Is C++ the New Fortran?

I like learning a new programming language, that is useful mostly for numerical computation in academia.

I am thinking of leaving Python for C++. This has some advantages: learn better programming principles, faster code, apparently more in demand in production code, etc.

I have some questions:

1. Is C++ a dying language and a bad investment in 2020? If yes, what's a good replacement?

I see a lot of suggestions for Rust and Scala. But these each might turn out to be just another language! (think of Rubby etc).

I need a library like Numpy or Eigen. I don't need a whole lot of libraries, though as the first language, it wont hurt to have more libraries?

I don't want to spend a lot of time learning libraries, STL, features, but then the language becomes gradually obsolete.

Julia is nice but its not really a GPL (although the team wont agree with me).

2. I have written a few programs in C and C++. Can I be as productive as Python/Numpy once I learn the tools and libraries (Eigen, MKL, etc)? I can limit to a subset needed for HPC.

3. Anyone having experience with C++ for computation and maybe ML?

Suggestions are welcome.