Musk’s Hand Gesture During Trump Inauguration Festivities Draws Scrutiny 

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures during a rally on the inauguration day of US President Donald Trump's second Presidential term, inside Capital One, in Washington, US, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures during a rally on the inauguration day of US President Donald Trump's second Presidential term, inside Capital One, in Washington, US, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
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Musk’s Hand Gesture During Trump Inauguration Festivities Draws Scrutiny 

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures during a rally on the inauguration day of US President Donald Trump's second Presidential term, inside Capital One, in Washington, US, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures during a rally on the inauguration day of US President Donald Trump's second Presidential term, inside Capital One, in Washington, US, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)

Billionaire Elon Musk's hand gesture while he spoke during a celebration of President Donald Trump's inauguration drew online comparisons to a Nazi salute on Monday, but a leading tracker of antisemitism said it appeared to represent a moment of enthusiasm instead.

Musk dismissed criticism of the hand gesture as a "tired" attack.

Musk took to the Capital One Arena stage in Washington to huge cheers, pumping his arms and shouting, "Yesssss."

"This was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization," he said. "This one really mattered. Thank you for making it happen! Thank you," he said.

Biting his bottom lip, he thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together. Then he turned and made the same hand gesture to the crowd behind him.

"My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured," he said as he finished the gesture.

The gestures were quickly scrutinized online.

"Did Elon Musk Sieg Heil at Trump's inauguration?" asked the Jerusalem Post.

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitism, disagreed.

"It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge," it posted on Monday.

"Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired," Musk said on his social media platform X late on Monday.

Soon after his speech, Musk posted a Fox video clip of portions of his speech on X, that cut away from the podium when he made the first gesture while facing the cameras. "The future is so exciting," he wrote above it.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Some X users came to Musk's defense, claiming that Musk was expressing "my heart goes out to you" and criticizing posts that suggested otherwise.

Musk has backed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party labeled as right-wing-extremist by German security services, in an upcoming national election. He hosted a broadcast with the party's leader on his social media platform earlier this month.



Scientists Say Several Thousand Earthquakes Detected Near Greece’s Island of Santorini

 Members of Greece’s military geographical team proceed to conduct measurements to evaluate potential structural changes due to the ongoing seismic activity on the volcanic island of Nea Kameni, Greece February 10, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of Greece’s military geographical team proceed to conduct measurements to evaluate potential structural changes due to the ongoing seismic activity on the volcanic island of Nea Kameni, Greece February 10, 2025. (Reuters)
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Scientists Say Several Thousand Earthquakes Detected Near Greece’s Island of Santorini

 Members of Greece’s military geographical team proceed to conduct measurements to evaluate potential structural changes due to the ongoing seismic activity on the volcanic island of Nea Kameni, Greece February 10, 2025. (Reuters)
Members of Greece’s military geographical team proceed to conduct measurements to evaluate potential structural changes due to the ongoing seismic activity on the volcanic island of Nea Kameni, Greece February 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Scientists have detected several thousand earthquakes, the vast majority of them with small magnitudes, in just over two weeks near Greece's volcanic island of Santorini, the University of Athens' crisis management committee said Tuesday, adding that a larger quake cannot be ruled out.

The highly unusual barrage of earthquakes which began in late January has alarmed authorities. They have declared a state of emergency on Santorini, one of Greece’s most popular tourist destinations, deploying rescue crews with drones and a sniffer dog and putting coast guard and navy vessels on standby.

Thousands of residents and visitors have left the island, while schools on Santorini and nearby islands have been ordered to remain closed for the week.

Extra doctors and paramedics have been sent to Santorini's hospital, while six disaster medicine teams are on standby as reinforcements. Medical staff practiced an evacuation drill Tuesday, running out of the building while wheeling stretchers with people posing as patients.

“The preparation of our health facilities for natural disasters such as earthquakes is of vital importance,” Deputy Health Minister Marios Themistokleous said while visiting the hospital.

Scientists have been closely monitoring the earthquake swarm occurring between the islands of Santorini and Amorgos, and the two volcanoes in the area. They say it’s unclear whether the dozens of quakes each day – ranging from magnitude 3 to roughly 5 or just above – are a precursor to a significantly larger, main earthquake or will continue with frequent lower magnitude quakes for several weeks or months.

Overall, about 12,000 earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 1 have been registered since Jan. 26, with 109 occurring on Monday alone, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens' crisis management committee said in a statement Tuesday.

Thirteen of Monday's quakes registered magnitudes greater than 4, while several more with similar magnitudes struck on Tuesday. The largest so far, with a magnitude 5.2, struck on Monday night and was followed about two hours later by another with magnitude 5.

“The possibility of a main earthquake following cannot be ruled out,” the statement said.

Scientists were deploying more surveying equipment in the area Tuesday to monitor the situation, the University of Athens said, while seismologists and volcanologists were to meet with government officials Tuesday evening as part of regular discussions of the situation.

Although Greece lies in a highly seismically active part of the world and earthquakes are frequent, it is very rare for any part of the country to experience such an intense barrage of earthquakes for such an extended period of time.

Santorini took its present crescent shape following a massive volcanic eruption in antiquity — one of the largest known eruptions in human history. Now, millions of visitors each year see its dramatic scenery of whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches clinging to the rim of the caldera, the flooded crater left behind by a volcano that erupted and then collapsed.