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British police said they are searching two properties linked toPeter Mandelsonas part of their investigation into misconduct in public office, following revelations about the former UK ambassador to the US' links to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Since the US Justice Department's latest release of materials related to Epstein,Mandelson has been accused of passing on market-sensitive government information that was of clear financial interest to Epstein in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

London's Metropolitan Police said Friday that its officers were carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the southern county of Wiltshire and one in Camden, a neighborhood in the north of the capital.

"The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offenses, involving a 72-year-old man," said Hayley Sewart, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met.

Mandelson, 72, has not been arrested and enquiries are ongoing, she said.

Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party on Sunday and quit the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain's parliament, on Wednesday.

CNN has been unable to contact Mandelson this week.

The Mandelson scandal has plunged Keir Starmer's government into crisis and raised questions about the prime minister's political judgment. Starmer appointed Mandelson as ambassador last year, despite his well-known friendship with Epstein, which continued after the financier was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

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Mandelson has offered scant comment to British media this week. Previously, he has said: "I want to say loudly and clearly that I was wrong to believe (Epstein) following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologize unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered."

Starmer fired Mandelson as ambassador in September, following a previous release of Epstein files which showed that Mandelson had penned a handwritten note for the financier's 50th birthday, describing him as "my best pal." A trove of emails reported by British media at the same time showed that Mandelson said he felt "hopeless and furious" after Epstein's conviction. Mandelson's sacking as ambassador marked the third time he had been removed from a senior role in government due to his ties to wealthy individuals.

The DOJ's latest release of Epstein files revealed that Mandelson – while serving as business secretary in the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown – appeared to leak sensitive UK government information to Epstein as the country considered a raft of policy measures to aid its recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Newly released emails from June 2009 showed that Mandelson forwarded Epstein a memo written for Brown, which advocated £20 billion of asset sales to help relieve Britain's debt burden and revealed Labour's tax policy plans.

Bank statements from the DOJ's latest release also appeared to show that Epstein paid a total of $75,000 into bank accounts linked to Mandelson between 2003 and 2004. Email exchanges also suggested that the financier may have sent £10,000 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, now Mandelson's husband, to help fund his osteopathy course.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Starmer said the revelations about Mandelson were "beyond infuriating" and that the former ambassador had "lied repeatedly" about his relationship with Epstein. "Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament, and our party," he said.

Starmer is under intense pressure to explain what the vetting process uncovered about Mandelson's ties to Epstein before his appointment as ambassador a year ago. Following a public outcry, the government has agreed to release documents surrounding Mandelson's appointment.

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There have been at least 733 confirmed measles cases reported across the nation, thelatest datafrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Friday.

In just a few weeks, the United States reported four times as many cases than typically seen throughout an entire calendar year, the CDC said.

Before last year, which had a record breaking 2,276 cases, the U.S. averaged 180 cases annually since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.

The record numbers come asSouth Carolinais dealing with the largest outbreak recorded in recent memory.

Other states that have reported cases and are dealing with ongoing outbreaks include Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Most of the outbreaks occurring across the country are in pockets of under-vaccinated or unvaccinated communities.

"Because it's such an infectious virus, whenever you see measles outbreaks, it in effect, highlights areas of the country or communities in which vaccination rates are low," Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the former head of the CDC's branch that tracks diseases including measles, told ABC News.

1 year since measles cases found in Texas, US still seeing surge of infections with elimination status at risk

The rate of kindergartners vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has fallen from 95% in 2019 to below 93% in 2025, CDC data shows. Herd immunity, a threshold for vaccination rates that slow a virus' ability to spread, is typically achieved at 95% vaccination rates, public health experts say.

"I think that this highlights that our defenses are down, especially in some parts of the country and in some communities where vaccination rates aren't high enough to stop measles outbreaks in their tracks," Daskalakis said.

Declining vaccination rates have left approximately 300,000 kindergarteners unprotected from measles infection.

The MMR vaccine is given in two doses, the initial shot given after the first year of life and the second shot given after the fourth year of life.

Low vaccination rates in communities may lead to further outbreaks and spread of the virus, potentially even putting those who are vaccinated at risk.

"If you have someone vaccinated for an infection and expose them to enough of that pathogen, you can overwhelm that immunity," Daskalakis said.

"The lowest hanging fruit strategy to end the measles outbreak is to increase rates of vaccination," he added.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. government wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from survivors and relatives of the victims ofMaine's deadliest mass shooting, who say the Army failed them by not intervening before the killings.

Maine Shooting

The familiesallege the government was negligentin failing to act on warning signs displayed by the shooter, an Army reservist.

Eighteen people were killed when the 40-year-old reservist opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston in October 2023. An independent commission appointed by Maine's governor later concluded that there were numerousopportunities for interventionby both Army officials and civilian law enforcement.

In a filing Thursday in Maine federal court, the government urged a judge to toss the lawsuit, saying the court lacks the authority to hear the case and that the families' claims don't meet the legal standard to move forward.

The lawsuit alleges that the Army was negligent when it failed to properly investigate the shooter's mental condition. But the government says the shooter was "solely responsible" for the attack and the government should not be held liable for his actions.

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Attorneys for 100 survivors and victims' family members announced the filing of the lawsuit last year. They thenrefiled their lawsuitin September following a U.S. Department of Defense watchdog report that faulted the Army for a high rate of failure to report violent threats by service members.

"Unfortunately, the government's motion was predictable and expected. The government's motion is a lengthy denial of any legal responsibility for broken promises to protect the community it pledges to defend. We look forward to filing our response," said Travis Brennan and Ben Gideon, attorneys for the families, in a Friday statement.

The lawsuit faults the Army, U.S. Department of Defense and Keller Army Community Hospital for negligence, and names the U.S. government as the defendant. The lawsuit said the defendants failed to "respond to warning signs and an explicit threat to commit a mass shooting" by the shooter, Robert Card.

Card was found dead by suicide two days after the shootings.

The attorneys have said the Army did not act despite being aware of Card'smental health decline. Card's mental health spiral led to his hospitalization and left him paranoid, delusional and expressing homicidal ideations, plaintiffs said. He even produced a "hit list" of those he wanted to attack, they said.

The Lewiston shootings led to new guns laws in Maine, a state with a long tradition of hunting and gun ownership. The laws promptedlegal actionon the part of gun rights advocates in the state and remain a contentious topic more than two years later.

A key participant in the 2012 attackon a U.S. diplomatic missionin the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed four Americans has been handed over to the U.S. to face charges, Justice Department officials said Friday.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Zubayr al-Bakoush landed at Joint Base Andrews at 3 a.m. on Friday and would be tried in federal court in the District of Columbia. Officials didn't say how long he'd been in custody, or where he had been apprehended.

"Al-Bakoush will now face American justice on American soil," Bondi said.

The indictment charged al-Bakoush with crimes including the murders of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and State Department employee Sean Smith, attempted murder of State Department Special Agent Scott Wicklund, and arson, said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

It was unclear if al-Bakoush had an attorney representing him.

The2012 attack on the U.S. compoundbecame an instantly divisive political issue.

Republicans accused President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of failing to protect the Americans and questioned the administration's narrative about how they responded during the 13-hour siege.

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House Republicans launched six investigationsof the Obama administration's handling of the Benghazi attack andaggressively questioned Clintonfor hours.

Democrats accused Republicans of using the inquiry to hurt Clinton's chances at the presidency.

In the end, a GOP-led panelissued an 800-page reportfaulting the Obama administration for not responding faster to the attacks. But the report did not find any wrongdoing by Clinton.

The criminal case against al-Bakoush was first brought during the Obama administration in 2015 and was sealed for more than a decade. It was announced Friday by Bondi, Pirro and FBI Director Kash Patel, who all praised the work of law enforcement agents.

"President Trump is making sure that American justice is coming for those individuals responsible for the deaths of those four Americans," Pirro said.

The United States has not had an embassy in Libya since 2014 due to a chaotic civil war and in the wake of the deadly 2012 attack.

U.S. officials handling diplomacy with Libya have operated from the American embassy in neighboring Tunisia, and Americans are encouraged to avoid travel to Libya.

In March 2024, the Biden administration told Congress it planned to reopen an embassy in Libya in 2025 and requested funding from lawmakers. But the Trump administration has not said what it plans to do in Libya.

British police said they are searching two properties linked toPeter Mandelsonas part of their investigation into misconduct in public office, following revelations about the former UK ambassador to the US' links to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Since the US Justice Department's latest release of materials related to Epstein,Mandelson has been accused of passing on market-sensitive government information that was of clear financial interest to Epstein in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

London's Metropolitan Police said Friday that its officers were carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the southern county of Wiltshire and one in Camden, a neighborhood in the north of the capital.

"The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offenses, involving a 72-year-old man," said Hayley Sewart, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met.

Mandelson, 72, has not been arrested and enquiries are ongoing, she said.

Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party on Sunday and quit the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain's parliament, on Wednesday.

CNN has been unable to contact Mandelson this week.

The Mandelson scandal has plunged Keir Starmer's government into crisis and raised questions about the prime minister's political judgment. Starmer appointed Mandelson as ambassador last year, despite his well-known friendship with Epstein, which continued after the financier was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

Advertisement

Mandelson has offered scant comment to British media this week. Previously, he has said: "I want to say loudly and clearly that I was wrong to believe (Epstein) following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologize unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered."

Starmer fired Mandelson as ambassador in September, following a previous release of Epstein files which showed that Mandelson had penned a handwritten note for the financier's 50th birthday, describing him as "my best pal." A trove of emails reported by British media at the same time showed that Mandelson said he felt "hopeless and furious" after Epstein's conviction. Mandelson's sacking as ambassador marked the third time he had been removed from a senior role in government due to his ties to wealthy individuals.

The DOJ's latest release of Epstein files revealed that Mandelson – while serving as business secretary in the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown – appeared to leak sensitive UK government information to Epstein as the country considered a raft of policy measures to aid its recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Newly released emails from June 2009 showed that Mandelson forwarded Epstein a memo written for Brown, which advocated £20 billion of asset sales to help relieve Britain's debt burden and revealed Labour's tax policy plans.

Bank statements from the DOJ's latest release also appeared to show that Epstein paid a total of $75,000 into bank accounts linked to Mandelson between 2003 and 2004. Email exchanges also suggested that the financier may have sent £10,000 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, now Mandelson's husband, to help fund his osteopathy course.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Starmer said the revelations about Mandelson were "beyond infuriating" and that the former ambassador had "lied repeatedly" about his relationship with Epstein. "Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament, and our party," he said.

Starmer is under intense pressure to explain what the vetting process uncovered about Mandelson's ties to Epstein before his appointment as ambassador a year ago. Following a public outcry, the government has agreed to release documents surrounding Mandelson's appointment.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com