Stop calling Epstein’s victims underage – they were children

The world can feel overpowering, with all the darkness that seems to be waiting for us every time we turn on the news. But sometimes to keep myself sane I think – what are the small things we could do? And one of the small things we could do is to stop calling the victims of Jeffrey Epstein ‘underage girls.’

After listening to this week’s media coverage of the latest released files and the vile abuses that were committed, I think we can grant one piece of good grace to these victims, who might well now be adults but certainly weren’t at the time. We can call them what they were: children.

Underage is such a strange word – if we’re talking about girls, they are already young, otherwise we’d call them women. Underage suggests that if they had been older it would have been alright to traffic them and sexually abuse them. Underage suggests the only problem is if they just weren’t old enough to be treated like pieces of meat in a butcher’s shop. Underage girls is a sexual and legal tautology – but we are not talking about sex here. We are talking about trafficked children. We are talking about child rape.

When I listen to the coverage of this ongoing story, with the latest files released by the US government, though still only a fraction of what exists and with some redactions, removals and other general nonsense, the language of fun and japes still bounces around all over it. Yes you could say that the rich punters flew over to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island on the Lolita express to attend his sex parties – or you could say that children were being put at the disposal of old men to abuse. Playboys, sex parties sound kind of fun and frothy – but I think we mean paedophile rings and child abuse gatherings. Gang rape, mass assault and organised abuse don’t have the same cute ring as sex games do they?

I’m genuinely sorry to list all these horrendous terms and take no enjoyment in typing them – but they need saying out loud, to give these children, as many of these girls were, the understanding and support they deserve as adults, to make sure nobody can ever turn a blind eye to such horrors again.

There’s a video online, made by some of Epstein’s victims, where they hold up pictures of them at the ages when they were going through this. They look like children because they are children. And it’s not as if we haven’t had enough time to get used to the harsh realities of this story. Here’s a quote that Vanity Fair published in 2019, from a former air traffic controller who worked on the island and asked to remain anonymous:

“On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children. One incident in particular really stands out in my mind, because the girls were just so young.”

He goes on to say that he and his colleagues “definitely talked about how we didn’t understand how this guy was still allowed to be around children,” and went on to say that it was “absolutely insane” that a convicted sex offender was able to move around so openly in the era of MeToo. Oh yes – Epstein already had a conviction by this point!

But the world kept on allowing him to continue with his depravities and his high profile high-net worth pals kept in touch – with some even joking that they hoped they would be able to ‘play’ again soon.

In most countries, the age of consent is between 16 and 18, but there are outliers, for example in France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Greece, Denmark and Iceland, the age of consent is 15. But ultimately age of consent laws are designed to protect minors who may not have the maturity or capacity to make informed decisions about sexual activity. The thousands of testimonies from women who have come forward about Epstein show a poor case for consent – there was a clear imbalance of power between many of these girls and the billionaire financier.

My daughter is 14 years old. If she’s off school sick and I haven’t remembered to call the school by 9:30, to let them know, they will call me. If I miss their call, they will call again. Their system is that they don’t stop calling until they get an answer, and I for one am very glad of this thorough system. Because if my daughter had left the house but not turned up at school, I would want to know about it – she is a child, and we want to know where our children are.

But when children the exact same age as her are mentioned in the Epstein coverage, they become ‘underage girls at sex parties.’ Not children who have been trafficked to be delivered to be abused by middle-aged paedophiles. When people say they didn’t see any young women or girls at Epstein’s parties when they were there – it is just that. They didn’t see them because they didn’t care about them or who they really were.

Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein probe

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed late Monday to testify in a House investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, though the Republican leading the probe said the arrangement had not yet been finalized.

Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, had been preparing criminal contempt of Congress charges against the Clintons for allegedly defying a congressional subpoena when their attorneys emailed the committee, stating the couple would comply and “will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates.”

The attorneys asked Comer to halt the contempt proceedings. Comer, however, said he was not immediately dropping the charges, which could carry fines and even jail time if approved by the House and prosecuted by the Department of Justice.

“We don’t have anything in writing,” Comer told reporters, noting he was open to the Clintons’ offer but that “it depends on what they say.”

The last-minute negotiating came as Republican leaders were advancing the contempt resolution through the House Rules Committee — a final hurdle before it headed to the House floor for a vote. It was potentially a grave moment for Congress, the first time it could hold a former president in contempt and advance the threat of prison time.

Comer earlier Monday rejected an offer from attorneys for the Clintons to have Bill Clinton conduct a transcribed interview and Hillary Clinton submit a sworn declaration.

Comer was insisting that both Clintons sit for sworn depositions before the committee in order to fulfill the panel’s subpoenas. A letter from the committee to attorneys for the Clintons indicates that they had offered for Bill Clinton to conduct a 4-hour transcribed interview on “matters related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein” and for Hillary Clinton to submit a sworn declaration.

“The Clintons do not get to dictate the terms of lawful subpoenas,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said.

The former president and secretary of state had resisted the subpoenas for months after the Oversight panel issued subpoenas for their testimony in August as it opened an investigation into Epstein and his associates. Their attorney had tried to argue against the validity of the subpoena.

However, as Comer threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings, the Clintons started negotiating towards a compromise. The Republican-controlled Oversight committee advanced criminal contempt of Congress charges last month. Nine of the committee’s 21 Democrats joined Republicans in support of the charges against Bill Clinton as they argued for full transparency in the Epstein investigation. Three Democrats also supported advancing the charges against Hillary Clinton.

Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein has reemerged as a focal point for Republicans amid the push for a reckoning over Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail cell as he faced sex trafficking charges.

Clinton, like a bevy of other high-powered men, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in his interactions with the late financier.

The Clintons remained highly critical of Comer’s decision, saying he was bringing politics into the investigation while failing to hold the Trump administration accountable for delays in producing the Department of Justice’s case files on Epstein.

“They negotiated in good faith. You did not,” a spokesperson for the Clintons, Angel Ureña, said in response to Comer’s threats on Monday. “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care.”

Still, the prospect of a vote raised the potential for Congress to use one of its most severe punishments against a former president for the first time. Historically, Congress has given deference to former presidents. None has ever been forced to testify before lawmakers, although a few have voluntarily done so.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier Monday that his caucus would have a discussion on the contempt resolutions later in the week but remained noncommittal on whipping votes against them.

Jeffries said he was a “hard no” on contempt and accused Comer of focusing on political retribution rather than investigating the delayed release of case files. Democrats also say the Justice Department has not yet released all the material it has on the late financier.

“They don’t want a serious interview, they want a charade,” Jeffries said.

Fear in Minneapolis as ICE agents terrorise city: ‘I haven’t left my home in five weeks’

Pastor Sergio Amezcua scans the cars lining this residential street in Minneapolis, to check whether ICE agents might have followed. He looks up at a helicopter circling overhead.

“Do you think that’s been tracking us?” he asks, concern edging his voice.

From the back of his truck, he pulls out a large box of supplies and scans the street again.

He is here to deliver food to a Latino member of his congregation at Dios Habla Hoy Church who, despite living in the United States for 25 years and having a son with an American passport, has been too afraid to go outside for five weeks.

Maria* (not her real name) fears she could be seized by some of the thousands of federal agents deployed to the city under president Donald Trump’s deadly immigration crackdown.

So when the pastor appears at her building, he finds her nervously hiding behind the front door, shaken by an unknown man standing there, who claims to be a delivery driver but is acting strangely.

“I was scared he was trying to get in. I am terrified. I can’t sleep at night,” she says, after finally letting us in.

As she speaks, she is trying to calm her dog, who has barely been outside for weeks and is running frantic loops around her tiny apartment.

She is running out of money as she hasn’t been able to work since December.

“One man I know was grabbed from his job inside McDonald’s. His son can’t even get his medicine to him inside the detention centre.

“I feel like I’m in jail here. Sometimes I cry and hide so my son doesn’t see me.”

The Department of Homeland Security says in the last few weeks alone more than 3,000 people have been detained. Among them children as young as five and US citizens.

Journalists covering protests have been arrested, and at least two citizens have been shot dead while witnesses told The Independent they were acting as observers.

Pastor Amezcua, who initially voted for Trump, prays with a sobbing Maria, helping her to calm down.

He says that since the launch of the administration’s “Operation Metro Surge”, his church is now feeding around 150,000 people, most of them too terrified to leave their homes for fear of arrest, despite some being US citizens or having legal paperwork.

“They’re racially profiling people, especially Latinos. This is the huge problem.

“Attendance at Latino churches in Minnesota is down 80 per cent because people are afraid to come out. But half of my congregants are born in the US, and they are still afraid to come out. That is not just immigrants, this affects the entire community.”

It’s so bad, he continues, “it feels like ethnic cleansing.”

This is Minneapolis – a vibrant city of nearly half a million people – where fear and suspicion now crackle through the streets. The situation is so bad that residents have likened it to living under an authoritarian regime.

This is since the city became a central target of Trump’s promised immigration crackdown. Citing crime control, he has deployed federal law enforcement to several Democrat-led cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Portland, Oregon.

The Department of Homeland Security has hailed the Minnesota operation as a “huge victory for public safety,” telling The Independent more than 3500 “criminals” have been arrested, including “vicious murderers”.

Minnesota’s attorney general has unsuccessfully sought to block the operation (a federal judge declined to issue a halt order on Saturday).

But fury at the crackdown has gripped the state – and the nation – sparking mass protests and country-wide strikes.

In the last few weeks, ICE operations have only intensified: disturbing footage has emerged apparently showing federal agents violently seizing people, shooting observers, firing on civilians, and tear-gassing crowds.

A spokesperson for the DHS told The Independent said their officers only use lethal force “in defense of their own lives” and for public safety adding: “officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics”.

The spokesperson vehemently rejected allegations that ICE engages in racial profile as “disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE” claiming that “this type of garbage is contributing to our officers facing a more than 1300% increase in assaults against them”. The DHS maintained that a person’s immigration status makes them a target for enforcement, “not their skin color, race or ethnicity”.

But mounting evidence has inspired an underground network of volunteers. Working through encrypted messaging apps, and in code, they track federal agents’ movements to warn at-risk communities, and deter agent activity.

Others, like Pastor Amezcua’s church, try to keep people too afraid to leave their homes fed and alive.

The schools have stepped in, especially after Liam Ramos, a five-year-old Ecuadoran asylum seeker, was photographed in a bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack being taken away by ICE agents as his father was seized during school drop off.

Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for Liam’s school district, says neighbours witnessed ICE agents even try to use Liam as bait to lure his mother out of their home. Liam was deported with his father to a detention centre in Texas.

After nationwide outrage, he was finally released back to Minnesota on Sunday.

But he is one of seven students from Stenvik’s district alone who have been detained in recent weeks by ICE. And so the schools are taking no chances.

Stenvik says the teachers are now chaperoning children to school, organising ride-shares, banning outside recess and patrolling streets near school grounds, to ensure parents and children are not abducted on route to class. Twenty per cent of their students are learning online at home.

“We feel hunted. We are under siege,” Stenvik continues, describing armed ICE patrols circling the school perimeters.

“Young children are asking if their parents will be home when they return from school, or if they might be snatched on the way.”

Jason Kuhlman, principal of Liam’s school, says the school was forced to deliver two children into custody on Thursday when their mother, also an asylum seeker, was arrested outside a courthouse following a mandated check-in for an asylum plea.

The boys had no other family in the country. Their mother had an impossible choice: allow her children to be swallowed into state foster care while she is deported, or be reunited in prison.

“All we could do was pack their backpacks with food and supplies. We were crying with them,” Kuhlman says, describing the moment he was forced to take them into Minnesota’s Whipple detention centre.

“We don’t take children to jail. That’s not our job. Our job is to educate,” he adds with emotion.

“We were afraid we’d never see them again.”

“You f**king move, I’ll f**king taser you. Get the f**k out of the car right now,” screams the masked and armed agent, giving contradictory orders as he points a Taser just a few centimetres away from the face of the passenger, who is filming.

This mobile phone footage was shot by a US veteran, who, together with her friend Skye, a disabled Marine veteran, was patrolling areas of Minneapolis following ICE convoys on 11 January.

Moments earlier – as seen in the video – Skye, who is in her 30s, says agents had smashed the driver’s window next to her.

In the footage, agents can be seen dragging her headfirst from the car and aggressively pinning her to the ground.

“They had me on my stomach, kneeling on me,” Skye tells The Independent, showing the bruises still on her arm. “My arm was wrenched back right up my head, my ankles in a lock.”

She is still shaken by the experience which happened just four days after Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot dead in Skye’s neighbourhood while, city leaders later said, she had also been acting as a legal observer of ICE activity. (Citizens have a First Amendment right to film law enforcement doing their job as long as they don’t interfere.)

Skye was held briefly held at Whipple detention centre, questioned and later released. She does not know whether she faces formal charges.

She left town for a week, worried she might be picked up by agents again. On her return, she found another masked agent parked outside her apartment.

“He aggressively approached me and started taking photos,” she continues, showing me a photograph of the officer.

”It’s a constant worry they’ll come back. I haven’t been able to take a breath or relax.”

As we drive around town, she clocks the telltale signs of ICE agents, like cars with out-of-state number plates or no front plates.

She adds quietly that she is afraid she’ll “end up in a concentration camp”.

“I am a white female veteran: if it can happen to me, it can happen to you,” she warns.

At the sprawling Karmel Mall – famously the largest Somali shopping centre in the country – even US passport holders are afraid to move around.

In this once-bustling hub in the southern area of the city, businesses are shuttered; the owners of those stores still open are reluctant to speak.

ICE agents have already staged raids here: there are posters everywhere saying “ICE out” and telling federal agents they cannot enter.

“It feels dystopian,” says Khalid, 24, a Somali-American student, whose mother has not left the house in a month, despite being a US citizen.

One of Khalid’s cousins was detained during an ICE raid on their apartment building, then later released without explanation. His mother also fears the administration may begin denaturalising citizens like her who were born outside of the US.

“Most of us are American-born citizens. But when the president calls your community ‘garbage’ and targets people based on how you look, you worry.”

Trump – who called America’s Somali population “garbage” and Somalia a “sh**hole” in December – initially blamed the deployment of federal agents to Minneapolis on an investigation into alleged multi-billion-dollar fraud within Somali-run daycares.

Minnesota is home to more than 120,000 Somali residents, the largest population outside of Somalia, says Jaylani Hussein, a community leader and executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The overwhelming majority are citizens, green-card holders, or have paperwork, he explains.

“There has been mass panic since Somali refugees were suddenly targeted two weeks ago, despite arriving legally and being on lawful pathways to citizenship,” he continues, as we sit in the mall.

“Many were shipped immediately to detention in Texas. We were able to get a lot of them back through legal challenges, but it sent shockwaves through the community.”

A few days ago, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the arrest and detention of lawfully admitted refugees in Minnesota, providing some relief, he continues. But fear persists.

“It’s chaos.”

Back at the Dios Habla Hoy Church, volunteers with their own cars are ready to ferry supplies to those who are too afraid to go to the grocery store.

All of them have been vetted and trained in techniques like evading ICE surveillance to protect the vulnerable people they are visiting. They line up to receive the Signal group chat of the day, and code names for addresses in case those chats are infiltrated.

Laura, 64, a resident of Minneapolis, is volunteering 60 hours a week now.

Like many people The Independent has spoken to, she believes this is not only about immigration but about punishing Minneapolis, which, since Trump’s first term in office – with the protests against the murder of George Floyd – has been a heartland of dissent.

“This is about terrorising, not only undocumented people, but documented people and residents. This is authoritarianism,” she continues.

Pastor Amezcua says they will keep going for as long as it takes, but they need Congress and the Supreme Court “to do their jobs”.

“We want our kids to be able to go outside and play or go to school,” he concludes, at the end of another busy day.

“We need checks and balances of the executive branch. [Congress] needs to stop being cheerleaders of this agenda. So we can continue to keep the American dream alive.”

Star-studded contestants announced for Celebrity Bake Off

A host of familiar faces, including radio DJ Scott Mills, social media sensation Molly-Mae Hague, and singer Rag’n’Bone Man, are set to enter the iconic tent for this year’s Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer.

The star-studded line-up, airing on Channel 4 this spring, also features TV star Vicky Pattison, actor Ralf Little, singer Mutya Buena, and comedian Richard Herring.

They will be joined by a diverse array of talent, including TV and radio presenter Mark Wright, YouTuber Nella Rose, comedian Jon Richardson, actor Rose Ayling-Ellis, and podcast host Sam Thompson.

Further contestants include actress Roisin Conaty, singer JoJo Siwa, actor Emmett J Scanlan, DJ Aston Merrygold, broadcaster Edith Bowman, comedian Alex Brooker, and actress Ambika Mod. The roster is completed by comedians Joe Wilkinson, Babatunde Aleshe, Rose Matafeo, Tom Davis, and Judi Love.

The culinary creations will be scrutinised by returning judge Paul Hollywood, alongside new addition Cherish Finden, the internationally renowned pastry chef from Bake Off: The Professionals. Presenting duties will be handled by the popular duo Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding.

Each episode will see different celebrities tackle the signature, technical, and showstopper challenges, all vying to impress the judges and avoid the dreaded “soggy bottom” in their quest to be crowned Star Baker.

Expressing her excitement for the new role, Cherish Finden remarked: “I am delighted to be joining Paul in judging Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). Stepping from the professional kitchen into the famous Bake Off tent felt like my first day of school – my heart was racing and I had butterflies in my tummy!

“Whilst I definitely haven’t left my ruler at home, judging these wonderful celebrities is about more than just precision, it’s about spreading joy and supporting a meaningful cause. To be part of SU2C and see the contestants push themselves out of their comfort zone for such a good cause was simply brilliant.”

The series aims to raise vital funds for Stand Up To Cancer, a collaborative national fundraising campaign by Cancer Research UK and Channel 4, dedicated to funding life-saving research.

Missing The Night Manager already? You need this le Carré adaptation

If the explosive finale of The Night Manager’s second series has left you hopelessly bereft, craving more of John le Carré’s intricate webs of deception and moral compromise, there’s an easy fix. Sitting on iPlayer is the BBC’s 1979 adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, published just five years earlier; it remains the most electrifying distillation of the author’s work ever committed to the small screen.

Widely considered to be one of the greatest British television dramas alongside Brideshead Revisited, Tinker Tailor anticipated the box-set era by decades, with seven filmed episodes unfolding with such languor that patience became a prerequisite. But, my word, what a payoff. The story follows George Smiley’s hunt for a Soviet mole buried deep within MI6 – inspired by the notorious double agent Kim Philby, who had duped le Carré himself during his own foreign-intelligence service days in the early Sixties. Clive James, the venerable TV critic, initially dismissed the series as “turgid” and “incomprehensible”. How wrong he was.

At its centre was Alec Guinness. Uncertain at first whether to take the role because he lacked the soft bulk of the George Smiley in le Carré’s novels, Guinness is extraordinary as the retired intelligence officer brought back to winkle out a traitor near the top of “the Circus”. His Smiley is all restraint, barely modulating his tone, his face an impassive mask, never an eyebrow raised. Resembling an elderly academic in an unprepossessing cardigan and blazer, he somehow exuded low-key menace – all through the subtlest of facial expressions and his repeated habit of cleaning his glasses. So effective were Smiley’s silences that they became a form of torture – agonising stretches of nothingness in which suspects, unable to bear the vacuum, would simply crack and confess.

Adapted by Arthur Hopcraft (who did the same for the BBC’s 1985 Bleak House, with Diana Rigg as Lady Dedlock), Tinker Tailor was a masterclass in slow-burn tension. Modern viewers have learnt to love shows that don’t give up their secrets easily, leaving room for actors to peel back the layers. But for an espionage drama of the time, the trust that Tinker Tailor placed in the intelligence of its audience was genuinely revolutionary. Suspense is favoured over action, waiting over pursuit, as the chess game of the plot plays out. Take the interrogation scenes – psychologically intense, drawn-out, probing: you can trace a direct line from those scenes to the way Jed Mercurio builds pressure in his bent-copper thriller Line of Duty.

Tomas Alfredson’s 2011 film, starring Gary Oldman as Smiley, offered a sleek, accomplished take on the book that was clearly influenced by the BBC series. Its writers – the husband and wife team of Peter Straughan and the late Bridget O’Connor – also masterfully built tension. But what distinguishes the BBC series is its verisimilitude. While the film’s Seventies aesthetic was meticulously stylised with the sheen of a coffee table book, the television series simply was the Seventies. Awful furniture. White leather. Avocado bathroom suites. Pallid faces under fluorescent lighting. It was released in the year, lest we forget, that Britain’s deepening economic malaise swept Margaret Thatcher into No 10. The directors made no attempt to prettify any of it; the decor itself became a character.

Just as The Night Manager depicted the gleaming surfaces of contemporary international corruption, so Tinker Tailor depicted a Britain in visible decay, its secret service populated by privileged public schoolboys with bottled-up resentments. Le Carré’s novels had always interrogated Britain’s refusal to accept its diminishing global status; here was that decline made visceral. Underpinning it all was Geoffrey Burgon’s elegiac score, which captured the end-of-empire melancholy impeccably.

Le Carré had been adapted on screen before – most successfully in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). But his labyrinthine storylines, with their emphasis on patient surveillance and the unpicking of duplicity, needed hours rather than minutes to unspool properly; TV had the time cinema lacked. His writing suited it perfectly: conversational yet laden with subtext, influenced by Harold Pinter’s understanding that what people don’t say matters as much as what they do. The exchanges simmered with deception. Add to that le Carré’s genius for memorable characters and you had rich material for Britain’s finest actors to feast upon – Ian Richardson and Patrick Stewart, in supporting roles, especially.

When le Carré discussed the 2011 film with The Telegraph, he reflected on what made the original series special: “When Guinness and that crowd came to it, it was made as a love letter to a fading British establishment. Even the nastiest characters were huggable.” Years earlier, in his introduction to a later edition of the novel, the author – who would later cite the BBC adaptation as his favourite – credited “the marvellous direction and casting” and how it brought the book’s “clandestine vocabulary” to life.

Le Carré, who died in 2020, lived long enough to see his work flourish in the streaming age. The Night Manager, which first aired in 2016, demonstrated that his world works brilliantly as modern prestige drama, with its globetrotting scope and contemporary anxieties. But for the purest expression of his vision, nothing touches that original Tinker Tailor. For audiences mourning the end of The Night Manager, this is the ultimate tonic.

The smart moment to get ahead of your business budget

For businesses large and small, late January is when reality bites. For some, it’s the first chance to take a breath after the festive rush and early January sales. For others, it’s an opportunity to look at things afresh after time away from the office. Either way, it’s the moment when plans need to move off the page and into practice.

In a challenging business environment, budgets must work harder, workflows need to be optimised and spending requires clear oversight. This is where Amazon Business can make a tangible difference: helping teams start the year organised, keep costs under control and simplify everyday purchasing across essential business categories.

Stock Up and Save now: Business Savings Event Ends February 4

The Business Savings Event is your opportunity to secure exceptional deals and special prices on everything your business needs. Whether you’re stocking up on office essentials, upgrading equipment, or planning ahead for the quarter, now is the time to take advantage of significant savings across thousands of products. Visit the Business Savings Event page today and discover how much you can save before February 4.

Buy smarter, stay stocked

Feeling organised starts with knowing you have what you need. Amazon Business supports this by offering bulk buying options that help improve budget efficiency. From pallet-sized orders of cleaning products to everyday office supplies, buying in volume ensures businesses are paying the best possible price.

Registered Amazon Business customers also benefit from exclusive business-only pricing, alongside the fast and flexible delivery Amazon is known for. In some circumstances, same-day delivery is available, allowing businesses to stay agile and responsive without overstocking.

One platform, less paperwork

Switching to Amazon Business can also significantly reduce administrative burden. Rather than sourcing cleaning supplies from one provider, office technology from another and stationery from a third, Amazon Business acts as a one-stop shop for procurement.

This streamlined approach frees up valuable time, allowing business owners and teams to focus on delivering quality products and services, rather than managing multiple suppliers and invoices.

Control for leaders, autonomy for teams

Amazon Business combines the familiar Amazon interface with professional-grade tools designed specifically for organisations. Team members can order what they need quickly and intuitively – even without purchasing experience – all through a single, centralised account.

At the same time, business leaders retain full oversight. Multi-user accounts include built-in controls that define what different users can buy, ensuring transparency and compliance. Instead of juggling multiple supplier accounts, businesses gain instant insight into purchasing behaviour, helping to reduce rogue spend and keep budgets on track.

The platform’s analytics tools also enable deeper trend analysis, supporting smarter decision-making now and more effective planning for the future. Amazon Business integrates with more than 300 e-procurement and expense management systems, including Coupa, Concur Expense and SAP Ariba, and makes it easy to manage delivery preferences across multiple locations within a single workflow.

From fitting seamlessly into existing systems to keeping spending accountable, Amazon Business helps companies start the year as they mean to go on: with smarter, simpler and more business-focused buying.

Sign up for a free Amazon Business account to streamline your purchasing and take advantage of quantity discounts.

China bans hidden door handles in electric vehicles in major blow to Elon Musk’s Tesla

China has moved to ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles sold in the country as part of a broader safety push that could influence global automotive design.

The policy is the world’s first in explicitly banning a specific design feature on safety grounds and comes amid growing global scrutiny of EV safety.

The new rules finalised by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology require passenger cars to have mechanical release handles on both the inside and outside of every door, eliminating hidden or electronically-actuated designs that have become common on modern electric cars.

In a statement released on Monday, the ministry cited “the inconvenience with operating the exterior door handles and their inability to open after an accident,” and laid out specific requirements for how these handles should function.

The rules will take effect on 1 January 2027, with vehicles already approved for sale given until 1 January 2029 to comply.

The shift marks a significant departure from current vehicle styling trends which use sleek, flush-fitting handles, popularised by the American EV maker Tesla, to improve aerodynamics and range.

About 60 per cent of the 100 best-selling new energy vehicles in China currently feature hidden handles, according to state media.

The new standard came after a series of high-profile accidents where rescuers struggled to open vehicles with electronically operated handles following collisions or power failures.

In one case last year, rescuers were unable to open the doors of a Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan after a crash, leaving the driver trapped as the vehicle burned.

Regulators say the aim is to improve emergency access and reduce “escape and rescue risks” posed by door mechanisms that can fail when electrical power is cut or after impact.

The rules also specify minimum dimensions for exterior door handle grip space and internal signage to show occupants how to open doors manually.

The move is likely to have the most immediate impact on Tesla, whose vehicles helped normalise concealed, electronically actuated door handles in the global electric-car market.

Tesla’s Model S, Model 3 and Model Y all use flush door handles that rely on electrical power, with a mechanical release intended primarily as a backup. The design has drawn scrutiny in several countries after crashes in which doors were difficult to open following fires or power loss.

Earlier in September, Tesla said it was going to redesign the way to open its car doors in an emergency, after several accidents where passengers were stuck in the vehicles and reportedly killed or severely injured.

An investigation by Bloomberg found 140 incidents of people being trapped in their Teslas due to problems with the door handles, including several that resulted in serious injuries.

In the United States, Tesla has faced repeated safety complaints linked to door accessibility after collisions, and federal regulators have previously examined whether emergency responders and passengers could reliably open doors when vehicles lose power. European safety agencies have also raised questions about how intuitive manual releases are in high-stress situations.

The regulation could also influence Tesla’s designs elsewhere. China is one of the company’s largest markets and a major export hub, and changes made to meet Chinese safety standards often carry over into global production to avoid maintaining multiple vehicle architectures.

Some Chinese carmakers have already begun reverting to more traditional handle designs, while foreign brands have yet to outline detailed responses.

Resident NHS doctors vote in favour of more strike action

NHS resident doctors in England have voted to continue industrial action for another six months as part of their ongoing row over pay and jobs.

The British Medical Association (BMA) wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “An overwhelming 93.4 per cent of resident doctors in England have voted for further strike action, giving a clear mandate to continue pressuring the government on jobs and pay in 2026. The overall turnout was 52.54 per cent. Stay tuned for updates on our next steps.”

Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said: “None of this needs to mean more strikes. In recent weeks the government has shown an improved approach in tone compared with the name-calling we saw late last year. A deal is there to be done: a new jobs package and an offer raising pay fairly over several years can be worked out through goodwill on both sides, in the interests of patients, staff and the whole NHS. And now that the mandate for strike action is confirmed for six months, the government has nowhere to run and no means of running out the clock. With no choice but to get a deal, we hope that means a responsible approach from the health secretary and a timely settlement with no further need for strikes.”

Resident doctors last went on strike in the run-up to Christmas. An average 19,120 were on strike each day between 17 and 22 December – slightly higher than the 17,236 average in the previous set of November strikes. These marked the 14th walk-outs since March 2023.

Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, are qualified doctors in their first years of training. A fifth are completing their first two foundation years; the remainder are in core or speciality registrar training.

The agreed salary for those on foundation training is between £38,831 and £44,439, with specialist training salaries rising to £73,992. That includes the 5.4 per cent increase awarded last year, but does not include London weighting.

Resident doctors’ pay has risen almost 30 per cent over the past three years, including 22.3 per cent since Labour came into power. However, the BMA claims that doctors need an extra 26 per cent increase over the next few years to restore their pay, because inflation since 2008 has eroded it in real terms.

With the last 5.4 per cent uplift, the BMA says doctors won’t see their pay restored until 2036. It wants pay boosted to between £47,308 and £54,274 for foundation doctors, and up to a maximum of £90,989 for residents in specialist training at the highest end, over a flexible negotiated period.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has previously said that the government cannot go any further on pay.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “On top of a 28.9 per cent pay rise over the last three years, this government is continuing to work with the BMA to address the issues resident doctors face in their careers, including fast-tracking legislation to prioritise home-grown medical graduates for speciality training places.

“The government has been in intensive and constructive discussions with the BMA resident doctors committee since the start of the new year to try and bring an end to the damaging cycle of strikes and avoid further unnecessary disruption for patients and NHS staff. We hope that these talks result in an agreement that works for everyone, so that there is not any more strike action by resident doctors in 2026.”

Hospital leaders have previously called for the union and the government to enter talks via external mediators to try to resolve the conflict.

Matthew Taylor, interim chief executive of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said: “NHS leaders will be bitterly disappointed that resident doctors have voted to continue with industrial action, especially given the huge impact that strikes have had on patients and the health service’s performance and finances. Further strikes will pile yet more unplanned costs on NHS organisations, forcing health leaders to make difficult choices over reducing staff and patient services to try to balance their books.

“We cannot let these strikes roll through 2026, using up yet more scarce resources and impeding the progress the NHS needs to make in reducing waiting lists. Health leaders need to see the government and BMA resume talks – through mediation if needed – to find a long-term solution to this dispute.”