Friday newspaper round-up: Apple, South Korea, Drax...

(Sharecast News) - Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump's trade war forces the tech giant to pivot away from China. The push builds on Apple's strategy to diversify its supply chain but goes further and faster than investors appreciate, with a goal to source from India the entirety of the more than 60mn iPhones sold annually in the US by the end of 2026. - Financial Times

The White House has hinted that its first trade deal could be with South Korea, saying that the talks are progressing faster than it expected. Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, said that technical negotiations with South Korea will start next week. Speaking at the White House, he said: "We had a very successful bilateral meeting with the Republic of South Korea today. - The Times

A government spending watchdog has questioned the value of the multi-billion pound subsidies granted to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire - and said that plans to hand over billions more may not represent value for money. The government has provided about £22bn of public money to businesses and households that burn biomass pellets as fuel over the past three years, including £6.5bn for the owner of the Drax plant. - The Guardian

Donald Trump has turned on Rupert Murdoch after Fox News published a poll suggesting the US president's approval rating has slumped to a fresh low. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: "Rupert Murdoch has told me for years that he is going to get rid of his FoxNews, Trump Hating, Fake Pollster, but he has never done so. This 'pollster' has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years." Fox News this week published a poll which placed the president's approval rating at just 44pc as he approaches 100 days of his second term in office. - The Telegraph

BlackRock, the world's largest investor, has been buying billions of pounds of UK assets that it believes are "undervalued". Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, has revealed that the fund manager has been building positions in UK assets "across the board" having been reassured by the early rhetoric from the government of Sir Keir Starmer. - The Times

Water companies have been getting away with failures to improve sewage works and overspending because of regulatory problems, a damning report by the government's spending watchdog has found. Firms have overspent on infrastructure building, the National Audit Office (NAO) found, with some of these costs being added to consumers' bills. The Guardian this week reported Ofwat and the independent water commission are investigating water firms for spending up to 10 times as much on their sewage works and piping as comparable countries. - The Guardian