{"id":46284,"date":"2026-04-27T15:56:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/46284\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:56:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:56:47","slug":"bill-gates-cancels-speech-in-india-amid-epstein-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/46284\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates Cancels Speech in India Amid Epstein Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates canceled a high-profile speech at an artificial intelligence summit<\/a> in India amid fresh scrutiny of public figures who maintained relationships with Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Shortly before Mr. Gates was scheduled to deliver the speech on Thursday, the Gates Foundation issued a brief statement. \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 Gates Foundation announced<\/a> via X.<\/p>\n

The statement did not specifically mention Mr. Epstein, but the Justice Department\u2019s recent release of millions of pages of emails, text messages and photographs has brought renewed attention to Mr. Gates. In two newly released documents, Mr. Epstein wrote notes to himself suggesting that Mr. Gates had engaged in extramarital sex<\/a> and had to acquire drugs \u201cin order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese claims \u2014 from a proven, disgruntled liar \u2014 are absolutely absurd and completely false,\u201d a representative for Mr. Gates has said of those missives.<\/p>\n

The fact that Mr. Gates and Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, met on numerous occasions and worked together on a potential charitable fund has been public knowledge<\/a> since shortly after Mr. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in custody in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The volume of messages between Mr. Gates and his representatives and Mr. Epstein, as well as photographs of Mr. Gates released by the Justice Department with women\u2019s faces blacked out to protect their identities, raised new questions about the depth of their ties.<\/p>\n

The Epstein files\u2019 release has brought consequences for powerful figures enmeshed in the disgraced financier\u2019s affairs. On Thursday, the British police arrested<\/a> Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, over accusations that he shared confidential information with Mr. Epstein while serving as a British trade envoy. A former prime minister of Norway, Thorbjorn Jagland, was charged with \u201cgross corruption\u201d in connection with gifts, travel and loans he may have received from Mr. Epstein.<\/p>\n

The files show that Mr. Gates met Mr. Jagland, then the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, through Mr. Epstein. To Mr. Epstein\u2019s dismay, Mr. Gates cut off contact with him, a decision that Mr. Epstein attributed to the influence of Mr. Gates\u2019s wife at the time, Melinda French Gates. Mr. Epstein discussed having Kathryn Ruemmler, a former Obama White House counsel, plead his case to Ms. French Gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would love to sit with Melinda and give her the other side of jeffrey,\u201d Mr. Epstein wrote in a 2017 text message included in the release. (Ms. French Gates did not speak with Ms. Ruemmler, a spokeswoman for Ms. French Gates said on Thursday.)<\/p>\n

Ms. Ruemmler recently resigned<\/a> from Goldman Sachs, where she was the top legal officer, after messages emerged in which she advised Mr. Epstein on how to respond to questions about his sex crimes and addressed him as \u201csweetie\u201d and \u201cUncle Jeffrey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. French Gates recently gave an emotional interview to NPR<\/a> in which she said the latest release of files \u201cbrings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.\u201d Questions about what happened \u201care for those people, and for even my ex-husband,\u201d she added. \u201cThey need to answer to those things, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> two weeks ago with an Australian television station, Mr. Gates said, as he had in the past, that he had met with Mr. Epstein to try to raise more money for philanthropy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s factually true that I was only at dinners, you know I never went to the island, I never met any women,\u201d Mr. Gates said, \u201cand so the more that comes out the more clear it\u2019ll be that although the time was a mistake it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Gates has long been a popular figure in India, where his foundation has a significant presence. The India A.I. Impact Summit brought together important figures in the field as well as dignitaries like Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva of Brazil.<\/p>\n

As recently as Tuesday, the foundation had confirmed Mr. Gates\u2019s participation, saying on X that he was attending and delivering his address as scheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates canceled a high-profile speech at an artificial intelligence summit in India…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[156],"tags":[26332,11965,29201,651,26333,666,2917,1781,29204,26331,5618,29203,28266,29202,29205],"class_list":["post-46284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bill-gates","tag-andrew","tag-bill","tag-bill-and-melinda","tag-bill-gates","tag-duke-of-york","tag-epstein","tag-foundation","tag-gates","tag-jagland","tag-jeffrey-e-1953","tag-justice-department","tag-kathryn","tag-melinda","tag-ruemmler","tag-thorbjorn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116477496234991838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}