Elon Musk has bowed to the BBC’s demands to remove a Twitter label accusing the corporation of being “government funded media” after a row with the broadcaster.
Mr Musk said he would agree to alter the disclaimer to read “publicly funded”. Mr Musk said: “We want it to as truthful and accurate as possible – we’re adjusting the label.”
The billionaire had waded into a dispute with the broadcaster after adding labels to state-funded media groups on the social network. He claimed the BBC was guilty of bias, although added it was “among the least biased”
The labelling frustrated BBC bosses, who were forced to insist it was was independent of the government and funded through the licence fee.
The Tesla boss, who acquired Twitter in a $44bn deal last year, rowed back on his decision in a “spontaneous” interview with the BBC in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Mr Musk also disclosed that “I sometimes sleep in the office”, adding he had a spot in a library “that nobody goes to”. A number of senior Twitter staff have taken to bedding down in the company’s headquarters amid Mr Musk’s relentless turnaround drive.
Since acquiring the social network Mr Musk has been slashing jobs in an effort to bring down costs. The billionaire said Twitter now had just 1,500 staff, down from 8,000 people when he took over the social network.
09:16 AM
China records first death avian flu strain
A 56-year-old woman in China has died after contracting H3N8 bird flu, the first known fatality in a human from this strain of avian influenza, Sarah Newey reports.
While H3N8 is “one of the most frequently found” subtypes of flu found in birds, the woman is only the third person known to have caught the virus and the first to have died.
Two young boys were infected with the same virus in unrelated cases in China last year, but both survived.
Here is an extract from the World Health Organisation’s monitoring report:
The case was detected through severe acute respiratory infection surveillance systems. She was hospitalized for severe pneumonia on 3 March 2023 and subsequently died on 16 March 2023. The patient had multiple underlying conditions. She had a history of exposure to live poultry before the onset of the disease. No close contacts of the case developed an infection or symptoms of illness at the time of reporting.
Read the full story of the infection here
08:44 AM
Everyman says ticket sales jumped, cuts losses
Cinema-goers have been trickling back to independent cinema group Everyman, the company said on Wednesday, despite a relative lack of blockbuster titles and the cost-of-living crisis.
Admissions at the cinema group increased to 3.4 million in 2022 from 2 million during 2021, Everyman said, in its first full year of trading since the pandemic.
Everyman said that a reduction in blockbusters due to production delays had weighed on sales, but that “signs of recovery are clear with audiences coming back to enjoy a broader range of titles”.
Revenues increased from £49m to £78.8m. It narrowed its losses from £5.4m to £3.9m and recorded an operating profit of £400,000.
Shares opened up 1.3pc.
08:21 AM
LG shares jump 10pc on British fund stake
Shares in South Korean electronics giant LG skipped up 10pc in trading in Seoul today after British fund Silchester International Investors was revealed as a shareholder.
In a stock market filing, Silchester disclosed it had a 5pc stake in the £9bn South Korean company. LG has been grappling in recent months falling profits as demand for consumer electronics declines.
08:02 AM
Diamond sales rise on China rebound, says Anglo American
Rough-diamond sales increased by 8.65pc over the last three months amid an economic recovery in China driving demand for luxury jewelry, Anglo American has said.
De Beers, which is majority-owned by the miner, said in a market statement it expected to sell $540m of diamonds in its second sales cycle of the year.
“We have continued to see good demand for our rough diamonds over the third sales cycle of the year as we move into the second quarter of 2023,” said Al Cook, chief executive of De Beers.
“Sales were in line with expectations and we continue to see some encouraging positive trends in consumer demand for diamond jewellery, not least in China where we’re beginning to see some signs of recovery in consumer confidence following the relaxation of travel restrictions.”
07:58 AM
Elon Musk hoarding GPUs for ChatGPT rival
Away from this morning’s interview, Elon Musk has been buying up powerful computer processors in a bid to develop technology to rival that of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The Tesla billionaire has been acquiring graphics processing units (GPUs) for Twitter in an effort to develop so-called “generative AI”, Insider reports.
Mr Musk has reportedly acquired 10,000 processors to begin the machine learning training needed to create powerful algorithms similar to those being built by OpenAI.
07:48 AM
FTSE 100 opens up
The FTSE 100 is up slightly at 0.04pc, trading at around 7,788.
07:43 AM
Twitter advertising revenue forecasts plunge – analysts
Elon Musk said his takeover of Twitter had been “extremely painful” – and it could be about to get even more uncomfortable.
Advertising revenues at Twitter are forecast to plunge by 28pc this year, according to estimates from Insider Intelligence.
The report found that Twitter advertising income would slip to around $2.98bn this year, down from $4.14bn in 2022 and $4.46bn in 2021.
07:37 AM
Musk is no longer chief executive of Twitter – his dog is
Interviewed in the early hours of this morning, Elon Musk claimed he is no longer officially chief executive of Twitter – he’s given the job to his dog.
The billionaire claimed that the dog, a Shiba Inu named Floki, was now running Twitter.
Mr Musk also responded to questions from the BBC after he branded the organisation a government-funded media organisation.
“I know the BBC wasn’t thrilled to about being labelled state affiliated media,” Mr Musk said, laughing. He said he planned to change the label to “publicly funded” which is “not too objectionable”.
Mr Musk also addressed criticisms of his decision to strip the New York Times of its “blue tick” on the social network after it refused to pay about $1,000 per month for the verification badge.
“It’s a small amount of money, so I don’t know what their problem is… we’re going to treat everyone equally.”
He added he did not want Twitter to feature “some anointed class of journalists” compared to the public.
07:25 AM
Labour market showing signs of easing for first time in two years, says KPMG
The availability of workers improved for the first time since 2021 as job seekers returned to the market after hundreds of thousands dropped out of the labour market during the pandemic.
The number of temporary workers seeking employment rose to its highest level in six months, according to a survey by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), offsetting continued tightness in permanent roles.
The loosening labour market was partly down to a rise in the number of redundancies, the report said, as companies opted for temporary hires over new permanent roles. Improving pay offers were also encouraging people to return to the job market.
Neil Carberry, chief executive of NEC, said: “The big news is that candidate availability is up for the first time in more than two years. This suggests that, while the market is still tight, it should be getting gradually easier for firms to hire over the next few months. “
“The continuing fast rate of pay growth is likely reflective of the impact of inflation on wage offers, as well as low labour supply. That means increasing pay is likely to persist, despite more people beginning to look for work.”
07:23 AM
Good morning
Elon Musk has said he plans to alter the BBC’s new Twitter label from “government funded media” after a row with the broadcaster. Meanwhile, one-in-four UK parents has been forced to give up their job due to childcare costs. Later, we are expecting a speech from Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England.
5 things to start your day
1) World leaders race to prevent new banking crisis | Andrew Bailey and Jeremy Hunt to discuss stability risks in Washington as IMF warns over threat of global recession
2) Britain to remain world’s worst-performing large economy in 2023 | UK’s growth on track to contract more than Russia’s, warns IMF
3) Police to investigate alleged sexual misconduct at CBI after boss sacked | Investigation comes as Tony Danker hits back over ‘distorted’ claims
4) Tesla to build battery storage site in Milton Keynes | Elon Musk seeks to accelerate sales of its electric cars in Britain
5) EY abandons break up plans after internal turmoil | Announcement marks another climbdown by the Big Four firm’s senior leadership
What happened overnight
Wall Street stocks delivered a modest performance on Tuesday as investors eagerly await new inflation data set to be released this week.
The latest US consumer price index data will be released today, while the producer price index is due Thursday and bank earnings on Friday.
Asian stocks climbed on Wednesday morning, with shares opening higher in Japan and Australia. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.6pc in early trading, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.6pc and South Korea’s Kospi edged less than 1 point lower, to 2,547.27.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed 0.7pc and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.3pc.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3pc to 33,684.79. The broad-based S&P 500 dipped less than 0.1pc to 4,108.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite dropped 0.4pc to 12,031.88.
Yields on US government bonds advanced as traders price in one further interest rate hike.
The two-year Treasury yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 2.7 basis points to 4.035pc. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 1.3 basis points to 3.428pc.
Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-says-owning-twitter-062405954.html