US Business

Twitter users voted on Monday to oust owner Elon Musk as CEO in a highly unscientific poll he organized and promised to honor, just weeks after he took charge of the social media giant.

A total of 57.5 percent of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down. Musk, who is also the boss of car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, has not yet responded.

“The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,” the South African-born billionaire tweeted before the vote closed.

In a response to another tweet he added: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

Musk has fully owned Twitter since October 27 and has repeatedly courted controversy as CEO, sacking half of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, banning journalists and trying to charge for previously free services.

Analysts have also pointed out that the stock price of Tesla has slumped by one-third since the Twitter takeover and the share price briefly rallied by 3.3 percent on Monday before fading.

“It’s hard to ignore the numbers since [Twitter] deal closed,” tweeted investment expert Gary Black, saying he reckoned Tesla’s board was putting pressure on Musk to quit his Twitter role.

In discussions with users after posting his latest poll, Musk renewed his warnings that the platform could be heading for bankruptcy.

– ‘Won’t happen again’ –

Resorting to Twitter’s polling feature has been a favorite strategy of Musk’s to push through decisions, including the reinstatement of the account of former president Donald Trump.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, which defends the freedom of the press around the world, said the polls were a “crude and cynical” ploy.

“These methods appear to be democratic procedures, but in reality they are…the opposite of democracy,” said the group’s head Christophe Deloire.

The unpredictable entrepreneur posted his latest poll shortly after trying to extricate himself from yet another controversy.

On Sunday, Twitter users were told they would no longer be able to promote content from other social media sites.

But Musk seemed to reverse course a few hours later, writing that the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors.”

“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again,” he tweeted.

The attempted ban had prompted howls of disapproval and even bemused Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who had backed Musk’s takeover.

He questioned the new policy with a one-word tweet: “Why?”

– ‘Perfect storm’ –

Musk has generated a series of controversies in his short reign.

Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush called his tenure a “perfect storm.” 

He flagged that “advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly $4 billion per year.”

Shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced the site would charge $8 a month to verify account holders’ identities, but had to suspend the “Twitter Blue” plan after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts. It has since been relaunched.

On November 4, with Musk saying the company was losing $4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500-strong staff.

Musk also reinstated the account of Donald Trump — though the former US president indicated he had no interest in the platform — and said Twitter would no longer work to combat Covid-19 disinformation.

In recent days, he suspended the accounts of several journalists after complaining some had published details about the movements of his private jet, which he claimed could endanger his family.

Employees of CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post were among those affected in a move that drew sharp criticism, including from the European Union and the United Nations.

The Washington Post’s executive editor Sally Buzbee said the suspension of journalist Taylor Lorenz’s account “further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.”

Some of the suspended accounts have since been reactivated.

President Vladimir Putin denied plans to absorb Belarus as he paid a rare visit Monday to the country whose strongman assisted his invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

Putin flew into Minsk with his defence and foreign ministers in tow, hours after Russian forces launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in Kyiv, which provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen regions.

Putin said that Russia and Belarus — slapped with new Western sanctions since President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of a sixth term in 2020 elections widely criticised as fraudulent — were “united by a common history and spiritual values”.

Putin called the countries “closest allies and strategic partners” but said that rumours that Russia sought to take over Belarus came from “ill-wishers”.

“Russia has no interest in absorbing anyone, this would simply make no sense,” Putin said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price scoffed at Putin’s remarks.

“I think a statement like that has to be treated as the height of irony coming from a leader who is seeking at the present moment — right now — to violently absorb his other, peaceful next-door neighbour,” Price said.

“We have seen the Lukashenko regime essentially cede its sovereignty — cede its independence — to Russia,” Price said.

Belarus has let Russian forces use its territory and hours before Putin touched down in Minsk, Moscow released footage of drills with Belarusian forces including tank manoeuvres and sniper fire at a snow-dusted training ground.

Lukashenko urged closer military cooperation and said that Russia and Belarus are “open for dialogue with other states, including European ones.”

“I hope that soon they will listen to the voice of reason,” Lukashenko said.

Speculation mounted ahead of the Russian leader’s visit that he would pressure Lukashenko to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside the Russians after Moscow suffered a string of defeats in nearly 10 months of fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, dismissed the reports “as totally stupid, groundless fabrications.”

In October, Belarus announced the formation of a joint regional force with Moscow with several thousand Russian servicemen arriving in the ex-Soviet country.

– New explosions near Kyiv –

The drone attacks wounded three people near Kyiv. They came as Russia said it shot down several US-made missiles over its airspace near Ukraine.

“I first heard the air raid siren… I thought there is going to be a drone attack. For the first time, it scared me,” said Natalia Dobrovolska, a 68-year-old resident of Kyiv.

She described hearing multiple explosions before power shut off in her building in western Kyiv. Officials said Russia had flown in 35 attack drones nationwide, including 23 over Kyiv.

Ukraine said it downed 30 of the aerial weapons, including Iranian-made “Shaheds”, which have pummelled the capital in recent weeks.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said critical infrastructure facilities were damaged while regional authorities said nine homes had been scarred by the attacks.

Ukraine has experienced frequent and deadly aerial attacks. After a series of battlefield setbacks, Moscow stepped up its aerial campaign to target the country’s energy grid.

– Russia ‘must fail’ –

With winter setting in, missile and drone attacks have plunged cities around the country into darkness, and severed water and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians.

Speaking to the leaders of several NATO countries via video link on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies to supply its military with more weapons.

“Russian aggression can and must fail. And our task now is to accelerate it,” he told the leaders assembled in Riga.

He said in a late-night address Sunday that some nine million of Ukraine’s estimated 40 million people had their electricity restored after Russia’s previous missile barrage last week.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a year-end news conference, said with regret that he expected the war “will go on.”

“I am not optimistic about the possibility of effective peace talks in the immediate future,” Guterres said.

– Gas price cap –

The West has sought to keep the pressure on Russia. European Union ministers, after months of wrangling, on Monday decided on a price gap on Russian natural gas, following an agreement that came in force this month on Russian oil.

The price ceiling on natural gas was fixed at 180 euros per megawatt hour, although the European Commission said it may suspend the cap if “the risks outweigh the benefits” following protracted negotiations involving Germany, the continent’s largest economy which backs Ukraine but is highly dependent on imported energy.

“It wasn’t an easy thing to achieve,” Maltese Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said.

The Kremlin lashed out at the latest measure, with Peskov saying the cap was “unacceptable” and a violation of market processes.

Lawmakers probing last year’s deadly assault on the US Capitol held a final public meeting Monday that is expected to end in a vote on whether to recommend criminal charges against former president Donald Trump.

The decision will be the culmination of an 18-month probe by a House of Representatives select committee that interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and held explosive public hearings on the storming of Congress on January 6, 2021.

At least five people died after a mob whipped up by Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, and directed to march on Congress by the defeated president, ransacked the seat of US democracy in a thwarted bid to prevent the transfer of power to President Joe Biden.

The committee is expected to urge the Justice Department to pursue Trump on at least three charges related to the violence — inciting an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to defraud the United States.

Vice-chair Liz Cheney accused Trump of “a clear dereliction of duty” in failing to immediately attempt to stop the riot and called him “unfit for any office.” 

“No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again,” she said.

The referrals would be largely symbolic, as the panel has no control over charging decisions, which rest with the Justice Department.

Jack Smith, a largely independent special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is leading his own investigation into Trump related to the 2020 election.

But the lawmakers’ move would nevertheless be historic, as Congress has never made a criminal referral against a sitting or former president. 

It would also be a major blow to Trump amid a series of missteps in the weeks since he announced a comeback bid for the White House.

Charges could result in a ban from public office for the 76-year-old tycoon, who still wields considerable power in the Republican Party, and even prison time.

“To cast a vote in the United States is an act of faith and hope,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson said.

“That faith in our system is the foundation of American democracy. If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith.”

– ‘Congress cannot remain silent’ –

The seven Democratic and two Republican panel members are winding down their work before the end of the year, and have compiled their findings into an eight-chapter report set to be released on Wednesday. 

The executive summary is expected to be issued Monday.

The committee maintains that Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.”

Investigators say the plot began with Trump’s campaign to spread allegations he knew were false that the election was marred by widespread fraud.

He is accused of trying to corrupt the Justice Department and of pressuring his vice president Mike Pence, as well as state election officials and legislators, to overturn the vote by violating the Constitution and the law.

Trump is also accused of summoning and assembling the mob in Washington, and directing it toward the Capitol despite knowing it was armed with assault rifles, handguns and numerous other weapons. 

And he ignored pleas from his team to take action to stop the violence, lawmakers say.

The committee’s case was bolstered by a federal judge in California who found it “more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6.” 

Lawmakers are also mulling criminal referrals of other figures in Trump’s inner circle, including lawyer John Eastman, one of the architects of the defeated president’s bid to cling to power.

“We’re focused on key players… where there is sufficient evidence or abundant evidence that they committed crimes,” committee member Jamie Raskin told reporters last week.

“And we’re focused on crimes that go right to the heart of the constitutional order such that the Congress cannot remain silent.”

Authorities say some 140 officers were assaulted during the riot. Around 900 people have been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the attack and more than 800 have been charged with crimes ranging from trespass and assaulting police to seditious conspiracy.

Trump has repeatedly disparaged the House panel on his own Truth Social platform, calling the members “Democrats, misfits and thugs.”

Jury selection began on Monday in the trial of five members of the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys charged with sedition in connection with last year’s assault on the US Capitol.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and the other defendants are accused of trying to stop the January 6, 2021 certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over Donald Trump.

Tarrio, the former “national chairman” of the Proud Boys, was not in Washington on January 6 but is alleged to have directed the storming of the Capitol by members of the neofascist organization.

Four of his lieutenants — Dominic Pezzola, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean and Zachary Rehl — are accused of directly taking part in the assault on Congress.

In widely-viewed video footage, Pezzola can be seen using a riot shield stolen from police to break a window at the Capitol.

Tarrio was arrested in Miami in March and also faces charges along with the others of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of law enforcement and destruction of government property.

More than 900 people have been arrested in connection with the storming of Congress by Trump supporters, but only a handful have been charged with seditious conspiracy, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Two leaders of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy last month, including the founder, Stewart Rhodes.

The 12-person jury acquitted three other members of the Oath Keepers who faced the sedition charge, but it convicted them of lesser offenses such as obstructing an official proceeding.

According to Tarrio’s indictment, he met with Rhodes on January 5 in an underground parking garage in Washington and was in contact with members of the Proud Boys who breached the Capitol.

The Proud Boys trial, which is expected to last several weeks, is being held at the same federal courthouse in Washington where the members of the Oath Keepers went on trial. 

The assault on Congress left at least five people dead and 140 police officers injured and followed a fiery speech by Trump to thousands of his supporters near the White House.

Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot — he was charged with inciting an insurrection — but was acquitted by the Senate.

Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel this month to oversee the investigation into Trump’s own efforts to overturn the election result and the attack on Congress.

A House committee which has been investigating the Capitol riot is expected to recommend on Monday that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump.

Actress Amber Heard announced Monday that she had made the “very difficult” decision to settle the multimillion dollar defamation case brought by her former husband Johnny Depp.

Heard, in a post on Instagram, did not reveal the terms of the settlement, which comes after a Virginia jury ordered her to pay $10 million to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star.

The entertainment website TMZ, citing sources with direct knowledge, said the settlement calls for the 36-year-old Heard to pay $1 million to her 59-year-old former husband.

Heard, who had a starring role in the movie “Aquaman,” said she was dropping her appeal of the damages awarded by the jury and settling the case because she “simply cannot go through” another trial.

“After a great deal of deliberation I have made a very difficult decision to settle the defamation case,” she said.

“I make this decision having lost faith in the American legal system, where my unprotected testimony served as entertainment and social media fodder,” she said.

“Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to,” she said. “I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession.”

The jury found Depp and Heard liable for defamation — but sided more strongly with the “Pirates” star following an intense six-week trial riding on bitterly contested allegations of domestic abuse.

The jury awarded $10.35 million in damages to Depp.

Heard, who had countersued, was awarded $2 million.

– ‘Defended my truth’ –

Depp sued Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The Texas-born Heard did not name Depp in the piece, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and sought $50 million in damages.

Heard countersued for $100 million, saying she was defamed by statements made by Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, who told the Daily Mail her abuse claims were a “hoax.”

The case, live streamed to millions, featured lurid and intimate details about the Hollywood celebrities’ private lives.

Heard’s lawyers said following the trial that the actress did not have the resources to pay Depp the $10 million in damages.

In her Instagram post, Heard said she “defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed.

“The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are revictimised when they come forward,” she said.

“I was exposed to a type of humiliation that I simply cannot relive.

“Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a retrial where a new jury would have to consider the evidence again,” she said. “I simply cannot go through that for a third time.”