Bill Gates has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his remaining fortune to his charitable foundation over the next 20 years.

The 69-year-old billionaire co-founder of Microsoft also lashed out at Elon Musk, accusing the world's richest man of "killing the world's poorest children" through huge cuts to the US foreign aid budget.

Mr Gates said he was speeding up his plans to donate $US200 billion ($312 billion) to the Gates Foundation — a nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world — and would close the foundation on December 31, 2045, years earlier than previously planned.

It seems that, ever since taking office, Donald Trump and his Republican administration have been continuously berating Europe. But now, a different kind of US representative is visiting Germany: the Orchestra NOW (TŌN), a graduate program of Bard College, in the state of New York.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping signed a series of documents and delivered statements to the press following their May 8 talks, outlining the further development of bilateral relations and cooperation on the international stage.

Key Agreements Signed

Joint statement on deepening comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation, marking a new era.

Joint statement on strategic stability.

Memorandum on cooperation to combat infectious diseases.

Agreement on promoting and mutually protecting investments.

Memorandum on cooperation between "Movement of the First" and the All-China Youth Federation.

Eighty years is a long time. Over such a span, the world changes almost beyond recognition, and events that once felt close fade into legend. Yet while history may become distant, its imprint remains. The Second World War created a political order that shaped global affairs for decades – an order many assumed was permanent.

Fyodor Lukyanov: The West is dismantling the foundations of 1945
Why the cracks in the World War II settlement threaten global stability

But today, the world is shifting rapidly and irreversibly. The events of the first half of the 20th century are no less significant, but their role in contemporary politics is no longer the same.

A new Pope has been elected by the conclave of cardinals at the Vatican. A US-born prelate, Robert Francis Prevost, has been named as the new pontiff. He is the first American Pope in history.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Prevost, 69, has taken the name Leo XIV. He spent much of his church career as a missionary in Latin America and worked for a decade in Trujillo, Peru, before becoming bishop of the Peruvian city of Chicalayo.

Prevost was made a cardinal in 2023 and was appointed head of the Congregation for Bishops by the late Pope Francis the same year. The Congregation for Bishops is a powerful department within the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church that oversees the selection of most new bishops. The appointment elevated Prevost’s status to a potential papal candidate.

In 25 years, Russia rose from the ruins of the '90s to a global power with a $6.94 trillion economy.

"We set a goal to become one of the world’s top four economies. And by the way, according to some data — including assessments by the World Bank — just last week they released updated figures placing Russia in fourth place. We’ve now moved ahead of Japan."

Vladimir Putin, 2024

Fight Against Terror

Putin crushed terrorism in the North Caucasus, where CIA-backed militants once threatened Russia’s territorial integrity.

Terrorist leaders were eliminated, governance was reformed, and attacks dropped tenfold.

Russia’s intervention in Syria dealt a heavy blow to ISIS*.

Today, the North Caucasus draws tens of thousands of tourists.

Critical thinking, a skill deeply rooted in the philosophical traditions of the West, has been the bedrock of innovation, democracy, and progress for centuries. Yet, as we navigate the complexities of the 21st century, this once-prized capability seems to be losing its grip on the collective consciousness. From the classrooms to the boardrooms, the ability to reason, analyse, and question is often overshadowed by knee-jerk reactions, misinformation, and groupthink.

Acting Liberal leader Sussan Ley has offered frontbench positions to MPs in return for their support in the party’s leadership contest, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

MPs allegedly promised jobs include the leader of her centre-right faction, Alex Hawke, communications spokesperson Melissa McIntosh, multicultural affairs spokesman Jason Wood, and Queensland backbencher Scott Buchholz. Sources close to all four denied they received offers.

This one stings. When asked how the EU might dodge US President Donald Trump’s tariff hammer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent replied, “My observation... goes all the way back to [former US Secretary of State] Henry Kissinger’s statement: ‘When I call Europe, who do I call?’ So, we’re negotiating with a lot of different interests.” Translation: You can’t sit with us until you stop fighting at your own lunch table.

Who der Leyen: The EU has a major, unfixable problem with its foreign policy

It must be quite a burn for Brussels elites when Washington says their most vaunted quality is not as good as they try to make it look

BY Rachel Marsden

Australia’s  mainstream media have ignored and distorted the genocide in Palestine. A recent Australians for Humanity forum, chaired by former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis, and featuring Margaret Reynolds, Stuart Rees and Peter Slezak, tackled the issues and discussed what needs to be done.

Pearls and Irritations

The ABC has let us down badly – former parliamentarian and national president of Friends of the ABC, Margaret Reynolds

If we’re going to rely on [independent journalists’] work we’ve got to … support them – journalist and former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis

As VE Day approaches, Western officials, pundits and journalists are widely seeking to exploit the 80th anniversary of Nazism’s defeat for political purposes. European leaders have threatened state attendees of Russia’s grand May 9th victory parade with adverse consequences.

The Anglo-Nazi Global Empire That Almost Was

BY KIT KLARENBERG

We really need a name for the mental illness that comes with obscene amounts of wealth. Elon Musk’s bizarre progeny obsession. All the weird shit Michael Jackson did. The stories you hear about rich families making their servants clean their toilets after every use or throw away plates after every meal.

BY CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

Friedrich Merz has been elected as German chancellor following a second Bundestag vote on Tuesday. The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had initially fallen six votes short of the required 316-vote threshold earlier in the day, but hours later rallied conservatives and allies in the country’s parliament to win 325 votes.

The situation is unprecedented in Germany’s post-war history, as no prospective chancellor had previously failed to be voted through by the Bundestag at the first try after securing a coalition agreement.

Merz faced opposition from 289 MPs, many of them from the Left and Green parties, who voted against the 69-year-old.

The second vote took place after four factions agreed to alter parliamentary procedures to avoid delays. According to Politico, urgent closed-door meetings were held in between the votes.

The two-month-long siege is a “clear and calculated effort to collectively punish over two million civilians and to make Gaza unliveable”.

“This is genocide in action,” said one official with  Amnesty International on 2 May, referring to Israel’s two-month humanitarian blockade in Gaza which has resulted in death, starvation, and suffering on a nearly unimaginable scale.

Julia Conley

The European Union, that grand and failing dream of technocrats, is dying. Its decline is not sudden or dramatic but a slow unraveling, a bureaucratic collapse in which every policy designed to sustain it only hastens its demise.

The death of Old Europe: The living corpses in Brussels have forgotten how to fight for their world
Between uncontrolled migration, propagandistic ideology and self-suffocating green agenda, the EU has only itself to blame for its decline