NEW DELHI
\nBill Gates has cancelled his speech that was scheduled for Thursday at a major AI summit in India, the Gates Foundation said, after the Microsoft founder was named in the Epstein files. \u201cAfter careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit\u2019s key priorities, Mr. Gates will not be delivering his keynote address,\u201d the foundation said in a statement.
\n\u201cThe Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,\u201d it said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tech CEOs will speak about the opportunities and threats posed by artificial intelligence at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Thursday. The Gates Foundation said the president of its Africa and India offices would speak instead.
\nGates this month said he regrets \u201cevery minute\u201d he spent with Jeffrey Epstein, as his former wife Melinda said he still had questions to answer over his relationship with the late convicted sexual offender. The latest tranche of documents released by the US Justice Department contained emails between many prominent figures and Epstein \u2014 often revealing warm friendships, illicit financial dealings and private photos.
\nIn a draft email among the documents, Epstein alleged Gates engaged in extramarital affairs.Epstein wrote that his relationship with Gates ranged from \u201chelping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women\u201d. \u201cEvery minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize,\u201d Gates, a billionaire philanthropist, told 9News Australia in an interview. \u201cThat email was never sent. The email is false,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?\u201d Gates\u2019s spokesperson issued a similar denial after the fresh cache of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, were released. \u201cThe only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein\u2019s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,\u201d the spokesperson said.
\nMelinda French Gates told US National Public Radio that the document dump brought back \u201cmemories of some very, very painful times in my marriage\u201d. \u201cWhatever questions remain there of what \u2014 I can\u2019t even begin to know all of it \u2014 those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI Bill Gates has cancelled his speech that was scheduled for Thursday at a major AI summit in India, the Gates Foundation said, after the Microsoft founder was named in the Epstein files. \u201cAfter careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit\u2019s key priorities, Mr. Gates will not be delivering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-532329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n