Gold and silver prices dived Friday and European stock markets ended the week up while Wall Street pulled back with investors reassured by US President Donald Trump’s pick to take over as head of the Federal Reserve.The precious metals, viewed as safe-haven investments, had already begun sliding on reports, later confirmed, that Trump had nominated former Fed official Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the US central bank.Trump announced his choice Friday on social media, saying that Warsh, a former Morgan Stanley investment banker and Fed governor, “will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.”Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading group, said the “interesting pick…may give the market some hope that Fed independence will be preserved.”Trump’s personal attacks on Fed boss Jerome Powell — set to depart in May — have fueled widespread fears among investors that the central bank’s policy independence is under threat, potentially posing an inflation risk to the US economy.- A roller-coaster week -Precious metals prices tumbled on Friday after surging in recent days when investors sought a safe haven over doubts about Trump’s policies.Gold fell as much as 12 percent at one point, retreating below $5,000 an ounce after hitting a record high near $5,600 on Thursday.Silver, which Thursday reached an all-time peak above $120 an ounce, shed around 30 percent to about $82 an ounce. Financial markets have endured a roller-coaster ride this week as traders weathered a weaker dollar, Trump’s threats against Tehran, the president’s resumption of tariff threats and a possible US government shutdown.Asian stock markets closed out the week with some hefty losses following Thursday’s tech-led retreat on Wall Street on renewed concerns over vast investments in artificial intelligence.Healthy earnings from Meta, Samsung and SK Hynix provided much cheer early in the week but Microsoft was punished over worries its costly AI program might not result in financial gains.There are fears that firms’ valuations may be a little too stretched and that markets could be in a bubble, having soared in recent years to record highs on the back of a tech-fueled rally.The dollar pushed higher on Warsh’s nomination.”Most currency strategists would argue that his nomination may be good news for the dollar, which can price out some risks of a more dovish pick,” said Forex.com’s Fawad Razaqzada.”However, for as long as policy uncertainty hangs over the US economy with Trump’s tariff theatrics, the dollar debasement narrative is likely to hold back the greenback from making a meaningful comeback.”Among individual companies, Verizon surged 11.8 percent as it reported its highest quarter of mobility and broadband subscription increases since 2019.- Key figures at around 2110 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 48,892.47 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 0.4 percent at 6,939.03 (close)New York – NASDAQ Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 23,461.82 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 10,223.54 (close) Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 8,126.53 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.9 percent at 24,538.81 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.1 percent at 53,322.85 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.1 percent at 27,387.11 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.0 percent at 4,117.95 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1856 from $1.1929 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3688 from $1.3772Dollar/yen: UP at 154.64 yen from 153.61 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.63 pence from 86.62 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at $70.69 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $65.21 per barrel

Emmy-winning actress Catherine O’Hara, who starred in “Schitt’s Creek” and “Home Alone,” has died at the age of 71, her management agency said Friday.The Canadian-born performer starred in “Beetlejuice” and recently Apple TV’s Hollywood satire show “The Studio.”Her manager Marc Gurvitz’s office confirmed the actress’s death to AFP, without any further details.Page Six, citing a fire department spokesman, reported that O’Hara was rushed to hospital before dawn from her home in the swanky Brentwood area of Los Angeles.AFP was not immediately able to confirm that.O’Hara was born in Toronto in 1954, where she joined the legendary comedy theater Second City, alongside Eugene Levy, with whom she would collaborate throughout her career, including on the smash TV series “Schitt’s Creek.”Her break into movies came in 1980 with “Double Negative” — also alongside Levy, and John Candy.In 1988, she played Winona Ryder’s stepmother in Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice.” She would later marry the film’s production designer Bo Welch. The couple had two sons, Matthew and Luke.But it was in 1990 that she became widely known to a global audience, as the mother of Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin in “Home Alone.””It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?” she told People in 2024.”You want to be part of something good, and that’s how you go,” she said.She would reprise the role in the film’s sequel — “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” which featured a cameo from Donald Trump, decades before he would become US president.In 1993 she collaborated again with Burton on “The Nightmare before Christmas.” The versatile comedienne also appeared in British filmmaker Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries that revel in silly spectacles of Americana, like zany dog handlers in “Best in Show,” vain folk singers in “A Mighty Wind,” and award-hungry actors in “For Your Consideration.””I am devastated. We have lost one of the comic giants of our age,” Guest wrote in a statement.But she is perhaps best known by modern audiences for her role in “Schitt’s Creek,” created by Eugene Levy’s son, Dan Levy.”I used to mostly get people named Kevin who’d come up to me and ask me to yell ‘Kevin!’ in their faces,” O’Hara told People, in reference to her famous line in “Home Alone.””Now it’s mostly about (her character) Moira and ‘Schitt’s Creek.’ I’ve never gotten this kind of attention in my life. It’s crazy.” The role brought her an Emmy for best lead actress in 2020. She was also awarded a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.As news of her death spread on Friday, fellow performers and other luminaries were quick to react.”Mama. I thought we had time,” Culkin wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of the pair of them in “Home Alone.””I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you but I had so much more to say. I love you.”Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he and other Canadians were mourning O’Hara’s death.”Over 5 decades of work, Catherine earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.”Canada has lost a legend. My thoughts are with her family, friends, and all those who loved her work on screen. She will be dearly missed.”

US senators began voting Friday on a deal backed by President Donald Trump to avert the worst impact of an imminent government shutdown, after a Republican holdout lifted his block following tense talks. Even if the Senate clears the package, a shutdown is still set to begin on Saturday because the House of Representatives is out of session until Monday, making a brief funding lapse unavoidable.Senate leaders say advancing the legislation would nonetheless greatly increase the chances that the shutdown ends quickly, potentially within days.The funding impasse has been driven by Democratic anger over aggressive immigration enforcement following the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis by federal agents.The deaths have become a flashpoint that has hardened opposition to approving new money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without changes to how immigration agencies operate.Senate aides said they were confident the package would pass Friday afternoon after Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina ended his blockade of the legislation.Under the deal negotiated between the White House and Senate Democratic leaders, lawmakers would approve five outstanding funding bills to finance most of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year in September.Funding for DHS, which oversees immigration enforcement, would be split off and extended for just two weeks under a stopgap measure intended to give lawmakers time to negotiate changes to the department’s operations.Trump publicly endorsed the deal and urged lawmakers in both parties to support it, signaling his desire to avoid a second shutdown of his second term.Some Democrats and political analysts interpreted the White House’s flexibility as a recognition that it needed to moderate its deportation approach following the Minneapolis killings.- ‘Sanctuary cities’ -Graham had blocked the package Thursday night by withholding the unanimous consent required to fast-track the vote.He cited objections to the DHS stopgap and to House-passed language barring senators from suing the Justice Department if their phone records were seized during past investigations.On Friday morning, however, Graham announced he would allow the funding bill to advance if Senate leaders agreed to hold votes on legislation he is sponsoring to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities” that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.”The American people overwhelmingly support ending sanctuary city policies. In my view, sanctuary city policies are the root cause of the problems we face,” he said in a statement.”I also applaud President Trump for trying to lower the temperature, but not abandoning his efforts to clean up the Biden immigration fiasco.”The broader funding fight has left both parties bracing for at least a brief shutdown. Congress has already passed six of the 12 annual appropriations bills, but those measures cover only a minority of discretionary spending.The remaining bills fund large swaths of the government, meaning funding for roughly 78 percent of federal operations is set to lapse over the weekend.The package must still be approved by the House, which is scheduled to convene its Rules Committee on Sunday in an effort to speed the bill through the chamber once lawmakers return on Monday.Speaker Mike Johnson has said the House intends to act quickly, though divisions among Republicans could complicate the process.If enacted, lawmakers would then have just two weeks to negotiate a full-year DHS funding bill — talks that both parties acknowledge will be politically fraught, with Democrats demanding new guardrails on immigration enforcement and conservatives pushing their own policy priorities.

In a Minneapolis church, Laura Christensen was overwhelmed by pallets of canned goods, pasta, fruit and vegetables — among the 45,000 kilos of food being sent each week to thousands of undocumented immigrants confined to their homes.But the retired teacher refused to sit still as the northern US city confronts a huge deployment of federal agents carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive. “We need to remember what our country’s about,” said Christensen, 62. “The US should be about diversity. That’s kind of what the country was founded on, and people seem to forget that.”She has joined dozens of other volunteers at the Dios Habla Hoy church, which has become a nerve center for locals opposing immigration raids. The Protestant, Latino-American organization currently distributes food to 28,000 families in Minneapolis and its suburbs, according to pastor Sergio Amezcua. He has been astonished by the terror that has gripped the region. Amezcua started the food aid program in early December to support undocumented migrants who were reluctant to do their shopping for fear of encountering immigration agents.He initially thought his church would “help 10 to 20 families, and that’s it”.Yet within a few hours, he told AFP, “we had 2,000 families registered. That’s when we knew that something was really bad.”- Racial profiling – Many people in Minneapolis are furious at the aggressive tactics used by immigration agents. Their operations often see groups of masked and armed officers making heavy-handed arrests at bus stops, shops and other areas where migrants are known to gather. Over recent weeks in Minneapolis, federal agents have also killed two US citizens protesting their actions, shot a Venezuelan man in the leg, and detained an Ecuadorian boy and his father. “They’re arresting five-year-olds, pregnant women. So there’s a lot of abnormal things that happen,” said Amezcua, a US citizen who immigrated here from Mexico.”They racially profile people, so people are scared, even people born here.”Amezcua said that of the 600 Hispanic people in his congregation, half are Americans. But just 80 dared to attend the most recent Sunday service. – ‘Order, but with dignity’ -The pastor now regrets voting for Donald Trump in 2024. He said he truly believed the Republican would focus on deporting “bad hombres” — “criminals, pedophiles, narco people, killers.”Amezcua said he can’t understand how the Trump administration, which includes many officials who profess their Christian faith, can justify the rough immigration policies it has rolled out.”Christians are called to treat people with compassion, to welcome the stranger, to feed the poor, and yes, to have order, but with dignity,” he said.Some of the church’s volunteers voiced concern that Trump was punishing Democrat-run Minneapolis for political sins. The so-called sanctuary city blocks local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration raids — a policy that infuriates the president. “If he was really seeking illegal immigrants, he would send troops in red states like Texas and Florida, where the most illegal immigrants are,” said Kathleen, 66, who was preparing to deliver food aid. “He’s attacking our state because we’re a blue state.”