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Major US companies including Disney, Warner Bros and NBC parent company Comcast have pulled advertising from X (formerly Twitter) amid a row over Elon Musk’s alleged endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

The Tesla chief on Wednesday agreed with a post on X that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was speaking “the actual truth”.

That conspiracy theory holds that Jewish people and leftists are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants that will lead to a “white genocide”.

Mr Musk’s apparent endorsement of the theory was met with a stinging rebuke from the White House, which accused him of “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans”.

BLETCHLEY, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: SpaceX, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks with other delegates during day one of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park on November 01, 2023 in Bletchley, England. The UK Government are hosting the AI Safety Summit bringing together international governments, leading AI companies, civil society groups and experts in research to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated t
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Elon Musk at the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park

“It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie… one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, referring to the 7 October attack by Hamas against Israel.

It comes a couple of weeks after Mr Musk was interviewed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at an AI event in the UK.

Several big US companies have pulled advertising from the X platform, apparently in response to the row.

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In addition to Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment and Paramount Global said on Friday they also were pausing their ads.

It has also been reported that Apple, the world’s largest company by market value, was also pausing its ads.

IBM on Thursday halted its advertising on X after a report found its ads were placed next to content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

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Will AI mean ‘no job is needed’ ?

Representatives for Mr Musk and X on Friday declined to comment on his post.

“When it comes to this platform – X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and
discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world – it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote on Thursday.

Mr Musk later posted on the platform: “Many of the largest advertisers are the greatest oppressors of your right to free speech.”

Elon Musk’s latest controversy

Elon Musk continues to court controversies of his own making. The latest being a public endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among the far-right on his own platform.

When the billionaire responded to (and by association, magnified) the antisemitic post on X with the words “you have said the actual truth”, it was his most overt endorsement yet of anti-Jewish views.

Mr Musk’s many critics flooded Threads (Meta’s rival app) with outrage, and a punchy statement from the White House followed, condemning an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate”.


If the decision to swap out the iconic ‘tweet’ to an indistinct ‘x’ wasn’t bad enough for branding, now major companies including Apple and Disney are pulling ad spending on the platform, after concerns their promotional content was appearing next to a plethora of antisemitic views.

It marks a new corporate crisis for Mr Musk and his fairly new CEO Linda Yaccarino who have been attempting to turn the company’s fortunes around since the takeover in October 2022.

Many of the billionaire businessman’s critics questioned his abilities to navigate the complicated ethical questions involved in running a social media platform, and this latest scandal only serves as grist to their mill.

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Diverted American Airlines flight escorted by Italian fighter jets after ‘bomb threat’

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Diverted American Airlines flight escorted by Italian fighter jets after 'bomb threat'

An American Airlines flight travelling from New York to New Delhi was diverted midair due to a “bomb threat”.

Flight 292 landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport “due to a possible security issue,” the airline said in a statement on Sunday, adding later the threat “was determined to be non-credible”.

The airline did not clarify what the security issue was, but a source familiar with the situation told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News it was a bomb threat sent via email.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported the security issue.

“Safety and security are our top priorities, and we apologise to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.

An American Airlines plane is seen from the cockpit of an Italian Air Force Eurofighter aircraft, as it is escorted, in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on February 23, 2025. Italian Air Force/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY
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The view from the cockpit of the fighter jet. Pic: Italian air force/Reuters

An Italian Air Force Eurofighter aircraft escorts an American Airlines plane in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on February 23, 2025. Italian Air Force/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY
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Pic: Italian air force/Reuters

The flight requested a diversion to Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport at around 2pm local time, Roberto Rao, a spokesperson for the airport.

“We immediately agreed and organised a safe landing,” Mr Rao told NBC News.

“We don’t know what the security concern was, but my opinion is that it was serious enough to divert the plane, but not urgent, because we received the alert when the plane was over the Caspian Sea, a three hours’ flight from Rome.”

Once in Italian airspace, the plane was escorted by two Italian air force fighter jets and landed in Rome at around 5.30pm local time.

American Airlines flight AA292 en route from New York to New Delhi that turned around over the Caspian Sea Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, sits on the tamarack of Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International airport. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
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The flight on the ground in Rome. Pic: AP

‘What’s going on here?’

Neeraj Chopra, one of the 199 passengers on board, said the captain announced the plane had to turn around about three hours before it was supposed to land in New Delhi because of a change in “security status”.

Mr Chopra, who was traveling to India to visit family, described the mood on board as calm until the captain later announced that fighter jets would be escorting their plane to Rome.

“I felt a little panic of, okay, what’s going on here?” Mr Chopra told the Associated Press. “There’s got to be like something bigger going on here.”

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Jonathan Bacon, 22, added that once on the ground, all passengers were loaded on to buses and taken to the terminal, where each passenger and their personal items underwent additional security screenings that were time-consuming and felt “slightly heightened”.

More than two hours after landing, Mr Bacon and his friend said they were still waiting for their checked baggage. “It was definitely the longest flight to Europe I’ve ever taken,” he said.

American Airlines said the plane was inspected and cleared to depart again for New Delhi “as soon as possible” on Monday, after the crew gets some rest.

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At least three dead after boat capsizes off New York coast

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At least three dead after boat capsizes off New York coast

At least three people have died and two are injured after a boat capsized off the coast of New York, police in the US have said.

The vessel sent out a distress call from the Ambrose Channel just after noon on Sunday.

One of the injured is in a critical condition and another is described as stable, NBC, Sky’s US partner, said.

Five people were rescued from the water after the New York Fire Department (FDNY), the New York Police Department (NYPD), and the US Coast Guard responded to the call for help.

The boat capsized in an area known as Breezy Point, NBC said, quoting the NYPD.

Breezy Point is “a neighborhood at the tip of Queens’ Rockaway peninsula,” according to NBC New York, citing the Coast Guard.

Six people were said to be in the water after the boat capsized, the FDNY said.

Two of the victims were airlifted to Staten Island University Hospital and three were taken to Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, where its emergency medical crews were waiting to treat them, the agency said.

Four of the five people rescued from the sinking boat were unresponsive, and some of them were given CPR, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard said on Sunday night it is still searching for one person missing in the water roughly five miles (8km) southeast of Breezy Point.

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Nothing else is known about the victims or what kind of boat was involved.

Police said it is not clear what happened but it did not appear the vessel collided with another boat. The Coast Guard said it was notified of a “vessel taking on water” and described the boat as “sinking”.

The investigation is ongoing.

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Day 34: Why Trump really flipped the script on Ukraine

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Day 34: Why Trump really flipped the script on Ukraine

👉 Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app 👈

As President Trump claims he is “close” to signing a mining deal with Ukraine, and his secretary of state Marco Rubio talks about a lack of “gratitude” from President Zelenskyy for US military assistance, our US correspondents Mark Stone, Martha Kelner and James Matthews discuss if this is the real reason Trump’s administration appears to have turned its back on Ukraine.

And, why Canada is taking its feud with Donald Trump on to the ice.

You can email James, Mark and Martha on trump100@sky.uk

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