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Time of India
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
On the campaign trail, Elon Musk juggled drugs and family drama
Elon Musk As Elon Musk became one of Donald Trump's closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $275 million to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities. Musk's drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it. It is unclear whether Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting Cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview. At the same time, Musk's family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children, according to documents and interviews. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo On Wednesday evening, Musk announced that he was ending his stint with the government, after lamenting how much time he had spent on politics instead of his businesses. Musk and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment this week about his drug use and personal life. He has previously said he was prescribed ketamine for depression, taking it about every two weeks. And he told his biographer, "I really don't like doing illegal drugs." The White House did not respond to questions about whether it had asked Musk to take drug tests. After this article was published on Friday morning, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, issued a statement to The New York Times crediting Musk with helping cut government waste. He declined to comment on Musk's drug use. As a large government contractor, Musk's aerospace firm, SpaceX, must maintain a drug-free workforce and administers random drug tests to its employees. But Musk has received advance warning of the tests, according to people close to the process. SpaceX did not respond to questions about those warnings. Musk, who joined the president's inner circle after making a vast fortune on cars, satellites and rocket ships, has long been known for grandiose statements and a mercurial personality. Supporters see him as an eccentric genius whose slash-and-burn management style is key to his success. But last year, as he jumped into the political arena, some people who knew him worried about his frequent drug use, mood swings and fixation on having more children. This account of his behavior is based on private messages obtained by The New York Times as well as interviews with more than a dozen people who have known or worked with him. This year, some of his longtime friends have renounced him, pointing to some of his public conduct. "Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more," said Philip Low, a neuroscientist and onetime friend of Musk's who criticized him for his Nazi-like gesture at a rally. And some women are challenging Musk for control of their children. One of his former partners, Claire Boucher, the musician known as Grimes, has been fighting with Musk over their 5-year-old son, known as X. Musk is extremely attached to the boy, taking him to the Oval Office and high-profile gatherings that are broadcast around the world. Boucher has privately complained that the appearances violate a custody settlement in which she and Musk agreed to try to keep their children out of the public eye, according to people familiar with her concerns and the provision, which has not been previously reported. She has told people that she worries about the boy's safety, and that frequent travel and sleep deprivation are harming his health. Another mother, the right-leaning writer Ashley St. Clair, revealed in February that she had a secret relationship with Musk and had given birth to his 14th known child. Musk offered her a large settlement to keep his paternity concealed, but she refused. He sought a gag order in New York to force St. Clair to stop speaking publicly, she said in an interview. A Ketamine Habit Musk has described some of his mental health issues in interviews and on social media, saying in one post that he has felt "great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress." He has denounced traditional therapy and antidepressants. He plays video games for hours on end. He struggles with binge eating, according to people familiar with his habits, and takes weight-loss medication. And he posts day and night on his social media platform, X. Musk has a history of recreational drug use, The Wall Street Journal reported last year. Some board members at Tesla, his electric vehicle company, have worried about his use of drugs, including Ambien, a sleep medication. In an interview in March 2024, journalist Don Lemon pressed him on his drug use. Musk said he took only "a small amount" of ketamine, about once every two weeks, as a prescribed treatment for negative moods. "If you've used too much ketamine, you can't really get work done, and I have a lot of work," he said. He had actually developed a far more serious habit, the Times found. Musk had been using ketamine often, sometimes daily, and mixing it with other drugs, according to people familiar with his consumption. The line between medical use and recreation was blurry, troubling some people close to him. He also took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms at private gatherings across the United States and in at least one other country, according to those who attended the events. The Food and Drug Administration has formally approved the use of ketamine only as an anesthetic in medical procedures. Doctors with a special license may prescribe it for psychiatric disorders like depression. But the agency has warned about its risks, which came into sharp relief after the death of actor Matthew Perry. The drug has psychedelic properties and can cause dissociation from reality. Chronic use can lead to addiction and problems with bladder pain and control. By the spring of last year, Musk was ramping up criticism of President Joe Biden, particularly his policies on illegal immigration and diversity initiatives. Musk was also facing federal investigations into his businesses. Regulators were looking into crashes of Tesla's self-driving cars and allegations of racism at its factories, among other complaints. "There are at least half a dozen initiatives of significance to take me down," he wrote in a text message to someone close to him last May. "The Biden administration views me as the #2 threat after Trump." "I can't be president, but I can help Trump defeat Biden and I will," he added. He publicly endorsed Trump in July. Around that time, Musk told people that his ketamine use was causing bladder issues, according to people familiar with the conversations. On Oct. 5, he appeared with Trump at a rally for the first time, bouncing up and down around the candidate. That evening, Musk shared his excitement with a person close to him. "I'm feeling more optimistic after tonight," he wrote in a text message. "Tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix." "This is not something on the chessboard, so they will be quite surprised," Musk added about an hour later. "'Lasers' from space." After Trump won, Musk rented a cottage at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect's Florida resort, to assist with the transition. Musk attended personnel meetings and sat in on phone calls with foreign leaders. And he crafted plans to overhaul the federal government under the new Department of Government Efficiency. Family Secrets Musk has also been juggling the messy consequences of his efforts to produce more babies. By 2022, Musk, who has married and divorced three times, had fathered six children in his first marriage (including one who died in infancy), as well as two with Boucher. She told people she believed they were in a monogamous relationship and building a family together. But while a surrogate was pregnant with their third child, Boucher was furious to discover that Musk had recently fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, an executive at his brain implant company, Neuralink, according to people familiar with the situation. Musk was by then sounding an alarm that the world's declining birthrates would lead to the end of civilization, publicly encouraging people to have children and donating $10 million to a research initiative on population growth. Privately, he was spending time with Simone and Malcolm Collins, prominent figures in the emerging pronatalist movement, and urging his wealthy friends to have as many children as possible. He believed the world needed more intelligent people, according to people aware of the conversations. Collins declined to comment on his relationship with Musk, but said, "Elon is one of the people taking this cause seriously." Even as Musk fathered more children, he favored his son X. By the fall of 2022, during a period when he and Boucher were broken up, he began traveling with the boy for days at a time, often without providing advance notice, according to people familiar with his actions. Boucher reconciled with Musk, only to get another unpleasant surprise. In August 2023, she learned that Zilis was expecting a third child with Musk via surrogacy and was pregnant with their fourth. Boucher and Musk began a contentious custody battle, during which Musk kept X for months. They eventually signed the joint custody agreement that specified keeping their children out of the spotlight. By mid-2023, unknown to either Boucher or Zilis, Musk had started a romantic relationship with St. Clair, the writer, who lives in New York City. St. Clair said in an interview that at first, Musk told her he wasn't dating anyone else. But when she was about six months pregnant, he acknowledged that he was romantically involved with Zilis, who went on to become a more visible fixture in Musk's life. St. Clair said that Musk told her he had fathered children around the world, including one with a Japanese pop star. He said he would be willing to give his sperm to anyone who wanted to have a child. "He made it seem like it was just his altruism and he generally believed these people should just have children," St. Clair said. St. Clair said that when she was in a delivery room giving birth in September, Musk told her over disappearing Signal messages that he wanted to keep his paternity and their relationship quiet. On election night, St. Clair and Musk both went to Mar-a-Lago to celebrate Trump's victory. But she had to pretend that she hardly knew him, she said. He offered her $15 million and $100,000 a month until their son turned 21, in exchange for her silence, according to documents reviewed by the Times and first reported by the Journal. But she did not want her son's paternity to be hidden. After she went public in February, ahead of a tabloid story, she sued Musk to acknowledge paternity and, later, to get emergency child support. Musk sought a gag order, claiming that any publicity involving the child, or comments by St. Clair on her experience, would be a security risk for the boy. 'No Sympathy for This Behavior' Some of Musk's onetime friends have aired concerns about what they considered toxic public behavior. In a January newsletter explaining why their friendship had ended, Sam Harris, a public intellectual, wrote that Musk had used his social media platform to defame people and promote lies. "There is something seriously wrong with his moral compass, if not his perception of reality," Harris wrote. Later that month, at a Trump inauguration event, Musk thumped his chest and thrust his hand diagonally upward, resembling a fascist salute. "My heart goes out to you," he told the crowd. "It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured." Musk dismissed the resulting public outcry, saying he had made a "positive gesture." Low, who is chief executive of NeuroVigil, a neurotechnology company, was outraged by the performance. He wrote Musk a sharp email, shared with the Times, cursing him "for giving the Nazi salute." When Musk didn't respond to the message, Low posted his concerns on social media. "I have no sympathy for this behavior," he wrote on Facebook, referring to the gesture as well as other behaviors. "At some point, after having repeatedly confronted it in private, I believe the ethical thing to do is to speak out, forcefully and unapologetically." The next month, Musk once again found himself under scrutiny, this time for an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington. As he walked onto the stage, he was handed a chain saw from one of his political allies, Javier Milei, the president of Argentina. "This is the chain saw for bureaucracy!" Musk shouted to the cheering crowd. Some conference organizers told the Times that they did not notice anything out of the ordinary about his behavior behind the scenes. But during an onstage interview, he spoke in disjointed bouts of stuttering and laughing, with sunglasses on. Clips of it went viral as many viewers speculated about possible drug use.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Why Delhi May Buck The Heavy Rain Trend
New Delhi: Delhi recorded its wettest May since 1901 as the city logged 185.9mm of rainfall, including two spells of heavy showers. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted an above-normal monsoon for the Delhi-Haryana-Chandigarh sub-division. An analysis of past data shows that the capital usually records two to three heavy rainy days during the monsoon, which inundate the city. When the southwest monsoon arrived in the city on June 28 last year, Delhi experienced a day of extremely heavy rain. Safdarjung, the city's base station, logged 228.1mm. It was the highest rainfall recorded in a day in June since 1936. It brought the city to a halt, inundating almost all of Delhi, uprooting several trees, gridlocking traffic for hours, hampering flight movement following the collapse of the canopy at IGI Airport's Terminal 1, disrupting power supply, and causing four deaths. However, the heavy rain continued during the monsoon. Safdarjung witnessed two more heavy-rain days in Aug 2024. Some parts of the city, including the Ridge and Pitampura, also recorded heavy showers in July last year. An analysis of IMD's data for the monsoon period from June 1 to Sept 30 shows that seven heavy-rain days during the monsoon in 2021 was the highest in at least 60 years. Delhi saw two days of heavy rainfall in the monsoon of 2023 and just one such day in 2022. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now No heavy-rain days were seen in the monsoons of 2018 to 2020, but two such days each were reported in 2017 and 2015. Very heavy and extremely heavy rainy days are uncommon in Delhi. During the monsoons from 2011-2024, the capital saw just five very heavy rainy days and only one extremely heavy rainy day. Though IMD has not specified when the monsoon will arrive in the city, the Met department said that for Delhi, Chandigarh, and Haryana, a subdivision of the northwest region, the rainfall is expected to be greater than 114% of the long period average (LPA) in this monsoon season. "Delhi-Haryana-Chandigarh subdivision is likely to receive above-normal rainfall," IMD director-general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra has said. The normal onset date of the southwest monsoon in Delhi is June 27. At present, its progression is ahead of the usual schedule. The monsoon arrived in Kerala on May 24, seven days earlier than its usual arrival of June 1. It reached Mumbai on May 26, ahead of its typical onset date of June 11. "We are monitoring the progress of the monsoon," an official said. The capital received 1,029.9mm of rainfall last monsoon, which was 62% above the LPA of 640.4mm. In the monsoon season of 2023 and 2022, Delhi logged 660.8 and 516.9mm of rainfall, respectively. However, 2021 was the wettest monsoon since 1964, as Safdarjung logged 1,176.4mm of rainfall. According to the IMD, trace to 2.4 mm of rainfall recorded in 24 hours is considered very light rain, while light rainfall is between 2.5mm and 15.5mm. Rainfall recorded between 15.6mm and 64.4mm is categorised as moderate, while rainfall is considered heavy when it is from 64.5mm to 115.5mm. Rainfall logged between 115.6mm and 204.4mm is categorised as very heavy. When the rainfall of above 204.5 mm is called extremely heavy rainfall. During the pre-monsoon season from March 1 to May 30, Delhi received 103.8 mm of rain — nearly double the normal 55.5 mm — placing it in the 'large excess' category for the pre-monsoon period. The city, overall, received 87% excess rainfall in the pre-monsoon period.
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Greater Noida plans 4km elevated road to DME
Noida: Greater Noida Authority has unveiled its plans for a 4km elevated road linking Ek Murti Chowk in Greater Noida West with NH-9 via Shahberi and Crossings Republik, for seamless connectivity between Greater Noida, Greater Noida West, Ghaziabad and Delhi via the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. The 8km stretch, which is dotted by condominiums, turns into a daily gridlock, one extending till the DME, with hundreds of vehicles commuting between the NCR cities. The snarls are only expected to worsen on the key link road once Noida International Airport becomes operational later this year. Earlier this month, Greater Noida Authority widened a three-kilometre stretch between Iteda roundabout and Crossings Republik via Shahberi to ease congestion in the area. An underpass is also under construction on the Taj Expressway near Gaur Chowk in the area. Greater Noida Authority board that approved the Rs 400-crore elevated road project in March has approached NHAI for executing the project and allocated funds for the detailed project report that is expected to take another 4-5 months. The road is proposed to have six lanes and start from Ek Murti roundabout in Greater Noida West's Sector 4 on the 130-metre-wide road, cross Shahberi and Ghaziabad's Crossings Republik, and connect with the Delhi-Meerut Expressway and NH-9. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo "Greater Noida West and Crossings Republik in Ghaziabad are hubs of high-rise apartments, but poor connectivity between the two cities causes daily traffic jams on this stretch. Traffic is expected to worsen as more people move into new housing projects. The elevated road is expected to benefit commuters travelling to and from Greater Noida, and also those commuting to Noida airport in Jewar," Greater Noida CEO Ravi Kumar NG. According to an estimate, the population in the area will reach 15 to 20 lakhs in the next 10 years. The board has classified it as a regional connectivity road and proposed a funding collaboration between GNIDA, Noida Authority, and YEIDA. Sources, however, told TOI that Noida and Yamuna Authority could be reluctant to finance a project within GNIDA's jurisdiction. The elevated road is one of the many connectivity projects in the region, like Noida expressway bypass and Chilla Elevated Road, which are on the drawing boards, anticipating heavy traffic movement once the Noida airport becomes functional.
Time of India
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
BJP passes motion to thank Modi for Op Sindoor, economic milestone
Bhopal: A day before the arrival of PM Narendra Modi for the Women Empowerment Maha Sammelan, the BJP state unit on Friday passed a motion of thanks and expressed gratitude to Modi on India becoming the fourth largest economy of the world and for the success of Operation Sindoor . Modi is scheduled to reach Bhopal on Saturday at 11:15 am. He will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for various developmental projects and address a rally of over two lakh women to observe the 300th birth anniversary of queen Ahilyabai Holkar at Jambooree Maidan here. CM Mohan Yadav, BJP state president VD Sharma, party state in-charge Mahendra Singh and party state organisational general secretary Hitanand Sharma on Friday headed the meeting of office-bearers which passed the motion of thanks. The meeting with state cabinet ministers, divisional in-charges, MLAs, MPs, elected people's representatives and office-bearers was held at the state BJP office here to review the preparations for the arrival of Modi. Addressing the meeting, CM Yadav said this was the new India and a changing era under the leadership of Modi. "Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee's resolution to abrogate Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir has been realised under the leadership of Modi," the CM said. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo "On the strength of the public welfare schemes of the Modi govt, India today is moving towards the category of developed countries. After the cowardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the country's army has given a befitting reply to terrorist-backed Pakistan by carrying out Operation Sindoor. Under the leadership of the PM, India has become the fourth largest economy in the world," Yadav said. "When I became the chief minister, the per capita income of Madhya Pradesh was Rs 1.42 lakh, which has now increased to Rs 1.55 lakh. It will be doubled in the coming years. During the Congress rule, loans were taken to fill their coffers by using that money through corruption, but during the BJP rule, the money was spent on the all-round development and infrastructure of the state," he said. He said that under Operation Sindoor, Modi has taken difficult decisions for national interest. "Under the able leadership of PM Modi, the Army has broken the back of Pakistan by retaliating strongly. Our three armies demonstrated incomparable capabilities while staying within their borders. The PM gave a free hand to the forces to teach a lesson to culprits of the Pahalgam attack. Today's India has come before the world as a strong and capable nation," Yadav added. BJP state chief Sharma told reporters, "All office-bearers of the state BJP have passed a motion of thanks to PM Modi for the success of Operation Sindoor and for India having become the fourth largest economy. This was a historic achievement, and we will achieve the PM's target of India becoming the third largest economy by 2030."
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
No tobacco day: Smoking harms more than your lungs; It can damage your eggs as well
Long-term cigarette smoking has some obvious visible signs – coughing, yellowing teeth, discoloured fingernails, bad breath and others. In more severe cases, it leads to life-threatening diseases like lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart disease. What remains less talked about is smoking's silent damage to fertility. The harmful chemicals that poison the lungs and bloodstream travel through the body, leading to hormonal imbalance and disrupting normal reproductive functioning, putting fertility at risk. Even occasional smoking in the 20s and 30s, when reproductive health is typically at its peak, can compromise the quality of the egg and reduce the chances of conceiving naturally. Research suggests that women who smoke are at 40–60% higher risk of infertility compared to those who don't. Smoking affects more than the lungs Nicotine, the main harmful substance in tobacco, directly interferes with how hormones work in the body. For women, the presence of excess nicotine in the body often means a drop in oestrogen levels. This eventually disrupts the ovulation cycle and compromises the egg quality and quantity. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Smoking also accelerates the loss of eggs, affects the uterus' ability to support a pregnancy, and even makes fertility treatments like IVF less effective. Tobacco use can cause a 20% drop in ovarian reserve, meaning fewer eggs and a higher chance that the remaining ones may not be healthy. It also increases the risk of irregular periods, early menopause, and premature ovarian insufficiency – a condition where the ovaries stop working before the age of 40. How smoking affects pregnancy Women who smoke are also more likely to face issues like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and implantation failure during fertility treatments. And the ill-effects of smoking on a woman's health don't stop there. Smoking increases the risk of hormone-related health problems like breast cancer, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes as well. The most dangerous aspect is that even exposure to second-hand smoke can harm fertility by lowering egg quality and disrupting hormonal balance. Your body wants to heal Here's the part most people don't hear often: reproductive health can improve once you quit tobacco. Quitting smoking helps restore hormonal balance, enhance egg quality, and promote regular menstrual cycles. In some cases, these changes begin within just a few months. Over time, your body can reverse significant damage caused by tobacco. This No Tobacco Day, think beyond the lungs If you're planning a family or even just thinking about it for the future, quitting tobacco is one of the most powerful steps you can take today. Just like your lungs, your eggs too deserve a chance to breathe easy. (Dr. Lipsa Mishra, Fertility Specialist, Birla Fertility & IVF, Bhubaneswar) One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
