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Trump Twitter Account Reappears after Musk Poll

In this file photo illustration taken on August 10, 2020, the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. Photo | AFP
In this file photo illustration taken on August 10, 2020, the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. Photo | AFP
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Trump Twitter Account Reappears after Musk Poll

In this file photo illustration taken on August 10, 2020, the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. Photo | AFP
In this file photo illustration taken on August 10, 2020, the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. Photo | AFP

Donald Trump's Twitter account was reinstated Saturday after the platform's new owner Elon Musk ran a poll in which a narrow majority of voters supported the move, days after the former US president announced another White House bid.

Trump was banned from the platform early last year for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, AFP said.

"The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated," Musk tweeted, shortly after the 24-hour poll ended.

"Vox Populi, Vox Dei," he added, repeating a Latin adage he posted Friday meaning "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

More than 15 million people -- out of 237 million daily Twitter users -- voted on whether to reinstate the controversial profile, with 51.8 percent in favor and 48.2 percent against.

Trump, who had more than 88 million users when his account was suspended, reveled in using Twitter as a mouthpiece during his presidency, posting policy announcements, attacking political rivals and communicating with supporters.

Musk's poll asked for a simple "yes" or "no" response to the statement "Reinstate former President Trump," which the billionaire Twitter boss posted Friday.

"Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!" Musk mused Saturday morning in a blast of tweets from the controversial and hard-charging new owner of the one-to-many messaging platform.

He has posed similar polls in the past, asking followers last year if he should sell stock in his electric car company Tesla. Following that poll, he sold more than $1 billion in shares.

- 'I have Truth Social'
Trump said Saturday he would not return to the popular platform but instead remain on his own network, Truth Social, launched after he was banned from Twitter.

Appearing via video at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Trump said he welcomed the poll and was a fan of Musk, but appeared to reject any return.

"He did put up a poll and it was very overwhelming... but I have something called... Truth Social."

As to whether he would return to the platform, he said: "I don't see it because I don't see any reason for it."

Trump had not posted to Twitter by late Saturday, though he did share a series of unrelated messages on his Truth Social account, including opinion articles criticizing the US Justice Department's appointment of a special counsel this week to investigate his role in the Capitol attack.

But several of his political allies were highlighting his return.

"Welcome back, @realdonaldtrump!" tweeted House Republican Paul Gosar.

Prominent Trump-backer Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal account is also suspended, re-tweeted several of his previous posts from her official government account, including some tweets that were still marked with fact-checking badges refuting his claims about 2020 election fraud.

"Anyone who thinks President Trump isn't going to win the 2024 primary is fooling themselves," she tweeted.

Anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney, co-chair of the congressional committee investigating the Capitol attack who lost her re-election bid, responded to the news by directing Twitter users to a link with a video of one of the committee's hearings.

"With Trump back on Twitter, it's a good time to watch this Jan 6 hearing," she tweeted.

"It covers each of Trump's tweets that day, including those that have been deleted, and features multiple Trump WH staff describing his inexcusable conduct during the violence."

Musk has reinstated other banned accounts, including that of comedian Kathy Griffin, which had been taken down after she impersonated him on the site.

- Twitter chaos -
Musk, also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has come under fire for radical changes at California-based Twitter, which he bought less than a month ago for $44 billion.

Since then, he has fired half of Twitter's 7,500 staff and scrapped a work-from-home policy, all while his attempts to overhaul the company faced backlash and delays.

Hundreds of employees quit rather than yield to Musk's demands that they resign themselves to working long, grueling days at the new Twitter.

His stumbling attempts to revamp user verification with a controversial subscription service led to a slew of fake accounts and pranks, and prompted major advertisers to step away from the platform.

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Varieties

‘Gus’ the T. Rex Fetches Record $50.1 Mn at US Auction

This undated photo provided by Sotheby's on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, shows "Gus," one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered. (Matthew Sherman/Sotheby's via AP)
This undated photo provided by Sotheby's on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, shows "Gus," one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered. (Matthew Sherman/Sotheby's via AP)
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‘Gus’ the T. Rex Fetches Record $50.1 Mn at US Auction

This undated photo provided by Sotheby's on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, shows "Gus," one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered. (Matthew Sherman/Sotheby's via AP)
This undated photo provided by Sotheby's on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, shows "Gus," one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered. (Matthew Sherman/Sotheby's via AP)

A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed "Gus" sold Tuesday for $50.1 million at Sotheby's in New York, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil bought at auction after a 10-minute battle between seven bidders.

"Gus" is one of the world's most complete T. rex skeletons -- with 183 fossilized bones -- and was discovered on a cattle ranch in South Dakota in 2021.

The giant beast lived some 72 to 66 million years ago -- a period characterized by a warm climate, high sea levels and vast floodable coastal plains.

The skeleton measures 38 feet (11.6 meters) in body length, making it one of the largest T. rexes ever discovered. It is roughly 63 percent complete.

Tuesday's purchase by an anonymous buyer highlights a surging market for dinosaur bones -- a trend that has drawn criticism from some paleontologists over the specimens going into private hands.

"The United States is the only country in the world where fossils like this are considered personal property," Cassandra Hatton, head of science and natural history at Sotheby's, told AFP before the auction.

"If you own the land, you own the fossil and you have the right to sell it. So if you want a dinosaur, this is the only place that you can get it," she said.

The previous record for a fossil auction was "Apex" the Stegosaurus, bought for $44.6 million in 2024 by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.

Varieties

An Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Promise Targeting a Different Brain Protein, New Study Shows

These brain scan images provided by Biogen show how high levels of Alzheimer's-related tau protein, in red, dropped in a recipient of the company's experimental drug diranersen. (Biogen via AP)
These brain scan images provided by Biogen show how high levels of Alzheimer's-related tau protein, in red, dropped in a recipient of the company's experimental drug diranersen. (Biogen via AP)
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An Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Promise Targeting a Different Brain Protein, New Study Shows

These brain scan images provided by Biogen show how high levels of Alzheimer's-related tau protein, in red, dropped in a recipient of the company's experimental drug diranersen. (Biogen via AP)
These brain scan images provided by Biogen show how high levels of Alzheimer's-related tau protein, in red, dropped in a recipient of the company's experimental drug diranersen. (Biogen via AP)

An experimental drug might help slow early Alzheimer’s disease in a markedly different way than today’s treatments — by lowering levels of a brain protein called tau, researchers reported Tuesday.

Tau is one part of a toxic duo fueling Alzheimer’s but prior attempts to develop drugs that can target the protein have failed. Two Alzheimer’s drugs, lecanemab and donanemab, try to clear buildup of the better-known amyloid protein and can modestly slow cognitive decline.

The new findings suggest Biogen's diranersen did more than lower tau levels. The study of about 400 people found signs that it also slowed cognitive decline, in one small subset enough to be comparable to amyloid therapy, according to results presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in London. Biogen is planning a larger study to try to prove the drug’s benefit.

“This is really quite promising if it were to hold up” in that next-step testing, said Jessica Langbaum of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, who wasn’t involved with Biogen’s study.

“This is early days,” cautioned Dr. Reisa Sperling of Mass General Brigham, who also wasn’t involved in the study. But “I think it will reinvigorate interest and investment in lots of tau mechanisms, and the field needs that.”

It’s one of multiple novel attempts to fight the mind-destroying disease, including a possible tau vaccine, an experimental heart drug that might do double-duty for some people at high risk of Alzheimer's, and ways to help medicines more easily get across the so-called blood-brain barrier.

It’s not clear exactly what causes Alzheimer’s, which affects more than 7 million Americans and tens of millions worldwide. That sticky amyloid protein starts building up to form plaques in the brain about two decades before symptoms appear. But amyloid alone isn’t enough to cause Alzheimer's.

Many scientists believe that amyloid buildup eventually triggers an abnormal form of tau to form tangles in neurons, setting off symptoms.

Diranersen is what’s called an antisense oligonucleotide that doesn't attack tau buildup but instead instructs a tau-producing gene to produce less.

“If you lower tau production, you are lowering the amount of the abnormal tau that needs to be cleared by the microglia, by the clearance mechanism in the brain. And so, you are enabling the normal clearance mechanism to have more capacity to clear the tau,” said Dr. Cath Mummery of University College London, who led the new study.

Today’s anti-amyloid drugs are given through the bloodstream via infusions or injections. Diranersen is injected into the fluid surrounding the spinal cord, a straighter path to the brain.

Biogen's tau drug missed a key study goal — but was still encouraging Biogen’s study included people with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s, randomly assigning them to different doses of diranersen or a placebo.

Back in May, Biogen and partner Ionis Pharmaceuticals announced that the lowest dose — given every six months — had the strongest effect. That was a counterintuitive surprise and meant the study didn't meet its planned goal of showing that higher doses brought greater benefits.

Still, scientists had been anxiously awaiting details about how much that twice-a-year spinal shot really helped. Five of six different brain tests showed diranersen recipients’ memory and other cognitive abilities still worsened but more slowly than those given dummy shots, Mummery said.

In one test of the lowest dose, that translated to a 26% reduction in cognitive decline — “approximately the same” change seen in earlier tests of amyloid drugs, she said.

Side effects included injection site pain and a temporary state of confusion that could appear a few days after the shot and last about a week, she said. But there were no signs of brain inflammation, which can affect recipients of anti-amyloid drugs.

Alzheimer's researchers also target tau in a broad new study

The University of California, San Francisco, last week opened a first-of-its-kind study known as the Alzheimer’s Tau Platform.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, it will test a variety of experimental anti-tau therapies against and in combination with today’s amyloid treatments. First up is a vaccine called AADvac1 designed to train the immune system to recognize and fight a specific worrisome portion of the tau protein, said UCSF's Dr. Adam Boxer.

The “platform” approach will expand to locations around the country, allow addition of other tau drugs to test and include people with Alzheimer’s-related protein buildup who aren’t yet showing symptoms, he said.

Other studies hint at new ways of attacking Alzheimer's

Researchers told the Alzheimer’s meeting that an experimental cholesterol-lowering drug called obicetrapib might do more than help heart health. They're exploring if it also might lower buildup of Alzheimer's-related proteins in people who carry a genetic risk for the disease.

Why? That gene, called APOE4, also affects how the body processes cholesterol. Obicetrapib maker NewAmsterdam Pharma plans to begin a study soon to test if the drug's cholesterol effects also can mitigate the Alzheimer's risk in people carrying one or two copies of that gene.

Companies also are trying to get Alzheimer’s drugs into the brain faster and at higher volumes, by penetrating the protective lining meant to protect the brain from harm.

Denali Therapeutics' CEO Ryan Watts describes it as “hitching a ride” with iron that naturally gets into the brain. His company is pursuing drugs that target tau and amyloid using that “transport vehicle” technology.

Varieties

A US-Russian Space Crew Launches on a Mission to the International Space Station

The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Saturday, July 11, 2026, at Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Saturday, July 11, 2026, at Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
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A US-Russian Space Crew Launches on a Mission to the International Space Station

The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Saturday, July 11, 2026, at Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Saturday, July 11, 2026, at Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

A US-Russian space crew blasted off successfully Tuesday on a mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian crewmates Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 for an eight-month stint on the orbiting outpost. They are set to dock at the station three hours after the launch, The AP news reported.

Isaacman ’s trip to the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan marked the first visit by a NASA chief in eight years.

Speaking during Monday’s meeting with the crew, Isaacman thanked Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, for its efforts to prepare for the mission, saying that “the integrated work performed over the past several months reflects the professionalism and dedication of everyone involved.”

Isaacman also met with Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov before the launch of NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian crewmates Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. They were set to blast off aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 for an eight-month stint on the International Space Station.

The mission is Menon’s first space flight and the second for Dubrov and Kikina.

The trio will join NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and Andrei Fedyaev.

Once bitter rivals in the space race during the Cold War, Russia and the US cooperate on the space station and other projects. That relationship was marred by tensions after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, but Washington and Moscow have continued to work together, with US and Russian crews flying to the orbiting outpost on each country’s spacecraft.

Plans for broader cooperation, including possible Russian involvement in NASA’s Artemis program of lunar research, have fallen apart. As Russia has become increasingly reliant on China for its energy exports and imports of key technology amid Western sanctions, Roscosmos has started cooperation with China on its prospective lunar mission.