Morning Report

TODAY’S GLOBAL ECONOMY story

South Africa wraps up G20 summit boycotted by Trump

What happened
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday closed out the G20 summit in Johannesburg, the first held in Africa, by ceremoniously banging a wooden gavel. But in a break with tradition, he did not hand the gavel to the U.S., which is hosting next year’s summit, because President Donald Trump boycotted the gathering over his baseless claim that South Africa is persecuting its white Afrikaner minority.

Who said what
With Trump spurning the summit, some countries took a “tougher tone” and tried to “show that life can go on” without the world’s largest economy, The New York Times said. Oxfam’s Nabil Ahmed said the “big message coming out of this G20 is that despite the geopolitical bullying that exists, despite the power of the U.S., that countries can come together and still get stuff done.”

The White House “told the South Africans that they should not issue a joint declaration at the summit’s close,” NPR said. But in an “unprecedented” move, Ramaphosa issued a consensus declaration at the summit’s start, containing references to the “kind of DEI language disliked by the Trump administration,” with a focus on “gender inequality,” climate change and easing the debt burden faced by poorer countries.

What next?
South Africa rejected a last-minute U.S. request for an American embassy official to come receive the gavel from Ramaphosa, saying the U.S. could go to the foreign ministry this week to pick it up from an official of similar rank. Trump “has said the U.S. will hold next year’s summit at his golf club in Doral, Florida,” The Associated Press said.

TODAY’S SOCIAL MEDIA Story

X update unveils foreign MAGA boosters

What happened
Elon Musk’s X over the weekend began allowing users to see where other accounts are based through an “about this account” section. Almost immediately, “people started noticing that many rage-bait accounts focused on U.S. politics appeared to be based outside of the U.S.,” The Verge said. Notably, UPI said, the update “inadvertently unmasked a number of MAGA accounts” as based in Russia, Nigeria, India and Southeast Asia.

Who said what
“When you read content on X, you should be able to verify its authenticity,” the company’s head of product Nikita Bier posted, “including the country an account is located in.” Liberal influencer Harry Sisson, who is using the tool to document the foreign provenance of popular MAGA and “America First” accounts, called it “easily one of the greatest days on this platform.”

“Some right-wing personalities were quick to jump on evidence that many left-wing X users were also not who they claimed to be,” The Verge said. But the “seemingly endless list of fake and troll accounts” mostly “revealed the scope and geographical breadth” of X’s “foreign troll problem.” Some of those trolls are undoubtedly part of state-sponsored foreign influence campaigns, but content creators paid for engagement also have a “financial incentive to cash in on the divisive nature of U.S. politics,” The Daily Beast said. In countries like Nigeria and Bangladesh, “the American dollars paid by X” can “make a big difference to their lives.”

What next?
X said the new feature “could be partially spoofed by using a VPN to mask a user’s true location,” Fox News said. Bier said there were a “few rough edges” in the rollout that should be resolved by tomorrow.

It’s not all bad

A two-year pilot program offering free bus fares in Iowa City has been so successful that the City Council extended it for another year. With more people taking public transportation, carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 24,000 metric tons and on-time bus arrivals are up 13% amid the reduced traffic, officials said. Transit systems are one of the “greatest tools” available to combat climate change, and they “make a pretty immediate impact,” Iowa City Transportation Director Darian Nagle-Gamm told The New York Times.

Under the radar

The expanding world of child skin care

“Maybe in 20 years, every 1-year-old will have a beauty routine,” said Ally Nelson, host of the “UnTrivial” wellness podcast. She was “joking, mostly,” said The New York Times. But in the same week, social media went into meltdown when “Pretty Little Liars” actor Shay Mitchell launched Rini, a skin care line for children ages 3 and up.

Skin care lines for “pre-teens” and younger “have become a robust product category” — and “a battlefield for parents and critics,” the Times said. A “growing list” of companies sell skin products for pre-teens that are packaged to “look like candy dispensers.” The advertising works: in the U.S., households with children between the ages of 7 and 12 spent nearly $2.5 billion on skin care last year, according to Nielsen IQ consumer research.

The brands say their tween-oriented wares are “safer alternatives to adult products.” But some critics see “something more pernicious”: a strategy to “hook children on unnecessary products, laying the groundwork for ever-earlier anxieties about their appearance.”

Children’s growing interest in beauty products already has a “catch-all” name: “Sephora kids,” said The Guardian. Shop-floor employees say young children are “filling shopping baskets to the brim with testers” while their parents are “elsewhere in the store”.

“In the rage-bait frenzy” that followed the Rini launch, the line’s “mission statement” was “missed,” said Ariana Yaptangco in Glamour. It’s “play skin care.” The products are “similar to the play makeup I used as a child” and probably an improvement on Claire’s palettes.

On this day

November 24, 1889

Charles Darwin published his research book “On the Origin of Species.” The book helped radically transform how scientists understood evolution and biology, and is often cited as one of the most important works of scientific literature ever published.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Back to normal…?’

“Ukraine, U.S. report progress on peace plan” as “Trump once again scolds Kyiv,” The Boston Globe says on Monday’s front page. “Can Zelenskyy beat the odds once again?” The New York Times says. “For hobbled Zelenskyy, defying Trump is safer than yielding,” says The Wall Street Journal. “Details are scarce on Trump plan to fix ACA,” says USA Today. FBI’s “Patel under scrutiny for use of SWAT to protect girlfriend,” The Sacramento Bee says. If ICE’s “‘Operation Charlotte’s Web’ has come to an end,” does the city go “back to normal…?” says The Charlotte Observer. “After blitz, immigrants left with trauma, hope,” says the Chicago Tribune. “Tributes, reminders: Signs mark ICE’s impact,” says the Chicago Sun-Times.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Bad news bear

A toy company in Singapore has suspended sales of an AI-powered teddy bear named Kumma after it started conversing with users about “sexual fetishes, such as spanking, and how to light a match,” said CNN. FoloToy said it is “conducting an internal safety audit” on the $99 bear, and has pulled all AI-enabled products. Kumma has a speaker inside, and FoloToy touted its ability to tell “educational” stories and serve as a “perfect friend for both kids and adults.”

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Chas Newkey-Burden, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.