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[1/5] Residents use a boat to navigate through flood water after heavy rains hit Italy's Emilia Romagna region, in San Pancrazio near Ravenna, Italy, May 18, 2023. REUTERS/Antonio Denti

MILAN, May 20 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX and Unipol Gruppo (UNPI.MI) agreed to join forces to help people hit by flooding in northern Italy connect to the Internet, facilitating rescue operations, the Italian insurer said on Saturday.

Torrential rains devastated the eastern side of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, killing 14 people, causing billions of euros worth of damage and hitting agriculture particularly hard.

Around 36,000 people were forced to leave their homes and many of those who remained in flooded areas were left with no electricity. Rescue efforts are hampered by persistent bad weather and disruptions on phone lines

Under the agreement, Unipol acquired SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet terminals and will make them available for rescuers, hospitals and the public. SpaceX is positioning its satellites to prioritise the Emilia-Romagna region and provide improved coverage.

"SpaceX, Starlink and Tesla are happy to be of use in any way to help Italy and the people affected by the flooding", Musk said in a statement.

Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, Editing by Louise Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX and Italy's Unipol join forces to help Italians hit by flooding - Reuters

Welcome to the weekend, friends. Phil Rosen here today I'm excited to share my conversation with a high-profile Tesla shareholder who recently campaigned for a board seat at Elon Musk's company.

As always, if you have any suggestions for who I should interview next, let me know on Twitter @philrosenn, or email me prosen@insider.com.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.

Ross Gerber is the cofounder and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, and holds 420,000 shares of Tesla stock, or about $74 million based on Tesla's current stock price. This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Phil Rosen: What was your takeaway on Musk at this week's annual shareholder meeting?

Ross Gerber: Elon had his mojo back. Seeing his energy and enthusiasm, him being around the people who love him and he loves, you can see he's clearly happy.

He came out swinging pretty hard with the business plan, $25,000 car, Cybertruck, self-driving then he followed it with a mainstream media interview, which he killed.

It was literally the best PR day for Tesla since the Twitter disaster began.

Musk appointed a new CEO of Twitter on May 12, days before the shareholder meeting. How did these two events impact your investment view on the stock?

RG: You gotta own Tesla in your portfolio with Elon re-focused on Tesla.

Over the first quarter I was a net seller. I went from 440,000 shares to 420,000, but now I'm back to a buy.

I went from a hold and somewhat bearish, to a buy and somewhat bullish. The only thing keeping me from outright bullishness is the broader economy.

What do you want to see the EV company do next to get to the next level?

RG: It comes down to service and quality. Tesla needs a quality and service czar whose job it is to make sure customers are having good experiences.

Tesla needs to understand that they have millions of users, and someone has to be in charge of the user experience, not just updating software. They're very good with the tech side, but they need to be better with human interaction for customers.

Read my full conversation with the top Tesla investor and money manager.

What do you think of Gerber's outlook on Tesla? Let me know.

And here are the top stories from markets this week:

1. Ray Dalio said politicians will likely avoid a default, but whatever deal they make will bode poorly for the future. Any potential decision by lawmakers probably won't be the most viable long-term solution, the billionaire said. He warned that repeatedly raising the debt ceiling will "eventually lead to a disastrous financial collapse."

2. A whistleblower said the investment arm of the Mormon church operated like a "clandestine hedge fund."The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a portfolio topping $100 billion, and that includes $46.2 billion parked in stocks. Here are the top 10 holdings.

3. This investment chief oversees $100 billion.He said the stock rally isn't painting the whole picture of what's really happening. These are the the three corners of the market that he likes for the short- and long-term.

4. RH stock plunged after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway dumped its entire stake. The conglomerate had started to build its position in the third quarter of 2019, and it was last worth about $575 million. Shares of RH have plunged 67% from their post-pandemic high but Buffett still likely made a profit on the bet.

5. Taylor Swift showed her financial savvy when she avoided a deal with failed crypto exchange FTX.The popstar puts her money in a niche type of mutual fund, according to Boaz Weinstein: "For many reasons, it's hard not to be a Swifty."

6. "Big Short" investor Michael Burry piled into First Republic, PacWest, and other ailing bank stocks last quarter.His firm, Scion Asset Management, more than doubled the dollar value of its portfolio to $107 million to start the year. Full details.

7. Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen told investors to ride the "big wave" of AI and stop focusing on recession odds.You could miss out on timely opportunities if you get caught up in potential downside, he said at a recent event, sources told Bloomberg: "I'm actually pretty bullish."

8. The top large-cap fund manager from the past 12 months shared his 13 favorite stocks right now.He broke down his full list, and explained the one change that completely turned around his portfolio performance.

9. Meet the money manager of an award-winning credit fund that has tripled its benchmark since 2014.Sam Reid of River Canyon Total Return Bond Fund shared his strategy for picking winners in the current landscape and what he's watching in the credit market.

10. The strength of the US consumer is at risk as 43 million borrowers are set to resume student loan payments.Strategists at Bank of America said millions of Americans could start shelling out up to $400 per month later this year. That could make shareholders for companies like Discover and SoFi winners in this scenario.

Curated by Phil Rosen in New York. Feedback or tips? Tweet @philrosenn or email prosen@insider.com

Edited by Max Adams (@maxradams) in New York.

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Ross Gerber holds $74 million in Tesla stock. Here's why he's bullish. - Business Insider

Elon Musk told CNBC's David Faber on Tuesday that he doesn't care if his inflammatory tweets scare away potential Tesla buyers or Twitter advertisers.

"I'll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it," said Musk, who owns Twitter.

Musk has for years tweeted controversial items, including conspiracy theories and comments his critics have called broadly discriminatory.

His defense came after Musk caught renewed criticism for a tweet in which he likened liberal billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros to X-Men villain Magneto, a Jewish Holocaust survivor.

"He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity," Musk tweeted Monday.

Musk has previously criticized Soros, whose family office, Soros Fund Management, recently cut its stake in Tesla. Soros, who is also Jewish, is a favorite target of right wing pundits and politicians and often the subject of anti-Semitic attacks. Soros and his family escaped the Nazis during World War II.

Critics said Musk's tweets about Soros fit a larger pattern of attacks on the 92-year-old investor and Democratic donor. "Musk's likening Soros to Magneto isn't casual; it's a nod to harmful antisemitic tropes of Jewish global control," tweeted Alex Goldenberg, an analyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute. Israel's Foreign Ministry, likewise, said Musk's tweets had "anti-Semitic overtones."

Musk on Tuesday denied he's an anti-Semite. "I'm a pro-Semite, if anything," he said when Faber asked him about the criticism. Musk has also previously tweeted and removed memes using Hitler.

Faber on Tuesday also asked Musk why he tweeted a link to someone who said a mass shooting at a Texas mall earlier this month might be part of "a bad psyop," or "psychological operation."

Investigators have probed whether the shooter, whom police killed, had expressed white supremacist views since he wore a "RWDS" patch, a reference to the phrase "Right Wing Death Squad," which is used by extremists. He also had Nazi tattoos, including a swastika.

"I thought this ascribing it to white supremacy was bulls---," Musk said, adding that he thinks there's no proof the shooter was a white supremacist. "We should not be ascribing things to white supremacy if they're if it's false."

Since Musk took over Twitter last fall, the social media network has experienced a sharp decline in advertising revenue as brands and companies assessed changes to the platform and some called out its outspoken new owner.

Last week, Musk hired former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino to replace him as Twitter's CEO, a move widely seen as a way to jumpstart Twitter's ad business. She started Sunday.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:

Elon Musk: 'I'll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it' - CNBC

Elon Musk weighed in this week on Taiwanwhere his comments did not go over well.

The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated, Musk said in an interview with CNBCs David Faber. One does not need to read between the lines. One can simply read the lines. Theres a certain inevitability to the situation.

On Friday in Taiwan, foreign minister Joseph Wu responded to the Tesla CEO, tweeting that the Chinese Communist Partys bullying & threats are a concern, especially for those who would rather stay free & democratic.

In China, meanwhile, the state-controlled China Daily ran with the headline Elon Musk: Taiwan should be integrated.China considers Taiwan to be its territorydespite the fact that Taiwan is democratic and self-governedand has threatened to use force if necessary to gain control of it.

A Chinese takeover could have far-reaching economic consequences. Taiwan is home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the worlds largest maker of computer chips by volume.

Last November, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said America was utterly and totally dependent on the Taiwanese for modern semiconductors. The billionaire hedge fund chief added, If we lose access to Taiwanese semiconductors, the hit to U.S. GDP is probably in the order of magnitude of 5% to 10%. Its an immediate Great Depression.

Legendary investor Warren Buffett this week dumped the rest of Berkshire Hathaways $4 billion stake in TSMC. He told Japans Nikkei last month that the threat of war was a consideration in dumping the bulk of the stake.

Last October, Musk told the Financial Times that a conflict over Taiwan is inevitable. His recommendation, he said, would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatablethey could have an arrangement thats more lenient than Hong Kong.

Chinas foreign ministry responded to his statements by reiterating that China would resolutely crush Taiwan independence secessionist attempts, resolutely stop interference by external forces, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Musk this week compared China and the rest of the global economy to conjoined twins and warned of severe consequences from any attempt to separate them. Tesla has a gigafactory in Shanghai and China is a key market, but he said that the situation is actually a lot worse for a lot of other companiesIm not sure where you will get an iPhone.

In Taiwan, however, foreign minister Wu added that Chinas expansionist policy violates rules-based international order & the status quo. Mr. @ElonMusk, other than money, there is something we call VALUES.

Continued here:

Elon Musk gets blowback from Taiwan after saying theres a certain inevitability China will integrate it - Fortune

Investors and analysts responded well to Elon Musks decision to step down as head of Twitter, with shares briefly popping higher on the news.

For some time, shareholders have been calling on Musk to pay more attention to Tesla. Last month, 17 large shareholders penned an open letter accusing Musk of being overcommitted and distracted. Accordingly, the appointment of a new boss at Twitter was greeted enthusiastically by analysts, with Wedbush saying Musk was finally reading the room.

That assessment may be unduly optimistic. Musk will still be heavily involved at Twitter. Perhaps more importantly, he will continue tweeting. Ill say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it, he said last week.

That sounds noble, but theres nothing noble about Musks increasingly poisonous utterings. Last week, he sparked outrage after tweeting that George Soros, a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, wants to erode the very fabric of civilisation and hates humanity. Musk has also been arguing against the claim that a gunman in a Texas mass shooting is a white supremacist, despite his Nazi tattoos and other evidence.

[Tesla will 'try a little advertising', Musk says]

[Elon Musk and Donald Trump jnr criticise proposed Irish hate crime legislation]

Musks attention-seeking antics have hurt Teslas brand over the past year. He may be stepping down at Twitter, but last weeks carry-on suggests Musk will continue testing the patience of exasperated shareholders.

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Elon Musk is still not 'reading the room' - The Irish Times