By The Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein saga is rippling through Europe.

Related Articles

Gisèle Pelicot publicly recounts harrowing discovery of her husband’s rape crimes

Study finds climate change set the stage for devastating wildfires in Argentina and Chile

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright visits Venezuela to assess oil industry overhaul

Russia says it will stick to New START’s nuclear arms limits as long as the US does

Today in History: February 11, Margaret Thatcher elected to Britain’s opposition party

Politicians, diplomats, officials and royals have seen reputations tarnished, investigations launched and jobs lost after a trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department revealed their ties to the American financier and convicted sex offender who died behind bars in 2019.

Apart from the former Prince Andrew, none of them face claims of sexual wrongdoing. They have been toppled for maintaining friendly relationships with Epstein after he became a convicted sex offender.

Some experts note the reckoning in Europe’s parliamentary democracies has been swifter and more severe — for now — than in the United States, where Epstein built his empire and hobnobbed with many American elites.

Here’s a look at some of those in the Old World caught up in the new furor.

U.K. royal family

The former Prince Andrew, one of King Charles III’s two brothers, is one of the most prominent names linked to the Epstein underworld involving the recruitment of underage girls for sex.

He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but the scandalous headlines forced the king last year to strip Andrew of his royal titles, including that of prince. He is now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The recent document dump exposed the depth of ties between Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein, revealing more unsavory details that have jolted the royal family, including an allegation that the former prince sent trade reports to Epstein in 2010.

Mountbatten-Windsor has been forced to move out of the royal estate that he occupied for more than two decades. Buckingham Palace says that the king is ready to support police in the event of an inquiry into whether Mountbatten-Windsor gave confidential information to Epstein.

British Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson speaks during the rededication ceremony of the George Washington Statue in the National Gallery in London, Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

British politics

The U.K. government has been shaken by new revelations about Peter Mandelson, a longtime Labour party stalwart who Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought out of the political wilderness as U.K. ambassador in Washington.

Mandelson was stripped of that plum post in September, after Epstein emails showed that they had had closer ties than the ambassador had initially acknowledged.

While Starmer himself isn’t implicated in the files, his position has come under threat over appointing Mandelson. He has faced calls from his opponents and from within his own Labour party to resign — which he has so far refused.

Mandelson is now facing a criminal investigation, after the new files suggested that he may have shared market-sensitive information with Epstein a decade and a half ago.

FILE -Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Ingrid Alexandra applaud during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP), File)

Norway’s crown princess

The new documents showed, among other things, that Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the 52-year-old wife of Crown Prince Haakon, borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach, Florida, for several days in 2013.

And in an email exchange between Epstein and Mette-Marit in 2012, he noted how he was in Paris “on my wife hunt,” but “i prefer Scandinavians.”

She replied that the French capital was “good for adultery,” but “Scandis” were “better wife material.”

Mette-Marit apologized this month for “the situation I have put the royal family in,” and said: “Some of the content of the messages between Epstein and me does not represent the person I want to be.”

FILE -Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland speaks at the Russian International Affairs Council in Moscow on March 23, 2012. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, File)

Norway ex-prime minister

On Wednesday, the Council of Europe said that it was honoring a request from Norwegian authorities to waive the immunity from legal processes that its former secretary-general and ex-Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland, had enjoyed.

The council, a human rights body based in Strasbourg, France, said that such immunity aims “to safeguard the independent exercise of official functions,” and wasn’t intended for “personal benefit.”

Based on revelations in the Epstein files, Norwegian authorities opened an investigation into “aggravated corruption” involving Jagland, who is also a former chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Emails indicate that Jagland made plans to visit Epstein’s island with his family in 2014.

FILE – Norway’s Ambassador to the United Nations Mona Juul address a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Friday Feb. 25, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Norwegian former ambassador

Mona Juul, Norway’s ex-ambassador to Jordan, who was involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts in the 1990s, resigned over the weekend, after reports said that Epstein left $10 million to Juul’s children in a will drawn up shortly before he died.

Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that a ministry investigation into her knowledge of and contact with Epstein will continue, and Juul will continue discussions with Norwegian officials to clarify the situation.

French ex-culture minister

Jack Lang, 86, stepped down as head of the Arab World Institute in Paris over alleged past financial links to Epstein that prompted a tax investigation.

Lang was summoned to appear Sunday at the French Foreign Ministry, which oversees the institute, but submitted his resignation.

The former culture minister under President Francois Mitterrand is the highest-profile figure in France impacted by the U.S. Justice Department’s release of files on Jan. 30.

Slovakia ex-foreign minister

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s national security adviser, Miroslav Lajčák, resigned over past communications with Epstein — including text messages in which they discussed “gorgeous” girls.

“When I’m reading the messages today, I feel like an idiot,” Lajčák told Slovak public radio.

Lajčák, a former foreign minister and former president of the U.N. General Assembly, has denied any wrongdoing. He said that he considered Epstein a valuable contact who was accepted by the rich and powerful in the U.S.

“Those messages are nothing more than stupid male egos in action,” Lajčák said. “Nothing more than words ever came of it.”

It’s been 3½ months since Luke Hagglund resigned from the Forest Lake Area School Board, leaving it deadlocked 3-3.

Despite multiple attempts to appoint a new member, the remaining six board members have not been able to come to consensus.

How long can the school board go without appointing a seventh member?

According to state statute, any vacancy on the board “must be filled by board appointment at a regular or special meeting,” but the statute does not provide a timetable regarding when that appointment must be made. Hagglund’s term is set to expire at the end of this year.

“Generally speaking, if there’s less than two years left in the term, then an appointment can be made until the end of that term,” said Terry Morrow, general counsel for the Minnesota School Boards Association. “If there’s more than two years left in the term, then there has to be a special election for that position.”

At the board’s last meeting, on Jan. 22, the board again failed to reach a majority on three candidates — Andi Courneya, Princesa VanBuren Hansen and Paul Pease — who had each applied to fill the vacant school board seat.

School Board Chairman Curt Rebelein said he doesn’t know when or how the issue will be resolved.

“I wish I could answer that question because the state statute says we must appoint somebody,” he said. “But the state statute does not give us a timetable for a ‘must appoint.’”

Previous efforts

When Hagglund resigned on Oct. 23, Rebelein planned for the board to vote on a resolution appointing Forest Lake resident Scot Doboszenski to fill the remainder of Hagglund’s term. Hagglund told the Pioneer Press that he planned to vote on Doboszenski’s appointment himself. An attorney for Education Minnesota, however, sent a letter to Rebelein stating that the vote would be illegal. Doboszenski was not appointed.

The board voted to go out for applications for the vacant seat, and 11 people applied before the Nov. 20 deadline. The board interviewed seven candidates on Dec. 3, and five finalists were named.

But board members were unable to reach consensus during a nearly eight-hour meeting the following night. The lack of a majority vote in favor of any of the candidates meant that all of the agenda items that followed were not resolved either.

The roadblock resulted from a “special order” resolution, crafted by Rebelein, that effectively required the vacancy to be resolved before any other business could be conducted.

That meant bills were not paid, the levy was not certified, and the audit was not accepted.

The next week, the board conducted its unresolved business and agreed to proceed with three finalists: Courneya, Hansen and Pease. Board members also decided to delay the appointment until January, but neither of the three finalists received a majority vote on Jan. 22.

“Where that leaves us, I really don’t know,” Rebelein said. “I do know we still have an obligation, per statute, to appoint somebody, but without a timetable in the statute, I don’t know if there’s an increased legal risk for not doing it.”

‘Start all over’

The board is deadlocked 3-3 with Rebelein and board members Tessa Antonsen and Mark Kasel, all endorsed by the Minnesota Parents Alliance, forming one voting bloc. The MPA is a conservative group formed in 2022 to push back against K-12 initiatives that promote racial equity and support for LGBTQ students.

Board members Jill Christenson, Julie Corcoran and Gail Theisen form the other voting bloc.

Christenson said last week that she doesn’t know how the appointment of a new school board member will be resolved. “There is just a total breakdown in trust,” she said, citing the Dec. 4 meeting, which lasted until Christenson, Corcoran and Theisen finally left, breaking quorum, at 2 a.m.

“On a board, you have to be collaborative. You have to work together, you have to compromise. You have to at least have some basic levels of trust and decency and respect,” Christenson said. “But with that meeting that went until 2 in the morning, all that is gone.”

Christenson blames Rebelein for the Dec. 4 marathon meeting and subsequent breakdown in trust.

“Actions have repercussions,” she said. “I frankly don’t know how this will be resolved. He’s the chair. The buck stops with him. He needs to figure this out.”

Related Articles

San Francisco public schoolteachers strike over wages and health benefits

In Minnesota, sending a child to school is an act of faith for immigrant families

Man wielding butcher knife at Cottage Grove Elementary charged

Kindergarten readiness varies widely by income, new data shows. Cities are stepping in to help

‘These kids are invisible’: Child abuse deaths spur clash over homeschool regulation

Superintendent Steve Massey, who announced in October that he plans to resign June 30, said he expects the board to initiate another round of applicants and “start all over again.”

“Because the statute states that they must fill the vacancy, they don’t simply declare, ‘Well, we gave it a try, and that’s as good as we can do, so we’re just going to live with the six-member board,” he said.

Massey, who has worked for the district for the past 27 years, said this is the first time he can remember a board vacancy not being filled within a few weeks of the vacancy. “In the past,” he said, “the board was able to establish a process to fill the vacancy and then proceed with filling the vacancy in a timely fashion.”

Some progress

The board has reached resolution in a few areas lately.

A disagreement over legal representation meant that two law firms used by the district for decades were excluded from a list originally proposed for legal services in 2026.

On Jan. 22, the board approved the hiring of four individual attorneys from those two firms to help handle cases related to special education: Alex Ivan of Kennedy & Graven, and Laura Tubbs Booth, Adam Frudden and Joseph Langel of Ratwik, Roszak and Maloney.

On Thursday, the board will vote on whether to hire the following attorneys and firms to provide school district legal counsel: Margaret Skelton of Ratwik, Roszak & Malony; Peter Martin and Greg Madsen of Kennedy & Graven; Beck Law Group, and Pemberton Law.

A debate over whether the Forest Lake Times or the Pioneer Press would be the district’s official newspaper of record also was resolved Jan. 22 when the board voted to approve the designation of both. The Pioneer Press will be the official school newspaper for “legal notifications concerning bids, employment matters, and anything deemed urgent by administration,” district officials said. The Forest Lake Times will be the official district newspaper for “all other matters necessitating notice.”

The board plans to undergo the Minnesota School Boards Association’s School Board Self-Evaluation, which assesses a board’s conduct and ethics, vision, structure, accountability and advocacy and communication.

“Bills are getting paid,” Rebelein said. “Routine action items are being handled. We’re still working through policies.”

Rebelein is hoping the board can move forward with another important job, making committee assignments, even if they’re still deadlocked 3-3.

“I hope that that gets settled at (Thursday’s) board meeting. I’m going to bring a proposal back to the board,” he said. “Now that I know we won’t be appointing somebody, maybe we can work through that, perhaps with some amendments and some horse trading there, to get committees assigned.”

Superintendent search

One major issue on the table is the board’s search for a new superintendent. Applications were due Dec. 3.

On Thursday night, the board will hear presentations from three search firms vying to be hired to lead the search. The firms being considered are the Minnesota School Board Association, Ray & Associates and School Exec Connect.

The board has no choice but to come to resolution regarding the hiring of a superintendent, Rebelein said.

“That one is very clear in statute that we must have a superintendent before the school year can start,” he said. “There is no wiggle room on that one, and I strongly suspect that lawsuits will be filed on Day 1 if we haven’t done that work.”

Still, he said, he has major concerns about whether that will happen.

Related Articles

Former Hudson strength and conditioning coach pleads guilty to sexually assaulting student athlete in Woodbury

‘This isn’t just about flowers’: Stillwater nonprofit shares bouquets, compassion with widows on Valentine’s Day

Man wielding butcher knife at Cottage Grove Elementary charged

Obituary: Gordie Bailey, 90, loved plants, hated buckthorn

Fare For All, an affordable pop-up grocery store, ending service to metro

“Being how we split on who we can appoint as a board member, I don’t know how we’re going to come to a consensus on who we hire as a superintendent,” he said. “But, at the end of the day, all six of us want what’s best for the schools and what’s best for the district. I still honestly believe that.”

Christenson said she is worried about who would want the superintendent position given the board’s dysfunction. She said she has the same concerns about people interested in filling the board vacancy.

“I mean, literally, who wants to apply to be on the board?” she said. “Frankly, I think that is sort of (their) point. I mean, if you just make this ugly, if it’s difficult, if it’s time consuming, if it’s frustrating, you’re really only going to get people on the very edges who want to do it.”

By REGINA GARCIA CANO

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States government on Wednesday further asserted its self-appointed role in turning around Venezuela’s dilapidated oil industry with the arrival of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to the South American country for a firsthand assessment.

Related Articles

Alex Murdaugh continues to insist he didn’t kill wife and son as he gets another day in court

As ICE expands, an AP review of crimes committed by agents shows how their powers can be abused

US stocks wobble after feeling both the upside and downside of a strong jobs report

Surge of 130,000 US hires last month is a stark contrast to the weak hiring of 2025

Trump administration briefly closes El Paso airspace, blames Mexican cartel drone incursion

Wright’s visit comes as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump continues to lift sanctions to allow foreign companies to operate in Venezuela and help rebuild the nation’s most important industry. It follows last month’s enactment of a Venezuelan law that opened the nation’s oil sector to private investment, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela welcomed Wright to the country, writing on social platform X that “the U.S. private sector will be essential to boost the oil sector, modernize the electric grid and unlock Venezuela’s enormous potential.”

Wright is expected to meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, government officials, oil executives and others.

Rodríguez was sworn into her new role after the brazen Jan. 3 seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. She proposed the overhaul of the country’s energy law after Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.

Rodríguez’s government expects the changes to serve as assurances for major U.S. oil companies that have so far hesitated about returning to the volatile country. Some of those companies lost investments when the ruling party enacted the existing law two decades ago to favor Venezuela’s state-run oil company, PDVSA.

The new law now grants private companies control over oil production and sales, ending PDVSA’s monopoly over those activities as well as pricing. It also allows for independent arbitration of disputes, removing a mandate for disagreements to be settled only in Venezuelan courts, which are controlled by the ruling party.

Foreign investors view the involvement of independent arbitrators as crucial to guard against future expropriation.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

In some ways, it was an offseason of upheaval for the Twins. Executive chair Joe Pohlad was replaced by his brother, Tom; president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey left the organization and after nine seasons at the helm; manager Rocco Baldelli was fired and replaced with Derek Shelton.

In other ways, much remains the same. Little was done, for example, to a roster that underperformed in the first half of the season and limped to the finish line after a trade deadline sell-off.

Minnesota Twins vice president and assistant general manager Jeremy Zoll talks as new manager Derek Shelton is introduced during a baseball news conference, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

As spring training officially kicks off in Fort Myers, Florida, on Thursday, there are still plenty of questions to be answered in the six weeks leading up to Opening Day. Here are five.

How will the rotation shake out?

With eight potential starter options, how the rotation shakes out will be one of the more interesting storylines to follow in camp. Atop the rotation, the Twins have right-handers Joe Ryan and Pablo López, a pair of all-star starters who will be gone for much of spring training while competing in the World Baseball Classic. A return to form for Bailey Ober would do wonders for the Twins, who are relying upon the veteran to look more like the pre-2025 version than last year’s iteration.

Behind that trio, the Twins have a number of arms vying for innings. Simeon Woods Richardson is out of options and coming off a strong finish to last season. Taj Bradley, who like Ryan and López will pitch in the WBC, has spent much of the past three seasons pitching in the majors. The Twins also believe strongly in the futures of young starters David Festa, Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel, each of whom have at least some major league experience.

How many starters will transition to the bullpen?

This goes hand and hand with the first question, as it’s possible that the Twins try to test out a starter or two who don’t make the rotation out of camp in the bullpen. They also have prospects who have yet to reach the majors such as Connor Prielipp or Marco Raya, with whom they could go this route.

It has been a common path, and some of the Twins’ best relievers of late — Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Louie Varland, for example — were converted starters. At the beginning of camp, the Twins will stretch their starters out, so this is something to keep an eye on toward the middle of camp.

“(We’re) going to … work through conversations later on as need be once we have as good a handle as possible on our situation with the state of the bullpen and the best opportunities to put everyone in the best position for success,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said.

Will there be more additions?

Zoll has said the Twins still plan to add to the bullpen — the only free-agent addition thus far has been a reunion with Taylor Rogers on a one-year deal — and it’s certainly possible the Twins can still accomplish that. In recent years, moves have come later and later. Rogers himself was traded right before Opening Day in 2022.

“In the past, you would use report date as, ‘Alright, we’re down in camp and ready to go,’ ” Zoll said. “I think we’ve become accustomed to knowing things could pivot and change.”

Zoll’s comment came Tuesday, a day after Philadelphia Phillies team president Dave Dombrowski said he was anticipating more trade activity than usual during spring training because the free agent market developed late this winter. If that’s the case, the Twins could be among the active teams.

Who will be pitching late in games?

The Twins are expected to carry eight relievers on their Opening Day roster; what that will look like is anyone’s guess right now. Over the course of the next six weeks, the Twins will need to choose relievers and settle on roles for each.

Rogers has experience closing, though at 35, he’s not the same pitcher as he was when he converted 30 saves for the Twins in 2019. Justin Topa might get a chance at some eighth- and ninth-inning opportunities, and so might Cole Sands. But neither has a ton of closing experience, and how the Twins will allocate those innings will be something to watch this spring after they traded away a stable of late-inning arms.

What will we learn about the new coaching staff?

While the roster may look similar to last year’s, the coaching staff sure doesn’t, and spring training should reveal some insights into how Shelton’s crew might operate.

Gone is Baldelli, who managed the team for the past seven years and in his place Shelton, who served as the Twins’ bench coach in 2018 and 2019 before leaving to manage the Pittsburgh Pirates.

While some coaches kept their jobs, including pitching coach Pete Maki, the Twins did turn over much of their staff. New additions include former players LaTroy Hawkins and Grady Sizemore, as well as bench coaches Mark Hallberg and Mike Rabelo, major league field coordinator Toby Gardenhire and new lead hitting coach Keith Beauregard.

Shelton gathered his staff after TwinsFest and said they spent about two and a half days together. He also hosted the group for a staff Super Bowl party.

Related Articles

Top prospects, familiar veteran among Twins’ non-roster invites

Jeremy Zoll takes over as Twins’ top baseball decision-maker

Twins claim relief pitcher Jackson Kowar

What did Derek Falvey accomplish during his nine-year Twins tenure?

Shipley: Timing was a surprise, but Twins and Vikings moves not a shock