Soros unveils $1B university plan, blasts Trump
George Soros says he’s injecting $1 billion into a new university network that the 89-year-old billionaire investor calls the “most important and most enduring project of my life.”
“And I would like to see it realized while I am still around,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps.
Soros, a vociferous critic of President Donald Trump, announced the plans at the end of a speech to reporters during which he criticized Trump as a “con man,” the “ultimate narcissist” and a “climate denier.”
The philanthropist who made his billions in the markets, also reiterated his criticisms of other alleged autocrats. He branded as dictators both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary — Soros’ native country.
Aside from the invective, Soros presented his plans for the Open Society University Network. His office said OSUN would pull together higher-education networks worldwide with “in-person and online discussions” — and will look for partners.
The network will be built around Soros’ Central European University and Bard College, north of New York City.
“To demonstrate our commitment to OSUN, we are contributing $1 billion to it,” he said. “But we can’t build a global network on our own; we will need partner institutions and supporters from all around the world to join us in this enterprise.”
“I consider OSUN the most important and enduring project of my life and I should like to see it implemented while I am still around,” Soros said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said climate protection may become a matter of survival for Europe and the entire planet.
“That’s why there is pressure to act,” Merkel said in a speech Thursday at the high-profile forum in Davos.
She said the world needs to act together, but at the same time each country has to contribute to help make Europe become “climate neutral” by 2050.
“These are obviously transformations of a gigantic historical scale,” Merkel said. “These transformations basically mean that in the next 30 years we have to leave behind the entire way of business and life that we got used to during the industrial age.”
She warned of conflicts in connection with the fight against climate change between those who deny climate change is happening and those who see it as the top priority. She said both sides need to continue talking to each other.
Referring to youth movements against climate change, Merkel said the “impatience of the youth” had to be received “positively and constructively.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will raise concerns over Great Britain’s potential use of Huawei technology in nextgeneration ultra-fast mobile networks when he visits London to meet his counterpart this weekend.
The British government, which is expected to make a final decision next week on the Chinese tech company’s future role, has indicated it may not entirely shun the company — in contrast to the U.S., which has voiced cyberespionage fears.
Mnuchin said Thursday at the World Economic Forum that he will discuss the issue — alongside other matters such as trade — when he meets Great Britain’s treasury chief, Sajid Javid, in London.