📌 Trump’s Picks, Rules ‘Rushed,’ More

President-elect Donald Trump is filling key posts emphasizing those who were his strongest campaigners.

Trump asked Mike Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked as a policy adviser in the Pentagon when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.

Tom Homan (pictured) has been tasked with carrying out Trump’s top priority: the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long supported Trump’s proposals.

Elise Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021. If confirmed, Stefanik will serve as United Nations ambassador. Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, is chief of staff — Trump’s first major decision as president-elect.

Other positions include former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, a longtime supporter, leading the Environmental Protection Agency and Stephen Miller, a senior adviser during Trump’s first administration, as deputy chief of staff for policy. Trump is expected to name loyal supporter Florida senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.

Critics say yesterday’s approval of critical rules governing the trade of “carbon credits” was rushed through without proper process.

The rules agreed at the Cop29 climate control summit deal with some of the final hurdles of a system in which countries can buy credits for removing or avoiding planet-heating pollution in other areas of the world – for instance, by planting trees or saving rainforests – and count that as part of their emissions targets.

The agreement is expected to provide the clarity needed to trade emissions within a global carbon market supervised by the UN and open to companies and countries.

A separate article on the trade of carbon credits between individual nations will be addressed later in the Cop29 negotiations.

Efforts to agree on carbon market rules – known in Cop jargon as article 6 – have been a persistent stumbling block in UN talks to stop the planet from heating.

Isa Mulder, a policy expert at the nonprofit group Carbon Market Watch, said that adopting the rules without discussion on the summit's first day “undermined trust” in the UN climate conference process.

Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona’s first Latino US senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake.

Gallego’s victory continues a string of Democratic successes in a state that was reliably Republican until Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. With Gallego’s win, the GOP will have 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.

Arizona voters have rejected Trump-endorsed candidates in every election since then, but the president-elect won Arizona this year over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Gallego led comfortably after the first results were released on election night, but his lead narrowed as more ballots were counted.

Arizona is notorious for a drawn-out count because most people vote by mail — which takes longer to verify and process — including many who drop off ballots on Election Day.

Gallego is a five-term House member and an Iraq War veteran with an up-by-the-bootstraps life story that he featured prominently in his public appearances and ads.

A jury resolved a dual murder attracting true-crime enthusiasts with multiple delays after 19 hours of deliberation.

The jury found Richard Allen guilty on all four counts of murder in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls who vanished during an afternoon hike near their hometown of Delphi, Indiana. He faces up to 130 years in prison. Sentencing has been scheduled for December 20, and Allen's defense team plans to appeal.

Prosecutors presented evidence, including a grainy cellphone video and multiple confessions by Allen. The defense argued that Allen's confessions were unreliable due to his mental state after months in solitary confinement.

No forensic evidence directly linked Allen to the crime scene, and no witness identified him as the man on the trail. Prosecutors highlighted an unspent bullet linked to Allen's gun and his voice on a video recorded by one of the victims.

The defense questioned the state's timeline and suggested the involvement of another person in the crime. A gag order remains in place until sentencing.

Three astronauts from the SpaceX Crew-8 mission discussed their return to Earth after 235 days in space.

The astronauts shared experiences of readjusting to gravity, including discomfort with sitting and the heaviness of objects. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick highlighted unexpected challenges like sitting in a hard chair after months in space.

Jeanette Epps emphasized the importance of daily movement and exercise despite exhaustion from readjusting to Earth's gravity.

The crew returned to Earth on October 25 with a splashdown off the coast of Florida but were hospitalized as a precaution. NASA disclosed that one astronaut remained hospitalized overnight due to a medical issue but did not reveal further details.

Medical privacy was cited as the reason for not disclosing the hospitalized astronaut's identity or condition. The Crew-8 mission was extended due to delays related to the Boeing Starliner spacecraft and weather conditions.

Astronauts often extend their missions due to unexpected events, with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio holding the record for 371 days in space.

China Tobacco, a state-owned monopoly, generated around 1.5 trillion yuan ($210 billion) in revenue in 2023, 4.3% up from 2022.

Tobacco's revenue is six times that of Philip Morris International, the world's second-largest tobacco company. The company's growth is attributed to favorable policies and regulatory connections, allowing it to dominate the Chinese market.

China's cigarette sales have been increasing for the past four years, reaching 2.44 trillion sticks in 2023, and projections show that they will continue rising. The popularity of 'slim' and flavored cigarettes has contributed to the growth in sales.

Globally, cigarette sales have declined by 2.7% between 2019 and 2023, contrasting with China's increasing sales. China has the largest number of smokers in the world, with over 300 million, accounting for nearly a third of global smokers.

Despite Beijing's commitments to reduce smoking, tobacco sales remain unaffected. China Tobacco controls 97% of the country's tobacco production and sales, contributing significantly to China's tax revenue.

A toy company has mistakenly printed the address for a porn website on the packaging of Wicked dolls for children.

Mattel released dolls of characters played by British actress Cynthia Erivo and US singer Ariana Grande in the film version of the hit Broadway musical.

But instead of featuring an address to the movie's website, a porn site sharing the name of the movie was printed on the packaging.

The address leads first to a page warning further access is restricted to adults over the age of 18 with “explicit” material of a “pornographic nature.”

Mattel said it "deeply regrets" the error. "Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children, and it had intended to direct customers to the WickedMovie.com page.