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The latestbatch of documentshas revealed Epstein's network of friends and associates reach beyond his Caribbean island and East Coast circles into the gilded palaces of two of Europe'sroyal familiesand touch some of the highest offices of foreign governments.

More:Who is in the latest Epstein files release? Documents reveal new names

While inclusion in the files does not indicate a person is a criminal suspect, it does, in some cases, show a person had social or business connections. Several people in European power circles are facing inquiries or investigations, while others have stepped down from various professional roles.

What appears to be outdoor furniture is seen in a photo released by US Department of Justice from one of Jeffrey Epstein's properties.

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Epstein's house was filled with odd objects. See the photos.

While Epstein's connections to leaders in business, academia and government have been known for years, the DOJ'sJan. 30 document drophas provided a wider sense of the relationships cultivated by Epstein, who died awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Many maintained contact with him even after his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a prostitute and procuring a child for prostitution in Florida. His plea required him to register as a sex offender in 2009.

UK government under fire over Epstein emails

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing calls to step down, including from some within his own party, in connection with the Epstein files after he appointed Peter Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as ambassador to the United States. (Starmer himself is not in any of the released documents.) Details of Mandelson's friendship with the late wealth manager became public after the latest round of documents from the DOJ revealed he'd corresponded with Epstein after he was a registered sex offender in 2009.

A little over a week after the Jan. 30 document dump, two of Starmer's aides have resigned: Communications chief Tim Allan and Starmer's top aide, Morgan McSweeney, who said he took responsibility for advising on the appointment of Mandelson to Britain's top diplomatic role. Mandelson has also resigned from the House of Lords.

British police are investigating Mandelson over allegations of "misconduct in public life" after he was accused of passing market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary under former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over a decade ago. Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Two royal families ensnared in Epstein controversy

Among the most well-known European figures who the documents show to have had yearslong friendships with Epstein are members of two royal families:Norway's Princess Mette-Maritand the United Kingdom'sAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III.

While Mountbatten-Windsor's relationship to Epstein has been known for years, the January document dump was the first time the Norwegian princess's correspondence became publicly available.

More:King Charles' brother Andrew crouches over woman in new Epstein photos

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titlein October 2025 andpushed out of his vast homeat Royal Lodge after reports of his association with Epstein hit a fever pitch. He wasousted as a senior royalthree years prior. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide in 2025, alleged she was sexually abused by the former royal multiple times when she was 17 years old. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied the allegations.

The latest release has only intensified scrutiny of the former prince, with the country's prime ministerurging him to testifyto U.S. lawmakers and forcingPrince William and Princess Kate to speak outabout the controversy after years of silence. Britain's King Charles said in a statement Feb. 9 released by Buckingham Palace that the palace isready to support the policeas they investigate allegations against the king's brother.

Princess Mette-Marit, the Crown Princess of Norway, exchanged dozens of emails with Epstein, some as recently as2014.The emails contradict a 2019 comment from the Royal Palace that she'd broken off contact with Epstein in 2011, according to theNorwegian tabloid VG.

Mette-Marit, wife of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, has apologized for maintaining contact with Epstein, saying she displayed poor judgment. In her most recent statement, released Feb. 6, she apologized again, "for the situation that I have put the royal family in, especially the King and Queen."

Norway's prime minister on Feb. 9 said that Mette-Marit and other prominent Norwegians named in the recently released Epstein documents should provide more details about their involvement with Epstein.

Norway opens investigations into ex-leader and diplomats

Norwegian authoritiesannouncedthey are investigating two former ambassadors and a former prime minister over corruption tied to the Epstein files. All were known to have had ties to Epstein, but the new files have provided more details on their relationships and dealings with the late money manager.

The country's economic and environmental crime unit said in a statement on Feb. 9 it had conducted searches at two locations tied to former ambassador Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød‑Larsen. The pair is being investigated over charges of aggravated corruption and contribution to aggravated corruption. Authorities had opened a separate corruption investigation into former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland several days prior due to his alleged links to Epstein.

Jagland served as prime minister from 1996 to 1997, and also held top positions as chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and secretary general of the Council of Europe.

The diplomatic couple, Juul and Rød‑Larsen, helped facilitate contacts between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government that led to the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords. Juul had been Norway's ambassador to Jordan and Iraq upon the latest Epstein file release, and has stepped down from the position. Rød‑Larsen is a former Deputy Prime Minister.

The files suggest that the couple and their children visited Epstein's island, and were named in a version of his will released in the Epstein documents. The two children stood to inherit $5 million apiece from him, according toReuters.

French and Slovakian officials scrutinized, among others

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, has stepped down from his role as the head of a cultural center in Paris following allegations he previously had financial ties to Epstein. The allegations have triggered a tax investigation. Lang denies wrongdoing and has described the allegations against him as "baseless."

Lang was the head of the Arab World Institute, an organization that promotes exchanges between France and Arab nations. In a letter to Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, viewed by the AFP news agency, Lang said that he would submit his resignation at the next board meeting of the Arab World Institute. Lang served as France's culture minister between 1981 and 1993. He later served as minister of education.

Miroslav Lajčák, an ally of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and his national security adviser, resigned after it emerged in documents from the Epstein files that he had exchanged text messages with Epstein about women and diplomacy. The texts date from when Lajčák was Slovakia's foreign minister in 2018.

In a statement, Lajčák said he was resigning to avoid causing any political damage to Fico. He denied any wrongdoing. He also condemned Epstein's alleged crimes.

Contributing: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY; Reuters.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.comand on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Epstein file revelations spark probes, controversy in Europe

While passport revocations for unpaid child support of more than $2,500 have been permitted under 1996 federal legislation, the State Department had in the past acted only when someone applied to renew their travel document or sought other consular services. In other words, enforcement depended on the person approaching the department for assistance.

Starting soon, however, the department will begin to revoke passports on its own initiative based on data shared with it by the Health and Human Services Department, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the change has not yet been publicly announced.

The number of people who could be affected was not immediately clear, but it is believed to be in the thousands. Because of the potentially large universe of those owing child support who currently hold passports, the State Department will make the change in tiers, the officials said.

The first group to be affected will be passport holders who owe more than $100,000 in past-due child support, the officials said. One of the officials said fewer than 500 people meet that threshold and could avoid having their passport revoked if they enter into a payment plan with HHS after being notified of the pending revocation.

The official acknowledged, though, that if and when the threshold is lowered to a smaller past-due amount, the number of those affected will rise significantly. The official could not say when any further changes would take effect or estimate how many people might then lose their passports.

In an emailed response to the AP's queries about the change, the State Department said it "is reviewing options to enforce long-standing law to prevent those owing substantial amounts of child support from neglecting their legal and moral obligations to their children." It added: "It is simple: deadbeat parents need to pay their child support arrears."

Since the Passport Denial Program began with the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the initiative has taken in nearly $621 million in past-due child support payments, with nine collections of more than $300,000, according to the Office of Child Support Enforcement at the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS did not respond to questions about how many people are in arrears.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

The groups said the lawsuit filed late last month by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway would violate the law and require a recount of the U.S. population from 2020, costing billions of dollars.

"That unlawful request would distort representation for millions of Americans and shake the foundations of our representative democracy," said the motion from the immigrant rights groups, which are seeking to intervene and are being represented by several ACLU Foundation chapters.

The lawsuit is the latest effort by Republicans to exclude people who are in the U.S. illegally or other noncitizens from the census figures. Those numbers guide thedistribution of federal moneyand determine the number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state receives in a process known as apportionment.

The Missouri lawsuit asks that theapportionment processthat used the 2020 census figures be redone without including people in the U.S. illegally and that the process after the 2030 census be conducted in the same manner.

A similar lawsuit filed by four other GOP state attorneys general is pending in federal court in Louisiana, and Republican lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation that would accomplish the same goal.

ARepublican redistricting experthad written that using only the citizen voting-age population, rather than the total population, for the purpose of redrawing congressional and state legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.

The Constitution's 14th Amendment says "the whole number of persons in each state" should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment. The Census Bureau has interpreted that to mean anybody living in the U.S., regardless of legal status.

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The Missouri lawsuit comes asPresident Donald Trump has been pressuringRepublican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year's midterm elections. Last August,Trump instructedthe Commerce Department to have the Census Bureau start work on a new census that would exclude immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally from the head count.

Intervenors recentlysucceeded in getting another lawsuitagainst the Census Bureau tossed out. A three-judge panel in Tampa last week dismissed a challenge by Republican groups to the agency's statistical methods during the 2020 census.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that citizenship wasn't a factor in the apportionment process under the Constitution. When asked if a citizenship question would be included, he said the agency hadn't determined the questions on the 2030 census form yet. The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.

"What the questionnaire is, I don't know, and we've not decided," Lutnick said.

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky:@mikeysid.bsky.social.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Census Bureau athttps://apnews.com/hub/us-census-bureau.

A U.S. immigration court has terminated the Trump administration's attempt to deport a Tufts University student and pro-Palestinian activist who has been critical of Israel, her lawyers said Monday.

The court terminated the government's removal proceedings on Jan. 29, finding that the government has not met its burden in proving thatRümeysa Öztürk, a Ph.D. student from Turkey studying children's relationship to social media, should be deported, the lawyers said.

The termination was noted Monday in a filing on behalf of Öztürk with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, where she is challenging her arrest and detention.

"Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system's flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government," Öztürk said in a statement Monday. "Though the pain that I and thousands of other women wrongfully imprisoned by ICE have faced cannot be undone, it is heartening to know that some justice can prevail after all."

Immigration officers detained Öztürk in March, and a federal judge ordered her release in May, pending proceedings on the merits of her habeas corpus petition. Terminating removal proceedings "does not moot her habeas case," her lawyers wrote.

Her legal team's filing says the immigration court in question denied a key argument the Trump administration used toupend the immigration statusof multiple students and campus activists critical of Israel amid its war with Hamas militants in Gaza.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson characterized the immigration court decision as "judicial activism" and called Öztürk a "terrorist sympathizer."

"Visas provided to foreign students to live, study, and work, in the United States are a privilege, not a right — no matter what this or any other activist judicial ruling says," the spokesperson said in a statement Monday. "And when you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country."

Immigration court proceedings are generally not public, and the decision ruling that Öztürk cannot be deported was filed under seal, her lawyers said in their filing. They offered to provide a copy to the appeals court under seal.

Öztürk was arrested March 25 in Somerville, Massachusetts. In supporting her release from an immigrant detention facility,Tufts said in Aprilthat Öztürk had co-authored an opinion piece in the student newspaper criticizing the university's response to the war in Gaza and demanding it divest from ties to Israel.

The Trump administration cited a rarely used provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that allows the secretary of state to deport noncitizens if it is determined their presence would result in "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States."

In their filing Monday, Öztürk's lawyers, including counsel from the ACLU of Massachusetts, highlighted what they called the "dangers" of the government's interpretation of the act.

"Under the government's view," they wrote, "it could punitively detain any noncitizen in retaliation for her speech for many months, so long as it simultaneously institutes removal proceedings—no matter how unmeritorious—all without any federal court review of the lawfulness of detention at any time."

Defense team member Mahsa Khanbabai said in a statement Monday that the Trump administration "has manipulated immigration laws to silence people who advocate for Palestinian human rights and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

Khanbabai added: "I hope that other immigration judges will follow her lead and decline to rubber stamp the president's cruel deportation agenda."

The Department of Justice sued to strike down the ban in November 2025 after it was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September. In a ruling on Feb. 9, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder preliminarily struck down the law, and upheld another California law that requires federal officers to display their identification while performing their official duties.

The Trump administration hailed the ruling as a win, with Attorney GeneralPam Bondicalling it a "key court victory." The Justice Department argued in the lawsuit that immigration agents "face a real threat of criminal liability from state officials who have made clear their intent to target federal officers and disrupt federal law enforcement activities, including federal immigration enforcement."

"These federal agents are harassed, doxxed, obstructed, and attacked on a regular basis just for doing their jobs. We have no tolerance for it," Bondisaidin her statement on Feb. 9.

Gov. Gavin Newsom also counted the ruling to uphold the identification law as "a clear win for the rule of law," and said "no badge and no name mean no accountability."

After the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal immigration agents (ICE), communities across the U.S. are protesting against Trump's surge of immigration enforcement actions.

Pictured here, Demonstrators gather for a protest calling for the removal of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Jan. 30, 2026 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Protests were held across the United States in response to ICE enforcement activity.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Hundreds of people gather to protest ICE at the corner of Palafox and Garden Streets in downtown Pensacola, Florida, on Jan. 30, 2026.

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'ICE Out' protests spark marches, confrontations across US

After the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal immigration agents (ICE), communities across the U.S. areprotestingagainst Trump's surge of immigration enforcement actions.Pictured here, Demonstrators gather for a protest calling for the removal of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Jan. 30, 2026 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Protests were held across the United States in response to ICE enforcement activity.

More:Safety measure? Or intimidation tactic? Masked ICE agents spark the debate

In the ruling, Snyder said that the federal government would likely prove the mask ban to be unconstitutional because it treated state officers differently than federal officers; the law included local law enforcement officers and federal officers but not state officers.

The ruling comes as political tension is heightened over PresidentDonald Trump's surge of immigration enforcement actions in primarily Democrat-led states and cities. Weeks of protests have spread nationally after federal officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, inMinneapolis, where the administration recently announced the departure of hundreds of immigration enforcement personnel. In videos and photos, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents are routinely seen wearing face coverings while conducting operations, making arrests and clashing with protesters.

Los Angeles has also been atarget for enhanced immigration enforcement, which sparked protests that at times turned violent last summer.

More:White House negotiating with Democrats on DHS reform as deadline nears

Scott Wiener, the state senator who introduced the mask ban, said in a statement that he will introduce new legislation to include state officers, and said the ruling demonstrates that California has the right to block officers from covering their faces if state officers are included.

"Today's federal court ruling is a huge win: The Court ruled that California has the power to protect our community by banning officers, including federal agents, from wearing masks and thus inflicting terror and shielding themselves from accountability," Wiener, a Democrat whose area of representation includes San Francisco, said.

"ICE and Border Patrol are covering their faces to maximize their terror campaign and to insulate themselves from accountability. We won't let them get away with it," Wienersaid.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Judge blocks California mask ban for federal agents

Russian forces usedcluster munitionsin an attack on a market in Ukraine killing seven as envoys from Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi last week foranother roundof U.S.-brokered talks. No breakthrough was made, although a new prisoner swap was agreed.

After saying in 2024 that he could end the war in a day, then 100 days, U.S. President Donald Trump has now given Ukraine and Russiauntil Juneto come to an agreement.

The EU is convinced that Russia is not negotiating seriously and it doubts that European and Ukrainian interests are being represented by the Trump administration, so work has begun on "a sustainable peace plan" that might force Moscow's hand.

"We have just seen increased bombing by Russians during these talks," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, including the targeting of Ukraine'selectricity gridduring what has been the coldest winter of the war.

Kallas said that the 27-nation bloc is "very grateful" for U.S. diplomatic efforts so far, but "to have sustainable peace also, everybody around the table including the Russians and the Americans need to understand that you need Europeans to agree."

"We also have conditions," Kallas told reporters in Brussels. "And we should put the conditions not on Ukrainians that have already been pressured a lot, but on the Russians."

Kallas said these conditions could include demands that Russia return possibly thousands of childrenabducted from Ukraineand limits on the size of the Russian armed forces once the war is over. Russia insists on a cap for Ukraine's forces.

"The Ukrainian army is not the issue. It's the Russian army. It's the Russian military expenditure. If they spend so much on the military they will have to use it again," Kallas said.

A draft list of conditions is likely to be shared among EU member countries in coming days for a possible discussion when the bloc's foreign ministers meet on Feb. 23.

Kallas said that Ukraine is reliant on the United States for support and that this dependency has seen it forced to make almost all the concessions.

"Pressuring the weaker party is always maybe getting the results faster but it's only a declaration that we have peace. It's not sustainable peace. It's not going to be a guarantee for Ukraine or anybody else that Russia is not going to attack again."

She said that the Europeans do not want to start a separate track of peace talks, which Russia in any case would likely dismiss, but she said that it is important "to change the narrative."

"Everybody wants this war to stop, except the Russians," she said. "We can push them into the place where they actually want to end this war. They're not there yet. Unfortunately, it's not an easy solution."

Kallas cited recent intelligence estimates that President Vladimir Putin is struggling to find recruits to continue his war effort and insisted that EU sanctions are damaging Russia's economy as inflation there runs high.

The EU is also working on a ban to halt repairs and other services to ships carrying Russian oil. Kallas hopes to bring the Group of Seven nations onboard in talks at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend.

"We can push them into the place where they actually want to end this war. They're not there yet. Unfortunately, it's not an easy solution," she said.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Tracy Scroggins," his family said ina statement provided to TMZ.

"Tracy was a devoted father, cherished family member, and loyal friend whose life was marked by remarkable strength and perseverance. While many knew him for his career as a professional football player in the NFL, those closest to him knew him as a kind-hearted and generous man who cared deeply for his family and friends."

The family also said in its announcement of Scroggins' death that the 56-year-old had suffered symptoms suspected to be from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) during his post-playing career.

CTE is only diagnosable through a neuropathological autopsy performed after a person's death. It was not immediately clear whether Scroggins' family would have his brain tested.

"Playing in the NFL gave Tracy the opportunity to pursue his lifelong dream and to rise from poverty," the statement read. "However, unfortunately, the NFL was also ultimately the cause of his untimely demise. Tracy spent every moment of retirement courageously battling the devastating effects of CTE. While our hearts are heavy, we find comfort in knowing that he is finally at peace."

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Scroggins was one of nearly 5,000 players to file concussion-related lawsuits against the NFL before the league's sweeping concussion settlement in 2015.

Scroggins filed an additional claim against the NFL in 2016. His lawyer at the time – Tim Howard – stated his client was suffering from symptoms consistent with CTE.

"He can't remember where he is or where he's going,"Howard told USA TODAY Sports in 2016. "He hasn't been able to hold a job over the last six years. Beyond memory issues, he suffers from depression and has angry outbursts."

Scroggins was a defensive mainstay for Detroit

Scroggins played 10 NFL seasons, all for theLions, after being selected in the second round of the 1992 NFL Draft. The Tulsa product played 142 games and made 89 starts while playing both defensive end and linebacker.

Scroggins racked up 60½ career sacks – seventh-most in franchise history – and was named the No. 90 player in the ranking of the greatest players franchise history bythe Free Pressin 2019.

TheLionspaid homage to Scroggins with a social media post shortly after his death was announced:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Tracy Scroggins, Detroit Lions great, dies after suspected CTE battle