Minutes of travel expenses of former Duke of York as UK trade envoy withheld from National Archives

• Blair pressured officials over case of UK soldiers accused of beating Iraqi man to death, files show

• ‘Too complacent’: how Blair’s advisers misjudged his disastrous WI speech

• Brown’s allies could wreck Labour’s 2005 election hopes, Mandelson warned

The Cabinet Office has been accused of covering up for the royal family after the release of documents including some relating to travel expenses for the former Duke of York as UK trade envoy were withheld at the last minute.

Files released to the National Archives include documents relating to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and a grovelling apology from John Major’s office after an official birthday telegram to the Queen Mother was addressed in an “improper manner”.

Our cartoonists look back at a year of covering tragedy, farce and everything in between – and having to draw far too many Donald Trumps

In a year in which I’ve drawn too many cartoons about powerful people acting with impunity, the fall of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor stood out to me as a rare win for justice and accountability. Dark humour feels vital to make light of everything that’s going wrong, but I’ve also been trying to draw cartoons that highlight reasons for hope, such as the fragile ceasefire in Gaza or Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York.

Marina Lacerda urges him to answer questions as Virginia Giuffre’s lawyer says anyone who accepted former royal’s denials ‘should be ashamed’

One of the victims of the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has called for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to answer questions in the US, while a lawyer for the former royal’s accuser said those who had previously believed his denials “should be ashamed of themselves”.

Speaking to the Guardian after the release of some of the Epstein files, the tranche of documents related to the disgraced financier, Marina Lacerda, an Epstein survivor, said Mountbatten-Windsor should be “brought to justice”.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters seen at Sandringham church as more details about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein emerge

Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice attended church with the royal family on Christmas morning, in a year where their father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was stripped of his royal titles.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s two daughters could be seen walking behind King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their way to church on the private Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Documents give further insight into former royal’s ties to sex offender and raise fresh questions for Donald Trump

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor asked Jeffrey Epstein’s fixer Ghislaine Maxwell to arrange meetings with “inappropriate friends” while she sought “friendly and discreet and fun” girls on his behalf, the latest documents from the Epstein files appear to show.

The largest release yet of files concerning the financier and convicted child sex offender – which also raise fresh questions for the US president, Donald Trump – include emails in the name of “A” exchanging detailed messages with Maxwell that appeared to identify the author as Andrew.

Emails recording that Britain’s Metropolitan police contacted the FBI last month to inquire whether there were any ongoing investigations related to the disgraced former prince’s association with Epstein.

Emails showing US lawyers claiming “various factual inaccuracies” in a statement provided on Andrew’s behalf during their investigation of Epstein.

Multiple references to Donald Trump, including a claim by a senior US attorney that Trump was on a flight in the 1990s with Epstein and a 20-year-old woman. There is no indication of whether the woman was a victim of any crime, and Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Files featuring redactions that were found to be removable through Photoshop techniques or simply highlighting text to paste into a word processing file.

Documents released in relation to Jeffrey Epstein contain emails between Maxwell and an individual signing off as ‘A’ and ‘The Invisible Man’

Emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and an individual signing off as “A” are among the largest dump yet of documents released by the US Department of Justice in relation to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

While “A” – who also refers to themselves as “The Invisible Man” – is not explicitly identified in the emails, they include key details that corroborate the suggestion that they are Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was then still a working royal known as Prince Andrew.

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Photos suggest former Duke of York served as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s pass to British high society

The former Prince Andrew at Sandringham lying across the laps of five elegantly dressed women as Ghislaine Maxwell looks on; Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein on a shoot near Balmoral; the three of them peering down from the royal box at Ascot.

The images are just some of the “Epstein files” released by the US Department of Justice on Friday.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor reclines across five people in one photo watched by Ghislaine Maxwell at Sandringham

Photographs of the child sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell released by the US justice department appear to show how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor facilitated their access to British high society.

Epstein and Maxwell are pictured hunting with the former prince at Balmoral and with him in the royal box at Ascot. A separate picture shows Maxwell outside 10 Downing Street.

From pop to politics, it’s been quite the year. Were you paying attention? Let’s find out …

1-5 Please pay more attention.
6-14 Very good. But spend less time looking up from your phone in 2026.
15-20 Please write this next year.

Released images illustrate relationships Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell forged with significant figures

A trove of documents related to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was has been released by the US justice department. Comprised of thousands of files, the cache shows photographs of the late financier and his accomplice, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, alongside some of the most significant figures from the last century.

The images help illustrate the relationships Epstein and Maxwell forged with royalty, politicians, musicians and actors.

Giuffre’s family calls the success of her posthumous memoir, Nobody's Girl, ‘bittersweet’ after her death in April

A posthumous memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s best-known accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has sold 1m copies worldwide in just the two months after its release.

Publisher Alfred A Knopf announced on Tuesday that more than half the sales for Nobody’s Girl came out of North America; in the US, the book is now in its 10th printing after an initial run of 70,000 copies. Giuffre’s book, co-written by author-journalist Amy Wallace, was published in early October.

Two Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor gags make top 10 of public vote, along with jokes about Oasis and Nigel Farage

It’s safe to say it’s been a very bad year for the former Prince Andrew. Already stripped of his title and privileges, he is rounding off the year by becoming the punchline of the year’s most popular Christmas cracker joke.

The annual competition is commissioned by the comedy channel U&Gold (formerly Comedy Gold) and decided by the British public. It usually produces a topical winner that sends up one of the biggest stories of the year.

Relatives of Virginia Giuffre say they are surprised Scotland Yard made decision just before release of Epstein files

The family of Virginia Giuffre have expressed their “deep disappointment” that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not face a criminal investigation in the UK over allegations against him.

It was alleged that Mountbatten-Windsor had sex in London with a teenager who was trafficked, and then put pressure on his police protection officer to dig up dirt on her.

Notable figures in batch of images include Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Woody Allen and Bill Gates

• The latest tranche of Epstein evidence – in pictures

House Democrats have published a new tranche of what they called “disturbing” photographs from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, featuring among others Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and the British former royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The 19 photographs in the initial drop – some of which have been seen before – plus another 70 released later Friday afternoon represent a small number of the almost 100,000 images released to the House oversight committee, which is looking into the conduct and connections of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by apparent suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 after he was charged with sex-trafficking offenses.

Parliament’s ban on discussion of the royals is infantile. A committee of MPs has the chance to end the secrecy over their finances

Everyone in Britain has views about the royal family. In many cases, lots of views. Britain’s parliament, however, never lets the subject pass its lips. By long tradition, the House of Commons prohibits itself from any mention, let alone any discussion, of the monarchy or the royal family. This self-imposed gag – in which a centuries-old constitutional monarchy is unable to discuss constitutional monarchy – is infantilising and indefensible.

The gag may, however, be loosening. This week, the Commons public accounts committee announced an inquiry into the crown estate. ​T​he probe is a direct response to news that the disgraced former Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) and his brother Prince Edward have been paying “peppercorn rents” for very extensive properties owned by the estate. It is an extremely unusual move in the modern era.

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Committee will examine value for money to taxpayers of leases of properties to members of royal family

The public accounts committee is to launch an inquiry into the crown estate and its leases on properties to members of the royal family after questions over the lease of Royal Lodge to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Publishing responses from the crown estate and the Treasury to detailed questions over the lease arrangements, the committee’s chair, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said: “Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the basis for an inquiry.” He said this would take place in the new year.

Mid and East Antrim council to start process of removing Carrickfergus street’s association with disgraced royal

A Northern Ireland council has agreed to rename a street called Prince Andrew Way after the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Mid and East Antrim council decided on Monday to start the “long overdue” process of removing the street’s association with the disgraced royal. It was named Prince Andrew Way in 1986 to mark his wedding to Sarah Ferguson but there were calls to rename it after the stripping of Mountbatten-Windsor’s royal titles last month.

For the New York and Washington great and good who loved the company of wealth and power, all that glitters is no longer gold

Many years ago, I went to a party in central London thrown by a host known for curating interesting and heavyweight guest lists and, on entering, encountered David Irving, the disgraced historian and Holocaust denier. As a marker of social pariahdom, Holocaust denial is up there with – or perhaps even more potent than – a conviction for sex offences, and I turned around and walked out; not through any particular moral superiority, but because I thought “notoriety” as a criteria for inclusion on a guest list was stupid and offensive. As I left, I remember looking across the room at the host and thinking: you silly bloody bint, I’m embarrassed for you.

I thought about that party and Irving this week while reading, with grim amusement, the absolute scramble currently under way in the US among media and other public figures seeking to explain, justify, downplay and generally paddle away as fast as they can from their social interactions with Jeffrey Epstein. I’m not talking about the men alleged to have joined the late paedophile in abusing trafficked girls, but rather the apparently endless list of notable figures – mostly in New York, but also reaching down to Washington DC, and across America’s Ivy League campuses – who enjoyed his hospitality, appeared with him at parties, and exchanged cordial emails with the man long after his true nature was known. As the Senate voted this week to release the Epstein files, the chorus of “we didn’t know!” from certain corners grew so loud it might’ve been Germany in 1946.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

Long after his conviction for sexual abuse, people in royalty, academia, business, journalism and politics sought his ear

He got by with a little help from his friends. From British royalty to White House alumni, from a Silicon Valley investor to a leftwing academic, connections and influence were the ultimate currency for Jeffrey Epstein.

Yet none appeared to challenge Epstein over his horrific crimes. If silence is complicity, the casual disdain of the elite circles he moved in spoke volumes.