--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Monday, May 5th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, at 94 years old, Warren Buffett is stepping down. The Trump administration's plan to convince more Americans to have babies. And a little history behind tonight's Met Gala theme. But first, the trial of Sean Combs, the music mogul known as Diddy, starts today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He faces federal charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering. Prosecutors say he ran a criminal enterprise that included kidnapping, drugging, and threatening women into sexual activity. Combs denies all the accusations against him. And last week, he turned down one last chance at a plea bargain. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Recently, the New Yorker profiled one of the lawyers on his defense team, a man named Brian Steele. He first got on Combs' radar after defending the rapper Young Thug in a racketeering case.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Last fall, Steele helped Young Thug secure a plea deal for probation and community service, far better than the alternative, which could have been decades in prison. He told me that he likes to take on the most challenging cases possible.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Charles Bethea spent around four months reporting on Steele's career and courtroom style for The New Yorker. He also doesn't seem interested in the money and the sort of toys that come with the millions of dollars he's paid to do this work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His work ethic is legendary. I mean, I talked to dozens of attorneys, including rivals, who ultimately admitted that he works harder than anyone they've ever encountered in the practice of law.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Bethea told us Steele seems to have almost the opposite values of Combs, or at least the public's perception of Combs, who branded himself as a bad boy. Steele, meanwhile... He's something of a Boy Scout.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He won't curse, even when reading from court transcripts. He's remarkably kind and generous in the course of his daily life. I witnessed him stopping to pick up trash while jogging, offering food to homeless people outside the grocery store.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I kept trying to find skeletons in his closet during my reporting, but I didn't find anything more scandalous than a parking ticket.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Bethany says that reputation might help Combs in the courtroom. Steele's polite, principled, even formal approach to defense may help a jury see Combs in a better light than a more sort of classic, slick, pugnacious defense attorney would.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He might also cross-examine some of Combs' accusers with his kind of gentle and sympathetic touch, which I witnessed during another recent trial of his.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The list of witnesses has not yet been made public. But according to CNN, former sexual partners, a business associate, and a male sex worker are among those expected to appear.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So is Combs' ex-girlfriend, the singer Cassie Ventura. A video of Combs brutally attacking her in a hotel back in 2016 was made public by CNN last year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The New Yorker also mentions other lawyers on Combs' legal team, including Mark Agnifolo. In the past, he's represented Keith Ranieri, the founder of the NXIVM sex cult, and Martin Shkreli, the so-called pharma bro.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He is also along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifolo currently representing Luigi Mangione who charged in the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Jury selection starts today and opening arguments are next week
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who is stepping down from his role as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway after 60 years with the company.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In a surprise announcement at the company's annual meeting over the weekend, Buffett said he's recommending that his vice chairman, Greg Abel, take the mantle next, starting in 2026.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end. On Sunday, the board of directors approved Abel as his successor and voted to keep Buffett on as chairman of the board next year.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Buffett told the crowd over the weekend, although he won't be the final word on business matters, he remains loyal to the company.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I have no intention, zero, of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. It'll get given away gradually.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting is an event that's become so popular in the world of investing that it's been nicknamed Woodstock for capitalists.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Every year, it attracts thousands of investors and fans who flock to Omaha and millions more who watch from home.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Investors, politicians and industry leaders quickly reacted to the news. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon released a statement saying Buffett, quote, represents everything that is good about American capitalism and America itself, and that he's learned so much from the 94-year-old titan of industry.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Republican Representative French Hill, who is the chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, spoke with CNBC.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Warren Buffett's been a hero of mine since I was in college. And the super investor article he wrote back in 1984 was what got me so interested in value investing and also following his work.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He said he's been attending the Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings since the 90s. And when I got out of government in 1993 and went back to the private sector and investment management, it was Warren Buffett who was, you know, my role model.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In his announcement, Buffett also made his most pointed comments yet about President Trump's trade policy, calling punitive tariffs a mistake.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's no question trade can be an act of war. And I think it's led to bad things. Just the attitudes it's brought out in the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world and we should do what we do best and they should do what they do best.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But Buffett said he's not particularly concerned about recent market volatility brought on by Trump's tariffs, telling shareholders he's lived through far worse.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's really nothing. There's been three times since we acquired Berkshire that Berkshire has gone down 50 percent in a fairly short period of time, three different times.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nothing was fundamentally wrong with the company at any time, but this is not a huge move.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Buffett's run as CEO is among the most iconic in American financial history.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a struggling textile business into a powerhouse with companies that do everything from insurance to manufacturing to retail.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But he's perhaps most celebrated for his deep knowledge of the stock market. He famously bought his first stock at the age of 11 and studied the markets intensely ever since.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He became known for buying up large holdings of obscure companies that would far outperform the S Investors of all kinds follow his stock trades and advice to grow their portfolios
--:-- Shamita Basu: Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig described Buffett in an article this weekend as brilliant with an incredible memory and estimated that Buffett has probably read more than 100,000 financial statements in his career.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he writes, there will never be another Warren Buffett.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It is extremely expensive to have a child in the United States. In the first year alone, it costs on average around $20,000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that doesn't include the cost of childbirth, which can run tens of thousands of dollars even with insurance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Childcare is more expensive here than any other developed country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And all of these costs are highly dependent on where you live, what you earn, and whether you have insurance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some experts have warned parenthood will only get more expensive with President Trump's tariffs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The cost of big-ticket items like cribs, car seats, and strollers, many of which are made in China, are expected to go up.
--:-- Shamita Basu: At the same time, some people in Trump's inner circle, like Elon Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance, have been outspoken about their concern that the birth rate is falling in the United States.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vance has said the government should make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In recent weeks, Trump officials have been considering a number of proposals on how to do this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They run the gamut. Some involve spending. Some are more kind of cultural, kind of elevating the idea of people who have many kids as good.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Rachel Cohen covers policy at Vox. Some of the ideas being floated involve funding programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another reserving 30 percent of Fulbright scholarships for applicants who are married or have children.
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the ideas was a national motherhood medal that would be bestowed on women who have six or more kids.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Another idea Trump has praised involves paying every mother $5,000 after giving birth.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Baby bonuses are pretty common around the world. They are not on its own likely to boost birth rates that much at all, but they could be helpful to new parents in sort of a more stressful, turbulent period of their life.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's not clear which of these ideas, if any, the administration might ultimately pursue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But ProPublica points out Trump's team has already, in many ways, made it harder for families to expand in the U.S. with other policy decisions.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Doge made significant staffing cuts at the agency that promotes health and safety standards for child care programs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It also helps states reduce the cost of child care for families. Coincided a few others.
--:-- Shamita Basu: They are gutting funding for Head Start, which serves nearly 800,000 low-income children in preschool.
--:-- Shamita Basu: House Republicans want to cut Medicaid, which that would force millions of people off their health insurance, which would make giving birth more expensive.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the Trump administration recently gutted at Health and Human Services federal teams that have been studying maternal health and reproductive medicine for years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So it's not clear how the administration plans to square its ambitions of boosting the birth rate in the United States while making cuts to programs that support that very same goal.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also, Cohen told us it's important to keep in mind the U.S. is not an outlier when it comes to declining birth rates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is a global trend and it impacting even the countries with policies that are much friendlier to families
--:-- Shamita Basu: So there are experts who are saying there more to this story than just cost
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. Israel's security cabinet has voted to approve a new ground operation that includes occupying the Gaza Strip.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It also proposed a plan to take over aid distribution to address its claim that Hamas is intercepting aid.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Israel has already cut off all deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza. No food, water, or medicine has entered the enclave since March 2nd.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The new war plan, approved early this morning, is a formalization of an idea that's been considered more seriously in recent weeks, ever since Israel broke the ceasefire agreement and resumed attacks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Al Jazeera reports Hamas rejected Israel's plan to bypass international aid agencies and distribute aid directly to Palestinians, saying aid should not be used as a, quote, tool of political blackmail.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The UN and international humanitarian groups have also condemned the plan, warning that essential supplies and food and water are running seriously low in the Gaza Strip, reaching a dangerous new crisis point.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over the weekend, President Trump said in an interview with NBC News' Kristen Welker that he's not sure if it is his job to uphold the Constitution, even though that's part of the oath every president takes when being sworn in.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Trump said he does not know whether every person in this country is entitled to due process.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?
--:-- Shamita Basu: I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know. Well, the Fifth Amendment says this much. I don't know. It seems it might say that.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Supreme Court has long recognized that non-citizens have due process rights.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Trump went on to say that if the U.S. were to have a trial for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly sent to a prison in El Salvador, that we would have to have trials for all the people he wants to deport.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Later, when asked about the impact of his tariffs, the president encouraged Americans to make do with less.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I'm just saying they don't need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And finally, tonight is the Met Gala. And this year, celebrities walking the carpet will be honoring black dandyism.
--:-- Shamita Basu: National Geographic breaks down this legendary fashion movement, which has been popularized in the modern era by drag superstar RuPaul, stylist La Roche and Andre Leon Talley, the former creative director of Vogue.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nat Geo spoke to an assistant professor of Black visual culture at Parsons School of Design who said, Black dandyism is so much more than just style.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He calls it a profoundly political act. Quote, the strategic and often subversive use of style by people of African descent to assert individuality, challenge stereotypes and reimagine Black identity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Is your new colleague actually an operative from North Korea? Reporting from Wired uncovers the fake workers who are infiltrating American companies.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
