Billionaires are almost 10 a penny in the US with the country home to nearly a third of the world's estimated 2,781 billionaires. Within that elite congregation, there exists an even more exclusive tier for the country's wealthiest: those tapped to be a part of President-elect Donald Trump's upcoming administration.

Which billionaires are in Trump’s cabinet?
Even excluding figures like the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (both tapped for the misleadingly named advisory panel called the Department of Government Efficiency), Trump's proposed cabinet alone is estimated to top $13 billion (£10.2 billion) in net worth. This is thanks to nominees like former WWE executive Linda McMahon, one-time software mogul Doug Burgum, and Wall Street titan Howard Lutnick.

Is this unusual? 
If confirmed, Trump's will be an administration of "unprecedented mind-boggling wealth", said Axios. His second-term line-up "throws into stark relief the relative impoverishment" of Joe Biden's cabinet, said The Guardian. This is "not something we have seen in modern times", Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The New Republic. You may find "similar things" if you look "back to the Gilded Age and times of real corruption and real kleptocracy".

How could this affect governance? 
Among Trump's inner circle, the reliance on billionaires is a sign of strength, and private sector successes prove governmental capacity.  Ultimately, there are "two major problems" that come with an administration packed with billionaires, said Bookbinder. One is "very specific conflicts of interest," but more generally, there's a "real risk" the administration could "broadly govern for the benefit of the very wealthy rather than in the interest of regular people".

All eyes will be on how this marries up with a Trump campaign that pledged to be a champion for the working class. Cuts appear to be on the horizon, with Elon Musk warning: "We have to reduce spending to live within our means. That necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity."

The challenges of modern womanhood are powering a blood-spattered resurgence in one of cinema's goriest genres.

New female-focused "body horror" movies have tackled everything from unrealistic beauty standards to modern clampdowns on reproductive rights – but some cinemagoers are finding it way too much.

Body horror 'renaissance'
Focusing on grotesque or psychologically unsettling violations of the human body, body horror "arguably originated" with "proto-scream queen" Mary Shelley and her 1818 novel "Frankenstein", said Colin Doerffler and Hannah Strong in ID. But the term was officially coined in 1983, to sum up a "palpable" new trend in horror cinema that included "The Thing" and "An American Werewolf in London", said James Balmont on Dazed.

The genre is enjoying a renaissance this year, notably in "The Substance", in which an ageing TV star played by Demi Moore (pictured above) takes a mysterious drug to create a younger version of herself, with monstrous results, and "Nightbitch", about a woman who gives up her career to become a stay-at-home mum, and finds herself transforming into a dog.

Films hitting a 'fleshy nerve'
In this age of Brazilian butt lifts and procedures that "scrape out your buccal fat" to fix the "problem of being ugly, fat or old", it's no surprise that "female filmmakers are turning to" body horror to "explore the tribulations of modern womanhood", said Doerffler and Strong. Indeed, in the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, "a slew" of 2024 films have emerged – such as "Immaculate", "The First Omen" and "Apartment 7A" – all dealing with "just how bloody and brutal" giving birth can be.

But is the new female body horror too horrific? The "fleshy nerve" of "The Substance" might well go "too far for some", said Peter Suderman on Reason. The film has caused "walkouts in cinemas across the world", said Jacob Stolworthy in The Independent. The "enticing plot" had clearly "lured in" audiences who "weren't prepared for how extreme things get".

Surrey: Belwethers, Cranleigh
This Grade II house dates back to the 15th century and is located in the heart of Cranleigh village. Period features include beamed ceilings and leaded light windows. 5 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, garden, summer house, parking. £1.1m; Curchods

Oxfordshire: Parsonage Farm, East Hagbourne
Elegant, Grade II* 17th-century farmhouse with a later Queen Anne facade. The property is in need of some updating. 7 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, 1-bed cottage, garden, outbuildings, parking. £2.3m; Inigo

Devon: The Old Rectory, Clovelly, Bideford
A fine Georgian former rectory in a private woodland setting within the 4,600-acre Clovelly Estate, and half a mile from Clovelly Beach. 8 beds, 2 baths, 2 kitchens, 4 receps, garden, outbuildings, parking. OIEO £1m; Knight Frank

Warwickshire: The Thatched Cottage, Luddington
A charming 17th-century cottage in a conservation area. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps. £550,000; Knight Frank

How to save the Tories
Kwasi Kwarteng on the i news site
It's "clearly possible" for the Conservatives to win the next election, writes former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, but that "does not mean that it is likely". Reform UK "needs to be put back into its box", the Tories have to "appeal to some more moderate voters who have abandoned them" and the government has to "become sufficiently unpopular". But there's a "path to victory" and Kemi Badenoch "may be a lucky general".

It's time the world understands a nuclear war cannot be won
Melissa Parke on Al Jazeera
The original five nuclear powers have "reaffirmed" that a nuclear war cannot be won, writes Melissa Parke. However, "some disagree" and "hark back" to the military strategies of the 1950s that "envisaged the use of nuclear weapons to win wars". It's "cynical indeed" for "armchair warriors" to "advocate strategies based on unproven theories", so the leaders of nuclear-armed countries "need to ignore the siren voices" that tell them nuclear war can be won.

Labour's housing plan comes up short
Morning Star editorial board
The "bourgeois socialists" of the government are launching a plan to "tackle Britain's housing crisis", says the Morning Star. Labour "can perhaps be credited" for "at least recognising that there is such a crisis" after the Tory government "spent 14 years in denial". But it's "unclear" how many of these new homes will be social housing, so the government should "throw the weight of the state" behind social housebuilding rather than "hoping for the best from the capitalists".