The Epstein files released by the Department of Justice last month painted Microsoft co-founder and vaccine champion Bill Gates in a particularly unfavorable light.Amid uproar over her ex-husband's repeat mention in the files — including in a 2013 email wherein Jeffrey Epstein alleged that he procured for Bill Gates "drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls" — Melinda French Gates told NPR's "Wild Card" podcast, "It's personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage."'Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse.'While French Gates indicated that she has "been able to move on in life," her ex-husband is alternatively still dealing with the consequences of his long-standing association with the notorious child sex offender.Gates reportedly apologized to the staff of the Gates Foundation for the fallout of his Epstein ties during a town hall on Tuesday, stating, "It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein," according to a recording reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.Gates, who has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein's victims and whose spokesperson characterized the claims in the 2013 email as "completely false," reportedly stressed, "I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit."The billionaire reportedly had an explanation for the photographs in the files featuring him in the company of women whose faces are redacted. Epstein asked to take pictures of his assistants with Gates after meetings, Gates claimed, according to the Journal.RELATED: Epstein-friendly lesbians managing fraud-plagued Manhattan club in hot water — again Photo by Leon Neal - WPA Pool /Getty Images"To be clear, I never spent any time with the victims, the women around him," said Gates, according to the Journal. He noted, however, that he "did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities."Gates reportedly suggested further that despite his ex-wife expressing concerns about Epstein in 2013 — five years after he pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor for prostitution — Gates continued meeting with Epstein."Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior," Gates reportedly told staff.Gates, apparently recognizing that his relationship with Epstein helped boost Epstein's reputation, reportedly apologized "to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake I made."Gates also recognized the negative impact his Epstein ties have had on the organization previously known as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which became the Gates Foundation last year following the couple's divorce and previous revelations about Bill's ties to Epstein."It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation," said Gates, who has directly and through his foundation worked to shape public health, the news landscape, education policy, AI, American farmland, the energy sector, foreign policy, and the Earth itself."And our work is very reputational sensitive," continued the billionaire. "I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us."When asked about the recording and Gates' remarks, the Gates Foundation told Blaze News in a statement, "This was a scheduled townhall with employees, which Bill does twice a year. In the conversation, Bill answered questions submitted by foundation staff on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files, the foundation's work in AI, and the future of global health."The foundation added, "In the townhall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.""The harm Epstein inflicted on women and girls was horrific, and no one should ever have to experience what they did," the foundation said in a statement earlier this month. "The foundation regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Messaging app Discord assured its users that they will not have to show their faces, unless they live in certain places.In certain regions, users will still be subject to face scans or government ID submission.'We'll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity.'This comes after a data breach in October that saw at least 70,000 images of government-issued IDs stolen through one of Discord's third-party verification services. Proton reported that passports, driver's licenses, names, and IP addresses were stolen, along with user transcripts from conversations they had with support agents.Still, in February 2025, Discord told users that their profiles would promptly be reverted to teen-level accounts by default, unless they submit to "facial age estimation or submit a form of identification to its vendor partners."This means that without verification, users could not get message requests, join political chats, or unblur a wide variety of sensitive content.After some intense backlash, though, Discord is now rolling back its requirements, but only for now.RELATED: Gamers REVOLT over age-verify scheme subjecting users to 'suspicious entity detection' Photo by Thomas Fuller/NurPhoto via Getty Images It seems obvious that Discord still has plans to roll out user verification eventually, but at this time it is leaning toward requiring less intrusive means. However, in some jurisdictions, giving up one's identity is still required by law."Where we have legal obligations, we will continue to meet them," the company wrote in a blog post. In "the U.K., Australia, and Brazil, the law may require platforms to use approved methods like facial age estimation or ID checks," Discord continued, adding that it will be exploring alternative methods of verification in other jurisdictions."If you're among the less than 10% of users who do need to verify, we'll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity."Simply put, Discord will still be enforcing age restrictions on the user experience.RELATED: Digital tyrants want your face, your ID … and your freedom Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP via Getty Images Discord floated different verification options like credit card verification, while putting limits on companies that use facial age estimation."Any partner offering facial age estimation must perform it entirely on-device. If they don't meet that bar, we won't work with them," the company said.One company that "did not meet that bar" was Persona. Discord ran a "limited test" with the company customer verification service in the U.K. but has since decided not to move forward with it. It is unclear whether this relates to a recent report that showed Persona was not only performing almost 270 cross-reference checks on user face data, but the platform was allegedly set up for, and compliant with, parameters that allow for government access.While Discord has promised ongoing transparency, it is still moving toward user data collection and will still be using facial scans to do so.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

I grew up measuring time by the turn of seasons. Autumn meant schoolbooks and shorter days. Winter meant stripped fields, wind off the Atlantic, and weekend mornings beside my father in the wild stretch of Connemara, County Galway. Stone walls, peat bog, and low mountains framed the years that shaped me.We hunted game birds — wing shooting, as my father called it. Pheasants burst from hedgerows in a clatter of bronze feathers. Woodcock came tearing through trees like pilots who had misplaced their maps. Snipe flickered over the marsh, determined to test the dignity of anyone aiming at them. Over time, you learned the land — and with it the humbling truth that even a bird with a walnut-sized brain could make you look foolish.There was a burst of snarling, then a sound I still hear nearly 20 years later. Two badgers were below.Nothing about it was hurried. We walked for miles. We watched the wind. We read the ground. We spoke softly, and often not at all.My first gunMy first gun came later than I wanted and earlier than my mother preferred. I fired my first shot at 13. I still remember the weight of it, the kick, the sudden understanding that I was holding something that demanded respect. I also remember missing completely and nearly falling backward from the recoil. My father didn’t laugh. He checked my stance, corrected my grip, and only then allowed himself a small smile that said "you’ll learn."And I did.At first, like any boy, all I wanted was to pull the trigger and fire into the sky. But my father had other ideas.Learning to shoot, he insisted, was an art. Cheek firm to the stock. Follow through. Don’t rush. Breathe steadily. Safety first, always. A gun was never waved about, never pointed without purpose, never treated as a toy. It was a tool, and tools required competence.No wasteThe first time I hit a clay target, a surge of triumph swept over me. The first time I brought down a pheasant cleanly, I felt pride — and with it a sober awareness of what the shot meant. A life had ended, and I understood my part in it. My father insisted that we retrieve every bird and carry it home. Waste wasn’t tolerated. Nothing was done carelessly.In those early years, the hunting extended beyond birds. Foxes came too close to the farm in lambing season. They took what they could. When that happened, the task fell to us. I was younger then, and I didn’t relish it, but I understood it. This wasn’t sport but protection. The lambs were vulnerable. The farm depended on them. Badgers, powerful and stubborn creatures, could maim or kill a sheep if they set upon it.One afternoon, when I was about 15, we brought our two terriers to a sett we had been watching. They were small, fearless dogs — my father’s pride and joy — bred to go to ground and drive out whatever lay beneath. We waited above the hole, listening.What came back up wasn’t what we expected.Brief and brutalThere was a burst of snarling, then a sound I still hear nearly 20 years later. Two badgers were below. The fight was brief and brutal. When it ended, both terriers were dead.The silence afterward felt unnatural. My father said little. He knelt beside the dogs, his hands steady, his face set in a way I had never seen. That day left its mark on both of us.Within a week, he had tracked the badgers’ movements. He watched their runs, noted their patterns, and returned at dusk when they emerged. He shot them cleanly. I remember the way I looked at him then — not simply as my father, but as someone I deeply admired. Our dogs were gone, and he had set things right.RELATED: Fishing with my dying father Tim Graham/Getty ImagesA simple nodAfter that, our trips to Connemara changed. I was less a child tagging along and more a companion. We walked side by side, reading the land together. He asked what I saw and waited for the answer.I recently flew back to Ireland to hunt with my father again. Dawn came slowly over the Twelve Bens, washing the valley in a soft silver light.We walked as we always had. Now in his early 60s, he moved more slowly, but his eye remained sharp. A pheasant burst from cover. I swung, fired, and missed. He said nothing. Another bird rose minutes later. This time the shot landed true. He nodded once — which, from him, amounted to high praise.There is a caricature of gun culture that reduces it to aggression — the love of noise, the love of power. That was never my experience. Hunting with my father gave me a vocabulary that didn’t rely on words. Approval showed itself in the briefest of looks. Correction came with a hand on the stock. Trust arrived in small responsibilities — carrying the gun, crossing a wall safely, judging distance and wind.We ended the day as we always did: muddy boots, cold hands, birds cleaned and hung, and a couple of pints at the local pub. Outside, evening settled. Inside, there was warmth and a quiet satisfaction.

The former assistant director of the LGBTQ Pride Center is decrying his firing from North Carolina State University after an undercover investigation showed him bragging about undermining DEI restrictions.The Accuracy in Media investigation showed Jae Edwards saying that he had to be "careful" in order to support LGBTQ members despite the college undoing its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. 'We’re used to going around them and finding ways around.' Critics of AIM say the video appears to be heavily edited and argue that Edwards did not actually admit to breaking the policy."We’re still able to do the things that we want to do, have these events and programs. We have to be a little more careful," he says in the footage."As a marginalized group, we’re used to these things," Edwards added. "And we’re used to going around them and finding ways around."A school spokesperson confirmed Edwards' termination, Carolina Public Press reported, and said in a statement: "The individual seen in the video had no role in policy or compliance decisions and was not authorized to speak on behalf of the university. The staff member no longer works at the university."After NCSU dropped Edwards, some students began a petition to demand his return, but they only garnered about 700 signatures out of a total student body of more than 39,000 students.AIM contends that Edwards' comments violate the repeal of DEI standards by the UNC system board of governors. Other AIM investigations have led to the dismissal of two other individuals from the UNC system.Edwards has also raised $12,600 through donations to his GoFundMe account."Scrolling through social media and seeing articles, videos, and hate comments has produced emotions that I cannot begin to put into words," he wrote in part. "Funds would go towards housing, medication, medical appointments, food, utilities, insurance and cat food." RELATED: The Sierra Club embraced social justice after being flush with cash — then destroyed itself Even prior to President Donald Trump gaining office and ordering DEI policies to be ended, many diversity officers lamented that corporations appeared to be pulling back their support of the woke movement."I wake up every day trying not to be a cynic, but this is frightening,” said Vic Bulluck of the NAACP Hollywood bureau in 2023. "Hollywood seems to be sending a message that these programs that were designed to give more access to African-Americans are no longer needed."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!