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In France, civil servants will ditch Zoom and Teams for a homegrown video conference system. Soldiers in Austria are using open source office software to write reports after the military dropped Microsoft Office. Bureaucrats in a German state have also turned to free software for their administrative work. Around Europe, governments and institutions are seeking to reduce their use of digital services from U.S. Big Tech companies and turning to domestic or free alternatives. The push for digital sovereignty is gaining attention as the Trump administration strikes an increasingly belligerent posture toward the continent, highlighted by recent tensions over Greenland that intensified fears that Silicon Valley giants could be compelled to cut off access. Concerns about data privacy and worries that Europe is not doing enough to keep up with the United States and Chinese tech leadership are also fueling the drive. The French government referenced some of these concerns when it announced last week that 2.5 million civil servants would stop using video conference tools from U.S. providers including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and GoTo Meeting by 2027 and switch to Visio, a homegrown service. The objective is to put an end to the use of non-European solutions, to guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool, the announcement said. We cannot risk having our scientific exchanges, our sensitive data, and our strategic innovations exposed to non-European actors, David Amiel, a civil service minister, said in a press release. Microsoft said it continues to partner closely with the government in France and respect the importance of security, privacy, and digital trust for public institutions. The company said it is focused on providing customers with greater choice, stronger data protection, and resilient cloud services ensuring data stays in Europe, under European law, with robust security and privacy protections. Zoom, Webex and GoTo Meeting did not respond to requests for comment. French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing digital sovereignty for years. But theres now a lot more political momentum behind this idea now that we need to de-risk from U.S. tech, Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at the Eurasia Group. It feels kind of like theres a real zeitgeist shift, Reiners said It was a hot topic at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of global political and business elites last month in Davos, Switzerland. The European Commission’s official for tech sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, told an audience that Europe’s reliance on others can be weaponized against us. Thats why its so important that we are not dependent on one country or one company when it comes to very critical fields of our economy or society, she said, without naming countries or companies. A decisive moment came last year when the Trump administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor after the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an ally of President Donald Trump. The sanctions led Microsoft to cancel Khan’s ICC email, a move that was first reported by The Associated Press and sparked fears of a kill switch that Big Tech companies can use to turn off service at will. Microsoft maintains it kept in touch with the ICC throughout the process that resulted in the disconnection of its sanctioned official from Microsoft services. At no point did Microsoft cease or suspend its services to the ICC. Microsoft President Brad Smith has repeatedly sought to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties, the company’s press office said, and pointed to an interview he did last month with CNN in Davos in which he said that jobs, trade and investment. as well as security, would be affected by a rift over Greenland. Europe is the American tech sectors biggest market after the United States itself. It all depends on trust. Trust requires dialogue, Smith said. Other incidents have added to the movement. There’s a growing sense that repeated EU efforts to rein in tech giants such as Google with blockbuster antitrust fines and sweeping digital rule books haven’t done much to curb their dominance. Billionaire Elon Musk is also a factor. Officials worry about relying on his Starlink satellite internet system for communications in Ukraine. Washington and Brussels wrangled for years over data transfer agreements, triggered by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowdens revelations of U.S. cyber-snooping. With online services now mainly hosted in the cloud through data centers, Europeans fear that their data is vulnerable. U.S. cloud providers have responded by setting up so-called sovereign cloud operations, with data centers located in European countries, owned by European entities and with physical and remote access only for staff who are European Union residents. The idea is that only Europeans can take decisions so that they cant be coerced by the U.S., Reiners said. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein last year migrated 44,000 employee inboxes from Microsoft to an open source email program. It also switched from Microsoft’s SharePoint file sharing system to Nextcloud, an open source platform, and is even considering replacing Windows with Linux and telephones and videoconferencing with open source systems. We want to become independent of large tech companies and ensure digital sovereignty, Digitalization Minister Dirk Schrödter said in an October announcement. The French city of Lyon said last year that it’s deploying free office software to replace Microsoft. Denmarks government and the cities of Copenhagen and Aarhus have also been trying out open-source software. We must never make ourselves so dependent on so few that we can no longer act freely, Digital Minister Caroline Stage Olsen wrote on LinkedIn last year. Too much public digital infrastructure is currently tied up with very few foreign suppliers. The Austrian military said it has also switched to LibreOffice, a software package with word processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs that mirrors Microsoft 365’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The Document Foundation, a nonprofit based in Germany that’s behind LibreOffice, said the military’s switch reflects a growing demand for independence from single vendors. Reports also said the military was concerned that Microsoft was moving file storage online to the cloud the standard version of LibreOffice is not cloud-based. Some Italian cities and regions adopted the software years ago, said Italo Vignoli, a spokesman for he Document Foundation. Back then, the appeal was not needing to pay for software licenses. Now, it’s the main reason is to avoid being locked into a proprietary system. At first, it was: we will save money and by the way, we will get freedom, Vignoli said. Today it is: we will be free and by the way, we will also save some money. Kelvin Chan AP business writer Associated Press writer Molly Quell contributed to this report.
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The Gates Foundation will not change course in the face of massive foreign aid cuts, holding out hope that the U.S. specifically will return to funding the global health projects the foundation has long championed, its CEO said Tuesday. Instead, the foundation one of the largest in the world will concentrate at least 70% of its funding over the next 20 years on ending preventable maternal and child deaths and controlling key infectious diseases. A third goal focused on poverty will divide its work between U.S. education and agriculture in poorer countries. We are saying not only will we not be taking on new priorities, were actively narrowing our priorities against three core North Star goals, Mark Suzman said in an interview with The Associated Press as the foundation published an annual update on its plans Tuesday. In May, Bill Gates, who started the foundation with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000, announced it would close in 20 years, earlier than planned. In the letter Tuesday, Suzman gave more details about what work would end and what would continue. He also affirmed that the foundation would not rethink its plans given the cuts to foreign assistance by donor countries around the world. While these conditions will have significant repercussions for global health and development for the next few years, priorities can shift. Debt can be restructured. Generosity can return, Suzman wrote in the letter, referring also to the significant debt burden that many low- and middle-income countries carry, which eats into their public health budgets, for example. The foundation will renew its campaign for donor countries to fund global health, specifically, Suzman said, even as he acknowledged that overall funding levels were unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels. We definitely have not lost hope that the U.S. will stay engaged over the medium and longer term as a champion of global health, Suzman said. The foundation will renew its advocacy with campaigns that argue for saving the lives of pregnant women and young children. We think that is powerful and evocative, Suzman said. The U.S. has historically been the largest funder of global health. It’s not yet clear how much funding Congress and the Trump administration will ultimately allocate toward foreign assistance or global health this year, but the State Department has said foreign assistance going forward will look extremely different. This year, the U.S. refused to fund Gavi, which offers vaccinations to children around the world, but it did pledge to contribute to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, of which it has historically been the largest supporter. What Gates Foundation programs will end? The foundation will wind down its program that aimed to give more people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia access to digital financial services, with Suzman saying they think that goal will be met by 2030. The foundation also has planned the end of its program to help people move out of poverty in the U.S., which it launched in 2022 with a $460 million commitment. In 2023, Ryan Rippel, the head of the program, said they aimed to improve economic mobility for 50 million people in the U.S. who earn 200% of the poverty level or less, which was $29,160 in annual income for an individual at the time. The foundation said it hadn’t assessed the program’s impact against that goal specifically. The economic mobility work will continue in a modified form as a partnership announced in July to develop AI tools that benefit frontline workers. For the next five years, the foundation plans to hold its budget steady, spending $9 billion annually, regardless of market changes, Suzman said. They then anticipate increasing that amount as they seek to meet Gates commitment to spend the vast remainder of his fortune through the foundation by 2045. The foundation said in January that it would cap operating expenses at 14% of its annual budget and anticipated reducing its workforce by 2030. The proposed changes were developed before the U.S. government released files on Jeffrey Epstein that include mentions of Gates and unsubstantiated claims that a spokesperson called false. Betting on AI to make big gains in multiple areas The foundation is also betting on the potential of artificial intelligence tools in other areas, including U.S. education and agriculture, where it’s funded projects delivering information like weather conditions to small farmers. While U.S. education was an early focus for Gates and French Gates, Suzman said looking back, those efforts did not deliver the desired impact. However, they think AI applications could help a large number of students, teachers and schools. In January, the foundation announced a new $50 million partnership with OpenAI’s for-profit subsidiary to develop ways for primary health clinics in Rwanda and potentially other countries to use AI to amplify the reach of health workers and improve outcomes for patients. When the foundation works with corporations, it requires them to offer what they develop without any markup to poorer countries. “Wherever possible, were looking for things that are going be interoperable and open source to allow for these very new public goods,” Suzman said, meaning users aren’t locked into working with a specific company. John Halamka, a physician and president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, who has worked at the intersection of health care and technology for many years, said these types of projects need to empower the local municipality to develop and fine tune the AI model for their population. Halamka, who has previously worked with the Gates Foundation on projects but is not involved in this initiative, sad interventions also need to meet patients at their level of comfort and trust with the technologies. How do you ensure these kinds of tools will be used, trusted, adopted?” he asked. “And what are you doing to make the population comfortable with the use of these new technologies? ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. Thalia Beaty, Associated Press
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The internet-famous monks that have captured the attention of the world on their cross-country “walk for peace” are in the final stretch of their 2,300-mile journey. The group of around 19 Buddhist monks and their rescue dog companion, Aloka, have been trekking from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to promote world peace. They began their walk on October 26, 2025. The journey was expected to take 120 days. Despite the recent frigid temperatures and snow storms, theyre ahead of schedule. According to a recent post on the groups Facebook page, they plan to arrive in Washington, D.C., one week from today, Tuesday, February 10, 2026. While the exact route and schedule could change, the current pace has them completing the journey in 108 days. On February 2, 2026the 100th day of their walkthe monks arrived in Richmond, Virginia. Today, theyre making their way from Richmond to Ashland, Virginia. Their Facebook page notes that they are walking to raise awareness of inner peace and mindfulness across America and the world. The movement has drawn widespread positive attention. Massive crowds of supporters have gathered to welcome the monks as they make their way to each planned stop along their route. The final stretch: Less than 100 miles left to walk The monks shared their most current schedule on Facebook. Heres what to expect: February 10, 2026: The monks will visit the Washington National Cathedral. February 11, 2026: The group will host a meditation retreat in the afternoon and evening. February 12, 2026: The monks will depart Washington, D.C., by bus for Fort Worth, Texas. The post read, We look forward to welcoming everyone with open hearts as we complete this peaceful journey together. Your presence would be a blessing and a gift to us all. More details will be made available as they are confirmed. If you want to stay up to date on the group’s whereabouts, check their Facebook page. They share updates about their daily route. You can also track their progress each day in this live interactive map. Over 5 million followers are feeling inspired by the movement The moments message of hope and peace has been well-received. Millions of people worldwide have been following the Walk for Peace movement through social media. Every social media post is flooded with positive comments from well-wishers. The monks have attracted a large social media presence that continues to grow. Since January 2, 2026, the Walk for Peace Facebook page has grown from 575,000 to 2.5 million followers. The Walk for Peace Instagram account, which had 618,000 followers, now has 1.8 million. The groups rescue dog, Aloka, has also attracted a massive social media following. The Aloka The Peace Dog Facebook page is nearing one million followers. In mid-January, Aloka had to have surgery to heal a leg injury. Hes doing well, but since hes still recovering, and has been traveling in an escort car that follows the walking route along with the monks.
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