Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Read more

Elon Musk called for a change of Government in the UK and railed against the “woke mind virus” as he spoke at Tommy Robinson’s rally in London.

The X owner claimed a “dissolution of Parliament” is needed and said “massive uncontrolled migration” was contributing to the “destruction of Britain” in comments via video link.

He also told the crowd that “violence is coming” and that “you either fight back or you die”.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey criticised the appearance, saying the UK’s democracy is “too precious to be a plaything for foreign tech barons”.

The Tesla boss has waded into British politics before, notably when he started a war of words with the UK Government over the grooming gangs scandal.

He has also criticised the UK’s Online Safety Act, calling the legislation a threat to free speech.

He had a warm relationship with Nigel Farage, and there were even rumours he could channel a donation to his party before Mr Musk called for the Reform UK leader to be replaced during a dispute over his support for Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

The tech billionaire appeared at the rally on Saturday after Ben Habib, the former deputy of Reform UK who now leads Advance UK, a political party Robinson has joined.

Mr Musk said: “I think there’s something beautiful about being British and what I see happening here is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion but rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration.

“A failure by the Government to protect innocent people including children who are getting gang-raped. It’s unreal the Government has failed in its duty to protect its citizens which is a fundamental duty of government.”

He called for a change of Government in Britain.

He said: “You can’t – we don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long.

“Something’s got to be done. There’s got to be a dissolution of Parliament and a new vote held.”

Mr Musk was interviewed by Robinson and appeared on a screen on stage so protesters could watch.

Around 110,000 people were estimated by police to have gathered in Whitehall, London, for the “Unite the Kingdom” event, which faced counter-protests by around 5,000 anti-racism campaigners.

At the end of the interview, Robinson said: “Not only are we in the fight right now, but we’re on the advance thanks to free speech being fought for, for us, by Elon Musk.”

Mr Musk called the political left “the party of murder” in reference to the death of Charlie Kirk, the Donald Trump ally and co-founder of right-wing young organisation Turning Point USA who was shot this week.

“The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder. I mean, let that sink in for a minute, that’s who we’re dealing with here,” he said.

He said that the British public are “scared to exercise their free speech” and claimed the BBC was “complicit in the destruction of Britain”.

He said he wanted to appeal to “British common sense” and “the reasonable centre, the people who ordinarily wouldn’t get involved in politics”.

“My message is to them: if this continues, that violence is going to come to you, you will have no choice,” he added.

“You’re in a fundamental situation here. Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you.

“You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.”

He also railed against the “woke mind virus” and said decisions for advancement should be on merit rather than “discrimination on the basis of sex, or religion or any race or anything else”.

He said: “A lot of the woke stuff is actually super-racist, it’s super-sexist and often it’s anti-religion, but only anti-Christian, like why anti-Christian? That’s unfair.

“This is why I give my message to the reasonable middle: ‘Do you not want a world where there is fairness, common sense and you advance as a function of how hard you work and your talent and your integrity?’.

“That should be all that matters, the woke mind virus, that I call it, is against all that.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed posted on X: “Our democracy is too precious to be a plaything for foreign tech barons.

“Elon Musk doesn’t care about the British people or our rights. He only cares about himself and his ego.”