Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed Facebook and Instagram into a new era when he announced that they would follow in the footsteps of Elon Musk's X, doing away with fact-checkers and other content moderation in favor of community notes and freer speech.

Give him a fluffy white cat and a private island and Elon Musk would be a Bond villain straight out of central casting. With his vast wealth, power and endless ambition, he makes Ernst Stavro Blofeld look like a shrinking violet.

Sir Keir Starmer has begun this year in an explosive row with tech billionaire Elon Musk, which broke out after the Tesla boss criticised the government for rejecting a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.

The financial regulator wants Musk to pay a civil penalty and remedies over alleged “unjust enrichment” ahead of his 2022 purchase of the social network.

Having established power over Republican politics in the US, the industrialist is now intervening in European politics—and is himself becoming a leader of the international far right.

The SEC alleges Elon Musk violated federal securities law by failing to disclose his more than 5% stake in Twitter on time.