'Three more please': Elon Musk wants parents to volunteer to make up for the ones with none
Musk, who has repeatedly warned of the risks of population collapse, believes low fertility rates pose a serious threat to economic stability, technological advancement, and societal survival.
He has been a strong advocate for policies that encourage larger families, especially in ageing countries such as Japan, South Korea, and many parts of Europe, where declining populations are already straining healthcare systems and labour markets.Global fertility rates have plummeted from an average of 5.3 children per woman in 1963 to under 2.5 today, according to recent reports. If this trend continues, experts warn of severe consequences—labour shortages, stagnating economies, and increased social burdens.For Musk, the message is simple: If we want a thriving future, more kids are the solution.
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Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Clueless pundits on television': Karoline Leavitt torches experts who gave their verdict 'Putin won, Trump lost'
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt shut down naysayers who gave their verdict on Trump-Putin meeting even before the Alaska summit. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt launched a blistering attack on all naysayers who denounced President Donald Trump's Alaska meeting with Russian presidnet Vladimir Putin even before it was held, as they said Trump should not have invited Putin to the US. "The so-called experts in the foreign policy establishment, whose record is nothing but endless wars, trillions of wasted taxpayer dollars, and dead Americans, have the nerve to try and lecture President Trump, who has solved 7 global conflicts in seven months - about peace," Leavitt said. Vice President JD Vance praised how Karoline Leavitt shut down all the negative rumblings in her press conference. "Karoline Leavitt lighting the American media up for lying about our negotiations with Russia and Ukraine," Vance posted. "One thing that has absolutely not changed is the media's negative and downright FALSE coverage of President Trump and his foreign policy accomplishments! From the beginning of this entire process, much of the left-wing media has been actively rooting against the President of the United States in the pursuit of peace," the White House spokesperson said in rage. Leavitt said the media was "aghast" that Trump was going to treat Putin like a world leader. "Initially, the media ridiculously claimed that President Trump was somehow beholden to Russia for even agreeing to have a face-to-face discussion with President Putin inside of the United States." "They were aghast that President Trump would treat another world leader like a world leader." "The media relentlessly attacked President Trump and claimed he suffered a, quote, 'major defeat' for not immediately emerging with a final agreement. Even though he said heading into that meeting, this was a meeting to listen and to understand how to move the ball forward," Leavitt said. "All weekend following those historic US-Russia bilateral talks, we listened to clueless pundits on television trying but failing to claim that the president had 'failed'," Leavitt said.
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Mobile Internet Suspended in 2 Haryana Districts Amid Unrest Over Teacher's Death
Chandigarh: Amid widespread public outrage over the death of a 19-year-old teacher, the Haryana government on Tuesday ordered the suspension of mobile internet, and bulk SMS and dongle services, while allowing voice calls, in Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri districts for 48 hours. Manisha's body was found in a field in Bhiwani on August 13. She had been missing since August 11, after leaving school, purportedly to inquire about admission at a nursing college. The death caused massive outrage, with people blocking key roads in the district and the opposition parties, including the Congress, demanding a CBI probe. Although the order does not make a reference to the teacher's death, sources said it has been issued in the wake of developments pertaining to the case. Issued by Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Sumita Misra, the order said that internet suspension will be in force from 11 am on August 19 till 11 am on August 21. "It has been brought to my notice by ADGP/CID, Haryana and Deputy Commissioner, Bhiwani & Charkhi Dadri vide their requests dated August 19 that there is an apprehension of causing tension, annoyance, agitation, damage to public & private property and disturbance of public peace & tranquillity in the district Bhiwani & Charkhi Dadri... This order is issued to prevent any disturbance of peace and public order," it said. The order further stated that the internet could be misused to spread inflammatory material and false rumours through social media or messaging services to disrupt peace and damage public assets. "In order to stop the spread of misinformation and rumours through various social media platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter on mobile phones and SMS for facilitation and mobilisation of mobs of agitators and demonstrators who can cause serious loss of life and damage to public and private properties by indulging in arson or vandalism and other types of violent activities," it said. Meanwhile, the emergence of a "suicide note" in the death case on Monday turned the investigation on its head. Bhiwani Superintendent of Police Sumit Kumar had said the note was found near Manisha's body in a bag, which also had her Aadhaar card and other documents. He also said that there was proof of Manisha buying insecticide. "In the viscera sample, the presence of insecticide has been confirmed in the body. So, there is self-purchase, there is a suicide note, there is poison in the body," he said. The playschool teacher's family members, however, have insisted that she was murdered. The opposition parties have also flayed the BJP-led state government, claiming that the alleged murder was proof of a breakdown of law and order under the saffron party. Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the role of the state government and police had been negligent and irresponsible, and an "unfortunate attempt is being made to prove the whole case as a suicide."
New Indian Express
3 hours ago
- New Indian Express
The frightening power Laura Loomer wields in Trump's America
"#ProudIslamophobe". That's how Laura Loomer, far-right influencer and a close ally of US President Donald Trump, chooses to describe herself. As the New York Times noted, among the the 32-year-old's 1.7 million followers on her reactivated X account are Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller, Trump's chief domestic policy adviser. Talk of having the eyes and ears of an establishment... It was an online pressure campaign from this "blunt instrument" that encouraged the US government to recently halt visas for children injured in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza who are in need of urgent medical care. With Loomer egging her base on, the self-proclaimed "Land of the Free" decided, without the slightest compunction, that freedom does not extend to dying children. Why? Simply because Trump's red-hat fan base threw a temper tantrum online. Loomer is not some random troll. She has built a career on hate-mongering and manufactured outrage, and was banned from nearly every major platform – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even ride-sharing apps. An "investigative journalist and free spirit", according to her Twitter bio, who swears by Trump, Loomer has also called herself a "pro-white nationalist". Her resume reads like a greatest hits of conspiracy nonsense: Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings "staged", Parkland shooters magnetically aligned with ISIS, mail bomb attempts a "false flag", the Buffalo mass shooting dismissed as a Democratic hoax. Loomer ran for Congress in Florida—losing both times—but not before handcuffing herself to Twitter HQ in protest and jumping Nancy Pelosi's fence for grabbing headlines. Yet despite these circus acts, her influence has only grown under Trump, who praises her as a "very good patriot" and allows her to play loyalty enforcer from the shadows. This is no longer fringe behaviour; it is shaping policy with real consequences—including for the dying children fleeing war-ravaged Gaza. Misinformation with real consequences It all began when Loomer, once banned from X before Elon Musk's vanity purchase, took to the platform to spread conspiracy theories about a handful of Palestinian children who arrived in Houston and San Francisco for medical treatment. Loomer had decided that the sighs of relief of the badly-injured children were "jihadi chants" and claimed they were "doing the HAMAS terror whistle". "How is allowing for Islamic immigrants to come into the US America First policy?" she asked, going on to 'report' further Palestinian arrivals in Missouri and claiming that "several US Senators and members of Congress" had texted her to express their fury. Loomer also falsely claimed that she had "exclusively obtained" the clips she posted, but one was ripped off a medical aid charity's public Instagram account and the other was taken from the Houston Chronicle's YouTube channel. Loomer didn't stop there. She dived into the realm of fiction to claim that the injured children, including amputees arriving to get prosthetic legs, were "Islamic invaders from an Islamic terror hot zone", and demanded to know who in the State Department had "signed off" on their visas. "Is Rubio even aware of this?" Loomer wrote, in reference to the Secretary of State who was at that time in Alaska meeting Vladimir Putin. No MAGA post is complete without some fake statistic. In this one, Loomer claimed "95 per cent of Gazans voted for Hamas". That claim wasn't just wrong, it was laughably so—the kind of thing a two-second Google search could fix if only MAGA fanatics knew how to use anything beyond X and TruthSocial. Yet it was delivered with the blind confidence only found in the red-hat cult. In reality, Hamas won 44 per cent of the party list vote in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections across Gaza and the West Bank, losing three of the five Gaza districts to the secular Fatah party. There has been no election since. But why let reality get in the way when MAGA rage will do the trick? Just like clockwork, Republican lawmakers piled on. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas promised to "inquire", while Rep. Randy Fine of Florida called the arrivals a "national security risk". And the State Department folded. It announced that it was stopping visas for "individuals from Gaza". "All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days," the State Department said on its unofficial mouthpiece - its X handle. The language was cold, the tone distant - paperwork talk in the face of people fleeing bombardment, displacement, and starvation. An influence in Trump's orbit Loomer celebrated her win and pressed further, calling for all Gazans to be added to Trump's travel ban and declaring that "the US is not the world's hospital". More chilling than her success in denying basic rights through misinformation remains the influence she wields despite failing at basic fact-checking. She isn't just ranting into the void. Loomer has got several senior US security officials she deemed 'disloyal' to Trump dismissed. Loomer herself was quick to brag about it. "No other content creator or journalist has gotten as many Biden holdovers fired from the Trump admin!" she posted triumphantly on X. It was less a boast than a confession of just how dangerous her influence has become. In an interview to ABC News, Loomer proudly claimed, "I don't keep count anymore". "There's too many to keep track of," she said when asked how many officials she had helped force out. Rep. Fine publicly commended Loomer after the visa change was announced, in an acknowledgment of the part she had played in changing the visa policy. "Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura," he wrote on X. 'Complicity with Israel's genocide' Outside the MAGA echo chamber, actual humans have expressed their horror. The Palestine Children's Relief Fund, which has evacuated thousands of kids for treatment over three decades, called the visa halt "dangerous and inhumane". "Medical evacuations are a lifeline for the children of Gaza who would otherwise face unimaginable suffering or death due to the collapse of medical infrastructure in Gaza," they stressed. The Council on Islamic-American Relations called it "intentional cruelty wrapped in President Trump's 'Israel First" agenda", and added that it was "deeply ironic" that the Trump administration was banning sick children while "rolling out the red carpet for racists and indicted war criminals from the Israeli government". "This ban is just the latest example of our government's complicity with Israel's genocide, which is increasingly rejected by the American people," it continued. Indeed, conditions in Gaza are catastrophic. Children being left to starve to death and people lining up for food aid at the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) are being shot down daily. Hospitals are collapsing, medicines are running out and even journalists aren't safe. The suffering is staggering. Just one snapshot. Of these 19 hospitals that remain in Gaza, just 12 provide a variety of health services; the rest are limited to basic emergency care. The supply crisis in these hospitals is real. 52 per cent of essential medicines and 68 per cent of consumables are at zero stock, while blood and plasma are in persistent shortage. Beyond the numbers on the screen is the cold reality, which is way more devastating. AMERICA FIRST! The Trump way This is not the first time the US under Donald Trump has slammed its doors on an entire population. In 2017, he signed an executive order barring people from several Muslim-majority countries and shutting out refugees. It was ban that was condemned as cruel, inhumane, and said to be in clear violation of international law. It came after he openly demanded a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States" during his first presidential campaign. Now, in his second administration, the policy has been resurrected, widened, and repackaged. A new proclamation bars entry to people from a dozen countries—primarily African and Middle Eastern. Once again, it dresses up naked discrimination as "security". In practice, it demonises the vulnerable: people fleeing torturers, warlords, dictators. It is not policy. It is a licence to discriminate. Gaza's last lifelines are collapsing. How much longer will it be before an 'America First', driven by the likes of Laura Loomer, regains its moral compass?
