LONDON (AP) — The lobbying firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. ambassador to the United States, collapsed into a form of bankruptcy Friday in the wake of the scandal surrounding his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . Global Counsel said it had stopped trading and roughly 80 U.K.-based staff were being laid off after many customers cut ties with the company following revelations about the scale of Mandelson’s friendship with the disgraced financier, who died