President Robert Mugabe has come under fire for holding a lavish $1 million birthday party to celebrate his 92nd birthday in a drought-stricken town in Zimbabwe. Opponents said the event was "an affront to ordinary Zimbabweans" at a time when more than a quarter of the population are in need of food aid. Mugabe's birthday bashes have become an annual pilgrimage for loyalists but the decision to hold this year's party in Masvingo...

Everything seemed to sparkle at the Mar-a-Lago estate here on a recent afternoon. The sun glinted off the pool and the black Secret Service S.U.V.s in the circular driveway. Palm trees rustled in a warm breeze, croquet balls clicked and a security guard stood at the entrance to Donald J. Trump’s private living quarters. “You can always tell when the king is here,” Mr. Trump’s longtime butler here, Anthony Senecal, said of the master of the house and Republican presidential candidate.

The eight members of China’s Communist party elite whose family members used offshore companies are revealed in the Panama Papers. The documents show the granddaughter of a powerful Chinese leader became the sole shareholder in two British Virgin Islands companies while still a teenager. Jasmine Li had just begun studying at Stanford University in the US when the companies were registered in her name in December 2010. Her grandfather Jia Qinglin was at...

The Panama Papers are not really about a central American state. They are a glimpse through a Panamanian keyhole of an orgy of tax evasion, money laundering and kleptocracy – amid the legitimate financial planning – hosted by the world’s tax havens. Seven years after world leaders came together at a post-financial crisis G20 summit in London and committed to end tax haven abuse, it is clear from these papers that no such end is in sight.

Steve Wynn has just tossed a verbal grenade into the class wars. In a presentation to investors Wednesday night, Wynn — founder of Wynn Resorts — said his company is like a luxury brand that focuses on people with money. He explained that an environment that attracts and caters to the wealthy will attract everyone else. "Rich people only like being around rich people," he said. "Nobody likes being around poor people, especially poor people."

Over the years, William R. Ponsoldt had earned tens of millions of dollars building a string of successful companies. He had renovated apartment buildings in the New York City area. Bred Arabian horses. Run a yacht club in the Bahamas, a rock quarry in Michigan, an auto-parts company in Canada, even a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. Now, as he neared retirement, Mr. Ponsoldt, of Jensen Beach, Fla., had a special request for Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm well placed in the world of offshore finance...

But even as his companies did poorly, Mr. Trump did well. He put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments. The burden of his failures fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen.

At 1,109 carats, big as a tennis ball, the world’s largest uncut diamond was expected to shatter records at a June Sotheby’s auction. How did the dazzling stone go unsold? An exclusive reveals what went wrong.

A great many rich individuals used one Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, to shield their money from prying eyes, whether it was tax authorities, law enforcement agencies, or vengeful former spouses. Tax havens are supposed to be secret. The Panama leak blew open that omertà in a quite spectacular fashion.

With $80 billion, Bill Gates is the world’s richest man. So how does he spend his money? What makes his life worthwhile? And is his a happy marriage? Mary Riddell spends three months with the Microsoft billionaire to find the answers. Microbes fascinate Bill Gates. On his arrival for a recent meeting with Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, Gates is spotted clutching a book on bacteria, presumably so that he might devour a chapter or two should any lull occur in the conversation.

A No 1 limited edition licence plate commemorating Abu Dhabi Government’s Golden Jubilee was sold to an Emirati for Dh31 million on Saturday at Emirates Palace hotel. The winning bidder for the coveted plate, Abdullah Al Mahri, 32, said he bought it in honour of the country’s Rulers, who worked tirelessly to make the UAE No 1 in the world. "I’m very proud to get No 1, especially for this golden jubilee, 50 years of the Abu Dhabi Government. I’m very proud and I’m very happy," Mr Al Mahri said.

As fans gathered on Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, Al Roker pulled up in a big red delivery truck, ready to give America what it wanted: Twinkies. The snack cakes flew through the air into the crowd pressed against metal barriers. One man shoved cream-filled treats into his mouth. Another “Today” host tucked Twinkies into the neckline of her dress. Across the nation in the summer of 2013, there was a feeding frenzy for Twinkies.

Several years ago, sociologist Brooke Harrington decided to explore the secret lives of billionaires. What she found, she said, shocked her.

Aloha! Now sell me your land! Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is suing hundreds of Hawaiians to compel them to sell the billionaire small plots of land they own that lie within a 700-acre property that Zuckerberg purchased on the island of Kauai two years ago for $100 million. Zuckberberg-controlled companies filed eight so-called "quiet" title lawsuits in a Kauai court on Dec. 30 requesting the forced sales at public auction to the highest bidder, which would allow him to make his secluded beach-front land on the island's north shore even more private, according the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper.

Last month, when President Donald Trump toured a Boeing aircraft plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, he saw a familiar face in the crowd that greeted him: Patrick Caddell, a former Democratic political operative and pollster who, for forty-five years, has been prodding insurgent Presidential candidates to attack the Washington establishment. Caddell, who lives in Charleston, is perhaps best known for helping Jimmy Carter win the 1976 Presidential race.

Jeff Bezos has leapt past Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffett to become the world’s second-richest person. Bezos, 53, added $1.5 billion to his fortune as Amazon.com Inc. rose $18.32 on Wednesday, the day after the e-commerce giant said it plans to buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com. Bezos has a net worth of $75.6 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, $700 million more than Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Buffett and $1.3 billion above Ortega, the founder of Inditex S.A. and Europe’s richest person.

The richest Florentine families in 1427 still are: New research shows Europe leads the world in inherited wealth. Lamberto Frescobaldi sets two wine glasses atop a wooden barrel in the spacious cellar of his company's winery in a 1,000-year-old castle not far from Florence. Uncorking a bottle of Nipozzano, he takes a sip and nods. The red that his family supplied to Michelangelo and Pope Leo X still tastes pretty darn good.

Today the world is dominated by 30 financial corporations that hold more than half the shareholdings of its corporate giants. And they follow the logic of finance capital – the logic of money.

Last year it was 8 men, then down to 6, and now almost 5. While Americans fixate on Trump, the super-rich are absconding with our wealth, and the plague of inequality continues to grow. An analysis of 2016 data found that the poorest five deciles of the world population own about $410 billion in total wealth. As of 06/08/17, the world's richest five men owned over $400 billion in wealth. Thus, on average, each man owns nearly as much as 750 million people.

It’s an excellent time to be rich, especially in the U.S. Around the world, the number of millionaires and billionaires is surging right along with the value of their holdings. Even as economic growth has slowed, the rich have managed to gain a larger slice of the world’s wealth.