1. Elon Musk buys Twitter for US$44bn
Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk has agreed on terms to buy social media platform Twitter Inc. for US44bn. Musk is an avid user of the public discourse platform and known for some memorable tweets in his time, including challenging Russian leader Vladimir Putin to a one-on-one combat duel for Ukraine.

He “began amassing a stake of about 9% in January. By March, he had ramped up his criticism of Twitter, alleging that the company’s algorithms are biased and feeds cluttered with automated junk posts. He also suggested Twitter’s user growth was inflated by bots. After rejecting an invitation to join the company’s board, on April 14 he offered to take Twitter private, saying he’d make the platform a bastion of free speech and dropping other hints about the changes he’d make as owner,” Bloomberg reports.

2. Ukraine war poses “serious” nuclear threat, says Russian minister
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that continued conflict in Ukraine poses a “serious” threat to nuclear war, as he continues his negotiations with Ukrainian officials. “The danger is serious, the danger is real, and shouldn’t be underestimated,” the foreign minister said.

3. French far-right confident despite loss to Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron has retained his presidency in a 58.5% majority vote last Sunday, defeating nationalist and far-right opponent Le Pen, who obtained 41.4%. Although conceding defeat, Le Pen reassured her voter base that they “have nevertheless been victorious”.

“The ideas we represent are reaching a peak,” she added, while mentioning that in upcoming legislative elections in June, her party — National Rally — will be a “true opposition” to Macron and France’s political establishment.

4. Donald Trump held in contempt, fined US$10,000 a day
The court ruling that sees former US President and business mogul Donald Trump hit with a US$10,000 per day fine, follows his unwillingness to assist investigations in his business practices by failing to hand over documents to prosecutors, which was required by a subpoena.

5. ASX to open lower as iron ore takes a dive
ASX futures were down 25 points or 0.3 per cent to 7298 near 7am AEST, with the AUD -1% to 71.75 US cents. On Wall St: Dow +0.7% S&P 500 +0.6%Nasdaq +1.3%. Iron ore -9.8% to $US135.75 a tonne. 2-year yield: US -0.05% (2.63%) Australia +0.13% (2.35%). 10-year yield: US -0.09% (2.82%) Australia +0.05% (03.13%).