US members of Congress who viewed the latest Epstein files unredacted have accused the US department of justice (DOJ) of covering up for billionaires and exposing victims. US lawmakers are entitled to view the original files under US legislation on the investigation.

The same legislation says that federal officials can only redact to protect the identity of victims and explicitly excludes protecting others. However, the DOJ has obscured many names of Epstein associates and perpetrators.

Epstein cover-up

Representative Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the congressional judiciary committee, said that the DOJ is “in a cover-up mode”. He added that the chaotic and illegal nature of the redactions is either “spectacular incompetence” or, more likely, deliberate illegality:

I went over there, and I was able to determine, at least I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions, in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that was troubling to us.

They violated that precept [of redacting only to protect victims] by releasing the names of a lot of victims, which is either spectacular incompetence and sloppiness on their part, or, as a lot of the survivors believe, a deliberate threat to other survivors who are thinking about coming forward, that they need to be careful because they can be exposed and have their personal information dragged through the mud as well.

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I saw the names of lots of people, who were redacted for mysterious or baffling or inscrutable reasons.

Lawyers have said US law is unclear whether it’s legal to reveal the redacted names. However, Raskin’s Democrat colleague Ro Khanna used his congressional privilege to read out the powerful names he had seen:

Raskin also named Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner, as a wealthy figure whose name had been blacked out. He added that he was going to demand that Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi will correct the redactions when she testifies to his committee on Wednesday 11 February:

We’re going to start by posing questions directly to attorney general Bondi about the process that produced such flawed results, and that has created such mystery. But also, we want to get a commitment from the Department of Justice to clean it up as quickly as possible, and to get them to release the millions of other documents that are still out there.

The DOJ has released only about half of the Epstein files. It has admitted that it is withholding the worst, and that this includes footage of rapes, torture and murder of helpless victims.

For more on the the Epstein Files, please read the Canary’s article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Forbes Breaking News

Handwritten notes made in prison by serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein show him writing “jail out = 10”. It may well indicate that Epstein expected to be out of prison on the 10th day of a month, which is, of course, the day he allegedly died. Or, it could be the ramblings of a predatory child rapist who was becoming increasingly unhinged.

Epstein’s handwritten notes: clues or ramblings?

Epstein’s ‘death’ has now been cast into doubt by evidence found in the latest release of US government files. Prosecutors prepared an announcement of his supposed suicide a day before it happened. A subpoena revealed that an anonymous message board post describing Epstein’s removal from prison – posted before his ‘death’ was announced – had been written by a prison guard on duty that night.

The latest discovery will only fuel suspicions that Epstein is still alive.

File EFTA00134596 and its adjacent release EFTA00134597 contain notes scribbled on a yellow pad in Epstein’s spidery handwriting. While much of it is either coded or difficult to read, much also is not.

One of the pages, alongside sketches that may show containers or building layouts, has clear mentions of:

• Israel
• Jet – US prop
• Guards
• govt clear
• Niger/Nigeria
• Visa
• Red notice (a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action).
• Gangsters
• Banks
• Computer
• Tourist
• Gaza
• Muslim

Along with several names:

But the other is briefer. Shown upside down in the file, when rotated it shows, among initials:

• JAIL OUT = 10

What all of this means when put together is unclear – but it could be that Epstein was laying out his train of thought around some kind of plan. Or, it could be the desperate and deranged scribblings of a man who, even then, did not care about his victims – only himself. All of this will only add to speculation the child rapist’s death was not all that it seemed.

For more on the the Epstein Files, please read our article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors here.

Featured image via the Canary

Signs of coercive control

Gaslighting

Isolation

Financial control

Blame-shifting

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Stewart Harper is President of the National Conservative Convention, a member of the Board of the Conservative Party, and chaired the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester in October 2025.

Chairing last year’s Party Conference in Manchester was a personal honour, with many highlights not least of which was the closing speech from our Party Leader.  Every person I have spoken to since then talked about that speech being a turning point.

Across the four days we demonstrated something very important: that when our members come together, we renew not just our message, but our confidence. Our ideas were sharpened, our energy was restored, and the Party reconnected the people who make it work day in, day out.

Since our time in Manchester, Kemi Badenoch and the Shadow Cabinet have continued to work together – to hold the government to account and demonstrate that it is only the Conservative Party who are developing credible and deliverable plans to get Britain working again.

We are continuing that in Harrogate.

But the truth is, we can’t succeed unless the strengths demonstrated in Manchester percolate throughout the Party.  Put it simply, as I said in my opening speech at Conference – Kemi, and the Shadow Cabinet, cannot do it alone. The momentum we have built together must not be kept in a box until the Party Conference comes around again. So this March, Spring Conference returns – this year at the Harrogate Convention Centre – and every Party Member should join us.

Here’s why: Spring Conference brings together activists, councillors, candidates and volunteers from across the country for a weekend focused on ideas, skills and connection.  Not sitting still, determining what we might do in three years’ time, but actively developing ourselves and our movement in that renewal – the fruits of which are already visible.

Delivered in partnership with the Campaign Academy and the Conservative Councillors’ Association, the programme is designed to be practical and engaging. And unapologetically optimistic about the Party’s future. And it’s an opportunity to socialise together too – including with a members’ dinner on Saturday night – meeting up with friends and colleagues from across the country.

 So, will you join us in Harrogate?

 Our Spring Conference offers members a valuable opportunity to hear directly from senior figures within the Party, including the most senior members of the Shadow Cabinet, and to gain first-hand insight into a growing and evolving renewal programme. It is a chance for every Party Member to engage – not through headlines or soundbites, but through thoughtful discussion and shared experience.

 Alongside the political content, Spring Conference is firmly focused on delivery.

Development sessions that are designed to “level up” your local campaigns, equipping you with practical skills that you can take back. From campaigning and organisation, to leadership and development, the emphasis is on empowering ourselves to win in May – and to win well.

From crafting your message, establishing an electoral strategy, harnessing the opportunities to use AI in campaigns, having persuasive conversations with voters (or communicating persuasive messages in writing), and ensuring that our supporters get to the polling station (or return their postal vote) in time for the hard work to count.

We’ve brought together a strong range of speakers – both from our own professional team and volunteers, and also from the Leadership Institute.  Based in the US, but working around the world, the Leadership Institute is renowned for equipping grassroots activists and emerging leaders with practical, hands-on skills in campaigning, communications and organisation-building, bringing proven, high-energy training methods to our conference.  We’ve been working in partnership with them for some time, including in developing our own Campaign Leadership Programme which was reviewed in a recent article on this site.  By learning from the best in the world, we can continue the renewal our Party needs.

Of course, there will be some who say that they can’t afford to take time away from their campaigning – and I sympathise.  But equally, we have to recognise that investment of time in development is as important as (or perhaps more important) than continuing the approaches already tried and tested.

For those who have elections in 2027 and 2028, in particular, it is essential that we put the work in now.  For as former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who joined us in Manchester, is fond of saying: “You can’t fatten the pig on market day.”

But no Party Conference is all work – one of its great strengths is its atmosphere.  We saw that in Manchester, and I am sure the same will be true in Harrogate. Yes, having lived in Yorkshire for more than 20 years I know I’m biased – but Harrogate is worth visiting in itself. Harrogate offers the perfect blend of elegant spa-town charm, Yorkshire hospitality and some pretty decent venues, making it an inspiring and welcoming place to come together.

With a full programme of social events, the weekend offers opportunities to relax, network and reconnect with members from across the country. It’s where campaign tips are swapped over coffee, friendships are formed over dinner, and the shared sense of purpose that binds the Party together is most visible.

Spring Conference is about enjoying being part of the Conservative and Unionist Party, and remembering why that matters for our country.

We have a great programme of social events planned, and I know that when people leave Harrogate they will do so with a renewed determination to do all we can in the service of our aims.

Places at Spring Conference are limited, with some events already sold out. If Manchester showed what our members can achieve together, Harrogate offers the chance to build on that success – sooner rather than later – and to ensure that it is not just on the national stage we show our best side, but in every election battle in the coming years.

Spring Conference 2026 is not just another date in the diary – for someone else and not for you. It’s an opportunity for Party Members to learn, connect, and to be ready to shape what comes next.

Join us from 6 to 8 March – tickets are available from www.conservatives.com/spring-conference/

The Saudis have castigated ‘heir to the throne’ William for his Epstein-linked uncle during his visit to Saudi Arabia this week. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with an appalling human rights record, but it is still able to look down on the UK and US establishment’s cosiness with murderous paedophiles.

Saudi media challenged the royal in Riyadh, with a reporter demanding to know whether the Windsors have “done enough around the Andrew and Epstein issue”. He ignored the question and walked off. That’ll be a ‘no’, then.

The US justice department’s latest, intentionally-chaotic release of Epstein files show further disturbing images of Andrew with anonymised girls. They also show Andrew leaking confidential information and Epstein trafficking another young woman to the UK for him. Mountbatten-Windsor paid now-deceased Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre around £12m in an out-of-court settlement. This was funded by the monarchy and therefore by UK taxpayers.

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of all titles in December 2025. The public has repeatedly challenged his brother Charles in recent weeks for his failure to take more serious action against him. Charles has now said he will ‘support’ the police investigation.

It remains to be seen how exactly the royal family intends to make any sort of amends to the victims and survivors shoved into the spotlight during this debacle.

Featured image via FCDO

Glasgow, January 2026: A candlelit vigil for Iranian protestors | Image by: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Alamy

4 min read7 min

It’s no secret that the situation in Iran is dire. What’s more difficult to determine is an accurate picture of precisely what is going on. We know that the protests that began towards the end of December spread fast and wide, on a scale not seen before in the catalogue of protests that have erupted intermittently, and been quashed violently, since the start of the millennium. This time, it was not only dissatisfaction with social issues but the virtual collapse of the economy which drove even the bazaaries – or shopkeepers – onto the streets in droves.

That the current regime has lost any sense of moral authority over the vast majority of Iranians is clear. Yet the Islamic Republic persists in power through a combination of breathtaking brutality and lack of a suitable alternative. This regime is undoubtedly in its final death throes – the violence demonstrates a desperate struggle to survive another day at any cost – but it’s impossible to say how long it will be before the final breath; will it be quick or long and drawn out? Either way it’s likely to be painful. 

And what then? The real question is what will follow once the Islamic Republic collapses. There is no credible opposition around which others will coalesce, only factions and groups, each with their own agendas (some, incidentally, just as dangerous as the status quo). Whatever happens, it must be the Iranian people who decide their fate and build for themselves a better future. Certainly, the support of the international community is essential, but a new government imposed by, say, America, with a puppet leader will not do. That way lies the ongoing cycle of dissatisfaction and corruption, with a people beholden to the whim of external powers, ultimately involved, not because of altruism but for their own self-interest. 

A new government imposed by, say, America, with a puppet leader will not do

Right now, foreign media are banned from entering the country and the internet shutdown has virtually cut Iran off from the rest of the world. At best there are sporadic reports; brief spells during which news leaks out and families here, desperate with worry, get snatches of information. I’m trying to stay in touch with a few people, but my WhatsApp messages remain, sometimes for days, showing one tick only – unseen and unread at the other end.

Reportedly, there are anything between a few thousand and 30,000 dead; no one disputes that many of them are young people. Whatever the precise number, it’s too many. And there are countless more injured or in prison. The people I’m in contact with tell me terrorist groups were rampaging the streets, killing and beheading government officials, while the regime didn’t distinguish between them and innocent protesters, clamping down with unprecedented violence. 

There are rumours that medical staff treating the injured have been executed. One message I received a few days ago said, “As far as I know, everyone who helped the wounded has either been arrested or killed.” Another, that though “some medical staff were killed in the clashes”, reports of their “execution” is exaggerated. Unsurprisingly, the protests are getting weaker – I’m told they’re now restricted to rooftop chants at night-time – and so, while the country is gripped by “a great sorrow”, inevitably the media are losing interest. I suspect it will only be a matter of time before the cycles of protest and violence repeat themselves.

Meanwhile, the US is amassing troops, threatening to attack Iran, at the same time, holding conversations, hoping to reach some kind of resolution. The future is uncertain and people continue living under violent oppression, unimaginable fear and the catastrophic effects of a failed economy. And these are a proud people – the product of a once great and ancient civilisation; ordinary people longing for freedom, justice, the opportunity to live their lives to the full. They are my countryfolk and I weep for them; they deserve better, much better.

Lord Bishop of Chelmsford is a Lords Spiritual peer