Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:

• The Big Read: Tech’s worries about privacy concerns are disappearing 

• The Top 5: The landscape designers who make Silicon Valley’s gardens bloom 

• Plus, our Recommendations: Life after “Conclave”; an original manosphere king; and crime up in the canyons

For the wealthy and powerful who want to change the world, Bill Gates has long been a North Star. His Gates Foundation and his efforts to spread the gospel behind the Giving Pledge—a vow taken by more than 240 billionaires to donate their entire fortunes—have defined much of modern philanthropy for the past quarter century. In those efforts, Gates pushed his peers to not only give more but give smarter. 

And with one fateful new action this week—his decision to close the Gates Foundation in 2045, much sooner than expected—Gates has become something else: the resistance to President Donald Trump. Or at least he’s offering a model for how a smart resistance might assemble.

Between now and 2045, the Gates Foundation will dispense its entire endowment and much of Gates’ personal fortune, spending well over $100 billion. This spending will intensify his philanthropy in the coming years as the foundation’s investment horizon shifts from decades into the future to a faster-approaching one (at least in philanthropic terms).

Gates is partly making the change to spend more on health initiatives at a time when AI and biotech could vastly change medicine. There’s another obvious reason: It’s an obvious indictment of Trump and the person who has been Trump’s left-hand man, Elon Musk. The recent Musk-led cuts to U.S. foreign aid amount to murder, Gates said in an interview with The New York Times about the foundation’s future. And, no, I’m not grossly misparaphrasing him, who told the Times this: “The world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.”

To combat Trump, Gates might’ve just cut the Democrats a big fat check. But political giving has never been his style, and why change now? The party is in clear disarray. Yet he is very much combating Trump in his decision to spend so much more in the coming years—doling out the funds directly to the on-the-ground efforts that matter most to him and to fill holes in support created by Trump. The billionaires who also want to fight against Trump might try Gates’ approach rather than entrusting their money to rudderless politicians.

Barry’s Big Reveal 

A pretty prominent person in media and tech came out as gay this week, and it is perhaps most notable for how it didn’t capture very much attention at all. That person was Barry Diller, IAC chair, who opened up about his sexuality (and his relationship with his wife, Diane von Furstenberg) in an excerpt from “Who Knew,” his forthcoming memoir, published in New York magazine. 

But the reaction to Diller is remarkable when you consider how just a decade ago a different tech titan, Peter Thiel, felt compelled to sue a publication out of existence because it had outed him. Obviously, cultural norms have shifted, and the stigma around homosexuality around has dramatically decreased in recent years (a reality I’ve lived firsthand). So perhaps the lack of attention paid to Diller’s reveal can serve as a reminder: What fuels the culture wars one moment can seem inconsequential more quickly than we might imagine.—Abram Brown

Weekend’s Latest Stories

The Big Read 

Meta Renews Work on Facial Recognition as Privacy Worries Fade

Just a couple years ago, Facebook felt compelled to discard work on facial recognition partly over fears of how the public—and regulators—would react. Now, Mark Zuckerberg and company are eagerly back at it, hard at work on new facial recognition to add to their hit smart glasses. 

Zuckerberg’s decision to resume pursuit of such technology reflects a subtle alteration in Silicon Valley’s attitude toward privacy, which comes amid a mounting wave of change propelled by the Trump administration, sweeping across tech and the rest of corporate America. For Weekend’s latest Big Read, our Kalley Huang and Catherine Perloff show how the new mindset extends well beyond Facebook. It’s deeply evident at Google, too, which recently scaled back a privacy initiative it once considered a top priority.

The Top Five

The Garden Designers Who Make Silicon Valley Beautiful

If your weekend plans beyond Weekend involve some lawn projects that seem more like extra work than relaxation, why not get in a professional? Todd Plummer, a frequent Weekend contributor, has dug around and unearthed a list of the finest landscape designers, all of whom know how to handle a crowd of technorati who want their roses in bloom at download speed. 

Abram Brown, editor of The Information’s Weekend section, wonders if Juul and the Vatican might be more natural business partners than they’d think. Reach him at [email protected].

Listening: “Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer” (Audible) 

Jerry Springer, the former talk show host, is one of those pop culture figures who has faded to a level of obscurity that would shock anyone who remembers his 1990s heyday. In fact, I bet his identity could stump most Zoomers in Trivial Pursuit (unless “The Jerry Springer Show” has been a source of TikTok memes I’ve missed). 

Nonetheless, the host of “Final Thoughts: Jerry Springer” insists on reconsidering Springer. And since the pod’s host is Leon Neyfakh, who created Slate’s megahit “Slow Burn” series, it’s quite worth it—even for anyone who doesn’t think back on Springer’s high jinks with nostalgia. Neyfakh dissects exactly how the proletarian doltishness of Springer’s show sparked off a moral panic not unlike the one unfolding around the manosphere bros who are currently clogging up podcast feeds.—A.B. 

Reading: Robert Harris, the Guy Behind “Conclave” 

Before “Conclave,” the Oscar-nominated film, and before the most recent Vatican conclave concluded only after the cardinals had to watch “Conclave” to understand how to conduct their own conclave, there was “Conclave,” the novel by Robert Harris, which served as the basis of the film. 

After all the robe swishing of the past few weeks, I expect we’re all a little conclaved out. Fortunately, Harris is an industrious and reliably enjoyable sort, as he’s been since his start: 1992’s “Fatherland,” an alt-history affair that subverts the typical detective novel in a world controlled by a Nazi Germany that triumphed in World War II. Indeed, a Harris novel is never dull, and in addition to “Fatherland,” I also quite liked “The Ghost” (2007), which thoroughly dissuaded me from ever taking up ghostwriting, as well as Harris’ most recent effort, “Act of Oblivion” (2022), a political thriller that crisscrosses Britain and America in the 17th century. It’s fast paced and enveloping—a considerable feat given how much of the action plays out between monthslong voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. For the moment, I’m not exactly sure who might need “Act of Oblivion” as a manual, though it does have much to say about the perils of a country run on a cult of personality.—A.B.

Watching: “Dark Winds” (AMC+) 

Over the last decade, AMC has seemed to shamble along with about as much life as the undead creatures that populate so many of its shows. But the unmistakable whiff of decay around the network has also meant a few of its series have gone criminally underappreciated: As I’ve previously mentioned, “Interview with a Vampire” is one—and so is “Dark Winds,” a detective series set in 1970s Navajo territory. The show, which just finished its third season, made the same commendable casting decision that won FX’s “Reservation Dogs” so much acclaim, choosing almost entirely Native American actors. The fellow leading the squad of tribal police through its many adventures is Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon from “Westworld”). Joe is full of just the truest grit, a person as unfazed by lethal, ketamine-laced darts as by the constant specter of possible blood magic.—A.B.

Final Thought

Chat, what are midichlorians?