a candidate who can �*enact change' — the words of president—elect trump as he nominates billionaire backer howard lutnick for commerce secretary. searching for solutions — google finds out today if it will have to sell off chrome in a us justice department ruling. price pressure — uk inflation creeps up again above the bank of england's target as energy prices rise. welcome to business today. in the us, president—elect donald trump has made his latest pick for his future cabinet — naming the billionaire investor howard lutnick in the us, president—elect donald trump as commerce secretary.

a wall street veteran — mr lutnick — if confirmed by the senate — would be in charge of a 50,000 strong commerce department — tasked with overseeing the sweeping tariffs pitched by trump in his campaign. tariffs that could have huge implications for the global economy. ritika gupta has the details. president—elect donald trump is tapping cantor fitzgerald ceo howard lutnick to head up the commerce department. trump announced on his social media platform, truth social, that the wall street veteran will lead the white house's tariff and trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the office of the united states trade representative. as commerce secretary, he would be responsible for enforcing the sweeping tariffs that trump campaigned on, for which lutnick has expressed fervent public support — yet many economists forecast that trump's tariff proposals could cause inflationary effects for consumers. lutnick, whose domain stretches from brokerages to real estate, had previously been considered for the role of treasury secretary. he's been one of donald trump's biggest promoters

from the business world in recent months. and wall street is keeping a close eye on lutnick�*s positions on various policies. he's advocated for more jobs for americans and criticised the us—canada—mexico trade pact as hurting us auto manufacturing jobs. lutnick is also a big supporter of cryptocurrencies, with cantor fitzgerald launching a financing business that provides leverage to investors who hold bitcoin. he's also a staunch supporter of israel — in line with trump's position. terry haines is the founder of consultants pangaea policy 7 which advises investors on political developments in washington. he gave us his take on mr trump's choice. what you're seeing in lutnick is the announcement, effectively, of a team of rivals approach in the trump white house. uh, where he's part of the economic

team, but he's not the whole economic team. and there will likely be, uh, sort of a collision course set up in economic policy. and this is exactly what markets don't want, uh, where you have lutnick in charge of tariffs and trade on the one side, potentially also the united states trade representative�*s office. and on the other side, you've got treasury and the national economic team that are responsible for the broader economic agenda, including tax and, uh, and fiscal policy. and there's no way in which, you know, those can be easily split up. so there's a natural tension there that may resolve over time, and it may not. but markets are looking for clarity and they're not getting it. here in the uk, the rate of inflation has gone up. figures just published show that the annual inflation ratejumped to 2.3% in october. up from 1.7% in september. that was slightly higher

than economists had predicted. the rise in domestic energy prices added to overall price growth. the bank of england's target for inflation is 2 percent. simon french is the chief economist at panmure liberum, we asked him if this isjust a blip or a new trend that could prove to be a headache for the bank of england. it's possibly neither. it's probablyjust it's possibly neither. it's probably just the first real assessment of where underlying uk inflation is. what we've had over the last two and a half years is a very elevated level because of energy prices going up because of energy prices going up very steeply because of the impact of the ukrainian war. and then coming down strongly, at least in price year over year changes. this is the first time thought that number has levelled out, and you get a feel of what known uk components are doing. when you see the underlying uk inflation is above 2%, and that is why

the bank of england sounds quite cautious about further interest rate cuts. the market sees about three interest rate cuts a year. that is possibly a little bit cautious. there might be a bit more than that, particularly during the second half of next year. there were questions about why interest rates will be cut, and of course, it went to such high levels because inflation was running was running at 8—11%. the interest rate you need with inflation is about a quarter of those levels which is somewhat lower. the bank will say that to stop putting a bit of a dampener on the economy. that is the right approach. search and advertising giant google will learn more today about the fate of its chrome internet browser. the department ofjustice is due to issue its final proposals in court later.

it ruled in august that google operates an online search monopoly. bloomberg reports suggest google may be forced to sell its most—used browser as part of a wider break up. alphabet — the owner of google has said such a move would harm consumers and it that it will challange any proposals. so what can we expect? here's the view of one expert... obviously a lot of people are wondering what's going to happen here. i mean, you know, the challenge i see with this in particular is that this is so backwards looking because really, the market for internet search is changing dramatically as we speak. generative ai is changing how we search for things. people are now searching through tiktok and other platforms that they never did before. so to be honest with you, part of me is a little concerned that this is looking the wrong way and really wouldn't have that much of an impact. but at the end of the day, we have to wonder, okay, what happens here? and the thing to remember about chrome is while it doesn't

generate income directly for google, it offers a a avenue to their services. and that's the big question mark that's going on here. there have been rumblings, some people saying it could be sold for 15, $20 billion, but that's only going to be possible from a very big company that, quite honestly, could immediately run into other doj issues themselves because of what an influence it has. but i think it's going to be important to think about the fact that hundreds of millions of people use chrome, and so they're not ..and they're not going to just dramatically change or shift just because it's sold. most people won't know or care, but i think we're going to see an evolution of what the browser is and does. so there's going to continue to be value to chrome and whether it stays with google or goes somewhere else. i think we're going to see chrome continue to play a role in all of our lives because of the importance of how information is being reorganised and how browsers like chrome are being rearchitected for things like agents and other ai

capabilities that are going to be important moving forward. we will keep you updated on that when the court is more about that case later today. 30 years this ago this month lidl arrived in the uk. it's now the sixth biggest supermarket. today it says sales hit nearly £11 billion last year, up by i7% on the year before. profits for the year hit £15 million. it's a business that's disrupted the grocery aisles and it's bosses have rarely spoken over the years. but our business correspondent emma simpson, has been talking to the current uk boss, ryan mcdonnell about the changing face of lidl and the aftermath of the new chancellor's budget. lidl have been powering ahead. the fastest growing grocery chain in the uk this year. advent calendars for dogs this year, very popular. in his first broadcast interview, the boss says it's

all about festive trading now. we're gearing up for a bumper christmas. yeah, i think the mood amongst customers is a little bit different, a little bit more optimistic than last year. retailers are gearing up for christmas, but they're also digesting the budget. their industry trade body reckons it'll add an extra £5 billion in costs from next april, and it's supermarkets employing the largest number of people who'll be bearing the brunt of the bill. for lidl, the increase in national insurance contributions will cost it tens of millions of pounds. and there's more. national living wage, we're talking about business rates. we have packaging and recycling taxes coming in, that's a lot of pressure on business all at once. will these cost increases for supermarkets lead to higher food prices eventually in the uk? i think there's no doubt that there will be inflationary

pressures as a result of these decisions. so how do you mitigate the extra costs? we have a lean business model, we have an efficient business model, we are resilient and we've been here before. the industry is very resilient, but of course it can't absorb everything. and that would be the request. i think this cumulative effect of many initiatives and cost pressures on businesses needs to be reviewed. the government says it's had to make difficult decisions. lidl is still expanding, opening another nine stores before christmas with the ever changing middle aisle. this is where we have a bit of fun. is this all about impulse buying distracting us from the boring job of shopping? maybe! but i mean, for us, it's always just been a part of the business model, to have this little world in the middle of the store that sort of distracts you from maybe the typical shopping list. 30 years ago this month,

lidl opened its first handful of uk stores. no frills and unfamiliar products. i remember selling pallets of more continental products. frankfurters injars. i mean, look where we are now. lidl may be on a roll, but rivals are price matching. the battle for our christmas spend is now on, and it's going to be more competitive in the aisles than ever. emma simpson, bbc news. in other news.... us media giant comcast is set to announce it will spin off its nbcuniversal cable television networks — which include msnbc, cnbc and e!. under the plan, comcast will keep nbcuniversal�*s broadcast tv network, its film and television studios, theme parks and streaming platform. the company is expected to make the announcement later on today. shares of japan's seven and i surged over 8% after state broadcaster nhk reported that the retailer's founding family wants to take

it private by early next year. according to the report, the ito family is in the process of raising over $51 billion to complete the privatisation. seven and i has been under pressure to fend off a $47 billion takeover bid from canada's alimentation couche—tard. seven and i said it is still considering the offers. where is the world's most expensive shopping street? well, for the first time in sa years it is now in europe. milan's via monte napoleone beat new york this year after yearly rents landlords can charge luxury retailersjumped ii% in a year to 20,000 euros per square metre. the italian city benefits from an influx of affluent tourists and fierce competition for prime real estate among luxury brands. lets take a look at the markets... keep a close eye on them. up on the day so far, but brand once

again rising 73 and a half dollars. you are up—to—date. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello from the bbc sport centre. it wasn't the perfect send off, but it was still a highly emotional night in malaga as rafael nadal, one of the greats of tennis, brought an end to his professional career. he lost his singles rubber and spain went onto to lose their davis cup tie against the netherlands, spelling the end for the 22 time grand slam champion. he announced his decision to retire last month after another injury hit year on tour. he'd hardly played since the olympics, but targetted this tournament on home soil

as the best way to bring his 23 year pro career to a close,