6:55 am, November 10, 2022
Elon Musk sells £3.43bn of Tesla stock
Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has sold nearly four billion US dollars’ worth (£3.43bn) of Tesla shares, according to regulatory filings in America.
Tesla CEO Musk, who bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars (£38bn), sold 19.5 million shares in the electric car company from November 4 to November 8, according to Tuesday’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
He sold seven billion dollars (£6bn) of his Tesla stock in August as he worked to finance the Twitter purchase he was trying to get out of at the time.
Sales of used electric cars hit new high
Sales of used pure electric cars have reached a record high.
Some 16,775 used pure battery electric cars were bought in the UK between July and September, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.
That is 44.1 per cent more than during the same period last year.
Nurses expected to take industrial action before end of year
NHS operations and appointments are set to be cancelled after a historic vote by nurses to strike over pay.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said its members in the majority of NHS employers across the UK had backed industrial action.
Industrial action is expected to be held before the end of the year at some of the country’s biggest hospitals, including Guy’s and St Thomas’ opposite Parliament, the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, University Hospital Wales and Belfast’s Royal Victoria.
Facebook parent company Meta to cut more than 11,000 jobs globally
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has confirmed it plans to cut more than 11,000 jobs globally as part of a major restructuring of the tech giant.
The cuts will reduce the size of the company’s workforce by about 13 per cent and could mean as many as 650 job losses in the UK and around 350 at risk in Ireland.
Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the cuts were ‘some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history’.
Jaguar Land Rover losses improve as production ramps up of new Range Rover models
Jaguar Land Rover recorded a pre-tax loss of £173m in the second quarter of the 2022 financial year, though the result was better than expected.
The brand was boosted by production ramping up for its two most profitable models – the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport – and was a stark improvement on the £302m lost in the third quarter of 2021.
Revenue was up to £5.2bn in the quarter, up 36 per cent year-on-year, with a wholesale volume of 75,307 recorded between July and September – a 17.6 per cent improvement and 4.9 per cent up on the prior quarter.
Global stocks sink as all eyes on mass tech sector lay-off
European and US stocks drifted into the red as a second round of mass redundancies swept across the global technology sector.
The FTSE 100 could not hold onto earlier gains and ended the day 9.89 points lower, down 0.14 per cent, at 7,296.25.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe, the German Dax lost momentum following solid gains on Tuesday. It fell 0.16 per cent while the French Cac was down 0.17 per cent.
Wednesday’s Car Dealer headlines you might have missed
- Vertu Motors in ‘advanced discussions’ to acquire Helston Garages
- Growth in online car sales is slowing but more buyers are only visiting one dealer forecourt
- Plans to turn disused Wolverhampton furniture shop into car showroom facing rejection for a THIRD time
- Peugeot opens order books for new 408 fastback
- Judge labels dodgy car dealer ‘a cheat and a fraudster’ after he conned customers into buying ‘mouldy’ and ‘unroadworthy’ vehicles
- Chinese brand GWM Ora ‘believes’ in dealers and plans to appoint a dozen more retailers in next 12 months
- Kia’s EV6 and Sportage are named October’s fastest-selling used cars in list dominated by electrified models
- Pentagon Motor Group owner’s £17.2m profit is thanks to new car supply constraints
- Turbo charge your forecourt with Haydock’s stock funding
Musk defends rollback of ‘Official’ verified labels hours after launch
Chief executive Elon Musk has said he axed offering grey ticks and an ‘Official’ label to high-profile Twitter accounts within hours of rolling them out because it was ‘an aesthetic nightmare’.
It comes as the platform prepares to start allowing any user to sign up for its blue-tick verification badge by signing up to the firm’s Twitter Blue subscription service and paying a monthly fee.
In response to concerns that this would make it harder to identify authentic accounts on the site, as Blue subscribers will not be required to verify who they are, Twitter announced it was adding a second, ‘Official’ badge to select accounts as a way of distinguishing Blue subscribers from those the platform has verified as official.
‘Lavish’ £8.2m Government taxi bill criticised by Labour
Labour has criticised a ‘lavish’ Government taxi bill of more than £8 million between 2019 and 2022.
The figures, revealed through a series of parliamentary questions across a range of Government departments, show £8.2m was spent on taxis over the last three years.
Labour MP Jon Trickett said the public will be ‘shocked by the figures’, saying much of the ‘lavish’ spending happened when Boris Johnson was prime minister and Rishi Sunak was chancellor.
Police officer injured on third day of Just Stop Oil’s M25 protests
A police officer was injured during the third consecutive day of Just Stop Oil protests on the M25.
Essex Police said there was a collision involving the police motorcyclist and two lorries during a rolling roadblock introduced while an activist was on the motorway on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Hertfordshire Police has admitted the arrest of a journalist who was handcuffed and held in custody for five hours after covering an environmental protest was ‘unnecessary’.
Porsche teases new off-road-ready 911 Dakar ahead of reveal next week
Porsche has revealed new images of its new 911 Dakar undergoing testing in various off-road settings.
The long-awaited model is the next in Porsche’s limited-edition series, following on from the 911 Targa 4S Heritage Design Edition and the 911 Sport Classic.
The German firm says it will be the ‘first two-door sports car to offer outstanding off-road capabilities’, with the model set to arrive just a month before Lamborghini shows off a rugged version of its Huracan supercar.
At the @laautoshow on 16 November 2022 (17 November, 04:00 CET), #Porsche will unveil a very special variant of the iconic 911: the new #911Dakar. It will be the first two-door sports car to offer outstanding off-road capabilities. More: https://t.co/1tem7Oef3o pic.twitter.com/qjR8ucvJuZ
— Porsche Newsroom (@PorscheNewsroom) November 9, 2022
Weather outlook…
Today will be mostly cloudy with heavy rain in the north-west of Scotland. Drier elsewhere, but there may be some drizzle in Wales and Northern England. Mild but windy, with gales in the north-west, the BBC reports.
Tonight, rain will persist in Northern Scotland and move into parts of Northern Ireland. Elsewhere, it will be rather cloudy with some light rain affecting the north and west. Remaining windy.
Tomorrow starts cloudy with rain in the far north-west. The rain will sink southwards over Scotland and Northern Ireland later, but it will become lighter and patchier. The south stays largely dry.
