Trump appoints Musk to government role

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Plus, Cold War bomber enhances China's ability to strike US bases.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters  Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Donald Trump appoints Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a government efficiency department, China's H-6 long-range bomber enhances its ability to strike US bases, and Russia stages its first missile attack on Kyiv since August. Plus, African elephants are in peril. Today's Top News   DOGE intended to dismantle bureaucracy, cut regulations, restructure agencies. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo US news President-elect Donald Trump named Elon Musk to a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing more influence to the world's richest man who donated millions of dollars to helping Trump get elected. In other appointments, Trump says he will nominate anti-'woke' Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and said he had picked John Ratcliffe to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. President Joe Biden will host Trump at the White House for a meeting designed to demonstrate a smooth transition between administrations despite Trump's team not yet having signed documents to start the handover process. In other news In a series of war games last month, China deployed some of its newest strike aircraft, warships and missile forces. However, one of the most menacing weapons used in the drills: an updated version of a bomber that first flew in the early years of the Cold War. Read how the Chinese military hardware on display at the country's largest air show in Zhuhai illustrates its ambitions. Blasts boomed across Kyiv after officials said Russia launched its first missile attack on the Ukrainian capital since August, forcing elderly women and small children to take shelter in an underground metro station. The US wants real and extended pauses in fighting in Gaza so assistance can get to people who need it, but the best way to help people would be to end the war, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. COP29 negotiators welcomed as an early boost to the two-week summit a pledge by major development banks to lift funding to poor and middle-income countries struggling with global warming. Follow our live coverage of the climate summit. Torrential rains and floods in 29 of Nigeria's 36 states this year have destroyed more than 1.5 million hectares of cropland, affecting more than nine million people, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Business & Markets   Luxury industry lost 50 million consumers in past two years. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner Sales of personal luxury goods are set to fall 2% this year, making it one of the weakest on record, with price hikes and economic uncertainty shrinking the industry's customer base, according to consultancy Bain & Company. The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in Nvidia's bid to torpedo a securities fraud lawsuit accusing the artificial intelligence chipmaker of misleading investors about how much of its sales depended on the volatile cryptocurrency market. Japan's Seven & i said it has received a buyout proposal from a member of its founding Ito family, a potential $58 billion white-knight bid as it weighs a rival offer from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard. India's city dwellers are cutting spending on everything from cookies to fast food as persistently high inflation squeezes middle class budgets, threatening the country's brisk economic growth. Amgen said there was no link between its experimental weight-loss drug and changes in bone mineral density, a day after data from an early-stage study dragged its stock 7% lower. Traders are betting on Donald Trump's promise to be a 'crypto president.' Listen to Financial Technology Correspondent Hannah Lang on the Reuters World News podcast for insights into what kind of changes the industry expects from his new administration.  Trump seeks loyal attorney general to back mass deportations, pardons   Trump Justice Department to prioritize illegal immigration cases. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque As Donald Trump hustles to build his cabinet, one job stands out: the attorney general who will support his agenda of mass deportations, pardoning Jan. 6 rioters and seeking retribution against those who prosecuted him over the past four years. During the Republican US president-elect's first term, he was infuriated by what he called an obstructive Justice Department, including attorneys general Jeff Sessions, who allowed a probe into alleged contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia, and Bill Barr, who publicly refuted his false claims his 2020 election loss was the result of fraud. Read more And Finally... A family of elephants walking in the Amboseli National Park, southeast of Kenya's capital Nairobi. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo African elephants are Earth's largest land animals, remarkable mammals that are very intelligent and highly social. They also are in peril. Fresh evidence of this comes in a study that documents alarming population declines at numerous sites across the continent over about a half century. Read more Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. 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