Bill Gates refuted accusations contained in recently released Jeffrey Epstein files, calling them "absolutely absurd," according to The Verge on February 1, 2026. The accusations stem from emails suggesting Gates contracted an STD and wanted to secretly give Melinda Gates antibiotics.
The Verge reported that the emails were potentially drafted by Epstein on behalf of someone named Boris, who purportedly worked at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The specific content of the emails and the context surrounding them remain unclear, but the allegations have added to the scrutiny of Gates' past association with Epstein.
This development comes amidst other technology news, including the discovery of an error in Apple's MacBook Pro DFU (device firmware update) port documentation, as reported by Hacker News. According to Apple's support document, the DFU port location for 14-inch MacBook Pro models with M4 or M5 chips is the rightmost USB-C port when facing the left side of the Mac. However, a user with a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip found that the DFU port was actually on the right side, contrary to Apple's documentation. "For some damn reason, it matters which port your external disk is plugged into when you install or update macOS," the user noted.
In other cybersecurity news, Hacker News reported on February 2, 2026, that Notepad++ was targeted by state-sponsored hackers. The attack involved infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined for notepad-plus-plus.org. "The exact technical mechanism remains under investigation, though the compromise occurred at the hosting provider level rather than through vulnerabilities in Notepad code itself," according to the report. Traffic from certain targeted users was selectively redirected to attacker-controlled servers.
Also circulating on Hacker News was information about Xikipedia, a "pseudo social media feed" that algorithmically shows content from Simple Wikipedia. According to rebane2001, the creator, Xikipedia demonstrates how even a basic non-ML algorithm can quickly learn what a user engages with to suggest more similar content. "No data is collected or shared here, the algorithm runs locally and the data disappears once you refresh or close the tab," the creator stated.
Meanwhile, Ars Technica reported on an ongoing power struggle at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding institute directorships. The article highlighted the process of filling around 4,000 jobs across the federal government when a new presidential administration takes office, including political appointees who help carry out the president's agenda. Science agencies like the NIH tend to have fewer political appointees compared to other government agencies.
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