EPSTEIN FALLOUT
AI, manipulated images falsely link some US politicians with EpsteinBy AFP
February 3, 2026
Tech-enabled false narratives on social media are increasingly blurring the line between fact and fiction. - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP SPENCER PLATT
Anuj CHOPRA
Using AI-created or manipulated images, social media users have sought to falsely associate prominent US politicians such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, researchers said Tuesday.
Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said seven such images collectively garnered more than 21 million views on the Elon Musk-owned platform X alone, underscoring how tech-enabled false narratives on social media are increasingly blurring the line between fact and fiction.
The Justice Department last week released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files — more than three million documents, photos and videos related to its investigation into Epstein, who died from what was determined to be suicide while in custody in 2019.
The Epstein affair has entangled some of the most high-profile global figures, from Britain’s former prince Andrew to renowned American intellectual Noam Chomsky and Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Mamdani and former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley are not among them.
However, conservative social media users circulated three images that purported to show Epstein posing with Mamdani, who appears as a child. Two of them also depict Mira Nair, the mayor’s mother who is an award-winning filmmaker.
The images are AI-generated fakes, NewsGuard said.
The watchdog cited a review of the images using Google’s artificial intelligence tool Gemini, which detected a SynthID, an invisible watermark meant to identify AI content.
In a post on X that racked up more than 1.5 million views, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones featured one of those ima
Also circulating on social media was a screenshot of an email purportedly sent by Haley — a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador — to Epstein.
“I have 2 babi
But a search of the purported email in the Justice Department’s files did not yield any results.
The screenshot also contained other indications that it was fabricated, including the date of the purported email — January 7, 2014, was a Tuesday, not a Saturday, as shown.
Haley did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
In a post on X last July, she urged President Donald Trump’s administration to “release the Epstein files and let the chips fall where they may.”
Separately, Latin American social media users shared an image purportedly showing Epstein seated next to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the annual Hampton Classic Horse Show in the United States in 2002.
Using a reverse-image search, NewsGuard determined that the image was a digitally altered version of a photo showing Epstein with a billionaire American businessman.
Online fakery has previously sought to ensnare other leading politicians in the Epstein scandal.
Last year, as Mark Carney became a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, social media images purported to show him with Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
AFP’s fact-checkers reported that the images bore strong indicators they were AI-generated.
Using AI-created or manipulated images, social media users have sought to falsely associate prominent US politicians such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, researchers said Tuesday.
Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard said seven such images collectively garnered more than 21 million views on the Elon Musk-owned platform X alone, underscoring how tech-enabled false narratives on social media are increasingly blurring the line between fact and fiction.
The Justice Department last week released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files — more than three million documents, photos and videos related to its investigation into Epstein, who died from what was determined to be suicide while in custody in 2019.
The Epstein affair has entangled some of the most high-profile global figures, from Britain’s former prince Andrew to renowned American intellectual Noam Chomsky and Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Mamdani and former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley are not among them.
However, conservative social media users circulated three images that purported to show Epstein posing with Mamdani, who appears as a child. Two of them also depict Mira Nair, the mayor’s mother who is an award-winning filmmaker.
The images are AI-generated fakes, NewsGuard said.
The watchdog cited a review of the images using Google’s artificial intelligence tool Gemini, which detected a SynthID, an invisible watermark meant to identify AI content.
In a post on X that racked up more than 1.5 million views, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones featured one of those ima
Also circulating on social media was a screenshot of an email purportedly sent by Haley — a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador — to Epstein.
“I have 2 babi
But a search of the purported email in the Justice Department’s files did not yield any results.
The screenshot also contained other indications that it was fabricated, including the date of the purported email — January 7, 2014, was a Tuesday, not a Saturday, as shown.
Haley did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
In a post on X last July, she urged President Donald Trump’s administration to “release the Epstein files and let the chips fall where they may.”
Separately, Latin American social media users shared an image purportedly showing Epstein seated next to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the annual Hampton Classic Horse Show in the United States in 2002.
Using a reverse-image search, NewsGuard determined that the image was a digitally altered version of a photo showing Epstein with a billionaire American businessman.
Online fakery has previously sought to ensnare other leading politicians in the Epstein scandal.
Last year, as Mark Carney became a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, social media images purported to show him with Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
AFP’s fact-checkers reported that the images bore strong indicators they were AI-generated.
Starmer faces MPs as pressure grows over Mandelson scandal
By AFP
February 4, 2026
UK PM Keir Starmer is under pressure over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK envoy to the US - Copyright AFP JUSTIN TALLIS
By AFP
February 4, 2026
UK PM Keir Starmer is under pressure over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK envoy to the US - Copyright AFP JUSTIN TALLIS
Joe Jackson
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced growing pressure Wednesday over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, after fresh revelations about the disgraced politician’s close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer was set to be grilled in parliament about his judgement in appointing Mandelson, following new allegations that the ex-envoy had passed confidential information to the late US sex offender Epstein nearly two decades ago.
UK police have announced they are now probing the claims, which emerged from email exchanges between the pair that revealed the extent of their warm relations, financial dealings as well as private photos.
Around that time, Epstein was serving an 18-month jail term for soliciting a minor in Florida while Mandelson was a UK government minister.
For decades a pivotal and often divisive figure in British politics, Mandelson has had a chequered career having twice been forced to resign from public office for alleged misconduct.
Starmer sacked him as UK ambassador to the US last September after an earlier Epstein files release showed their ties had lasted longer than previously revealed. He had only been in the post for seven months.
On Tuesday, Mandelson resigned from the upper house of parliament — the unelected House of Lords — after the latest release of Epstein files sparked a renewed furore.
– Opposition pressure –
The main Conservative opposition will use its parliamentary time Wednesday to try to force the release of papers on his appointment in Washington.
They want MPs to order the publication of all documents related to Mandelson getting the job in February last year.
They want to see details of the vetting procedure — including messages exchanged with senior ministers and key figures in Starmer’s inner circle — amid growing questions about Starmer’s lack of judgement on the issue.
Starmer’s centre-left government appeared willing to comply on Wednesday, at least in part. It proposed releasing the documents apart from those “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”.
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into 72-year-old Mandelson for misconduct in public office offences following the latest revelations.
If any charges were brought and he was convicted, he could potentially face imprisonment.
Starmer sacked the former minister and ex-EU trade commissioner as Britain’s top diplomat in the US after an earlier release from the Epstein files detailed his cosy ties with the disgraced American.
– ‘Let his country down’ –
The scandal resurfaced after the release by the US Justice Department of the latest batch of documents. They showed Mandelson had forwarded in 2009 an economic briefing to Epstein intended for then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
In another 2010 email the US financier, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, asked Mandelson about the European Union’s bailout of Greece.
The latest release also showed Epstein appeared to have transferred a total of $75,000 in three payments to accounts linked to the British politician between 2003 and 2004.
Mandelson has told the BBC he had no memory of the money transfers and did not know whether the documents were authentic.
He quit his House of Lords position on Tuesday shortly after Starmer said he had “let his country down”.
The UK leader said Tuesday he feared more revelations could come, and has pledged his government would cooperate with any police inquiries into the matter.
The Met police confirmed they had received a referral on the matter from the UK government.
The EU is also investigating whether Mandelson breached any of their rules during his time from 2004-2008 as EU trade commissioner.
Melinda French Gates hits Bill Gates with scathing response after new Epstein revelations
Nicole Charky-Chami
February 3, 2026
Melinda French Gates responded to the allegations involving her ex-husband Bill Gates in the Epstein files during a conversation on NPR's Wild Card podcast set to release in full on Thursday. (NPR/Wild Card/Screenshot)
Philanthropist Melinda French Gates had a sharp response to her ex-husband Bill Gates after allegations surfaced in the most recent trove of Epstein files, showing private emails between the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the former Microsoft CEO.
In the emails, which were part of the more than 3 million documents released by the Department of Justice last week, it was suggested that Bill Gates had additional affairs and had come to Epstein so he could "facilitate trysts with married women and to get medication to treat an STI from 'sex with Russian girls,'" NPR reported Tuesday.
In her first time speaking publicly about the allegations, French Gates responded to the allegations in the Epstein files during a conversation on NPR's "Wild Card" podcast.
"I think we're having a reckoning as a society, right," French Gates said. "No girl, no girl, should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him. No girl, I mean, it's beyond heartbreaking, right? I remember being those ages those girls were. I remember my daughters being those ages, right? So for me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up because it brings back some very, very painful times in my marriage. But I have moved on from that. I purposely pushed it away and I moved on. I'm in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life."
She pointed to her former husband and others among Epstein's circle — putting the onus on them to respond.
"Whatever questions remain there of what — I can't even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband," she said. "They need to answer to those things, not me."
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, one of the world's largest software companies, and amassed one of the world's largest personal fortunes before transitioning to philanthropic work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda French Gates is an American businesswoman and philanthropist who was married to Bill Gates for 27 years and served as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation until their divorce in 2021, with the couple having focused their foundation's work on global health, poverty reduction and education initiatives before separating and establishing separate philanthropic endeavors.
The full NPR interview with French Gates was slated to be released on Thursday.
Nicole Charky-Chami
February 3, 2026
RAW STORY
Melinda French Gates responded to the allegations involving her ex-husband Bill Gates in the Epstein files during a conversation on NPR's Wild Card podcast set to release in full on Thursday. (NPR/Wild Card/Screenshot)
Philanthropist Melinda French Gates had a sharp response to her ex-husband Bill Gates after allegations surfaced in the most recent trove of Epstein files, showing private emails between the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the former Microsoft CEO.
In the emails, which were part of the more than 3 million documents released by the Department of Justice last week, it was suggested that Bill Gates had additional affairs and had come to Epstein so he could "facilitate trysts with married women and to get medication to treat an STI from 'sex with Russian girls,'" NPR reported Tuesday.
In her first time speaking publicly about the allegations, French Gates responded to the allegations in the Epstein files during a conversation on NPR's "Wild Card" podcast.
"I think we're having a reckoning as a society, right," French Gates said. "No girl, no girl, should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him. No girl, I mean, it's beyond heartbreaking, right? I remember being those ages those girls were. I remember my daughters being those ages, right? So for me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up because it brings back some very, very painful times in my marriage. But I have moved on from that. I purposely pushed it away and I moved on. I'm in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life."
She pointed to her former husband and others among Epstein's circle — putting the onus on them to respond.
"Whatever questions remain there of what — I can't even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband," she said. "They need to answer to those things, not me."
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, one of the world's largest software companies, and amassed one of the world's largest personal fortunes before transitioning to philanthropic work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda French Gates is an American businesswoman and philanthropist who was married to Bill Gates for 27 years and served as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation until their divorce in 2021, with the couple having focused their foundation's work on global health, poverty reduction and education initiatives before separating and establishing separate philanthropic endeavors.
The full NPR interview with French Gates was slated to be released on Thursday.
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