Former ambassador to US had earlier declined to give apology for keeping in touch with sex offender after his conviction
Peter Mandelson has issued an apology for his association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – after declining to do so in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC in which he suggested that as a gay man he knew nothing of the disgraced financier’s sex life.
Ballot proposes one-time, 5% tax on anyone in state worth more than $1bn and grant a five-year period for payment
Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel has donated $3m to a California lobbying group advocating against a proposed wealth tax that would target billionaires in the state. The seven-figure contribution comes as several ultra-wealthy tech moguls have left or threatened to leave California over the tax.
Thiel, worth some $26bn, made the donation last month to the California Business Roundtable’s political action committee, according to a public disclosure filing which was first reported by the New York Times. A representative for Thiel did not respond to requests for comment.
Lawsuit comes in the aftermath of an ICE agent fatally shooting Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good
The Minnesota attorney general, Keith Ellison, announced a lawsuit on Monday against the federal government, seeking to end the surge of ICE agents in the state.
The lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials comes in the aftermath of an ICE agent fatally shooting resident Renee Nicole Good behind the wheel of her vehicle last week, leading to protests across the city, and country.
Hospital trusts in Surrey and Kent say situation has been worsened by rise in flu and norovirus cases
Four NHS hospital trusts in England have declared critical incidents after a “surge” in A&E admissions driven in large part by patients with flu, norovirus and respiratory viruses.
Three trusts in Surrey and one in Kent sounded the alarm after a “surge in complex attendances to A&E departments”.
Prime minister tells parliamentary party that ‘being in the room’ for trade and defence talks will boost UK economy
Keir Starmer has defended his frequent trips out of the country to Labour MPs, attempting to draw a direct link with the cost of living at home, which he warned would not be solved by isolationism.
The prime minister told the meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) on Monday night that it was essential for him to be “in the room” for international negotiations on trade and defence, which would then have an impact on the domestic economy.
Ørsted and other wind developers have faced repeated disruptions to multibillion dollar projects under Trump
A federal judge on Monday cleared Danish offshore wind developer Ørsted to resume work on its nearly finished Revolution Wind project, which Donald Trump’s administration halted along with four other projects last month.
The ruling by US district judge Royce Lamberth is a legal setback for Trump, who has sought to block expansion of offshore wind in federal waters.
The scoreline was far more convincing than Liverpool’s performance against League One opposition. Barnsley made Arne Slot’s side battle for the right to host Brighton in round four while their head coach, Conor Hourihane, accused Dominik Szoboszlai of disrespect for gifting his team a goal while showboating. Slot appeared inclined to agree.
Liverpool were grateful for a late Florian Wirtz-inspired flourish for an ultimately comfortable margin of victory and banishing any anxieties. But this had been another slog against a low defensive block until the expensive substitute swept home a fine third goal and created a stoppage time fourth for Hugo Ekitiké. There was no more relieved man inside Anfield than Szoboszlai.
Wicketkeeper-batter says she has lost some competitive edge
35-year-old will miss T20 World Cup in June and July
Australia captain Alyssa Healy is to retire from cricket in March, after the forthcoming series with India, saying she has lost some of the competitive edge that drove her.
The wicketkeeper-batter has been playing for Australia for 15 years, making her debut as a teenager, and has been full-time captain since Meg Lanning retired in 2023.
Incriminating video, dismissed by officials as part of a ‘hybrid attack’, has forced resignations of Nikos Christodoulides’s wife and chief of staff
The Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, has said he has “nothing to fear” over a scandal that has forced the resignations of his chief of staff and his wife from a leadership role of a major charity.
As allegations of high-level corruption swirled days after the island assumed the rotating EU presidency, officials insisted the country had been the victim of “hybrid warfare”. The incriminating claims, implicating the president and first lady in a cash for access network, were made in a video uploaded on X.
Press chief says US president considering ‘many, many’ options amid deadly regime crackdown on protesters
Donald Trump is “unafraid to use military force on Iran” the White House said on Monday as the Iranian regime still faces widespread unrest across the country.
Speaking to Fox News, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that although diplomacy remained Trump’s “first option”, he was “unafraid to use the lethal force and might of the United States military if and when he deems that necessary”.
To supercharge the Melbourne Park event, ‘Opening Week’ maximises the music, food and wellness – and adds a $1m tennis showcase
“Cricket’s in December,” Tennis Australia’s chief executive, Craig Tiley, says with a smile on a record-breaking first day of the Australian Open on Monday. The veteran may be rumoured to be considering a move to the US Tennis Association, but for now he remains focused on his sport’s summer dominance.
“Our objective is we want to own January,” he says. At the launch of one of many Melbourne Park sponsor activations, conditions are ripe for Tiley to talk a big game. “We’re intense, and we’re intense because we’re 21 days, every day.”
Officials in Texas city issued boil water notice and set up water distribution centers after main line break on Saturday
More than 100,000 residents in the Texas border city of El Paso were left with little to no water after a main break over the weekend, and it was expected to take till midweek for operations to return to normal, officials said.
The break in the 36-inch water main line happened late Saturday night in El Paso, which has a population of about 700,000, officials said. Gilbert Trejo, an official with El Paso Water, called it “an event of unprecedented proportion”. He said the break was made even more impactful because of “the way the pipeline itself was designed along with how different connections of smaller lines were made to it”.
Spurs make Atlético Madrid offer worth up to £34.6m
Former Chelsea man keen on Premier League return
Tottenham are confident of beating Aston Villa to the signing of Conor Gallagher from Atlético Madrid after making an offer worth up to €40m (£34.6m) for the England midfielder.
Talks with Atlético are ongoing but Gallagher is understood to be keen to move back to the Premier League to boost his chances of making England’s World Cup squad, having made just four starts in La Liga this season. Spurs are in the market for midfield reinforcements after Rodrigo Bentancur sustained a hamstring injury that is likely to keep him sidelined for three months. The club have identified the 25-year-old as their primary target.
PGA offers re-entry to LIV Golf players via new program
Koepka stands to miss out on at least $50m in equity
Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour just five weeks after bolting from LIV Golf, agreeing to a one-time program for elite players that comes with a financial penalty that could rank among the largest in sports.
Koepka plans to resume his PGA Tour career in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines at the end of the month. But he will not be eligible for PGA Tour equity grants for five years, he will not receive FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026 and he cannot play signature events unless he earns his way in.
Robert McBride, deputy to Trump ally Lindsey Halligan, is latest in series of dismissals
The number two prosecutor in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia has been fired, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest in a series of dismissals in an office that is leading controversial criminal prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James.
Robert McBride, a former federal prosecutor in Kentucky, was brought in late last year to serve as the deputy to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally who the president installed as the acting US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia in September. McBride was dismissed after declining to lead the Comey prosecution, which a judge threw out in November after ruling Halligan was unlawfully appointed, one of the people said. (The justice department is appealing the ruling.)
Liverpool manager Arne Slot, who will surely be looking over his shoulder now that Xabi Alonso is available, speaks to TNT Sports:
We have made a few changes but a few have to play here that have played so many games. That means we have a strong line-up.
We know that Conor Bradley is out for a long time. He was progressing and getting better and better. Now, he is injured. But that doesn’t really help us either. Now, we don’t have a lot of options with the players that are out.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, has said communication lines with the US remain open, as the Trump administration continues to weigh the option of military strikes.
“This channel of communication between our foreign minister (Abbas Araghchi) and the special envoy of the president of the United States is open,” Baghaei said, in apparent reference to Steve Witkoff.
Always opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs, maintains that the sovereignty and security of all countries should be fully protected under international law, and opposes the use or threat of use of force in international relations.
Maitlin Paige White accused of soliciting donations as Matthew Childress, whose daughter died at Camp Mystic
A Florida woman allegedly posed as the grieving father of a teenager who died in July’s deadly Camp Mystic flooding in Texas and tried to raise money, leading to her being criminally charged with online impersonation, according to authorities.
According tocourt records reviewed by multiple outlets, Maitlin Paige White, 28, of Crestview, Florida, is accused of posing as Matthew Childress and soliciting donations in the days after the death of his 18-year-old daughter, Chloe Childress, who was working as a counselor at Camp Mystic in Kerr county, Texas.
A flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK’s Online Safety Act to the test
The unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. Monday’s announcement that X is being investigated was Ofcom’s most combative move since key provisions in the Online Safety Act came into force. None of the other businesses it has challenged or fined have anything like the global reach or political clout of Elon Musk’s social media giant. Whatever happens next, this is a defining moment. What is being defined is the extent to which some of the wealthiest companies on the planet are under democratic control.
But the announcement is only a first step. Ofcom has given no indication of how long its investigation will take. On Friday Downing Street described as insulting the decision to limit the use of the image‑making Grok AI chatbot to X’s paying subscribers. The government said that this amounted to turning the creation of abusive deepfakes into a “premium service”.
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The tumultuous start to 2026 should force a reckoning in Brussels and European capitals, and a recognition of the power the EU can exert
Another week, another set of dilemmas for Europe’s beleaguered political class to deal with. On Wednesday Brussels is due to outline the terms of the €90bn loan it has promised to Ukraine, amid internal tensions over whether Kyiv can use the money to buy US as well as EU weapons. On the same day, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is due to meet ministers from Denmark and Greenland, as Donald Trump continues to insist that the US will take ownership of the latter “one way or another”. And as the body count of protesters rises in Iran, the EU is under mounting pressure to do more than merely “monitor” the situation, as the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, somewhat feebly put it over the weekend.
Beyond the crisis management, a deeper reckoning is overdue after a tumultuous beginning to 2026. It has long been a truism that there is a profound mismatch between the EU’s economic heft and its geopolitical clout. But only a year into Mr Trump’s second term, the disjunction looks unsustainable in the “America first” era.
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Donald Trump has promised he will ‘shoot at Iran’ if Iranian security services attack anti-government protesters, but analysts suggest the US is not prepared for military action. It comes as the death toll from Tehran’s crackdown on protests soars, and as demonstrations continue to shake the country. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour
A criminal investigation into the Fed, and him personally, over the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters is an attempt to bully officials into setting policy according to the president’s whims, said Powell.
Holocaust survivor, educator and bestselling author who was a co-founder of the Anne Frank Trust UK
At the time, in 1940, when the 11-year-old Eva Schloss (then Eva Geiringer), newly arrived from Vienna, played with a group of children that included Anne Frank in the grassy square between their Amsterdam flats after school, she could not have imagined how intimately linked her name and Anne’s would become.
Eva, who has died aged 96, and Anne were not close: although born a month apart and neighbours in Merwedeplein (Anne lived at flat 37 and Eva at 46), they were unalike – Eva athletic, Anne more interested in fashion, films and flirting.
Connexion
