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Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk yesterday asked if Apple "hates free speech"—because the iPhone maker isn't spending as much on Twitter advertising as it used to. "Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?" Musk wrote . "What's going on here @tim_cook?"

Musk didn't explain how Apple's Twitter ad spending is related to its stance on free speech. But he subsequently wrote a series of tweets criticizing Apple's policies and claimed that Apple threatened to pull Twitter off the iOS App Store.

"Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won't tell us why," Musk wrote a bit later. Musk did not provide further details on Apple's demands or explain how Apple conveyed the message to Twitter.

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In his first public remarks since a false tweet inflamed outrage over the cost of insulin in the US, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks defended his company's pricing—but also conceded it could be lower.

"It probably highlights that we have more work to do to bring down the cost of insulin for more people,” Ricks said of the Twitter fury.

He made his comments at an event held by Stat News this week. Eli Lilly did not respond to Ars' request for more information about what work the company will do to lower prices.

Enlarge / Advocates held a vigil in September 2019 outside of Eli Lillys' offices in New York City, honoring those who have lost their lives due to the high cost of insulin and demanding lower insulin prices. (credit: Getty | Erik McGregor )

Social media platform Twitter has been mired by uncertainty and disorder in the few, yet lengthy, days since billionaire Elon Musk took the helm. But above the din of fake accounts and capricious policy changes, a fury-fueled dialogue has erupted on the platform over what is, perhaps, an unexpected topic—the exorbitant price of insulin.

Early Thursday afternoon (EST), an account posing as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, with the Twitter handle @EliLillyandCo, the company's logo, and blue checkmark by its name—which formerly only signaled verification of the account's identity but has since marked accounts of those who simply paid an $8 subscription fee—tweeted the enticing but false claim: "We are excited to announce insulin is free now."

The tweet , which stayed publicly viewable for at least four hours, began a viral spread, garnering at least 1,798 retweets and 12,800 likes before the account was set to protected , meaning that only approved followers can see its tweets. The account currently shows zero followers.

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Twitter won't restore banned accounts until after next week's midterm election, Elon Musk wrote in a tweet early on Wednesday. That means former President Donald Trump and others banned by the pre-Musk Twitter won't be allowed back just yet.

"Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks," Musk wrote. "Twitter's content moderation council will include representatives with widely divergent views, which will certainly include the civil rights community and groups who face hate-fueled violence."

Twitter banned Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, explaining that "we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence." Musk said in May that Twitter's decision to ban Trump was "morally wrong and flat-out stupid" and that he would reverse the ban if he completed his then-pending acquisition of Twitter. He also said that "permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots or spam."

Enlarge / Musk's Twitter bio now lists him as "Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator." (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

Elon Musk today seemed to confirm a plan to charge Twitter users for account verification, but for $8 instead of the $20 monthly charge he was previously floating. "Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," Musk tweeted today .

That's a reference to Twitter Blue, which currently costs $4.99 a month and provides access to the Undo Tweet option and several other features . On Sunday, The Verge reported that Musk ordered employees to raise the price of Twitter Blue to $19.99 and require anyone with a verified account to subscribe in order to keep their blue verification checkmark.

The Wall Street Journal later reported that it viewed "internal company correspondence" confirming the plan to charge $19.99 and make account verification contingent on subscribing. Accounts that are already verified would reportedly lose their verification status within 90 days if they don't buy a subscription.

Enlarge / Starlink satellite dish seen on September 25, 2022 in Izyum, Kharkiv region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (credit: Getty Images | Yasuyoshi Chiba)

The Pentagon has reportedly held talks with SpaceX about funding Starlink in Ukraine, though SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in a tweet yesterday that "SpaceX has already withdrawn its request for funding." Musk also said he'll seek Starlink donations for places in need.

"The Pentagon and SpaceX have held discussions about funding for the company's Starlink Internet service in Ukraine, a senior military official said Monday, but Elon Musk indicated that SpaceX is no longer seeking that support," The Wall Street Journal wrote . There's still a chance the Pentagon could pay for Starlink from a Ukraine-specific fund that is aiding the country's defense against Russia's invasion, according to a Politico report.

Musk wrote in another tweet that "25,300 terminals were sent to Ukraine, but, at present, only 10,630 are paying for service." He also wrote that SpaceX "will add a donate option to Starlink" for those who "want to donate Starlinks to places in need."

Enlarge / Elon Musk arrives for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. (credit: Getty Images | Angela Weiss)

Elon Musk has told Twitter he is once again willing to buy the company at the originally agreed-upon price, according to a Bloomberg News report.

"Elon Musk is proposing to buy Twitter Inc. for the original offer price of $54.20 a share... Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information," Bloomberg wrote .

The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that Musk's "lawyers communicated the proposal to Twitter's lawyers overnight Monday and filed a letter confidentially with the Delaware Chancery Court ahead of an emergency hearing on the matter scheduled for Tuesday."

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Elon Musk filed an amended countersuit against Twitter, claiming the allegations by Twitter's former security chief, Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, give Musk new legal grounds to kill the merger deal.

"Needless to say, the newest revelations make undeniably clear that the Musk Parties have the full right to walk away from the Merger Agreement—for numerous independently sufficient reasons," the amended countersuit claims. "In short, the Musk Parties and Twitter's many other investors were sold a different company than the Twitter that actually exists—one that was more valuable, more popular, more secure, and more compliant with governing law."

The amended countersuit was filed under seal last week and a public version was released yesterday. Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick had granted Musk's request to amend the countersuit but rejected his attempt to delay the trial by at least four weeks, so the trial is still scheduled to begin October 17.

Enlarge / Elon Musk arrives for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. (credit: Getty Images | Angela Weiss)

Two weeks after Elon Musk made a commitment to buy Twitter for $44 billion , he wrote in a May 8 text message to one of his Morgan Stanley bankers that he was thinking of exiting the merger agreement due to the possibility of World War III.

"Let's slow down just a few days. Putin's speech tomorrow is really important. It won't make sense to buy Twitter if we're heading into World War III," Musk wrote to Morgan Stanley's head of global technology investment banking, Michael Grimes. Twitter lawyer Bill Savitt read the text out in a court hearing yesterday, multiple news reports said. In the May 9 speech , Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his invasion of Ukraine. The invasion began in February, two months before Musk's April 25 agreement to buy Twitter.

While Twitter called the Musk text a "money quotation," Musk lawyer Alex Spiro "said the characterization of the texts in court was 'utter nonsense as the full text chain shows.' The full text chain is expected to be filed on the court docket next week," Business Insider wrote . Spiro also "responded by saying that any businessman would be anxious about the impact of a potential war on the stock market," The Wall Street Journal wrote .