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Brazil’s supreme court on Tuesday authorised the restoration of public access to Elon Musk’s X following a month-long ban, after the billionaire backed down in his feud with the top tribunal and agreed to remove extremist content from the social media platform.

The climbdown represents an about-face for Musk, who for months had taunted the court, accusing Justice Alexandre de Moraes of being a “dictator” for demanding that X remove accounts linked to far-right groups in Brazil.

“This quarrel with X demonstrated that no individual, no corporation and no platform is above the law,” said Luca Belli, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation law school in Rio de Janeiro.

“Although many people have tried to frame this as a freedom of speech issue, at the end it really boils down to sovereignty, to the capacity of a country to regulate services and technologies according to laws,” Belli added.

Access to X in Brazil was suspended by Moraes at the end of August after the company ignored a court deadline to appoint a legal representative for its Brazilian operation — a requirement under the country’s civil code.

Musk had weeks earlier shuttered X’s office in São Paulo and dismissed its legal representative, alleging that she had been threatened with fines and arrest over the company’s refusal to remove content.

For much of this year, Musk publicly goaded Moraes on social media, demanding his impeachment and posting mocked-up photos of the justice in prison.

The actions made the billionaire a hero among many on the Brazilian right, who believe a long-running crusade against online disinformation and extremism by the judge had gone too far.

One month into its suspension, however, X changed course, agreeing to appoint a legal representative in Brazil and pay millions of dollars in fines, including fees imposed on the platform after it briefly skirted the ban last month using a technical manoeuvre.

X also agreed to remove the accounts that provoked the feud between the judge and the billionaire in the first place.

Ahead of lifting the ban, Moraes unfroze bank accounts and assets linked to both X and Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink.

The latter had been frozen because Moraes deemed Starlink to be part of a “de facto economic unit” with X.

Starlink is a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, in which Musk owns about 40 per cent of the stock, but commands 79 per cent of voting rights.

Before the ban, X had roughly 20mn users in Brazil, making it the ninth most popular social media platform, far behind Instagram and TikTok.

After the suspension, millions of Brazilians flocked to Bluesky, a similar microblogging site, which claims to have 10mn users worldwide.

WASHINGTON — The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization and was plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S., the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month and that he and a co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who arrived in the U.S. in 2021, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.

The arrest comes as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over the possibility of extremist violence on U.S. soil, with Director Christopher Wray telling The Associated Press in August that he was “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”

“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,” Wray said in a statement Tuesday.

An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack. A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, “a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.”

Officials say Tawhedi also consumed Islamic State propaganda, contributed to a charity that functions as a front for the militant group and communicated with a person who the FBI determined from a prior investigation was involved in recruitment and indoctrination. He also viewed webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument in July.

Tawhedi’s alleged co-conspirator was not identified by the Justice Department, which described him only as a juvenile, a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife.

After the two advertised the sale of personal property on Facebook last month, the FBI enlisted an informant to respond to the offer and strike up a relationship. The informant later invited them to a gun range, where they ordered weapons from an undercover FBI official.

Tawhedi was arrested Monday after taking possession of two AK-47 rifles and ammunition, officials said. The unidentified co-conspirator was also arrested but the Justice Department did not provide details because he is a juvenile.

After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people.

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. A message was left with the federal public defender’s office in Oklahoma City and no telephone numbers were listed for Tawhedi or his relatives in public records.

Tawhedi entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa, a program that permits eligible Afghans who helped Americans despite great personal risk to themselves and their loved ones to apply for entry into America with their families.

Eligible Afghans include interpreters for the U.S. military as well as individuals integral to the American embassy in Kabul. While the program has existed since 2009, the number of applicants skyrocketed after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Federal Reserve officials are due to speak later about the economic outlook, while Joe Biden will be out campaigning.

Fedspeak: Several Federal Reserve officials are scheduled to speak today. President of the Atlanta Fed Raphael Bostic will deliver remarks on the economic outlook at an event in Atlanta, while Boston Fed president Susan Collins will address a conference in the Massachusetts city. The Fed’s vice-chair, Philip Jefferson, will speak at Davidson College, North Carolina.

Biden-Harris: President Joe Biden will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to deliver remarks on the creation of jobs, followed by a trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to take part in a campaign event for Senator Bob Casey. Vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be in New York, filming multiple TV interviews.

Google: The US Department of Justice is expected to impose corrective measures on Google owner Alphabet after a federal judge ruled that Google had maintained an illegal monopoly on search.