San Francisco:

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk today said he will move the headquarters of its aerospace company as well as social media platform X from the US state of California.

Musk’s decision came after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law that prevents schools from requiring employees to notify parents if students want to use names or pronouns other than what’s on their birth certificates.

“This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies,” the tech billionaire posted.

“SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” Musk added.

He further said that he did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that “laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children”.

“Authorities keep saying it will get better, but it doesn’t. Last week was the worst experience ever. Crime is allowed to run rampant in California,” the Tesla CEO lamented.

Musk has already shifted Tesla headquarters from California to Texas.

An X user posted: “Congratulations on making this choice. The beautiful thing about a republic of 50 states is that if one state becomes tyrannical, we have the choice as Americans to leave and go somewhere that better reflects our values”.

The SpaceX headquarters will be moved out of Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, a SpaceX complex and launch site near Brownsville, Texas.

X social media platform will also move its headquarters from San Francisco, California to Austin, Texas.

“Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” said Musk.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Elon Musk on Tuesday said he will move the headquarters of SpaceX and X to Texas after a California law blocked schools from forcing teachers to notify parents about changes to a student’s gender identity.

“This is the final straw,” Musk said on X.

“Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”

The multi-billionaire also said that he is transferring X from its art-deco headquarters in San Francisco to Austin, a threat he has made before but never saw to completion.

Musk has already moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto in Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas.

“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” Musk wrote.

Musk has expressed deep disdain about the use of preferred pronouns, often mocking the practice on social media and dismissing it as part of a “woke” agenda that was dangerous for society.

Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed the bill after a contentious legislative process that pitted a handful of school boards fighting for parental rights against LGBTQ activists concerned about the welfare of vulnerable students.

The law reversed decisions in conservative school districts that ordered teachers to notify parents if a student changed their name or pronouns or requested to use facilities or participate in programs that didn’t match their official gender.

Newsom, who is seen as a potential alternative to President Joe Biden as candidate for the White House, has often exchanged fire with conservatives over gender issues at state schools.

Last year, he signed a law that sets fines for school districts that ban textbooks portraying LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.

The latest law came after Newsom fought bitterly with a conservative school board over its opposition to the study of gay rights figure Harvey Milk, a San Francisco public official who was assassinated.

Musk has previously sparred with Newsom, who is a former San Francisco mayor, during the deadliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when he challenged the decisions of city and state health officials.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he leaves the stage at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa.
| Photo Credit: AP

SpaceX and Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk on July 14 ‘fully’ endorsed Donald Trumpfollowing an assassination attempt on the Republican Presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania.

A bleeding Trump was rushed off the stage of the rally by the U.S. Secret Service after the shooting by a 20-year-old gunman who the FBI identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks. The gunman and a bystander were killed while two spectators were also critically injured.

Also Read | Trump rally shooting LIVE updates

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Mr. Musk said in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, which he owns. Mr. Musk shared a video of Trump raising his fist and saying “fight, fight” after he was shot at while being escorted away by Secret Service officials.

A bullet pierced upper part of my ear, says Trump

Trump, after the assassination attempt said he was shot at during his rally in Pennsylvania and a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear. In his first statement issued on the social media platform Truth Social, 78-year-old Trump thanked the U.S. Secret Service for saving his life. 

“I want to thank the United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response to the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania,” the former president said. 

“Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country,” he said. 

Elon Musk donates ‘sizeable’ amount to Trump campaign

Earlier, according to a Bloomberg report, Elon Musk gave a “sizeable” amount to the America PAC, that will be used in the reelection bid of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The owner of X’s donation towards Trump campaign comes months after he said he would not spend money on either the Trump or President Joe Biden as the two prepare for a new rematch for the White House.

Musk has also been critical of Mr. Biden on X, criticising the sitting president over his allegiance to unions and his immigrations policies.

New Delhi:

Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy today condemned the attack on former US President Donald Trump, who got hit on his ear during an attempt on his life at an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We believe the fact that Trump is safe right now is nothing short of an act of God,” Ramaswamy, who challenged the 78-year-old politician for the Republican presidential nomination at the primaries, wrote in a long post on X.

“My heart tells me God intervened not just for Trump, but for our nation.

“Today, the future survival of the United States of America came down to less than a hair’s width in the path of a bullet,” Ramaswamy said.

He continued his praise for Trump and said Americans just had the chance to see “our next President’s true character, unvarnished”. 

First they sued him. Then they prosecuted him. Then they tried to take him off the ballot. The only thing more tragic than what just happened is that, if we’re being honest, it wasn’t totally a shock. Biden’s inevitable ritual condemnation of political violence today (when it…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 14, 2024

“He took the fire, he took the hit, he felt the blood, and then he stood right back up for the people he was put here to lead,” Ramaswamy added.

He, however, attacked US President Joe Biden and said, “First they sued him. Then they prosecuted him. Then they tried to take him off the ballot. The only thing more tragic than what just happened is that, if we’re being honest, it wasn’t totally a shock. 

“Biden’s inevitable ritual condemnation of political violence today (when it comes) will be insufficient and irrelevant. No amount of verbiage today changes the toxic national climate that led to this tragedy,” he said.

Regardless of who you vote for, let’s unite around the truth that what happened today is “unacceptable, now and forever”, he said.

His long post drew a reaction from billionaire Elon Musk, who earlier reacted to the shocking shooting by quickly endorsing Trump.

“You very much predicted this,” Musk said. “I badly hoped I would be wrong,” Ramaswamy responded.

I badly hoped I would be wrong.

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 14, 2024

Trump had just started speaking at the packed outdoor election rally in Butler town when bullets started flying. 

Video footage showed him grabbing his ear as shots were fired. With his face streaked with blood, Trump was quickly rescued by the US Secret Service agents.

Shortly after the incident, he said, “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

The attacker, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was also shot and killed by a member of the Secret Service.

The shooting left one spectator dead and two others critically injured. 

Billionaire Elon Musk has donated to a super political action committee working to elect Donald Trump to the White House, a major gambit by the world’s richest person to make his imprint on the US political landscape.

Musk has contributed to a low-profile group called America PAC, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to detail his plans. It’s unclear how much Musk has given, but the people characterized the figure as a sizable amount. The PAC is next required to disclose its list of donors on July 15.

The move highlights the growing influence of a technology mogul who tops the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $263.6 billion and his shift from a self-described political independent – who said he preferred to stay out of politics – into a figure who regularly uses his X social-media platform to espouse right-leaning views and assail Democrats.

The money injection from Musk comes at a time when Trump has overtaken his rival, President Joe Biden, in fundraising with the help of deep-pocketed Wall Street and corporate donors. Biden’s own money raising has dropped off following a calamitous debate that led prominent Democratic donors to put away their checkbooks.

Musk has yet to publicly endorse a candidate in the 2024 race and said earlier this year he did not anticipate financing either Trump or Biden’s election efforts, but his decision to open his pocketbook presents an opportunity for him to become a financial juggernaut for Republicans.

Multiple requests for comment to Musk were not returned. The Trump campaign declined to comment.

Chris Gober, America PAC’s treasurer, declined to comment.

Ground-Game Boost

America PAC is working mostly behind the scenes to bolster the Trump campaign’s ground game.

Though Federal Election Commission disclosures don’t detail where work is occurring, canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts are conducted most intensively in key battleground states that will determine the outcome of the election.

Musk’s efforts threaten to deal a devastating blow to Biden and Democrats, who are already mired in an intraparty battle over the president’s political future.

Democrats invested heavily in field offices and staff in swing states, moves Biden regularly touts on the stump.

A super PAC matching those efforts on Trump’s behalf gives Republicans a major cash advantage to spend official campaign money elsewhere, in what is shaping up to be the most expensive presidential election in US history.

Among outside organizations backing Trump, America PAC is the biggest spender on direct voter contacts. It has spent $15.8 million so far, with $13.1 million of that going for field operations, federal records show. It has also paid for digital media, texting and phone calls to reach voters.

The group focuses on door-to-door persuasion and get-out-the-vote efforts. A recent ruling by the FEC allows super PACs to coordinate with campaigns on voter outreach.

America PAC has hired In Field Strategies, a national grassroots firm that’s also done work for the Republican National Committee.

Representatives for In Field didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Corporate Impact

The political money makes Musk an even more formidable Washington player. He derives his wealth primarily from his holdings in electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc., SpaceX and X. His companies already boast sizable government contracts and regularly clash with federal agencies over regulations.

Some of Trump’s proposed policies, such as dismantling Biden’s measures to transition the US to electric vehicles and vows to impose tariffs on Chinese EV makers, would have a direct impact on Tesla.

Musk and Trump have clashed in the past but the two have grown closer with the tech entrepreneur advising the former president on electric vehicles and crypto policy.

During Tesla’s annual meeting last month, Musk discussed his relationship with Trump.

“He does call me out of the blue for no reason,” Musk said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Elon Musk-run X is developing a downvoting feature which will be used to improve the ranking of replies.

While the company hasn’t announced its plans officially, recent findings suggest that the ‘downvote’ feature might actually resemble a ‘dislike’ button instead of a Reddit-style downvote icon, reports TechCrunch.

As per code references found in the X iOS app show a button that seems like a broken heart icon next to the microblogging platform’s heart-shaped ‘like’ button as well as direct references to a ‘downvote’ feature.

The feature was tested by the company in 2021, ahead of Elon Musk’s acquisition.

Earlier this month, reverse engineer Aaron Perris, @aaronp613 on X, discovered references in X’s iOS app that indicated a downvote feature that appeared to be in development.

Now, he has found more image files in the iOS app that show the button could be styled as a broken heart as well as more direct references to the feature itself, the report mentioned.

Initially, the company had tested both upvoting and downvoting buttons across all posts. However, the latest tests show that X is only considering allowing downvotes on replies.

In June, Musk confirmed the rollout of a new feature that will hide all likes by default for X users.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The tiny wires of Neuralink’s brain chip implant used in the first participant in a trial run by Elon Musk’s company have become “more or less very stable”, a company executive said on Wednesday.

The company had in May said that a number of tiny wires inside the brain of Noland Arbaugh, who is paralyzed from the shoulders down due to a 2016 diving accident, had pulled out of position.

“Once you do the brain surgery it takes some time for the tissues to come in and anchor the threads in place, and once that happens, everything has been stable,” said Neuralink executive Dongjin “D.J.” Seo.

So far, Arbaugh, based in Arizona, was the only patient to have received the implant, but Musk said he hopes to have participants in the high single digits this year.

The company is now taking risk mitigation measures such as skull sculpting and reducing carbon dioxide concentration in the blood to normal levels in patients, the company’s executives said in a live stream on social media platform X.

“In upcoming implants, our plan is to sculpt the surface of the skull very intentionally to minimize the gap under the implant… that will put it closer to the brain and eliminate some of the tension on the threads,” Matthew MacDougall, Neuralink’s head of neurosurgery, said.

Neuralink is testing its implant to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone. The device works by using tiny wires, which are thinner than a human hair, to capture signals from the brain and translating those into actions such as moving a mouse cursor on a computer screen.

Musk said during the livestream that the device doesn’t harm the brain. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in initially considering the device years ago, had raised safety concerns, but ultimately granted the company a green light last year to begin human trials.

So far, the device has allowed Arbaugh to play video games, browse the internet and move a cursor on his laptop by thinking alone, according to the company’s blog posts and videos.

Neuralink is also working on a new device that it believes will require half the number of electrodes to be implanted in the brain to make it more efficient and powerful, the executives said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

San Francisco:

Elon Musk on Wednesday said his Neuralink startup is “moving on” to a second test patient as its tech for linking brains and computers improves.

Musk and members of the Neuralink team fielded questions during an update streamed on X, formerly Twitter, discussing where it is on the path to making its brain implants commonplace.

“We’re only just moving now to our second Neuralink patient,” Musk said. “But we hope to have, if things go well, high single digits this year.”

Musk’s neurotechnology company in January installed a brain implant in Noland Arbaugh, which the billionaire head of Tesla and X touted as a success.

Arbaugh was left paralyzed from the shoulders down by a diving accident eight years ago.

Since the implant operation, he has told of playing chess and the video game “Civilization,” as well as taking Japanese and French lessons by controlling a computer screen cursor with his brain.

Musk and members of the Neuralink team detailed fixing an issue that saw Arbaugh’s ability to move a computer cursor with his mind greatly reduced.

Neuralink’s technology works through a device about the size of five stacked coins that is placed inside the human brain by a robotic surgeon.

Threads connecting the implant to Arbaugh’s brain had “retracted,” becoming less effective at picking up signals.

Threads will be implanted deeper in the brain and at varying depths, with ramped-up precision to maximize effectiveness, according to the Neuralink team.

Musk promised “it’s only going to get better from here.”

One goal is to escalate the bandwidth of the link between the brain and computer, allowing more data to move faster, according to Musk.

“Quite important for human-AI symbiosis is just being able to communicate at a speed AI can follow,” Musk said of brains being connected to computers with artificial intelligence.

Musk envisions Neuralink implants going beyond restoring sight to the blind to giving people infrared or ultraviolet vision or letting them share concepts with others telepathically.

“We want to give people superpowers,” Musk said. “Not just that we’re restoring your prior functionality, but that you actually have functionality far greater than a normal human.”

Musk spoke of developing an automated process in which Neuralink’s surgery robot could quickly install custom implants in people seeking “upgrades.”

“It’s very sort of ‘Cyberpunk’ or ‘Deus Ex,’ if you play those games,” Musk said of the idea.

“An exciting possibility long term also is to take parts of the Optimus humanoid robot and combine that with a Neuralink – you could have basically cybernetic superpowers,” he said.

Musk cofounded Neuralink in 2016.

The ambition is to supercharge human capabilities, treat neurological disorders like ALS or Parkinson’s, and maybe one day achieve a symbiotic relationship between humans and AI.

Musk is not alone in trying to make advances in the field, which is officially known as brain-machine or brain-computer interface research.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A policy update allowing the microblogging site X to manually review the direct messages (DMs) of some users has sparked major privacy concerns.

An X user, @kimdotcom, on Sunday flagged the new update that goes against the X policy of providing end-to-end encryption to every content on the platform.

A screenshot of the policy update shared online showed the Elon Musk-owned platform now reviews DMs to investigate reported violations and misuse of its services, “or to comply with laws or governmental requests”.

Replying to the user, Elon Musk confirmed the update but did not provide any additional detail.

“It currently works in a clunky way for one to one messages (if you turn it on). We’re working on making it easy to use and apply to group messages too. X audio and video calls are automatically encrypted,” he said.

Several other users raised an alarm over the manual review of DMs and said Elon Musk did not understand the concern. “The ‘comply with government requests’ clause is unacceptable. Please say you still believe in free speech,” a user said.

“Is it me or did Elon not understand the question of Kim? Kim was worried about reviewing the DMs by government request,” another said on X. An user commented: “You didn’t address the root of the concern. Why is X collaborating with governments to sift through our private DMs?”

According to the X website, encrypted DMs are an important aspect of the platform’s aim to become the most trusted platform on the internet. “As Elon Musk said, when it comes to Direct Messages, the standard should be, if someone puts a gun to our heads, we still can’t access your messages,” the X help centre states.

New Delhi:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reacted to a video showing a terrifying accident involving his company’s Model Y car. The footage, shared on X, captured the electric SUV rolling over several times before landing. Miraculously, all passengers survived without serious injuries. 

The billionaire reposted the video, writing, “Safety is our primary design goal.”

Safety is our primary design goal

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2024

“That’s why I bought my wife a Tesla. A little more than some sedans but it’s saved the difference in gas savings and the car is the safest I could get!” a user wrote under the video. 

That’s why I bought my wife a Tesla. A little more than some sedans but it’s saved the difference in gas savings and the car is the safest I could get!

— Scott (@ScottPolhamus) June 25, 2024

Another user commented, “We love it, you care so much about your customers & you keep on improving Tesla safety further with FSD.”

We love it you care so much about your customers & you keep on improving Tesla safety further with FSD.

— Tahreem Hussain (@tahreem57) June 25, 2024

Mr Musk’s reaction came after a recent crash in Orange County, California, where a Tesla driver was reportedly speeding and crashed, causing the vehicle to flip into oncoming traffic, reported KTLA News.

Three people, including the Tesla driver, were hospitalised; their conditions were not immediately available.

Witnesses said the Tesla driver was driving at an estimated over 100 miles per hour. The crash involved six vehicles, with two overturning and trapping people inside. First responders extricated the victims, including the Tesla driver, and rushed them to the hospital.

An eye witness, who was waiting at a red light, recalled the car approaching at “over 100 miles” per hour.

“She smacked the cars right next to me. I don’t know how she missed me,” the witness said, stressing that the Tesla driver caused the crash.

A worker heard the tyres screech and saw the crash unfold. Recounting the “scary” experience, he said, “Cars are flipping over right outside the window, and it takes you a little bit out of reality.”

Police are investigating the cause of the crash, saying it was possible that alcohol or drugs could also be involved.