Vladimir Putin has vowed to launch more strikes using an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile as Ukraine decried the testing of the nuclear-capable weapon on its territory as an “international crime”.

Speaking at a defence conference on Friday, Putin contested US claims that Russia possessed only a “handful” of the high-speed ballistic missiles, saying that the military had enough to continue to test them in “combat conditions” and would put them into serial production.

“The tests [of the missile system] have passed successfully, and I congratulate you all on that,” Putin said, according to the Interfax news agency. “As has been said already, we’ll be continuing these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and nature of threats being posed to Russia’s security, especially considering that we have enough of such items, such systems ready for use in stock.”

At the same conference, the Russian strategic missile forces commander Sergei Karakayev said that the missiles could strike targets throughout Europe.

“Depending on the objectives and the range of this weapon, it can strike targets on the entire territory of Europe, which sets it apart from other types of long-range precision-guided weapons,” Karakayev said.

Russia launched the experimental missile, which US officials described as a modified design based on Russia’s longer-range RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile, against a rocket factory in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Both Vladimir Putin and US officials have said the missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

US officials have decried Putin’s use of a nuclear-capable warhead but denied that it is a “gamechanger” in the war between Russia and Ukraine, adding that Russia possessed just a handful of the missiles, which its military has named Oreshnik, or Hazel.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia’s use of an experimental ballistic missile in a strike on Ukraine an “international crime” as he appealed on Friday to countries around the world including the global south to condemn Russia’s latest escalation.

In an address on social media, Zelenskyy said he had already directed his defence minister to hold consultations with allies to secure new air defence systems that could “protect lives from the new risks” of the intermediate-range missiles.

“Using another country not just for terror but also to test new weapons for terror is clearly an international crime,” the Ukrainian president said.

Nato and Ukraine will hold emergency talks on Tuesday to discuss the attack.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase”, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened after Thursday’s Russian strike on the military facility in Dnipro.

Aside from western partners, Zelenskyy called on China and members of the global south, to condemn the strike, saying that the leaders “call for restraint every time, and in response they invariably receive some new escalation from Moscow”.

China and Brazil have proposed a joint “peace plan” that Ukraine has said only emboldens Russia by providing diplomatic cover for the continued assault on Ukraine.

Like Chekhov’s gun coming off the wall in Act V, it was probably only a matter of time before Vladimir Putin launched an experimental, nuclear-capable ballistic missile into Ukraine. It is hardly a coincidence that his decision comes as the war approaches a likely endgame, with both sides jockeying for position ahead of negotiations in the shadow of Donald Trump.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia quite knows what Trump will do when he takes office in January. But the escalations taking place now will set a new status quo for the day he becomes president, at which point Trump’s options range from hard-nosed horse-trading to simply throwing Ukraine under the bus.

Ukrainian officials said this week that they simply do not know what the president-elect has planned for them. And with little idea of Trump’s intentions, they are focused on optimizing their battlefield position, seeking to hold a beachhead in Russia’s Kursk region and shore up the frontlines elsewhere across the battlefield to be in as strong a position as possible before the new US administration.

US officials, similarly unsure of what their new president will do, are keen to make Ukraine as self-sufficient as possible and to prepare their European partners to increase support to Ukraine after Biden’s departure. One way some of his administration officials have described the goal is to avoid handing Trump another Afghanistan, where the country’s military collapses as soon as US ceases to provide support. Most are pessimistic that Ukraine can continue the fight indefinitely, however.

In the final months of his term, Joe Biden offered Ukraine one thing it has been clamoring for: the right to use Atacms long-range missiles against targets inside Russia. He has also given Ukraine authorisation to use landmines and the right to send US military contractors in to fix the hardware Ukraine needs to stay in the fight.

None of those are a game-changer, officials have admitted. And Biden’s caution in the months before – when they would have been more useful – was partially dictated by political concerns of a backlash ahead of the election.

Trump could reverse those decisions the first day he arrives in office. But he could also decide that they are useful currency as he goes into negotiations with Putin and, as the more optimistic observers hope, acts in the spirit of a good businessman: to never give something of value away for free.

Biden’s last spurt of support comes with a cost, however. And on Tuesday, Russia sent the west a very clear signal: we can escalate as well. With just a 30-minute warning, Russia launched an experimental missile that appears to be a variant of an older, never-deployed missile, the RS-26, which was originally designed for nuclear-weapon delivery. The missile had been criticised in the past for violating the now defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in the late 1980s to prevent a missile crisis in Europe – and its deployment could revive those fears.

Putin sought to look menacing as he gave a rare address on Russian national television on Thursday, threatening to strike western countries involved in the war and claiming that the US and Europe “can’t intercept such missiles”. (If he wanted to make a splash in America, he should have fired his experimental missile another day. US media were firmly focused on Matt Gaetz, Trump’s candidate for attorney general who abandoned his nomination after a series of accusations he had had sex with underage girls).

Nonetheless, the missile was meant to send a message. “I take the launch as a ‘reminder’ to the United States that the risks of nuclear escalation remain present,” said James Acton, the co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

US officials have appeared deliberately sanguine in terms of the nuclear threat in recent days. Despite suddenly closing the US embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday amid warnings of a mysterious “air attack threat”, officials had said they had seen no change in Russia’s nuclear posture. And Russian officials also appeared keen to avoid an accidental escalation with the US by providing a “pre-notification” of the launch.

“That said, Putin’s decision to inform Washington in advance of the test was clearly intended to avoid it misinterpreting the launch and to mitigate the risks of immediate nuclear escalation,” said Acton. “Indeed, I think it is very unlikely that Putin would use nuclear weapons given Trump’s election and the likelihood that the United States will cease to provide aid to Ukraine.”

US officials had warned that Russia would at least nod toward a nuclear escalation if Biden gave Ukraine permission to use Atacms. The CIA chief, Bill Burns, on a visit to London alongside the head of MI6 in September, said the US had brushed off a previous Russian nuclear scare in autumn 2022, demonstrating that threats from Moscow should not always be taken literally.

“Putin’s a bully. He’s going to continue to sabre-rattle from time to time,” Burns said. “We cannot afford to be intimidated by that sabre-rattling … we [have] got to be mindful of it. The US has provided enormous support for Ukraine, and I’m sure the president will consider other ways in which we can support them.”

Russia has sent air defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of troops from the North to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, intelligence officials in South Korea have said.

The shipments were the latest expression of a deepening alliance that allies and enemies fear could fuel the escalation of the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions in Asia, and potentially even global nuclear arms proliferation.

North Korea’s dispatch of troops to fight against Ukraine and weapons from its vast stockpiles has been repaid with Russian oil and advanced military technology, experts believe, although neither side has commented publicly on the practical details of their alliance.

As a sign of how important the relationship is to Pyongyang, one of the country’s top generals has been deployed to supervise more than 10,000 men now fortifying Russian lines in the Kursk region, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Their numbers could grow. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said up to 100,000 North Korean troops could join the battlefield, without giving further details.

When Joe Biden authorised Ukrainian troops to use the US-made Atacms missiles to hit Russian territory this week, the decision was in part a response to the arrival of North Korean troops there, US officials said.

Russia responded to the first use of Atacms inside its borders by denouncing Biden’s decision as escalatory, then striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new, nuclear-capable missile that underlined its own capacity to escalate.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Valerii Zaluzhnyy, formerly the country’s top general, warned this week that North Korean troops fighting beside Russians should be recognised as a sign that the war in Ukraine had already spilled over national borders.

“We can absolutely assume that world war three has begun,” Zaluzhnyy told an awards ceremony in Kyiv, the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper reported.

“The reason is that in 2024 Ukraine is no longer facing Russia. Ukraine is facing soldiers from North Korea. Let’s be honest. Iranian-made Shaheds [drones] are killing civilians in Ukraine.”

In a TV interview on Friday, South Korea’s top security adviser, Shin Won-sik, suggested the Kremlin’s technology and aid was “payment” for the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine.

Experts believe North Korea has been promised military technology ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, and possible security guarantees from Moscow.

“It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang’s vulnerable air defence system have been delivered to North Korea,” Shin, the national security adviser to the South’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, told the broadcaster SBS.

North Korea is thought to be eager to bolster air defences after it accused South Korea of using drones to drop propaganda leaflets over the capital in October.

Shin did not offer details of how intelligence officials had confirmed the arrival of Russian military support, and North Korea and the Kremlin have not commented on his claims.

The US and South Korea are concerned about possible transfers of Russian nuclear and missile technology to the North, which has continued to develop a nuclear arsenal in defiance of decades of UN-led sanctions.

In June, Vladimir Putin travelled to Pyongyang to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. They signed a mutual aid agreement that obliged both countries to provide military assistance “without delay” in the case of an attack on the other.

The leaders are thought to have agreed to cooperate to oppose western sanctions targeting Russia and the North’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.

China, North Korea’s neighbour and longstanding economic and political backer, has not directly commented on the North Korean troop deployment to Ukraine or Moscow’s embrace of Pyongyang.

However, a series of subtle diplomatic moves have indicated Beijing’s displeasure, including in July when the Chinese ambassador in Pyongyang stayed away from celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of the Korean war.

China is thought to share concerns that technology transfers to North Korea could fuel regional proliferation, including nuclear weapons, and deepen geopolitical tensions with US allies on its doorstep, particularly Japan and South Korea.

A military alliance also means that in theory China could be drawn into the war if North Korean territory is attacked from Ukraine, although currently that seems a very remote possibility.

North Korea had also received “various forms of economic support” from Russia in return for its troops and weapons and may have acquired technology for its troubled spy satellite programme, Shin said.

Pyongyang claimed it had put its first spy satellite into orbit in November last year after two failed attempts, but experts have questioned whether it can produce imagery that could be useful to the country’s military. Another satellite launch in May also failed.

Shin did not say whether Russia had made transfers, and experts believe the Kremlin is unlikely to agree to provide such sensitive technology while the North’s troop deployment alongside Russians is still in its early stages.

For now, the bulk of the military aid appears to be moving in one direction. North Korea has sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023, South Korea’s national intelligence service said last month.

Intelligence officials told parliament this week they believed North Korean soldiers had already seen combat, with some assigned to Russia’s airborne brigade and marine units.

The United States believes Russia fired a never-before-fielded intermediate-range ballistic missile on Thursday in its attack on Ukraine, an escalation that analysts say could have implications for European missile defences.

Here’s what we know so far about the missile.

What kind of ballistic missile is it?

The US military said the Russian missile’s design was based on the design of Russia’s longer-range RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The new missile was experimental and Russia likely possessed only a handful of them, officials said.

The Pentagon said the missile was fired with a conventional warhead but that Moscow could modify it if it wanted.

“It could be refitted to certainly carry different types of conventional or nuclear warheads,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said.

Jeffrey Lewis, a non-proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had earlier hinted that Russia would complete the development of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) system after Washington and Berlin agreed to deploy long-range US missiles in Germany from 2026.

“The RS-26 was always [a] prime candidate,” Lewis said.

Singh said the new variant of the missile was considered “experimental” by the Pentagon. “It’s the first time that we’ve seen it employed on the battlefield … So that’s why we consider it experimental.”

US and UK sources indicated that they believed the missile fired on Dnipro was an experimental nuclear-capable, intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which has a theoretical range of below 3,420 miles (5,500km). That is enough to reach Europe from where it was fired in south-western Russia, but not the US.

Ukraine’s air force initially said the missile was an ICBM. While launching an IRBM sent a less threatening signal, the incident could still set off alarms and Moscow notified Washington briefly ahead of the launch, according to US officials.

Will Russia’s missile strike affect Nato?

Timothy Wright, at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russia’s development of new missiles might influence decisions in Nato countries regarding what air defence systems to purchase as well as which offensive capabilities to pursue.

A new US ballistic missile defence base in northern Poland has already drawn angry reactions from Moscow. The US base at Redzikowo is part of a broader Nato missile shield and is designed to intercept short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Still, Putin said Thursday’s launch of the new IRBM was not a response to the base in Poland but instead to recent Ukrainian long-range strikes inside Russian territory with western weapons.

After approval from the administration of President Joe Biden, Ukraine struck Russia with US-made Atacms on 19 November and with British Storm Shadow missiles and US-made Himars on 21 November, Putin said.

What has Vladimir Putin said about the new missile?

The Russian president acknowledged in a television address to the nation that Moscow had struck a Ukrainian military facility with a new ballistic missile and said it was called “Oreshnik” (the hazel).

He said its deployment “was a response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate and short-range missiles”, and that Russia would “respond decisively and symmetrically” in the event of an escalation.

Moscow said it targeted a missile and defence firm in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where missile and space rocket company Pivdenmash, known as Yuzhmash by Russians, is based.

Putin said Russia was developing short- and medium range missiles in response to the planned production and then deployment by the US of medium- and shorter-range missiles in Europe and Asia.

“I believe that the United States made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext,” the Russian president said, referring to the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty.

The US formally withdrew from the 1987 (INF) treaty with Russia in 2019 after saying that Moscow was violating the accord, an accusation the Kremlin denied.

• The US expects thousands of North Korean troops massing in Russia will “soon” enter combat against Ukraine, the secretary of defence said on Saturday. About 10,000 North Korean soldiers were believed to be based in the Russian border region of Kursk, Lloyd Austin said, where they were being “integrated into the Russian formations”. “Based upon what they’ve been trained on, the way they’ve been integrated into the Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” the Pentagon chief said. He had “not seen significant reporting” of North Korean troops being “actively engaged in combat” to date, he said.

• Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia would carry out more tests of its new Oreshnik missile in combat and had a stock ready for use, a day after firing the experimental, nuclear-capable ballistic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The Russian president described the missile’s first use as a successful test and said more would follow. The Kremlin said the strike on a Ukrainian military facility was designed to warn the west that Moscow would respond to moves by the US and the UK to allow Kyiv strike Russia with their missiles.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged world leaders to “respond firmly and decisively” after the Russian missile strike on Thursday. The Ukrainian president said his country was working on developing new types of air defence to counter “new risks” following Russia’s deployment of a new ballistic missile.

• Ukraine’s parliament cancelled Friday’s session, legislators said, citing the risk of a Russian missile attack on the district of Kyiv where government buildings are located. “The hour of questions to the government has been cancelled,” said Yevgenia Kravchuk, an MP from the ruling party. “There are signals of an increased risk of attacks on the government district in the coming days.”

• Russia sent air defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of troops from the North to support its war in Ukraine, intelligence officials in South Korea said. Experts believe North Korea’s dispatch of troops to fight against Ukraine and weapons from its vast stockpiles have been repaid with Russian oil and advanced military technology, Justin McCurry and Emma Graham-Harrison report.

• Moscow’s forces captured the settlement of Novodmytrivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Friday – the latest gain in what the defence minister, Andrei Belousov, described as an accelerated advance. Ukraine’s military made no mention of the village, north of the key town of Kurakhove. But in a late night report, the general staff noted it was among eight villages where Russian forces were engaged in fighting and trying to advance. It said the Kurakhove sector of the 1,000km (600-mile) front was gripped by heavy fighting, with 10 of 35 armed clashes in the sector still raging. The battlefield accounts of neither side could not be verified.

• Russia said Ukraine had returned 46 Russian citizens who were taken there after Ukrainian forces seized a chunk of Russia’s Kursk region in August. “The painstaking and lengthy negotiations for the return of our fellow countrymen to their homeland have brought results,” Kursk’s regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, said on Telegram on Friday. “They are receiving all necessary assistance.” There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

• Ukrainian air defences destroyed 64 out of 114 drones launched by Russia during its latest mass airstrike, Kyiv’s military said on Friday. It added that another 41 drones had been “locationally lost”, most likely as a result of Ukrainian signal jamming.

• Ukraine accused Russian forces of executing five Ukrainian prisoners of war during a single incident in eastern Ukraine last month. The prosecutor general’s office claimed Russian troops shot and killed the five unarmed Ukrainian soldiers after capturing them during an assault on their position on 2 October on the outskirts of Vuhledar town in the country’s east.

• The UK home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said Britain would continue to see “aggressive language” from Vladimir Putin after he threatened to strike the UK. Cooper told Sky News there had been an “aggressive, blustering tone” from the Russian president throughout the conflict and is was “completely unacceptable”. Meanwhile, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, vowed to continue to “do everything that is necessary” to help Ukraine combat Russia.

• Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said supporting Ukraine’s self-defence was the “best protection” for peace in Europe. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who held an hour-long call with Putin last week, has resisted calls to support Ukraine’s longer-range strike capabilities against Russia, after the UK and the US approved Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow missiles and similar American Atacms weapons inside Russia.

• A British man has pleaded guilty to an arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business and accepting pay from a foreign intelligence agency. Jake Reeves, 23, admitted aggravated arson in relation to a fire in March at an east London warehouse belonging to a man only referred to in court as Mr X. He pleaded guilty to an offence under the National Security Act 2023 of obtaining a material benefit from a foreign intelligence service.

Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, a statement from Trump confirmed on Friday. The job is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s gigantic economy and financial markets.

The move to select Bessent is the latest as the president-elect starts to pull together the administration for his second term in the White House. The process so far has been marked largely by a focus more on personal and political loyalty to Trump than expertise and experience.

In economics, one of the main focuses and controversies of the treasury role will be to deal with Trump’s high-profile and oft-repeated promises to pursue a policy of aggressive new US tariffs in foreign trade – something that is widely feared by many other countries across the globe.

Wall Street had been closely watching who Trump would pick for the treasury role, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs.

Bessent, 62, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.

The stock market surge after Trump’s election victory, he wrote, signaled investor “expectations of higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans”.

Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including the former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House council of economic advisers.

As the 79th treasury secretary, Bessent would essentially be the highest-ranking US economic official, responsible for maintaining the plumbing of the world’s largest economy, from collecting taxes and paying the nation’s bills to managing the $28.6tn Treasury debt market and overseeing financial regulation, including handling and preventing market crises.

The treasury boss also runs US financial sanctions policy, oversees the US-led International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and manages national security screenings of foreign investments in the US.

Bessent would face challenges, including safely managing federal deficits that are forecast to grow by nearly $8tn over a decade due to Trump’s plans to extend expiring tax cuts next year and add generous new breaks, including ending taxes on social security income.

Without offsetting revenues, this new debt would add to an unsustainable fiscal trajectory already forecast to balloon US debt by $22tn through 2033.
Managing debt increases this large without market indigestion will be a challenge, though Bessent has argued Trump’s agenda would unleash stronger economic growth that would grow revenue and shore up market confidence.

Bessent would also inherit the role carved out by Yellen to lead the G7 nations to provide tens of billions of dollars in economic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion and tighten sanctions on Moscow. But given Trump’s desire to end the war quickly and withdraw US financial support for Ukraine, it is unclear whether he would pursue this.

Another area where Bessent will likely differ from Yellen is her focus on climate change, from her mandate that development banks expand lending for clean energy to incorporating climate risks into financial regulations and managing hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits.

Trump, a climate-change skeptic, has vowed to increase production of USfossil fuel energy and end the clean-energy subsidies in Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Reuters contributed to this report

Investor Scott Bessent has been nominated by Donald Trump to serve as treasury secretary. The billionaire hedge fund manager has spent his career in finance and the nomination for this post has been one of the most anticipated in recent days.

Here are five things to know about the person who could have vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

His finance career

Bessent, 62, from South Carolina, has spent his career in finance, working for macro investment billionaire George Soros and noted short-seller Jim Chanos, as well as running his own hedge fund.

As a money manager, he made a large bet on Trump winning after spotting what he called an anomaly in the market – that political and market analysts were too negative on what a Trump victory would mean.

The market’s surge after Trump’s election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of “higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans”.

He’s ‘all in’ for Trump

Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.

He has called for rolling back government subsidies, deregulating the economy and raising domestic energy production. Unlike many on Wall Street, Bessent has also defended the use of tariffs, which are Trump’s favorite economic tool.

“I was all in for President Trump. I was one of the few Wall Street people backing him,” Bessent told Stone over the weekend.

“Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs,” said Oxford Economics’ Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.

He’s one of a few

Bessent will take his investing knowledge down a rarefied career path that only a few other prominent Wall Street luminaries have followed: running the US Treasury.

Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Other examples of US treasury secretaries who have come from finance include Steven Mnuchin, who served under Trump in his first term, and had worked at Goldman Sachs. Henry Paulson, who served as Treasury secretary under George W Bush, was also a Goldman Sachs alumnus, where he had been chairman and CEO.

A twisty race to the top

Bessent, along with John Paulson, had been an early favorite for the job earlier in the year according to a Reuters report at the time. He seemed to be in pole position a week after election day, on 12 November, when Paulson exited the race citing “complex financial obligations”.

However, there were many twists in the race for the top position.

On 13 November, banker Howard Lutnick, who was leading a transition team to vet personnel and draft policy, emerged as a top contender. Lutnick was reported to have directly lobbied for the Treasury post, even receiving the backing of Trump ally Elon Musk. However, Trump instead picked Lutnick, one of his biggest fundraisers, to lead his trade and tariff strategy as head of the commerce department.

The pool of candidates then widened when Rowan, and former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh were under consideration as well as Republican US senator Bill Hagerty, sources with knowledge of the transition process said at the time.

The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.

In charge of the world’s largest economy

As treasury secretary, Bessent will essentially be the highest-ranking US economic official, responsible for maintaining the balance of the world’s largest economy, from collecting taxes and paying the nation’s bills to managing the $28.6tn treasury debt market and overseeing financial regulation, including handling and preventing market crises.

The treasury boss also runs US financial sanctions policy, has influence over the IMF, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and manages national security screenings of foreign investments in the United States.

Bessent will face challenges, including safely managing federal deficits that are forecast to grow by nearly $8tn over a decade due to Trump’s plans to extend expiring tax cuts next year and add generous new breaks, including ending taxes on social security income.

Without offsetting revenues, this new debt would add to an unsustainable fiscal trajectory already forecast to balloon US debt by $22tn through 2033.

Managing debt increases this large without market indigestion will be a challenge, though Bessent has argued Trump’s agenda will unleash stronger economic growth that will grow revenue and shore up market confidence.

In a flurry of announcements late Friday evening, Donald Trump released his picks for some of the most important agency and advisory roles in the country, further revealing his preference for Fox News personalities and those that are loyal to him.

Treasury secretary

Trump named Scott Bessent to serve as his next treasury secretary. The role is one of the most powerful in Washington, with huge influence over America’s economy and financial markets.

Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting US national debt.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary.

Office of Management and Budget

Trump tapped Russ Vought to lead Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.

Vought, was OMB chief during Trump’s previous term in office, and would again play a major role in setting budget priorities.

Since Trump left office, Vought has been deeply involved in Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term.

Trump praised Vought as a “cost-cutter” in a statement after nominating him for the OMB. “He did an excellent job serving in this role in my First Term – We cut four Regulations for every new Regulation, and it was a Great Success!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Deputy assistant to the president

Trump is also bringing back Sebastian Gorka, a former Breitbart writer and longtime rightwing Maga supporter with questionable credentials who was let go from the White House in 2017.

Gorka served as deputy assistant to the president, advising Trump on national security. But his responsibilities were vague. He frequently appeared as a surrogate for Trump on cable news, where he appeared to enjoy stirring controversy during his months-long tenure.

Trump named Gorka to serve as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism in his second administration.

Labor secretary

In a surprise choice as his nominee for labor secretary, Trump named Oregon Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who narrowly lost her bid to re-election to the House of Representatives on 5 November.

If confirmed by the Senate, Chavez-DeRemer would oversee the labor department’s workforce and its budget, and would put forth priorities that affect workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities.

Chavez-DeRemer had strong backing from union members in her district. She was one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or Pro Act, which would have strengthened workers’ right to organize.

Surgeon general

Dr Janette Nesheiwat is Trump’s pick for surgeon general. Nesheiwat is a double board-certified medical doctor, a regular Fox News contributor and the author of Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine.

Deputy national security adviser

Former state department official Alex Wong will serve as deputy national security adviser, Trump said on Friday. Wong served as deputy special representative for North Korea during Trump’s first administration.

Food and Drug Administration

Trump also said he would nominate Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the world’s most influential drug regulator. The agency is responsible for approving new treatments and ensuring they are safe and effective. It has regulatory authority over human and veterinary drugs, biological medicines, medical devices and vaccines.

It’s also responsible for maintaining safety standards for the food supply, tobacco, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

In interviews promoting his latest book, Makary spoke against what he called “massive over-treatment” in the US that he called “an epidemic of inappropriate care”.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Trump announced Scott Turner as his pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Trump announced Dave Weldon, a former congressman and a medical doctor, as his choice for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a sweeping agency with a $17.3bn budget used as a public health model around the world.

Weldon served in the US House of Representatives representing Florida’s 15th district from 1995 to 2009. He did not seek re-election in 2008.

The CDC director reports to the health secretary, a role for which Trump has selected Robert F Kennedy Jr. Unlike past appointments, the CDC director post will require Senate confirmation starting in 2025 due to a provision in the recent omnibus budget.

Certain events happen during every presidential campaign. The parties crown their candidates. The candidates debate on live TV, with millions watching. Tens of millions heads to the polls. And at some point in this process, Jamie Dimon will be tipped as the next Treasury secretary.

Sure enough, the veteran boss of JPMorgan Chase – Wall Street’s de facto ambassador to the world – was, indeed, linked with the role this time around as the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaigns mulled their options in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election.

But as the world came to terms with his victory, and Trump started to piece together his administration, the president-elect made clear in a social media post that Dimon “will not be invited” to join.

The people who did get the invite underline why Dimon – one of the most prominent leaders in Corporate America, and head of America’s biggest bank – did not. Considering him for a post might be a time-honored tradition, but this is not business-as-usual.

Trumpvalues reputation, establishment and star power. But not as much as he values getting his way.

Howard Lutnick, a long-time friend and co-chair of his transition team, remarked during the campaign that Trump “picked unfortunately” last time around. Industrial giants and former military generals did not wholeheartedly embrace his agenda.

Not this time.

Trump has picked Lutnick, for starters – CEO of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald – as his commerce secretary, tasked with delivering his policy on tariffs and trade.

While Lutnick was reported to have directly lobbied to run the Treasury, that job went to the financier Scott Bessent, after days of jostling and speculation.

With both appointments, Trump is said to have been wary of appointing a candidate who did not ardently believe in the tariffs and tax strategy at the center of his economic plan for the US.

Economists have warned that the introduction of steep tariffs could reignite inflation. Budget experts have warned that Trump’s wider plans could add as much as $15tn to US debt over 10 years.

The president-elect wants to keep such caution outside the tent – and has pulled together a band of staunch loyalists to drive through it.

During Bessent’s campaign for the Treasury job, he loudly made the case for tariffs, dismissing economists’ warnings as “fundamentally incorrect” in a column for Fox News.

Not long after a line was very publicly drawn under the talk of Dimon as Treasury secretary, the Wall Street titan appeared on stage at a summit in Lima, Peru. He wished Trump well, “but I just want to tell the president also: I haven’t had a boss in 25 years, and I’m not about ready to start”.

The boss preparing to return to the White House in January has made up his mind. He does not seem prepared to hire anyone who might try to change it – on the economy, or any other key facet of his agenda.

Presidential administrations are rarely a broad church. Trump appears to be building a narrow pew.

Gus, an emperor penguin who gained international fame after travelling about 3,000km from Antarctica to the West Australian coast, is on his long way home after being released into the Southern Ocean.

Emperor penguins can travel up to 1,600km on foraging trips, when they hunt fish, squid and krill. So Gus’s arrival on Ocean Beach, Denmark, on 1 November sparked surprise.

Local wildlife carers Carole and Graham Biddulph looked after Gus during his 20-day “extraordinary stopover” before his release back into the Southern Ocean earlier this week.

In a Facebook post on Friday, WA’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attraction (DBCA) confirmed the release and said “farewell and safe travels to our royal overseas guest”.

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Gus gained 3.5kg during its time in WA, the DBCA said, and passed several veterinary health checks before his release.

The Biddulphs, a vet, and a wildlife officer oversaw Gus’s return to the ocean from a boat off the WA coast on Wednesday.

“With warmer weather approaching, it was critical to return the penguin to its natural environment, where it can thrive and thermoregulate,” the DBCA said.

It said the Antarctic traveller was “ready to continue its epic journey” thanks to the Biddulph’s “amazing efforts”.

“Keep going south, Gus,” Carol Biddulph said in a video posted by the DBCA. “Don’t stop for anyone.”

Emperor penguins are the largest of the 18 penguin species, and can weigh up to 40kg.

According to the Australian Antarctic Program, they are very social, and huddle together to keep warm.

The temperature inside a huddle can reach 24C.

“On a social level, huddling behaviour is an extraordinary act of cooperation in the face of common hardship,” the program says.

“Emperors take this to an extreme, taking turns to occupy the warmest and coldest positions in the huddle.

“On windy days, those on the windward edge feel the cold more than those in the centre and down-wind. One by one they peel off the mob and shuffle, egg on feet, down the flanks of the huddle to join it again on the leeward side.

“They follow one another in a continuous procession, passing through the warm centre of the huddle and eventually returning back to the windward edge.”

The penguins are also insulated by layers of feathers and reserves of body fat – their feet have special fats that stop them from freezing, with strong, ice-gripping claws.

They are considered “near threatened”, are the only animals that breed during the Antarctic winter, when they “breed during the worst weather conditions on earth”.

Male emperors assume incubation duties, while parents share duties once chicks have hatched.

“He’s got a long journey home,” Biddulph said. “I’ve just got every confidence he’s going to make it. He’s a bird in a million.

“He’s fantastic.”

Gus, an emperor penguin who gained international fame after travelling about 3,000km from Antarctica to the West Australian coast, is on his long way home after being released into the Southern Ocean.

Emperor penguins can travel up to 1,600km on foraging trips, when they hunt fish, squid and krill. So Gus’s arrival on Ocean Beach, Denmark, on 1 November sparked surprise.

Local wildlife carers Carole and Graham Biddulph looked after Gus during his 20-day “extraordinary stopover” before his release back into the Southern Ocean earlier this week.

In a Facebook post on Friday, WA’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attraction (DBCA) confirmed the release and said “farewell and safe travels to our royal overseas guest”.

• Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Gus gained 3.5kg during its time in WA, the DBCA said, and passed several veterinary health checks before his release.

The Biddulphs, a vet, and a wildlife officer oversaw Gus’s return to the ocean from a boat off the WA coast on Wednesday.

“With warmer weather approaching, it was critical to return the penguin to its natural environment, where it can thrive and thermoregulate,” the DBCA said.

It said the Antarctic traveller was “ready to continue its epic journey” thanks to the Biddulph’s “amazing efforts”.

“Keep going south, Gus,” Carol Biddulph said in a video posted by the DBCA. “Don’t stop for anyone.”

Emperor penguins are the largest of the 18 penguin species, and can weigh up to 40kg.

According to the Australian Antarctic Program, they are very social, and huddle together to keep warm.

The temperature inside a huddle can reach 24C.

“On a social level, huddling behaviour is an extraordinary act of cooperation in the face of common hardship,” the program says.

“Emperors take this to an extreme, taking turns to occupy the warmest and coldest positions in the huddle.

“On windy days, those on the windward edge feel the cold more than those in the centre and down-wind. One by one they peel off the mob and shuffle, egg on feet, down the flanks of the huddle to join it again on the leeward side.

“They follow one another in a continuous procession, passing through the warm centre of the huddle and eventually returning back to the windward edge.”

The penguins are also insulated by layers of feathers and reserves of body fat – their feet have special fats that stop them from freezing, with strong, ice-gripping claws.

They are considered “near threatened”, are the only animals that breed during the Antarctic winter, when they “breed during the worst weather conditions on earth”.

Male emperors assume incubation duties, while parents share duties once chicks have hatched.

“He’s got a long journey home,” Biddulph said. “I’ve just got every confidence he’s going to make it. He’s a bird in a million.

“He’s fantastic.”

Angela Merkel, who in her new memoir raises fears for the western democratic order with Donald Trump as US president, has also expressed deep concerns about the outsized role to be played in Trump’s administration by Elon Musk.

The former German chancellor, who during Trump’s first term was given by some observers the designation of “leader of the free world” usually reserved for US presidents, said 16 years in power had taught her that business and political interests must be kept in fine balance.

Asked by Der Spiegel magazine in an interview whether the challenge posed by Trump had grown since he was first elected in 2016, Merkel responded: “There is now a visible alliance between him with the big companies from Silicon Valley which have enormous power through capital.”

Musk, who is advising Trump on his second term, has been tasked by the president-elect with leading a newly created department of government efficiency along with Vivek Ramaswamy. Merkel said the SpaceX and Tesla chief’s financial entanglements made such an appointment highly problematic.

“If a person like him is the owner of 60% of all satellites orbiting in space, then that must be a huge concern for us along with the political issues,” she said. “Politics must determine the social balance between the powerful and ordinary citizens.”

She noted that in the 2007-08 financial crisis during her first term as German chancellor, “the political sphere was the final authority that could straighten things out” with measures such as bailouts coupled with new regulations.

“And if this final authority is too strongly influenced by companies, whether through capital power or technological capabilities, then this is an unprecedented challenge for us all,” said Merkel, whose 700-plus-page tome will be released on Tuesday.

She said one of the benchmarks setting free societies apart was clear checks on corporate power and the sway of the ultra-rich. “In a democracy, politics is never powerless against companies,” she said.

Of social media platforms such as Musk’s X, Merkel said: “It is important to counterbalance the furore in social media, such as that stirred up by the AfD in this country,” referring to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, which is now placing second in opinion polls before a 23 February snap election.

Merkel acknowledged that she had supported Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris in their ultimately unsuccessful presidential bids against Trump and said their defeats had filled her with sadness.

In extracts from the memoir published in the German weekly Die Zeit, she says Trump as president approached relations with longstanding allies as aggressively transactional, “like the real estate developer he was before he entered politics”.

She found him to be particularly fascinated by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and “politicians with autocratic and dictatorial traits”. Merkel has faced strong criticism since leaving office that she failed to establish clear red lines with Putin and made Germany far too reliant on Russian gas.

Musk, the world’s richest man, campaigned hard for Trump and is helping manage his transition back to the White House, including weighing in on appointments, sitting in on telephone calls with world leaders such as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and discussing cutting a third of the $6.75tn federal budget.

Musk’s corporate holdings have reportedly received $15bn in public contracts, a figure expected to rise during Trump’s tenure.

A jury has convicted two men of human smuggling charges after an Indian family froze to death attempting to cross the Canada-US border.

After a brief deliberation on Friday, a jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota delivered the verdict in the case against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who used the alias “Dirty Harry”, and Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida. Prosecutors say the pair were part of a broader criminal enterprise that helped migrants cross from Canada into the United States.

During the five-day trial, the court heard details of the tragic crossing attempt in January 2022, when Vaishaliben Patel, 37; her husband, Jagdish Patel, 39; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik were left to fend for themselves during a blizzard.

On a day when temperatures dipped to -23C and punishing winds swept across the prairie landscape, border officials first suspected something was amiss when they received a tip from a snowplow driver, who had helped free Shand’s van from a ditch. Shand had been spotted in the area multiple times in recent days.

Officers pulled Shand over as he attempted to cross the border in North Dakota. His story, that he was bound for Winnipeg, confused the agents, given that he was on a rural country road nowhere near the route to the Manitoba capital. Inside the van, they found two Indian nationals with Shand. They later found five more people wandering a field, disoriented and freezing.

Border patrol agent Christopher Oliver told the court one woman was slipping in and out of consciousness from hypothermia and her hand “felt like a chicken breast that had just been taken out of the freezer”.

He realized more could be trapped in the deadly storm. He asked Shand if there were others.

“People will die if you don’t tell me the truth,” he told Shand. Shand said there was no one else.

Daniel Huguley, a US border patrol agent, told the court his “heart sank” when he looked inside a backpack one of the migrants was carrying.

“First thing I saw … was that diaper.” All of the people intercepted were adults.

Hours later, officers found the bodies of Jagdish and Vaishaliben Patel, and their two children Vihangi and Dharmik just meters from the border. Jagdish was still holding Dharmik in his arms.

Lured by the promise of a better life, the four left India on 10 January and landed in Toronto two days later. Patel called his father and cousin back at home to tell them it was cold, but they were all fine and staying in a hotel.

Six days later, the young family arrived in the Manitoba town of Emerson, clad in brand new coats and gloves. They probably believed they were prepared for what locals know is a treacherous journey during the depths of winter.

Soon after their bodies were discovered Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, described it as a “mind-blowing tragedy”.

Yash Patel, one of the migrants who paid the smugglers for access to the border, told the court the group was told to exit the van and walk in a straight line until they found a van on the US side.

Patel, who is unrelated to the family that died in the cold, walked with the group for only a few minutes until the blinding snow and dim light caused him to separate from the others. It wasn’t until nearly six hours laster that he found Shand’s van, which was stuck in snow.

Defense attorneys were pitted against each other, with Shand’s team arguing that he had been unwittingly roped into the scheme by Patel. Patel’s lawyers, the Canadian Press reported, said their client had been misidentified. They said “Dirty Harry”, the alleged nickname for Patel found in Shand’s phone, is a different person. Bank records and witness testimony from those who encountered Shand near the border do not tie him to the crime, they added.

Prosecutors said Patel had been the coordinator of the operation while Shand had been a driver. Shand was to pick up 11 Indian immigrants on the Minnesota side of the Canadian border, prosecutors said. Only seven survived the foot crossing. Canadian authorities found two parents and their young children later that morning, dead from the cold.

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife are set to assume absolute power after loyalist lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment elevating her to the position of “co-president” and boosting the pair’s joint control over the state.

Under sanctions for human rights abuses, Ortega himself had proposed the change, which also increases the president’s control over the media and extends the presidential term from five to six years.

Nicaragua’s national assembly is under the control of Ortega’s ruling FSLN party, and the parliament chief, Gustavo Porras, said the measure was approved “unanimously” on Friday.

It is all but guaranteed to pass a second reading in January.

Ortega, 79, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, tightening control of all sectors of the state with the aid of his powerful wife, the 73-year-old vice-president, Rosario Murillo, in what critics describe as a nepotistic dictatorship.

The ex-guerrilla had first served as president from 1985 to 1990, returning to power in 2007. Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, since then.

Ortega’s government has targeted critics, shutting down more than 5,000 NGOs since 2018 mass protests in which the United Nations estimates more than 300 people died.

Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and the regime is under US and EU sanctions. Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.

The constitutional amendment stipulates that “traitors to the homeland” can be stripped of their citizenship, as the Ortega government has already done with hundreds of politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists, among others perceived as critical.

Ortega and Murillo accuse the church, journalists and NGOs of having supported an attempted coup d’état, as they describe the 2018 protests.

The change also allows for stricter control over the media and the church, so they are not subject to “foreign interests”.

And it gives the co-presidents the power to coordinate all “legislative, judicial, electoral, control and supervisory bodies, regional and municipal” – formerly independent under the constitution.

Manuel Orozco, a Nicaraguan analyst for the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP the reform “guarantees the presidential succession” of Murillo and the pair’s son, Laureano Ortega.

The Geneva-based UN human rights office in its annual report on Nicaragua warned in September of a “serious” deterioration in human rights under Ortega.

The report cited violations such as arbitrary arrests of opponents, torture, ill-treatment in detention, increased violence against Indigenous people and attacks on religious freedom.

The revised constitution will define Nicaragua as a “revolutionary” and socialist state and include the red-and-black flag of the FSLN – a guerrilla group-turned political party that overthrew a US-backed dictator in 1979 – among its national symbols.

Constitutional law expert Azahalea Solís said this change excludes other political ideologies, while Salvador Marenco, a human rights lawyer exiled in Costa Rica, said it would end political pluralism and the doctrine of separation of powers.

“Everything in the reform is what has actually been happening in Nicaragua: a de facto dictatorship,” Dora María Téllez, a former comrade in arms of Ortega turned critic, told AFP from exile in the United States.

When it was proposed by Ortega earlier this week, the Organization of American States secretary general, Luis Almagro, described the amendment as “an aberrant form of institutionalizing the marital dictatorship”.

He also labeled the initiative an “aggression against the democratic rule of law”.

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife are set to assume absolute power after loyalist lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment elevating her to the position of “co-president” and boosting the pair’s joint control over the state.

Under sanctions for human rights abuses, Ortega himself had proposed the change, which also increases the president’s control over the media and extends the presidential term from five to six years.

Nicaragua’s national assembly is under the control of Ortega’s ruling FSLN party, and the parliament chief, Gustavo Porras, said the measure was approved “unanimously” on Friday.

It is all but guaranteed to pass a second reading in January.

Ortega, 79, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, tightening control of all sectors of the state with the aid of his powerful wife, the 73-year-old vice-president, Rosario Murillo, in what critics describe as a nepotistic dictatorship.

The ex-guerrilla had first served as president from 1985 to 1990, returning to power in 2007. Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, since then.

Ortega’s government has targeted critics, shutting down more than 5,000 NGOs since 2018 mass protests in which the United Nations estimates more than 300 people died.

Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and the regime is under US and EU sanctions. Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.

The constitutional amendment stipulates that “traitors to the homeland” can be stripped of their citizenship, as the Ortega government has already done with hundreds of politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists, among others perceived as critical.

Ortega and Murillo accuse the church, journalists and NGOs of having supported an attempted coup d’état, as they describe the 2018 protests.

The change also allows for stricter control over the media and the church, so they are not subject to “foreign interests”.

And it gives the co-presidents the power to coordinate all “legislative, judicial, electoral, control and supervisory bodies, regional and municipal” – formerly independent under the constitution.

Manuel Orozco, a Nicaraguan analyst for the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP the reform “guarantees the presidential succession” of Murillo and the pair’s son, Laureano Ortega.

The Geneva-based UN human rights office in its annual report on Nicaragua warned in September of a “serious” deterioration in human rights under Ortega.

The report cited violations such as arbitrary arrests of opponents, torture, ill-treatment in detention, increased violence against Indigenous people and attacks on religious freedom.

The revised constitution will define Nicaragua as a “revolutionary” and socialist state and include the red-and-black flag of the FSLN – a guerrilla group-turned political party that overthrew a US-backed dictator in 1979 – among its national symbols.

Constitutional law expert Azahalea Solís said this change excludes other political ideologies, while Salvador Marenco, a human rights lawyer exiled in Costa Rica, said it would end political pluralism and the doctrine of separation of powers.

“Everything in the reform is what has actually been happening in Nicaragua: a de facto dictatorship,” Dora María Téllez, a former comrade in arms of Ortega turned critic, told AFP from exile in the United States.

When it was proposed by Ortega earlier this week, the Organization of American States secretary general, Luis Almagro, described the amendment as “an aberrant form of institutionalizing the marital dictatorship”.

He also labeled the initiative an “aggression against the democratic rule of law”.

The Texas board of education voted 8-7 on Friday to approve a new Bible-based curriculum in elementary schools.

The curriculum, called “Bluebonnet Learning”, could be implemented as soon as August 2025 and affects English and language arts teaching material for kindergarten through fifth grade public school classes.

Teachers will have a choice to opt into the new faith-based learning curriculum, but the state is offering a financial incentive of $60 a student for participating school districts.

Parents, teachers and rights groups expressed outrage at the move that some say violates the US constitution and will alienate students and teachers of other faiths.

“The Bluebonnet curriculum flagrantly disregards religious freedom, a cornerstone of our nation since its founding. The same politicians censoring what students can read now want to impose state-sponsored religion on to our public schools,” said Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for free speech at the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We urge districts to reject this optional curriculum and uphold a public school education that honors the religious diversity and constitutional rights of Texas students.”

Examples of Bible references in the curriculum include a kindergarten lesson on “the golden rule”, which teaches the importance of treating others the way one would want to be treated, linked to Jesus’s sermon on the mount, and a third-grade unit about ancient Rome and Jesus’s life:

According to the Christian Bible, on the day Jesus was born, his mother Mary and father Joseph were traveling to the town of Bethlehem to register for the census. The census, ordered by the Roman government, required Roman citizens to be counted and their names registered. This was used in part to help the empire know how many people needed to pay taxes and is a practice continued by governments to this day.

When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, they were told there were no rooms available to rent. They took shelter in a nearby stable, a type of barn where animals are kept. When Jesus was born, Mary wrapped him in pieces of cloth and laid him in a manger, which is a long wooden or stone box used for horses and cattle to eat animal feed. This story of Jesus’s birth in a stable is commonly featured as part of displays put on by Christians even today during the Christmas holidays each year.

The Christian Bible explains that throughout his life, Jesus taught about God’s love and forgiveness, and performed many miracles.

In text messages seen by the Guardian between Chancie Davis, a former school teacher from the Katy independent school district who objected to the curriculum, and state education board member Audrey Young, who voted in favor of the curriculum, Young denied any mention of Jesus in the curriculum and doubled down on her vote.

“You think every single person regardless of their beliefs should be learn about the Bible,” Davis wrote to Young.

Young replied: “In order to be able to participate wholly in a literate society.”

Both Young and the Texas board of education did not respond to a request for comment.

Davis said she began texting with Young after finding her cellphone number on the board’s website. She said she was “shocked” to receive a text back from her elected representative, especially in the middle of the board meeting about the vote.

“I think I was most surprised by her non-professionalism in thinking through the matter, like it was a done deal already,” Davis said. “She wasn’t ready to listen to anything.”

Davis said “there’s a clear line between separation of church and state, and I think that this crosses that, and it’s a slippery slope in our public schools, and all students deserve to be represented, not just the Christian sect”.

Bryan Henry, a local Cypress, Texas, parent and public school advocate affiliated with Cypress Families for Public Schools, said the curriculum was “just the latest example of Texas being a laboratory for Christian nationalism”.

Henry added: “What I find particularly insidious about it is the fact that they are going to incentivize school districts to adopt the curriculum in exchange for extra funding at a time when the state government is starving public schools of needed money because they want vouchers for private Christian schools.”

A spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association, which is affiliated with the US’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, told the Guardian: “The implementation of this curriculum means grade-school children in schools that adopt the curriculum will receive what amounts to Christian Sunday school lessons in their public schools, something our public education system was not intended to provide and should not provide.

“Students who observe religions other than Christianity, in effect, will be discriminated against because their own religions will be all but ignored.”

Darcy Hirsh, the director of government relations and advocacy at the National Council of Jewish Women, the US’s oldest Jewish feminist civil rights organization, said in an interview with the Guardian: “As a Jewish organization, maintaining the separation of church and state is a key priority for us as it is the cornerstone of our democracy.”

Hirsh added she was “devastated” about “the Texas school board’s decision today to implement a curriculum that is based in the Bible, and even one specific interpretation of the Bible”.

Developing countries were being urged by civil society groups to reject “a bad deal” at the UN climate talks on Friday night, after rich nations refused to increase an “insulting” offer of finance to help them tackle the climate crisis.

The stage is set for a bitter row on Saturday over how much money poor countries should receive from the governments of the rich world, which have offered $250bn a year by 2035 to help the poor shift to a low-carbon economy and adapt to the impacts of extreme weather.

That is “nowhere near enough” according to poor country groupings and campaigners at the talks. “This is unacceptable,” said the Alliance of Small Island States in a statement. Climate finance at this level would not enable countries to green their economies to the extent needed to limit global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, they warned. “The proposed $250bn a year by 2035 is no floor, but a cap that will severely stagnate climate action efforts.”

The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice said there were growing calls for a walkout, and that “no deal is better than a bad deal”, as the Cop29 UN climate summit dragged on through Friday night. There is still no end in sight to the talks, which were scheduled to finish on Friday at 6pm Baku time.

Wafa Misrar, the campaigns and policy lead of Climate Action Network Africa, said: “[This is] a profound disrespect to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis – those losing their lives, homes and livelihoods every day. It is disheartening to witness the lack of commitment from global north countries, who seem willing to disregard our realities.”

Safa’ Al Jayoussi, the climate justice lead at Oxfam International, said: “This is a shameful failure of leadership. No deal would be better than a bad deal, but let’s be clear – there is only one option for those grappling with the harshest impacts of climate collapse: trillions, not billions, in public and grants-based finance.”

According to the draft text of a deal circulated on Thursday, developing countries would receive at least $1.3tn a year in climate finance by 2035, which is in line with the demands most submitted in advance of this two-week conference.

But poor nations wanted much more of that headline finance to come directly from rich countries, preferably in the form of grants rather than loans. They said the offer of $250bn coming from rich countries, with few safeguards over how much would come without strings attached, was much too little.

On Friday evening Greta Thunberg called the current draft “a complete disaster”. “The people in power are yet again about to agree to a death sentence to the countless people whose lives have been or will be ruined by the climate crisis,” she posted on X. “The current text is full of false solutions and empty promises. The money from the global north countries needed to pay back their climate debt is still nowhere to be seen.”

The offer from developed countries is supposed to form the inner core of a “layered” finance settlement, accompanied by a middle layer of new forms of finance such as new taxes on fossil fuels and high-carbon activities, carbon trading and “innovative” forms of finance; and an outermost layer of investment from the private sector, into projects such as solar and windfarms.

These layers would add up to $1.3tn a year, which is the amount that leading economists have calculated is needed in external finance for developing countries to tackle the climate crisis. Many activists have demanded more – figures of $5tn or $7tn a year have been put forward by some groups, based on the historical responsibilities of developed countries for causing the climate crisis.

But rich countries are facing their own budgetary crises, with rampant inflation, wars including the one in Ukraine, the aftermath of the Covid pandemic and threats from rightwing parties to weaponise the climate crisis as an issue.

Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s climate minister and a former green activist, said: “Countries like Canada are not denying what the needs are. We have made it clear that we cannot get to trillions with public dollars. It’s simply not possible.”

Most countries – and campaigners – know this, he added. “Some people are being disingenuous. They have known from the beginning that we would get to trillions with public money. Our public would not allow that to happen, but we can mobilise more than we have so far and that’s exactly what we are doing.”

Azerbaijan, which holds the presidency of the talks, also came in for criticism on Friday as countries complained that draft texts of an agreement left out and played down a key commitment to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

That commitment was made a year ago at the Cop28 talks in Dubai, but some countries want to unpick it. Saudi Arabia has been widely accused of taking the commitment out of drafts at every opportunity, to the fury of developed countries that want to build on the commitment to force a global shift away from high-carbon energy.

Yalchin Rafiyev, the chief negotiator for Azerbaijan, responded by accusing rich countries of failing to come up with an adequate offer of climate finance. “It [the $250bn] doesn’t correspond to a fair and ambitious goal,” he said.

Delegates expect a further draft text on Saturday morning. That will also be subject to fierce negotiations and potentially further iterations.

The Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has made his first big move since withdrawing from consideration to be Donald Trump’s attorney general – by starting an account on Cameo, the website that lets ordinary people pay for video messages from celebrities, dubious or otherwise.

The news website Semafor first reported the move on Friday. The revelation came a day after Gaetz withdrew from the confirmation process, under fire over a House ethics committee investigation of allegations of misconduct including allegedly paying an underage girl for sex – all of which Gaetz vehemently denies.

“I served in Congress,” the page said, the past tense pointing to Gaetz’s resignation last week, pre-empting release of the ethics report, and announcement on Friday that he would not seek to return next year.

“Trump nominated me to be US attorney general (that didn’t work out),” the page said. “Once I fired the House speaker.”

That was a reference to events in October last year, when Gaetz triggered the historic removal of Kevin McCarthy, a fellow Republican and the first speaker ever ejected by his own party. Ostensibly, Gaetz was angered by McCarthy’s position on spending issues and keeping the government open. Really, McCarthy charged, Gaetz was incensed by the speaker’s refusal to quash the ethics investigation.

Cameo offers users a chance to pay for messages to mark holidays, say happy birthday, send a pep talk, get advice, ask a question or, perhaps appealing to fans of Gaetz, to “roast someone” with pointed abuse.

Gaetz himself has been the target of plenty of pointed abuse, not least over his antics in Congress. In January 2023, months before Gaetz moved against McCarthy, Brendan Buck, a Republican aide turned commentator, said Gaetz “should set up a Cameo where for $50 he’ll vote for you for speaker of the House”.

On Friday, Gaetz began by charging $250 a video but soon raised that price to $500. One social media user noted that Gaetz was thus charging “about the same rate as George Santos” – the serial fabulist, admitted fraudster and elected Republican who turned to Cameo amid the scandal that saw him expelled from Congress last year.

Other disgraced political figures who have turned to Cameo include Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor who was jailed for trying to sell Barack Obama’s US Senate seat, a sentence commuted by Trump, and Rudy Giuliani, the New York mayor turned Trump attorney now facing financial and legal ruin.

A spokesperson for Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cameo said users would “have the chance to customize” their $500 request for Gaetz, “like asking [him] to mention inside jokes, share words of wisdom, or work in their signature catchphrases.

“Don’t be afraid to get creative with your request, especially for celebrations like weddings, retirements, or bachelor and bachelorette parties that call for a good laugh.”

Long before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America’s Yucatán peninsula.

Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what’s now Belize. The findings were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.

“The aerial imagery was crucial to identify this really distinctive pattern of zigzag linear canals” running for several miles through wetlands, said study co-author Eleanor Harrison-Buck of the University of New Hampshire.

The team then conducted digs in Belize’s Crooked Tree wildlife sanctuary. The ancient canals, paired with holding ponds, were used to channel and catch freshwater species such as catfish.

Barbed spearpoints found nearby may have been tied to sticks and used to spear fish, said study co-author Marieka Brouwer Burg of the University of Vermont.

The canal networks were built as early as 4,000 years ago by semi-nomadic people in the Yucatán coastal plain. According to the study, the canals were used for about 1,000 years or longer, including during the “formative” period when the Maya began to settle in permanent farming villages and a distinctive culture started to emerge.

“It’s really interesting to see such large-scale modifications of the landscape so early – it shows people were already building things,” said the University of Pittsburgh archaeologist Claire Ebert, who was not involved in the study.

At the height of the Maya civilization, people in this region built temples, roads, pyramids and other monuments. They also developed complex systems of writing, mathematics and astronomy. Scientists know far more about this era because there are many other significant archaeological sites, said Ebert.

But this new study reveals a link between the earlier people on the landscape and the later emergence of Maya culture. These ancient channels for catching fish may have played a role in helping later Maya pyramids rise above the Yucatán rainforest.

“This shows continuity,” said the University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff, who was not part of the research.

On a practical level, the fish-trapping canals helped the early people in the region diversify their diets and feed a growing population, building a foundation for later cultural heights.