Wednesday Briefing: Trump’s team of loyalists

November 13, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering the latest on Donald Trump’s transition to power and Israel’s offensive in northern Gaza.

Plus, the new series “Say Nothing.”

President-election Donald J. Trump walks out from blue velvet curtains wearing a red tie and dark suit, while members of his family stand in the wings.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Trump picks loyalists

President Biden will host President-elect Donald Trump at the White House today as Trump continues to quickly assemble his cabinet.

Trump picked Mike Waltz, a Florida congressman with hawkish views on China and Iran, as his national security adviser.

He is expected to name Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, as his secretary of state. Rubio viciously criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign but has since ingratiated himself and become a foreign policy adviser.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, was named the U.S. ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has been a loyal ally, but comes to the crucial post with no experience as an overseas diplomat at a time of crisis in the Middle East. Here are some other key people in Trump’s administration.

The latest batch of appointments came as the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan put a hold on the proceedings, including the sentencing.

More on Trump

The chief executive of Exxon Mobil cautioned Trump against withdrawing from the Paris agreement to curb emissions.
The E.U. and Britain are bracing for the “economic nightmare” of Trump’s confrontational business policies.
Was Trump’s victory a setback for women? Even women don’t agree.
Corporate America, comforted by a clear election result, is anticipating tax cuts and deregulation from a second Trump administration.

A crowd of people milling about a scene of destruction.

Palestinians at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in northern Gaza on Sunday. Hassan Al-Zaanin/Reuters

Israel pummels northern Gaza, again

Israeli forces have stormed back into North Gaza, the same area they swarmed almost exactly a year ago at the start of their offensive against Hamas.

In order to stamp out what Israel calls a Hamas resurgence, troops, tanks and armed drones have hammered the area almost daily; 100,000 residents have been displaced and more than 1,000 others are likely to have been killed, according to the U.N.

The renewed offensive over the past five weeks has unleashed some of the Israeli military’s most devastating attacks yet.

Context: Israel’s return to North Gaza shows how murky its strategy has become: Much of Hamas’s senior leadership has been killed, yet Israel has shown no sign of letting up.

Related: Israel has recently intensified its strikes on southern Lebanon despite diplomatic efforts for a temporary truce.

Justin Welby standing for a portrait in a chapel with a marble floor and a cross in the background.

Mary Turner for The New York Times

The leader of the Church of England resigned

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, resigned yesterday, just days after a report concluded that he had failed to properly investigate claims of abuse suffered by more than 100 boys and young men at Christian summer camps.

Since the report’s release, public pressure had grown steadily in and outside the church for Welby, the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, to step down.

Details: The report singled out John Smyth, a senior British lawyer, for abusing more than 100 boys and young men in the 1970s and 1980s. Over four decades, the report said, Smyth became “arguably, the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.” He died in 2018 in South Africa.

MORE TOP NEWS

An adult with an umbrella walking with a child is silhouetted against a gray sky on Red Square in Moscow, with the domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral on the left.

Yuri Kadobnov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Russia: Lawmakers banned any promotion of the “refusal to have children” as part of a broad Kremlin effort to reverse the country’s falling birthrate.
China: At least 35 people were killed when a man drove a car into a crowd in the city of Zhuhai, in the south of the country.
Germany: A snap election will be held on Feb. 23 after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition.
Climate: At the U.N. climate summit, Britain announced the swiftest, most ambitious climate target of any industrial economy.
Amsterdam: The authorities said they expected to make more arrests in connection with last week’s violence involving Israeli soccer fans.
NATO: The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will meet in Brussels this week with NATO and European officials to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Britain: In a U.S. court filing, a former employee says she was trafficked and raped when Mohamed al-Fayed owned Harrods.
Netherlands: An appeals court overturned a ruling that would have made Shell reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
Military: The U.S. Navy’s speedboat crews are exposed to chronic brain trauma from years of high-speed wave slamming, which leaves behind lifelong symptoms.
Religion: A federal judge in Louisiana blocked a state law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom.
Nature: No one saw a Mekong giant salmon carp for 15 years. A persistent employee of Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration helped find the species in unexpected places.

Sports

Soccer: The Premier League’s elite teams aren’t reaching the heights of previous seasons this time around. Why is that?
N.F.L.: The Kansas City Chiefs remain in top spot with the Detroit Lions hot on their heels: Check out the Week 11 power rankings.
Tennis: The ATP Tour Finals in Turin, Italy, are taking place without the Big Three — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

MORNING READ

A view of Perugia showing houses, buildings and hills.

Chris Warde-Jones for The New York Times

The picturesque Italian city of Perugia has been long overshadowed by a murder: 17 years ago, the roommate of Amanda Knox, an American exchange student, was killed.

This month, a film crew arrived in town to shoot a series about the case. Some citizens were outraged that their home was once again dragged into a tragedy that they would prefer to forget.

Lives lived: Sharath Jois, who garnered legions of followers by teaching Ashtanga yoga, is dead at 53.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Hanako Okada is shown holding a pen and paper as she tours a museum.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Beating the odds: Hanako Okada was one of 73 women to win seats in Japan’s election last month, a record number in a Parliament long dominated by men.
A fire sale: China’s economic downturn has hit the ultrarich so hard that some are selling their Hong Kong luxury properties for a song.
A laughing matter: The cast of “Saturday Night Live” has spent years making fun of Trump. It recently issued a very sarcastic plea to stay off his enemies list.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

Two women and two men stand together beside a railing, in front of an enormous green wall.

The cast of “Say Nothing.” Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times

A show about the Irish Troubles asks: What would you do?

“Say Nothing,” a new show on Disney+, strives to capture the long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. The series is based on the nonfiction book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe.

When Anthony Boyle was approached to star as Brendan Hughes, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, he hesitated. He had grown up in West Belfast, and described a history so palpable that he could “feel the pressure of it always.”

But reading the script convinced him. The series strives to show both the youthful excitement that fighting for a cause can kindle and the devastating reverberations that come after. Read an interview with members of the cast here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A pot of chicken thighs with tomato sauce.

Christopher Testani for The New York Times

Cook: Additional hot peppers or fresh tomatoes are more than welcome in this chicken all’arrabbiata recipe.

Listen: Six ambient tracks to transport you to someplace else.

Glow: Hot showers feel nice, but they can do a number on your hair and skin.

Shop: Visiting Singapore? Add a pop of color to your home or wardrobe with one of these Peranakan treasures.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Gaya

P.S. How well do you know these classic children’s stories? Take our quiz.

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