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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

Washington Says US and Iran Pausing Strikes, Talks to Proceed

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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Washington Says US and Iran Pausing Strikes, Talks to Proceed

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

A US official said Sunday that Washington and Tehran agreed to halt attacks after new tit-for-tat strikes strained their interim deal, with the sides planning to renew talks aimed at ending the Middle East war.

The exchanges have underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered agreement to end the conflict that has killed thousands and snarled the flow of oil shipments through the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Although a ceasefire took effect in April, sporadic violence has flared up in the Gulf region, with traffic in the strait serving as a regular flashpoint.

"Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU," a US official told AFP in an email late Sunday, referring to the memorandum of understanding struck between Washington and Tehran.

"Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely" in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the official added.

Iran has not immediately commented on the US statement, and the US official did not confirm a US media report that talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar.

Tehran has insisted on controlling passage through the vital strait, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas travel in peacetime. It did not have that control before the war.

Iran's top diplomat warned Sunday that any attempt by ships to bypass its preferred route through Hormuz would "increase tensions" in the Middle East.

Tehran's enforcement of its control has sparked repeated flare-ups with Washington, the latest of which came early Sunday, when US Central Command said it had attacked 10 Iranian military targets over "continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.”

Iran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Both Kuwait and Bahrain denounced the Iranian attacks.

Iran presently insists ships transiting the strait pass through a corridor near its own shores, though this week dozens of vessels have travelled along the opposite side of the waterway, hugging the Omani coast.

"Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

World

Pakistan: Ground Operation and Strikes Along Afghan Border Killed 29 Militants

Army soldiers leave the Mosamiat Chowrangi area after security forces completed a clearance operation after a militant attack on Pakistan's Security Rangers compound in Karachi on June 28, 2026. (Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP)
Army soldiers leave the Mosamiat Chowrangi area after security forces completed a clearance operation after a militant attack on Pakistan's Security Rangers compound in Karachi on June 28, 2026. (Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP)
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Pakistan: Ground Operation and Strikes Along Afghan Border Killed 29 Militants

Army soldiers leave the Mosamiat Chowrangi area after security forces completed a clearance operation after a militant attack on Pakistan's Security Rangers compound in Karachi on June 28, 2026. (Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP)
Army soldiers leave the Mosamiat Chowrangi area after security forces completed a clearance operation after a militant attack on Pakistan's Security Rangers compound in Karachi on June 28, 2026. (Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP)

Pakistani security forces Sunday carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by “calibrated strikes” against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, officials said.

In a post on X, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across the country.

In Afghanistan, government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistan's attacks resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of civilians, including women and children.

“We strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression and consider it a crime and an act of brutality,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied militant groups for most of the violence.

The security operation took place a day after militants armed with guns and explosives targeted the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national in wounded condition.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement Saturday night.

Tarar said Pakistan’s latest operation along the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies.

The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

The latest operations are likely to further strain already tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul.

Sunday’s cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan's military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an “open war” between the neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.

The escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action between the two countries. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.

Multiple rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China also hosted the two sides in April and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution.

Pakistan since last year has carried out multiple strikes along the border and inside Afghanistan, targeting alleged hideouts of TTP and other militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Afghan Taliban government of harboring militants who carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, especially the TTP. Kabul denies the charge.

World

Calls for Ocalan’s Release Spark Street Rallies in Türkiye

Kurds participate in a rally organized by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party in Mersin (south) on Saturday, demanding Öcalan's release (The party's X account)
Kurds participate in a rally organized by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party in Mersin (south) on Saturday, demanding Öcalan's release (The party's X account)
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Calls for Ocalan’s Release Spark Street Rallies in Türkiye

Kurds participate in a rally organized by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party in Mersin (south) on Saturday, demanding Öcalan's release (The party's X account)
Kurds participate in a rally organized by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party in Mersin (south) on Saturday, demanding Öcalan's release (The party's X account)

Several thousand people rallied Sunday in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in southeast Türkiye calling for the release of jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP journalist reported.

Protesters gathered in a central square in Diyarbakir, chanting slogans in Kurdish, including "Serok Apo" (Leader Apo), in a show of support for the 77-year-old, held on Imrali prison island since 1999.

The rally comes after the PKK last year formally renounced its armed struggle against the Turkish state, ending a conflict spanning four decades that has claimed at least 50,000 lives.

Following Ocalan's call for the group to lay down its weapons, the PKK announced its dissolution, staged a symbolic arms-burning ceremony, and withdrew its fighters from Turkish territory.

Addressing the crowd in Diyarbakir, Veysi Aktas, a former inmate once held with Ocalan on Imrali, warned that lasting peace would not be possible while the leader remained in isolation.

"There can be no peace through isolation," he said.

"Through isolation, the leadership is being distanced from the people. Peace means recognition of the people, respect for identity, and respect for the will of the people".

Despite repeated calls from supporters and pro-Kurdish politicians to ease Ocalan's detention conditions, his situation remains largely unchanged.

He has however recently been granted increased access to family members, lawyers and a small number of lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party involved in ongoing peace efforts.