Gaza’s largest hospital ‘not functioning’ amid Israeli assault

The largest hospital in Gaza has ceased to function and fatalities among patients are rising, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday, as a fierce Israeli assault continues in the Hamas-controlled strip.

Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave, including the al-Shifa complex, are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, with three newborns dead and more at risk from power outages amid intense fighting nearby, according to medical staff.

Israel says it is homing in on Palestinian Hamas militants who launched deadly attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, and says the group has command centers under and near the hospitals.

The WHO managed to speak to health professionals at al-Shifa, who described a “dire and perilous” situation with constant gunfire and bombing exacerbating the already critical situation, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Bureij refugee camp in the Deir Al-Balah governorate is treated at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in central Gaza.
ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA

“Tragically, the number of patient fatalities has increased significantly,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that al-Shifa was “not functioning as a hospital anymore”.

Tedros joined other top United Nations officials in calling for an immediate ceasefire.

“The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair,” he said.

Palestinians carry a casualty of Israeli strikes at Al Shifa hospital Gaza City on Nov. 9, 2023.
REUTERS

The president of Indonesia, home to the world’s biggest Muslim population, also called for a ceasefire ahead of meeting US President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday.

“A ceasefire must be implemented soon, we also must accelerate and increase the amount of humanitarian aid, and we must begin peace negotiations,” President Joko Widodo said in a video recorded after he took part in an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh.

He said the world seemed “helpless” in the face of the suffering of the Palestinians.

Men check the bodies of people killed in bombardment that hit a school housing displaced Palestinians, as they lie on the ground in the yard of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Nov. 10, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images

The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate “war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing” in the Palestinian territories.

Israel says it is trying to free the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 and says the hospitals should be evacuated.

The European Union condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza, while also urging Israel to show “maximum restraint” to protect civilians.

Palestinian girl Orheen Al-Dayah, who was injured in her forehead in an Israeli strike amid the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, has her wounds stitched without anaesthesia, at Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on Nov. 8, 2023.
REUTERS

“These hostilities are severely impacting hospitals and taking a horrific toll on civilians and medical staff,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday in a statement issued on behalf of the 27-nation bloc.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Hamas was using hospitals and other civilian facilities to house fighters and weapons, which he said was a violation of the laws of war.

“The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire and we’ve had active consultations with the Israeli Defense Forces on this,” Sullivan told CBS News.

Newborns are placed in bed after being taken off incubators in Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital after power outage, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza on Nov. 12, 2023.
via REUTERS

Israel declared war on Hamas more than a month ago after militants rampaged through southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since then, around 40% of them children.

The Israeli military response has also prompted outrage in several cities across the world, where hundreds of thousands of people held protests demanding a ceasefire.

A Palestinian wounded in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is brought to a hospital in Khan Younis, on Nov. 12, 2023.
AP

Israel’s supporters, including in Washington, say a ceasefire would allow Hamas to prepare for more attacks, but the Biden administration has pushed Israel to allow pauses in the fighting for civilians to flee and for aid to enter.

Biden, who spoke on Sunday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani about developments in Gaza, agreed that all hostages held by Hamas must be released “without further delay”, the White House said in a statement.

The conflict has raised fears of a broader conflagration.

Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, has traded missile attacks with Israel, and other Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have launched at least 40 separate drone and rocket attacks on US forces.

The United States carried out two air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups on Sunday, a US defense official told Reuters, in what appeared to be the latest response to the attacks.

BABIES AT RISK

Israel’s military said it had offered to evacuate newborn babies and had placed 300 liters of fuel at al-Shifa’s entrance on Saturday night, but both gestures had been blocked by Hamas.

Hamas denied that it refused the fuel and said the hospital was under the authority of Gaza’s Health Ministry, adding that the amount of fuel Israel said it offered was “not enough to operate the (hospital’s) generators for more than half an hour”.

Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said that of 45 babies in incubators at al-Shifa, three had already died.

A plastic surgeon in al-Shifa said bombing of the building housing incubators had forced staff to line up premature babies on ordinary beds, using the little power available to run the air conditioning to warm.

“We are expecting to lose more of them day by day,” said Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the strip’s second largest hospital, Al-Quds, was also out of service, with staff struggling to care for those already there with little medicine, food and water.

“Al Quds hospital has been cut off from the world in the last six to seven days. No way in, no way out,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

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‘Devil-like figure’ uncovered in 230-year-old painting after restoration

A “devil-like figure” featured in a painting by a renowned artist that’s more than 230 years old has been rediscovered after a recent restoration.

The discovery came as a result of conservation work done by the National Trust on a painting of a Shakespearean scene by 18th Century artist Joshua Reynolds, who died in 1792.

Referred to by the Trust as a “fiend,” an evil spirit or demon, the painted figure proved to be controversial at the time.

The figure, covered by layers of paint and varnish, was included in Reynolds’ painting based on a Shakespearean death scene, which was titled “The Death of Cardinal Beaufort.”

Specifically, the painting shows a scene from Shakespeare’s “Henry VI, Part 2” with the king witnessing the death of Cardinal Beaufort.

The figure, which included fangs and a sinister expression, was painted at the head of the bed, just above the dying Beaufort’s head.

“It didn’t fit in with some of the artistic rules of the times to have a poetic figure of speech represented so literally in this monstrous figure,” said John Chu, the Trust’s senior national curator for pictures and sculpture. 

“While it was considered acceptable in literature to introduce the idea of a demon as something in the mind of a person, to include it visually in a painting gave it too physical a form. There were even people who argued that it should have been painted out, although records of conversations with the artist show he resisted such attempts to alter the work.”

The painting by Reynolds, first revealed at the Shakespeare Gallery in 1789, is one of four that the National Trust has conserved to mark the 300th anniversary of the artist’s birth.


Referred to by the Trust as a “fiend,” an evil spirit or demon, the painted figure proved to be controversial at the time.
National Trust

The artwork by Reynolds was created at the end of his career as a commercial commission for the Shakespeare Gallery in London’s Pall Mall, which paid 500 guineas for the painting, according to the Trust.

“The gallery also created prints for sale and export, something Britain was dominant in at the time. Engraver Caroline Watson produced the plates for prints of the Reynolds painting, the first copies showing the fiend, although a second print run in 1792, after the artist’s death, showed an attempt to remove it from the printing plate,” the Trust noted.

“It perhaps isn’t a surprise that it had receded so far into the shadows of the picture. It appears it was misunderstood by early conservators,” Chu said of the figure’s disappearance. “Some decades after the painting was done, that area seems to have deteriorated into small islands of paint and become less clear due to the constituent parts of the paint. Degradation of successive varnish layers over the years made it even less visible.”


Demon painting
The figure, which included fangs and a sinister expression, was painted at the head of the bed, just above the dying Beaufort’s head.
National Trust

After being examined by painting experts at the National Trust, it became clear that the fiend in the artwork had been painted over by several people and included six layers of varnish.

“Reynolds is always difficult for conservators because of the experimental way he worked, often introducing unusual materials in his paint medium, striving for the effects he wanted to achieve,” said Becca Hellen, the Trust’s senior national conservator for paintings. 

“The area with the fiend was especially difficult. Because it is in the shadows, it was painted with earth browns and dark colors which would always dry more slowly, causing shrinkage effects. … With the layers added by early restorers, it had become a mess of misinterpretation and multiple layers of paints.

“This is a large painting, and we wanted to ensure that it still represented what Reynolds originally painted, which included allowing the fiend to be uncovered through removing all the non-original darkened varnishes and ensuring it still correctly showed its form and perspective with the work we did.”

The painting is now back on display at Petworth House in West Sussex after treatment.

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Parents of college student from NJ killed by stray bullet speak out

The grieving family of the New Jersey teen killed by a stray bullet on her Nashville college campus have paid tribute to her “beautiful soul” — with her mom saying that part of her own heart was taken with the loss.

Jillian Ludwig, 18, a freshman at Belmont University, died overnight Thursday, two days after she was first found struck in the back of the head by a round allegedly fired by a career criminal.

“There’s a piece of my heart that was taken from me,” Ludwig’s mom, Jessica, told WKRN-TV.

The slain teen’s dad, Matt, said: “It’s kind of hard to comprehend. She was thriving so well and doing so well in so many ways, in every way.

“For it to all change so suddenly — it’s, it’s hard to, it’s hard to process. It’s impossible to process,” he added.

The family had raced to Vanderbilt University Medical Center when their daughter was at first fighting for her life, before succumbing to her injuries, WSMV reported.

Jillian Ludwig, center, with her parents, Matt and Jessica.
Family Handout

Her aunt Geri Wainwright sent the outlet a text shortly before the family received the horrible news that she had died.

“Jillian has such a beautiful soul,” her aunt Geri Wainwright texted the outlet shortly before news of her niece’s death was announced.

“Her smile lights up any room and she is loved by everyone lucky enough to know her,” she wrote.

Jillian Ludwig was an accomplished musician who regularly gigged in her native New Jersey.
Facebook / Jillian Ludwig

“Jillian is fierce. She lives every day with passion. Her fearlessness, spontaneity, love of laughter, kindness and compassion make her irreplaceable to our family. Losing her would forever change the fabric of our lives,” Wainwright wrote at the time.

“We sent our girl into the world to do amazing things. Given the opportunity, she would have. So we have to ask, why was this man free?” she continued.

“What kind of world do we live in where it’s not safe to take a walk near your college dorm in broad daylight? How could someone so carelessly dim the light of a star destined to shine so bright?” the aunt added.

Ludwig was struck by a stray bullet as she walked near her Nashville campus.
Metro Nashville Police Department

Ludwig, a graduate of Wall High School in New Jersey, was an “accomplished student, musician, and vocalist,” she said.

“She chose to study Music Business at Belmont University. She loved the short time she’s spent at Belmont. She loves her life, her friends, parents and her younger brothers, Shane & Trevor,” Wainwright added.

On Thursday, the Wall Township Committee sent a letter to the community, remembering Ludwig and offering mental health resources, according to WKRN.

“We are incredibly saddened to hear about the tragic and untimely passing of Jillian Ludwig. Jillian was an exceptional young leader within our community,” it wrote.

“She graced us with her beautiful voice to sing the National Anthem at many township community events. Jillian was a member of the Young Women’s Leadership Committee of Wall Township and was the recipient of the 2023 Women’s Leadership Committee Scholarship Award,” the local committee said.

Ludwig performed at venues around her New Jersey community, playing bass and guitar along with singing during the Asbury Park Porch Fest and Red Bank in New Jersey, The Tennessean reported.

Her first show was more than two years ago, when she performed at The Saint in Asbury Park with her band Arcadia.  

Accused shooter Shaquille Taylor.
Metro Nashville Police Department

Ludwig was shot about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday while walking at Edgehill Community Memorial Gardens Park in Nashville.

Shaquille Taylor, 29, allegedly opened fire on a car from a public housing complex across the street — striking her as she walked on a track, police said.

Surveillance video and witnesses led cops to the suspected gunman, who admitted to firing shots, police said. He has been charged over previous shootings — but was released from custody earlier this year after being deemed incompetent to stand trial.

The suspect was accused of giving the gun to another person after Tuesday’s shooting, The Tennessean reported, citing court records. His girlfriend also told investigators that he admitted to her that he was involved in a shooting, according to police records cited by the paper.

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Panthers sign WR-turned-S Alex Cook from Giants practice squad

The Carolina Panthers need some help in quite a few spots—but perhaps most notably at the receiver and safety positions. And it just so happens that they’ve signed a guy who can play both.

Ok, we probably won’t be seeing any Shohei Ohtani or Travis Hunter type of stuff, but the Panthers have signed wideout-turned-safety Alex Cook on Tuesday. The rookie defender, who was plucked straight off the New York Giants practice squad, now becomes the 53rd man on Carolina’s active roster.

A Sacramento, Cali. native, Cook played his college ball at the University of Washington from 2018 to 2022. After playing out his first year there as a receiver, reeling in one catch for 26 yards, he switched to safety beginning in his sophomore campaign.

Cook went on to amass 139 total tackles (4.5 for a loss), three passes defensed and an interception over four seasons on defense. In 2022, he was voted as a team captain by his fellow Huskies and would go on to earn an All-Pac-12 Second Team nod.

The 6-foot-1, 220-pounder signed with the Giants as an undrafted free agent in the spring.

The Panthers were without both of their starting safeties, Vonn Bell and Xavier Woods, in this past Sunday’s loss to the Miami Dolphins.

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OpenAI, Associated Press Partner to Explore Generative AI Use in News

The Associated Press is licensing a part its archive of news stories to OpenAI under a deal that will explore generative AI‘s use in news, the companies said on Thursday, a move that could set the precedent for similar partnerships between the industries. 

The news publisher will gain access to OpenAI’s technology and product expertise as part of the deal, whose financial details were not disclosed. 

AP also did not reveal how it would integrate OpenAI’s technology in its news operations. The publisher already uses AI for automating corporate earnings reports, recapping sporting events and transcription for certain live events.

Its trove of news stories will help provide the massive amounts of data needed to train AI systems such as ChatGPT, which have dazzled consumers and businesses with their ability to plan vacations, summarize legal documents and write computer code.

News publications have, however, been slow to adopt the tech over concerns about its tendency to generate factually incorrect information, as well as challenges in differentiating between content produced by humans and computer programs.

“Generative AI is a fast-moving space with tremendous implications for the news industry,” said Kristin Heitmann, AP’s senior vice president and chief revenue officer. 

“News organizations must have a seat at the table… so that newsrooms large and small can leverage this technology to benefit journalism.”

Some outlets are already using generative AI for their content. BuzzFeed had announced that it will use AI to power personality quizzes on its site, and the New York Times used ChatGPT to create a Valentine’s Day message-generator this year.

AP’s “feedback — along with access to their high-quality, factual text archive — will help to improve the capabilities and usefulness of OpenAI’s systems,” said Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer at OpenAI.

© Thomson Reuters 2023


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People Trust TikTok More Than Traditional Media, Study Shows

The number of people globally who initially access news through a website or app has dropped by 10 points since 2018, and younger groups prefer to access news through social media, search or mobile aggregators, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Audiences pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than journalists on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said in its annual Digital News Report. TikTok is the fastest growing social network in the report, used by 20 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds for news, up five percentage points from last year. Fewer than half the survey respondents expressed much interest in news at all, down sharply from 6 out of 10 in 2017.

“There are no reasonable grounds for expecting that those born in the 2000s will suddenly come to prefer old-fashioned websites, let alone broadcast and print, simply because they grow older,” Reuters Institute Director Rasmus Nielsen said in the report, which is based on an online survey of roughly 94,000 adults, conducted in 46 markets including the U.S.

Less than a third of the survey’s respondents said that having stories selected for them based on their previous consumption is a good way to get news, a 6-point decline from 2016, when the survey last asked the question. Yet people still slightly prefer to have their news chosen by algorithms than by editors or journalists.

Trust in the news has fallen by 2 percentage points in the last year, reversing gains made in many countries at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. On average, 40 percent of people say they trust most news most of the time. The United States has seen a 6-point increase in trust in news, to 32 percent, but remains among the lowest in the survey.

Across markets, 56 percent of people say they worry about identifying the difference between real and fake news on the internet – up 2 percentage points from last year.

The survey found that 48 percent of people say they are very or extremely interested in news, down from 63 percent in 2017.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is funded by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Thomson Reuters.

© Thomson Reuters 2023


Apple unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, at its annual developer conference, along with new Mac models and upcoming software updates. We discuss all the most important announcements made by the company at WWDC 2023 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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$252.6 million winning Powerball ticket sold in Ohio

MACEDONIA, Ohio — Someone in Ohio went to bed $252.6 million richer, before taxes, after hitting the Powerball jackpot Wednesday night.

The winning ticket was sold at Get Go #3279 in Macedonia and is Ohio’s fourth Powerball jackpot winner since joining the game April 16, 2010.

The retailer will receive a $100,000 bonus for selling the jackpot-winning ticket.


The winning ticket was sold at a Get Go in Macedonia and is Ohio’s fourth Powerball jackpot winner since joining the game April 16, 2010.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The winner can choose the cash option of $134.7 million.

This follows back-to-back Mega Millions jackpots being won on Friday ($483 million) and Monday ($20 million). Both winning tickets were sold in New York.

The winning numbers were: 4-11-21-38-64; Powerball: 11. Power Play: 3x.

The winner used the auto pick feature to choose their numbers and has 180 days from the draw date to claim their prize. No one has yet to come forward to claim.

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Two feminist groups support GOP bill to ban trans women from women’s sports

Two self-identified “radical feminist” groups are siding with Republicans in backing a bill banning transgender women from playing in women’s sports leagues, according to a report.

The Women’s Liberation Front and Women’s Declaration International USA threw their support this week behind the GOP-sponsored legislation known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” Fox News reported.

The bill — introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla) earlier this year — aims to prevent transgender women and girls who were assigned male at birth from participating in women’s and girl’s sports.

It would amend Title IX, a landmark education bill that bans discrimination on the basis of sex, to define sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

The self-described feminist groups said they believe in women’s rights as a category based on the sex of a person, not gender or gender identity.

The Women’s Declaration International USA, a nonpartisan organization, has established its own “Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights” in line with such thinking.

“We are a radical feminist organization, and Article Seven of the ‘Declaration on Women’s Sex-based Rights,’ which is grounded in a radical feminist critique of gender identity, demands that sports be kept single sex,” the group’s president Kara Dansky told Fox. “And we think that Representative Steube’s bill is in alignment with Article Seven of the Declaration.”


Former UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas ws seen as a controversial figure last year when she competed on the women’s swim team as a transgender woman.
AP

Dansky said she is a registered Democrat but completely disagrees with her party’s stance on the issue.

Board chair of the Women’s Liberation Front Lierre Keith also said she supports the legislation because it ensures fairness in women’s and girl’s sports leagues.

“Women and girls deserve to play in athletic competitions that are fair and safe,” Keith told Fox News in a statement. “Single-sex sports are critical to ensuring equal opportunity, scholarships, and careers, and new ‘gender identity’ policies threaten to set women back decades in progress.”

She noted that biological males have innate physical and athletic advantages to biological, cisgender females.

“Even the fastest female Olympians are still out-run by high school boys, and biological differences between males & females are not even remotely changed by hormones or surgery,” Keith said. 

In an interview with the outlet, Steube, the bill’s author, was glad for the support calling it an “interesting bipartisan conglomerate.”


Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla) introduced the bill that aims to prevent transgender women and girls who were assigned male at birth from participating in women’s and girl’s sports.
The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act will go to the House floor for a vote Thursday, where Steube believes it will pass with a number of Democrats signing on. It’s future, however, is less certain in the Senate, he said.

“I would imagine, depending on how many Democrats end up voting, that will probably give it a lot of support,” the Florida Republican said.

Still, many Democrats have slammed the bill.


The Women’s Liberation Front and Women’s Declaration International USA threw their support this week behind the GOP-sponsored legislation known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,”
Womensdeclarationusa

“This bill is not about protecting women’s sports, it is about attacking trans kids,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said during a House session on the bill last month, according to The Hill. “What a cowardly thing to be doing. Cowardly.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who has a transgender daughter, introduced an amendment that would retitle the bill the “Stigmatizing Vulnerable Children Act.”

Numerous studies have found that trans youth experience some of the highest rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts in the country. More than half of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered suicide in 2021, according to a national survey conducted by the Trevor Project last year.

The same survey found that LGBTQ children and teens who felt their school was supportive and affirming of their identity reported lower rates of suicide attempts.


The bill would amend Title IX, a landmark education bill that bans discrimination on the basis of sex, to define sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
USA TODAY Sports

A 16-year-old transgender girl from New Jersey said the bill would cut her off from the support system she found playing on her high school’s girl’s field hockey team.

“Sports are one of the most American experiences in any childhood, a federal sports ban would alienate me from my community, and prevent me from continuing to become a better version of myself,” Rebekah Bruesehoff said during a press conference outside the Capitol last month, according to The Hill.

“I’ve been raised and taught by my parents, coaches and teachers to be the kind of person who works actively to include people, make sure no one eats alone in the lunchroom and who stands up to bullies,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing here.”

President Biden has vowed to veto the bill if it makes it to his desk.

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SUV crashes through second floor of California home

This takes car accidents to a new level.

An SUV crashed into a northern California home over the weekend and became lodged in the second-floor roof, authorities said.

Photos of the Sunday evening crash shared by the California Fire Nevada Yuba Placer Unit show the white vehicle resting amid debris on the carport roof of a residence near Colfax, about 45 miles outside of Sacramento.

The vehicle was severely damaged, as was most of the roof and a second-floor window.

Firefighters and other responders worked to stabilize the carport before extricating the vehicle’s occupant, Cal Fire wrote.

Pacific Gas & Electric also shut off power to the area during the risky rescue, WCSC reported.

While the driver was hospitalized, there were no reported injuries to occupants of the home or on-scene workers, Cal Fire said.


The cause of the crash is still being investigated.
CAL FIRE Nevada Yuba Placer Unit

The roof is level with a hill behind the house.
CAL FIRE Nevada Yuba Placer Unit

Officials are still investigating what caused the vehicle to land on the roof, which is level with a hill behind the house.

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Elon Musk reveals what he knows about alien existence

Elon Musk admitted Tuesday that he doesn’t know whether alien life exists — and that he wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret if it was discovered.

The Twitter CEO and SpaceX founder told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that there’s no evidence of “conscious life” anywhere in the universe besides planet Earth — a phenomenon he says humans take for granted.

“A lot of people ask me, you know, where are the aliens? And I think if anyone would know about aliens on Earth it would probably be me,” Musk said in an interview.

“Yeah, I’m, you know, very familiar with space stuff. And I’ve seen no evidence of aliens … I would immediately tweet it out. That’d be probably the top tweet of all time. ‘We found one, guys!’ It’s the jackpot with some 8 billion likes.”

While he hopes the little green men are real — and more importantly friendly — the tech mogul said he doesn’t believe the government is hiding the existence of extraterrestrial beings from the public.

Musk argued that the government would villainize aliens if they knew of their existence in order to easily green-light military spending.

“We’re constantly trying to get the defense budget to expand. And look, you know what would really get no arguments for anyone? If we pulled out an alien and said we need money to protect ourselves from these guys,” Musk said.


Elon Musk is seen on Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss alien life, saying if he knew about it — he most likely wouldn’t keep it a secret.
Fox News

“‘How much money do you want? You got it. They look dangerous.’ So the fastest way to get a defense budget increase would be to pull out an alien.”

Lawmakers have already requested an increase in funding for the Pentagon’s unidentified aerial phenomena research office, one year after the government theorized aliens could already be visiting Earth to study the planet.

Humans, not aliens, are the biggest threat to their own existence, Musk said, pointing to falling birth rates throughout the globe, a fear he’s expressed repeatedly in recent months.


Twitter CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk told Fox News host Tucker Carlson there is no evidence of “conscious life” anywhere in the universe besides Earth.
Fox News

Last month, he warned that Italy would “have no people” after it ranked as one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

Birth rates in the US have also continued to decline; a CDC study published in January found that half of American women under 45 are childless.

“There’s sort of a life cycle arc to civilizations, just as there to individual humans,” Musk said.

“I’m sort of worried that, ‘Hey, civilization, if we don’t make enough people to at least sustain our numbers, perhaps increase a little bit, then civilization is going to crumble.’ The old question of like, will civilization end with a bang or a whimper. Well, it’s currently trying to end with a whimper in adult diapers.

“Which is depressing as hell.”

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