EUROPE

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Tesla’s UK subsidiary has been convicted at least 18 times and fined over £20,000 for failing to cooperate with British police in traffic offense investigations. Over the past two years, the electric car manufacturer has faced multiple criminal proceedings for neglecting to identify drivers of its leased vehicles caught speeding or committing other road offenses. Under UK law, as the registered keeper of these leased cars, Tesla is required to provide driver details to authorities or face prosecution and fines themselves.

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has issued a public apology to victims of Jeffrey Epstein while facing mounting political pressure over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as the United Kingdom's ambassador to the United States. The apology follows renewed scrutiny after documents highlighted Mandelson's past links to Epstein and triggered criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum.

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A former prison officer has been jailed after engaging in illicit relationships with two inmates and conspiring to smuggle drug-soaked envelopes into a Kent jail.

Isabelle Dale, 23, became romantically involved with prisoners Shahid Sharif and Connor Money while working at HMP Coldingley in Surrey. Judge Christopher Hehir said Dale had been “swearing them undying love, saying she wanted to be with both of them on the outside,” and accused her of using her vulnerabilities as “a shield and an excuse” for her actions.

Dale was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to three and a half years in prison for two counts of misconduct in a public office between September 2021 and December 2022, and one count of conspiring to convey a List A article into prison. Sharif, currently held at HMP Wandsworth, and co-conspirator Lilea Sallis were also jailed for the smuggling plot.

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The eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit will go on trial Tuesday on multiple charges including rape in a high-profile case that has been an embarrassment to the royal family, just as his mother said that she showed “poor judgment” in having contact with Jeffrey Epstein in the past.

Marius Borg Høiby is facing the Oslo district court after being indicted in August following a lengthy investigation. The indictment includes 38 counts, including rape, abuse in a close relationship against one former partner, acts of violence against another and transporting 3.5 kilos (7.7 pounds) of marijuana. Other charges include making death threats and traffic violations.

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Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin on Wednesday announced a plan to deploy 5,408 satellites in space for a communications network, “TeraWave,” that will serve data

centers, governments and businesses, jumping into a satellite constellation market dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX. Deployment of satellites is planned to begin in the last quarter of 2027, Blue Origin said, adding the network is designed to have "data speeds of up to 6 Tbps anywhere on Earth.”

That speed, possible with the satellites' planned optical communications, is extreme by consumer standards and would make the network key for data processing and large-scale government programs.

Blue Origin said the network is meant to serve a maximum of roughly 100,000 customers.

The reveal of TeraWave coincides with a space industry rush to build data centers in space that can meet the soaring demand for large-scale AI data processing, which on Earth requires immense energy and resources as adoption of the technology expands.

The planned network adds another satellite constellation linked to Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon which is in an early phase of deploying Leo - a network formerly called Project Kuiper involving 3,200 satellites providing internet to consumers and businesses.

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The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a series of advertisements from Coinbase, ruling that they irresponsibly suggested cryptocurrency could alleviate cost-of-living pressures. The watchdog upheld complaints regarding an August campaign that featured images of the UK in disrepair alongside satirical slogans and the exchange’s logo. The ASA concluded that the ads "trivialized the risks" of the crypto market, which remains largely unregulated in the United Kingdom.

Coinbase said it disagreed with the watchdog's decision.

"While we respect the ASA's decision, we fundamentally disagree with the characterisation of a campaign that critically reflects widely reported economic conditions as socially irresponsible," it said in a statement.

"The advert was intended to provoke discussion about the state of the financial system and the need to consider better futures, not to offer simplistic solutions or minimise risk."

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The Great British Bake Off is preparing a new recipe.

Prue Leith, who has served as a judge alongside Paul Hollywood since the show's move to Channel 4 from the BBC in 2017, has announced her departure from the series after nine seasons and 400 challenges.

"Bake Off has been a fabulous part of my life," she wrote in her Jan. 21 Instagram post, noting that she will miss working with Paul, Alison Hammond, and Noel Fielding. "But now feels like the right time to step back (I'm 86, for goodness' sake!), there's so much I'd like to do, not least spend summers enjoying my garden."