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Inside ‘drama magnet’ Elon Musk’s life of ‘toxic’ women and ‘chaos’ as book explores why mogul is ‘wired for war’

Elon Musk’s rise to become the world’s richest man has been fueled by a wild combination, according to a new book: a penchant for “toxic” girlfriends like Amber Heard, battles with everyone from his brother to employees, an appetite for incredible risk and a love of game playing — both the video variety and the emotional kind.

“I’m just wired for war, basically,” Elon told biographer Walter Isaacson for the 688-page book “Elon Musk,” which hit stores Tuesday.

The ghost of Elon’s notorious father, Errol — whom he once called “evil” and relentlessly abusive — also haunts the pages.

Apparently, Errol and Heard — who dated Elon for about a year after her high-profile 2016 split from Johnny Depp — have something in common.

“[Amber] was just so toxic,” Kimbal Musk, Elon’s younger brother, says in the book. “A nightmare. She really is a very good actress, so she will say things that you’re like, ‘Wow, maybe she’s telling you the truth’ but she isn’t. The way she can create reality reminds me of my dad.”

The new book “Elon Musk,” by Walter Isaacson, delves into the entrepreneur’s complicated relationships, including with Grimes.
AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk with his young son, X, the oldest of three he shares with singer Grimes, at the Miami Grand Prix in May 2023.
Getty Images

Errol, now 77, chose Father’s Day 2022 to tell Elon that he’d fathered a second child with former stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout — one of numerous “evil” moves made in his life, according to his sons.

The book is rife with descriptions of how “socially awkward” Elon, who self-diagnosed himself with Asperger’s syndrome, himself lacks empathy and bears similarities to his father, telling both staffers and girlfriends that they are “stupid” or “idiots” when under stress.

Still, he appears to be most scarred not by his rough childhood but the rejection of his transgender daughter.

The 19-year-old, who is a fraternal twin to brother Griffin, transitioned to female in 2020 and legally changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson.

“I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” she told a court in 2022.

Though Musk publicly brushed off Vivian’s spurning of him by quipping, “Can’t win them all,” one of his ex-girlfriends, the singer Grimes, told Isaacson that the girl’s rejection kills Elon.

“He loves Jenna so much and truly accepts her,” Grimes says in the book. “I’ve never seen him as heartbroken about anything. I know he’d do anything to be able to see her or have her, like, accept him again.”The twins, Vivian and Griffin, are the oldest of Elon’s 10 living children and, along with 17-year-old triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, are from his first marriage, to Justine Musk. Most of the older kids are described as being brilliant in math and science. The former couple’s first son, Nevada Alexander Musk, died of sudden infant death syndrome at only 10 weeks old in 2002.

Source: https://nypost.com/2023/09/12/drama-magnet-elon-musks-life-of-toxic-women-and-chaos/

An explosive Elon Musk biography is just hitting shelves. But the book’s acclaimed author is already walking back a major claim

Walter Isaacson’s highly anticipated biography on Elon Musk is hitting shelves on Tuesday — and he is already walking back a major claim.

Isaacson reported in his book that Musk had abruptly turned off Ukraine’s access to his Starlink satellite internet system last year just as the country was launching an underwater drone attack on a Russian fleet in Crimea, depriving the Eastern European country’s forces of critical communications for the assault and rendering the offensive a failure.

“He secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast,” fearing the sneak attack would lead to a “mini-Pearl Harbor” scenario and nuclear war, Isaacson wrote in the book, according to an excerpt obtained and first reported by CNN. “As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.”

That explosive claim, which set off alarms and triggered a tsunami of questions about Musk’s role as a key figure potentially determining the fate of Vladimir Putin’s ruthless war, turned out not to be quite as Isaacson had told it. Musk pushed back last week, writing on X that Starlink was never activated over Crimea and that he had actually received “an emergency request from government authorities” to enable the service, with the “obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor.”

“If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation,” Musk wrote.

Perhaps more importantly, Isaacson subsequently walked back the bombshell claim, which had received significant media coverage and was published as an “untold story” book excerpt in The Washington Post.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/11/media/walter-isaacson-elon-musk-reliable-sources/index.html

Musk’s SpaceX sued over alleged discrimination against refugees in hiring

US Department of Justice says company wrongly claimed law meant it could only hire citizens and permanent residents.

SpaceX is being sued by the US Department of Justice over its hiring practices [File: Jae C Hong/AP Photo]

SpaceX, the rocket company owned by Elon Musk, has been sued by the United States government for allegedly discriminating against asylum seekers and refugees in its hiring practices.

SpaceX wrongly claimed that the company could only hire US citizens and permanent residents due to export control laws, dissuading asylum seekers and refugees from applying for jobs, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement on Thursday.

While SpaceX must comply with legal restrictions on the shipment of certain goods and technologies overseas, US law does not require companies to treat asylum seekers and refugees differently than citizens or green card holders, the DOJ said.

The justice department said it would ask the courts to impose civil penalties on SpaceX and seek backpay for asylum seekers and refugees who were deterred from applying for jobs or denied employment.

“Our investigation found that SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the justice department’s Civil Rights Division said.

“Our investigation also found that SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company. Asylees and refugees have overcome many obstacles in their lives, and unlawful employment discrimination based on their citizenship status should not be one of them.”

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/8/25/musks-spacex-sued-over-alleged-discrimination-against-refugees-in-hiring

SpaceX and Blue Origin are being targeted by spies from China, Russia: feds

Chinese and Russian spies are looking to steal sensitive technology and data from US space companies including SpaceX and Blue Origin, according to a federal government communique.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI and the Air Force published an advisory on Friday warning that “foreign intelligence entities recognize the importance of the commercial space industry to the US economy and national security, including the growing dependence of critical infrastructure on space-based assets.”

“They see US space-related innovation and assets as potential threats as well as valuable opportunities to acquire vital technologies and expertise,” according to the advisory, the existence of which was first reported by the New York Times.

Intelligence agencies are concerned over Chinese and Russian spy agencies’ increased interest in US commercial space companies, according to the Times.

US intelligence agencies are warning SpaceX and Blue Origin that they could be targeted by Russian and Chinese spies.
Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock

That is why the federal government wants companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin to tighten their security protocols — particularly in light of the fact that the US has come to depend on space firms for its technological infrastructure.

The agencies warned that US adversaries “use cyberattacks, strategic investment (including joint ventures and acquisitions), the targeting of key supply chain nodes, and other techniques to gain access to the US space industry.”

US relations with China (led by President Xi Jinping, above) have soured over the Communist nation’s military buildup in the South China Sea as well as disputes over trade.
REUTERS

American space firms are asked to be on the lookout for “indicators” that they are being “targeted,” including “unusually high cyberactivity targeting your company from unknown parties,” “requests to visit your company facilities from unknown or foreign entities,” “unsolicited offers to establish joint ventures with companies tied to foreign governments or state-owned enterprises,” and “attempts to recruit your company’s technical experts … and provision of financial incentives in exchange for proprietary information.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2023/08/18/spacex-and-blue-origin-targeted-by-spies-from-china-russia-feds-say/