Thai Cave Rescue Hero: Elon Musk Can "Stick His Submarine Where It Hurts"

[TaiShang]

Thai cave boys to leave hospital, speak to media

CGTN
2018-07-18 16:17 GMT+8

Twelve boys and their football coach recently rescued from a cave in northern Thailand will leave the hospital on Wednesday and speak to the media for the first time, according to a government spokesman.

The "Wild Boars" football team are being discharged a day earlier than announced and authorities hope that by holding the question and answer session before they head home, it will satisfy the huge interest in their story.

"The reason to hold this evening press conference is so media can ask them questions and after that they can go back to live their normal lives without media bothering them," said Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, Thailand's chief government spokesman.

Local artists work on a mural dedicated to the successful rescue of the "Wild Boars" football team outside an art gallery in Chiang Rai province, Thailand, July 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

But with experts warning of possible long-term distress from the ordeal inside the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand, the briefing will be closely watched.

The public relations department of Chiang Rai province solicited questions from news outlets in advance and they will be forwarded to psychiatrists for screening.

Called "Sending the Wild Boars Home" and broadcast on major television channels, the session will last for about 45 minutes, Sunsern said, adding that it would be conducted in an informal style with a moderator.

Banphot Promthep, father of young football player Duangphet Promthep (Dom), displays sacred robes gifted by Buddhist monks for the rescued members of the "Wild Boars" football team, as he waits for his son to return home in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province, Thailand, July 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

"They are likely to return home immediately after the press conference," he said.

Thailand's junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha urged media on Wednesday to be "cautious in asking unimportant questions" that could cause unspecified damage.

Doctors have advised the families of the boys, aged 11 to 16, to avoid letting them contact journalists or vice versa for at least one month after they are discharged.

Though they and their coach are all said to be in good mental and physical health, health officials say that additional psychological monitoring will be provided to detect lingering trauma.

A rescue involved a dangerous dive and included a two-mile swim through the complex cave system. /VCG Photo

The daring Thai-led international effort to rescue the "Wild Boars" captivated the world after they walked into the cave on June 23 and were trapped there later by rising floodwaters.

After nine days without a steady supply of food or water they were found emaciated and huddled in a group on a muddy ledge by British divers several kilometers inside Tham Luang.

Rescuers debated the best plan to bring them out but ultimately decided on a risky operation that involved diving them through waterlogged passages while they were sedated to keep them calm and carrying them out on military-grade stretchers.

Not even the foreign cave diving specialists who took part were sure the mission would work and many expressed relief when it was all over after the final five were brought out on July 10.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d774e3263444f78457a6333566d54/share_p.html

 

[TaiShang]

Tesla CEO Under ‘Firestorm’ Begs an Environmental Nonprofit for Support

04:12 20.07.2018(updated 04:13 20.07.2018)

Embattled Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk attempts to divert attention from his “pedo” comments and controversial donations to the GOP by publishing his environment efforts.

Musk, facing a backlash over calling one of the divers from the Thai cave rescue a "pedo," dialed the head of an environmental group called the Sierra Club and asked them to help deflect the criticism by publishing his donations to the group.

As Sputnik reported earlier, Musk called Vernon Unsworth, a Thai diver of British origin, a "pedo" in a series of Twitter comments after the diver called Musk's child-sized rescue submarine a "PR Stunt." Musk later deleted the tweets and posted what Gizmodo called a "half-assed apology" in the form of a comment under another person's tweet. Musk's outburst has already cost Tesla a 3 percent plunge in its market shares, and the company's investors have demanded an apology.

© AP PHOTO / RINGO H.W. CHIU

Apparently, the attempts to repair the damage haven't gone well, as Musk has turned to the Sierra Club in what appears to be an attempt to hastily mitigate the damage to his public image.

Musk also asked Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune to vouch for him on Twitter after news emerged of his $38,900 donation to the Republican Party PAC, which sparked a "firestorm," according to Bloomberg.

This information comes from an email Brune sent to his staff, as reported by Bloomberg. According to the email, in a call that took place Saturday, the Tesla CEO asked the Sierra Club to publish his donations, totaling some $6 million, which had previously been anonymous.

Musk "asked for some help via Twitter, not about the PAC donation but to buttress the criticism that his commitment to ending fossil fuels was fake," Brune wrote in the email. "I agreed."

Brune acted by publishing two tweets from his own personal account and one from the Sierra Club handle.

We're proud of Elon's support of our work. — and, we will continue vigorously fighting the climate deniers in the GOP. But Elon's innovation and leadership on climate cannot be denied.

— Michael Brune (@bruneski) 15 июля 2018 г.

This backfired on him, as some of his own staff found Brune's action inappropriate.

There have got to be better topics of debate than whether @elonmusk is committed to climate action. He has dedicated his career to the mission of replacing fossil fuels with clean energy & has strongly backed the Sierra Club's advocacy work. We are proud to have his support.

— Sierra Club (@SierraClub) 15 июля 2018 г.

"Brune is now dealing with blow-back within his own organization for complying with Musk's requests. [The tweets] rankled some Sierra Club staff," Bloomberg writes. "They objected to Brune's defense of an executive who funds Republicans and has bashed the United Auto Workers."

Sierra's staff also criticized Brune's support of Musk, because the latter repeatedly resisted United Auto Workers unionization attempts at Tesla's Fremont, California, production plant. Brune is a co-chair of BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership between workers' unions and environmental groups.

In his letter to the staff, Brune argued it was Musk's right to ask to make his anonymous donations public, and that Brune would have granted the same wish to any donor.

"I appreciate the concerns that I've seen online and in email that the tweets may be at odds with our support for workers' rights and defeating the GOP agenda across the country," Brune wrote in an email to his staff on Tuesday. "I don't agree, but I see the risk and understand the concerns. Musk has made unhelpful anti-union statements and Tesla's labor practices are also cause for concern, so I take your comments seriously."

On July 18, replying to another Twitter user's post, Musk said his "pedo" comment was said in anger:

"As this well-written article suggests, my words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths & suggested I engage in a sexual act with the mini-sub, which had been built as an act of kindness & according to specifications from the dive team leader," he tweeted.

Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 18 июля 2018 г.

Despite that clarification, Unsworth is still considering filing a lawsuit for unfounded claims, Gizmodo reports.

https://sputniknews.com/business/201807201066525915-elon-musk-sierra-club/