Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Earlier this week, Elon Musk was officially confirmed as a \u201cspecial government employee\u201d by the White House \u2014 a designation that, according to Reuters, would potentially allow the richest man in the world to \u201cavoid disclosure rules about conflicts of interest and finances that apply to regular government employees\u201d.Musk has previously \u2014 and nauseatingly \u2014 referred to his role in the second Trump administration as \u201cfirst buddy\u201d. But the ambiguous nature and scope of his influence as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency has already caused much fear and consternation in federal agencies and beyond. To his many critics, his campaign to overhaul the architecture of government by dissolving departments and slashing national spending is a clear first step towards a play for even greater power.Now Channel 4 documentary Can Elon Musk Rule the World? asks how far he might go. Presented by journalist Matt Frei, the film tackles this as well as slightly less sensationalist questions that loom over the 53-year-old\u2019s foray into politics.While an hour-long slot means there is little time for in-depth analysis, the film provides a succinct survey of Musk\u2019s alliance with Donald Trump, as well as his recent attempts to influence politics in the UK and beyond as part of his crusade against the \u201cwoke mind virus\u201d. It also cuts through the chaos and controversy that engulfs Musk \u2014 or has been engineered by him. We are reminded, for instance, that while the debate surrounding his fascist salute\/awkward wave at a post-inauguration rally was still raging, Musk gave a speech (remotely) at an event for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.Supplementing Frei\u2019s summary are insights and opinions from an array of critics, commentators and ex-colleagues. Jim Cantrell, a former VP at SpaceX, tries to reassure us that Musk is no power-hungry super-villain but simply uses politics and capital for his raison d\u2019\u00eatre of pushing humankind further. Elsewhere, Trump\u2019s onetime chief strategist and convicted felon Steve Bannon posits that Musk\u2019s wealth (an estimated $420bn) and social media following (215mn) are \u201ctwo tactical nuclear weapons\u201d that could take out any \u201ccentrist or centre-left government\u201d in Europe.If Bannon speculates with glee, many other contributors \u2014 journalists, Democrats and British politicians both Labour and Conservative such as Emily Thornberry and Michael Gove \u2014 voice concerns about the domestic and geopolitical threats posed by a capricious, unelected man who could potentially use the state as a tool to further his business interests. For others, his increasingly radical rhetoric is as much a cause for alarm. \u201cWhatever damage Trump does to democracy we could recover from; whatever damage Musk does to how we think we may not recover from,\u201d says ever-incisive satirist Armando Iannucci. \u201cThe sooner [he] goes to Mars, the better.\u201d\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606Channel 4 on February 6 at 9pm and streaming thereafter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Earlier this week, Elon Musk was officially confirmed as a \u201cspecial government employee\u201d by the White House \u2014 a designation that, according to Reuters, would potentially<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-195336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195338,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195336\/revisions\/195338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}