Tag: billionaires

Bill Gates warns Australia to prepare for the next pandemic – which could be man-made and far more brutal than Covid

Tech billionaire Bill Gates has warned Australia to be ready for the next pandemic, which could be man-made and far more brutal.

Mr Gates told the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney on Monday that political leaders needed to set aside their differences and work together to prepare for the next virus.

He called for greater global cooperation using the Covid-19 pandemic as an example of how countries could improve on their response if they worked together.

‘Compare the economic cost of being prepared for the next one to the cost of this one, over $US10trillion economic loss,’ he said. 

‘With the pandemic we were foolish not to have the tools, the practice and global capacity to be on standby like we do with fire or earthquakes.’ 

Mr Gates praised Australia’s policies in helping to keep infection rates low before vaccines were rolled out. 

‘Some of the things that stand out are that Australia and about seven other countries did population scale diagnostics early on and had quarantine policies,’ he said.

‘That meant you kept the level of infection low in that first year when there were no vaccines.’

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Former top FBI official Charles McGonigal arrested over ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

A former top FBI official in New York has been arrested over his ties to a Russian oligarch, law enforcement sources told ABC News Monday.

Charles McGonigal, who was the special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI’s New York Field Office, is under arrest over his ties to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who has been sanctioned by the United States and criminally charged last year with violating those sanctions.

McGonigal retired from the FBI in 2018. He was arrested Saturday afternoon after he arrived at JFK Airport following travel in Sri Lanka, the sources said.

He was charged along with a court interpreter, Sergey Shestakov, who also worked with Deripaska.

McGonigal, 54, is charged with violating U.S. sanctions by trying to get Deripaska off the sanctions list. McGonigal is one of the highest ranking former FBI officials ever charged with a crime.

McGonigal and Shestakov, who worked for the FBI investigating oligarchs, allegedly agreed in 2021 to investigate a rival Russian oligarch in return for payments from Deripaska, according to the Justice Department. McGonigal and Shestakov are accused of receiving payments through shell companies and forging signatures in order to keep it a secret that Deripaska was paying them.

Both face money laundering charges in addition to charges for violating sanctions. Each of four counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

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Bill Gates And Jeff Bezos Invest In Brain Computer-Interface Company

Just weeks after Elon Musk, co-founder of Neuralink, announced that the company is just six months away from implanting brain-computer interfaces in humans, both Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos invested a hefty sum into Synchron, Inc., a brain computing interface company.

On Thursday, Syncron announced it has received $75 million from its latest round of funding.

A large amount of that $75 million stemmed from an investment by Bezos Expeditions.

Another chunk of the investment came from Gates Frontier which is an investment arm of Bill Gates alongside Microsoft.

Fortune reported these details about Synchron’s goal:

Synchron is focused on restoring some helpful capabilities to paralyzed patients, who can use its Synchron Switch, a brain computer interface (BCI), to move a computer cursor on a screen with just their thoughts. With a minimally-invasive procedure, the BCI is implanted in the blood vessel on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain via the jugular vein. Other companies, including Neuralink, use more invasive techniques that involve going through the skull.

On the surface, it appears Synchron’s goal is to help those disabled but as history teaches us, new technology is usually intercepted and used for war or nefarious plans.

Another reason brain computer-interfaces are a problem for humans is that they are susceptible of being hacked.

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Reward for Tips on Unsolved Murders of Billionaire Toronto Couple Upped to $35M

Five years after the mysterious, unsolved double homicide of billionaire Toronto couple Barry and Honey Sherman, their son has added $25 million to the original $10 million offered for information leading to his parents’ killer.

“Closure will not be possible until those responsible for this evil act are brought to justice,” said Jonathon Sherman in a Dec. 12 statement to CBC News.

On Dec. 15, 2017, the bodies of Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife Honey, 70, who were among Canada’s wealthiest couples, were found by a realtor touring their mansion that was listed for sale at the time. They were found strangled and strangely posed in their mansion at 50 Colony Road. Active in the Toronto Jewish community, they were well-known philanthropists who gave millions of dollars to hospitals, universities, and Jewish organizations.

The Shermans were last seen alive on the evening of Dec. 13, 2017. The murders were believed to have taken place shortly after. Police said that there was no sign of forced entry and little DNA evidence, and that both died of “ligature neck compression.”

To date, police have not arrested any suspects. One year ago, Toronto Police released a short, 22-second video clip of a suspect who was captured on video walking on the sidewalk near the Shermans’ mansion on Dec. 13, 2017.

Police have reportedly conducted at least 250 witness interviews, received 1,255 tips from the public, and obtained 41 warrants since the start of the investigation.

Barry Sherman, with a net worth estimated at between $5 billion and $10 billion, was the founder of pharmaceutical giant Apotex, the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in Canada, and the only company that produces hydroxychloroquine, the controversial drug some medical experts used to treat COVID-19. During the pandemic, some countries added the product to their treatment protocols, according to a statement made by Apotex on March 20, 2020.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Developing Military Version Of Starlink Satellites

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced that it would expand its Starlink satellite system into the military sphere with a new national security line called Starshield.

The new program, unveiled on Dec. 2, will build on its launch and satellite communications technology and provide additional capabilities to provide a secured satellite network for government entities.

“Starlink is designed for consumer & commercial use, Starshield is designed for gov use, with focus on three areas: Earth Observation, Communications, Hosted Payloads,” said Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, and analyst in a tweet.

The “hosted payloads,” system allows users to utilize a satellite bus, which is the body of the spacecraft, as a flexible platform.

The most likely customers of Starshield would appear to be the U.S. military and intelligence community, which have already invested heavily into SpaceX’s satellite technology, with key stakes in the Starlink system.

“While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use,” wrote the company on its website.

“SpaceX’s ongoing work with the Department of Defense and other partners demonstrates our ability to provide in-space and on-ground capability at scale.”

The Ukrainian military relied heavily on Starlink’s constellation network of more than 3,200 communication satellites, which provides broadband internet access, but Musk attempted to terminate funding for Kyiv’s use of the Starlink system in October.

However, he later reversed course after the U.S. Department of Defense offered to negotiate to pick up the tab for the effort and partially due to online threats by Ukrainian officials, reported Defense News.

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Elon Musk names new timeline for human brain-chip tests

Elon Musk has claimed that a wireless chip developed by his company Neuralink could start human clinical trials in six months. The world’s richest man also stated that the biotech startup is “confident” that their device could restore movement in those who suffer from paralysis.

Speaking at a “show and tell” event in the company’s headquarters in California on Wednesday, Musk showcased a brain-computer interface, which looks like a stack of several coins with hundreds of thin threads and is intended to be implanted in humans by a surgical robot.

Such a device could potentially restore full-body functionality to those who have a severed spinal cord, or bring back vision to people that had never seen, Musk claimed.

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Lawsuit alleges billionaire investor Leon Black raped a woman inside Jeffrey Epstein’s home

Billionaire investor Leon Black has been sued by a woman alleging he “brutal[ly]” raped her at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in spring 2002.

Cheri Pierson names both Black — the co-founder and former CEO of private equity behemoth Apollo Global Management — and the estate of the late Epstein as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in New York court on Monday.

Pierson alleges Epstein arranged for her to give Black a massage on the third floor of Epstein’s New York City mansion, which she agreed to in exchange for money that she “desperately needed” to care for her young daughter. Instead, she alleges, Black raped her in a “brutal attack” that left her “swollen, torn, and bleeding.”

“By the time Ms. Pierson exited the massage suite and rode down the elevator with Black, she could barely walk out of the house onto the sidewalk, as she was in excruciating pain and still in shock,” said the complaint filed by law firm Wigdor LLP.

Black denied the allegations Monday. His attorney, Susan Estrich of Estrich Goldin, said in a statement that the claims “are categorically false and part of a scheme to extort money from Mr. Black by threatening to destroy his reputation.” According to Forbes, Black’s net worth is $9 billion.

The former Wall Street tycoon — who stepped down as CEO of Apollo in January 2021 after an independent review of his ties to convicted sex offender Epstein — expressed regret for his dealings with Epstein in a letter to investors in 2020. The New York Times reported Black may have paid up to $75 million to Epstein for consulting and other services, according to two people with knowledge of the transactions, adding that the two “often socialized and dined together.”

Black is also facing claims from Russian model Guzel Ganieva, who said he sexually abused her and then falsely accused her of extortion when she spoke out. Black has denied those allegations as well.

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