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Sep 9, 2026 - World

A year after the first batch of Jeffrey Epstein investigative files was released, law enforcement agencies in at least five countries say the Justice Department still has not responded to their formal requests for help.Officials in Poland, Norway, Latvia, the United Kingdom and Germany told the Washington Post that requests for mutual legal assistance — the formal process that allows foreign investigators to obtain evidence, information and testimony from the U.S. — have gone unanswered.No charges have resulted from the files' release in the United States, but the documents exposed Epstein's relationships with influential figures worldwide, including President Donald Trump, and the revelations have prompted international investigations of the late sex offender's networks.The Justice Department disputed any suggestion it is stonewalling. "The Department of Justice has not refused to assist any jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein," a DOJ spokesperson told the Telegraph last month, adding that the department "remains committed to cooperating with all jurisdictions pursuing potential crimes."However, officials from those five European nations say their requests to the Trump administration have been met with silence.Poland's National Prosecutor's Office said the Justice Department has not responded to an April request.In Norway, state prosecutor Marianne Bender said her office remains in communication with DOJ officials but "they have not at this time approved the request." Latvia's state police said they have sent "several requests" and "no responses have yet been received." Britain's formal request followed informal talks that DOJ had already failed to advance, according to the Times of London, and German federal police say they remain in contact with the FBI without resolution.The stakes are highest in Norway, where three prominent figures — former diplomats Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul, and former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland — face corruption charges connected to their relationships with Epstein. All deny wrongdoing. Rød-Larsen's attorney said Norwegian prosecutors have specifically sought additional records from DOJ and investigative steps involving the International Peace Institute in New York, where his client previously served as president. Bender called the lack of a U.S. response "very unfortunate for the Norwegian investigation."The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, which processes such requests, has faced documented operational problems for years.A 2021 inspector general report found it plagued by high staff turnover, outdated technology and oversized caseloads, and a former DOJ attorney who worked in the office said such requests are "inherently complex," particularly when they involve voluminous records or contested redactions.Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers continue pressing DOJ for more transparency domestically, saying Epstein-related documents remain missing or unnecessarily redacted, even after Congress voted overwhelmingly last November to compel their release.

Sep 9, 2026 - World

Spiritual leaders stress diversity of views within Jewish community and warn against inaction on settler violence‘It’s a good start’: prominent Israelis welcome UK sanctionsProminent British rabbis have backed Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israeli settlements, warning that the time for inaction on settler violence must come to an end.The intervention comes after the UK’s chief rabbi, the spiritual leader of mainstream Orthodox Jews in the UK, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, described UK sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as a “dark day for British Jews” and warned they could embolden people who “use hatred as a weapon against Jews”. Continue reading...

Sep 9, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's two lead envoys for the world's toughest conflicts — Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff — are consistently misreading the wars they're sent to end by treating them like real estate negotiations, with consequences a foreign affairs expert says have already proven costly.Financial Times columnist Edward Luce argued Wednesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has largely stayed out of the Russia-Ukraine, Iran and Gaza negotiations shows he "can sense a losing bet." Trump instead favors Kushner and Witkoff, both billionaires with real estate backgrounds, whom Luce says pitch adversaries on postwar investment booms rather than addressing what those adversaries actually want."The core Kushner-Witkoff tactic is to seduce their interlocutors with the lure of postwar bonanzas," Luce writes. "Why should Ukrainians and Russians keep killing each other when they could be partnering with the U.S. to dig up critical minerals and build AI data centers?"That approach, Luce writes, fundamentally misreads the parties involved. Vladimir Putin's goal is territorial reabsorption of Ukraine, not economic partnership, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy's priority is national survival, the columnist argued. Luce pointed to the envoys' recent shuttle diplomacy, in which they visited Moscow before Kyiv and then presented Zelenskyy with tougher terms than he had already rejected, as evidence the pair's proposals have effectively echoed Kremlin positions.Luce also cited last November's 28-point peace plan, which reportedly proposed the U.S. mediate NATO-Russia disputes despite America's own NATO membership, as proof that subject-matter experts are largely absent from these negotiations.Luce's most serious claim ties the envoys' approach to the U.S. strike on Iran. Citing the Geneva nuclear talks in February, Luce argued that Witkoff and Kushner dismissed an Iranian offer they might have taken if only American nuclear experts had been present. That miscalculation contributed to Trump's decision to launch a military strike days later, Luce argued."If Trump could get today what Iran was offering earlier this year — diluting most of its fissile material under supervision — he would leap at it," Luce writes. "Which is another way of saying that Kushner and Witkoff are not giving him much value for money."On Gaza, the columnist noted that Kushner has described the territory as potentially "very valuable" real estate and suggested displacing its population in phases during reconstruction, framing a humanitarian crisis in developer's terms.Luce closed by raising conflict-of-interest concerns despite both men serving without pay, pointing to Kushner's Albania luxury villa project, which sparked protests adopting the flamingo as a symbol of resistance, and a scrapped Trump Tower deal in Serbia."'Albania is not for sale,' says the normally pro-American Albanian street," Luce concludes. "If Trump’s envoys would listen, other parts of the world are trying to tell them the same thing."

Sep 9, 2026 - World

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is viewed as a global "pariah," according to CNN's Harry Enten, and prediction markets show his odds of remaining prime minister after the next election sliding sharply.The United Kingdom, France and Canada have announced plans to sanction illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, underscoring rising friction between Israel and some of its closest Western allies, and Enten told "CNN News Central" that Netanyahu's net confidence rating worldwide sits 56 points underwater.That's worse than Donald Trump's, whose net rating is 53 points underwater despite being broadly unpopular internationally. By comparison, Vladimir Putin's rating is 22 points better than Netanyahu's, and Xi Jinping's is 37 points better. "He manages to even be three points less popular than Donald Trump, who, of course, is despised worldwide," Enten said.Israel's net favorability rating worldwide is 42 points underwater — 17 points worse than Russia's, 22 points worse than the United States', and 30 points worse than China's. "Among sort of the countries that are often in the news, Israel is by far the least popular one that's out there," Enten said.That unpopularity is no longer confined to one side of the political spectrum, Enten added, pointing to the U.K. as an example. Israel's net favorability there is 70 points underwater among left-leaning voters, 45 points underwater in the center, and still 20 points underwater on the right. "It's just across the board that Israel has a real image problem here in the U.K. and really in the world as well," he said.On Netanyahu's political survival, Enten cited prediction markets showing his odds of remaining prime minister after the next election have fallen from 41 percent in May to just 26 percent now."Everyone's a political survivor until their luck runs out," Enten said, "and Bibi Netanyahu's luck may, in fact, have run out."

Sep 9, 2026 - World

MS NOW's Joe Scarborough lost his temper on Wednesday — screaming over one of his guests to declare he wasn't "stupid." Scarborough was responding to new reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had advance warning of the brutal October 7 attacks, and failed to intervene."He was responsible for the funding of Hamas for years, billions of dollars," said Scarborough. "Three weeks before Qatar asked, should we continue funding Hamas? And the answer they get back from Netanyahu's government ... yes, yes, keep funding them. At the same time, he's getting a warning, an explicit warning, Israel is about to be attacked from Hamas. Now he is lying through his teeth in the campaign saying, oh, if they only woke me up. They did wake him up."Scarborough argued Netanyahu "did nothing" to help while "Jews were getting raped and killed, beaten alive while children were being tortured, while parents were being shot in front of children, and children were being shot in front of their parents."Scarborough turned to panelist Donny Deutsch. "You care deeply about Israel," he said. "Have you been able to figure out in all of your reading and all of your talking about this ... why Netanyahu funded Hamas, an organization that said, our goal is to exterminate Jews," even after "he'd gotten the warning from the UAE that, hey, a major attack is coming?""I can't explain Bibi," admitted Deutsch. "But I just don't want us to forget as we get close to three years, October 7th, that Hamas, to your point, slaughtered, raped, mutilated 1200.""So back to my question," said Scarborough, his voice rising to a shout as Deutsch tried to talk over him. "My question, Donny. It's not like Netanyahu didn't know.""Do I look stupid to you? Do I look stupid?" he yelled. "Look at me. Look at me in my eyes, Donny ... that I'm going to be distracted by you saying what you said a million times." - YouTube www.youtube.com