Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives at a Manhattan courthouse trial in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James against him, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in New York City, U.S., October 4, 2023.  Mike Segar | Reuters Donald Trump should have pledged real estate he owns as collateral against a $464 million business fraud judgment if he were ”truly unable” to secure an appeal bond for that amount, the New York attorney general’s office said in a court filing Wednesday. Trump also failed to provide evidence supporting his claim...

Filmmaker and Hollywood legend George Lucas is throwing his support behind Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger in the bitter proxy battle between the company and activist investor Nelson Peltz. Lucas, who received 37.1 million Disney shares as part of Disney’s $4.05 billion purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, is currently the largest individual investor in the company, multiple sources confirmed to CNBC. In a statement provided to CNBC, Lucas wrote: ”Creating magic is not for amateurs. When I sold Lucasfilm just over a decade ago, I was delighted to become a Disney shareholder because of my long-time admiration for its iconic...

Former President Donald Trump has been unable to obtain an appeal bond to secure a $454 million civil judgment against him in a New York business fraud case, his attorneys said in a court filing Monday. Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants said it has been ”impossible” for them to secure a complete appeal bond, which would effectively require ”cash reserves approaching $1 billion,” which neither the former president nor his company has. Trump’s team has approached, without success, around 30 surety companies through four separate brokers as he seeks an appeal bond, and they have spent ”countless hours negotiating...

TikTok creators gather before a press conference to voice their opposition to the ”Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2024. Craig Hudson | Reuters White House national security adviser John Kirby said Sunday that the Senate should swiftly advance a bill that would force Chinese technology company ByteDance to sell TikTok. The bill passed in the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. ”We’re glad the House took it up. And we urge the Senate to move swiftly on this,” Kirby said...

Bitcoin may start to lose its reputation as a volatile asset. According to Bitwise Asset Management’s Matt Hougan, the cryptocurrency’s wild price swings have come down substantially over the past decade. ”What’s driving the bitcoin market right now is a simple demand-supply imbalance,” the firm’s chief investment officer told CNBC’s ”ETF Edge” on Monday. ”We have this huge new source of demand from these ETFs, and we have supply that’s inelastic.” On Jan. 11, the first bitcoin exchange-traded funds began trading. Since then, the asset is up more than 50%. Bitcoin hit an all-time high this week of just under...

Calls for a wealth tax on the world’s super-rich are once again gaining attention after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would impose a new ”billionaire tax” on the country’s wealthiest if reelected in November. Outlining his 2025 budget proposals on Monday, Biden took aim at the uber-affluent and reiterated plans for a 25% tax on Americans with a wealth of more than $100 million. ”No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker, a nurse,” he said last week, during his State of the Union address. The plans, previously outlined in the president’s 2024 budget,...

Copies of The Daily Telegraph newspaper on a newsstand in a shop in London, UK, on March 12, 2024 (L), and UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan speaking at COP28 on Dec. 1, 2023. Getty Images DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Mansions, university facilities, think tanks, sports teams — the U.K. is no stranger to Gulf money and multibillion-dollar investments streaming from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia into British institutions. But newspapers? That’s a hard stop, apparently. The latest investment pursuit flowing westward from one of the U.K.’s close Gulf allies, the UAE, has thrown British...

Judge Scott McAfee presides over a hearing regarding media access in the case against former U.S. President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, on Aug. 31, 2023. Arvin Temkar | AFP | Getty Images A judge on Wednesday dismissed six counts in the Georgia criminal election interference case against former President Donald Trump and five other defendants, saying that the indictment against them failed to sufficiently explain the basis for those specific charges. But other criminal counts against Trump and the defendants remain after the order by Judge Scott McAfee. The dismissed counts...

Argentina’s President Javier Milei gestures while delivering his first policy speech to parliament during the inauguration of the 142nd ordinary session of Congress in Buenos Aires on March 1, 2024. Juan Mabromata | Afp | Getty Images Argentina’s Javier Milei has been accused of hypocrisy for orchestrating a substantial increase in presidential pay while pushing through an austerity package, in a scandal that has rocked the right-wing populist’s government. Opposition lawmakers hit out at Milei over the weekend, sharing details on social media that showed his gross monthly salary rising to just over 6 million Argentinian pesos ($7,073 with Argentina’s...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday raised concerns about efforts to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok in the U.S., saying it would only serve to empower Meta’s Facebook platform. ”Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump, who was formerly U.S. president between 2017 and 2021, said in an interview Monday on CNBC’s ”Squawk Box.” Acknowledging his concerns around national security and data privacy over TikTok, Trump said, ”there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the platform. ”There are a lot...