London shares edge lower as mining, bank stocks weigh
June 3 (Reuters) - Britain's main indexes fell on Tuesday, pressured by mining and financial stocks, with investors growing cautious over unpredictable U.S. trade policies, dampening market sentiment.
As of 0946 GMT, the blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE), opens new tab was down 0.14%, and the midcap FTSE 250 (.FTMC), opens new tab fell 0.1%.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) trimmed its global growth outlook and said the trade war was taking a bigger toll on the U.S. economy than before.
The Paris-based organization also urged Britain's government to make stronger efforts to reduce borrowing and debt, just days before Finance Minister Rachel Reeves presents her long-term spending plans.
Investors were already unsettled by U.S. President Donald Trump's Friday announcement to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%.
Industrial metal miners (.FTNMX551020), opens new tab bore the brunt of the trade jitters, falling 2.5%, as London copper prices lost ground on concerns of possible U.S. tariffs on the metal.
Losses in financial stocks also weighed on both the indexes, with an index tracking the UK banks (.FTNMX301010), opens new tab dropping 1.4%.
On the flip side, the aerospace and defence sub-index (.FTNMX502010), opens new tab continued to gain for the second consecutive day after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday 15 billion pounds ($20.3 billion) in spending to bring Britain up to "war-fighting readiness".
Chemring Group (CHG.L), opens new tab jumped 6.5% to the top of the midcap index after the defence contractor posted the highest-ever order book for the six months ended April 30. The stock hit a near four-year high.
Elsewhere, euro zone inflation eased below the European Central Bank's target last month, underpinning expectations for another interest rate cut this week.
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BBC News
24 minutes ago
- BBC News
How Trump is militarising the US-Mexico border
In the heart of the Texas desert, a Stryker is parked near a stretch of border wall. The light but powerful eight-wheeled combat vehicle was used in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – and now is being used to stop what US President Donald Trump has called an "invasion" at the US-Mexico Stryker is just one of about 100 such vehicles being used along the 3,100 km border. In addition, it is estimated there are over 8,000 soldiers, as well as spy planes and drones, and two Navy ships monitoring the coast.A few kilometres away on the Mexican side of the border, a young man standing on top of a hill is one of the few signs of this so-called "invasion". He is what Border Patrol agents call a "hawk," the ones who monitor and decide when and where to encourage migrants to cross into the United those crossings – not long ago at an all time high – have slowed to a trickle. The declining numbers have raised questions about Trump's border tactics, which include an unprecedented deployment of American military might. A legal loophole Trump has been accused of bypassing the conventional distinction between the armed forces and domestic police by deploying the military to the the US, the Posse Comitatus Act prevents federal armed forces from participating in law enforcement activities unless Congress has expressly authorized the military is allowed to patrol its own bases and arrest trespassers through what is known as the "military purpose doctrine".Between April 18 and May 1, the Pentagon created two National Defense Areas, both bordering the Mexican state of Chihuahua, and made them de facto parts of existing military this has done, says Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty & National Security Program, is allow the military to patrol huge swaths of the caught crossing into these areas would be considered trespassers and may be temporarily detained by US soldiers until Border Patrol agents arrive."It's exactly what the administration is trying to set up here: to turn up to a third of the southern border into a military installation," she told BBC Mundo. "When someone enters the area and is detained, they can argue that the primary reason for doing so is to protect the base."The military command insists that its mission is to detain and alert border agents so they can make the official arrest - not to do domestic police work. The Trump administration argues the expanded military areas are necessary for national security, and points to its decisive election victory as a mandate. Stronger border security was a key Trump campaign promise and one of the biggest issues for House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the new areas "will enhance our ability to detect, interdict and prosecute the illegal aliens, criminal gangs, and terrorists who were able to invade our country"."It will also bolster our defenses against fentanyl and other dangerous narcotics that have been poisoning our communities," she added. 95% isn't good enough Ms Goitein questions how the expansion of the military is justified, given the numbers of crossings at the border have fallen to historic lows. While numbers began falling before Trump took office, the decline has accelerated since January, as the administration has ramped up its efforts to arrest and deport illegal April, more than 8,000 people were detained for illegally entering the country at the southwest border.A year ago, the number was 128,000 in April - a 94 % drop - according to government General Jeremy Winters, who is in charge of coordinating the efforts of different law enforcement agencies along the southern border, has said even one illegal crossing is too many."Containment is at 95%. But 95% is not 100%," he said during a press conference."For us to accept that 95% is good enough would be to say that it's conceptually okay to break the law. And that's not what we're doing here."The creation of these national defense areas has had a direct effect on arrests, statistics show. As of 3 June, the Joint Task Force on the Southern Border has detected approximately 340 migrant in these militerised the common charge of entering the United States illegally, prosecutors now can add the charge of intentionally violating security regulations in the areas now declared both are classified as misdemeanors, the penalties for violating security regulations are much steeper. While entering the country without permission through a location not designated as a port of entry carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine of up to US$5,000, the second charge increases the possible penalties to up to one year in prison and a fine of US$100,000."This is pure wilderness, a desert" Carlos Ibarra, the public defender for several of the detainees, told BBC Mundo. "(The migrants) continue arriving as usual, but suddenly, they face military charges. And they don't understand anything."Some of those additional charges were dismissed, with a New Mexico judge finding that military signs were not clearly marked or could be missed. But many have been convicted and pleaded the militarisation of the border will even recently said that he pressured Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to allow the Army to cross into the neighbouring country to conduct operations against cartels, something the president flatly now, the troops remain on the US side of the border."This is their primary mission. This is not training. This is an operation to seal and protect our border, our own homeland," Brigadier General Winters said.
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How Musk turned on Trump's tax ‘abomination'
In the world of Elon Musk, five days is a very long time. Last Friday, Donald Trump described Musk as a 'very special' friend as he stepped down from his role as cost-cutting tsar, bidding farewell by presenting the Tesla chief with a golden key to the White House. After accepting the gift, Musk told reporters in the Oval Office that he would make good use of it. 'I'll continue to be visiting here and be a friend and adviser to the president,' he said. Just a few days later, it appears the billionaire's punchy advice may already be pushing this friendship to breaking point. Late on Tuesday, Musk escalated his criticism of Trump's 'one big, beautiful bill', attacking the US president's package of tax cuts over fears it could add trillions to the national deficit. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore,' he told his 220m followers on his social media site X. 'This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Congress is making America bankrupt.' I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025 More ominously, he took aim at the 215 Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted for the Bill. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,' he said. He didn't stop there. Two hours later, he warned of reprisals at the crucial Congressional midterm elections in 2026. 'In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.' These are words that could send a chill through Republican Party politicians, including the president himself. Last year, Musk pumped almost $300m (£220m) into Trump's election campaign, providing the financial firepower required to restore him to the White House. And while the Tesla chief has recently exited his role in the Trump administration and vowed to cut his political spending, Musk still looms large over US politics. Anti-Trump allies Unsurprisingly, the White House has so far played down Musk's criticism. 'Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this Bill,' White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday. 'It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it.' The Bill's next stop is the Senate, where it's already facing a less unanimous welcome from Republicans. John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader, is sticking with his boss. 'My hope is that as [Musk] has an opportunity to further assess what this Bill actually does, that he comes to a different conclusion,' Thune told reporters. But the Tesla billionaire has found a vocal ally in the fiscally hawkish Republican Senator Rand Paul, a longstanding Trump critic. The pair spent Tuesday sharing each other's posts on X. 'I've been pretty consistent in my time in the Senate: I oppose deficit spending no matter which party is in charge,' Paul said in one X post that Musk then promoted. 'If we don't get serious about reining in the debt, the next generation will pay the price. Fiscal responsibility isn't a campaign slogan. It's a duty which I take very seriously.' Maga maverick For Musk, this isn't just a matter of policy. It's personal. The Bill's fiscal profligacy flies directly in the face of the mission that brought him into politics as a chainsaw-wielding Maga maverick: cutting government spending. His department of government efficiency, or Doge, has been on a move-fast-and-break-things campaign to reduce the size of the state. At the White House ceremony to receive his golden key, he wore a T-shirt with the iconography of The Godfather film reworked as 'the Dogefather'. He compared Doge to Buddhism, describing it as 'like a way of life'. He is yet to reach fiscal nirvana, though, having fallen well short of initial ambitions to cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget during his allotted 130 days as a government agent. By the start of June, his 'wall of receipts' was showing savings of $180bn, although several independent efforts to verify Doge's claims have struggled to make the sums add up. 'Maybe why Elon Musk is a bit worked up about this is that he thought he had a mandate to cut spending, and that didn't really happen very much with Doge,' says John Stopford, of fund manager Ninety One. Musk has publicly vented frustration at what he sees as obstructionism from Trump lieutenants and Republican members of Congress keen to protect spending that benefits their districts. Now Trump is in his sights, too. Musk told CBS over the weekend that the tax-cut Bill 'undermines the work that the Doge team is doing'. Market jitters Musk isn't alone in questioning whether Trump's signature legislation is as beautiful as it is big. Yields on longer-dated US Treasury bonds, which finance the government's deficit, are at or near their highest in decades. Investors are worried that the US fiscal trajectory is unsustainable, and are demanding a bigger reward for holding debt beyond the next few years. Term premiums on 10-year US Treasuries – the extra compensation that investors demand compared with shorter-dated bonds, and which can be used as a proxy for investor caution on long-term debt – have hit their highest level in more than a decade. The higher the term premium, the lower the demand. 'What we have been seeing is just a lot of worry about the sustainability of US finances. Worries that there just simply aren't enough investors, especially foreign investors, in the market,' says Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities. A dearth of buyers raises the risk of a crisis in which sellers could become unable to clear their sales, Goldberg warns. This would drive a sharp surge in rates and could force an emergency intervention from the Federal Reserve. 'If there was a big deleveraging that happened and there was a big source of selling, whether it's from foreign investors or hedge funds or levered investors or basis investors, it could potentially overwhelm the system,' he says. Ninety One's Stopford agrees. 'There is a risk that you reach a tipping point at some point,' he says. However, beyond the economy, it's possible that if anyone has reached a tipping point, it's Musk himself.
The Independent
34 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ukraine's drone attack on Russian nuclear bombers captured on camera
Ukraine released footage on Wednesday (4 June) showing a major drone strike on four Russian military airbases. The video shows multiple large aircraft, including Tu-95 strategic bombers, ablaze after the attacks. Ukraine claims its forces hit 41 military aircraft using 117 drones in Sunday's (1 June) attack on Russian airfields. Donald Trump stated on Wednesday that he had a "good conversation" with Vladimir Putin. Trump reported that Putin said Russia"will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields." Watch the video in full above.
