Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has urged Americans to back Republican candidates in the US midterm elections on Tuesday to counterbalance President Joe Biden's Democrats.
"Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic," Mr Musk said in a tweet on Monday to his more than 110 million followers.
Republicans are favourites to win a majority in the House of Representatives, with the Senate thought to be a toss-up by nonpartisan election forecasters, Reuters reported.
Democrats currently control both houses.
Mr Musk, the world's richest person and chief executive of Tesla, took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal last month and has engaged in drastic measures, including firing half of its staff and planning to charge for blue check verification marks.
His absolutist stance on free speech has led some groups to warn against a rise in misinformation and some advertisers to pull their spending. A crackdown on users impersonating Mr Musk prompted Twitter to suspend US comedienne Kathy Griffin.
Later, he added that he was "open to the idea of voting Democrat again in the future" and said he had historically been an independent who had voted for Democrats.
Mr Musk has been critical of the Biden administration and Democrats for their proposals to tax billionaires and give more tax incentives to union-made electric vehicles. Tesla does not have unions at its US factories.
Republicans could use a majority in either chamber to bring Mr Biden's agenda to a halt and launch potentially politically damaging investigations into his administration and family.
Kyle Kondik, from the University of Virginia's Centre for Politics, said it was unlikely Mr Musk's words would influence the election's outcome.
Asked about Mr Musk's comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: "The president has often spoken about the importance of voting, and I'm just going to leave it there as to not get involved in any kind of election conversation."
Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich described Musk's comments as "very encouraging".
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
More Expo 2020 Dubai pavilions:
What to watch out for:
Algae, waste coffee grounds and orange peels will be used in the pavilion's walls and gangways
The hulls of three ships will be used for the roof
The hulls will painted to make the largest Italian tricolour in the country’s history
Several pillars more than 20 metres high will support the structure
Roughly 15 tonnes of steel will be used
Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
'Brazen'
Director: Monika Mitchell
Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Colleen Wheeler
Rating: 3/5
