition Congress party, addressed rallies in Ponneri, Ranipet and Thuraiyur across Tamil Nadu on Saturday. He framed the Epstein claim within a broader argument: that Modi, having been compromised at the national level, now seeks to impose the same model of externally controlled, proxy governance on Tamil Nadu through his alliance with the regional AIADMK party. &quot;The same way Modi has been compromised, they want a compromised chief minister to run Tamil Nadu,&quot; he said at Ponneri. Rahul also pointed to Modi&#39;s demeanor in Parliament on Friday as evidence of a leader operating under pressure. &quot;Yesterday you saw the face of Prime Minister Modi &mdash; completely lacking confidence,&quot; he said at Ranipet. &quot;He could not even face the opposition. He was sitting sideways.&quot; The parliamentary session Rahul referenced saw the opposition defeat a government bill it said disguised a redrawing of India&#39;s electoral map (a process known as delimitation) behind the cover of women&#39;s political representation. &quot;Hidden behind that bill was a diabolical idea,&quot; he said at Ranipet. &quot;They wanted to change the number of seats that each state gets. They wanted to weaken the South Indian states, the North Eastern states and the smaller states.&quot; He called the attempt &quot;an anti-national act&quot; and said the Opposition &quot;stood like a rock&quot; to defeat it. Tamil Nadu, a state of roughly 70 million people on India&#39;s southeastern tip, votes on April 23 in a single-phase election across all 234 assembly constituencies, according to the Election Commission of India. Votes will be counted on May 4. There are 56.7 million registered voters, including 28.9 million women and 27.7 million men, as per the Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu. The BJP, which dominates India&#39;s national politics under Modi, has historically failed to win significant ground in Tamil Nadu. It has allied this cycle with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a Dravidian regional party rooted in Tamil identity, socialism and secularism. Gandhi&#39;s Congress is allied with the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which governs the state under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. Rahul Gandhi was unsparing on the AIADMK alliance. &quot;The BJP has hollowed out and destroyed the AIADMK,&quot; he said at Ponneri. &quot;There is nothing known as the AIADMK. It has been eaten up from the inside by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah [Indian Home Affairs Minister]. It is a hollow shell.&quot; He told AIADMK workers directly that their party&#39;s leadership had been &quot;fully captured&quot; and was now functioning as an instrument for BJP to enter Tamil Nadu. He said the BJP&#39;s agenda was an assault on Tamil language and identity. &quot;They want to attack Tamil language, they want to distort Tamil history, they want to twist Tamil culture,&quot; he said. &quot;The BJP and RSS are ignorant people. They do not understand who the Tamil people are.&quot; He accused the central government of withholding $216 million in education funds owed to Tamil Nadu and of blocking construction of a federal medical institute in Madurai. The Indian Opposition Leader closed with a cultural pledge that drew the loudest response of the rally. &quot;There is no force on this planet that can touch Tamil Nadu or its language,&quot; he told the Ponneri crowd, according to the Indian National Congress&#39;s official Facebook post. The DMK-Congress alliance outlined six economic guarantees: ₹2,000 ($21.6) per month to every woman in the state; equal amounts for senior citizens and people with disabilities; ₹2,000 ($21.6) monthly college scholarships; ₹2,500 ($27) per month in food security transfers; free property registration for first-time women buyers; and a commitment to fill all government vacancies within 300 days. Modi held his own rally in Coimbatore on Saturday, as reported by The Hindu.

Indian Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi addressing the public at a rally in Ranipet on April 18, 2026, ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly election. (Indian National Congress/YouTube)

India

Rahul Gandhi stated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was compromised via Epstein files and accused him of selling national assets, as he campaigned in the southern state of Tamil Nadu ahead of a closely contested state election.

Rahul Gandhi: Modi compromised by Epstein files, sold India out

LONDON: A team has started searching through records related to the former Prince Andrew&#39;s previous role as a trade envoy ahead of publication, amid fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, a UK minister said on Tuesday. Britain&#39;s government committed late last month to releasing the documents following a deepening scandal sparked by the US authorities&#39; publication of millions of files related to the late Epstein. The Department of Business and Trade was leading work to identify and prepare the material for release, Minister Chris Bryant said in a written statement. &quot;We have begun searching historic departmental records and have commissioned parallel searches in other departments, in particular the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Cabinet Office,&quot; the trade minister said. The scandal has reverberated around the British monarchy and political circles. The former prince, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and former minister and ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, are both now the subject of high-profile police investigations. Both were arrested last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections to Epstein Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal titles last year, has been released by police under investigation. He is being probed by police over allegations that he shared sensitive documents with Epstein during his time as envoy. Vetting documents on Mountbatten-Windsor&#39;s appointment as trade envoy, a post he held from 2001 to 2011, are among the documents the government has pledged to release. The former duke, long embroiled in scandals over his friendship with Epstein, has denied any wrongdoing. Mountbatten-Windsor settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability.

A protester holds a sign related to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 12, 2025 (SAUL LOEB / AFP)

United Kingdom

UK team preparing ex-Prince Andrew documents for publication: minister

OSLO: Norway&#39;s Crown Princess Mette-Marit said she was &quot;manipulated&quot; by convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in an interview broadcast Friday in which she sought to explain their close relationship.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">A commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, Mette-Marit&#39;s name appears in new Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice earlier this year.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The files revealed an unexpectedly close friendship between the pair and raised questions in Norway about whether Mette-Marit can become queen.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&quot;Of course I wish I had never met him,&quot; she told public broadcaster NRK during the roughly 20-minute interview.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&quot;It is extremely important for me to acknowledge that I did not look into his past more carefully, and also to acknowledge that I was manipulated and deceived to such an extent,&quot; she said.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">She also sought to squash speculation about the nature of her relationship to Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&quot;It was a friendly relationship: above all, he was a friend to me. But if your question is whether the relationship had another nature, the answer is no,&quot; she said.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Mette-Marit has previously said that she deeply regretted her relationship with the disgraced financier.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">The revelations about Epstein have damaged her reputation, at a time when she is dealing with a trial of her 29-year-old son from a relationship before she married the crown prince.<p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2; letter-spacing: normal; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: source-sans-pro, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Marius Borg Hoiby faces 38 charges, including raping four women and assaulting ex-girlfriends, and faces up to 16 years in prison.

Mette Marit Crown princess of Norway (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Europe

A commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, Mette-Marit's name appears in new Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice earlier this year.

Norway crown princess says 'manipulated' by Epstein

WASHINGTON: Bill Clinton has offered an explanation for viral photos released as part of the Jeffrey Epstein files that show the former US president in a hot tub and a pool with a woman whose face is redacted. Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, testified last week before a Republican-led congressional panel investigating convicted sex offender Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Clinton told the House Oversight Committee he had no knowledge of the sex crimes of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. During the deposition, the 79-year-old former president was asked about a photo that shows him in a hot tub with a woman whose face is covered with a black square and another picture of him in a swimming pool with Maxwell and an unidentified woman. Clinton said the photos were taken at a hotel during a visit he made to Brunei at the invitation of the Sultan, who was interested in helping with the Clinton Foundation&#39;s AIDS initiative. &quot;He invited me to stay there and he said, &#39;I want you to stay at this hotel and I hope you&#39;ll use the pool,&#39;&quot; Clinton said. &quot;I swam around. I sat in the hot tub for five minutes or whatever it was and I got up and went to bed,&quot; he said. &quot;I also believe that there was a Secret Service agent there at the other end of the pool.&quot; Clinton said he did not know the identity of the unidentified woman in the photos but he believed she was a member of the traveling party. &quot;I don&#39;t know who that is,&quot; he said. Asked if he had &quot;engaged in any sexual activities&quot; with the woman in the photos, Clinton replied: &quot;No.&quot; Hillary Clinton told the congressional panel that she did not know Epstein, and Bill Clinton said he broke ties with him before the financier&#39;s sex crimes came to light in 2008. Bill Clinton acknowledged during his testimony that he flew on Epstein&#39;s private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work. The depositions were held behind closed doors in Chappaqua, New York, where the Clintons reside, and the committee released videos of their testimony on Monday. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking minor girls to Epstein. Both Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump figure prominently in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice but neither has been formally accused of any wrongdoing. Clinton told the committee that Trump, a one-time close friend of Epstein, &quot;never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein either.&quot;

Hillary says she did not know Epstein, Bill says he broke ties with him before the financier's sex crimes came to light in 2008, acknowledges that he flew on Epstein's private plane several times in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work.



Ex-US president Clinton explains hot tub, pool photos from Epstein files

WASHINGTON: Bill Gates has admitted making a &quot;huge mistake&quot; in associating with Jeffrey Epstein, telling staff at his charity foundation that he had affairs with two Russian women but denying involvement in the disgraced financier&#39;s crimes. The Microsoft co-founder is among the prominent names appearing in documents released by the US Justice Department that revealed close friendships, illicit financial dealings and private photos with convicted sex offender Epstein. In a town hall on Tuesday with staff at the Gates Foundation, a recording of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Gates expressed regret that his relationship with Epstein had affected the work of his philanthropic organization. &quot;It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein,&quot; and to also bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with Epstein, he said. &quot;I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.&quot; In a draft email among the documents released by the Justice Department, Epstein alleged Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Gates ranged from &quot;helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.&quot; &#39;I saw nothing illicit&#39; Gates, 70, admitted at the town hall to two affairs. &quot;I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,&quot; he said. But he denied any involvement with victims of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls. &quot;I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,&quot; Gates told the town hall. The tech titan said his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates said he knew of an &quot;18-month thing&quot; restricting Epstein&#39;s travel but didn&#39;t check his background. He said his then-wife Melinda expressed concerns about Epstein in 2013, but that he continued the relationship for at least another year. &quot;Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it&#39;s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,&quot; Gates told staff. The Gates Foundation said Gates addressed the Epstein case and other issues at its scheduled twice-yearly town hall event. &quot;Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions,&quot; it said in a statement to AFP.

In a draft email among the documents released by the Justice Department, Epstein alleges Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Gates ranged from "helping Bill to get drugs […] to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women."

Bill Gates admits affairs but denies involvement in Epstein crimes

LONDON: Britain&#39;s government committed Tuesday to releasing documents on <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/king-charles-strips-andrew-of-royal-titles-royal-lodge-residence" style="color:#0073e6;">ex-prince</a> Andrew&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/uk-monarchy-reels-from-andrews-stunning-arrest" style="color:#0073e6;">past role</a> as a trade envoy, after the Jeffrey Epstein scandal widened with the arrest of a veteran UK politician. The fallout from the publication last month by US authorities of millions of files related to Epstein is reverberating around the British monarchy and political circles. It has piled pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s Labor government to release documents on Andrew and former minister Peter Mandelson, who are both now the subject of high-profile police investigations. Minister Chris Bryant told parliament that the government would release vetting documents on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor&#39;s appointment as trade envoy, a post he held from 2001 to 2011. It came after the third largest party, the Liberal Democrats, deployed a little-used parliamentary mechanism intended to force ministers to disclose files that stem from when Tony Blair was Labor prime minister 26 years ago. Bryant said publishing the documents was &quot;the least we owe the victims&quot; of Epstein, adding that Andrew was &quot;a rude, arrogant, and entitled man.&quot; &#39;Stain on country&#39;&nbsp;Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal titles last year, is being probed by police over allegations that he shared sensitive documents with Epstein during his time as envoy. The former prince was <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/uk-police-say-exprince-andrew-released-under-investigation" style="color:#0073e6;">arrested</a> last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and his brother King Charles III has said the &quot;law must take its course.&quot; Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said Andrew&#39;s association with Epstein, and that of Mandelson, who was bailed in the early hours of Tuesday, were a &quot;stain on our country.&quot; &quot;We must begin to clean away that stain with the disinfectant of transparency,&quot; he said. The party&#39;s motion, known as a &quot;humble address,&quot; passed without a vote due to the government&#39;s support. Bryant said he wanted to &quot;manage people&#39;s expectations&quot; about how quickly the papers can be released, due to the age and quantity of the material, as well as the police probe. Mountbatten-Windsor, long embroiled in scandals over his friendship with Epstein, has denied any wrongdoing. Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, claimed she was trafficked three times to have sex with the British royal, starting in 2001 and twice when she was 17. Andrew settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability. The push for the files on Andrew comes as the government prepares to release in early March a first set of documents relating to the 2024 appointment of Mandelson as UK ambassador in Washington. The main opposition Conservative Party had also earlier successfully used a &quot;humble address&quot; to compel their release. &#39;Pushed appointment&#39;&nbsp;Mandelson, a key figure in British politics for decades and Britain&#39;s envoy to Washington until September, is facing a separate misconduct in public office probe, also related to his links to Epstein. His appointment has triggered a political storm with two of Starmer&#39;s top aides resigning over the row and raising questions about the prime minister&#39;s judgement. Starmer sacked Mandelson as envoy after just seven months over revelations about the depth of his ties to Epstein. Later released files appear to show that Mandelson passed on financial information to the disgraced financier when he was UK business secretary around 2009-2010. When Andrew was appointed trade envoy, Mandelson was a pivotal figure in Blair&#39;s Labor and was nicknamed the &quot;Prince of Darkness&quot; for his media manipulation skills. Mountbatten-Windsor&#39;s biographer, Andrew Lownie, told AFP Blair and Mandelson &quot;pushed his appointment through.&quot; Mandelson has apologized for his friendship with Epstein and insisted he did not know about the financier&#39;s sexual offences, despite Epstein&#39;s 2008 conviction for child prostitution. He was arrested by police on Monday and held for questioning before being released on bail early on Tuesday. In a statement, law firm Mishcon de Reya, which is representing him, said the arrest was due to the &quot;baseless&quot; concern that he was a flight risk. The firm said there was &quot;absolutely no truth&quot; in the suggestion that he was &quot;planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad,&quot; adding that his priority was to cooperate with police and &quot;clear his name.&quot; Neither Mandelson nor Andrew has been charged with any offence. Starmer has apologized to Epstein&#39;s victims for appointing Mandelson, and accused him of lying about the extent of his ties to the tycoon during the vetting process. Police on Tuesday evening said they had &quot;now ended&quot; a search of an address in Berkshire, west of London, linked to Andrew&#39;s arrest. It is believed the property is Andrew&#39;s former residence, Royal Lodge, on the royal family&#39;s Windsor estate.

The fallout from the publication last month by US authorities of millions of files related to Epstein is reverberating around the British monarchy and political circles; it has piled pressure on Prime Minister Starmer's government to release documents on Andrew and former minister Mandelson, both now subject of high-profile police investigations.

UK govt says will release files on 'rude' ex-prince Andrew

LONDON: London police on Monday arrested Britain&#39;s former ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, amid <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/police-assessing-claims-uk-flights-trafficked-epstein-victims" style="color:#0073e6;">allegations</a> over his ties to disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein. &quot;Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office,&quot; the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. Images on UK television appeared to show Mandelson being driven away from his north London home, accompanied by a man and a woman, after police raided his properties earlier this month. &quot;He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, 23 February and has been taken to a London police station for interview,&quot; the Met added. The arrest comes days after ex-prince Andrew, King Charles III&#39;s younger brother, was <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/uk-police-say-exprince-andrew-released-under-investigation" style="color:#0073e6;">arrested</a> in a misconduct in public office probe also related to the latest release of documents related to Epstein. Mandelson, a pivotal figure in British politics, is being probed over allegations that he sent sensitive documents to the late US sex offender Epstein when he was a government minister, including during the 2008 financial crash. The ex-politician was <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/uk-pms-top-aide-quits-in-scandal-over-mandelson-links-to-epstein" style="color:#0073e6;">sacked</a> by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as envoy to Washington last year when an earlier release of documents linked to Epstein showed the extent of their friendship. The latest Epstein files released by the United States on January 30 have resulted in high-profile UK investigations. Starmer has apologized to Epstein&#39;s victims and accused Mandelson of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting process for his appointment to Washington. But Mandelson&#39;s appointment has unleashed a political storm with two of Starmer&#39;s top aides resigning over the row. The government is to release tens of thousands of emails, messages, and documents on Mandelson&#39;s vetting procedure, which could ramp up the pressure on the prime minister and other senior ministers. Mandelson, also a former European Union trade commissioner, stood down from parliament&#39;s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, earlier this month. Officers from the Met&#39;s specialist crime team were also deployed earlier this month to search two of his addresses, one in the western English county of Wiltshire and the other in London, according to the police.

Images on UK television appeared to show Mandelson being driven away from his north London home, accompanied by a man and a woman, after police raided his properties earlier this month.



UK police arrest ex-envoy Peter Mandelson in Epstein case

LONDON: Britain&#39;s royal family was thrown into crisis Thursday after former prince Andrew was arrested by police and held for hours, in a blow to the monarchy unprecedented in modern British history. The disgraced royal was detained early Thursday on suspicion of misconduct for his links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As Andrew marked his 66th birthday on Thursday, police swooped on the remote Sandringham royal estate in eastern England around 8:00 am (0800 GMT). King Charles III, who has promised police the full support of Buckingham Palace, swiftly issued a rare personally signed statement insisting: &quot;The law must take its course.&quot; It was a humiliating new blow for Andrew, who was last year stripped of his titles and ousted from his Windsor residence of more than two decades. Thames Valley Police said in a statement late Thursday: &quot;The arrested man has now been released under investigation.&quot; A photograph published by the media showed Andrew slumped in the back of a car, staring wild-eyed ahead. While the earlier police searches in Norfolk &quot;have now concluded,&quot; they were still searching a property in Berkshire, police added. It is believed that this is Andrew&#39;s former residence, Royal Lodge. &quot;It&#39;s a hugely significant moment for the British monarchy, and indeed the nation,&quot; royal expert Ed Owens told AFP. &quot;We are witnessing a monarchy, I think, shaken by recent events.&quot; In the sleepy village of Sandringham near the royal estate, an off-duty police officer said he was &quot;very satisfied some formal action was taken.&quot; &quot;It&#39;s very reassuring to the members of the public,&quot; the officer, who did not want to be named, told AFP. Thames Valley police said it had arrested &quot;a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office,&quot; without naming the suspect, as is common UK practice. US President Donald Trump called the arrest &quot;very sad&quot;, adding, &quot;It&#39;s so bad for the royal family,&quot; in comments to reporters. &#39;Moment of crisis&#39;&nbsp;Andrew&#39;s arrest follows new revelations last week that the ex-prince appeared to have sent Epstein potentially confidential documents while serving as a UK trade envoy, a post he held from 2001. In a November 2010 email seen by AFP, Andrew appeared to share with the US financier reports on his visit to several Asian countries. Epstein had been convicted in the United States in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution. Charles last year stripped his brother of his titles and ordered him to leave his Windsor mansion &mdash; though he does remain eighth in the line of succession. &quot;Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,&quot; the king said in his statement. In an apparent bid to project an air of business-as-usual, Charles carried out several public duties on Thursday, including opening London Fashion Week. In the Norfolk village of Dersingham, local pub owner John Higginson said he hoped the issue would be &quot;resolved.&quot; &quot;I just feel sorry, to be quite honest, for people like William and Kate,&quot; he added, referring to the heir to the throne and his wife. Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told Sky News: &quot;Let&#39;s make no bones about it. This is a moment of crisis for the monarchy, possibly the greatest crisis since the (1936) abdication. No one quite knows how this is going to pan out.&quot; The scandal has been gathering pace since one of Epstein&#39;s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, last year claimed in her posthumous memoirs that she had been trafficked three times to have intercourse with Andrew when she was a teenager. The Giuffre family welcomed Andrew&#39;s arrest on Thursday, saying: &quot;Our broken hearts have been lifted at the news.&quot; Wide probe&nbsp;Andrew has previously denied any wrongdoing in his associations with Epstein. He settled a US civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre while not admitting liability. Official guidance stipulates trade envoys have a duty of confidentiality over sensitive commercial or political information related to their official visits, the BBC has said. Misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. The US Justice Department last month released millions of files from its investigation into the US financier. At least nine UK police forces have confirmed they are assessing claims stemming from the Epstein files, many related to Andrew.

Police confirm that their searches in Norfolk have now concluded; It is understood that reported searches of Andrew's former home on the Windsor estate, west of London, remained ongoing.

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