Stamau123

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33190654

• Raj Jegannathan takes over Tesla sales amid declining demand

• The IT exec lacks traditional sales experience, has grown closer to Elon Musk
  

• High-level departures at Tesla include Troy Jones, Omead Afshar
  

July 18 (Reuters) - A relatively little-known information technology executive is running Tesla's sales team as the electric carmaker grapples with a drop in sales, according to people familiar with the matter.

Raj Jegannathan, a senior executive with a wide purview including several IT and data functions, recently took over the sales role, said the people familiar with the matter. Some inside Tesla have interpreted this to mean that Jegannathan has assumed the role of Troy Jones, Tesla's top sales executive in North America until he departed earlier this month after 15 years with the company, said the people.

Jegannathan, who has recently grown closer to CEO Elon Musk, has no traditional sales experience, according to two people familiar with the matter and his LinkedIn profile. Reuters could not determine if it is an interim role.

Demand for Tesla's cars in Europe and North America has dropped sharply. Last quarter, its quarterly sales plunged 13% to the weakest in nearly three years, due to a backlash to Musk's politics, Tesla's aging vehicle lineup and increased competition from rivals offering more affordable alternatives.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla's share price, which has fallen 18% so far this year, rose 3% on Friday.

Jones, the latest in a string of high-level departures, managed the fallout as Musk's political affiliation with U.S. President Trump prompted left-leaning consumers to shun Tesla.

As Tesla's sales were dropping earlier this year, Jones implored managers to work on selling and pushed back against concerns over political headwinds related to Musk, according to a person who heard the comment.

• Raj Jegannathan takes over Tesla sales amid declining demand

• The IT exec lacks traditional sales experience, has grown closer to Elon Musk
  

• High-level departures at Tesla include Troy Jones, Omead Afshar
  

July 18 (Reuters) - A relatively little-known information technology executive is running Tesla's sales team as the electric carmaker grapples with a drop in sales, according to people familiar with the matter.

Raj Jegannathan, a senior executive with a wide purview including several IT and data functions, recently took over the sales role, said the people familiar with the matter. Some inside Tesla have interpreted this to mean that Jegannathan has assumed the role of Troy Jones, Tesla's top sales executive in North America until he departed earlier this month after 15 years with the company, said the people.

Jegannathan, who has recently grown closer to CEO Elon Musk, has no traditional sales experience, according to two people familiar with the matter and his LinkedIn profile. Reuters could not determine if it is an interim role.

Demand for Tesla's cars in Europe and North America has dropped sharply. Last quarter, its quarterly sales plunged 13% to the weakest in nearly three years, due to a backlash to Musk's politics, Tesla's aging vehicle lineup and increased competition from rivals offering more affordable alternatives.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla's share price, which has fallen 18% so far this year, rose 3% on Friday.

Jones, the latest in a string of high-level departures, managed the fallout as Musk's political affiliation with U.S. President Trump prompted left-leaning consumers to shun Tesla.

As Tesla's sales were dropping earlier this year, Jones implored managers to work on selling and pushed back against concerns over political headwinds related to Musk, according to a person who heard the comment.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33185423

-Blackstone's exit adds uncertainty to TikTok US deal -Deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok US repeatedly postponed -TikTok deal now part of U.S.-China trade talks

July 18 (Reuters) - Private equity giant Blackstone has withdrawn from a consortium seeking to invest in TikTok’s U.S. operations, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The latest change came as uncertainty has mounted and there have been several delays in the TikTok deal now at the center of U.S.-China trade talks.

Blackstone had planned to take a minority stake in the TikTok U.S. business in a deal orchestrated by President Donald Trump. The consortium is led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, current investors in TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance. The group had emerged as the front-runner to secure TikTok’s U.S. business in a deal under which U.S. investors would own 80% of TikTok, while ByteDance would retain a minority stake.

Blackstone declined to comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deadline for ByteDance to divest the popular social media app in the U.S. has been repeatedly postponed, creating uncertainty for investors.

Last month, Trump signed a third executive order extending the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, moving the cutoff to September 17. In April 2024, Congress passed a law mandating a sale or shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025.

-Blackstone's exit adds uncertainty to TikTok US deal -Deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok US repeatedly postponed -TikTok deal now part of U.S.-China trade talks

July 18 (Reuters) - Private equity giant Blackstone has withdrawn from a consortium seeking to invest in TikTok’s U.S. operations, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The latest change came as uncertainty has mounted and there have been several delays in the TikTok deal now at the center of U.S.-China trade talks.

Blackstone had planned to take a minority stake in the TikTok U.S. business in a deal orchestrated by President Donald Trump. The consortium is led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, current investors in TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance. The group had emerged as the front-runner to secure TikTok’s U.S. business in a deal under which U.S. investors would own 80% of TikTok, while ByteDance would retain a minority stake.

Blackstone declined to comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deadline for ByteDance to divest the popular social media app in the U.S. has been repeatedly postponed, creating uncertainty for investors.

Last month, Trump signed a third executive order extending the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, moving the cutoff to September 17. In April 2024, Congress passed a law mandating a sale or shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33185196

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, July 19 (Reuters) - Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida.

Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources.

That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones.

Syria's understanding of U.S. and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.

In response to Reuters questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict".

Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community - a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources.

Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defense ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria - which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone - and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved.

The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria.

A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response Reuters' questions.

Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning.

Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week.

"It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said.

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, July 19 (Reuters) - Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida.

Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources.

That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones.

Syria's understanding of U.S. and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.

In response to Reuters questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict".

Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community - a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources.

Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defense ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria - which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone - and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved.

The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria.

A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response Reuters' questions.

Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning.

Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week.

"It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said.

-Plan involves moving 600,000 people to Rafah near Egypt -Netanyahu asks for new blueprints -Far-right minister dismisses debate as 'spin' -Finance Minister says defence officials trying to sabotage plan

JERUSALEM, July 15 (Reuters) - An Israeli scheme to move hundreds of thousands of already uprooted Palestinians to a so-called "humanitarian city" in Gaza has led politicians to spar with the defence establishment, but officials say a practical plan has yet to be crafted.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Linda McMahon is expected to move quickly now that the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue unwinding her department.

The justices on Monday paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies.

Now, Trump and McMahon are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies. Trump had campaigned on closing the department, and McMahon has said the department has one “final mission” to turn over its power to the states.

“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE,” Trump said late Monday in a post on Truth Social. “Thank you to the United States Supreme Court!”

Department lawyers have already previewed McMahon’s next steps in court filings.

NEW YORK (AP) — As his supporters erupt over the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the issue.

His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.

Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI abruptly walked back the notion that there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier’s trafficking of underage girls. Trump quickly defended Attorney General Pam Bondi and chided a reporter for daring to ask about the documents.

The online reaction was swift, with followers calling the Republican president “out of touch” and demanding transparency.

On Saturday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration — “all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”

That did little to mollify Trump’s supporters, who urged him to release the files or risk losing his base. At least one follower responded to Trump’s post by saying it seemed as though the president was just trying to make the issue go away — but assured him it wouldn’t.

The political crisis is especially challenging for Trump because it’s one of his own making. The president has spent years stoking dark theories and embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only savior who can demolish the “deep state.”

Now that he’s running the federal government, the community he helped build is coming back to haunt him. It’s demanding answers he either isn’t able to or does not want to provide.

“The faulty assumption Trump and others make is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University. “The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau across the street from the White House, and employees still get paid. But, in practice, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House.

The bureau is supposed to be helping oversee the nation’s banks and financial services companies and taking enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. Instead, the situation is Kafkaesque: the main function seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in President Donald Trump’s first term.

American consumers can no longer look to the bureau for help when it comes to their checking account, credit card, payday loan, auto loan or mortgage. Trump has neutered the watchdog, employees say, the culmination of a yearslong effort by Republicans who felt the agency often went overboard in its efforts.

One current employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from speaking publicly about their jobs, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, out of fear that a conversation between two employees would be considered a violation of the directive.

-Trump threatens secondary sanctions on Russia in 50 days

• Says up to 17 Patriot batteries could be available 'very soon'
  

• Russian markets rise, suggesting relief over delay

KYIV/WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine on Monday, and threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees a peace deal, a major policy shift brought on by frustration with Moscow's ongoing attacks on its neighbor.

But Trump's threat of sanctions came with a 50-day grace period, a move that was welcomed by investors in Russia where the rouble recovered from earlier losses and stock markets rose.