logo
Musk's father says Elon made a mistake 'under stress' and that Trump will prevail

Musk's father says Elon made a mistake 'under stress' and that Trump will prevail

Khaleej Times9 hours ago

The row between Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and US President Donald Trump was triggered by stress on both sides and Elon made a mistake by publicly challenging Trump, Musk's father told Russian media in Moscow.
Musk and Trump began exchanging insults last week on social media with Musk denouncing the president's sweeping tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination."
"You know they have been under a lot of stress for five months - you know - give them a break," Errol Musk told the Izvestia newspaper during a visit to the Russian capital. "They are very tired and stressed so you can expect something like this."
"Trump will prevail - he's the president, he was elected as the president. So, you know, Elon made a mistake, I think. But he is tired, he is stressed."
Errol Musk also suggested that the row "was just a small thing" and would "be over tomorrow."
Neither the White House nor Musk could be reached for comment outside normal U.S. business hours.
Trump said on Saturday his relationship with billionaire donor Musk was over and warned there would be "serious consequences" if Musk decided to fund U.S. Democrats running against Republicans who vote for the tax and spending bill.
Musk, the world's richest man, bankrolled a large part of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. Trump named Musk to head a controversial effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Auto companies 'in full panic' over rare-earths bottleneck
Auto companies 'in full panic' over rare-earths bottleneck

Khaleej Times

time2 hours ago

  • Khaleej Times

Auto companies 'in full panic' over rare-earths bottleneck

Frank Eckard, CEO of a German magnet maker, has been fielding a flood of calls in recent weeks. Exasperated automakers and parts suppliers have been desperate to find alternative sources of magnets, which are in short supply due to Chinese export curbs. Some told Eckard their factories could be idled by mid-July without backup magnet supplies. "The whole car industry is in full panic," said Eckard, CEO of Magnosphere, based in Troisdorf, Germany. "They are willing to pay any price." Car executives have once again been driven into their war rooms, concerned that China's tight export controls on rare-earth magnets – crucially needed to make cars – could cripple production. US President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to let rare earths minerals and magnets flow to the United States. A US trade team is scheduled to meet Chinese counterparts for talks in London later on Monday. The industry worries that the rare-earths situation could cascade into the third massive supply chain shock in five years. A semiconductor shortage wiped away millions of cars from automakers' production plans, from roughly 2021 to 2023. Before that, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 shut factories for weeks. Those crises prompted the industry to fortify supply chain strategies. Executives have prioritized backup supplies for key components and reexamined the use of just-in-time inventories, which save money but can leave them without stockpiles when a crisis unfurls. Judging from Eckard's inbound calls, though, "nobody has learned from the past," he said. This time, as the rare-earths bottleneck tightens, the industry has few good options, given the extent to which China dominates the market. The fate of automakers' assembly lines has been left to a small team of Chinese bureaucrats as it reviews hundreds of applications for export permits. Several European auto-supplier plants have already shut down, with more outages coming, said the region's auto supplier association, CLEPA. "Sooner or later, this will confront everyone," said CLEPA Secretary-General Benjamin Krieger. Cars today use rare-earths-based motors in dozens of components – side mirrors, stereo speakers, oil pumps, windshield wipers, and sensors for fuel leakage and braking sensors. China controls up to 70 per cent of global rare-earths mining, 85 per cent of refining capacity and about 90 per cent of rare-earths metal alloy and magnet production, consultancy AlixPartners said. The average electric vehicle uses about .5 kg of rare earths elements, and a fossil-fuel car uses just half that, according to the International Energy Agency. China has clamped down before, including in a 2010 dispute with Japan, during which it curbed rare-earths exports. Japan had to find alternative suppliers, and by 2018, China accounted for only 58 per cent of its rare earth imports. "China has had a rare-earth card to play whenever they wanted to," said Mark Smith, CEO of mining company NioCorp, which is developing a rare-earth project in Nebraska scheduled to start production within three years. Across the industry, automakers have been trying to wean off China for rare-earth magnets, or even develop magnets that do not need those elements. But most efforts are years away from the scale needed. "It's really about identifying ... and finding alternative solutions" outside China, Joseph Palmieri, head of supply chain management at supplier Aptiv, said at a conference in Detroit last week. Automakers including General Motors and BMW and major suppliers such as ZF and BorgWarner are working on motors with low-to-zero rare-earth content, but few have managed to scale production enough to cut costs. The EU has launched initiatives including the Critical Raw Materials Act to boost European rare-earth sources. But it has not moved fast enough, said Noah Barkin, a senior advisor at Rhodium Group, a China-focused U.S. think tank. Even players that have developed marketable products struggle to compete with Chinese producers on price. David Bender, co-head of German metal specialist Heraeus' magnet recycling business, said it is only operating at 1% capacity and will have to close next year if sales do not increase. Minneapolis-based Niron has developed rare-earth free magnets and has raised more than $250 million from investors including GM, Stellantis and auto supplier Magna. "We've seen a step change in interest from investors and customers" since China's export controls took effect, CEO Jonathan Rowntree said. It is planning a $1 billion plant scheduled to start production in 2029. England-based Warwick Acoustics has developed rare-earth-free speakers expected to appear in a luxury car later this year. CEO Mike Grant said the company has been in talks with another dozen automakers, although the speakers are not expected to be available in mainstream models for about five years. As auto companies scout longer-term solutions, they are left scrambling to avert imminent factory shutdowns. Automakers must figure out which of their suppliers – and smaller ones a few links up the supply chain – need export permits. Mercedes-Benz, for example, is talking to suppliers about building rare-earth stockpiles. Analysts said the constraints could force automakers to make cars without certain parts and park them until they become available, as GM and others did during the semiconductor crisis. Automakers' reliance on China does not end with rare earth elements. A 2024 European Commission report said China controls more than 50% of global supply of 19 key raw materials, including manganese, graphite and aluminum. Andy Leyland, co-founder of supply chain specialist SC Insights, said any of those elements could be used as leverage by China. "This just is a warning shot," he said.

Investors keep close watch as bitcoin prices find support
Investors keep close watch as bitcoin prices find support

Khaleej Times

time2 hours ago

  • Khaleej Times

Investors keep close watch as bitcoin prices find support

As the crypto markets navigated a wave of cautious optimism on Monday after last week's selloff, investors are watching closely as the market shows signs of both resilience and short-term volatility. Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, is currently trading near $105,800, a sharp decline from its all-time high of $112,000. Despite the dip, the broader trend remains bullish. Bitcoin has broken out of a long-term descending wedge and is now moving within an upward channel, suggesting that the long-term momentum is still intact, analysts say. However, several bearish signals emerged last week. Bitcoin holders took over $23 billion in profits between Monday, June 2 and Thursday, June 5, according to Santiment data. The large positive spike in the network realized profit/loss metric corresponds to the dip in BTC price. Large volume profit-taking is typically associated with further correction in the token's price. Derivatives data from Coinglass shows over $305 million in long positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours, against $41 million in short positions. The long/short ratio, a metric that compares bullish bets against bearish ones, reads 0.91. A value less than one signals higher bearish bets, supporting a thesis of further price decline. 'If Bitcoin manages to hold above the $103K–$105K range, a retest of $112K seems likely, with a possible push toward $118K. On the flip side, a drop below $100K could shift sentiment more bearish, potentially dragging the price down to the $97K zone,' Ekta Mourya, crypto analysts at FXStreet, wrote. With a total market capitalisation hovering around $3.3 trillion, Ethereum and Solana are drawing increased institutional attention, particularly due to their roles in real-world asset tokenization and staking innovations. Technically, Bitcoin is in a consolidation phase. Indicators like the Relative Strength Index (RSI) have cooled off from overbought levels, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is showing signs of weakening momentum on the daily chart. 'Key support levels lie at $103,000, $100,000, and $97,663, while resistance is expected around $112,000, with potential upside targets at $115,000 to $118,000 if bullish momentum resumes,' Mourya said. Bitcoin narrowly stayed above the $100,000 level as the online spat between Elon Musk and President Trump spilled over from traditional markets last week. In what had been a fairly muted week for cryptoasset price movements beforehand, as the 'feud' between Trump and Musk escalated on social media on Thursday, bitcoin then fell as much as 4% before finding some support at $100,400, said eToro crypto analyst Simon Peters. The BTC/USDT daily price chart shows the likelihood of a nearly four per cent correction and a retest of milestone $100,000, a key support level for the cryptocurrency, 'A nearly three per cent increase could see BTC test resistance at $106,794, the upper boundary of a Fair Value Gap (FVG) on the BTC/USDT daily price chart. In the event of further decline in Bitcoin price, $97,732 could act as support,' an analyst said. Looking forward to this week, inflation data in the form of CPI consumer price index and PPI producer price index could provide some volatility. Assets held in crypto funds hit a record high in May as easing trade tensions lifted risk appetite and some investors used the digital currencies to hedge against market volatility and diversify from their US holdings, Reuters reported. Morningstar data on 294 crypto funds shows they attracted $7.05 billion in net inflows last month, the highest since December, bringing total assets under management to a record $167 billion.

Reclaiming the US Flag for ‘No Kings Day'
Reclaiming the US Flag for ‘No Kings Day'

Gulf Today

time3 hours ago

  • Gulf Today

Reclaiming the US Flag for ‘No Kings Day'

Paul Loeb, Tribune News Service Will marchers carry flags on "No Kings Day"? On June 14, more than 1,000 local demonstrations will challenge President Donald Trump's North Korean-style military parade for his birthday with our defense of democracy. The 14th is also Flag Day and the 250th anniversary of the US Army. The flag can't replace protest signs. But it complements and amplifies them. The demonstrations send a message that even as Trump and his allies wrap themselves in their flags, they are betraying the best of America. They highlight a culture of corruption where the only Americans who matter are allies of Trump at the top and persons or institutions who would challenge this become subjects of attacks. Our flags make clear, in contrast, that we are defending Americans' fundamental right to speak out, without which all other rights become meaningless. They're a message to all who agree with us but also to all those Americans who voted for Trump or stayed home, rejecting both candidates. Because to change the direction of our country, the support of at least some of these people will be essential. As "No Kings Day" reminds us, 'The flag doesn't belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us.' But at most anti-Trump protests, flags have been absent or marginal. I counted one when several thousand people marched in Seattle this past May Day, plus scattered Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty images. That may be because carrying the flag feels uncomfortable, a false embrace for many who've marched to challenge American wars, call out racial injustice, or push back against corporate power. But the flag also stands for legacies of courage and sacrifice that should give us all hope and strength, like the classic World War II image of GIs raising it over Iwo Jima. The flag represents the imperfect but essential mechanisms of democracy that Trump's regime so profoundly threatens, ones that allow us to keep working for justice. In defending these mechanisms and the rule of law, Thomas Jefferson condemned the very Alien and Sedition Acts whose remnants Trump is now abusing. These acts created the power of kings, Jefferson warned, writing of threats to the 'constitutional rights and liberties of the States and by the suspicions of the President, or be thought dangerous to his or their election, or other interests, public or personal.' These acts first targeted 'the friendless alien,' Jefferson wrote, but 'the citizen will soon follow.' Flags have long been part of the protest tradition and may have even more impact when those speaking out are being marginalized or attacked. American labor activists from the radical IWW union carried them at the Lawrence Textile 'Bread and Roses' Strike. They fly next to Martin Luther King Jr. in photos from the 1963 March on Washington and his talks at anti-war rallies. This year, demonstrators who helped defeat South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's dictatorial power grab waved South Korean flags along with their signs. Some recent anti-Trump rallies have featured them. But they need to become protest staples to help take the flag back. A recent Vietnam trip reminded me of the power of national pride. Americans are welcomed now, even as museums, statues, and street names commemorate heroes in what they call 'the American war,' and the related fights against the Japanese and French occupations. But Vietnam also honors 13th, 15th, and 16th-century kings who resisted and eventually defeated repeated invasions by the Chinese and Mongols. The country's leadership could have dismissed them as the embodiment of now-discarded feudalism. Instead, they present their stories as part of a continuing story of resistance, a history they highlighted during the war as Ho Chi Minh and other leaders talked of fighting for their country, not communism. Whatever the limits of Vietnam's current regime in terms of democracy, this worked because the roots of national patriotism ran deeper than any particular ideology. The threat to American democracy that those of us marching address is internal, of course (with help from white South African billionaires Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks). But the lesson of patriotism and national pride as a wellspring of resistance still holds true. I've learned to appreciate those who bring flags to social justice protests. And I finally bought my own the other week at my local hardware store to complement a 'Don't Putinize America' sign I plan to carry. The young woman at the counter's initial look seemed to mark me, an older white man, as a likely Trump supporter. When I said I was buying it for the Trump protest, 'No Kings Day,' she broke into a grin. No matter our anger or disappointment for America failing to achieve much of what it should be, we need to defend what we have had and the possibility of what could be. Making the flag our own helps us do that.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store