Tesla shares fall after CEO Musk abuses British diver

The billionaire entrepreneur’s spat with British diver Vernon Unsworth started last week, after rescue teams rejected Musk’s offer of a mini-submarine created by his rocket company SpaceX to help rescue a 12-member soccer team and their coach trapped inside a flooded cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai.

“He can stick his submarine where it hurts,” CNN reported Unsworth as saying. “It just has absolutely no chance of working.”

Musk shot back on Sunday on Twitter: “We will make one (video) of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.” The tweet was later deleted.

Musk gave no evidence for alleging Unsworth was a pedophile. Unsworth said he would consider taking legal action against Musk over the remarks, in comments filmed in Chiang Rai on Monday by Australia’s 9News. Reuters could not reach Unsworth for comment.

(Reuters) - Shares of Tesla Inc fell 2.75 percent on Monday after Chief Executive Elon Musk directed abuse on Twitter at one of the British cave divers involved in the rescue of 12 Thai children last week.

A number of analysts and investors, requesting anonymity, told Reuters that Musk’s comments are adding to their concerns that his public statements are distracting him from Tesla’s main business of producing electric cars. The stock sell-off knocked almost $2 billion off the company’s market value. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesl ... SKBN1K62H7

Just goes to prove, extraordinary intelligent people also do incredibly stupid things.

His lawyer and accountant must have winced.

that genius wrote:Just goes to prove, extraordinary intelligent people also do incredibly stupid things.

His lawyer and accountant must have winced.

Yeah, now he's only worth 7 gazillion.

Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:10 pm Lets see if the king does right by 3 of these kids and their coach

Four of those who were trapped in Tham Luang cave, including the coach, are stateless refugees from the Myanmar borderlands. Forget about World Cup tickets, give these kids and their coach Thai citizenship

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/10/worl ... eless.html

Many Thais say stateless soccer team coach and three boys should be given citizenship
Coach Ekkapol Chantawong, or Ek as he is known, is a member of the Tai Lue minority, one of several groups whose people have over generations moved around the region
13 July 2018
The discovery that the soccer coach who was trapped in a Thailand cave for two weeks, and three of the boys he teaches, are stateless has surprised many in the country – who are now calling for them to be given citizenship following their ordeal.

“They are not Thai citizens,” said Weenat Seesuk, an interior ministry official in Bangkok, adding that officials were checking to see if they qualified for citizenship.

Coach Ekkapol Chantawong, or Ek as he is known, is a member of the Tai Lue minority, one of several groups whose people have over generations moved around the region, across open borders in remote hills between southern China, Myanmar and Laos, and into northern Thailand’s ethnic patchwork of communities.

Many such people do not have Thai citizenship papers and are officially stateless.
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeas ... three-boys

being released today from hospital an are going to give a news conference.

I commented on them being stateless last week and they had already stated they would NOT, ( nor would any assistance to the more than 400,000 other stateless people) be fast tracked to become thai citizens.

It was Adul, the stateless descendant of a Wa ethnic tribal branch once known for headhunting, who played a critical role in the rescue, acting as interpreter for the British divers.

speaks 5 languages.

Three of the British divers involved in the extraordinary rescue of 12 boys and their football coach who were trapped inside the flooded Tham Luang cave have revealed more details about the dangerous operation.


Rick Stanton, Jason Mallinson and Chris Jewell appeared on the This Morning show in the UK and discussed in detail what happened during the rescue mission.

“We knew it was going to be an extremely difficult and risky operation, with not a high probability of total success”, Mr Jewell told presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes.

They also revealed that the boys were sedated to the point they were almost unconscious which allowed them to be evacuated from the cave without panic.

Richard Stanton who was one of the first divers to find the boys revealed how he first smelt the boys, adding “then they obviously heard us talking, and we saw our lights, and then they started coming down this slope one by one. They were kind of on this ramp around the corner,” he said.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... s/30350341

Anyone in Thailand got a reliable source for this? I hope it’s true.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/asia/s ... b88923044z

Asia
‘Stateless’ Thai cave rescue boys and coach granted citizenship
AP
August 9, 2018 9:03AM
THREE young soccer players and their coach, who were rescued with other teammates after almost three weeks in a flooded cave, were granted Thai citizenship on Wednesday.

All four had been stateless, and their lack of citizenship deprived them of some basic benefits and rights, including the ability to travel outside of Chiang Rai, the northern province where they live. The area is home to ethnic minorities with roots in neighboring Myanmar.

In all, 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach were trapped by the flooding until their dramatic rescue by Thai navy SEALs and other experienced divers that concluded July 10.

Nopparat Kanthawong, the head coach of the Wild Boars team, said the four received official Thai ID cards along with another teammate who had not been in the cave but also applied for citizenship.

“I’m happy,” he said. “I want to say that football (soccer) can elevate the lives of kids whose families may not be in the best position.”

“If they have Thai citizenship, in the future, if they don’t want to play football they can take exams to become public officials or find good work that is related to their field of studies,” he said.

How the cave nightmare began
Remaining boys, coach emerge from Chiang Rai cave
Nopparat said he submitted documentation on Wednesday to help apply for citizenship for seven other Wild Boar players who are stateless.

The boys given citizenship Wednesday in their home district of Mae Sai had all applied for it before the cave incident, and all were fully qualified for the change in status, said district chief Somsak Kanakam.

“There are many people who are born in Thailand but haven’t received citizenship yet,” he said, adding that residents seeking Thai nationality should apply quickly, while he still holds his job, because he has “no corrupt intentions.” He said that most people present at Wednesday’s ceremony were aware of under- the-table payments that some officials had asked for in the past.

There are 488,105 stateless people registered in Thailand, according to government statistics. The actual number could be as high as 3.5 million, according to the International Observatory on Statelessness. The group says stateless people in Thailand are unable to vote, buy land, seek legal employment, work in certain occupations or travel freely.

Northern Thailand, whose porous borders have long been a boon to migrants, refugees and smugglers, is a melting pot of ethnic groups, including the Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Yao, Shan, Hmong and Karen.

In neighboring Myanmar, the frontier regions are dominated by ethnic minority groups, but underdevelopment and conflict make opportunities scarce. Some people flee for their lives to Thailand; others just seek a better life.