Elon Musk reportedly plans to become Twitter’s interim CEO | First Thing

Musk fires top executives'; $44bn deal will give world's richest person control of platform with 230m users. Plus, world close to irreversible' climate breakdown

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Good morning.

Elon Musk has completed his takeover of Twitter, taking control of the company and reportedly firing several top executives, including the chief executive, Parag Agrawal.

Why did Musk buy Twitter? He said in a statement: The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. That is why I bought Twitter. I didn't do it because it would be easy. I didn't do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love."

What will he do with the social media platform? Expect concerns about freedom of speech to be addressed, costs to be cut, revenues to be raised and bot accounts to be tackled. Oh, and Donald Trump might be allowed back on.

What else is happening in Ukraine? Here's what we know on day 247 of the invasion.