Wall Street opens lower after Trump nominates Kevin Warsh as next Fed chair – as it happened

Newsflash: Donald Trump has decided to nominated Kevin Warsh as the next head of America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve.In a post on Truth Social, the US president says he has “no doubt” that Warsh will be “one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best”.That’s not a surprise, given the president’s hints last night that he would choose “somebody that could have been there a few years ago” (Warsh lost out in 2017).But as we’ve been blogging this morning, while Warsh now favours lower interest rates he’s seen as less likely to push for aggressive cuts than some other candidates.Trump says:I am pleased to announce that I am nominating Kevin Warsh to be the CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

British American Tobacco accused of helping North Korea fund terrorism in lawsuit

Hundreds of US military service members, civilians and their families have filed a lawsuit for unspecified damages against British American Tobacco (BAT), one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, and a subsidiary, claiming the company spent years illicitly helping North Korea fund terrorism weapons that were used against Americans.BAT formed a joint venture in 2001 with a North Korean company to manufacture cigarettes in the country. The venture quietly continued, a 2005 Guardian investigation revealed, even as the US government publicly warned North Korea was funding terrorism and imposed sanctions on the country. Amid mounting international pressure in 2007, the company claimed it was ending business in North Korea, but secretly continued its operation through a subsidiary, the US justice department said in 2023. BAT’s venture in North Korea provided about $418m in banking transactions, “generating revenue used to advance North Korea’s weapons program”, Matthew Olsen, then the justice department official in charge of its national security division, said during a 2023 Senate hearing

Donald Trump expected to nominate Kevin Warsh as US Federal Reserve chair

Donald Trump is expected to nominate the former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh as its next chair amid an extraordinary attempt by the president to tighten his grip on the US central bank and flout its longstanding independence.Trump told reporters on Thursday that he planned to announce his choice for chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, hinting that “a lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago”.That fuelled speculation that he had chosen Warsh, who was considered for the Fed chair in 2017. There was a surge of bets on Warsh to be nominated on the Polymarket predictions site, where his chances rose to 94% on Friday.The Financial Times reported on Friday that Trump was preparing to nominate Warsh, citing three people familiar with the matter

UK’s first rapid-charging battery train ready for boarding this weekend

The UK’s first superfast-charging train running only on battery power will come into passenger service this weekend – operating a five-mile return route in west London.Great Western Railway (GWR) will send the converted London Underground train out from 5.30am to cover the full Saturday timetable on the West Ealing to Greenford branch line, four stops and 12 minutes each way, and now carrying up to 273 passengers, should its celebrity stoke up the demand.The battery will recharge in just three and a half minutes back at West Ealing station between trips, using a 2,000kW charger connected to a few metres of rail that only becomes live when the train stops directly overhead.There are hopes within government and industry that this technology could one day replace diesel trains on routes that have proved difficult or expensive to electrify with overhead wires, as the decarbonisation of rail continues

AstraZeneca to invest £11bn in China after rowing back on UK expansion

Britain’s biggest drugmaker AstraZeneca is to invest $15bn (£11bn) in China, it announced during Keir Starmer’s visit to the country, just months after cooling on plans for expansion in the UK.The Cambridge-based company said it would spend the money by 2030 to expand medicines manufacturing and research and development in China, where it already has a big presence. It includes the construction of a $2.5bn research hub in Beijing, which was announced last March.During the first visit by a British prime minister to China in eight years, Starmer said the move would help AstraZeneca to grow into a bigger business, thereby supporting thousands of UK jobs

What is behind the extraordinary rise in investment into silver and gold?

Last year’s extraordinary run in precious metals has only intensified in 2026, as Donald Trump has continued to rip up the rules of the global economy.Gold has been on a tear since last summer, repeatedly breaking records. It has risen by more than a quarter this month and hit a new high of just under $5,595 (£4,060) an ounce on Thursday.It dropped sharply later in the day to $5,250 (£3,810) as speculation swirled about possible US action in Iran, but that remains almost double the price as when Donald Trump’s second term in the White House began a year ago.Silver, meanwhile, was trading below $30 (£22) an ounce when the president prepared to announce his “liberation day” tariffs last April, but has since almost quadrupled in price, to more than $118 (£86) an ounce, with the most rapid run-up coming in the past month