Peter Mandelson has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office by officers investigating latest revelations from the Epstein files.

The 72-year-old seen being led out of his home and loaded into a police car as officers search his properties.

The former Labour minister and US ambassador has been accused of passing on information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: ‘Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

‘He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, February 23 and has been taken to a London police station for interview.

‘This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.’

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart, previously said: ‘I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team are in the process of carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the Wiltshire area, and another in the Camden area.

‘The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man.’

Lord Mandelson was pictured in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, showing him in his underwear in the financier’s Paris home.

A series of payments have also been found from Epstein to Mandelson and his husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva.

Lord Mandelson has not responded to the latest allegations, but in an interview with the Times he admitted to a ‘lapse in judgment’ over funding sent by Epstein to his husband Reinaldo for an osteopathy course.

Sir Keir Starmer has said his once-ally Peter Mandelson ‘betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party’.

Starmer admitted knowing about Lord Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffry Epstein when he brought him back to government.

The Prime Minister said: ‘He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his tenure as ambassador, I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near Government.’

The force has begun a criminal investigation into allegations Lord Peter Mandelson passed market-sensitive information to Epstein while serving as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s Labour administration, as it dealt with the 2008 financial crash and its aftermath.

Mandelson was already sacked from his role in Washington in September last year over his links with the paedophile financier.

This is a breaking news story… More to follow…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials on Monday laid out a proposal to spur development of customized treatments for patients with hard-to-treat diseases, including for rare genetic conditions that the pharmaceutical industry has long considered unprofitable.

The preliminary Food and Drug Administration guidelines, if implemented, would create a new pathway for bespoke therapies that have only been tested in a handful of patients due to the challenges of conducting larger studies. The FDA announcement specifically mentions gene editing, although agency officials said the new approach could also be used by other drugs and therapies.

It’s a shift long sought by patients, advocates and researchers focused on rare diseases, which often do not fit within the pharmaceutical industry’s business model or the FDA’s traditional drug-approval system.

“It is our priority to remove barriers and exercise regulatory flexibility to encourage scientific advances and deliver more cures and meaningful treatments for patients suffering from rare diseases,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a release.

The announcement comes a week after Makary said the FDA would drop its decades-old standard of requiring two clinical trials for standard drug reviews. That was the latest in a series of changes to FDA norms and standards, many which have not gone through federal procedures traditionally used to update agency rules.

Senior FDA officials said the recent changes, including the pathway proposed Monday, don’t constitute new FDA standards. The FDA will take comments on its draft guidance for 60 days, before beginning to finalize it.

In recent years, academic researchers have shown they can use emerging technology to correct individual defects in a patient’s genetic code. Last year, a team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania designed a therapy using CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing tool, to treat a baby born with a rare disease that causes ammonia to build up in the blood.

Traditionally, the FDA requires drugmakers to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of their experimental treatments in clinical studies that compare a set of patients getting the therapy with others taking a sham treatment or an alternative intervention. The more patients enrolled, the stronger the evidence.

But for conditions that can affect a tiny fraction of people worldwide, drug companies often have little incentive to invest millions of dollars needed to complete a study and bring it through the FDA approval process, which can take a decade or longer.

The pathway announced Monday would create a standardized process for authorizing experimental treatments and, importantly, offering companies the possibility of commercializing them.

The FDA already authorizes the use of experimental drugs under what’s called “compassionate use,” for people with no other medical options. But the process is cumbersome to navigate and strictly prohibits companies or researchers from profiting from treatments that haven’t been vetted by the FDA.

The new pathway’s name — plausible mechanism — is a reference to criteria FDA regulators will require before greenlighting any experimental therapies.

FDA officials say the approach will be reserved for conditions that are well understood and where there is a plausible reason to think that the therapy will act on the underlying genetic or cellular biology of the disease. Researchers must also confirm that the therapy successfully targeted the patient’s genetic or biological abnormality.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The WRU is facing an EGM following the Six Nations

The Welsh Rugby Union has officially received a requisition from the Central Glamorgan Rugby Union calling for an extraordinary general meeting.

Such a request has thrown the WRU’s plans to restructure the professional game into doubt and has thrown the game into a period of even greater uncertainty. This is the first time an EGM has been called since 2023, which led to a significant reform of the governance of the WRU following recommendations from Dame Anne Rafferty.

But when will the EGM take place, what are the key proposals and what does it seek to change?

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When will it be held?

A date has not yet been set but the WRU has up to 49 days to hold the EGM.

Within 21 days of receiving the formal letter calling the EGM, the WRU must set a date. Once notice is given, the EGM itself must be held within 28 days.

In reality the EGM will be held at the conclusion of the Six Nations.

The background to the EGM?

The call for an EGM results from significant backlash to the WRU’s controversial plans to restructure the professional game.

Following a few years of extremely poor results at international level, including back-to-back Wooden Spoons in the Six Nations and struggles among Wales’ four professional clubs, the WRU decided it needed to enact radical change.

The headline act is a reduction from four to three professional men’s teams with the Ospreys in the firing line.

On top of this the WRU is proposing to invest £20m into the pathway over the next five years which includes 12 player development centres, two centres of excellence and a national academy.

The WRU says it cannot make significant investments into the pathway and retain four strong professional clubs.

But the way it has been handled and communicated has angered many people.

The WRU recently chose Ospreys owners Y11 Sports & Media as its preferred bidder for Cardiff and granted them a 60-day period of exclusivity.

Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart, one of the WRU’s many critics, insists this would lead to the end of the Ospreys as a professional team.

He claims that in a meeting with Ospreys CEO Lance Bradley and WRU CEO Abi Tierney he was told the plan was for the Ospreys to merge with Swansea RFC to become a semi-professional Super Rygbi Cymru outfit. Both the WRU and Y11 say the claims relating to that meeting contain inaccuracies, with Bradley insisting he has made no statement on the long term future of the Ospreys.

Swansea Council has urged the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate Y11’s potential purchase of Cardiff, and they have also attempted to get a high court injunction to delay the deal.

Both WRU chair Richard Collier-Keywood and CEO Tierney have also appeared before the Welsh Affairs Committee in Westminster while there have been numerous protests from supporters.

In addition the WRU is also facing a legal challenge from the Scarlets, relating to their takeover of Cardiff last year.

The criticism has been ferocious with most of the blame placed on Collier-Keywood.

But there is also a school of thought that one of the underlying reasons for the EGM is to unpick the governance changes implemented as a result of the Rafferty Report in 2023.

The Rafferty Report resulted from accusations of a toxic culture within the WRU.

As a result of recommendations put forward by the Rafferty report, the WRU’s structure changed significantly at the previous EGM in 2023. The number of council (community club) members on the board was reduced to four to create a far more professional board.

The motions being tabled

The full requisition to the board is private and has not been released to the public but WalesOnline understands it is the same as what the Central Glamorgan Rugby Union proposed last month.

It is worth noting the WRU is still verifying all the documents sent in and will make explicit which motions will be voted on when it officially calls the EGM.

For the EGM the first issue for consideration will be whether the submission by Central Glamorgan satisfies the requirement under the constitution. In other words, have they secured sufficient numbers and have all the letters been properly authorised?

But the main motion being tabled by the Central Glamorgan Rugby Union is a vote of no confidence in Collier-Keywood and Malcolm Wall, the chair of the Professional Rugby Board.

Wall’s tenure ends next month anyway and according to well-placed sources it was always his plan to retire.

But if Collier-Keywood is voted out that would be a seismic move, although his three-year tenure expires this summer.

This would require a majority of more than 50% of those in attendance to pass.

The second motion tabled would be for the WRU council to hold elections for the four elected member board positions within 14 days after the EGM, which requires more than 50% of the vote.

In addition the third motion is to amend how the WRU district and council members are elected, which will require a 75% majority.

But according to section 36 of the WRU’s articles of association:

“No alteration may be made to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company unless such alteration has:

(a) in accordance with the Act been approved by a special resolution of the Members (75 percent of those present and voting) passed at the annual general meeting or an extraordinary general meeting of the Company; and

(b) in the case of an extraordinary general meeting been proposed by the Board of Directors.”

If the WRU follows its articles of association to the letter then motion three can only be put forward by the member clubs at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) not an EGM.

Only the WRU board can propose it for an EGM.

In addition the CGMRU is recommending the following:

• Plans to amend the structure of the professional game, with a full review of WRU finances and organisation structure to be undertaken to identify where money can be saved (executive and board salaries, consultants) to support the professional, SRC and community game in Wales.
• A rugby steering group to be set up within three weeks comprising of people from the professional, SRC and community game along with business sector. This group will be directed to advise on rugby related matters and negate the need for expensive consultants.
• A central national academy to be set up within three months to be totally responsible for the identification and development of talent for male and female players.
• Except for the WRU chief executive and chair and the Professional Rugby Board (PRB) chair, no directors (independent non-executive or WRU council members) should be paid.
• The new WRU chair and PRB chair appointments should be immersed in Welsh culture, have a strong understanding of Welsh rugby and values, ideally be conversant in the Welsh language and live in Wales.”

Under the articles of association the WRU board does not need to act on the above demands but if they did not it would leave a lot of bad blood within certain sections of the community game.

For an EGM to be quorate a third of member clubs have to be present on the day.

What are the potential ramifications of an EGM?

To begin with, Collier-Keywood faces a race against time to get the new structure signed off before an EGM in order to make the changes irreversible.

He also has to consider whether it is morally right to do so considering a large part of the EGM is based on halting the restructuring of the professional game.

“The WRU published its plans for the Future of the Elite Game in Wales at the end of October 2025, following an extensive consultation process,” read a WRU statement.

“We are now focused on rolling out that plan and have been working tirelessly with the key stakeholders during the last months to agree a consensus on its implementation.”

According to the above WRU statement it does not plan to halt any restructuring.

The WRU has already given Swansea Council assurances that the Y11 deal to buy Cardiff will not be completed before March 16 which is just two days after Wales’ final match of the Six Nations against Italy.

With regard to the new licences for the three surviving professional teams the WRU is having a tough time getting the Dragons and Scarlets to accept their terms.

The WRU wants total control of the rugby side of each team, which will also include centrally contracting all Welsh-qualified players and staff.

But the WRU still requires the funding directors to pay the £1m licence fee and to put a significant sum of money in each year.

This is not acceptable to the current funding directors. WalesOnline understands there are a number of senior figures within the WRU who are prepared to compromise in order to get a deal done but Collier-Keywood will not budge at all.

Clearly if Collier-Keywood wants to get the new structure in place before an EGM then he will have to drop some of his demands.

If Collier-Keywood loses the vote of no confidence, they will need to find a replacement chair for the WRU board and PRB board with Wall set to leave.

Potential replacements for Collier-Keywood could include former First Minister Carwyn Jones, former chair Gareth Davies, current WRU INED Andrew Williams and Alison Thorne or Go Compare founder Hayley Parsons.

The clubs can get rid of Collier-Keywood but would have little say over his successor because this will be a matter for the non-executive members, not the clubs.

The 12-strong WRU board consists of the chair, CEO, PRB chair, four elected members – Colin Wilks, Chris Jones, John Manders and Claire Donovan who was appointed to promote the women’s game.

It also includes four independent non-executive directors – Andrew Williams, Jamie Roberts, Jennifer Mathias, Alison Thorne and Amanda Bennett.

If the second motion passes then elections will take place for the positions held by Wilks, Jones, Manders and Donovan.

There is also the age old argument of whether the community clubs should have any say over the professional game.

Despite the call for an EGM it is unclear how much of an appetite there is for change.

This writer sat through the AGM last November where not a single question was asked about the restructuring of the professional game despite having ample opportunity to do so.

Some may not be concerned about the strategic direction of the pro game but may vote to oust Collier-Keywood because rightly or wrongly they feel he does not understand Welsh rugby culture.

People will vote for various reasons, not just what’s on the ballot paper.

But the biggest question would be whether a change at an EGM would actually stop the restructuring of the professional game.

Even if Collier-Keywood is gone, it’s crucial to recognise the entire WRU board voted for a cut from four to three teams and they also unanimously backed the decision to accept Y11’s bid for Cardiff.

Ousting the chairman does not mean the four team plan dies with his exit, with the board, and in fact senior figures at some of the regions, believing reducing sides is the best way to go to fund the improvement in pathways and the elite system needed.

There’s also the fact that any new chair, who would be appointed by the board, may well come to the same conclusion, even if the route to getting there is different.

The Princess of Wales stepped out in an elegant gown for the annual BAFTAs on Sunday, with a stylist saying her show-stopping outfit was a subtle sign in the face of a difficult time for the Firm

Prince William and Princess Kate attended the BAFTAs, stepping out for their first joint appearance since the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Despite the turbulent time for the Royal Family, the Prince and Princess of Wales were both the picture of elegance as they hit the red carpet.

Kate wore a floor-length pink-toned Gucci evening gown that she accentuated with a matching clutch handbag. The princess paired the look with a simple silver bangle and let her hair fall in curls to below her shoulders. She also donned a stunning pair of silver drop earrings that belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth.

READ MORE: How disgraced Andrew being axed from line of succession will cause huge shake-upREAD MORE: Sarah Ferguson’s ‘bonkers plot to make cash’ after Andrew’s arrest

While royal watchers were enamoured with Kate’s stunning dress, which she had worn before for a gala at the V&A museum in 2019, a stylist believes there was more to the princess’s outfit than meets the eye.

Fashion expert Lisa Talbot told the Daily Mail that the combination of her gown and her perfectly styled hair and makeup sent a powerful message of tradition and strength amid a turbulent period for The Firm. “In a moment where the Royal Family is under intense scrutiny, her appearance felt quietly strategic, a reminder of stability, grace and the composure expected of a future Queen,” she explained.

The expert revealed that “the soft, flowing silhouette of her gown felt romantic yet incredibly poised, a beautiful balance of femininity and authority”, as she added that Kate’s appearance at the awards “wasn’t about drama; it was about presence”.

“Kate’s BAFTAs look was a masterclass in understated power dressing,” Talbot explained. “Nothing felt overdone. Her hair was glossy and softly styled, and the make-up fresh and refined, allowing her natural features to lead rather than compete with the dress.”

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Inside the awards, Kate spoke candidly about her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and how she was using their newfound love of films to help her have difficult conversations with the young royals.

Kate spoke with Emily Stillman, Chair of Bafta’s Film Committee, who reminisced with the princess and said: “Last time I saw you, you were pregnant with George and you were doing your Harry Potter spells,” referring to the royal couple’s 2013 visit to the Warner Brothers studios in Hertfordshire, where they toured the set of Harry Potter .

Kate replied: “I was saying how much the children would love to look around. They love the idea of going behind the scenes and finding out how it all happens.”

The Princess of Wales went on to reveal that the three children are becoming more interested in films, saying: “The children are starting to get interested in films and it’s a really great way to have some of the hard conversations with them.”

Elsewhere at the annual award ceremony, Prince William made a candid comment about his wife and how she was left in “floods of tears” after watching the emotional movie Hamnet, which was nominated in the Best Picture category.

Chatting with Emily Stillman, Kate added: “Yes, I think it was a very bad idea actually… ended up with very puffy eyes.” She said it was “really very very powerful”, praising the “fantastic” and “raw” music score and talking about its portrayal of “intergenerational grief”.

CAMERON, N.C. (AP) — The 21-year-old North Carolina man who drove through a gate at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with a shotgun before he was shot and killed worked as a golf course groundskeeper and liked to sketch.

Austin Tucker Martin rarely, if ever, talked about politics, seemed afraid of guns, and came from a family of Trump supporters, according to Braeden Fields, a cousin who said the two grew up together.

“I wouldn’t believe he would do something like this. It’s mind-blowing,” Fields said. “He wouldn’t even hurt an ant. He doesn’t even know how to use a gun.”

Martin drove into the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday and raised a shotgun at two Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy who then opened fire “to neutralize the threat,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

Trump, who often spends weekends at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort, was at the White House at the time.

Investigators have not identified a motive. Trump faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including one just a few miles (kilometers) from Mar-a-Lago when a man was spotted aiming a rifle through shrubbery while Trump was golfing.

Following Sunday’s incident, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said investigators believe Martin bought his shotgun while driving to Florida. Authorities said his family had recently reported him missing.

Martin was from central North Carolina, where guns and hunting are a part of life, his cousin said. But whenever they’d go hunting or target shooting, Martin would never pick up a gun, Fields told The Associated Press on Sunday.

He lived with his mother in a modest modular house down a rutted sandy road near the town of Cameron. No one answered the door Monday, and the large police presence from the day before was gone.

Martin’s sister was killed in a car accident a few years ago and he has an older brother who’s in the military, Fields said.

For the past three years, Martin worked as a groundskeeper at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.

“It’s tragic. I feel for his family,” said Kelly Miller, president of the course in nearby Southern Pines. “It’s just unfortunate what transpired. It was totally unexpected.”

Martin last year started a business to sell pen drawings he made, according to state records. A website matching the company name features illustrations of golf courses, buildings and ancient Roman architecture.

Politics didn’t seem to be among his interests, his cousin said

“We are big Trump supporters, all of us. Everybody,” Fields said, but his cousin was “real quiet, never really talked about anything.”

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Associated Press reporters Michelle L. Price in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Accuracy claims might not be transparent

Some experts are calling for legal change

A man already serving a whole-life sentence for the brutal murders of his pregnant partner and three children has received a further life term after carrying out a hammer attack on a fellow inmate.

Damien Bendall, 36, a former cage fighter, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court for the attempted murder of Michael Mullaney at HMP Frankland, Durham. The court heard Bendall struck Mr Mullaney four times in the head with a claw hammer without warning, with the first blow to the back of his head rendering him unconscious.

Bendall had previously used a claw hammer in the horrific killings in Killamarsh, Derbyshire, in 2021, for which he received his initial whole-life tariff.

The attack in a workshop in May 2024 was so severe that a prison officer believed the victim could be dead, Jolyon Perks, prosecuting, said.

When the officer drew his baton and sounded an alarm, Bendall submitted, the court heard.

Mr Perks said: “The defendant immediately threw his hammer to one side and put his arms out to show he had stopped his assault on Mr Mullaney.”

After he was handcuffed, officers asked Bendall why he had attacked his friend, with whom he had sometimes played dominos.

Mr Perks said: “The defendant responded ‘I don’t know’.”

His victim spent four nights in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, being treated for depressed skull fractures and bleeding on the brain.

The court heard that the severity to the blows could have been fatal.

In a victim statement made three months after the attack, Mr Mullaney said it had left him anxious, reluctant to leave his cell and struggling to sleep.

Bendall had planned the attack to engineer a move to segregation unit because he was concerned that his mental state was deteriorating, Vanessa Marshall KC, defending, said.

She said Bendall wanted to apologise to Mr Mullaney, saying: “He held no contempt for Mr Mullaney, despite what he did.

“There is evidence that they were friends and he wanted to convey his regrets and apologies.”

Judge Francis Laird KC said the sentence was life with a minimum term of 15 years, but that Bendall will never be released in any event.

He said the attempted murder was aggravated because it happened in prison and due to his “previous convictions for the most serious violent and sexual offences”.

Former cage-fighter Bendall murdered pregnant Terri Harris, 35, her children – 11-year-old Lacey and 13-year-old John Paul – and Lacey’s friend, 11-year-old Connie Gent, in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, Derbyshire, on September 19 2021.

He was given a whole-life order in December 2022.

He used a claw hammer to carry out the prolonged attacks at the home he shared with Ms Harris.

He also admitted to raping Lacey as she was dying.

Bendall, in a blue T-shirt and with a shaved head, watched the proceedings via a videolink from HMP Wakefield.

Smith sped away in his car after officers told him he was going to be searched

A man who was caught with Class A drugs after nearly running over police officers has been jailed. Patrick Smith, 34, was stopped by Neighbourhood Support Team on December 3 after he was caught with known drug users in Cubitt Way, Woodston, Peterborough.

After being told he was detained for a search, Smith drove away at a high speed, mounted the kerb and narrowly missed the officers and bollards. The officers found the car parked in Earl Spencer Court and Smith was walking away nearby.

A large ball of class A drugs were found hidden in a beer can discarded in a fence line that Smith was seen to be loitering near. Smith was then arrested.

At Cambridge Crown Court on Monday, February 16, Smith, of Sycamore Road, Whittlesey, was jailed for three years and two months and was handed a 43-month driving ban after he plead guilty to dangerous driving, possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine, possession of criminal property, namely £290 in cash, and obstructing an officer in exercise of a section 23 search.

The court ordered for the £290 in cash to be paid to the Cambridge Recovery Service.

PC Charlie Adams, the arresting officer, said: “My team and I were on patrol in the area in relation to concerns about drug dealing when we saw Smith, and despite his best efforts to evade us, we were able to swiftly arrest him and remove drugs from the street.

“Drug dealing and associated criminality can have a big impact on the community, and I encourage anyone with information to report it.”

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Since Thursday, there’s been no sign of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, but the noise around his arrest has not abated, especially over his position as eighth in line to the throne.

Now the letter from Australia’s prime minister just emphasises the global reach of the Andrew issue.

On Friday, we heard that No 10 was looking at legislation to remove him from the line of succession, but to actually make it happen, the 14 other realms, countries that share our monarch, also need to agree.

Follow along live

Anthony Albanese has fired the starting gun, and we wait to see if others will join.

The fact that he’s first may not come as a surprise; in the past, he’s had a complex relationship with the monarchy, raising the idea of a referendum in Australia about them becoming a republic.

Although the success of the King and Queen’s visit in 2024 appears to have muted that for now.

When you look at the line of succession, the likelihood of Andrew ever becoming king could not seem more remote, but, as is so often the case with the royal family, it’s all about the optics.

It looks terrible.

That’s ultimately why the King took what was seen as the ultimate action last year, stripping him of his titles, his birthright to be a prince and moving him from his Windsor home.

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The palace has not directly commented on him being taken out of the line of succession, but there is unlikely to be any pushback.

As with the police investigations, they have made it clear that there are certain things that must be allowed to run their course.

The King’s statement from last week emphasised their current position that, for now, he must remain silent while not turning a blind eye to the enormity of what is playing out.

Andrew has always strenuously denied any wrongdoing.