Hello and welcome to NewsHour.

It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in central London.

I'm Tim Franks.

We're beginning with a story which most news websites are couching in striking terms.

They're calling it a dramatic escalation, unprecedented, a landmark battle.

What they're referring to in most cases as their

lead story as well is Donald Trump ordering that a governor of the Federal Reserve, the US

Central Bank, be fired. The president has accused Lisa Cook of making false statements on her

mortgage application forms. She's insisted she's going nowhere.

This is a dispute which looks like it will end up in court, but far more than that, this is a

dispute which many see as pivotal in Mr. Trump's attempt to exert more control over the Fed,

which he's long been furious with, for its reluctance to cut interest rates more quickly.

And so, given that the Fed is supposed to be independent of politics,

it has potentially major implications for the separation of powers in the United States

and potentially major implications for the global economy

if investors start looking at the status of the dollar and US government debt.

Mareen Khan is economics editor at the Times of London newspaper.

What exactly is Lisa Cook alleged to have done?

The allegations against her are a case of mortgage fraud.

So the allegation is that Lisa Cook, who's a Fed

governor, took out two mortgages in recent years, and she stated that both of them were her

primary or principal residences. And this is the charge being leveled against her, this is

...