British socialite ‘put together group of girls for Jeffrey Epstein’

A British socialite and model appeared to procure “girls” for convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, emails suggest.

Annabelle Neilson appears numerous times in the latest tranche of documents relating to disgraced financier Epstein, released by the US Department of Justice on Friday.

Neilson, who died at the age of 49 in 2018, was a prominent model in the 1990s and 2000s and was a fixture of the London party scene. She later appeared on the TV programme Ladies of London in the 2010s.

The latest release of files appears to show that Ms Neilson emailed Epstein numerous times between 2010 and 2012, after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

In an email dated 15 September 2010, Epstein wrote: “I will have Ghislaine reach out to Annabelle Neilson.”

Two days later, an email signed by “Annabelle” said: “Hi Jeffrey. So I am putting a little group of girls together. Hopefuly (sic) one of them will have all the right qualities you desire.

“Wish I was twenty years younger and could speak French!!!

“I have to say that a few of my girls, who would be perfect for the job but are unfortunately past their sell-by date, would of (sic) all dropped their husband and almost children for the job when I asked them.”

The email continued: “You know I’ve just had a spark of genius while writing this, I think I may have the right girl.”

Epstein replied saying: “I appreciate the effort – and you.”

The following month, an email to Epstein from an account signed off by an “Annabelle” and appearing to be Ms Neilson said: “How are you and all the girls?!

“I hope you got the numbers I left you for the brazilian (sic) and the Italian presenter. I’m back in my lovely grey old rainy london (sic), although the cold seems just to be beginning here.

It continued: “I hope you are still having a wonderful time without me, probably the new arrivals would of (sic) distracted you from the huge void that i left. All my love Annabelle x.”

Additionally, an email from a redacted sender to an account named Annabelle Neilson on 26 January 2011 read: “Hey Annabelle, let’s you and I try and find something cute for JE tonight.”

Epstein and Ms Neilson also appeared to discuss art, including a sculpture she recommended to him.

An email from an account called Annabelle Neilson on 23 September 2011 said: “Take a look at this, it’ (sic) a beautiful beast, remind’s (sic) me a little of you i= (sic) that respect.”

The emails are part of the latest dump of documents that contain some three million pages, including 180,000 images and some 2,000 videos attached to the case. It brings the total number of documents released to 3.5 million.

Charles and Camilla heckled over Andrew and Epstein during walkabout

King Charles and Queen Camilla were heckled over his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein during a royal walkabout.

While walking through the Essex village of Dedham, a heckler, who was standing in the crowds behind the metal barriers, shouted: “Charles, Charles, have you pressurised the police to start investigating Andrew?”

Police officers approached the man afterwards and walked with him away from the barriers.

Shortly afterwards, a news reporter in the crowd – who was beside a cameraman – seemingly tried to ask Charles a question about his brother.

The King was then led to the far side of the road, away from the crowds, to continue the walkabout.

Charles and Camilla had earlier met local groups inside the Sun Inn pub and went into the kitchen, where The Queen tried her hand at cutting ravioli.

Towards the end of their walkabout, they listened to a choir of schoolchildren in the street, before briefly going into the Essex Rose Teahouse where Charles unveiled a plaque and cut a cake.

After going back outside, they spoke to more members of the public before leaving in a Bentley.

Photographs of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor released in the so-called Epstein files had been scattered around the street in Dedham, the East Anglian Daily Times reported.

This included several pictures of the former duke crouching over an unidentified woman, with a video of the scattered printouts shared on social media ahead of the royal couple’s visit.

Adrian Sharpe, of Dedham, was among the crowds who turned out to see the King and Queen.

The 62-year-old handyman said it was “nice and casual really for a village event – obviously high security”.

Asked about the heckler, he said: “I think it’s pointless really as what Andrew’s done is what Andrew’s done, it’s not what King Charles has done, is it?

“He’s his own person.”

Mr Sharpe said that “they’ve taken the HRH off of Andrew,” adding: “What else can they do? Surely it’s a police matter now.”

It comes after Mr Mountbatten-Windsor moved from Royal Lodge, his Windsor mansion, to the King’s Sandringham Estate on Tuesday.

On the same day, Thames Valley Police confirmed they were assessing allegations that a woman was sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor.

The King’s younger brother features a number of times in the Epstein files, with another photo appearing to show him touching a fully clothed woman’s abdomen.

The images are undated, and it is unclear where they were taken.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has always strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Thousands evacuated as Storm Leonardo batters Spain and Portugal

At least one person has been killed and thousands forced to evacuate as Storm Leonardo ripped through Spain and Portugal this week.

Torrential rains left rivers and reservoirs at “extreme” risk of overflowing across the Iberian Peninsula, with schools shut and trains cancelled.

A man in his sixties was found dead in his vehicle after being swept away by a powerful current near a dam in the municipality of Serpa in Portugal.

“A vehicle was found with one occupant, so there is one death,” a spokesperson for the national civil protection authority said.

Grazalema, in Andalusia, faced the amount of rainfall that Madrid sees in an entire year in a 24-hour period, with over 40cm of rain, according to a spokesperson from weather agency AEMET.

Regional and national authorities have deployed significant resources to contain the damage, a week after Storm Kristin left six dead and thousands without power.

At least 3,500 people were evacuated in the southern region of Andalusia this week as widespread flooding continued. More than 1,200 emergency personnel and 400 military service members deployed to assist in the most at-risk areas.

Authorities also called in emergency aircraft and helicopters to monitor the regions considered most critical.

AEMET has put the area under the highest alert warning of “extraordinary” levels of rain, floods and landslides.

The effects have been compounded by oversaturated ground, as Maria Paz Fernandez, mayor of Ronda, told public broadcaster RTVE that the issue was getting worse because “the ground can no longer absorb” the rain. She spoke of “numerous landslides” in the surrounding rural areas.

Portugal raised its alert level to the maximum until at least Friday, as authorities warned that several rivers were at high risk of flooding.

In Alcacer do Sal, 55 miles (90km) south of Lisbon, the Sado river overflowed its banks and caused flooding in parts of the town on Wednesday.

Portugal’s National Civil Protection service said water levels were likely to rise over the coming days. Armed forces have deployed approximately 1,600 personnel, which include marine teams using 35 inflatable boats, to rescue people from flooding.

“It’s been raining like this for hours. The river has already overflowed, and people are very worried inside their homes. We are experiencing many power cuts,” Jose Luis Castillo, a resident of Jimera de Libar, told Reuters.

Nearly 134,000 households were still without electricity this week after the devastating impacts of Storm Kristin. Around 95,000 of them in the Leiria region in the centre of the country, power distribution company E-Redes said.

Wargame simulating Russian attack on Nato shows Kremlin could ‘achieve goals’ within days

A new wargame simulating a Russian incursion into Lithuania, carried out by ex-Nato and German officials, concluded that Moscow would “achieve most of its goals” within days.

The exercise envisaged a scenario where the Kremlin used bogus claims of a “humanitarian crisis” in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to seize the Lithuanian city of Marijampole to its east, a key conurbation through which the road linking Russia and Belarus runs.

The scenario, which plays out in October 2026, suggests that an absence of US leadership and hesitancy from Nato countries could allow Moscow to gain total control over the Baltic within days, using an initial force of only 15,000 troops.

“The Russians achieved most of their goals without moving many of their own units,” Bartłomiej Kot, a Polish security analyst who acted as the Polish prime minister, told The Wall Street Journal. “What this showed to me is that once we are confronted by the escalatory narrative from the Russian side, we have it embedded in our thinking that we are the ones who should be de-escalating.”

Marijampole hosts a critical road intersection in Europe. The EU and Ukraine use the Via Baltica highway to Poland, running southwest. Running east to west is a road which links Belarus and Kaliningrad, which Lithuania is obliged to keep open to Russian traffic under a treaty.

In the wargame, Russia portrayed the invasion of Marijampole as a humanitarian mission. The US declined to invoke Nato’s Article 5, which stipulates that all members must come to the defence of another member state which comes under attack.

Germany was hesitant in its response to the attack, and a brigade already deployed in Lithuania did not intervene after Russia used drones to lay mines near a military base, the wargame forecast. Poland, meanwhile, mobilised, but ultimately did not send troops into Lithuania to help defend its territory.

Franz-Stefan Gady, a Vienna-based military analyst, took on the role of the Russian chief of general staff in the game. “Deterrence depends not only on capabilities, but on what the enemy believes about our will, and in the wargame my ‘Russian colleagues’ and I knew: Germany will hesitate. And this was enough to win,” he said.

The game was carried out amid growing fears in Europe of a Russian attack on Nato. Last year saw repeated incursions of Russian drones and fighter jets into Nato territory, as Moscow prodded at the alliance’s defences, a move experts and officials say was designed to expose how the countries would react.

Netherlands defence minister Ruben Brekelmans told the WSJ that it had assessed that “Russia will be able to move large amounts of troops within one year”, adding: “We see that they are already increasing their strategic inventories, and are expanding their presence and assets along the Nato borders.”

The wargame exercise was carried out in December jointly by German newspaper Die Welt and the German Wargaming Centre of the Helmut Schmidt University of the German Armed Forces.

Carney urged to drop US fighter jet contract despite Trump threats

Mark Carney is facing calls to cancel contracts to purchase US-made F-35 jets, despite warnings from Washington that such a decision could see its planes sent into Canadian airspace.

The New Democratic Party (NDP) has even proposed that Mr Carney’s government cancel a contract for 16 jets, which it had already committed to buying from the US.

“The bottom line is that purchasing F-35s from the United States will deepen our military integration with a superpower, not reduce it,” interim NDP leader Don Davies said on Wednesday, citing Mr Carney’s call last month on middle powers to build a new world order in the face of Donald Trump’s increasingly belligerent foreign policy.

Last week, the US president warned that he would impose a 50 per cent tariff on all Canadian-made aircraft sold to the US if Canada did not certify several Gulfstream jets.

“Based on the fact that Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Jets, one of the greatest, most technologically advanced airplanes ever made, we are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified, as it should have been many years ago,” Mr Trump wrote.

Mr Davies has suggested that Canada instead purchase Swedish Gripen fighter jets produced by Saab, Canada’s CTV News reported.

This, he said, would provide Ottawa with a “predictable source of defence co-operation” and would see “two middle powers fulfilling Mr Carney’s stated goals”.

It emerged earlier this week that Canadian officials are looking to other countries to supply it with fighter jets, including Saab, which has offered to manufacture the jets in Canada, creating 12,600 jobs.

“The government is interested in all major projects that can not only protect Canada’s security and sovereignty, but also create jobs across the country,” Mélanie Joly, the Minister of Industry, told CBC News.

“We certainly can’t control President Trump, but … we can control our defence investments, who we award contracts to and how we are ultimately able to create jobs in Canada. So we’re going to focus on that.”

Canada first agreed to purchase 88 F-35A advanced fighter jets from US manufacturer Lockheed Martin in 2022, with the country initially committing to funding 16 deliverable jets.

The programme ran into challenges, taking longer than expected to manufacture the jets, while a 2025 initial audit of the deal found that the program had risen to $27.7bn (£20.4bn) in cost – up from its initial $19bn (£14bn).

Seven ways Amazon Business can make your budgets work harder in 2026

Late January marks the moment when the business year truly begins, making it the ideal time for companies of all sizes to maximise their early-year spending through smarter, business-focused purchasing with Amazon Business. Not surprisingly Amazon Business offers exceptional deals and special prices on everything your business needs during the Business Saving Event – until February 4. This is your last chance to save big on thousands of products, from office essentials to equipment upgrades, helping business leaders start the year organised, well-stocked, and ahead of the curve while freeing up valuable time to focus on serving their customers, but only until February 4.

Business-only rates and rapid delivery

Amazon Business is the online retailer’s platform for companies, retooling its familiar and intuitive shopping interface to create a business-focused experience. It helps teams stock up on core business essentials at the best possible price. Users benefit from business-only pricing available exclusively to registered Amazon Business customers, while Amazon’s rapid delivery times make it easy to plug last-minute gaps in supply.

Buying in bulk

Another way to stay fully stocked is to buy in bulk — and Amazon Business makes this flexible. You can purchase single items or pallet-sized orders of everything from stationery to cleaning supplies. Bulk buying improves budget efficiency, saves time, and comes with transparent guardrails for employees, as well as reorder lists for frequently purchased items.

Empowering teams

The beauty of Amazon’s business-specific platform is its familiar Amazon interface, making it easy for employees new to the procurement process to order essential supplies without involving business leaders. This not only saves time but empowers teams to work smarter and more efficiently.

Cost-aware purchasing and oversight

Consolidating your team into a single multi-user account gives you close oversight of spending and ensures budgets are allocated effectively. You can limit purchasing to approved items and guide team members toward approved suppliers, helping you stay on top of compliance goals.

Accessible spending data

Amazon Business accounts come with Amazon Business Analytics built in, providing instant visibility into your organisation’s purchase history. You can track spending, analyse trends, and create customised reports with intuitive visualisations, making it easier to identify savings opportunities and make data-driven buying decisions.

Simplified workflows

Amazon’s logistical expertise enables management of complex multi-address delivery preferences from a single centralised account. Delivery settings can be updated for multiple locations simultaneously, rather than individually. Combined with the platform’s unrivalled product range, this allows you to consolidate purchases across multiple suppliers into a single, streamlined procurement process, cutting down on administrative work.

Seamless integration

For companies using e-procurement and expense management systems such as Coupa, Concur Expense, or SAP Ariba, Amazon Business integrates seamlessly with over 300 platforms. VAT invoices are downloadable, and VAT-exclusive pricing is available, making it easier to incorporate spending data into decision-making processes.

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

Ben Stokes suffers gruesome facial injury after being struck by a ball

England Test captain Ben Stokes has revealed a significant facial injury after being struck by a cricket ball.

The all-rounder posted a striking image on Instagram, showing his right eye heavily swollen and bruised, alongside a graze on his cheek and lip, and a bandage stuffed into his nose.

Stokes light-heartedly captioned the post: “You should see the state of the cricket ball.”

The 34-year-old recently returned to England following the dismal Ashes tour, which concluded last month with a 4-1 defeat.

His position remains under scrutiny amid an ongoing ECB review into the series.

The post-mortem continues, with England coach Brendan McCullum claiming some of the fallout has been “out of order”.

England had travelled over to Australia with optimism high that they could secure a first Ashes win Down Under since 2010-11.

However, Stokes’ men lost the first three Tests as Australia retained the Ashes within 11 days.

England did pick up a consolation win in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, but slipped to another defeat in the series finale in Sydney.

Stokes endured a miserable series with the bat, averaging just 18.40 across 10 innings, although he fared better with the ball, taking 15 wickets at an average of 25.13.

Stokes’ captaincy was also called into question, with some pundits critical of his bowling changes and field placings, while the all-rounder also admitted after the series that he had made some big mistakes along the way.

England’s off-field antics also sparked controversy, with a mid-series trip to Noosa attracting headlines amid reports of a drinking culture within the England camp.

Now back in England, Stokes is expected to potentially feature for Durham in the early County Championship rounds, if his facial injuries are not too serious, before England’s Test summer kicks off against New Zealand at Lord’s on 4 June.

Interest rate held – but close vote shows inflation risk has eased

The Bank of England has held the interest rate at 3.75 per cent in its first vote of the year, after the rate was cut six times in 18 months.

Although the result was expected, the nine-person Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) vote turned out to be much closer than anticipated, with a 5-4 result paving the way for cuts if the future economic outlook is positive.

Minutes from the MPC meeting suggested that inflation, wage growth and unemployment were the driving factors in making the decision.

Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, said: “We now think that inflation will fall back to around 2 per cent by the spring. That’s good news.

“We need to make sure that inflation stays there, so we’ve held rates unchanged at 3.75 per cent today. All going well, there should be scope for some further reduction in the Bank rate this year.”

Despite a December uptick, several members of the voting committee think inflation remains on a manageable path, with the outlook described as “welcome”. But their concerns are about wage growth staying higher than required if interest rates come down too soon.

The four members who voted to cut this time round “judged that the risk from greater inflation persistence had receded materially”.

Markets had mostly been pricing in two rate-cuts during the current calendar year, but few were expecting the first of those to come before the summer. Following Thursday’s vote, it has now been brought forward to April.

Several mortgage lenders have been raising their products slightly over the past week or so, some of the best deals leaving the market in the process, with experts now suggesting that the market may stabilise somewhat following the MPC’s vote.

“Rates have started to creep back up over the last couple of weeks,” said Peter Stimson of MPowered Mortgages. “However, the surprise voting pattern behind today’s Bank of England decision may mean that a fall in swap rates, which lenders use to determine the fixed rates they offer to customers, could appear in the coming days. Competition is still intense among lenders, and this, combined with falling funding costs, could be great news for borrowers in the days ahead.”

The other side of the equation is savings, with industry voices urging consumers to ensure they are getting a good rate. Up to 4.5 per cent is still attainable for easy access accounts.

For those sitting on cash piles in savings accounts, Bestinvest’s personal finance expert Alice Haine reminded them to check the level of interest they are earning. With rates on the decline and inflation still a factor, it remains vital to ensure that your money is earning a higher level of interest than the rate prices are rising at – currently 3.4 per cent, from December’s data.

“Savings rates have been drifting lower since peaking in the autumn of 2023. And while inflation rose more than expected in December, much of that increase was largely attributed to temporary factors, including high airfare prices over the festive season. Inflation is still expected to ease back, which is expected to pave the way for further interest rate cuts,” Ms Haine explained.

“With this in mind, savers should avoid sitting on the sidelines waiting for conditions to improve. Money languishing in an account paying a dismal rate should be moved swiftly to a more competitive option to ensure it works as hard as possible. Few things are more frustrating for savers than seeing inflation quietly erode the value of their cash.”

In terms of the economy, meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce signalled positivity at the prospect of future rate-cuts.

“Businesses tell us inflation risks are likely to persist in the short term, but a lower interest rate will be a key part of kickstarting the economy,” said David Bharier, head of research at the organisation. “However, today’s more optimistic MPC forecast, predicting inflation returning to target by April, will be welcomed by the firms we represent.

“For businesses across the UK, greater policy certainty and a clear path to lower borrowing costs are essential to unlock investment, boost productivity and transform trade.”

However, Deloitte’s director of economic research, Debapratim De, warned that unemployment rates were still likely to rise even as inflation continued to fall.

“We expect the labour market to slacken further, with unemployment rising to 5.7 per cent by autumn, and headline inflation to fall sharply over the summer months. This should create room for two further 25-basis-point rate cuts this year,” they added.

The next MPC meeting is on 19 March, and Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, predicted the next rate cut could even be seen then.

“We continue to think that further rate cuts are coming. We stick to our call for the next Bank rate cut to come in March, and a final rate cut to come in June, taking Bank rate to 3.25 per cent – broadly consistent with our estimates of neutral,” he said.

“Risks are still skewed to a slower pace of rate cuts. But we remain confident that Bank rate will be cut twice this year.”