US Business

Twitter-owner Elon Musk drew anger and stern warnings from regulators on Friday after suspending the accounts of half a dozen prominent journalists — accusing them of endangering his family.

Journalists from CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post were cut off from the platform without warning on Friday, provoking the newest controversy since Musk took over the company on October 27.

“News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying,” EU commissioner Vera Jourova posted on Twitter, warning the influential platform could face hefty fines through European laws.

“Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,” she added.

The latest controversy began when Musk on Wednesday suspended @elonjet, an account that tracked flights of his private jet.

Musk said the move was necessary after a car in Los Angeles carrying one of his children was followed by “a crazy stalker” and seemed to blame the tracking of his jet for this incident.

Some of the journalists had reported on the affair, including tweets linking to the suspended account, which Musk said amounted to “assassination coordinates” against he and his family.

In a chat hosted live on Twitter, Musk provided no evidence for his claim but told some of the suspended reporters that on Twitter “everyone’s going to be treated the same… they’re not special because you’re a journalist.”

Pressed further on his allegations, Musk ended the conversation. Twitter Spaces, the feature where the chat took place, was then suspended.

Media organizations criticized the move sharply and opened the door to re-evaluating their relationship with Twitter, which has become an essential tool for journalism in the past decade.

“The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising,” the news organization said in a tweet.

“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform.”

The New York Times said in a statement it also wanted answers from Twitter regarding the “questionable” suspension of journalists.

– Twitter exodus? –

Twitter has lurched from one controversy to the next since Musk took control after paying $44 billion, mainly by selling shares in Tesla, his successful electric car company. 

The billionaire’s talk of unfettered speech has scared off major advertisers and caught the attention of regulators.

Musk has reinstated the account of former US president Donald Trump and lashed out against the outgoing key advisor for the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Anthony Fauci, a frequent target of vitriol on right-wing media.

CNN has reported that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety fled his home after baseless attacks on Twitter content moderation, endorsed by Musk.

Meanwhile, a purge initiated by Musk at Twitter left more than half of its 7,500 employees on the sidelines and now many of them are taking the SpaceX and Tesla tycoon to court.

Musk at one point signaled he was going to war with Apple over the App Store, only to later tweet that it was a “misunderstanding.”

Market tracker Insider Intelligence forecast that Twitter will experience an exodus of users.

“There won’t be one catastrophic event that ends Twitter,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.

“Instead, users will start to leave the platform next year as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavory content.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday his government was working “flat out” to settle post-Brexit trading problems in Northern Ireland to end political paralysis in Belfast.

On his first visit to Northern Ireland as premier, Sunak said he was “really committed to resolving some of the issues with the protocol” and “protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the union”.

The UK and the EU have been working this year to resolve their differences over post-Brexit trade rules known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The deal keeps Northern Ireland in the European single market and customs union, mandating checks on goods heading to the province from the rest of the UK.

It has proven deeply unpopular with pro-British unionists who have said the arrangements drive a wedge between it and the three other UK nations.

Sunak said by working though the problems, Northern Ireland’s lawmakers should be able to restore power-sharing at the region’s devolved government.

“That is what the people in Northern Ireland need and deserve,” he added.

Northern Ireland’s government has been out of action since February because of a boycott by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

The party withdrew its first minister from the executive at Stormont in February in protest over the protocol.

It has refused to return until the rules are overhauled or scrapped entirely.

Sunak said he would not put a “strict deadline” on talks between London and Brussels but vowed to “work as hard and as fast as I can to find a resolution”.

“I want to do that as soon as practically possible,” he added.

Sunak met the leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main political parties on Thursday evening.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he was told by the prime minister there would likely be an “intensification at the political level” of negotiations over coming weeks.

Sunak also toured Belfast’s shipyards to highlight the revival of shipbuilding in the historic area where doomed liner the Titanic was built and launched over 100 years ago. 

Under a £1.6-billion ($1.9-billion) government contract, three new British naval vessels will be completed at the shipyards by a consortium led by Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff.

Six Macau casino firms agreed Friday to invest a total of 118.8 billion patacas ($15 billion) after being granted 10-year operating licences, with the bulk of the money pledged to non-gaming projects.

The former Portuguese colony is the only place in China where casinos are allowed, and issues just six operating concessions for a multi-billion-dollar industry that, until the pandemic hit, was bigger than Las Vegas.

Macau has been keen to diversify away from gambling into tourism and leisure for decades, but with mixed results.

The government confirmed last month that the six incumbents all won licence renewals, beating back a surprise bid from a newcomer firm linked to Malaysian gaming and resorts giant Genting.

The casino firms promised to spend 108.7 billion patacas — more than 90 percent of their investment total — on “exploring overseas customer markets and developing non-gaming projects”, the government said Friday.

Such projects would cover the “convention and exhibition business, entertainment and performances, sports events, culture and art, health care, and themed amusement”, the government added.

Macau’s leader Ho Iat-seng said he hoped the operators would contribute to Macau’s development and “deliver on their corporate social responsibilities regarding protection of local employment and promotion of upward mobility of local workers”.

The six firms — MGM China, Wynn Macau, Sands China, Galaxy Entertainment, Melco Resorts, and SJM Holdings — will begin their new contract period on January 1.

Shares in the operators have spiked more than 60 percent in the past three weeks, according to Bloomberg, as news of the licence renewals emerged and China loosens coronavirus restrictions.

But all are still trading well below where they were before the pandemic. 

Macau’s gaming sector, which has been limping for nearly three years, was further battered this year as the Omicron variant led to a cycle of lockdowns, testing and border closures for residents and kept mainland Chinese tourists away.

The casinos are on track for their weakest annual revenue on record, with only 38.7 billion patacas recorded between January and November — down 86 percent from the same period in 2019.

Even if pandemic measures are fully lifted, it is unlikely they will return to their headiest, freewheeling days.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has spearheaded an anti-corruption campaign that has increased scrutiny of the high rollers and officials who travel to gamble in Macau, where money laundering is common.

For decades, Macau’s gaming industry was run as a monopoly by casino magnate Stanley Ho, but in 2002 more operators were brought in and issued 20-year concessions as part of a liberalisation effort.

In January, authorities slashed the licence period to 10 years and unveiled regulations seeking to increase local ownership and government supervision.

Twitter suspended Thursday accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists who had been writing about the company and its new owner Elon Musk.

Silencing journalists at Twitter while claiming to be a free speech champion is the latest controversy provoked by Musk since he took over the company, which has seen staffing gutted and advertisers exit.

Some of the journalists had been tweeting about Twitter shutting down an @ElonJet account that tracked flights of billionaire Musk’s private jet and about versions of that account hosted at other social networks.

Twitter did not say why the reporters’ accounts were suspended.

“Nothing says free speech like suspending journalists who cover you,” Sarah Reese Jones of news commentary website PoliticusUSA said in a tweeted response to posts about the suspensions.

Checks at Twitter showed account suspensions included reporters from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post as well as independent journalists.

“The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising,” the news organization said in a tweet.

“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform.”

CNN said it has asked Twitter for an explanation of the suspension.

The New York Times said in a statement it also wanted answers from Twitter regarding the “questionable” suspension of journalists.

“I have no idea what rules I purportedly broke,” independent journalist Aaron Rupar, whose Twitter account was suspended, wrote in a Substack post.

“I haven’t heard anything from Twitter at all.”

In a tweet late Thursday, Musk appeared to allude to the suspension of the reporters’ accounts with this tweet: “If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!”

Musk on Wednesday tweeted that a car in Los Angeles carrying one of his children was followed by “a crazy stalker” and seemed to blame the tracking of his jet for this alleged incident. In the tweet, he said legal action is being taken against the person who ran ElonJet.

The Twitter account that tracked flights of Musk’s private jet was shut down Wednesday despite the billionaire’s statement that he is a free speech absolutist.

Twitter later sent out word that it updated its policy to prohibit tweets, in most cases, from giving away someone’s location in real time.

Musk had gone public saying he would not touch @ElonJet after buying Twitter in a $44 billion deal as part of his commitment to free speech at the platform.

The European Union warned Musk on Friday that Twitter could be subject to sanctions under a future media law after the “worrying” suspension of several journalists from the platform.

“News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our Media Freedom Act,” EU commissioner Vera Jourova tweeted.

“Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon.”

– Exodus expected –

Twitter has lurched from one controversy to the next since Musk took control in late October.

The billionaire’s talk of unfettered speech scared off major advertisers and caught the attention of regulators.

Musk has reinstated the account of former US president Donald Trump and lashed out against the outgoing key advisor for the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Anthony Fauci, a frequent target of vitriol on right-wing media.

CNN has reported that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety fled his home after baseless attacks on Twitter content moderation, endorsed by Musk.

Meanwhile, a purge initiated by Musk at Twitter left more than half of its 7,500 employees on the sidelines and now many of them are taking the SpaceX and Tesla tycoon to court.

Musk at one point signaled he was going to war with Apple over the App Store, only to later tweet that it was a “misunderstanding.”

Market tracker Insider Intelligence forecast that Twitter will experience an exodus of users.

“There won’t be one catastrophic event that ends Twitter,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.

“Instead, users will start to leave the platform next year as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavory content.”

Stock markets dropped further Friday on prospects of more aggressive rises to interest rates to fight sky-high inflation, renewing concerns over the global economy entering recession next year.

After a healthy rally in recent weeks fuelled by signs that price rises were slowing, the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England this week crushed any Christmas spirit by hiking borrowing costs again by sizeable amounts and warning of more pain.

While inflation in most countries has started coming down — helped by a drop in energy costs — it remains at multi-decade highs.

And observers have warned that economies could be heading for a period of stagflation where prices keep rising but growth stalls.

“In a nutshell, it is all about fears over a sharper economic slowdown in 2023 than previously expected,” noted Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index trading group.

“While macro data have been weak of late, there was still hope that the downturn might be short-lived and that a recession might be avoided in some regions altogether, amid signs of inflation peaking in some regions like the US.”

The latest rate hikes came as data showed US and UK retail sales dropping in November as consumers — key drivers of growth — feel the pinch from high prices and rate hikes.

– Recession on horizon? –

“With central banks on both sides of the pond suggesting they have more work to tame inflation, hiking interest rates into a dimming macro environment will undoubtedly trigger a recession,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

“The question is just how profound. Forget inflation; Asia traders are now worried about a global recession.”

Wall Street tumbled Thursday, with the Nasdaq losing more than three percent as tech firms took another blow.

And the losses carried through to Asia, where Tokyo closed down 1.9 percent.

Eurozone indices dropped approaching the half-way stage but less sharply compared with Thursday.

On the upside, Hong Kong rose on progress in talks over allowing US officials to audit Chinese firms listed in New York, easing concerns about a possible delisting of some big names such as Alibaba and Tencent.

The news provided a little more help to Hong Kong traders, whose sentiment has been lifted also by China’s shift away from the economically damaging zero-Covid policy as well as moves to open the city further to overseas visitors.

And a report in the city’s South China Morning Post said the border with mainland China would be fully reopened next month, providing another much-needed boost to the beleaguered economy.

However, the mood was soured a little by a US decision to put 36 Chinese companies including top producers of advanced computer chips on a trade blacklist, severely restricting their access to any US technology.

– Key figures around 1145 GMT –

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 1.3 percent at 7,333.40 points

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.8 percent at 13,870.08

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.3 percent at 6,438.84

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.1 percent at 3,795.35

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.9 percent at 27,527.12 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 19,450.67 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 3,167.86 (close)

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.3 percent at 33,202.22 (close)

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.8 percent at $74.71 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 1.8 percent at $79.74 per barrel

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0630 from $1.0627 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2187 from $1.2175

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.22 pence from 87.26 pence

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 137.04 yen from 137.80 yen

Most stock markets fell Friday as investors contemplated interest rates going higher than expected for an extended period after central banks reaffirmed their commitment to bringing down inflation.

After a healthy rally in recent weeks fuelled by signs that price rises were slowing, the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank this week crushed any Christmas spirit by hiking borrowing costs again and warning of more pain to come.

While inflation in most countries has started coming down from the levels seen earlier this year — helped by a drop in energy costs — it remains at multi-decade highs.

And observers have warned that economies could be heading for a period of stagflation where prices keep rising but growth stalls.

After a rough week for markets, anxiety was enhanced on Wednesday after the Fed hiked rates as expected but indicated they would likely have to go higher than had been forecast, ramping up fears of a recession.

That was followed by similar moves by the ECB on Thursday, with its boss Christine Lagarde warning: “We have more ground to cover, we have longer to go and we are in for a long game.”

The Bank of England also lifted rates and said more hikes were on the cards.

The decisions came as data also showed that almost a year of monetary tightening was hitting the economy more and more, with US retail sales dropping in November as American consumers — the key driver of growth — began to feel the pinch.

– Recession on horizon? –

“With central banks on both sides of the pond suggesting they have more work to tame inflation, hiking interest rates into a dimming macro environment will undoubtedly trigger a recession,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

“The question is just how profound. Forget inflation; Asia traders are now worried about a global recession.”

All three main indexes on Wall Street tumbled Thursday, with the Nasdaq losing more than three percent as tech firms took another blow.

And the losses carried through to Asia, where Tokyo gave up 1.9 percent while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Mumbai, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila were also in the red. Shanghai was barely moved.

However, the dollar eased back slightly after Thursday’s rally.

Hong Kong rose, supported by signs of progress in talks on allowing US officials to audit Chinese firms listed in New York, easing concerns about a possible delisting of some big names such as Alibaba and Tencent.

The news provided a little more help to Hong Kong traders, whose sentiment has been lifted by China’s shift away from the economically damaging zero-Covid policy as well as moves to open the city further to overseas visitors.

And a report in the city’s South China Morning Post said the border with mainland China would be fully reopened next month, providing another much-needed boost to the beleaguered economy.

However, the mood was soured a little by a US decision to put 36 Chinese companies including top producers of advanced computer chips on a trade blacklist, severely restricting their access to any US technology.

London, Paris and Frankfurt opened mixed a day after suffering hefty losses.

– Key figures around 0820 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.9 percent at 27,527.12 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 19,450.67 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 3,167.86 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,418.88

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0640 from $1.0627 on Thursday

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 137.16 yen from 137.80 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2200 from $1.2175

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.25 pence from 87.26 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $75.77 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $80.99 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.3 percent at 33,202.22 (close)