Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of killing children
Bill Gates has accused Elon Musk of 'killing the world's poorest children' after the Tesla billionaire gutted America's overseas aid agency.
The Microsoft founder – formerly the world's richest man – said Mr Musk's decisions would result in children in Africa being infected with HIV.
He also criticised a decision by Sir Keir Starmer to cut Britain's overseas aid budget, calling it 'surprising and disappointing'.
Mr Gates said Mr Musk's decision to strip USAID, the US government's overseas aid agency, of funding in February would lead to a surge of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio in some of the world's poorest nations.
'The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one,' he told the Financial Times.
USAID managed more than $40bn (£30bn) in US international aid but Mr Musk gutted the organisation, which he branded 'a viper's nest of radical-Left Marxists who hate America' and a 'criminal organisation'.
Officials from Mr Musk's Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) took control of USAID's offices in early February, sacking nearly all of its staff or placing them on leave. Overseas projects were left in limbo, with staff ordered to return home.
Mr Gates said Mr Musk had cancelled hospital funding to Gaza Province, in Mozambique, falsely claiming that the funding was sending condoms to Hamas in Gaza in the Middle East.
'I'd love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,' he told the Financial Times. Mr Musk later admitted Doge had made some 'mistakes'.
The two billionaires have clashed previously. Mr Musk originally signed Mr Gates's Giving Pledge, in which billionaires promise to give away half their wealth. However, the Tesla chief later called most philanthropy 'bull----', according to Walter Isaacson, his biographer.
Mr Musk also fumed at the Microsoft founder after he discovered Mr Gates had taken a short position against Tesla, betting its stock price would fall.
Mr Gates made the comments about USAID as he committed to giving away $200bn over the next 20 years. Mr Gates, 69, on Thursday announced plans to accelerate his philanthropic giving with a view to shutting down the Gates Foundation, his charity, by 2045.
The donations are in addition to more than $100bn in giving since the foundation was launched at the turn of the millennium.
Mr Gates had originally intended for the Gates Foundation to run for several decades after his death. However, on Thursday he said: 'I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned.
'I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world.'
He added: 'I expect the foundation will spend more than $200bn between now and 2045.'
As well as criticising Mr Musk, Mr Gates also took aim at Labour cuts to Britain's overseas aid budget, warning of a 'gulf in funding' for international charities that would hamper efforts to eradicate diseases.
The Prime Minister announced plans to cut the UK's overseas aid budget in February from 0.5pc of national income to 0.3pc by 2027, instead boosting defence spending.
In an interview with the New York Times, Mr Gates said: 'Take Keir Starmer. A day before he's supposed to fly and see Trump, and he's like, 'Oh my God, I've got to show that we're serious about defence spending.'
'And somebody says, 'We could cut the aid budget from 0.5pc to 0.3pc.' Nobody says, 'Hey, what about those kids who won't get vaccines?''
He added: 'That's a centre-Left government. And it's in the UK, where civil society is actually stronger on these issues than anywhere else in the world ... That one was particularly surprising and a bit disappointing.'
The Gates Foundation was originally launched as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. The couple divorced in 2021.
Ms French Gates, whose net worth is now $30bn, has already announced her own plans to donate more than $1bn to support women and families over the next two years.
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To defeat the right, the left must learn from Mamdani and the DSA and rebuild mass working-class organization. Sure, charisma helps, but at its core, this win was an eight-year project that must be replicated everywhere if we are to defeat fascism and stop the worst horrors of the climate crisis. Mamdani is an Obama-level political talent, but most of all he is a call to return to real working-class organization. This is something the hollow entities of the Democratic or Republican parties could never defeat, and something they learned on Tuesday night. Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign
