Palantir already have sucked up our personal data, but military investment is so worrying:
Palantir and your NHS health data: a cause for concern?
By Martin Franklin
In 2023, the Tory government awarded a £330 million contract for an NHS data platform to Palantir, a US-based surveillance and military technology firm. The award was made without full, open competition, raising questions about transparency and accountability in the procurement process and echoing how some contracts were awarded during the Covid crisis. In a similar manner, Palantir was recently given a £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Palantir specialises in data analytics systems, surveillance and AI military technologies. Its clients include the US military and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the UK Ministry of Defence, and the Israeli Government, supporting the latter’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
MPs raise concerns over Palantir after Swiss army ‘could not rule out data leak’
Defence Secretary John Healey (left) and the CEO of software company Palantir Technologies Alex Karp sign a £1.5bn investment deal at Wellington Conference Room, Horse Guards, Whitehall, London, September 18, 2025
UK MPs have raised concerns about the government’s contracts with Palantir after an investigation published in Switzerland highlighted allegations about the suitability and security of its products.
The investigation by the Zurich-based research collective WAV and the Swiss online magazine Republik details Palantir’s efforts, over the course of seven years, to sell its products to Swiss federal agencies.
Palantir is a US company that provides software to integrate and analyse data scattered across different systems, such as in the health service. It also provides artificial intelligence-enabled military targeting systems.
The investigation cites an expert report, internal to the Swiss army, that assessed Palantir’s status as a US company meant there was a possibility sensitive data shared with it could be accessed by the US government and intelligence services.
British MPs have voiced concerns over the US data company in light of the report.
“Palantir … is an organisation that the British government, in terms of the NHS, in terms of contracts, should stay very far away from … I think the Swiss army is right to be suspicious,” said the Labour MP Clive Lewis.
The government “needs to undertake transparent due diligence” on the conduct of Palantir and other big tech companies, said Rachael Maskell, the MP for York Central.
Lord Mandelson brokered the meeting between Sir Keir and the firm, ahead of Palantir winning a £240million data analytics contract with the Ministry of Defence.
Downing Street has refused to say if Sir Keir knew at the time of his visit to Palantir’s offices whether Palantir was a client of Global Counsel.
Global Counsel was co-founded by Lord Mandelson and has worked with a roster of clients including Palantir, GSK, Vodafone, OpenAI, TikTok and the Premier League.
The lobbying firm recently announced it had cut ties with Lord Mandelson in the wake of fresh revelations about the peer’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein
Financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had a strong interest in science, maintaining close contact with a number of researchers.Credit: Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty
Newly released files from the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reveal that his ties to the scientific community were deeper than previously known.
Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 after being arrested and charged with sex trafficking, was a wealthy financier who invested millions in science projects and socialized with researchers. It was already known that, after Epstein’s initial conviction for sex crimes in 2008, some scientists continued to associate with and take money from him, prompting fallout at top research institutions. For instance, Epstein gave US$800,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, which led two scientists to resign and the university to suspend another.
But last Friday’s release of more than three million files linked to Epstein — including e-mails, photographs and financial documents — has unveiled even more scientists in his orbit. Mentions of the researchers do not indicate wrongdoing or involvement in Epstein’s criminal activity, but they do shed light on how deeply he was involved in some of the science he funded. This is the largest batch of files made public by the US Department of Justice since Congress passed the Epstein Transparency Act late last year, mandating that the federal government release all documents pertaining to the financier.
Science stars
The files include new information about interactions between Epstein and scientists whose links to him were already known. For example, the documents contain correspondence from theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, whose science-outreach organization received $250,000 from Epstein. “I thought we agreed no comment !!!!!,” Epstein wrote in 2018, as Krauss responded to media inquiries about an investigation of sexual misconduct that led to Krauss’s ousting from Arizona State University in Tempe.
Krauss explained his interaction with Epstein in an e-mail to Nature: “I sought out advice from essentially everyone I knew when false allegations about me were circulated.” He added that he had no knowledge of the “horrendous crimes” — the sex trafficking — that Epstein was later accused of. “I was as shocked as the rest of the world when he was arrested.”
Havard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was once home to the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, a centre funded by Epstein. The university shut it down in 2021.Credit: AP Cortizas Jr/Getty
The files also showed that Epstein maintained a list of nearly 30 top scientists, including Krauss, and revealed previously unknown connections with some of them. One was Lisa Randall, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, who joked in an e-mail with Epstein about his house arrest (following his 2008 incarceration for soliciting sex with a minor, he was under house arrest in 2009–10). She also visited his private island in the Caribbean in 2014. Randall did not respond to Nature’s request for comment, but told the Harvard Crimson: “I am appalled by the full extent of allegations against him and deeply regret maintaining contact.”
Among the latest tranche of documents were also correspondences in which some scientists contacted Epstein with funding opportunities. For instance, in 2013, Nathan Wolfe, then a virologist at Stanford University in California, proposed that Epstein fund a sexual-behaviour study of undergraduate students to test “our horny virus hypothesis” — that certain vaginal and penile microorganisms might drive increased sexual activity.
In an e-mail to Nature, Wolfe says that although he visited Epstein’s homes in New York and Florida to discuss the research, Epstein never funded it. Wolfe says he regrets “not recognizing at the time how inappropriate [Epstein’s] framing was” and his association with the financier.
Evolving understanding
One of Epstein’s closest academic connections was mathematical biologist Martin Nowak. In his 2011 book SuperCooperators, Nowak describes how he was cold-called by Epstein while a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and invited to Epstein’s island. “On the last day of my visit, Jeffrey said he would build an institute for me,” Nowak wrote.Epstein’s $800,000 MIT donations prompt resignations and investigation
Nowak moved to Harvard in 2003 and, with a $6.5-million cheque from Epstein, founded the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED), a centre that modelled evolution using mathematics. Epstein was not just a donor, but deeply involved: Office 610 in the PED building was known as ‘Jeffrey’s Office’. Epstein visited several times each year, scheduling meetings with Nowak and other academics in the area. In 2021, after renewed scrutiny, Harvard closed the PED and placed sanctions on Nowak, which were lifted in 2023.
In 2008, Corina Tarnita, a mathematician from Romania, became Nowak’s PhD student. E-mails show she was in contact with Epstein as early as December 2008, six months after his conviction. They also show that, in April 2009, Tarnita provided wire-transfer details for two Romanian women, one of whom Epstein sent $10,000, and the other $5,000. The financial transaction, first reported by Romanian media outlet Semnal, prompted online speculation because of its apparent similarity to Epstein’s alleged wire payments for sex trafficking in Eastern Europe.
However, Tarnita, now a mathematical biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey, says that the payments were scholarships for young female mathematicians in Romania. In a statement to Nature, she said that Epstein was “inspired” by her own career trajectory “to support other early-career women in mathematics”. A spokesperson for Princeton confirmed Tarnita’s account by showing Nature e-mails from 2008 between Tarnita and a Romanian academic, which corroborate that the wire transfers were for scholarships. There is no indication that Tarnita faced any criminal allegations related to Epstein.
Militarnyi has previously reported that a former Russian intelligence officer described how agents linked to Putin targeted professionals in Silicon Valley. Former Russian spy Aliia Roza said Russian and Chinese intelligence services used so‑called “honey traps” to obtain technological secrets from the United States
Hospitalized toddler was returned to ICE detention and denied prescribed medication, lawsuit says
Mike Hixenbaugh
Updated Sat, February 7, 2026 at 10:09 PM GMT
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Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto with their daughter Amalia. (via Elora Mukherjee) (via Elora Mukherjee)
An 18-month-old baby held with her parents at a South Texas immigration detention center became so ill last month that she was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening respiratory failure — then sent back to detention days later, where she was denied daily medication doctors prescribed, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.
The toddler, Amalia, remained in detention for another nine days and was released only after lawyers filed an emergency habeas corpus petition in federal court challenging her continued confinement. She was freed Friday after the filing.
Amalia had been healthy before immigration officers arrested her family in El Paso in December and transferred them to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a remote, prisonlike facility where hundreds of immigrant children are held with their parents. Advocates and pediatric experts have warned that conditions at the center are unsafe for young children.
Amalia’s health quickly deteriorated, the lawsuit says. On Jan. 18, she was rushed to a children’s hospital in San Antonio, where doctors treated her for pneumonia, Covid-19, RSV and severe respiratory distress.
Amalia spent 10 days at a hospital before being returned to immigration detention, according to a federal lawsuit. (via Elora Mukherjee) (via Elora Mukherjee)
“She was at the brink of dying,” said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and the director of the school’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, who filed the petition seeking the family’s release.
Yet after Amalia’s return to Dilley on Jan. 28, federal officials “denied her access to the medication that doctors prescribed for her at the hospital” the lawsuit says, forcing her parents to “wait in long lines for hours outside daily” to request the medicine, only to be turned away.
After days of intensive treatment on oxygen, Amalia began to recover. But her discharge from the hospital was not the end of her ordeal.
Despite warnings from medical experts that the toddler remained medically vulnerable and at high risk of reinfection, immigration officers returned Amalia and her mother to the detention center, the lawsuit says.
“After baby Amalia had been hospitalized for 10 days, ICE thought this baby should be returned to Dilley, where she was denied access to the medicines that the hospital doctors told her she needed,” Mukherjee said. “It is so outrageous.”
Bad Bunny Calls Out ICE In Grammy Acceptance Speech: ‘We’re Humans, And We Are Americans’
ByHannah Abraham,Contributor. Hannah Abraham covers Asian entertainment, culture and business.Follow AuthorFeb 01, 2026, 09:33pm ESTFeb 01, 2026, 10:06pm EST
Jimmy Lai latest: Hong Kong media mogul jailed for 20 years
Story by Shweta Sharma and Nicole Wootton-Cane
• 19m
The Independent
‘Free Jimmy Lai’ message projected onto House of Parliament and Tower Bridge
Current Time 0:08
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Duration 1:07
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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after a closely watched national security trial that has drawn international criticism, including from the US and Britain.
The 78-year-old Briton was found guilty in December of two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under a China-imposed national security law, as well as a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
When we get a power cut, it can be 6 days before it gets fixed. If it is during deep winter, that means it is difficult to stay warm. But we know the fault will be fixed soon.
Living in Ukraine this harsh winter, the energy infrastructure constantly bombarded by missiles and drones, the people know Putin has a death wish for every citizen who defies him by staying alive.
A frozen staircase in Ukraine, February 2026
I am reproducing a comment from Phillip P.O’Brien, on Substack:
The Week Trump Helped Putin Commit Two War Crimes
The Russians changed tactics this week. What they have been doing in the months before this is building up for regular large missile/drone attacks every 10 days or so, and interspersing those with mostly UAV-only raids. This one large raid tactic, was helped a great deal by US slow-walking air defense to Ukraine and has helped Russia do significant damage to Ukraine’s power generation and heating infrastructure.
However, these Russian attacks have not been capable of driving Ukraine out of the war. And actually in the coming weeks, time will turn against this campaign. Though it probably does not seem like it in Ukraine, winter will end and the temperatures will rise. Aware of the fact that Spring is coming, the Russians clearly decided to change tactics to try and devastate Ukrainian civilian life now. Instead of building up for one large attack every few days, they would take a little longer and accumulate the mass of systems needed to launch two large attacks in a short space of time—attacks which we saw this week.
It was to be a hammer blow to try and freeze the Ukrainians into submission.
In short succession over the last few days the Russians launched mass raids on a range of heating/power targets across Ukraine. These were very heavy attacks that also featured extensive use of ballistic missiles, a newer wrinkle which poses real challenges to Ukrainian air defense.
Then the Russians did it again only a few days later. Here is a map of the attack on the evening of February 6-7, which was almost as large as the earlier one. According to the Ukrainians 408 drones and 39 missiles were launched of which 382 drones and 24 missiles were shot down.
So this week in these two attacks, almost 1000 UAVs and 110 different missiles, many of them ballistic, were used to bombard Ukraine. Sadly, Ukrainian defenses were stretched and 42 missiles and almost 60 UAVs hit their targets. The results of these attacks were significant. Since the first, Kyiv was limited to 4-6 hours of electricity per day.
Btw, it any major European or US city were hit by 42 missiles and 60 UAVs, its infrastructure would probably not be able to cope. Just a warning.
Kyiv at night during the first attack this week
These combined Russian attacks are easily the most devastating of the war on Ukrainian civilian life. You can see the planning that went into them by looking at both maps. The first attack focusses on the east, particularly Kyiv and towns/cities near the front. Then a few days later, having extended and exhausted Ukrainian air defense, the Russian assaults moved westward.
It explains just what was going on while Trump was talking about Putin promising not to attack Ukrainian heat and power generation. Putin was simply massing weapons for the largest double tap attack of the war and Trump was talking about it being some humanitarian gesture.
“I did call up President Putin,” he said, noting that Russia has the “same cold wave” that the US has been recently experiencing but stressed that Ukraine is “much colder than us.”
“They have a tremendous cold wave,” he said, adding that he asked Putin “if you wouldn’t shoot for a period of one week, no missiles going into Kyiv or any other towns, and he’s agreed to do so.”
Anyway, it was all part of a lie anyway, as the Russians did smaller attacks the entire time on the Ukrainian power grid. So the President of the USA was an accomplice and propagandist for the Russian dictator as Putin built up the forces needed to launch what could be called the largest Russian war crime so far. Two mass raids, a few days apart, which have been extremely destructive to civilian life in Ukraine; thanks in part to the President of the USA.
TRUMP AND THE EPSTEIN FILES:
How Trump Appears in the Epstein Files
The New York Times found more than 5,300 files with references to Mr. Trump and related terms. They include salacious and unverified claims, as well as documents that had already been made public.
One of the main targets of Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine is the energy infrastructure. The extent of the destruction is enormous. “One year after the start of the war in February 2022, 76 percent of thermal power plants had been destroyed; now the figure is 95 percent,” says Ukrainian scientist Iryna Doronina. “And all the large hydroelectric power plants have also failed.” The breaching of the Kakhovka dam proved to be particularly devastating. The huge outflow of water – the reservoir covered an area 1.5 times bigger than the canton of Zurich – destroyed thousands of homes and left the reservoir a desert.
Nev Shalev, Substack, writes of the evidence located through immense patience and care, of Epstein at the heart of military and intelligence in Moscow. Here is an extract:
THE PASSPORT TRAIL
Based on passport photos and paperwork in the Epstein files — documents EFTA00311304, EFTA00311310, EFTA00292666, and EFTA00304985 — Jeffrey Epstein appears to have been issued Russian visas in at minimum:
2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2018 (the last valid until 2021).
Nine visas across sixteen years.
But the documented trail goes back even further. A photograph posted to Flickr by tech investor Esther Dyson — taken in April 1998 — shows Epstein posing with Dyson and Pavel Oleynikov outside Andrei Sakharov’s house in Sarov, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Sarov is a closed city — a restricted-access ZATO — home to Russia’s Federal Nuclear Center, RFNC-VNIIEF, where Sakharov developed the Soviet hydrogen bomb. Entry requires authorization from the Russian government. Epstein was inside a closed nuclear city four years before his first documented visa.
Back in July 2025, it was already being exposed by Françoise Thom:
The St. Petersburg Economic Forum is a favorite hunting ground for attractive escorts tasked with harpooning businessmen on behalf of Russian services.
Unsurprisingly, Belyakov is also a graduate of the FSB Academy. His career has risen rapidly. He was an advisor to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, then assistant to the Minister of Economic Development, Elvira Nabiullina, who now heads the Central Bank of Russia. Documents hacked by the Dossier Center team reveal that in the spring of 2014, Belyakov sought Epstein’s advice on how to circumvent Western sanctions.
« One of these was the so-called ‘new Bank’ that “could be modeled after a capitalistic commercial bank, lending 9 times its reserves NOT the world bank, those models are antiquated”, he proposed.
Epstein also suggested launching an alternative to bitcoin known as BRIC and the possibility of providing loans worth ‘500 billion’ (though he did not specify the currency). Moreover, Epstein believed that Russia could create new currencies pegged to oil or develop ‘smart contracts’ regulated by computers. In addition, Epstein shared his views on the Russian economy with Belyakov. For example, when in December 2014 the Russian Central Bank raised its benchmark rate to 17 per cent, Epstein wrote: “Bad advice to raise rates. it sends the wrong sign.”»
Epstein was thus feeding the Kremlin strategies to counter the economic war waged by the West.
In addition, he used his network to send leading Western business executives of interest to the Kremlin, such as Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) and Nathan Myhrvold (former chief technology officer at Microsoft), to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum for possible recruitment.
Reid Hoffman — Photo U.S. Secretary of Defense
This assistance was crucial for Moscow at a time when many Westerners were boycotting Russia. In July 2014, Belyakov, then Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development, personally intervened to help Jeffrey Epstein obtain a Russian visa. He arranged a series of high-level meetings for him in Moscow. These were with leading figures at the heart of Russian economic policy: Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, Central Bank Deputy Chairman Alexei Simanovsky, and even the Minister of Economic Development himself, Alexei Ulyukayev. But here again, the mystery remains : it is not known whether Epstein’s visit actually took place.
Among wellbred men, small favors are usual. In July 2015, Epstein contacted Belyakov with an urgent problem: a “Russian girl from Moscow, Guzel Ganieva,” was in New York and “trying to blackmail a group of powerful businessmen.” Ganieva had ensnared a close friend and associate of Epstein, billionaire Leon Black. No problem: Belyakov provided Epstein with a detailed intelligence file on Ganieva, who he claimed was working alone and would be highly sensitive to the threat of deportation from the United States. Leon Black paid huge sums to Epstein.
Leon Black:
How Picasso, Van Gogh And Cézanne Helped Finance Epstein Client Leon Black’s Billionaire Lifestyle
This was not just a matter of Epstein providing minor services to the Kremlin. The sex trafficking was a cover for something else. It turns out that Epstein had a predilection for Russian female employees. His assistant, Svetlana (Lana) Pozhidaeva, obtained an O-1 talent visa for the United States thanks to a letter of recommendation from Belyakov
This lady deserves our attention. A graduate of the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), the Foreign Ministry’s academy that trains Russian diplomats and intelligence agents, she is multilingual, but her career took an unexpected turn. Despite her brilliant studies, she ended up becoming a model, represented by MC2, a modeling agency owned by Frenchman Jean-Luc Brunel, a sexual predator and Epstein’s pimp (arrested in 2020, he was found hanged in his cell, like Epstein). She moved to the United States and became an associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
She became involved in charity work, chairing a foundation supporting women entrepreneurs and Education Advance, a New York association whose aim is to support science and technology in education; most of the $56,000 in funding for the latter was provided by Epstein in 2017. Epstein also donated $50,000 to Pozhidaeva for the Open Cog Foundation, a project to develop an open-source artificial intelligence framework. Epstein also offered her the opportunity to study and attend conferences with scientists. “What she liked was that he gave a lot to science and helped researchers and interesting people,” a source told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
For Yuri Shvetz, a KGB defector who was one of the first to show how Epstein’s network had converged with that of the FSB, Pozhidaeva’s case is clear: “How could some-one as smart and educated as Pozhidaeva become a women’s rights activist while possibly seeking the support of Jean-Luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein, who led and participated in human trafficking and the rape of underage girls for more than two decades?”
There is only one explanation. She was an agent infiltrated with the help of Jeffrey Epstein to penetrate “the American network linked to supercomputers and artificial intelligence.”
Salisbury Novichok poisoning strategist, Vladimir Alekseyev, shot:
Top Russian general reportedly behind Salisbury poisonings shot
Retired Supreme Court judge Lord Hughes of Ombersley is publishing his report into the death of Dawn Sturgess who was killed by Russian nerve agent Novichok.
Her death came months after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey were also poisoned.
– March 4 2018: Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
– March 7: Police say a nerve agent was used to poison the pair and the case is being treated as attempted murder.
– March 8: Home secretary Amber Rudd says Wiltshire Police officer Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey is seriously ill in hospital.
– March 12: Prime minister Theresa May tells the Commons the nerve agent Novichok is of Russian origin and the government has concluded it is “highly likely” Russia is responsible for the poisoning.
– March 14: Mrs May tells MPs the UK will expel 23 Russian diplomats, calling the poisoning an “unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the UK”.
– March 22: Det Sgt Bailey is discharged from hospital but says life will “probably never be the same”.
– March 26: Britain’s allies announce more than 100 Russian agents are being sent home from 22 countries, in what Mrs May calls the “largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history”.
– April 10: Ms Skripal is discharged from hospital, followed by her father just over a month later.
– June 30: Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley fall ill at a flat in Muggleton Road, Amesbury, eight miles from Salisbury, and are taken to hospital.
– July 4: Police declare a “major incident” after revealing Ms Sturgess and Mr Rowley have been exposed to an “unknown substance”, later confirmed to be Novichok.
– July 8: Ms Sturgess dies in hospital and a murder investigation is launched.
– July 10: Mr Rowley regains consciousness and is discharged from hospital later that month.
– September 4: Independent investigator the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirms the toxic chemical that killed Ms Sturgess was the same nerve agent as the one that poisoned the Skripals.
– September 5: Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service say there is sufficient evidence to charge two Russians, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, with offences including conspiracy to murder. Petrov’s real identity is believed to be Alexander Mishkin, who worked as a doctor for Russian military intelligence service the GRU, while Boshirov’s real identity is believed to be Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga.
– September 12: Russian President Vladimir Putin says there is “nothing criminal” about Petrov and Boshirov. Downing Street insists they are GRU officers “who used a devastatingly toxic illegal chemical weapon on the streets of our country”.
– September 13: Petrov and Boshirov are interviewed by Russian state-funded news channel RT in which they claim they were tourists visiting Salisbury.
– March 1 2019: The Ministry of Defence announces Salisbury is to be declared decontaminated of Novichok after an almost year-long military clean-up of 12 sites.
– June 2020: BBC docudrama The Salisbury Poisonings is broadcast over three consecutive nights. Its first episode was reported to have been watched by more than seven million viewers, making it the biggest UK television premiere of the year so far.
– September 2021: Investigators say they have sufficient evidence to charge a third man over the poisonings – Russian spy Denis Sergeev, also known as Sergey Fedotov.
– October 14 2024: The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry begins public hearings in Salisbury before later continuing in London.
– December 2: The hearings conclude.
– December 4 2025: Lord Hughes publishes his report.
The most unexpectedly discussed figure in Russia this week is Maria Drokova — a woman with a biography so improbable that it now reads like a parable of the Putin era. She first became famous as a teenage activist in a pro-Kremlin youth movement, then as the girl who publicly kissed Vladimir Putin. Later, she reinvented herself as a successful PR professional, skillfully monetizing that early moment of notoriety. And then, her name has surfaced in the Epstein files. So far, she appears to be the most prominent Russian character in this scandal.
According to the available correspondence, Drokova presented herself as Epstein’s PR consultant. Epstein, whom she referred to as her boss, asked her for nude photos; when she sent them, he replied that she was “trying too hard.” The exchange reads less like a crime dossier than a bleak illustration of power, ambition, and self-objectification — but that, perhaps, is precisely the point.
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Two years later, after enrolling at a Moscow State University, the seventeen-year-old Drokova became head of Nashi’s Moscow headquarters and one of its spokespeople. Even then, it was clear that she aspired to be the regime’s model student — disciplined, ambitious, and always eager to outperform everyone else.
==========
Nashi was created in the mid-2000s by Kremlin political strategist Vladislav Surkov as part of a patriotic response to the “Color Revolutions” in Ukraine and Georgia — a young generation that would defend the regime in the streets if necessary. In practice, it became a highly centralized structure combining political mobilization, and personal loyalty to those in power.
=========
Surkov (center) and Drokova (right)
Years later, investigative journalists from The Insider reported that Surkov allegedly used the movement not only to pursue political objectives but also for personal purposes — including access to young women — a pattern that, according to the investigation, may not have been limited to him alone.
According to investigations by Proekt, Putin had a year-long relationship with Alisa Kharcheva, a seventeen-year-old aspiring journalism student. The relationship reportedly began in the fall of 2010 and continued for roughly a year. Kharcheva allegedly made regular visits to Putin’s country residence outside Moscow.
The introduction, journalists say, was facilitated by Nashi.
On October 7, 2010 — Putin’s 58th birthday — Nashi released an “erotic calendar” featuring twelve semi-nude female journalism students from Moscow State University. Kharcheva, who was seventeen at the time and had not yet been admitted to the university, appeared on the page for April. The calendar was delivered to Putin together with the girls’ contact details. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly confirmed that the gift had been received.
Kharcheva in the calendar made for Putin
============
Whatever the true mix of motives, by 2011 Drokova had left Russia and moved to the United States to start over.
In America, she rapidly reinvented herself. She began working with venture capital firms and publicly framed her earlier political activism as a mistake — a youthful error shaped by the environment she had grown up in. Her transformation itself became the subject of a documentary film, Putin’s Kiss, directed by Danish filmmaker Lise Birk Pedersen, which followed her journey from Kremlin youth icon to aspiring Western liberal.
And released Epstein Files show correspondence with Maria (Masha) Drokova:
And yet the Epstein files now complicate this carefully constructed narrative. In the latest document releases, Maria Drokova’s name appears more than 1,600 times — suggesting that the American chapter of her life may be far more entangled, and far less transparent, than her public reinvention once implied.
Epstein’s Prize
When Maria Drokova’s name first surfaced in connection with Jeffrey Epstein, it appeared in a specific and consistent role. In emails from 2017–2018, she introduced herself to journalists as Epstein’s representative and public relations advisor, offering interviews and coordinating media contact on his behalf. This is how many people in media and tech circles first encountered her in relation to Epstein — not as a casual acquaintance, but as someone speaking for him.
After the first wave of Epstein-related document releases, Drokova publicly minimized her involvement. She told journalists that her interactions with Epstein were sporadic, unpaid, and largely accidental — brief professional exchanges that had been exaggerated after the fact. Crucially, she emphasized that she does not appear in court records, victim testimonies, or official witness lists connected to Epstein’s criminal cases.
Now the emails show sustained, initiative-driven engagement. Drokova was not merely responding to Epstein’s requests; she actively proposed strategies to rehabilitate his reputation. She suggested producing a documentary or feature film about him and recommended Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen — the same filmmaker who had previously made a documentary about Drokova herself. She proposed establishing a prestigious scientific prize bearing Epstein’s name, explicitly framing it as something that could rival or even surpass the Nobel Prize.
Perhaps most strikingly, she outlined plans for a foundation ostensibly dedicated to combating sexual harassment. Such a project, she argued, would generate “good optics among women” and provide access to large networks of ambitious female activists. Epstein, she implied, could be repositioned as a patron of science, a defender of women, and a misunderstood public figure. The irony of such proposals, given what is now known about Epstein, hardly needs spelling out.
Another recurring theme in the correspondence is Drokova’s embrace of pseudo-intellectual and mystical frameworks — from discussions of ayahuasca experiences to bizarre theories about intelligence being correlated with genetic ancestry. In one message, she proposed using DNA testing services to identify “the smartest people” based on ethnic percentages, ideas that Epstein did not discourage.
Drokova is also mentioned in a 2020 Federal Bureau of Investigation report based on information from a confidential source. According to that report, she referred to Epstein as a “wonderful person” who was being treated unfairly.
Peter Mandelson, left, pictured with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in 2007
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Among those to have been engulfed by the scandal are Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, and Lord Peter Mandelson, a former government minister and ambassador to the US. Lord Mandelson has faced calls to be stripped of his peerage and on Tuesday, it was confirmed he will formally retire from the House of Lords on February 4.
He also faces a police probe into allegations he passed sensitive information about UK Government business to Epstein while serving in Gordon Brown’s government. Lord Mandelson also has a link to Andrew.
According to the Daily Mail’s Ephraim Hardcastle column, the Labour Peer “pushed through the appointment” of the then-Prince Andrew as a trade envoy for the UK Government. Andrew was handed the post in 2001 by the government of Tony Blair.
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The PM had threatened legislation within weeks to strip Lord Mandelson of his title while police are assessing information relating to alleged misconduct in public office.
The Cabinet Office has passed material to the police after an initial review of documents released as part of the Epstein files found they contained “likely market-sensitive information” and official handling safeguards had been “compromised”.
The Lord Speaker announced that Lord Mandelson is to step down in the upper chamber. It came after the Prime Minister told his Cabinet that the alleged transmission of highly-sensitive government business to Epstein was “disgraceful” and Lord Mandelson had “let his country down”.
The web of ties between Epstein, Moscow and Silicon Valley leads back to Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage
Peter Jukes
The timeline reveals a concerning convergence.
Peter Mandelson leaked the UK’s secrets to Epstein between 2009 and 2010.
Four years later, Thiel urged Epstein to meet the principals of his firm, Valar Ventures, with a view to confirming Epstein’s multi-million investment.
The following year, Epstein invested $15 million in Valar Ventures and became a limited partner in a Valar Ventures-managed fund.
In 2018, Thiel’s firm Palantir hired Mandelson’s lobbying company, Global Counsel, to facilitate its penetration of UK Government contracts. At the same time, Epstein remained an active Valar partner receiving confidential investment opportunities from Thiel’s fund and responding to opportunities suggested by the Valar principals.
If Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein disqualifies him from holding power, why does the company controlled by Epstein’s business partner retain access to the UK’s most sensitive national security infrastructure?
One email sent to Epstein in September 2017 shows a contact named ‘Peter Fenwick’ inviting him to stay in the Highlands. In the exchange, Fenwick assures Epstein there are “NO Hurricanes NO tornadoes NO boiling sun and Very Few people”.
He also described the region as “very beautiful”. The message includes a picture, seemingly from Fenwick’s Highland home, along with a request to meet in New York on Tuesday, October 17, 2017.
Peter Fenwick, British academic, mentioned in new tranche of emails, plus Cyprus mentioned:
The recent release of Jeffrey Epstein documents by the US Department of Justice — totaling over 3 million pages, along with thousands of videos and photos — has brought Cyprus into focus. Cyprus does not appear as a location for Epstein’s criminal activities but rather as a recurring reference in his international business and financial correspondence.
The Cypriot connections primarily fall into three categories: potential corporate tax domiciles, banking ties involving Russian elements, and mentions linked to the management of the Limassol port.
Key Emails Mentioning Cyprus
– **July 2017 correspondence** involving Nicole Junkermann, Epstein, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak: The discussion centered on establishing a European subsidiary for the Israeli tech company Carbyne (then known as Reporty Homeland Security). Cyprus was proposed as a tax-efficient base but ultimately rejected. Epstein described the “Israeli trick of using Cyprus to avoid taxes” as “silly, antiquated, and dangerous.” Barak agreed, instructing associates to abandon the Cyprus option in favor of a more conventional European jurisdiction. Luxembourg was ultimately selected instead, partly because Cyprus was seen as risky due to heightened scrutiny over Russian money flows.
– **February 1, 2019 email** from Epstein to author Michael Wolff: Epstein referenced the Bank of Cyprus, former Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann (who later chaired Bank of Cyprus), and Donald Trump. He alluded to patterns of Russian money laundering and financial ties, stating that Ackermann, as Bank of Cyprus chairman, had links to Deutsche Bank — where Trump reportedly owed significant debts before receiving a large cash infusion from a Russian source.
– **May 2018 correspondence**: Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (chairman of DP World, which manages the Limassol port concession) informed Steve Bannon that he was in Cyprus at the time. Epstein was copied on the message, which also touched on arranging meetings in the United Arab Emirates.
– **January 2017 email**: British academic Peter Fenwick suggested to Epstein that “we could move to Cyprus, which would be good.” No further evidence indicates actual relocation or business establishment there.
The files also mention entities like Liquid Funding Ltd, previously scrutinized for Cyprus-related connections. Authorities may examine whether Cypriot lawyers, accountants, or service providers facilitated any arrangements or if proper due diligence was conducted.
Despite the international significance of the Epstein revelations, there has been no official response from the Cypriot government, political parties, or calls for investigation by bodies such as MOKAS (Cyprus’s anti-money laundering unit) or the police. The matter is largely treated as a foreign issue that only incidentally touches Cyprus due to its economic and financial services model.
Publication of the Epstein documents continues, and future releases could reveal additional details — potentially including Epstein’s activities in the wider region, such as Greater Athens.
It is possible that, as Jeffrey Epstein was interested in near death experiences, the Peter Fenwick mentioned above, may be the academic as shown below, and he may have discussed such matters but is now deceased, so we may never know:
Peter Fenwick became the world expert on near-death experiences
The neuropsychiatrist and promoter of “the art of dying” died on November 22nd, aged 89
Attia, a recent addition to CBS News‘ contributors, first appeared in the interview segment with correspondent Norah O’Donnell in October. The interview will no longer be aired in a rerun as counterprogramming on Super Bowl Sunday, according to The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr, Variety and The Independent.
Attia reportedly came up over 1,700 times in the latest batch of Epstein files released Friday, Jan. 30, according to Variety, The New York Times and other news outlets. The Epstein file mentions include crude exchanges between Attia and the convicted sex offender about female genitalia and emails that suggest the self-proclaimed longevity expert may have been with Epstein while his wife was alone with their son in the hospital after a near-fatal incident. Other emails suggest the doctor discussed longevity with the financier.
USA TODAY has reached out to CBS and Attia’s rep for comment.
In a lengthy apology on X, addressing his communications with Epstein, Attia said he was not “involved in any criminal activity” and had nothing to do with” the convicted predator’s “sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone.” He said he met Epstein, who at the time was “widely known in academic and philanthropic circles as a funder of science” in 2014 through “a prominent female healthcare leader while I was raising funds for scientific research.”
Attia added that the pair met up seven to eight times at Epstein’s New York City home to discuss research studies and network. Still, he said, “I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me.”
Peter Attia’s emails with Epstein
In one particularly crass email to the convicted sexual predator from 2016, Attia joked that female genitalia is “indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”
Other emails note an appointment between Attia and an unknown associate on July 13, 2017, while emails between Epstein and his longtime assistant and planner Leslie Groff confirm a meeting with Attia for the same afternoon.
The dates would have been around the time of an incident the wellness coach wrote about in his 2022 book “Outlive,” in which he admonishes himself for not being by his wife and son’s side after the month-old baby suddenly stopped breathing.
“In reality, I was out of control. I wasn’t just some garden variety road raging maniac either. A few months earlier, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017, at 5:45 to be exact, I had received a call from Jill, my wife. She was in an ambulance with our infant son … on the way to the hospital,” Attia wrote. “For some reason, he had suddenly stopped breathing and fallen unconscious. His eyes were completely rolled back in their sockets, and he was lifeless and blue, with no heartbeat.”
His son had begun breathing a short time later, but was still being held in the hospital for four days, all the while his wife “pleaded with me to come home. I called in daily to talk to the doctors and discuss each day’s test results, but I stayed in New York, busy with my, quote, important work.”
He added: “I feel nauseous about my behavior. I can’t believe I did that to my family. I can’t believe what a blind, selfish, checked out husband and father I was.”
WARSAW, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Poland will launch an investigation into possible links between the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Russian intelligence, as well as any impact on Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.
Psst, Putin: In a June 2018 email — nearly a month before the Trump-Putin Helsinki summit — Epstein urged a top European diplomat, Thorbjorn Jagland (former Norwegian prime minister and head of the Council of Europe), to advise Putin that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could “get insight on talking to me.” Epstein claimed he had previously advised Russia’s U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, who “understood Trump after our conversations.”
Trump’s worldview: After the controversial Helsinki summit, Epstein discussed the event with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, writing that Trump seemed to think he’d “charmed” Putin and had “no idea of the symbolism” of the summit. “He has no idea of most things,” Epstein wrote about Trump. | Politico
Jack Lang, the former French Culture Minister, is currently under investigation for his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, particularly regarding suspected money laundering related to tax fraud. Lang has denied any wrongdoing and has offered to resign from his position at the Arab World Institute amid the scrutiny. Deadline ARTnews
Norwegian Princess and Epstein:
Norway’s crown princess had years of contact with Epstein, files suggest
Mette-Marit apologises for ‘poor judgment’ as documents reportedly include scores of email exchanges with child sex offender
Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspondentSun 1 Feb 2026 18.26 GMTShare
Norway’s crown princess has become embroiled in another scandal after newly unsealed files appeared to show her years of extensive contact with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The latest tranche of Epstein files, released on Friday by the US justice department, appear to include nearly 1,000 mentions of the crown princess, Mette-Marit.
George Mitchell quits US education body as further Epstein files are released
Mitchell Institute says it is considering a ‘potential name change’
Former US senator and chairman of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement negotiations, George Mitchell. No correspondence from Mitchell to Jeffrey Epstein has emerged in the files. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA
George Mitchell has resigned from a US scholarship organisation he cofounded more than 30 years ago and which bears his name.
The Mitchell Institute confirmed it has accepted the former senator’s resignation from his honorary chair role. It also said it was considering a “potential name change”.
The move follows the release of further documents linking him to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Among a large tranche released by the US department of justice is a document, written by Epstein, setting out arrangements he was putting in place to collect Mitchell and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak on his jet and fly them to an airport in New York. The email was written in 2013, five years after Epstein was convicted, and jailed, for the solicitation of a minor in Florida.
He was not fooled by Epstein. He was seduced. His association with Epstein is a terrible and, to many, unforgivable stain. It irreparably tarnishes his legacy. If there is a lesson here, it is this. The ruling class offers nothing without expecting something in return. The closer you get to these vampires the more you become enslaved. Our role is not to socialize with them. It is to destroy them.
Whilst there is speculation about what is underneath the White House since the East Wing was demolished, the facts that are known are these:
AuthorTony Dunnell
October 1, 2025
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The White House is one of the most famous and instantly recognizable buildings in the world. Even if you’ve never actually taken the public tour of the East Wing and the Residence, you’re likely still familiar with much of the building through news broadcasts, documentaries, movies, and TV series — although the latter two are normally shot on soundstages in Hollywood.
But beneath the pristine North Lawn and the Ionic columns of America’s most famous residence lies a world that few will ever see. Under the White House, hidden from the general public, is a surprising amount of infrastructure providing an eclectic array of services, from secret tunnels to high-tech command centers and even a florist.
Presidential Emergency Operations Center
The most famous feature hidden beneath the White House is the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC). It was originally constructed as a relatively simple bunker during World War II to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the event of an aerial attack on Washington, D.C. The bunker was later used during the 9/11 attacks, when a number of key personnel were evacuated from their offices in the White House to the PEOC. Afterward, extensive renovations turned the PEOC — located under the East Wing and accessible via a secret elevator — into a far more sophisticated control center. While we don’t know the extent of what’s down there, we do know that there are televisions, phones, and all the necessary communications facilities for managing emergency situations.
Globally, the base of the human pyramid has its strength in the healthy and supported working class people. They are vital to the solidity of the pyramid. Those at the top of the pyramid who disregard that fact do so at the peril of all mankind.
Greed drives the climbers to be at the top. But it allows for 1 percent only. And they compete with each other, knocking each other off if they can.
E.P.Thompson wrote the impressive British history ‘The Making of the English Working Class’ a copy of which I still treasure as it reflects the struggle of my ancestors.
A modern perpective:
understanding the working class and its historical context offers valuable insights into socioeconomic structures and dynamics. The significance of this group extends beyond their numbers as they constitute the backbone of economies by providing essential goods and services. As such, analyzing the characteristics, challenges, and evolution of the working class remains a crucial aspect of understanding contemporary societies and the global economy.
Migrants tend to be better educated than in the past as some countries define the profile of a likely valuable migrant as against one merely seeking safety from harm in their homeland:
Recent immigrants tend to be better educated than native populations: 50% of immigrants in the OECD had a tertiary degree in 2020, and in 2021, more than one-third of recent arrivals in the EU held highly skilled professions, compared to just over one-fifth in 2011 (OECD, 2023). A U-shaped curve emerges when examining the social positions of migrants, showing an over-representation of both working class and, increasingly, upper-class groups.
The current ‘working class’ jobs are very different to those of 50 years ago:
There have been substantial changes in the material reality of working-class life, and, just as the concept of tradition must be investigated, material changes must also be recognised. There have been substantial demographic changes in many of England’s communities in the last fifty years, capitalism has provided new industries such as platform and call centre work, and working conditions have rapidly declined in the last ten years. The working-class looks quite different today than it did thirty years ago.
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The overlapping fractions that constitute the bulk of the English working-class (excluding children and retired pensioners) are: the proletariat, labour aristocracy, organised labour, unorganised labour, wage labourers (who’s employment may be relatively stable but is still tied to a wage), and unpaid domestic labourers. Indeed, throughout their lives, most members of the working-class will have been part of many, and some even part of all, of these fractions. This list is by no means complete, and while it is possible to identify other groups, I think that these categories account for the majority of the working-class and sufficiently illustrate the nuances of this class’ internal relationships. I define the proletariat as being the part of the working-class whose employment conditions are characterised by insecurity, and therefore their employment conditions (though not their culture, sense of class, and assets) may have more in common with some precarious members of the middle-class, for instance actors, than other members of the working-class.8
Stress crisis’ in UK as 5m struggle with financial, health and housing insecurity
Exclusive: Levels of ‘multi-stress’ at highest since 2008 crash, study says, with people feeling profoundly powerless
Patrick Butler Social policy editorFri 6 Jun 2025 05.00 BSTShare
More than 5 million UK adults are experiencing a triple whammy of financial, health and housing insecurity as British households hit levels of “multi-stress” not seen since the global economic crash well over a decade ago, research shows.
One in 10 working-age adults are juggling low income and debt, insecure tenancies and high rents, and problems accessing NHS care. They are at least twice as likely as the rest of the population to report mental stress, sleeplessness and isolation.
Researchers said the explosion in multiple insecurity amounted to a “national stress crisis”, with those affected experiencing heightened volatility and uncertainty in their lives and profound feelings of powerlessness and lack of control.
Education system failing children from working class families:
A tsunami of unhappiness is sweeping over British schools. According to international research surrounding children and young people’s sense of well-being in school, the UK was ranked 24th out of the 29 richest countries. While the research did not look at social class differences among British children, The Children’s Society found that the UK was the European country with the largest gap in average life satisfaction between the 25% most advantaged and the 25% most disadvantaged 15-year-olds. Children and young people in the UK are generally unhappy at school but it is working class pupils who are the most unhappy.
My book, Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Class(Policy Press, 2025) examines why schools continue to fail working class children, neglecting to provide them with either a meaningful education or the opportunity to realise their potential. I draw on my own extensive research going back over 30 years of researching in English schools, bolstered by interviews I conducted with pupils and teachers in 2022 and 2023, as well as contemporary research which reveals the depth of unhappiness caused by being labelled a failure by our remorseless testing regime or by being placed in the bottom sets.
Rather than “working people” (Labour) or “white working class” (Reform UK), Faiza Shaheen argues that we need a politics that serves the whole working class – as well as an increasing number of middle-class families currently failed by the system we have in Britain today.
“The British class system is far subtler and more pervasive than any system of legal inequality” — George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
The British have long been preoccupied with class, but how relevant is this obsession in understanding modern society? A decade has passed since the findings of the BBC’s Great British Class Survey, and while conversations about class have waned in sociology and public discourse, its impact on people’s lives remains undeniable. Class isn’t just an abstract sociological concept – it shapes real lives, opportunities, and policy decisions. Last month, we brought together working-class people, practitioners working in these communities, and academics to reignite this crucial conversation. The takeaway was clear: even if we’re not talking about class, it doesn’t mean it’s not important. In fact, after 20 years of working on inequality, I can confidently say that class, and indeed class war, has never been more evident in my lifetime
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Class remains a powerful lens through which to understand and address inequality in modern Britain. Reinvigorating class consciousness – the awareness of one’s position in the class hierarchy and the collective power to challenge it – could be key to countering the Far Right, the concentration of elite power, and a whole range of policies, such as cuts to disability benefits. The voices of working-class people remind us that this isn’t just about statistics or abstract theories – it’s about real lives, real struggles, and real opportunities for change.
But now there are oligarchs at the top avoiding taxes whilst the masses below scrabble to make ends meet, heavily taxed and living with insecurity. Any jobs they do leaves them overburdened with debt, inadequate housing, poor education opportunities and feeling powerless.
borderslynn 
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