Prince Andrew has been arrested for passing documents to Jeffrey Epstein.

 

Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. BBC. 

Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested for passing documents to Jeffrey Epstein. BBC. Andrew, who had his titles revoked for his association with Epstein and allegations of sexual abuse, was not charged for sex crimes, but arrested for abuse of office. Under UK laws, police are allowed to arrest suspects before formal charges have been filed. Files released from the FBI's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein showed that Andrew had passed on information on state visits and investment opportunities while performing his role as the UK's trade envoy. Andrew was accused by Virginia Giuffre, who died in 2025, of sexual assault, but settled those allegations out of court. 

My Comment:

A quick note on criminal justice in the UK. Unlike the United States, police in the UK can arrest and hold people before formal charges while an investigation is still ongoing. Obviously, this is not how it works in the United States, and it is very possible, though unlikely, that Andrew could still avoid charges. 

With that being said, the facts of this case does not seem to be in dispute. Andrew, in the role as trade delegate, passed information onto Epstein, information that Epstein had no right to. I don't think anyone has denied that Andrew passed these documents to Epstein and there really wasn't any reason for him to do so. 

But the case might not be as open and shut as we think. Andrew does have the defense that these documents weren't technically classified and sending them to Epstein wasn't damaging. Without a full review of those documents, I am not sure if that is a correct reading or not, but right now the chances of acquittal are not zero, along with the fact that he might not even be formally charged at all. 

Greatly complicating things is the fact that a lot of people that could potentially serve on his Jury are going to be very aware of the other accusations against him. Epstein was credibly accused of sexual misconduct by two separate people, an anonymous 22 year old woman and Virginia Giuffre. Andrew probably should have been charged in both cases, but was not (and will not in Giuffre's case after her death last year). Though Andrew is likely to get a fair trial and media coverage will be limited in the UK at least, I can't help but to think that the jury will convict if this ever goes to trial for that reason alone. 

Of course, it's very possible and even likely that Andrew will plead guilty. Plea deals work differently in the UK, but he would be able to cut quite a bit of his time off simply by pleading guilty at the first opportunity. Doing so would make this case go away and it is probably the most likely and welcome outcome for Andrew. The general public would not like it though, and would perceive any deal as favoritism, even though Andrew is obviously in the outs with the Royal Family. 

I had said for awhile that it was pretty likely that this arrest, along with a possible one of Lord Mandelson who also passed documents to Epstein and even collected money from him, were going to be the only ones we see as a result of the Epstein files. Though the demand for scalps for sexual crimes is high, the evidence just isn't there. Very few of Epstein's victims named names and many of them are not reliable themselves, including the late Virginia Giuffre. She did name names but ended up having to settle with Alan Dershowitz for defamation when she accused him of misconduct. Not to mention, many of the players are dead, with Epstein and Jean-Luc Brunel dying in prison and Bill Richardson and Marvin Minsky dying of natural causes. Not to mention Giuffre herself. 

The UK cases though are a lot easier to prosecute. There isn't any he-said she-said uncertainty here and there is likely to be physical evidence. Even if no new evidence is discovered, the evidence is solid. The emails are real and aren't really in dispute. The main questions are going to be if it meets the standards of the Misconduct in Public Office crime, not if he actually sent the information. 

Will this cause the Epstein issue to go away in the United States or get worse? I am not sure. Prince Andrew was the most high profile person in the entire Epstein scandal that was actually credibly accused of misconduct (Obviously Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were higher profile, but neither of them have any credible accusations against them). Arresting him will be seen as a victory. 

On the other hand, many of the folks out there have legitimately gone insane over the Epstein issue. I had one person threaten to throw me into a woodchipper on social media the other day after I said we shouldn't execute people without evidence. These are no longer rational people and they won't be satisfied by anything other than seeing whoever they hate the most getting lynched, regardless of what the evidence actually shows. I don't think there is any hope for these people, but they are thankfully a small minority. 

Regardless, I am glad to see Andrew crash and burn. Even if he somehow avoids getting charged and imprisoned, his reputation has been destroyed. I have always believed that the sexual misconduct accusations against him were among the most convincing in the Epstein case and I have little doubt he is guilty of them. I also believe he was guilty of passing documents to Epstein as well and I am happy he is going to face justice. 

The United States is planning a new website that will allow Europeans and others to view content their governments have banned.

 

Street art in London. Reuters. 

The United States is planning a new website that will allow Europeans and others to view content their governments have banned. Reuters. The website will be hosted at freedom.gov and is seen as a direct shot across the bow to Europe's failures to protect free speech. The website was supposed to have been released already but has been delayed for unknown reasons. America's laws on free speech are very different than most of Europe, where there is no equivalent to the 1st amendment. Europe has been criticized by the Trump administration for censoring right wing speech, along with countries like Brazil, where similar restrictions are in place. Europe has also attacked and fined US based websites, like X/Twitter. 

My Comment:

There is an element of hypocrisy here. Though clearly better than the Biden administration or even the most lenient European government, the Trump administration has their own problems with free speech. I am not really talking about their banning of foreigners tat take anti-American stances, that's just common sense. 

But I have been extremely critical of some of the things that the GOP is doing when it comes to free speech, most notably the Take it Down act and various state age verification schemes. DeepFakes may not be politically popular but they can clearly be used for speech an any actual misuse of them is already covered under our harassment and libel/slander laws. And age verification is obviously horrible as it's the government putting a chilling effect on behavior they don't agree with. 

With that being said, things are clearly worse in Europe than they are here in the United States. Here you can generally say whatever you want as long as it's not a direct incitement to violence. And, we have seen with the anti-ICE nonsense coming from the left, sometimes even that is allowed. There are no laws against advocating for restricting immigration or saying scientifically true but politically unpopular things (like any discussion about race and IQ). You can still be punished by private actors for these stances, which is a major free speech concern, but the government mostly can't touch you, especially with the Democrats out of office. 

I do think that pushing back against Europe's tyranny on free speech is long overdue. I am of the view that the 1st amendment doesn't actually grant free speech rights, those rights are inherent to being human and any law that restricts that is null and void. America has our own problems with this, but the idea that people can be arrested just for being opposed to immigration from the Muslim world is just totally unacceptable. 

It also makes very little sense to be allied with people that don't respect our beliefs and priorities. How can we be defending Europe from tyranny when they are already tyrannical? It's a major reason I was never on Europe's side during the Ukraine War. Russia is certainly no free speech hub, but it's not really any worse than Europe at this point. I'd add that we should be criticizing Europe's gun laws just as much, but time will tell if that ever comes up. 

As for the impact of the website itself, I am guessing it is mostly going to be symbolic. The people that care to subvert Europe's speech restrictions are using things like the Tor browser and VPN's to bypass their speech laws anyways. They are able to see much of the same content Americans are by using these tools, and I encourage them to do so. It will be nice to have an archive of things that Europe is trying to delete, but the practical effects are probably not going to be that useful. 

However, this is a major message to Europe that we are sick of their nonsense. It's especially bad coming from lame duck leadership like we have in France and the UK. Given that Europe has launched their own shots across our bows, most notably trying to fine X for allowing free speech for the most part, it was long overdo. I do hope that this website is released soon. 

Transgender man shoots family members at hocky game in Rhode Island.

 

Robert Dorgan shortly before the attack. Fox News/social media photo. 

A transgender man carried out a mass shooting targeting his family at a Rhode Island hocky game in Pawtucket. Fox News. Robert Dorgan, a 56 year old man who was living as a woman and called himself Roberta Esposito, shot and killed his wife and son and wounded his in-laws along with a family friend. Other people in the stands attempted to stop the attacker and were able to disarm him of his primary weapon, but he was able to pull a second handgun and ended his own life. His transgender identity had led to conflict with his family, though no motive has been released from his crime. 

My Comment:

This attack occurred yesterday but details broke before I could write anything up. It's a very strange case and one that does not make much sense. Indeed, the impossible has happened and Robert Dorgan's account on x/Twitter, remains up as of this writing. Why this has happened is beyond me, but it has been a boon to anyone investigating this case.  

Much like the last case of transgender mass violence, Dorgan appears to have been on the far right. And this time it's pretty clear that he was an actual Nazi. Dorgan had Nazi tattoos, including the SS symbol and the Totenkopf, the death's head skull. And his X account is pretty clearly racist to the point where it's not really deniable. This is absolutely not a case of the media claiming anyone to the right of AOC is a Nazi, this guy is one for sure. 

X has been pretty enlightening for this case as his posts remain up and it certainly paints a picture. Dorgan was a rare transgender Nazi and he was regularly interacting with accounts like Nicholas Fuentes. And the man regularly spent time trolling people on the website and there were a lot of big conservative accounts that report that they had blocked him or were blocked by him. He does seem like he was someone that was "extremely online". 

I do think his transgender identity was the cause of this issue. Turning himself into a woman was not something his wife would tolerate and that isn't a surprise. Anyone who would marry a man with actual Nazi tattoos would probably not be on board with the whole "changing gender" things. It apparently led to massive trouble in his marriage and that is probably what caused him to carry out this crime, not his politics. Had he not tried to change genders, well, he wouldn't have been a good person, but I doubt this shooting would have happened. 

He does seem to have been making threats on social media, along with his racist actions. Indeed, one of his last tweets was him saying misgendering people cause them to "go berserk" to Alex Jones and Kevin Sorbo (yes the Hercules guy). He also seems to have been pretty deeply into the more deranged people on the internet talking about Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that there were elite cannibals and retweeting people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie. In short, he as pretty radical. 

It does fit the pattern for these transgender attackers. They change their gender and then get wrapped up in extreme politics (or vise versa). The actual ideology doesn't seem to matter, the last two shooters including Dorgan were on the right, but Audrey Hale and Robert Westman were on the right. And the Zizians? They were radicalized vegans and rationalists! But it does seem to fit a pattern where non-political transgender people aren't doing these kinds of things. 

With that said, I do appreciate the heroism of the people that tried to stop Dorgan. Though this appears to be a targeted attack, Dorgan probably could have killed more members of his family if it wasn't for the fact that people tried to fight back. And that's despite the fact that not only was he armed, he was fairly well built for a transgender person (or any person for that matter).  

Finally, I still can't really get over the idea that this guy was a transgender Nazi. Whatever you think about either group, you pretty much have to agree that the two ideologies are not at all compatible. It's little wonder that this guy ended up committing violence, his entire life was a huge contradiction. 

A homicide committed by antifa in France has brought serious consequences for the far left.

 

A tribute for Quentin Deranque. BBC/AFP/Getty. 

A homicide committed by an antifa group in Lyon France has brought serious consequences for the Far Left. BBC. Quentin Deranque, a 23 year old nationalist activist was providing unofficial security for a nationalist feminist group called Nemesis when he was attacked by the antifa group La Jeune Garde (Young Guard). He and two of his comrades were attacked by the group and Deranque was seen laying on the ground and getting kicked in the head. He had been able to get up but later died due to brain and skull injuries. His death has become a rallying cry for the right in France who consider him a martyr and even centrist President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the attack. 

🔴 Mort de Quentin Deranque : la victime a été frappée par au moins 6 individus recherchés. Le jeune militant nationaliste de 23 ans est décédé d'un traumatisme crânien majeur. Une enquête pour homicide volontaire a été ouverte. #JT20h pic.twitter.com/5SMS3ETyLr

— Le20h-France Télévisions (@le20hfrancetele) February 16, 2026

My Comment:

 Some notes on the context of this attack. It's not a mistake when I wrote that the Nemesis group is both right wing and feminist. That would be unheard of in an American context, but it's a real thing in Europe, and for good reason. Some feminists in Europe believe that Islam, an obviously male-dominated religion, is a huge threat to women, and it's hard to argue otherwise. Indeed, given how many Muslims treat women, I think we would see the same thing in the United States if we has similar levels of immigration, legal or otherwise, from Muslim countries (or India for that matter). 

Regardless, this was a pretty obvious consequence of not having enough security for this event. Deranque was trying to protect the Nemesis protesters from antifa but was unable to do so. What should have happened is that once the skirmish began, police should have broken it up. But from what I have seen the cops weren't even there. 

And this incident also shows how dangerous these kinds of street fights are. Deranque was already on the ground when the antifa attacked him by kicking him in the head. It's little wonder why he died, getting kicked in the head is a great way to damage your brain, though it's unclear if that was the only cause of his death. Regardless, it's a pretty good argument for why even a fistfight can result in a death.

I also think that this is going to be the last straw for antifa in France. Supposedly the Young Guards is already a banned organization and I can't imagine that changing now. They murdered Deranque in cold blood for no reason whatsoever. The answer for a couple of women protesting a speaker they didn't like because they are Muslim is a peaceful counterprotest, not a physical attack on a young man that wanted to protect the woman from being attacked themselves.

But antifa doesn't believe in peaceful protest. They think that their enemies are fascist (an in the vast majority of cases, they are not) so that justifies anything you can do against them, including murder. It's honestly surprising that there aren't more antifa inspired murders, but that may be because they focus on street fights like this. 

As for France itself, this is going to have an obvious impact on municipal elections next month, especially in Lyon. With Macron being a lame duck and the far right already ascending, it's going to be even more popular now. Given that the victim in this case was pretty sympathetic (he was defending women) and the attackers are not (they were attacking women and literally kicked a man while he was already down) I would not be surprised if the far right cleans up in the next elections. 

Iran signals cooperation with the United States as a new meeting looms.

 

Iranians celebrating the Islamic Revolution. New York Post/Reuters.

Iran has signaled cooperation with the United States as a new meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. New York Post. An Iranian foreign policy official, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, said that Iran was willing to offer lucrative deals to the United States on energy, mining and even airplane purchases. They have also offered to dilute the enriched uranium they possess, but stopped short of saying Iran will possess no enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be used to produce a nuclear weapon. Though major talks are underway, President Trump has ordered significant forces, including two carrier strike groups, to the region should the talks fail. 

My Comment:

I have said for awhile that Iran is in a very bad position. To recap, Iran was utterly defeated in their war against Israel to the point where they don't have much in the way of air defenses left. Their Air Force wouldn't be able to contest an attack and they would also have very little in the way anti-air missiles either. There is very little the Iranians could do to contest an air war against the United States. Keep in mind it only took a few B-2 bombers to destroy their nuclear program. 

And that's not even considering their major stability problems. They just had one of the largest protest movements the country has ever dealt with and the cause was their massive economic problems. They have had major issues with their economy, including hyperinflation and even a water shortage in Tehran. In short, their country is a basket case and they have a major incentive to cut a deal to get sanctions taken down. 

The problem is that I don't see the Trump administration settling for anything other than full compliance with their demands for their nuclear program. If they get rid of it everything would be fine, but Iran keeps saying they need to keep enriched uranium. They say it's for energy production, which makes little sense in a country with massive stockpiles of fossil fuels. But as long as they have uranium it could very well be used for a nuclear weapon and that won't be tolerated. 

Iran is, of course, smart to offer economic concessions to the United States. A major deal would have benefits if we can get cheap oil, cheap minerals and sell our expensive airplanes to Iran. It would obviously be a win-win situation. Iran would be able to stabilize their economy, and America would get a major economic boost as well. 

So will a deal be made? I think it's pretty likely. Iran knows how bad their position is and these signals are a very good sign that they want to make a deal. President Trump, of course, wants to make a deal too, it's what motivates his every action. Both sides understand that they would be better off if they make one, so it's just the Uranium enrichment that is going to be a sticking point. If they can somehow get passed that then a deal will happen.