Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has fully exited its position in Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Company, ending a 17-year investment that generated staggering returns. The investment firm began selling BYD shares in 2022 after a massive run-up in share price and recently completed the divestment, according to SEC filings. Berkshire's initial $230 million investment in 2008 for roughly 225 million shares, representing about 10% of the company at the time, had increased in value by approximately 3,890% over the holding period.

The timing of Berkshire's exit coincides with challenging market conditions for BYD in its home market. The Chinese automaker has seen domestic sales, which account for roughly 80% of its global shipments, decline for four consecutive months as of August. In response to these market pressures, BYD has reduced its annual sales target by as much as 16%, down to 4.6 million vehicles. These developments come despite BYD's remarkable growth trajectory that saw it quickly dominate China's EV market before expanding globally.

BYD has maintained competitive advantages through vertical integration and technological innovation. The company has developed cheaper electric vehicles than competitors like Tesla while offering more powerful charging capabilities. Earlier this year, BYD released EV charging technology capable of adding nearly 250 miles of range in approximately five minutes. These innovations contributed to BYD surpassing Tesla in annual revenue with roughly $107 billion in 2024, while capturing 32% of China's EV market compared to Tesla's 6.1%.

The Chinese EV market has become increasingly competitive, prompting BYD to implement aggressive pricing strategies. The company recently launched two new electric versions of its Qin Plus EV sedan with prices starting as low as the equivalent of $19,200, representing a reduction of over $4,000 from its initial launch price of $23,500 in early 2024. This follows broader price cuts across multiple battery electric and plug-in hybrid models in China, with some models reduced by up to 30%. Despite these challenges, BYD has announced expansion plans targeting half of its sales to come from outside China by 2030.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has announced an urgent independent inquiry into maternity services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, describing himself as "shocked" by families' experiences of "repeated maternity failures in Leeds - made worse by the unacceptable response of the trust." The decision comes after years of campaigning by bereaved families who reported feeling "gaslit, dismissed and even blamed" for what went wrong at one of Europe's largest teaching hospitals. Mr. Streeting emphasized the "stark contradiction between scale and safety standards" at the trust, which official data shows "remains an outlier on perinatal mortality."

The inquiry follows a June downgrade by the Care Quality Commission, which rated maternity services at the trust as "inadequate" and identified serious risks to women and babies. Inspectors highlighted a deep-rooted "blame culture" that made staff reluctant to raise concerns about incidents. Brendan Brown, chief executive of LTH NHS Trust, apologized to bereaved families and expressed hope that the inquiry would provide them with "answers." He stated the trust is "determined to do better" and is already taking significant steps to improve maternity and neonatal services following reviews by regulatory bodies.

Families affected by the failures have welcomed the inquiry but are calling for rigorous leadership, specifically requesting that midwife Donna Ockenden chair the investigation. Fiona Winser-Ramm, whose daughter Aliona died in 2020 after an inquest found multiple failures, emphasized the importance of ensuring the inquiry is "the best and most thorough that it can possibly be." She described how families have been "thrust into this life that none of us should be living," noting that their shared grief should never have brought them together under such circumstances.

Serious questions are now being raised about what Sir Julian Hartley, who led the trust for ten years until 2023 and now heads the Care Quality Commission, knew about the poor maternity care. In a statement, Sir Julian expressed being "truly sorry" for families' suffering and said that while he was "absolutely committed to ensuring good patient care across all services, including maternity," this commitment "wasn't enough to prevent some families suffering pain and loss." Lauren Caulfield, whose daughter Grace died in 2022, called it "completely unacceptable that nothing has been done to date" to examine Sir Julian's role, expressing hope that the inquiry will address this gap.