Why Bill Gates accused Elon Musk of "killing world's poorest children"
Bill Gates blasts Elon Musk over USAID shutdown plans
Ever since world's richest man Elon Musk has joined hand with the Donald Trump administration, he has been facing backlash. More recently, tech billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates criticised Musk for being involved in the killing of some of the world's poorest children.
But why so?
Speaking in context of Elon Musk's recent cuts to the
US Agency for International Development
, which is responsible for distributing foreign aid in the world, Gates said that by doing so Musk is risking a resurgence of many deadly diseases like measles, HIV and polio. "The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one... I'd love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money," Gates told the Financial Times in an interview.
Operation Sindoor
India's air defence systems shoot down Pak drones in J&K, Punjab & Rajasthan
India-Pakistan tensions: Delhi airport issues travel advisory
Operation Sindoor: Multiple explosions heard at several Pakistan air bases
Gates also warned of a stark reversal to decades of progress in reducing mortality over the next four to six years due to the funding cuts by governments worldwide, in an interview with Reuters. "The number of deaths will start going up for the first time ... it's going to be millions more deaths because of the resources," Gates told Reuters.
On the contrary, Gates announced that he will be donating 99% of his wealth in the next 20 years, and that the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
will cease its operations by 2045.
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Talking about his decision, he wrote in his blog post, "People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that 'he died rich' will not be one of them... There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people. That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned."
For the unversed, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000, is one of the world's largest private philanthropic organizations.
Founded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his then-wife Melinda French Gates, the foundation focuses on global health, education, and poverty alleviation. It has committed billions of dollars to initiatives like eradicating polio, improving public health systems, supporting education reform, and expanding access to clean water and sanitation.
The foundation works in partnership with governments and organizations worldwide to address systemic challenges.
Known for its data-driven approach, it plays a pivotal role in tackling some of the world's most pressing problems.
Gates and Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, once agreed over the role of the wealthy in giving away money to help others, but have since clashed several times.
Asked if he had appealed to Musk recently to change course, Gates said it was now up to Congress to decide on the future for U.S. aid spending.
How much wealth will Bill Gates' children inherit
Bill Gates has three children with his former wife Melinda French Gates.
The Gates kids-Jennifer Gates Nassar, Rory Gates, and Phoebe Gates- have all carved a niched for themselves in different fields, away from the shadows of their famous parents. However, Bill Gates has been quite vocal that his children won't inherit a majority of his wealth.
"Well, I think everybody gets to decide on that. In my case, my kids got a great upbringing, education, but less than 1% of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn't be a favour to them. It's not a dynasty. I'm not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success, be significant and not overshadowed by the incredible luck and good fortune I had," Gates told Raj Shamani in an interview.
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Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
In Maoist battle, a 6,000-strong force makes the difference
New Delhi : In August 2005, Basant K Ponwar moved from Mizoram to Chhattisgarh. At the time, Maoists had at least 106 districts in central and eastern India in their grip and were steadily expanding their menacing presence, prompting then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 to call left-wing extremism (LWE) as the country's greatest internal security threat. The government's fight against the rebels was flailing, largely because Maoists were trained in jungle warfare and were picking up young boys and girls from villages to train them as child soldiers. In response, the government's bloated forces were unmotivated and unfamiliar with the forested terrain of southern Chhattisgarh. Growing frustration led to misadventures such as the Salwa Judum, a vigilante force that aimed to push back Maoists but ended up pillaging villages and torturing tribespeople, before being disbanded by the Supreme Court in 2011. The retired brigadier Ponwar, then the head of the army's Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram, took a different approach. The 1971 Indo-Pak war veteran brought his team and set up the elite Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Kanker, about 60km from Raipur. 'To fight in the jungle, you must live in the jungle. Make the jungle your friend. Police had to be reoriented in counter-Naxal operations through a rigorous 45-day programme,' Ponwar told HT. From this initiative was born Chhattisgarh's unique District Reserve Guard (DRG) force in 2007-08, that is at the core of the government's aggressive move to wipe out the decades-old insurgency by next spring. Since 2024, the 6,000-strong force, populated largely by tribal people and former Maoists, has pushed deeper into the Maoist heartland and made inroads into territories considered too hostile even five years ago. 'The locals, who knew the jungle, were formally inducted into the system and further trained in counter-insurgency. Over the years, the recruitment among Naxals also decreased because the local tribal youth would rather join the police,' added Ponwar. Today, DRG personnel are spread across seven Maoism-affected districts in Chhattisgarh, not tasked with regular law-and-order duties, focusing only on guerilla warfare suitable in the dense forests of Abujhmad. The force is involved in almost every key encounter, navigating IEDs, ramming through Maoist ambushes, engaging in gunfights, and guiding other security forces in jungles. This includes the takeover of the key Maoist base at Karregutta hills, a place where forces had never entered before, and the recent killing of top Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao or Basavaraju last month. 'DRG jawans are locals, who know the area and the terrain. Their training ensures that they can work in the toughest conditions. You need such brave local jawans, who are guerilla fighters. There is also a trust factor involved here. Locals trust the DRG personnel,' said Inspector General (Bastar Range) P Sundarraj, one of the first students at the institution. Ahead of the Centre's proposed deadline to end Maoism by March 31, 2026, the National Security Guard's black cat commandos are also conducting joint exercises with the DRG jawans. To understand why DRG was set up, go back to 2006-07. Retired bureaucrat Shivraj Singh, who was Chhattisgarh's chief secretary between 2007 and 2008, said the unit was first mooted after the Centre realised the gravity of left-wing extremism (LWE). 'The Maoist movement had spread throughout Chhattisgarh in the early 2000s. At that time, Maoists functioned like a Spartan Army by taking children and moulding them as soldiers. Local tribespeople were also fed up and approached the police with complaints about the abductions and how Maoists terrorised their village. Police were not adequately trained then as they were largely focused on guarding their posts. I remember then National Security Adviser MK Narayanan constantly telling the Centre how grave the problem had become,' he said. Singh said in meetings between the state and the home ministry, the government decided to build a specialised unit for guerilla warfare against Maoists. 'It started with the police identifying young constables who were residents of Maoist areas, and training them to be part of DRG. These young police officers knew the forest and were well-versed in the topography,' he added. Residents from LWE violence-affected districts are first recruited as constables. Those who show skills in guerilla warfare are handpicked to be in DRG and sent for rigorous training. To underscore their effectiveness, the Chhattisgarh government is now set to approve a proposal to induct around 3,000 more DRG personnel, marking the biggest recruitment in recent years of local tribal men and surrendered Maoists. The state government is also working to make the unit more lucrative by creating a new post of deputy superintendent so that its personnel do not remain stagnant at the inspector level, a senior Chhattisgarh home department official said, asking not to be named. Data on anti-Maoist operations seen by HT showed that between December 1, 2023, and May 20, 2025, at least 401 Maoists were killed in 199 gunfights and 1,355 rebels surrendered. Thirty-seven DRG jawans also died in the attacks. But gun battles are not the most important role of DRG. That would be guiding the forces into the Abhujmad, a 5,000 sq km expanse of uncharted forest spread across Chhattisgarh's four Maoism-affected districts. It is inside this swath of vast uncharted territory where top Maoist leaders traditionally reside, and where the fiercest battles have broken out over the past two years. DRG jawans, born and brought up in the villages within the forest, are the perfect guides to lead the forces inside, said a senior police officer, also requesting anonymity. Anant Ram, a DRG sub-inspector who joined the unit as a constable in 2009, said, 'Intelligence gathering is better when locals are part of the force. The residents are with us.' Another jawan, Binod Kumar, who joined DRG in 2018, said, 'I volunteered to be part of the DRG and was sent to counter-insurgency school. Before that, I had only done regular basic training. Now in DRG, I am proud to be part of a movement.' In the May 21 encounter where Basavaraju was killed, for example, it was the DRG men who broke three layers of his security cordon and killed him in a gunfight, said an additional SP rank officer, who asked not to be named. 'In that operation, around 1,500 DRG from four districts of Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur were involved. The only photograph of Basavaraju we had was over 30 years old as he was never arrested. Some DRG jawans, who were surrendered Maoists and had seen Basavaraju, confirmed his identity. DRG jawans not only knew the area but some of the surrendered Maoists were trained by rebels, so they know the antidote to ambush tactics,' said the officer involved in the operation. Chhattisgarh Police's additional director general, Vivekanand Sinha, said the role of locals in fighting is critical to counter any insurgency. 'DRG jawans are trained in guerilla warfare. They know how and where to move in the jungle. They know the modus operandi of the Maoists whether it is about improvised explosive devices planted everywhere or laying an ambush. When such jawans trained in guerilla warfare work in conjunction with the security forces, it is a formidable combination,' he said. Despite DRG's successes, concerns linger. The biggest among them is the memory of the Salwa Judum. Formed in 2005, Salwa Judum (or peace march in Gondi) was a state-sponsored vigilante force that comprised local tribesmen and former Maoists who were trained by police and given weapons to take part in counter-insurgency operations. But the force displaced large numbers of villagers and killed several people as part of extra judicial operations, accusing the victims of being Maoist collaborators. In July 2011, the Supreme Court declared the militia to be illegal and unconstitutional, and ordered its disbanding. Congress leader Mahendra Karma played a key role in organising the militia. He was killed in an ambush by Maoists in May 2013 along with 27 others, including then state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and former minister Vidya Charan Shukla. 'This is just another armed force. You have just armed them and given them impunity,' said activist Bela Bhatia. But senior police officials underline that DRG is different. Unlike Salwa Judum, where locals were armed and trained by the state, DRG is a specialised unit of the state police. DRG jawans do not conduct operations independently and work directly under the district SP. 'Surrendered Maoists would be about 10% of the force. Salwa Judum was a vigilante group, DRG jawans are not. Surrendered militants go through a rigorous process of first working as gopniya sainiks (secret soldiers) with the police for several months. Based on their performance as informers, they are then trained and inducted as constables. DRG is also successful because Maoists are fighting the same people they had once trained,' a second officer said. Maoists fear DRG jawans, but the latter are also obvious targets. The first casualty in the encounter that killed Basavaraju was also DRG jawan Khotluram Korram. Another jawan, Ramesh Hemla died in an IED blast the following day. The battle is only going to get tougher. Ten months ahead of the March 31, 2026 deadline, there are still around 350 armed Maoist cadres who have refused to surrender. Young commanders such as Hidma and Barse Deva, are expected to put up a stiff fight. To prepare for this, the state government has started shifting DRG personnel in their mid to late 40s to police stations. The unit requires men with young blood, who can trek for 2-3 days in jungles, prepare their own meals, live there, engage in gunfights, and trek back to their base through the same route. This is life in DRG. 'Maoism will soon be a thing of the past. The state may not need so many DRG personnel in the coming years so the older ones are now being shifted to police stations. This is to ensure a smooth transition,' said a DRG person, who asked not to be named. The young jawan looks forward to a day when Chhattisgarh is no longer a red corridor. 'All of us are local tribespeople who have suffered. Our friends, and relatives were abducted by Maoists in the prime of their youth and forced into a life they did not choose. Not just that, we have seen our friends blown to pieces by IEDs planted by Maoists,' he said. For now, he has a job to do and it is personal. 'We have lost too many in this fight. We need to fight for them too,' he said.
Time of India
31 minutes ago
- Time of India
Apple's Liquid Glass panned amid questions lack of major AI announcements
Apple 's 'Liquid Glass ' was meant to be the showstopper at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), but it was panned by netizens as the company's new design interface language failed to impress. What was touted to be a marvel in software aesthetics quickly spiralled into a meme fest on social media. A user on microblogging platform X termed it 'iOS for toddlers', while another asked whether the new UI 'was designed on Microsoft Paint'. The event itself generated mixed reactions owing to underwhelmed expectations, particularly over significant artificial intelligence (AI) advancements. The new interface that functions similarly to glass in the real world was being dubbed as the biggest visual overhaul to Apple's operating systems in over a decade. However, what immediately became a major talking point was the practical concerns about readability and accessibility. "I'm a bit concerned with readability," American YouTuber and influencer Marques Brownlee wrote on X. The readability concern was one that resonated with people, especially with white text against light or varied backgrounds in notifications and other UI elements. Live Events Oppenheimer's Martin Yang wrote of 'significant potential degradation of readability due to the see-through design', citing 'early user feedback'. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories The Liquid Glass' colour changes automatically between light and dark surroundings based on the material around it. It is now available for developers to test and finetune their apps ahead of its official release later this year. The aim is to bring a unified, modern and highly interactive and aesthetic interface across all its platforms. Many critics and social media users also began drawing parallels between Liquid Glass and Microsoft's Aero Glass design from Windows Vista, which was known for its translucent elements. While they spoke of how Apple's implementation is likely more refined, the comparison raked up conversations surrounding a perceived lack of originality. Melius Research analysts said it "looks very nice but isn't exactly the kind of stuff that drives the 'buy orders' on the trading desk". WWDC is Apple's annual event used to represent the cutting edge with software engineers, but analysts said it has lost its pre-eminence lately owing to underwhelmed expectations, particularly regarding significant AI advancements . At a time when there's ground-breaking work being done with AI and the likes of OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and Meta putting their might behind advancements in the space, many analysts and tech enthusiasts expressed disappointment over the lack of significant AI innovations. In fact, the Apple stock dropped 1.2% to close at $201.51 on Monday. Be it CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino who called the event "a dud" in terms of AI or Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who said in a post on LinkedIn that it showed 'slow and steady improvements' but was 'overall a yawner", the internet was rife with opinions. 'Has there actually been an exciting WWDC in the last decade? Where is the innovation? This feels like what ChatGPT thinks people want from Apple,' X user @MikeYelovich wrote in a post. To be sure, analysts had widely expected this year's event to be underwhelming, with minor software improvements. Barclays said it was not expecting much, but was still 'slightly disappointed' at the content and features announced. "We view changes to all device Operating Systems and Apple Intelligence as incremental, and not enough to drive any upgrade cycles," the brokerage was quoted as saying in a note. Morgan Stanley said the sentiment is unlikely to shift "until more tangible AI progress is evident", though it added that the Cupertino-based firm clearly still has the ingredients to make it an AI winner. Another aspect that put a dampener on investor sentiment was that the company admitted it needs more time to complete its long-delayed overhaul of the Siri voice assistant which some said showed Apple is struggling to meet investor demands for innovation in AI. Bob O'Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, wrote in an opinion piece that it is critical both strategically and economically for Apple to start creating meaningful AI features.
Indian Express
35 minutes ago
- Indian Express
BJP at Shaheen Bagh: Muslim girls should aim for the Army
In a move aimed at expanding its outreach into the Muslim-dominated areas of the national capital, the BJP's Minority Morcha held a 'minority chaupal' in Shaheen Bagh on Tuesday. The main purpose of this chaupal was to encourage young Muslim girls to consider careers in the Indian Army, it said. Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, an Indian Army officer who garnered attention during Operation Sindoor, was repeatedly cited as a role model throughout the event. This was the BJP's first such chaupal in the Capital under a broader national campaign celebrating the first-year anniversary of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's third term in office. The event was held in a modest hotel room in the heart of the neighbourhood that rose to national prominence during the 2020 anti-CAA protests. 'Our daughter should become strong, she should be educated, she should be independent…,' said Jamal Siddiqui, National President of the BJP Minority Morcha and chief guest at the event. 'If anyone tries to harass, scare, or intimidate her, she should be able to give a befitting reply. We have to take our daughters out of their homes and into society. They should also go to the border… and show the strength of Indian women.' 'To teach Pakistan a lesson, the leadership of (explaining) air strikes on terrorist bases was handed over to two daughters, Colonel Sophia and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, and the world has been introduced to the courage, valour and bravery of Indian women,' he added. The chaupal featured a small but engaged gathering of two women and 20 party workers, and sought to familiarise attendees with the Agniveer recruitment scheme and other opportunities in the Armed Forces. Organisers also distributed copies of the Constitution and announced a one-stop camp for registrations under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana. 'This is not just about Army recruitment,' said Ashu Chaudhary, Delhi State Executive Member of the Minority Morcha and the event's coordinator. 'It's about rights, awareness, and helping women from our community imagine a future where they are leaders.' Attendees were also handed 'data books' — kits detailing key government schemes across sectors such as education, employment, and health — with instructions to imitate similar minority chaupals in their localities and to share the data with other members of the Muslim community. The BJP's choice of Shaheen Bagh for the pilot chaupal carries political weight. Once the epicentre of the months-long protests, led largely by Muslim women against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the neighbourhood had become a symbol of resistance — and now, as the BJP frames it, potential transformation. 'We all are sons of India. We all are citizens of India. These 11 years of the Modi government have brought light where there was darkness,' Siddiqui declared. Launching a scathing attack against the BJP's political rivals, he added, 'The Congress and AAP created that darkness. Now, it is our duty to spread awareness, take the government's message and schemes to the people.'
