UK’s Starmer gets the Musk treatment

Elon Musk has been using his X platform to bash UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his handling of far-right riots. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up [here](. Elon Musk has spent the past week using his X platform to bash UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his [handling of far-right riots](. Starmer has so far avoided directly engaging with the billionaire, eschewing a public feud with Musk like the one Australian Premier Anthony Albanese waged with little success earlier this year. But the role that British authorities say [social media firms like X have played]( in fueling the widespread disorder targeting asylum seekers has exposed the UK’s [weak regulatory powers](. The Online Safety Act — passed into law last year — is yet to be implemented. The last government watered it down by removing a provision to regulate “legal but harmful” online content to appease free speech campaigners. So even when it does come into force, there’s concern it won’t be tough enough. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said the law isn’t fit for purpose. The UK is now considering steps to tighten [the regulation of online platforms](. One option is to revive that key provision, giving authorities more power to force firms to curb harmful content. Musk and former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during an artificial intelligence event in London last year. Photographer: Tolga Akmen/EPA/Bloomberg Despite Starmer’s call for a “mature conversation” with social media companies to limit malicious content, Musk continues to resist. He’s compared the UK to the Soviet Union and accused Britain of “two-tier policing” — a conspiracy theory with no basis in fact but fomented online that police forces treat ethnic minorities more leniently than White Britons. Yesterday, he shared a post by the co-leader of Britain First, a far-right party, that showed a falsified news article about the UK deporting those arrested in the riots. Musk later deleted his post, but not before it was seen by millions of users. The government is finding X to be one of the least cooperative of the major social media companies in the past week. It’s not quite the mature dialog Starmer hoped for.— [Ellen Milligan]( Elon Musk. Photographer: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images Global Must Reads The US, Qatar and Egypt are calling for a new round of cease-fire talks for next Thursday in Doha or Cairo, [the latest attempt]( by Joe Biden’s administration to end the war in Gaza even as the region braces for an expected Iranian attack on Israel. The US doesn’t expect an agreement will be ready to be signed immediately because there’s still a significant amount of work to do, with both sides holding to firm positions, according to a senior US official. Ukraine said it carried out a drone strike on a military airfield storing glide bombs in Russia’s western Lipetsk region, [expanding the reach]( of its assaults for a fourth day. Fighting continued in the neighboring Kursk region, where the Russian Defense Ministry said it used air strikes and artillery to stop Ukrainian forces pushing “deep into” its territory following this week’s surprise incursion. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looked [to regain momentum]( in his race against US Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday, dangling a series of debates and fielding questions for over an hour from reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump, who repeatedly insulted Harris’ intelligence, said he had agreed to debates with Fox News, ABC News, and NBC News in September, as well as a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News. The inauguration of an interim government in Bangladesh after weeks of bloody street protests kicks off a new phase of political uncertainty [that could threaten]( the country’s shaky finances. While appointing Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus the government’s chief adviser — effectively the prime minister — met a key demand of student demonstrators, [tension was still palpable today]( on the streets of Dhaka and other cities. As the US pressures advanced semiconductor companies to pull back from China, another sector of the chip industry is [moving in the opposite direction](. Latest earnings show that China is a rare bright spot for automotive chipmakers like Infineon and NXP, which are facing inventory gluts and slowing adoption of electric vehicles in Western markets. But that dependency could become a double-edged sword as US-China competition intensifies and Beijing steps up its own chipmaking capabilities to supply its world-leading EV industry. A spate of recent policy announcements has highlighted China’s rising confidence [in accelerating climate action]( as fears over energy security wane and the government increases support for struggling green industries. Members of a Thai opposition group disbanded by a court this week regrouped as the People’s Party, with its new leader [setting a goal]( to form a single-party government in the Southeast Asian nation in three years. An Iran-linked hacking group tried to breach the email accounts of presidential campaign staffers as part of a wider effort to [gather intelligence]( ahead of the US election, Microsoft said today. Fugitive Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont is on his way back to Belgium after he defied an arrest warrant with a dramatic appearance in Barcelona yesterday. Washington Dispatch In a move that would go against the longstanding practice of the Federal Reserve being independent of political actors, Trump said yesterday that the president [should have some say]( over monetary policy. Trump has frequently expressed frustration that the executive branch doesn’t have more influence over interest rates. At his press conference in Palm Beach, he criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for being a “little bit too early and a little bit too late” in adjusting borrowing costs. “I think that, in my case, I made a lot of money. I was very successful,” Trump said. “And I think I have a better instinct than, in many cases, people that would be on the Federal Reserve or the chairman.” One person to watch today: Trump is due to hold an evening rally at Montana State University in Bozeman. [Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter]( for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 1 and 5 p.m. ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television. Chart of the Day Recent economic weakness in the seven swing states poised to decide the US election [could prove a problem]( for Harris. The states are home to 61 million people and had a combined gross domestic product last year of $4.4 trillion, an output rivaling Germany’s. In the so-called Blue Wall industrial regions of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where the political stakes are highest, combined growth from 2019 to the end of 2023 was just a third of that seen outside swing states. And Finally Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lifted a ban on cinemas in 2018 as the first step to setting the nation’s film industry in motion and trying to turn the kingdom into a Middle Eastern movie hub. Later this year, as part of the Vision 2030 plan to diversify the kingdom’s economy, the brand new AlUla Studios aims to open as [an anchor for a home-grown film sector](. Its success — and biggest challenge — depends on its ability to draw in experienced outsiders that can nurture local talent and demonstrate how to scale up. The Film AlUla studio site. Source: Film AlUla Pop quiz (no cheating!) A drugstore chain in which country said it will no longer purchase Tesla vehicles for its fleet, citing Musk’s support for Trump? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net. More from Bloomberg - Check out our [Bloomberg Investigates]( film series about untold stories and unraveled mysteries - [Bloomberg Opinion]( for a roundup of our most vital opinions on business, politics, economics, tech and more - [Next Africa]( a twice-weekly newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed - [Economics Daily]( for what the changing landscape means for policy makers, investors and you - [Green Daily]( for the latest in climate news, zero-emission tech and green finance - Explore more newsletters at [Bloomberg.com](. 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