The Week News Desk – Feb 9, 2026
The absence of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, from an important state event has triggered speculations about his health and safety.
According to reports, the Air Force Day celebrations in Iran were held on Sunday, where the commanders of Iran’s Air Force and Air Defence met with Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s not holding the annual meet is unprecedented, with some reports saying it is for the first time in 37 years.
During the previous years, it was customary to mark the anniversary with a meeting with him, even during the Covid. This is a dramatic change in protocol, as the event has always been noted as one of Khamenei’s most symbolic and important meetings with the security forces, and state media did not provide any explanation for the departure from the practice. So far, no official announcement has been made about a change in the leader’s schedule or any other reason that prevented his participation.
The meeting was attended by senior commanders, officers and personnel from the Air Force and the Air Defense Directorate, as well as other senior figures in the Iranian military, including the army commander and the head of Khamenei’s military bureau.
That said, Israeli media have speculated that Khamenei is hiding somewhere, fearing a US attack amid the protests. Some also fear that the Iranian regime is worried about external intelligence operators who may have penetrated deep into the corridors of power in Tehran.
Earlier, there were reports that Khamenei had moved into a fortified underground shelter in Tehran after senior military and security officials assessed a heightened risk of a potential US attack. According to Iran International, the protected facility to which Khamenei was transferred is “a fortified site with connected tunnels.
There are also information indicating that Massoud Khamenei, the third son of the Supreme Leader, has taken over the day-to-day management of the Leader’s Office, and serves as the main channel of communication with the executive bodies of the government.
King ‘concerned’ over claim Andrew gave Epstein spy ring confidential reports
Story by Holly Evans • 24
The King has made clear his “profound concern” at allegations over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct and will “stand ready to support” the police if approached over the claims, Buckingham Palace said.
( a bit late in the day)
Thames Valley Police has said it is assessing claims that Andrew shared secret info during his role as trade envoy with the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew himself abused underage girls its being said
The crisis has engulfed both the monarchy and Westminster and shows little sign of abating since the US authorities’ recent release of millions of documents associated with the Epstein spy ring
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct. The King has made clear his “profound concern” at allegations over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct and will “stand ready to support” the police if approached over the claims, Buckingham Palace said.
Thames Valley Police has said it is assessing claims that Andrew shared confidential reports during his role as trade envoy with the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince andrew is innocent of pedophila charges said his girl freind age 10
In the US the same actions are called Continuity of Government ffs. When he flees the country like Netanyahu tends to, or he claims he’s got bone spurs like Trump did five times, then they can try to convince me Khomeini’s a coward, but even then it makes sense for any targeted leader not to leave himself exposed to the US and Israeli mass killers who became infamous for lure and murder.
Jeffrey Epstein was a spy for Mossad? Files show FBI source was convinced
Story by Kathrine Frich • 20m
Jeffrey Epstein was a spy for Mossad? Files show FBI knew it
Story by Kathrine Frich • 20m •The documents have renewed debate over whether Epstein’s global connections were for something very secretive.
Renewed speculation
Messages released by the US Department of Justice have prompted renewed claims that Epstein worked for Israel’s foreign intelligence service, Mossad, according to reporting by The Times, for blackmail purposes
The allegations have circulated for years in US media circles and gained wider attention after being promoted by commentators such as Tucker Carlson.
The new documents include claims from a confidential FBI informants who alleged Epstein had intelligence connections.
Among the released material are messages between Epstein and author Deepak Chopra, who invited Epstein to visit Israel in 2017.
Several British MPs have been named as part of the spy ring Peter mandelson wes Streeting Ed Milliband Kier Starmer
all part of a jewish ring working against the UK
Only problem is, Khamenei is Donmeh playing out his scripted role in the upcoming staged ‘war’.
The stench of espionage around the Epstein files points to how intelligence and influence interact
Story by Robert Dover, Professor of Intelligence and National Security & Dean of Faculty, University of Hull
For obvious reasons, the secretive world of intelligence agencies and the people who revolve in its orbit remains opaque.
So much so, that some of those people may not even be aware of their treachury and involvement in the secret world.
The Epstein papers have thrown up speculation about how much the late financier and sex offender had performed services for the Mossad intelligence agency. And in the wake of that speculation, it has been noted that the father of Epstein’s one-time girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was the late Robert Maxwell, well-known as a larger than life publisher and newspaper proprietor in the UK from the 1950s to the early 90s. He, too, was involved in intelligence work.
Epstein is now better known for his child sex trafficking network and Maxwell for stealing from his employees’ pension funds. But their examples point to how intelligence, high finance and influence work.
Generally speaking there are three main classes of people involved in state intelligence gathering. “Officers” are full-time employees of state intelligence agencies such as MI6. They run their groups of “agents”, who are not formally employed by the state but who deliberately and knowingly gather intelligence and perform tasks for intelligence officers. And there are what is known as “intelligencers” (or sometimes assets) who may not even know they are providing information to a spy agency.
The currency of human intelligence is access, knowledge and often the ability to compromise officials and influential people
Epstiens spy ring was a handful of influential jews pulling strings on government policy, it helped that Kier Stramer was one of them
We often think that intelligence agencies and their agent runners seek to directly recruit people with the access and motivation to pass on state secrets. While this is undeniably the case – and the examples of the American Aldrich Ames and the Briton Melita Norwood provide good evidence of this – intelligence agencies are equally interested in recruiting what’s known as “access agents” .The value of an access agent is not the secrets they have access to, but the social and professional access they provide to people who do. People in high-end society, scientific research, banking, politics and culture make excellent targets for access agents. And from an agency’s point of view, the best thing is that these agents are deniable and under the radar.
Intelligence officers and their operatives require funding, mobility and a credible back story (known as a legend). Businessmen like Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein had plenty of all three, making them excellent candidates to theoretically serve the needs of israeli intelligence.
But rather than indulging in speculation about Epstein and Maxwell, which is unlikely ever to be conclusively confirmed or denied, it’s more instructive to look at what we know about access agents. They are often business people, sometimes academics or journalists with a reason to travel and the opportunity to meet people in influential circles in the course of their legitimate business.
Brutal polling for Keir Starmer as majority of voters now say he must quit over Epstein Mandelson Streeting Zack Polansky Prince Andrew spy ring
Every mossad agent should be rounded up and prosecuted