Epstein file revelations spark probes, controversy in Europe

The tentacles of theJeffrey Epsteinsaga, especially since the Justice Department released millions of additionalpages, extend beyond the United States and into the top echelons of several European nations, prompting intense scrutiny of the powerful people who associated with the wealth manager.

The latestbatch of documentshas revealed Epstein's network of friends and associates reach beyond his Caribbean island and East Coast circles into the gilded palaces of two of Europe'sroyal familiesand touch some of the highest offices of foreign governments.

More:Who is in the latest Epstein files release? Documents reveal new names

While inclusion in the files does not indicate a person is a criminal suspect, it does, in some cases, show a person had social or business connections. Several people in European power circles are facing inquiries or investigations, while others have stepped down from various professional roles.

What appears to be outdoor furniture is seen in a photo released by US Department of Justice from one of Jeffrey Epstein's properties.

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Epstein's house was filled with odd objects. See the photos.

While Epstein's connections to leaders in business, academia and government have been known for years, the DOJ'sJan. 30 document drophas provided a wider sense of the relationships cultivated by Epstein, who died awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Many maintained contact with him even after his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a prostitute and procuring a child for prostitution in Florida. His plea required him to register as a sex offender in 2009.

UK government under fire over Epstein emails

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing calls to step down, including from some within his own party, in connection with the Epstein files after he appointed Peter Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as ambassador to the United States. (Starmer himself is not in any of the released documents.) Details of Mandelson's friendship with the late wealth manager became public after the latest round of documents from the DOJ revealed he'd corresponded with Epstein after he was a registered sex offender in 2009.

A little over a week after the Jan. 30 document dump, two of Starmer's aides have resigned: Communications chief Tim Allan and Starmer's top aide, Morgan McSweeney, who said he took responsibility for advising on the appointment of Mandelson to Britain's top diplomatic role. Mandelson has also resigned from the House of Lords.

British police are investigating Mandelson over allegations of "misconduct in public life" after he was accused of passing market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary under former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over a decade ago. Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Two royal families ensnared in Epstein controversy

Among the most well-known European figures who the documents show to have had yearslong friendships with Epstein are members of two royal families:Norway's Princess Mette-Maritand the United Kingdom'sAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III.

While Mountbatten-Windsor's relationship to Epstein has been known for years, the January document dump was the first time the Norwegian princess's correspondence became publicly available.

More:King Charles' brother Andrew crouches over woman in new Epstein photos

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titlein October 2025 andpushed out of his vast homeat Royal Lodge after reports of his association with Epstein hit a fever pitch. He wasousted as a senior royalthree years prior. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide in 2025, alleged she was sexually abused by the former royal multiple times when she was 17 years old. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied the allegations.

The latest release has only intensified scrutiny of the former prince, with the country's prime ministerurging him to testifyto U.S. lawmakers and forcingPrince William and Princess Kate to speak outabout the controversy after years of silence. Britain's King Charles said in a statement Feb. 9 released by Buckingham Palace that the palace isready to support the policeas they investigate allegations against the king's brother.

Princess Mette-Marit, the Crown Princess of Norway, exchanged dozens of emails with Epstein, some as recently as2014.The emails contradict a 2019 comment from the Royal Palace that she'd broken off contact with Epstein in 2011, according to theNorwegian tabloid VG.

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Mette-Marit, wife of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, has apologized for maintaining contact with Epstein, saying she displayed poor judgment. In her most recent statement, released Feb. 6, she apologized again, "for the situation that I have put the royal family in, especially the King and Queen."

Norway's prime minister on Feb. 9 said that Mette-Marit and other prominent Norwegians named in the recently released Epstein documents should provide more details about their involvement with Epstein.

Norway opens investigations into ex-leader and diplomats

Norwegian authoritiesannouncedthey are investigating two former ambassadors and a former prime minister over corruption tied to the Epstein files. All were known to have had ties to Epstein, but the new files have provided more details on their relationships and dealings with the late money manager.

The country's economic and environmental crime unit said in a statement on Feb. 9 it had conducted searches at two locations tied to former ambassador Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød‑Larsen. The pair is being investigated over charges of aggravated corruption and contribution to aggravated corruption. Authorities had opened a separate corruption investigation into former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland several days prior due to his alleged links to Epstein.

Jagland served as prime minister from 1996 to 1997, and also held top positions as chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and secretary general of the Council of Europe.

The diplomatic couple, Juul and Rød‑Larsen, helped facilitate contacts between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government that led to the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords. Juul had been Norway's ambassador to Jordan and Iraq upon the latest Epstein file release, and has stepped down from the position. Rød‑Larsen is a former Deputy Prime Minister.

The files suggest that the couple and their children visited Epstein's island, and were named in a version of his will released in the Epstein documents. The two children stood to inherit $5 million apiece from him, according toReuters.

French and Slovakian officials scrutinized, among others

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, has stepped down from his role as the head of a cultural center in Paris following allegations he previously had financial ties to Epstein. The allegations have triggered a tax investigation. Lang denies wrongdoing and has described the allegations against him as "baseless."

Lang was the head of the Arab World Institute, an organization that promotes exchanges between France and Arab nations. In a letter to Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, viewed by the AFP news agency, Lang said that he would submit his resignation at the next board meeting of the Arab World Institute. Lang served as France's culture minister between 1981 and 1993. He later served as minister of education.

Miroslav Lajčák, an ally of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and his national security adviser, resigned after it emerged in documents from the Epstein files that he had exchanged text messages with Epstein about women and diplomacy. The texts date from when Lajčák was Slovakia's foreign minister in 2018.

In a statement, Lajčák said he was resigning to avoid causing any political damage to Fico. He denied any wrongdoing. He also condemned Epstein's alleged crimes.

Contributing: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY; Reuters.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.comand on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Epstein file revelations spark probes, controversy in Europe

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February 10, 2026

Epstein file revelations spark probes, controversy in Europe

The tentacles of theJeffrey Epsteinsaga, especially since the Justice Department released millions of additionalpages, e...

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US to expand passport revocations for parents who owe child support, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — Parents who owe a significant amount of child support soon could lose their ability to travel internationally as the Trump administration expands and steps up enforcement of a 30-year-old law that allows the federal government to revoke American passports until payments are made, three U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

While passport revocations for unpaid child support of more than $2,500 have been permitted under 1996 federal legislation, the State Department had in the past acted only when someone applied to renew their travel document or sought other consular services. In other words, enforcement depended on the person approaching the department for assistance.

Starting soon, however, the department will begin to revoke passports on its own initiative based on data shared with it by the Health and Human Services Department, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the change has not yet been publicly announced.

The number of people who could be affected was not immediately clear, but it is believed to be in the thousands. Because of the potentially large universe of those owing child support who currently hold passports, the State Department will make the change in tiers, the officials said.

The first group to be affected will be passport holders who owe more than $100,000 in past-due child support, the officials said. One of the officials said fewer than 500 people meet that threshold and could avoid having their passport revoked if they enter into a payment plan with HHS after being notified of the pending revocation.

The official acknowledged, though, that if and when the threshold is lowered to a smaller past-due amount, the number of those affected will rise significantly. The official could not say when any further changes would take effect or estimate how many people might then lose their passports.

In an emailed response to the AP's queries about the change, the State Department said it "is reviewing options to enforce long-standing law to prevent those owing substantial amounts of child support from neglecting their legal and moral obligations to their children." It added: "It is simple: deadbeat parents need to pay their child support arrears."

Since the Passport Denial Program began with the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the initiative has taken in nearly $621 million in past-due child support payments, with nine collections of more than $300,000, according to the Office of Child Support Enforcement at the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS did not respond to questions about how many people are in arrears.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

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February 10, 2026

US to expand passport revocations for parents who owe child support, AP sources say

WASHINGTON (AP) — Parents who owe a significant amount of child support soon could lose their ability to travel internat...

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Immigrant rights groups seek to dismiss a Republican lawsuit to exclude noncitizens from US census

Immigrant rights groups are seeking to toss out a Republican lawsuit that would prohibit theU.S. Census Bureaufrom counting people who are in the U.S. illegally during the 2030 census.

The groups said the lawsuit filed late last month by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway would violate the law and require a recount of the U.S. population from 2020, costing billions of dollars.

"That unlawful request would distort representation for millions of Americans and shake the foundations of our representative democracy," said the motion from the immigrant rights groups, which are seeking to intervene and are being represented by several ACLU Foundation chapters.

The lawsuit is the latest effort by Republicans to exclude people who are in the U.S. illegally or other noncitizens from the census figures. Those numbers guide thedistribution of federal moneyand determine the number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state receives in a process known as apportionment.

The Missouri lawsuit asks that theapportionment processthat used the 2020 census figures be redone without including people in the U.S. illegally and that the process after the 2030 census be conducted in the same manner.

A similar lawsuit filed by four other GOP state attorneys general is pending in federal court in Louisiana, and Republican lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation that would accomplish the same goal.

ARepublican redistricting experthad written that using only the citizen voting-age population, rather than the total population, for the purpose of redrawing congressional and state legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.

The Constitution's 14th Amendment says "the whole number of persons in each state" should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment. The Census Bureau has interpreted that to mean anybody living in the U.S., regardless of legal status.

The Missouri lawsuit comes asPresident Donald Trump has been pressuringRepublican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year's midterm elections. Last August,Trump instructedthe Commerce Department to have the Census Bureau start work on a new census that would exclude immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally from the head count.

Intervenors recentlysucceeded in getting another lawsuitagainst the Census Bureau tossed out. A three-judge panel in Tampa last week dismissed a challenge by Republican groups to the agency's statistical methods during the 2020 census.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that citizenship wasn't a factor in the apportionment process under the Constitution. When asked if a citizenship question would be included, he said the agency hadn't determined the questions on the 2030 census form yet. The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.

"What the questionnaire is, I don't know, and we've not decided," Lutnick said.

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky:@mikeysid.bsky.social.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Census Bureau athttps://apnews.com/hub/us-census-bureau.

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Immigrant rights groups seek to dismiss a Republican lawsuit to exclude noncitizens from US census

Immigrant rights groups are seeking to toss out a Republican lawsuit that would prohibit theU.S. Census Bureaufrom count...

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Super Bowl Halftime Show Director Says Bad Bunny ‘Refused to Wear a Harness’ for His Stunts

Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• Bad Bunny "refused to wear a harness" for his stunts during this Super Bowl Halftime Show performance

• In a Monday, Feb. 9, the Halftime Show's director Hamish Hamilton spoke about how the Puerto Rican superstar's performance was "the biggest team effort"

• Bad Bunny performed with special guests Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin at the 2026 Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 8

Bad Bunnywent all out for his2026 Super BowlApple Music Halftime Show performance.

In aninterview withVarietyon Monday, Feb. 9, the Halftime Show's director Hamish Hamilton spoke about how the Puerto Rican superstar's performance was "the biggest team effort of a show I have ever been involved in."

According to Hamilton, Bad Bunny — who climbed a utility poll without any safety guardrails — was determine to do his stunts on his own terms.

Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty

"He refused to wear a harness," said the Halftime Show's director. "He was like, 'I don't need it.' There are all kinds of legal ramifications to that, which is not really my thing, but interestingly enough, when he decided he wasn't going to wear a harness, we were able to then put a camera on the pole to look down at him climbing up!"

Kevin Mazur/Getty

The show's creative director Harriet Cuddeford noted that there "was all safety and rigging and all of that available," however, Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, "didn't want it."

"He does his own stunts, that guy, and he learned it in about three minutes," she said. "Straight up that pole. At rehearsal, we were all like, 'Is he gonna be OK?' But he just went straight up there, and managed his vocals. Very agile. He could just, like, handle anything."

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Cuddeford then opened up about the moment when the roof of La Casita collapsed and the 31-year-old rapper and singer fell through it.

"The stunt itself, to fall through the roof, wasn't so crazy — there's a trap door," Cuddeford said. "They just literally open it, and pull it out underneath him."

However, according to her, "it required so much meticulous planning, because we cut straight into the pre-tape."

"Inside the pre-tape was the shot on the TV of him falling through the roof of the Super Bowl — so the family in the La Casita were watching the Super Bowl live, and then he fell onto their table," Cuddeford said.

She continued, "That's basically two different pre-tapes: The pre-tape inside the house, and then there's the pre-tape on the field of him falling through the roof during the dress rehearsal. And then comping that all together, then cutting to the transition of him falling through the roof and be able to kick the front door open."

On Sunday, Feb. 8, Bad Bunny made history as the first artist to perform a Super Bowl Apple Music Halftime Show entirely in Spanish.

During the show's La Casita segment, there were celebrity appearances byPedro Pascal,Cardi B,Jessica Alba,Karol G,Young Miko,Cardi Band more.

Later in the show,Lady Gagaappeared as a surprise guest to perform a salsa rendition of her hit "Die with a Smile," andRicky Martinsang Bad Bunny's "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii."

Read the original article onPeople

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February 10, 2026

Super Bowl Halftime Show Director Says Bad Bunny ‘Refused to Wear a Harness’ for His Stunts

Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty NEED TO KNOW Bad Bunny "refused to wear a harness" for his stunts during this Super ...

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Why King Charles’ Statement on Epstein Evidence Could Potentially “End the Monarchy”

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The royals have been issuing statements connected toAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor's friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein (denying allegationsof sleeping with trafficked teenagers) as far back as 2015—but now, there's been a noted shift in tone from the Palace.

This week, a Palace spokespersonsaid, "The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor's conduct. While the specific claims in question are for Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect."

But is that enough to save the monarchy from complete disrepair? According to some senior U.S. government officials (and members of the public), it may not be.

Ro Khanna, part of the committee investigating the Epstein scandal, called on King Charles and Queen Camilla to step forward and give evidence, as well as Andrew, saying this could be "the end of the monarchy."

In aSky Newsinterview, Khanna said, "I think this is the most vulnerable the British monarchy has ever been. They ought to ask the King and Queen questions and maybe this will be the end of the monarchy."

He continued, "If they don't have answers, if they're implicated in the Epstein class, it's not a good look for the British monarchy. The King has to answer what he knew, what he knew about Andrew, and just stripping Andrew of a title is not enough.

"Andrew needs to come before our committee and start answering questions. I don't think the appropriate punishment is you no longer get to be a prince. There's got to be more than that."

The King and Queen were heckled about Andrew—and how much they knew about his involvement with Epstein—during a visit to Dedham, an Essex village, last week, showing some members of the public appear to feel similarly.

Prince William and Kate Middleton also issued an unexpected statement in connection to the Epstein files this week, ahead of William's visit to Saudi Arabia. A spokespersonsaid, "I can confirm the Prince and Princess have been deeply concerned by the continuing revelations. Their thoughts remain focussed on the victims."

Speaking towards the end of last year, royal biographer and formerVanity Faireditor, Tina Brown, pointed out many are also questioning the late Queen Elizabeth II's role in protecting Andrew following the initial allegations of wrongdoing.

"The fact is that she has quite a lot to answer for with Andrew, is the truth," Brownsuggested. "Because The Queen enabled Andrew in a really terrible way. He was her favorite. She protected him and mommy was his only client, essentially. She was the one who protected him so, unfortunately, it made him worse."

Elsewhere, the Norwegian royal family has also been criticized over its connections to Epstein, as the Crown Princess, Mette-Marit, had correspondence exposed in the recent Epstein files release. Mette-Marit's son (whose father is someone she had a relationship with prior to marrying into the royal family), Magnus, has also been on trial for rape in recent weeks.

Mette-Marit issued astatementsaying she has the "deepest regret for my friendship with Jeffrey Epstein" and apologized for "the situation that I have put the royal family in, especially the King and Queen."

Will the monarchy be able to survive yet another scandal of this intensity?

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February 10, 2026

Why King Charles’ Statement on Epstein Evidence Could Potentially “End the Monarchy”

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