Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates appeared to back out of giving a keynote address at an AI summit in India on Thursday as fresh questions circle about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Gates was scheduled to address the AI Summit in India on behalf of his nonprofit, the Gates Foundation, that he launched with his now ex-wife, according to The New York Times.

“After careful consideration, and to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities, Mr. Gates will not be delivering his keynote address. The Gates Foundation will be represented by Ankur Vora, President of Africa and India Offices, who will speak later today at the Summit,” the Gates Foundation said in a statement on Thursday.

“The Gates Foundation remains fully committed to our work in India to advance our shared health and development goals,” it added.

Gates’ relationship with the late, disgraced financier Epstein, convicted in 2008 of sex crimes involving a minor, was revealed after Epstein died by suicide in his cell in a New York correctional facility in 2019. But the full extent of Gates’ relationship with Epstein, which lasted for years after Epstein’s conviction, is still unknown. Gates has since called his interactions with Epstein a “mistake.”

More questions were raised about Gates’ involvement with Epstein in the latest tranche of Epstein files released to the public last month. In the hundreds of thousands of pages of messages and other information, emails that Epstein wrote to himself say that the financier helped Gates acquire medication “in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls.”

Gates has dismissed the claim.

“These claims — from a proven, disgruntled liar — are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” a Gates representative has said.

Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda, divorced in 2021 for reasons that in part included Gates’ past relationship with Epstein. On Epstein’s message suggesting Gates was involved in extramarital relationships, Melinda Gates did not deny the allegations.

“For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” she said on an NPR podcast earlier this month.

“Whatever questions remain there of what — I can’t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,” she added. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”

An Indian illegal immigrant behind the wheel of a semi-truck allegedly caused a fatal accident on an Indiana road on Wednesday.

Sukhdeep Singh allegedly ran a red light before striking 64-year-old Terry Schultz in his pickup truck in Hendricks County, according to reports. Schultz died at the scene.

Federal law enforcement sources told The Daily Wire that Singh crossed the border illegally in 2018 and was released into the country because he was a minor at the time.

Singh had a valid work permit at the time of the crash and, according to Fox News, an Indiana commercial driver’s license.

The Indian national is currently in ICE custody, where he will be held without bond, per a Trump administration policy.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Thursday that deadly collisions involving illegal immigrants are becoming all too common.

“This tragedy comes less than two weeks after another illegal alien driving a semi-truck killed four innocent people in Indiana. It is incredibly dangerous for illegal aliens, who often don’t know our traffic laws or even English, to be operating semi-trucks on America’s roads. These tragedies are 100% preventable and we pray for the family and victim,” McLaughlin said.

“Thanks to ICE and our state and local partners in law enforcement, this criminal illegal alien is now off our roads,” she added.

The Hendricks County Sheriff’s department just released details about the fatal crash that happened at noon today in Avon.

According to multiple eyewitnesses a Freightliner semi-truck with trailer was traveling eastbound on US 36 when it ran the red light at the intersection of… pic.twitter.com/hFZOLmVrEP

— Angela Ganote (@angelaganote) February 18, 2026

Singh already had previous traffic violations on his record, according to Fox59. That included a ticket for lacking insurance after a car crash in January.

He also had three speeding tickets and a citation for no registration, the outlet reported.

One witness, Kate Breedlove, went to comfort Schultz as he took his last breaths, according to Fox59.

“I think there was a lot of chaos going on and I made it my job to be calming to him,” Breedlove recalled.

“I was just telling him everything was going to be okay. He was unresponsive, but at some point, I think he definitely took his last breath,” she said.

Republican Indiana Senator Jim Banks recently created a hotline “for truckers and those in the trucking industry to report concerns about carriers employing or contracting with drivers who are in the country illegally.”