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Bill Gates ‘Took Responsibility for His Actions’ Over Epstein Links, Foundation Says 

This undated and unlocated handout image released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on December 18, 2025 shows US businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates (L) posing with a woman whose face has been redacted. Democratic lawmakers released a new cache of photos and documents on December 18 from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (House Oversight Democrats / AFP / Handout)
This undated and unlocated handout image released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on December 18, 2025 shows US businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates (L) posing with a woman whose face has been redacted. Democratic lawmakers released a new cache of photos and documents on December 18 from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (House Oversight Democrats / AFP / Handout)
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Bill Gates ‘Took Responsibility for His Actions’ Over Epstein Links, Foundation Says 

This undated and unlocated handout image released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on December 18, 2025 shows US businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates (L) posing with a woman whose face has been redacted. Democratic lawmakers released a new cache of photos and documents on December 18 from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (House Oversight Democrats / AFP / Handout)
This undated and unlocated handout image released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on December 18, 2025 shows US businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates (L) posing with a woman whose face has been redacted. Democratic lawmakers released a new cache of photos and documents on December 18 from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (House Oversight Democrats / AFP / Handout)

Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties ‌to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson for the philanthropic group told Reuters in a written statement on Tuesday.

The spokesperson's comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal report, which said that Gates had apologized to staff during the town hall over his ties with Epstein.

Documents released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have indicated that Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein's prison term to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder's philanthropic efforts.

According to the Journal report, Gates told staff that it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and ‌bring Gates Foundation ‌executives into meetings with the sex offender. The report cited ‌a ⁠recording of the ⁠comments Gates made in the town hall.

"I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made," he said, according to the newspaper.

The Journal added that Gates also acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that they did not involve Epstein's victims.

"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates told the staff, according ⁠to the report.

Documents released by the DOJ also included ‌pictures of the Microsoft founder posing with women ‌whose faces are redacted. Gates has previously said the relationship with Epstein was confined to ‌philanthropy-related discussions and has said it was a mistake to meet with ‌him.

According to the Journal, Gates told the foundation's staff that the images were pictures that Epstein asked him to take with Epstein's assistants after their meetings.

"To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him," Gates added, according to ‌the report.

A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation told Reuters that Gates held a scheduled town hall with the employees ⁠and answered questions on ⁠a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files.

"In the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions."

The spokesperson also said the Gates Foundation statement acknowledged what was shared by the billionaire during the town hall, and the statement is all that the foundation would say about the report.

Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation said it did not make any financial payments to Epstein or employ him at any time.

The billionaire also pulled out of India's AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote last week.

The Gates Foundation, chaired by Bill Gates and started by him and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world's biggest funders of global health initiatives.

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World

Father and Son Rescued after Four Days Buried Under Rubble of Venezuela's Earthquakes

Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 
Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 
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Father and Son Rescued after Four Days Buried Under Rubble of Venezuela's Earthquakes

Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 
Relief workers carry a survivor rescued from a building that collapsed in the earthquakes that struck La Guaira, Venezuela. (AFP) 

A father and his son were pulled out alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Sunday, four days after the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela.

It was a ‌scene that gave hope to the French and US rescue workers active in the area as they race against the clock to find more survivors.

Rescue workers carried the pair, visibly weakened and both wearing masks, on improvised fabric stretchers through debris-strewn streets to a waiting ambulance, as a crowd gathered around the emergency vehicles ⁠in La Guaira.

The coastal state was hardest hit by the earthquakes on Wednesday that left at least 1,450 dead and thousands missing.

Their rescue came after 12 hours of painstaking efforts by teams that combed through the ruins using specialized search cameras, carefully working through unstable rubble to reach the trapped victims.

“They are extremely weak, as any patient trapped under rubble for four days would be, so we are doing everything possible to rehydrate them and administer various medications during the extraction process, which ‌is ⁠moving very slowly,” said a member of the French Civil Security.

Before extracting the family members, rescuers prepared intravenous drips and cleared debris. Others remained beside the rubble searching for signs of life and communicating with their colleagues among ⁠the remains.

At least 33 people were rescued over the weekend, though tens of thousands remain missing, heightening fears that time is running out to find survivors.

According to ⁠specialists, after 72 hours following an earthquake, the odds of finding victims alive beneath the rubble drop dramatically.

World

Zelensky Proposes National Pantheon for Ukraine's Heroes

President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 
President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 
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Zelensky Proposes National Pantheon for Ukraine's Heroes

President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 
President Volodymyr Zelensky laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Kyiv (dpa) 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a bill to parliament to establish a national pantheon honoring the country's heroes.

“Today, I submitted to parliament a law on the Ukrainian National Pantheon,” Zelensky said on Sunday in an address marking Constitution Day, according to dpa.

“The names of all the heroes who, across different centuries and eras, fought for Ukraine and inspired Ukraine will be brought together and forever inscribed in our history,” the president said.

“Nobody will ever again dictate to Ukrainians which heroes they should honor, which holidays they should observe or which history they should learn,” added Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Zelensky's presidential office.

“Our ancestors fought for centuries for this right to free self-determination and national independence, and that is exactly what our soldiers are shedding their blood for today,” Budanov said.

The reference to self-determination was also seen as a swipe at neighboring Poland, whose president, Karol Nawrocki, had revoked a high-ranking order awarded to Zelensky amid a dispute over history.

The memorial site is to be built in Kiev.

 

World

Australia, Vanuatu Sign Deal Barring Foreign Military Base on Pacific Island

Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS
Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS
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Australia, Vanuatu Sign Deal Barring Foreign Military Base on Pacific Island

Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS
Prime Minister of Vanuatu Jotham Napat and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for photographs after signing the Nakamal agreement during the Australia–Vanuatu Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 29, 2026. AAP/Lukas Coch via REUTERS

Australia and Vanuatu signed a sweeping economic and security agreement on Monday that bars the establishment of any foreign military base on the Pacific island.

Vanuatu is at the center of strategic rivalry between China and US allies in the South Pacific, and Australia has expressed concern that Beijing is seeking a permanent security presence in the region.

The agreement commits Australia to greater economic support for Vanuatu, whose largest external creditor is China, and it stops a foreign military power establishing a base there, AFP reported.

"What this does do is to provide certainty for Australia that there will be no foreign military base," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters after signing the deal in Canberra with his Vanuatu counterpart Jotham Napat.

"We have concluded a balanced agreement that will protect our collective and individual security and our sovereignty," he added.

China's navy has made repeated port calls to Vanuatu.

Beijing also funded the expansion of a wharf in Luganville, once the largest US military base in the South Pacific, fueling concern in Canberra and Washington that China wanted a navy base.

China and Vanuatu previously said the wharf was for cruise ships.

The Nakamal Agreement commits Vanuatu to rejecting the militarization of infrastructure, said Napat.

"As a country, we have in fact passed an act in parliament not to allow any militarization to actually be used for our critical infrastructure," he told reporters at a news conference after the signing.

The agreement, viewed by AFP, states that "to reinforce Pacific collective security and sovereignty Vanuatu shall not permit its territory to be used for any foreign military base or infrastructure.”

It also recognizes Australia as "Vanuatu's longstanding primary policing partner,” and says Vanuatu will prioritize policing requests to other members of the Pacific Islands Forum regional bloc.

China formed policing ties with Vanuatu in 2023, and has donated equipment including drones, patrol boats and vehicles to its police force.

The agreement says Australia and Vanuatu will elevate assistance in "police training and equipment, policing, maritime security, cyber security, intelligence cooperation, and infrastructure.”

The Vanuatu treaty is the latest in a string of agreements Australia has struck with Pacific island nations, seeking to curb China's expanding security influence.

Chinese police have maintained a presence in Solomon Islands since signing a secret security pact in 2022.

Vanuatu has said it is separately negotiating an economic agreement with China, which has built roads and government buildings in the South Pacific nation over a decade.

A former Australian diplomat in the Pacific, James Batley, said the contest between Beijing and Canberra for influence would continue.

"Vanuatu's long tradition of non-alignment means that it won't simply abandon its relationship with China. Nor will China abandon its attempts to undermine Australia's interests in Vanuatu," he told AFP.