Thousands of files relating to Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, were made public late on Friday - but only a fraction of them have been released so far, with many heavily redacted.
'Nothing transparent about release'
Marina Lacerda, a Brazilian-born survivor who suffered sexual abuse by Epstein as a teenager, expressed her disappointment over the incomplete release, calling it "a slap in our faces".
"We were all excited yesterday before the files came out," she told Sky News presenter Anna Botting.
"And when they did come out, we were just in shock, and we see that there is nothing there that is transparent. So it's very sad, it's very disappointing."
Ms Lacera said she had just turned 14 when she met Epstein before "our relationship, our friendship I should say" ended when she was 17.
"At that point, he had made it very clear to me that I was old, that I was no longer fun for him. So, he booted me out, and I was no longer needed for him," she said.
Epstein files - latest updates
The Department of Justice (DoJ) suggests that 1,200 victims and their families have effectively been shielded from view in the released documents.
Ms Lacera said: "From what I know, [the number of Epstein victims] is over a thousand, but that's just what the DoJ can collect or the FBI can collect, but I presume there may be more than that."
'No way it's not a cover-up'
Ashley Rubright met the late sex offender when she was just 15 in Palm Beach and was subject to abuse over several years.
Asked about her dissatisfaction with yesterday's government release and if there was a sense of a cover-up operation, she noted that there had been knowledge of Epstein's crimes "for so, so long".
"There's no way that there's not a cover-up - what it is, I don't know," she told Sky News' US correspondent James Matthews.
"I just hope that nobody's allowed to fly under the radar with their involvement."
Regarding the extent of the redactions, she said: "I'm so not shocked, but let down. Disappointed.
"Seeing [...] completely redacted pages, there's no way that that's just to protect the victims' identities, and there better be a good reason. I just don't know if we'll ever know what that is.
"We've been left behind since day one. That's why I think we're all fighting so loud now, because we're tired of it."
'He wanted to man-handle me'
Another survivor, Alicia Arden, told Sky News that she met Epstein in a California hotel room in 1997 for an audition, when she was a 25-year-old model and actress.
"He let me in and he started looking over my portfolio, which is customary to do in a talent audition, and then he insinuated, 'oh, you should come closer to me and let me see your body'," she said.
Epstein then started "taking off my top and my pants and touching my rear end and my breasts".
"He goes, 'let me come over here and spin for me and let me man-handle you. Let me man-handle you.' And I got very nervous and started to cry. I said, 'I have to go, Jeffrey. I don't really think this is gonna work out'," Ms Arden said.
"He got a phone call and I was crying in front of him. And he said, 'I have this beautiful girl in front of me and she's very upset'. I said 'I'm gonna leave' and he offered me $100 and I said 'I'm not a prostitute'."
She said she went to the Santa Monica Police Department to file a report.
"That was as difficult, and I'm like shaking telling you, but as difficult as being in the hotel room with him because they weren't supportive at all about it," she said. Her redacted report was included in previous files.
'Epstein was a monster'
Asked what she thought about Epstein now, she said: "He's a monster [...] and just horrible. I mean, I'm trembling thinking about him and talking about him.
"If I could do anything, I'm happy I got the police report filed. If they would have pursued him and maybe gone over the hotel [where he was] essentially living, then I could have maybe saved the girls. I've always thought that."
Ms Arden does not believe she has seen justice as one of Epstein's victims.
"I want to see all of the files come out. I want all of the men in there or women that were trafficking these girls, and they shouldn't be able to walk around free and not pay for if they did something," she said.
"They should be actually arrested if they're in the files and it's proven that they did horrible things to these girls, and they should lose their jobs, their lives, their homes, their money, and pay for what they did, and it was all supposed to come out, and it hasn't."
'I feel redeemed' by file release
Maria Farmer, who made a complaint to the Miami FBI in 1996 in which she alleged that Epstein stole and sold photos she had taken of her 12- and 16-year-old sisters, expressed gratitude for the release of the files.
"This is amazing. Thank you for believing me. I feel redeemed. This is one of the best days of my life," she said in a statement through her lawyers.
"I'm crying for two reasons. I want everyone to know that I am shedding tears of joy for myself, but also tears of sorrow for all the other victims that the FBI failed."
A positive-leaning reaction also came from Dani Bensky, who said she was sexually abused by Epstein when she was 17 years old.
She told Sky News' US partner network NBC News: "There is part of me that feels a bit validated at this moment, because I think so many of us have been saying, 'No, this is real, like, we're not a hoax'.
"There's so much information, and yet not as much as we may have wanted to see."
'It is not over'
Lawyer Gloria Allred, who has represented several Epstein victims, told Sky News about the partial release on Friday: "It's very disappointing that all of the files were not released yesterday as required and, in fact, mandated by law.
"The law didn't say they could do this over a period of time, it didn't say that weeks could go by."
Deputy attorney general Mr Blanche said additional file disclosures can be expected by the end of the year.
"But that's not what the law says. So clearly, the law has been violated. And it's the Department of Justice letting down the survivors once again," Ms Allred said.
The lawyer labelled the incomplete release of the files a "distraction", adding: "This is not over, and it won't be over until we get the truth and transparency for the survivors."
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'Only redactions required by law'
The tranche of material was released just hours before a legal deadline in the US following the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act - and at the same time as a US strike targeting Islamic State fighters in Syria.
The US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the justice department was continuing to review the remaining files and was withholding some documents under exemptions meant to protect the victims.
But Sky News' James Matthews said the significance of the files "is undermined by the lack of context", while some Democrats and Republicans criticised the partial release as failing to "comply with law".
Meanwhile, the justice department has defended the redactions made in the released files.
"The only redactions being applied to the documents are those required by law - full stop. Consistent with the statute and applicable laws, we are not redacting the names of individuals or politicians unless they are a victim," it quoted deputy attorney general Mr Blanche in a post on X.
The Trump administration has claimed to be the most transparent in history.
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In a statement, the White House claimed the release also demonstrated its commitment to justice for Epstein's victims, criticising previous Democratic administrations for not doing the same.
But that statement ignored that the disclosures only happened because Congress forced the administration's hand with a bill demanding the release, after Trump officials declared earlier this year that no more Epstein files would be made public.
Secretary Kristi Noem of the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the operation on X, saying the oil tanker had last docked in Venezuela.
She posted: "The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you."
In footage shared by Ms Noem of the raid, a helicopter can be seen landing on the deck of the ship ahead of the seizure.
The vessel is believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries, according to the maritime risk management company Vanguard.
The oil tanker, which was recently spotted near the Venezuelan coast, was seized east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the raid was a "consented boarding," with the tanker stopping voluntarily to allowing American forces aboard.
It's understood that the operation was led by the Coast Guard with the US military providing helicopter support.
The US has already seized a sanctioned oil tanker, called Skipper, off the coast of Venezuela last week.
But Centuries has not been sanctioned by the US, according to Jeremy Paner, a partner at Hughes Hubbard law firm in Washington DC, and former investigator at the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
"The seizure of a vessel that is not sanctioned by the US marks a further increase in Trump's pressure on Venezuela," he said.
"It also runs counter to Trump's statement that the US would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers."
The ship, which was bound for China with some 1.8 million barrels of oil, loaded in Venezuela under the false name Crag, Reuters news agency reported, citing internal documents from Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA.
It departed the country on Wednesday and was briefly escorted by the Venezuelan navy, according to TankerTrackers.com.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of neighbouring Brazil has since cautioned the US against an "armed intervention" in Venezuela.
During a summit of the South American Mercosur bloc, he said: "Armed intervention in Venezuela would be a humanitarian catastrophe."
He also referred to the 1982 Falklands War between Britain and Argentina, and said "the South American continent is once again haunted by the military presence of an extra-regional power".
If the US did intervene, he said, it would set a "dangerous precedent for the world".
In recent weeks there has been a steady build up of US forces in the region, effectively placing Venezuela under embargo.
"Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America," US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.
"It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before."
In his post on social media, the president also branded the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as "illegitimate" and a "foreign terrorist organisation".
He continued: "Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela."
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Since the Skipper was seized, vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil have been staying put in Venezuelan waters, fearing that the US will intercept them.
Some of these are considered to be part of a "shadow fleet" - vessels that use concealing tactics to transport goods for sanctioned countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.
More than 70 oil tankers in Venezuelan waters this week are part of the so-called shadow fleet, with some 38 sanctioned by the US Treasury, according to data from TankerTrackers.com.
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President Trump has been ramping up pressure on the Maduro regime, accusing it of involvement in the drugs trade.
As part of his efforts, he has also authorised deadly strikes against vessels he claims are trafficking drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
President Maduro claims Mr Trump is trying to overthrow him with a view to seizing Venezuela's oil reserves.
It is of a robust young police officer, sometimes in uniform, sometimes on his motorbike - Master Sergeant Ran "Rani" Gvili, 24 years old on 7 October, his body still somewhere in Gaza.
"Everyone knows Rani now, because he's the last person, the last hostage," his parents, Talik and Itzik Gvili, tell me in their home in Meitar. "He came to save Israel, so Israel must save him."
Progression into phase two of the ceasefire hinges on the return of his body. Hamas says it does not know where it is, that the scale of killing as a result of Israel's bombardment makes tracing his original captors and those who might know the location of his body extremely difficult.
The hunt is ongoing, complicated by recent storms. Footage from early December of a search convoy accompanied by the International Red Cross, picking its way through a wasteland of rubble and destruction, testifies to the potential problems.
"Hamas is a monster. He knows exactly where my son is. And we will finish Hamas if they don't give us Rani," says his mother, Talik.
"The only cards they have, it's Rani. And now they think they can play with these cards because it's very valuable."
There is a bleak precedent. The body of 23-year-old IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, killed in Gaza in 2014, was only returned to Israel last month after an 11-year wait.
But if Ran's body is indeed Hamas's final trump card, then the pressure this time, with US President Donald Trump heavily invested in the success of the peace plan, is that bit more intense.
"We'll get him out," Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference with the German chancellor earlier this month. He is due to meet Mr Trump at the White House on 29 December to discuss the ceasefire's next phase.
The return of Ran's body is the first hurdle. Phase two is then meant to see Hamas disarmed, an International Stabilisation Force in place in the Gaza Strip and the beginnings at least of Palestinian-led governance.
With Hamas refusing to do much more than potentially store or freeze its weapons and international partners reluctant to commit troops, which might be forced to take on Hamas, the complications are legion.
Mr Trump is expected to have stern words for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too, after Israel assassinated top Hamas commander Raed Saad in an airstrike last Saturday. The US president has said he is looking into whether it constitutes a breach of the ceasefire.
Hamas accuses Israel of numerous violations, with around 400 killed since it went into effect on 10 October, the Rafah crossing still shut and insufficient aid coming into the Strip. Israel says it killed Saad in retaliation for an attack on IDF forces a day earlier.
Ran was on sick leave with a broken shoulder the morning of 7 October, recovering from an accident on his motorbike.
"How do you think you can go with a broken shoulder?" his father, Itzik, had asked him, but he says he had refused to be put off. "You cannot stop him - he's a very, very, strong person, physically and emotionally."
Ran was shot in the leg in a firefight with Hamas outside Kibbutz Alumim and taken from there into Gaza.
Residents of the kibbutz call him the "shield of Alumim" and credit him and his team with protecting them from the kind of casualties suffered at the neighbouring kibbutzim, though Alumim was by no means left unscathed.
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Twenty-two agricultural workers from Nepal and Thailand were murdered by Hamas militants who broke into the kibbutz from the west, with two more foreign workers taken hostage into Gaza. In total, 55 people were killed around the kibbutz, many of whom, like Ran, had come to see how they could help.
"It's an extremely difficult situation, the feeling that once again Hamas has hold of a body which people might say doesn't matter, but a body is so critical and vital to the family. It's closure. If you don't get your loved one's body back, you have no closure," says Alumim resident Sarah-Jane Landsman.
The IDF told Ran's parents they doubted he would have survived his injuries without medical help, and they did not believe he had received any treatment.
"They think he did not survive, but no one knows," his mother says. "We want a little bit of hope."
"A miracle," his father adds. "This Hanukkah miracle."
Australia lead 3-0 with two test matches left to play as part of the five-match series in Adelaide, meaning the hosts are retaining the Ashes.
England were chasing a daunting 435 in the final innings to try and keep the series alive, but they fell well short, being bowled out for 352.
They were 82 short of the target, which was 17 higher than the world record and 57 more than any England team has managed.
This was the 18th Test without a victory for England, losing 16 of them and drawing two.
High expectations were resting on the shoulders of coach Ben Stokes's men ahead of the series, but a string of underwhelming performances means the wait to regain the Ashes continues for two more years when the series returns to England.
"We obviously came here with a goal in mind and we haven't been able to achieve it. It hurts and it sucks," Stokes said.
"They've been able to outdo us on a much higher level ... I thought we did incredibly well to take us where we did in this fourth innings.
"We couldn't do what we came here to do but there was some good stuff to come out of this game."
England lost the first Test in two days, the second in four days, and the third after the full five days, leaving Australia with an unassailable 3-0 lead after just 11 days.
This is a historical defeat and matches the unwanted record of Nasser Hussain's squad of 2002-03 by surrendering the urn in the shortest number of days for a five-day, five-match series.
England will now hope to avoid a 5-0 whitewash in the fourth and fifth Tests over the next few weeks.
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Across the country, the five-finger discount is being used with such frequency that retailers are taking action into their own hands.
With concerns about the police response to shoplifting, many are now resorting to controversial facial recognition technology to catch culprits before they strike.
Sainsbury's, Asda, Budgens and Sports Direct are among the high-street businesses that have signed up to Facewatch, a cloud-based facial recognition security system that scans faces as they enter a store. Those images are then compared to a database of known offenders and, if a match is found, an alert is set off to warn the business that a shoplifter has entered the premises.
It comes as official figures show shoplifting offences rose by 13% in the year to June, reaching almost 530,000 incidents. Figures reported in August showed more than 80% result in no charge.
At the same time, retailers are reporting more than 2,000 cases of violence or abuse against their staff every day. Faced with mounting losses and safety concerns, businesses say they are being forced to take security into their own hands because stretched police forces are only able to respond to a fraction of incidents.
At Ruxley Manor Garden Centre in south London, managing director James Evans said theft had become increasingly brazen and organised, with losses from shoplifting now accounting for around 1.5% of turnover. "That may sound small, but it represents a significant hit to the bottom line," he said, pointing out that thousands of pounds' worth of goods can be stolen in a single visit.
"We have had instances where the children get sent in to do it. They know that the parents will be waiting in the car park and they'll know that there's nothing that we can do to stop them."
Staff members here have also had their fair share of run-ins with shoplifters. In one case, employees trying to stop a suspected shoplifter were nearly struck by an accomplice in a car. "This is no longer just about stock loss," said James, "It is about the safety of our staff."
However, the technology is not without its critics. Civil liberties groups have warned that the expansion of this type of technology is eroding our privacy.
Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, called it "a very dangerous kind of privatised policing industry".
"[It] really threatens fairness and justice for us all, because now it's the case that just going to do your supermarket shopping, a company is quietly taking your very sensitive biometric data. That's data that's as sensitive as your passport, and [it's] making a judgement about whether you're a criminal or not."
Silkie said the organisation was routinely receiving messages from people who said they had been mistakenly targeted. They include Rennea Nelson, who was wrongly flagged as a shoplifter at a B&M store after being mistakenly added to the facial recognition database. Nelson said she was threatened with police action and warned that her immigration status could be at risk.
"He said to me, if you don't get out, I'm going to call the police. So at that point I turned around and I was like, are you speaking to me? Then he was like yes, yes, your face set off the alarm because you're a thief... At that point, I was around six to seven months pregnant and I was having a high-risk pregnancy. I was already going through a lot of anxiety and, so him coming over and shouting at me, it was like really triggering me."
The retailer later acknowledged the error and apologised, describing it as a rare case of human mistake.
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A spokesperson for B&M said: 'This was a simple case of human error, and we sincerely apologise to Ms Nelson for any upset caused. Reported incidents like this are rare. Facewatch services are designed to operate strictly in compliance with UK GDPR and to help protect store colleagues from incidents of aggressive shoplifting."
Nick Fisher, chief executive of Facewatch, said the backlash was disproportionate.
"Well, I think it's designed to be quite alarmist, using language like 'dystopian', 'orwellian', 'turning people into barcodes'," he said.
"The inference of that is that we will identify people using biometric technology, hold and store their own, store their data. And that's just, quite frankly, misleading. We only store and retain data of known repeat offenders, of which it's been deemed to be proportionate and responsible to do so... I think in the world that we are currently operating in, as long as the technology is used and managed in a responsible, proportionate way, I can only see it being a force for good."
Yet, there is obviously widespread unease, if not anger, at the proliferation of this technology. Businesses are obviously alert to it, but the bottom line is calling.