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A fight among inmates has left at least 15 dead and 14 injured at Ecuador's largest prison, authorities said Tuesday. The Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil has been the site of frequent riots and mass killings, including one in 2021 that left 119 inmates dead. Authorities provided few details about what triggered the latest violence. In a statement, prison officials said police and military had been deployed to take control of the facility. Local media reported helicopters flew over the prison as ambulances and relatives of inmates, some of them shouting in desperation for loved ones, rushed to the gates. The mass killing is bound to agitate Ecuador's presidential race, where the law-and-order incumbent, Daniel Noboa, has made improving security, including inside detention facilities, a top priority in his bid to seek reelection next year. Ecuador's prisons have become among the deadliest in Latin America as overcrowding, corruption and weak state control have allowed gangs connected to drug traffickers in Colombia and Mexico to proliferate. Many are heavily armed with weapons smuggled in from the outside and continue to organize criminal activity from behind bars. The Litoral Penitentiary currently houses about 10,000 inmates — or double its capacity. Ecuador's Attorney General's office said that it is preparing to charge nine inmates with murder stemming from the violence. A dozen outbreaks of violence in Ecuadorian prisons have left more than 400 people dead since 2001. The prison violence reflects a deteriorating security situation throughout the Andean nation. Ecuador registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a rate of six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018. Noboa in January declared a state of emergency and ordered the military to take control of the prisons after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 46 people in the Gaza Strip in the past day, including 11 at a makeshift cafeteria in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, medics said. In Lebanon, warplanes struck Beirut’s southern suburbs and killed 33 people elsewhere in the country on Tuesday. The latest bombardment came as the United States said it would not reduce its military support for Israel after a deadline passed for allowing more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The State Department cited some progress, even as international aid groups said Israel had failed to meet the U.S. demands. In Lebanon, large explosions shook Beirut’s southern suburbs — an area known as Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah has a significant presence — soon after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 11 houses there. There was no immediate word on casualties. The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including command centers and weapons production sites, without providing evidence. Another Israeli strike on an apartment building east of Beirut killed at least six people. Wael Murtada said the destroyed home belonged to his uncle and that those inside had fled from the Dahiyeh last month. He said three children were among the dead and other people were missing. An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in central Lebanon killed 15 people, including eight women and four children, and wounded at least 12 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The strike came without warning, and state media said the building was sheltering displaced families. Israel has been carrying out intensified bombardment of Lebanon since late September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and stop more than a year of cross-border fire by the Lebanese militant group. A rocket exploded in a storage building in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya on Tuesday, killing two people, first responders said. Another two people were wounded by shrapnel in a separate impact outside the town. A Hezbollah drone smashed into a nursery school near the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Tuesday morning, but the children were inside a bomb shelter and there were no injuries. The impact scattered debris across the playground. Israeli strikes across Gaza kill 46 At the same time, Israel has continued its 13-month campaign in Gaza set off by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel. An Israeli strike late Monday hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in Muwasi, the center of a “humanitarian zone” that Israel’s military declared earlier in the war. At least 11 people were killed, including two children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Video from the scene showed men pulling bloodied wounded from among tables and chairs set up in the sand in an enclosure made of corrugated metal sheets. Read: Israeli strikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza A strike on a house in the northern town of Beit Hanoun killed 15 people on Tuesday, including relatives of Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat, who has been reporting from the north. Mohamed Shabat and his wife Dima, both volunteer doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital, were killed along with their daughter Eliaa, according to hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya. Strikes in central and southern Gaza killed another 20 people, according to Palestinian medical officials. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Under US pressure, Israel allows more aid into Gaza Hours earlier, the Israeli military announced a small expansion of the humanitarian zone, where it has told Palestinians evacuating from other parts of Gaza to take refuge. Hundreds of thousands are sheltering in sprawling tent camps in and around Muwasi, a desolate area with few public services. Israeli forces have also been besieging the northernmost part of Gaza since the beginning of October, battling Hamas fighters it says regrouped there. With virtually no food or aid allowed in for more than a month, the siege has raised fears of famine among the tens of thousands of Palestinians believed to still be sheltering there. The United States gave Israel a 30-day deadline — that expired this week — to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, calling on it to allow at least 350 truckloads to enter each day, among other things. So far, Israel has fallen short. In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and 75 a day so far in November, according to Israel’s official figures. The United Nations puts the number lower, at 39 trucks daily since the beginning of October. Israel has announced a flurry of measures in recent days to increase aid, including opening a new crossing into central Gaza and some small deliveries of food and water to the north. But so far the impact is unclear. More forced evacuations in isolated northern Gaza The military announced Tuesday that four soldiers were killed in Jabaliya, bringing to 24 the number of soldiers killed in the assault there since it began. Palestinian health officials say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, though the true numbers are unknown as rescue workers are unable to reach buildings destroyed in strikes. Israel has ordered residents in the area to evacuate. But the U.N. has estimated some 70,000 people remain. Read more: Saudi Crown Prince demands immediate end to Israel’s war in Gaza, Lebanon Many Palestinians there fear Israel aims to permanently depopulate the area to more easily keep control of it. On Tuesday, witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli troops had encircled at least three schools in Beit Hanoun, forcing hundreds of displaced people sheltering inside to leave. Drones blared announcements demanding people move south to Gaza City, said Mahmoud al-Kafarnah, speaking from one of the schools as sounds of gunfire could be heard. “The tanks are outside,” he said. “We don’t know where to go.” Hashim Afanah, sheltering with at least 20 other people in his family home, said the forces were evicting people from houses and shelters. The U.N.’s top humanitarian official, Joyce Msuya, told the Security Council on Tuesday that “acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes” are being committed in Gaza. “The daily cruelty we see in Gaza seems to have no limits,” she said, pointing to recent developments in Beit Hanoun. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities that do not distinguish between civilians and militants in their count but say more than half the dead are women and children. Israel says it targets Hamas militants who hide among civilians. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250 as hostages. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.

   Oil and natural gas companies for the first time will have to pay a federal fee if they emit dangerous methane above certain levels under a rule being made final by the Biden administration.   The Environmental Protection Agency rule follows through on a directive from Congress included in the 2022 climate law. The new fee is intended to encourage industry to adopt best practices that reduce emissions of methane — the primary component of natural gas — and thereby avoid paying.   Methane is a climate “super pollutant” that is far more potent in the short term than carbon dioxide and is responsible for about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and natural gas sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States, and advocates say reduction of methane emissions is a crucial way to slow climate change. The rule, set to be announced Tuesday at an international climate conference in Azerbaijan, comes hours after President-elect Donald Trump named former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to head the agency in Trump's second term. If confirmed by the Senate, Zeldin is expected to move to reverse or loosen dozens of environmental regulations approved under President Joe Biden as Trump seeks to establish U.S. “energy dominance″ worldwide.   Trump is likely to target the methane fee amid a flurry of expected actions he has promised to deregulate the oil and gas industry. As outlined by the EPA, excess methane produced in 2024 could result in a fee of $900 per ton, with fees rising to $1,200 per ton in 2025 and $1,500 per ton by 2026. Industry groups are likely to challenge the rule, including any effort to impose a retroactive fee. The rule will not become final until early next year, following publication in the Federal Register. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the rule will work in tandem with a new EPA rule on methane emissions imposed this year. The rule targets the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as Biden seeks to secure his legacy on fighting climate change. The fee, formally known as the Waste Emissions Charge, will encourage early deployment of available technologies to reduce methane emissions and other harmful air pollutants, Regan said. The fee "is the latest in a series of actions under President Biden’s methane strategy to improve efficiency in the oil and gas sector, support American jobs, protect clean air and reinforce U.S. leadership on the global stage,” he said. Industry groups and Republican-led states have challenged the earlier methane rule in court, but lost a bid for the Supreme Court to block the rule while the case continues before lower-level judges. Opponents argue that EPA overstepped its authority and set unattainable standards with the new regulations. The EPA, though, said the rules are squarely within its legal responsibilities and would protect the public. Many large oil and gas companies already meet or exceed methane-performance levels set by Congress under the climate law, meaning they are unlikely to be forced to pay the new fee, Regan and other officials said. Even so, EPA estimates that the rule will result in cumulative emissions reductions of 1.2 million metric tons of methane (34 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent) through 2035. That figure is similar to clean-air gains from taking nearly 8 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year, the EPA said. Cumulative climate benefits could total as much $2 billion, the agency said. Like the earlier methane rule, the new fee faces a near-certain legal challenge from industry groups. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s largest lobbying group, called a fee proposed earlier this year a “punitive tax increase” that "undermines America’s energy advantage.'' API said it looks forward to working with Congress to repeal the "misguided new tax on American energy.” Environmental groups, for their part, have hailed the impending methane fee, saying oil and gas companies should be held accountable for pollution that contributes to global warming. Oil and gas companies routinely calculate that it’s cheaper to waste methane through flaring and other techniques than to make necessary upgrades to prevent leaks, they said. The EPA said it expects that over time, fewer oil and gas companies will be charged for excess methane as they reduce emissions in compliance with the rule.  

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday that leaders gathered in Baku for the COP29 Climate Action Summit must take immediate steps to cut emissions, safeguard people from climate chaos, and “tear down the walls to climate finance” in response to the “masterclass in climate destruction” that the world has witnessed in 2024. “The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side,” he warned. In his opening remarks to the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, the ministerial-level segment of COP29, which officially opened on Tuesday in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, Mr. Guterres pointed to the proof, noting that 2024 is almost certain to be the hottest year ever recorded. Meanwhile, “no country is spared” from climate destruction ranging from hurricanes to boiling seas, drought ravaged crops, and more, all being supercharged by human-made climate change. ‘Avoidable injustice’ In the global economy, supply chain shocks raise costs – everywhere: Decimated harvests push up global food prices; destroyed homes increase all insurance premiums. “This is a story of avoidable injustice: The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the highest price,” stated the UN chief, noting that Oxfam has found that the richest billionaires emit more carbon in an hour and a half than the average person does in a lifetime. “Unless emissions plummet and adaptation soars,” he emphasized that “every economy will face far greater fury.” ‘Reason to hope’ But there is every reason to hope, the Secretary-General continued, pointing to the solid steps that had been taken last year at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, all countries had agreed to move away from fossil fuels; to accelerate net zero energy systems, setting milestones to get there; to boost climate adaptation; and to align the next round of economy-wide national climate plans – or NDCs – with the 1.5-degree limit set at Paris. “It’s time to deliver,” he said stressing that a poll by the University of Oxford and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had found that eighty percent of people around the world want more climate action. In addition, “scientists, activists, and young people are demanding change – they must be heard, not silenced.” The UN chief went on to note that last year – for the first time – the amount invested in grids and renewables overtook the amount spent on fossil fuels and today, almost everywhere, solar and wind are the cheapest source of new electricity. “Doubling down on fossil fuels is absurd. The clean energy revolution is here. No group, no business, and no government can stop it. But you can and must ensure it is fair, and fast enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius” he explained. Three focus priorities With all this in mind, Guterres said, “developing countries must not leave Baku empty-handed” and urged world leaders at COP29 to focus on three areas for immediate action: Make emergency emissions reductions – cutting emissions by nine per cent every year towards 43 per cent of 2019 levels by 2030. This is the clearest pat to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Do more to protect people from the ravages of the climate crisis. The gap between adaptation needs and finance could reach up to $359 billion a year by 2030. The missing dollars are not abstractions on a balance sheet: they are lives taken, harvests lost, and development denied. Tear down the walls to climate finance by agreeing a new finance goal that contains a significant increase in concessional public finance; a clear indication of how public finance will mobilise the trillions of dollars developing countries need; taps innovative sources; sets out a framework for greater accessibility, transparency, and accountability; and boosts lending capacity for bigger and bolder multilateral development banks. ‘Pay up or pay the price’ “On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price,” emphasized the UN chief telling world leaders that “you and your governments must be guided by a clear truth: Climate finance is not charity, it’s an investment; climate action is not optional, it’s imperative.”

Israeli airstrikes hit a cafeteria and a home in Gaza, killing at least 14 people, medical officials said. In Lebanon, warplanes struck the capital Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday after the military ordered a number of houses there to evacuate. The new bombardment on both fronts comes on the verge of a deadline set by the United States for Israel to dramatically ramp up humanitarian aid allowed in Gaza or risk possible restrictions on U.S. military funding. A group of eight international aid agencies said in a report on Tuesday that Israel has failed to meet the U.S. demands. In Lebanon, large explosions shook Beirut’s southern suburbs — an area known as Dahiyeh where Hezbollah has a significant presence — soon after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for 11 houses there. There was no immediate word on casualties. The military said the houses contained Hezbollah installations, but the claim could not be independently confirmed. Late Monday night, a strike hit the village of Ain Yaacoub in northern Lebanon, killing at least 16 people, the Lebanese civil defense said. Four of the killed were Syrian refugees, and there were another 10 people wounded. There was no immediate Israeli military comment on the strike. Israel has been carrying out intensified bombardment of Lebanon since late September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and put a stop to more than year of cross-border fire by the Lebanese militant group onto northern Israel. At the same time, Israel has continued its campaign in Gaza, now more than 13 months old, triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. An Israeli strike late Monday hit a makeshift cafeteria used by displaced people in Muwasi, the center of a “humanitarian zone” that Israel’s military declared earlier in the war. At least 11 people were killed, including two children, according to officials at Nasser Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Video from the scene showed men pulling bloodied wounded from among tables and chairs set up in the sand in an enclosure made of corrugated metal sheets. Another strike early Tuesday hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing three people including a woman, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. The strike also wounded 11 others, it said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Hours earlier, the Israeli military announced a small expansion of the humanitarian zone, where it has told Palestinians evacuating from other parts of Gaza to take refuge. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in sprawling tent camps in and around Muwasi, a largely desolate area of dunes and agricultural fields with few facilities or services along the Mediterranean coast of southern Gaza. Israeli forces have also been besieging the northernmost part of Gaza since the beginning of October, battling Hamas fighters it says regrouped there. With virtually no food or aid allowed in for more than a month, the siege has raised fears of famine among the tens of thousands of Palestinians believed still sheltering there. An Oct. 13 letter signed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave Israeli 30 days to, among other things, allow a minimum of 350 truckloads of goods to enter Gaza each day. So far, Israel has fallen short. In October, 57 trucks a day entered Gaza on average, and 70 a day in the 10 days of November, according to Israeli figures. The U.N. puts the number lower, at 37 trucks daily since the beginning of October. Israel has announced a flurry of measures in recent days to increase aid, including opening a new crossing into central Gaza. But so far the impact is unclear. The military said Tuesday it had allowed hundreds of packages of food and water into Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun, two areas under siege in the far north of Gaza. The Palestinian civil defense agency said three trucks carrying flour, canned food and water reached Beit Hanoun. It was only the second delivery allowed into the area since the beginning of October; a smaller cargo was let in last week, though not all of it reached shelters in the north, according to the U.N. The military announced Tuesday that four soldiers were killed in Jabaliya, bringing to 24 the number of soldiers killed in the assault there since it began. Palestinian health officials say hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, though the true numbers are unknown as rescue workers are unable to reach buildings destroyed in strikes. Israel has ordered residents in the area to evacuate. But the U.N. has estimated some 70,000 people remain. Many Palestinians there fear Israel aims to permanently depopulate the area to more easily keep control of it. On Tuesday, witnesses told The Associated Press that Israeli troops had encircled at least three schools in Beit Hanoun, forcing hundreds of displaced people sheltering inside to leave. Drones blared announcements demanding people move south to Gaza City, said Mahmoud al-Kafarnah, speaking from one of the schools as sounds of gunfire could be heard. “The tanks are outside,” he said. “We don’t know where to go.” Hashim Afanah, sheltering with at least 20 other people in his family home, said the forces were evicting people from houses and shelters. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities that do not distinguish between civilians and militants in their count but say more than half the dead are women and children. Israel says it targets Hamas militants and blames the militant group for civilian deaths, saying it operates in residential areas and infrastructure, and among displaced people. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250 as hostages. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.

World leaders are converging Tuesday at the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan although the big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent, unlike past climate talks which had the star power of a soccer World Cup. But 2024's climate talks are more like the World Chess Federation finals, lacking the recognizable names but big on nerd power and strategy. The top leaders of the 13 largest carbon dioxide-polluting countries will not appear with their countries responsible for more than 70% of 2023's heat-trapping gases. Biggest polluters and strongest economies China and the United States aren't sending their No. 1s. The four most populous nations with more than 42% of all the world's population aren't having leaders speak. “It’s symptomatic of the lack of political will to act. There’s no sense of urgency,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. He said this explains “the absolute mess we’re finding ourselves in.” COP29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev stressed at a press conference Tuesday that “success doesn’t depend on one country alone.” “Unless all countries can slash emissions deeply, every country and household will be hammered harder than they currently are. We will be living in a nightmare,” he said. Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev, United Kingdom’s prime minister Keir Starmer and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan are the headliners of among the nearly 50 leaders set to speak on Tuesday. There'll also be a strong showing is expected from the leaders of some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Several small island nations presidents and over a dozen leaders from countries across Africa are set to speak over the two-day World Leaders’ Summit at COP29. As a sense of how the bar for celebrity has lowered, on Tuesday morning photographers and video cameras ran along side one leader walking through the halls of the meeting. It was the emergency management minister for host country Azerbaijan.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Monday attended a rally in Georgia to protest against Azerbaijan hosting the annual United Nations climate talks. Thunberg and scores of other activists who rallied in Tbilisi, the capital of the South Caucasus nation, argued that Azerbaijan doesn't deserve to host the climate talks because of its repressive policies. U.N. climate talks, called COP29, opened Monday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a major oil producer where the world’s first oil well was drilled. Thunberg described Azerbaijan as “a repressive, occupying state, which has committed ethnic cleansing, and which is continuing cracking down on Azerbaijani civil society." She charged that the Caspian Sea nation has used the summit as “a chance to greenwash their crimes and human rights abuses.” "We can't give them any legitimacy in this situation, which is why we are standing here and saying no to greenwashing and no to the Azerbaijani regime,” she said. Azerbaijan has committed to clean energy projects, but critics have argued that’s just to export more oil and gas. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been in power since 2003 when he succeeded his father who died after ruling the oil rich nation for the previous decade. He has been accused by critics of intolerance to dissent and freedom of speech. Earlier this year, Aliyev won another seven-year presidential term in an election that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said took place in a “restrictive environment” with no real political competition. Aliyev called the early vote while enjoying a surge in popularity after Azerbaijani forces in September 2023 swiftly reclaimed the Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists, who had controlled it for three decades. After Azerbaijan regained full control of Karabakh, most of its 120,000 Armenian residents fled. The Azerbaijani authorities, however, said they were welcome to stay and promised their human rights would be ensured. Thunberg, 21, has inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament starting in 2018. The European climate service Copernicus announced earlier this month that the world is on pace for 1.5 degrees of warming this year, which is heading to become the hottest year in human civilization. Speaking at the rally in Tbilisi on Monday, Thunberg emphasized that the hottest year ever recorded comes after global greenhouse gas emissions reached an all time high last year. Holding the climate change conference "in an authoritarian petro state is beyond absurd,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign. Here's a look at who he's selected so far. Susie Wiles, chief of staff Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Wiles has a background in Florida politics. She helped Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump's defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary. Wiles’ hire was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration considering her close relationship with the president-elect. Wiles is said to have earned Trump's trust in part by guiding what was the most disciplined of Trump's three presidential campaigns. Wiles was able to help keep Trump on track as few others have, not by criticizing his impulses, but by winning his respect by demonstrating his success after taking her advice. Mike Waltz, national security adviser Trump asked Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement. The move would put Waltz at the forefront of a litany of national security crises, ranging from the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its ongoing mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Tom Homan, ‘border czar’ Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Elise Stefanik, United Nations ambassador Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy Miller, an immigration hardliner, was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” and called for a total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. The prince also criticised Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Iran  at a summit of Muslim and Arab leaders. In a sign of improving ties between rivals Riyadh and Tehran, he warned Israel against launching attacks on Iranian soil, reports BBC. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said it was a “failing of the international community” that the war in Gaza had not been stopped, accusing Israel of causing starvation in the territory Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud said: "Where the international community primarily has failed is ending the immediate conflict and putting an end to Israel’s aggression.” The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack, which saw hundreds of gunmen enter southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. Israel retaliated by launching a military campaign to destroy Hamas, during which more than 43,400 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Read more: Traumatized by war, hundreds of Lebanon's children struggle with wounds both physical and emotional A report by the UN’s Human Rights Office found that close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period in Gaza were women and children. Leaders at the summit also condemned what they described as Israel's “continuous attacks” against UN staff and facilities in Gaza. In the backdrop of the well-attended summit, is Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Gulf leaders are aware of his closeness to Israel, but they also have good relations with him, and want him to use his influence and his fondness for deal-making to secure an end to conflicts in this region. In Saudi Arabia, Trump is viewed much more favourably than Joe Biden, but his track record in the Middle East is mixed. He pleased Israel and angered the Muslim world by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as well as the annexation of the occupied Golan Heights.

President-elect Donald Trump's choice for defense secretary is still up in the air, but it is a sure bet he will look to reshape the Pentagon and pick a loyalist. During his tumultuous first term, five men held the job as Pentagon chief only to resign, be fired or serve briefly as a stopgap. While he has yet to announce a decision, the names of potential Pentagon chiefs stretch from the well known — such as Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee — to an array of former administration loyalists, including retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who held national security posts during Trump's first term. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been floated, but Trump said on social media Saturday that Pompeo would not be joining the new administration. Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida had also been mentioned, but he's now been tapped to be Trump's national security adviser. Some decisions may linger for days as candidates jostle for attention and officials wait for the final results from House races, weighing whether Republican lawmakers can be tapped or if others are a safer pick to avoid a new election for an empty congressional seat. “The choice is going to tell us a lot about how he will deal with the Pentagon,” said Mark Cancian, senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine colonel. He said someone with a deep military background may not be as dramatic of a change as others who may be viewed as stronger Trump loyalists. With a number of top jobs at the State Department, National Security Council and Defense Department up for grabs, Trump is expected to lean toward those who back his desire to end U.S. involvement in any wars, use the military to control the U.S.-Mexico border and take a hard line on Iran. The key test, however, will be loyalty and a willingness to do whatever Trump wants, as he seeks to avoid the pushback he got from the Pentagon the first time around. Trump's relationship with his civilian and military leaders during those years was fraught with tension, confusion and frustration, as they struggled to temper or even simply interpret presidential tweets and pronouncements that blindsided them with abrupt policy decisions they weren't prepared to explain or defend. Time after time, senior Pentagon officials — both in and out of uniform — worked to dissuade, delay or derail Trump, on issues ranging from his early demand to prohibit transgender troops from serving in the military and his announcements that he was pulling troops out of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to his push to use troops to police the border and stem civil unrest on the streets of Washington. In his first administration, Trump hewed toward what he considered strong military men and defense industry executives. Initially enamored with generals, Trump over time found them to be not loyal enough. “He soured on them,” Cancian said. “They were not as pliable as he had thought. ... I’ve heard people speculate that maybe the chairman would be fired. So that’s something to watch.” Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, took over as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 2023 for a four-year term, but military leaders serve at the pleasure of the president. Brown, a combat pilot and just the second Black officer to serve as chairman, spoke out after the police killing of George Floyd, describing the bias he faced in his life and career. Trump also is expected to choose someone as defense secretary with disdain for equity and diversity programs and less likely to counter his plans based on limits laid out in the Constitution and rule of law. But he also may well push for increased defense spending, at least initially, including on U.S. missile defense. A key overriding concern is that Trump will select someone who won't push back against potentially unlawful or dangerous orders or protect the military's longstanding apolitical status. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raised that red flag. In a message to the force, he said the U.S. military stands ready to “obey all lawful orders from its civilian chain of command,” adding that troops swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” He echoed retired Army Gen. Mark Milley's pronouncement during a speech as he closed out four years as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley said. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.” Trump’s first defense chief, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, learned quickly to stay off his boss’ radar by largely eliminating press conferences that Trump could see. Mattis and Milley, along with Trump's chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine general, and retired Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, who also served as Joint Chiefs chairman, all worked quietly behind the scenes to temper some of Trump's decisions. They stalled his demands that troops be quickly and completely withdrawn from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and managed to prevent the use of active-duty troops to quell civil unrest in Washington. Two years in, Mattis abruptly resigned in December 2018 in frustration over Trump’s national security policies, including a perceived disdain for allies and his demands to pull all troops out of Syria. Patrick Shanahan, the deputy defense secretary, took over as acting Pentagon chief but withdrew as the nominee six months later due to personal family problems that were made public. Then-Army Secretary Mark Esper took over in an acting role, but he had to step aside briefly when nominated, so Navy Secretary Richard Spencer served as the acting chief until Esper was confirmed. Esper was fired days after Trump lost the 2020 election, largely because the president did not believe him to be loyal enough. Trump was especially angry over Esper’s public opposition to invoking the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops in the District of Columbia during unrest following the police killing of George Floyd. Trump named Christopher Miller, a retired Army officer who has been director of the National Counterterrorism Center, to serve as acting secretary and surrounded him with staunch loyalists. That is the Pentagon that officials quietly say they expect to see in Trump's new administration.