Anna Betts

Bill Gates says his Foundation will close in 2045 and decries Musk for USAID cuts

Microsoft co-founder accuses Trump ally of involvement in ‘killing the world’s poorest children’ by slashing US aid funding

Bill Gates announced plans on Thursday to shutter the Gates Foundation in 2045 and also strongly criticized Elon Musk for slashing funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing the Tesla CEO of involvement in “killing the world’s poorest children” in new interviews.

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Gates condemned the sudden funding cuts to USAID by Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), saying the cuts had led to life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses, and could result in the resurgence of diseases such as measles, HIV and polio.

University of Washington faces federal review after pro-Palestinian protest

Trump administration launches review after what it calls ‘recent incidents of antisemitic violence’ at school

The Trump administration has launched a review into what it describes as “recent incidents of antisemitic violence” at the University of Washington and its affiliates following a pro-Palestinian protest there on Monday that led to about 30 arrests.

On Monday, protesters associated with the student group Super UW – short for Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return – temporarily occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on the university’s Seattle campus.

Trump white-collar criminal pardons cost public $1bn, says ex-DoJ official

Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer said president erased more than ‘$1bn in debts owed by wealthy Americans’

The justice department’s pardon attorney, who was recently fired, has claimed on social media that Donald Trump’s recent wave of pardoning white-collar criminals has erased more than “$1bn in debts owed by wealthy Americans” to the public purse.

In a TikTok video, Liz Oyer, who has said that she was terminated in March after refusing to comply with an order to restore the gun rights of the actor Mel Gibson – a supporter of Trump’s – explained that “when you’re convicted of a financial crime like fraud or embezzlement, the law requires you to pay back the money that you stole. It’s called restitution.”

White House uses newly revealed allegations to support refusal to return Kilmar Ábrego García to US

Wife of man unlawfully sent to El Salvador filed protection petition in 2020 after domestic violence allegations

The legal team behind Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to El Salvador, is demanding that the Trump administration “bring him back and give him a full and fair trial” as the administration releases new domestic abuse allegations.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cited allegations made by Ábrego García’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, that he abused her on several occasions in 2019 and 2020.

White House opens inquiry into Chicago school program aimed at helping Black students

Education department says school program to improve Black academic performance violates 1964 Civil Rights Act

The US Department of Education has launched an investigation into Chicago public schools over allegations that a program aimed at improving academic outcomes among Black students violates federal law.

The department has also warned that it could withhold federal funding from the district.

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Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi freed after federal judge orders release

Palestinian, a lawful permanent US resident, was detained and ordered deported despite not being charged with crime

Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian green-card holder and Columbia University student who was detained for his activism, walked out of immigration detention on Wednesday after a federal judge in Vermont ordered his release.

Mahdawi had been detained and ordered deported by the Trump administration on 14 April despite not being charged with a crime.