Top Norwegian diplomat resigns after Epstein scandal

TT

Updated 20.01 | Published 18.01

Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul is forced to resign from her ambassadorship due to links to Jeffrey Epstein. Archive. Photo: Pontus Höök/NTB/TT

Top Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul is resigning as ambassador, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry announced after revelations about Epstein's will.

Juul, who is married to top Norwegian politician Terje Rød-Larsen, appears in documents surrounding the deceased, previously convicted Jeffrey Epstein.

Mona Juul was forced to suspend her ambassadorship in Jordan just under a week ago, citing the need to investigate the circumstances.

“Necessary decision”

“It is a correct and necessary decision. It comes after talks with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week. Juul’s contacts with Epstein, who was convicted of abuse, have shown serious shortcomings in judgment,” writes Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide in a press release.

Through her law firm, Juul announces that she is “fully cooperating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and that she appeals for calm for the family in “a very demanding situation.”

Juul ​​and her husband Rød-Larsen were significant in the secret peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s, which led to the so-called Oslo Accords in the fall of 1993 when the then Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed the agreement in Washington under the supervision of President Bill Clinton. The agreement touched, among other things, on the basis of a future two-state solution.

Ten million dollars

Juul's continued diplomatic career has since led to, among other things, the important post of Norway's UN ambassador in New York.

According to the documents, Epstein wanted to bequeath a large sum to the couple's children, Norwegian media reports, stating that the sum was ten million dollars, equivalent to around 90 million Swedish kronor.

The publication of the investigation into the American financier Epstein has led to Norway's former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland being investigated by the Norwegian Economic Crimes Authority. Former minister, now leader of the World Economic Forum, Børge Brende, is being criticized for contacts with Epstein.

Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit has said that she "deeply regrets" her close contacts with Epstein.

Several new arrests of Iranian regime criticsF

TT

Published 20.32

 

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Archive photo. Photo: Supreme Leader's Office Via AP/TT

Iran has arrested three more leading activists in the country's reform movement, according to state media.

"Azar Mansouri, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh have been arrested by security organizations and judicial bodies," Fars wrote on Sunday evening.

The charges relate to attempts to threaten the country's unity and questioning Iran's constitution, according to the regime-controlled news agency. Propaganda and secret subversive activities are also included in the regime's accusations.

On Saturday, information emerged that activist Ghorban Behzadian-Nejad had been arrested after he supported a reform-minded, regime-critical statement.

There is no independent or confirmed information on how many people have been arrested following the regime's brutal, deadly crackdown on regime protesters in Iran.
 

Several dead as building collapses in Lebanon

TT

Published 19.07 

 

Rescue work is underway in Tripoli in northern Lebanon after a residential building collapsed. Photo: AP/TT

At least five people died when a residential building collapsed in the port city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Sunday.

The search for survivors was still ongoing in the evening, according to state media. Eight people had been rescued by then, while five bodies had been recovered, including a child and an elderly woman.

It is an old building that, according to Imad Khreish, head of the civil defense, housed a total of twelve apartments.

Another deadly building collapse occurred in the same city last month.

Buildings in Lebanon are often poorly maintained or have been extended with new floors without building permits. Much of the construction during the civil war of 1975–1990 was illegal.

Starmer's chief of staff resigns in Epstein scandal

TT

Updated 15.49 | Published 15.37

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Archive photo. Photo: Peter Nicholls /AP/TT

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigns as a direct result of scandals revealed in the Epstein files.

The decision may be a way to protect the prime minister.

In a statement, the British Prime Minister's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney says that the spin surrounding the fired ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, has damaged the country:

"The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and confidence in politics itself," the statement says, according to the BBC.

Mandelson had close contacts with the late, previously convicted, American financier Jeffrey Epstein. McSweeney said he was responsible for Mandelson being appointed ambassador in 2024, and that it was the “wrong” decision and that he takes “full responsibility” for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson.

Criticism is growing within the ruling Labour Party and among senior MPs that party leader and Prime Minister Starmer should also resign because of Mandelson’s previous close contacts with Epstein, before he took his own life in custody in 2019.

Mandelson has previously withheld details of his close contacts with Epstein. The former influential Labour MP Mandelson has not been charged with any sexual offences in his contacts with Epstein, but there is an ongoing police investigation in the UK.

 

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