Warren Buffett backs Apple after firm sells millions of shares in iPhone maker

Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill Murray

The billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollars’ worth of shares in the iPhone maker.

Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firm’s annual meeting – dubbed Woodstock for Capitalists – this weekend.

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Warren Buffett’s Squishmallows firm sues Build-A-Bear amid ‘knock-off’ claims

Jazwares claims that rival has created its own pillow-like toys to cash in on its viral success

The company behind Squishmallows, the squidgy pillows-with-a-face that count Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian among their fans, has filed a lawsuit against Build-A-Bear over claims it has produced a “knock-off” to cash in on its success.

Jazwares, which Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired two years ago as Squishmallows became a global TikTok sensation, said that Build-A-Bear Workshop’s new Skoosherz toys look too similar to its own plush, huggable toy.

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China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as top-selling electric car seller

Build Your Dreams outsells rival in final quarter of 2023 figures for battery-only vehicles

Elon Musk’s Tesla has been overtaken by its Chinese rival, BYD, as the world’s top selling electric carmaker.

BYD, which has been backed by the US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, has beaten Tesla’s production for a second consecutive year.

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Charlie Munger, right-hand man of Warren Buffett, dies aged 99

Vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway – and a billionaire in his own right – died at a California hospital, company says

Charlie Munger, the veteran right-hand man of billionaire stockpicker Warren Buffett, has died aged 99.

The vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s sprawling empire, became known for his sharp investment strategies – and tongue – as they transformed it from a textile manufacturing enterprise into a global investment powerhouse.

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US banking crisis: Warren Buffett says bosses should face ‘punishment’

Billionaire investor believes ‘CEO and directors should suffer’ when banks they run get into trouble

The billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said executives who led the US banking system into crisis should face “punishment”, as the American economy grapples with the worst series of bank failures since the 2008 financial crash.

The owner of the investment firm Berkshire Hathaway said US bank directors “should suffer” when they run into trouble, adding that he was wary of most banking stocks because of “the messed-up incentives”.

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US rail unions decry Biden’s proposal to impose settlement through Congress

Workers could be prevented by congressional decree from striking over paid sick leave and quality-of-life issues

Railroad workers have expressed dismay at Joe Biden’s proposed solution to a looming strike that threatens to derail the US economy, which they say belies his image as the most pro-union president in generations.

As a 9 December deadline looms for the long-running labor dispute between the US’s largest railway companies and their unions, Biden has called on Congress to intervene and block a strike that could cost the US economy around $2bn a day by some estimates.

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Billionaire MacKenzie Scott donates $15m to help provide glasses to farmers in developing countries

Donation is believed to be the largest single donation towards helping solve the problem of uncorrected blurry vision

MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and former wife of the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated $15m (£13.5m) to a social enterprise that helps provide glasses to farmers in developing countries.

Scott’s donation to VisionSpring is believed to be the largest single private donation towards helping solve the problem of uncorrected blurry vision which leaves hundreds of millions of people in poverty.

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US railroad workers prepare for strike as rail companies see record profits

As Biden’s recommendations fall flat, negotiations between management and unions are at an impasse – and workers are prepared to walk

US freight railroad workers are close to striking over claims that grueling schedules and poor working conditions have been driving employees out of the industry over the past several years.

Heated negotiations over a new union contract between railroad corporations and 150,000-member-strong labor unions have been ongoing for nearly three years. A “cooling off” period imposed by the Biden administration after it issued recommendations to settle the dispute ends on Friday. If no deal is reached, unions are threatening industrial action – the first since 1992 – and workers say they will quit an industry already facing staff shortages.

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Berkshire Hathaway shareholders vote to keep Warren Buffett as chair

Shareholders reject proposals for independent chair and greater disclosure of company’s climate-related risks

Berkshire Hathaway Inc shareholders on Saturday rejected proposals to have an independent chair replace Warren Buffett, and require his company to disclose more about its climate-related risks and efforts to improve diversity.

Shareholders supported letting Buffett keep both the chairman and chief executive roles by a nearly 6-to-1 margin, Berkshire said at its annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. Buffett, 91, has run Berkshire since 1965.

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Richest 25 Americans reportedly paid ‘true tax rate’ of 3.4% as wealth rocketed

ProPublica investigation shows how little US super-rich, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, reportedly paid between 2014 and 2018

The 25 richest Americans, including Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk, paid a “true tax rate” of just 3.4% between 2014 and 2018, according to an investigation by ProPublica, despite their collective net worth rising by more than $400bn in the same period.

Related: Global economy set for fastest recovery for more than 80 years

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Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to build new kind of nuclear reactor in Wyoming

The project in Wyoming – the country’s top coal-producing state – is a small advanced reactor that runs on different fuels to traditional ones

Power companies run by billionaire friends Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have chosen Wyoming to launch the first Natrium nuclear reactor project on the site of a retiring coal plant.

TerraPower, founded by Gates about 15 years ago, and power company PacifiCorp, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, said on Wednesday that the exact site of the Natrium reactor demonstration plant was expected to be announced by the end of the year.

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Ten billionaires reap $400bn boost to wealth during pandemic

Covid-19 pushed many into poverty but brought huge benefits for some of the wealthiest, renewing calls for fairer taxes

Ten of the richest people in the world have boosted their already vast wealth by more than $400bn (£296bn) since the coronavirus pandemic began as their businesses were boosted by lockdowns and financial crises across the globe.

The extra wealth accumulated by the 10 men – approximately $450bn, using Forbes figures – over the past nine months is more than the £284bn the British government is estimated to have spent on tackling the pandemic and the economic damage it has wrought on its 66 million people.

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pays out $38bn in divorce settlement

Ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos will become world’s fourth-richest woman but has promised to give away half of award

The world’s biggest divorce settlement will be made official this week as Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos hands over a 4% stake in the online shopping giant to his soon-to-be ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos.

A judge is expected to sign legal papers transferring the Amazon shares – worth $38bn (£29bn) – into MacKenzie Bezos’s name. It is by some distance the largest divorce settlement in history the previous record was $2.5bn paid to Jocelyn Wildenstein when she divorced art dealer Alec Wildenstein in 1999.

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MacKenzie Bezos pledges at least half her wealth to charity

Jeff Bezos’ former wife, known as world’s 22nd richest person with $36.6bn fortune, signs up to the Giving Pledge

MacKenzie Bezos, who recently became the world’s fourth richest woman after her divorce from Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, has promised to give away at least half her $36.6bn (£28.4bn) fortune.

The 49 year-old novelist and founder of the anti-bullying group Bystander Revolution said on Tuesday that she had “a disproportionate amount of money to share” and promised to work hard at giving it away “until the safe is empty”.

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Bitcoin a shadowy realm as U.S. weighs security clearances

As the Pentagon struggles to recruit a more tech-savvy workforce, it's facing the confusion of many an old-timer: What to make of people who invest or trade in bitcoin. The question is whether owning bitcoins or lesser-known cryptocurrencies such as Ripple and Ethereum is an indicator of risky personal behavior -- one that should flag extra scrutiny in security clearances -- or just another investment choice.

Investor Warren Buffett says good deals tough to find

Investor Warren Buffett says the acquisition frenzy on Wall Street is making it hard for him to find deals at the right price, but his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate recorded a $29 billion gain because of the tax... Investor Warren Buffett says the acquisition frenzy on Wall Street is making it hard for him to find deals at the right price, but his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate recorded a $29 billion gain because of the tax reforms Congress passed. . FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2010 file photo, evangelist Billy Graham, 92, speaks during an interview at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at h... The Rev.

Dow falls more than 200 pts, extending decline to 2nd day after early rally in 2018

Stakes are high for President Donald Trump as he prepares to give his first State of the Union Address and is tasked with helping his party keep control of Congress in the midterm election. Veuer's Chandra Lanier has the story.

Americaa s unfriendly skies

Liberals love to portray the Republicans as the party of the rich and powerful. The GOP has tried valiantly to shed that criticism, but then why are so many in the party defending the special interest favors that go to private and corporate jet owners over the interests of all the rest of us? Do Warren Buffett and LeBron James really need a taxpayer subsidy to jet across the country? At issue here is the proposed modernization of the operations and pricing of America's air traffic control system.

Buy stocks because you believe in the U.S., not a a Trump bumpa

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, a digital analytics firm reviewed 4.5 million tweets that expressed an opinion about Donald Trump and found that 200,000 included threats to leave the U.S. The top destination was Mexico, but 5,800 said they would move to Alaska and another 1,500 chose Hawaii. These people knew they didn't like Trump, but apparently did not know that Alaska and Hawaii are U.S. states.