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Trump raids Congress, Saudis slam Israel and Harriet Tubman promoted

 
Today's politics story

Trump fills key slots, tapping Congress, MAGA loyalists

What happened
President-elect Donald Trump filled in more of his administration yesterday, naming Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his pick for United Nations ambassador, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) to head the Environmental Protection Agency and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy. Trump named former immigration enforcement chief Tom Homan as his "border czar" late Sunday, and he reportedly asked Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) to be his national security adviser and selected Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for secretary of state.

Who said what
The prevalence of "MAGA loyalists" in Trump's early picks highlights that for his second term, "one quality is absolutely paramount: unquestioning loyalty," Reuter said. Waltz, Stefanik and Zeldin are "loyalists with deep congressional experience who back his agenda on immigration and foreign policy," The Wall Street Journal said, while Rubio "has differed with Trump over the importance of alliances and favors confronting China and Iran but, like Trump, has called for ending the war in Ukraine."

The Stefanik pick "signals a more combative U.S. posture toward the U.N.," CNN said. The "expected installation of Homan and Miller," key architects of Trump's first-term family-separation policy, "signals Trump intends to deliver on his promise of mass deportations" of undocumented immigrants as soon as possible, Politico said.

What next?
It's unclear whether Trump will be able to continue to "raid the House for his loyalists who serve there," The New York Times said. Waltz and Stefanik both represent safe Republican districts, but the GOP's expected "razor-thin" majority will be "even thinner" without them until they are replaced in special elections. With every member Trump poaches, "each illness, family emergency, delayed flight or snowstorm will threaten to derail House leadership's plans," NOTUS said. "Elise is awesome," Trump advocate Elon Musk said yesterday on his X platform, "but it might be too dicey to lose her from the House, at least for now."

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Saudi crown prince slams Israeli 'genocide' in Gaza

What happened
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said yesterday that Israel was committing "genocide" against Palestinians and urged the international community to halt the country's "attacks on the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples." Qatar recently pulled out of stalled U.S.-backed efforts to mediate a cease-fire agreement in Gaza, saying neither Israel nor Hamas was negotiating in good faith.

Who said what
Prince Mohammed's comments, delivered in Riyadh at a joint meeting of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, marked "some of the harshest public criticism" of Israel by a Saudi official since the Gaza war broke out, the BBC said.

Mohammed "could play a major role in any eventual peace deal between Israel and its adversaries in Gaza and Lebanon," The Washington Post said. Both Donald Trump and President Joe Biden strove to achieve "normalization of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel," though the Saudi crown prince has said "he would not accept a normalization deal with Israel unless it agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state," something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said yesterday he would push for the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank after Trump takes office.

What next?
The Biden administration will decide this week whether Israel has made enough progress increasing Gazans' access to food and humanitarian aid, a precondition for continued military support. Eight international aid organizations said yesterday that Israel had "not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria" but "took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza." Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was sure "that issue will be solved."

 
 
Today's Veterans Story

Harriet Tubman made a general 161 years after raid

What happened
Abolitionist Harriet Tubman was posthumously awarded the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard yesterday, 161 years after she became the first woman to oversee an American military action during a time of war. In that June 1863 raid, Tubman used intelligence she had gathered to direct three Union Army steamboats up the Combahee River in Confederate-held South Carolina, liberating more than 750 enslaved people.

Who said what
"Today we celebrate one of the greatest authors of the American story," a "soldier and a person who earned the title of veteran," Gov. Wes Moore (D) said at a Veterans Day ceremony at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Maryland's Eastern Shore. "Maryland's own, Gen. Harriet Tubman."

Tubman, who escaped slavery in 1849, used skills she had honed liberating more than 70 other enslaved Black people in her subsequent work "as a scout, spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War," The Associated Press said. Her "military service isn't a familiar part of Tubman's legacy for most Americans," The Washington Post said, but the fact she was "often dismissed, underestimated and ignored" is what "made her such an effective spy and scout" and also explains why "it took our nation 160 years to honor her properly for her military service."

What next?
Tubman's "status as an icon of history has only been further elevated within the last few years," the AP said, but decade-old "plans to put Tubman on the $20 bill have continued to stall."

 
 

It's not all bad

CAR-T cell therapy could be an important new tool in the fight against lupus, an autoimmune disease affecting about 5 million people globally. With this treatment, a patient's cells are genetically modified so their immune system knows to attack lupus cells. In the U.K., a patient named Katherine who underwent the treatment said her joints are no longer swollen and she has "more energy." Doctors are hopeful the therapy could lead to a cure for the disease.

 
 
Under the radar

As climate change takes a growing toll on the Earth, scientists are considering methods to cool the atmosphere. One possible solution is solar geoengineering — dispersing particles into the atmosphere to reflect away solar radiation. And the best particle to do that may well be the dust from crushed diamonds.

Scientists tested seven different particles, and diamond dust "was the most reflective and didn't clump," meaning it was "effective at settling out over the atmosphere and providing longer-lasting cooling effects," said Popular Mechanics. Unlike another top option, sulfur dioxide particles, "diamonds are also chemically inert, so there'd be no threat of acid rain or another unpredictable reaction."

But while sulphur compounds are cheap, diamond dust is very much not. According to the researchers, 5 million tons of inert diamond dust could potentially cool the planet almost 35 degrees Farenheit. But, "diamond powder costs are 2,400 times those of sulfur" and "require far more industrial diamond than is currently produced in the world," said a 2020 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The project would cost approximately $175 trillion to execute.

Some experts are also not sold on the idea of solar geoengineering, citing the "unforeseen consequences of large-scale implementation" and also the researchers and funding it siphons away from reducing carbon emissions and climate impacts, said Science. Nevertheless, solar geoengineering "is not going to go away just because we're not talking about it," Shuchi Talati, the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, said to Science. "Engaging with it is an opportunity to shape it."

 
 
On this day

November 12, 1968

The Supreme Court decided Epperson v. Arkansas, ruling that states couldn't prohibit the teaching of evolution in public schools. The court also held that states couldn't require curricula to be tailored to specific religions. The Supreme Court has gotten more conservative in recent decades and could shift further right following the election of Donald Trump to a second term.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

President Joe Biden "marks Veterans Day" with a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, The Washington Post says on Tuesday's front page. Biden gave his final "salute to those who served" as their commander in chief, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, The New York Times says, adding that Harris lost in part because "many Democrats sat out election." President-elect Donald Trump named a "border hawk to oversee deporting migrants," The Wall Street Journal says. But thanks to Biden, "strict migration rules already in place," giving "Trump stronger tools than he had in first term," the Post says. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Smells... fishy?

Visitors to Lake Como can now take home a piece of the Italian hotspot in the form of a can of 100% authentic air. The unusual souvenir costs $10.84 per container and can be purchased at several locations in the region. While locals have expressed disdain for the bottled air, marketing consultant Davide Abagnale, who worked on the project, put a positive spin on it, saying the cans offer a "tangible memory that you carry in your heart."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Erin Clark / The Boston Globe via Getty Images; Nathan Howard / Pool / AFP via Getty Images; Hulton Archive / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images