Trump's Treasury pick, COP backlash and Australia’s teen social media ban
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Today, arrests in the UAE in connection with the murder of an Israeli rabbi. The deal finally lands at COP29, but has already faced criticism that it's not enough. And Australia faces a critical week in its plans to ban social media for under-16s. It's Monday, November 25th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool.

Investigations are underway into the crash of a cargo plane near Lithuania's Vilnius airport earlier today. At least one person died when the 737-400 came down at the end of a flight from Leipzig in Germany.

Hezbollah has fired heavy rocket barrages at Israel, with some landing near Tel Aviv. That follows a powerful Israeli airstrike the day before that killed at least 29 people in Beirut. A shock result in Romania's presidential election, with the hard-right NATO critic Caelan Georgescu in first place after almost all the votes counted. He's set to face center-right leader Elena Lascone in the runoff in two weeks' time.

The Lao government says it is profoundly saddened after the deaths of several foreign tourists from drinking contaminated alcohol. An American, two Danes, two Australians and a Briton have died after drinking alcohol contaminated with methanol in Vang Vieng. Markets are cheering Donald Trump's decision to tap investor Scott Besson as Treasury Secretary.

Kamal Crimmins is here to tell us why. So the job of Treasury Secretary is one of the most powerful in Washington, if not the world. You have huge influence over the US economy and financial markets. And investors are relieved that Trump has gone for Besant. You're seeing stocks and bonds rallying today. They're betting that he will be a steady hand.

Trump's tax and tariff plans are seen by many as inflationary, but investors expect Besant to prioritise market stability. He's talked about cutting the deficit and so bond investors like that. Our colleagues who cover Wall Street are reporting that Besant has scored a double win with Trump's victory, right? He got the big job, but he also got some big investment returns.

That's right. So Besant runs a hedge fund called Key Square Group. And until this year, he's actually had a mixed track record with years of inconsistent returns.

But Reuters is reporting that he bet big on Trump winning the election. He told clients back in January that political and market analysts were too negative on what a Trump victory could mean. So he bought up US stocks and the dollar, and that's helped the fund earn a double-digit percentage return so far this year, with November being the best month. And if you're interested in all things financial and economic, do check out my podcast, Reuters Econ World. We look at the economic principles driving the news. This

This week's episode, out on Wednesday, is going to be all about inflation. And you can catch it on the Reuters app or wherever you listen to your podcasts. To the United Arab Emirates now, where authorities have arrested three suspects in relation to the killing of Israeli Rabbi Zvi Kogan.

That's according to the Emirati Interior Minister. Kogan was reported missing on Thursday, and his body was discovered on Sunday in the Emirati city of Al Ain on the Oman border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denouncing the crime as a heinous anti-Semitic terrorist act.

Alexander Cornwell is in Dubai with the latest. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior announced that authorities had arrested three suspects alleged to be involved in the murder. And that is about all they have said. They have not revealed or disclosed any information on the three suspects' identities, how they were allegedly involved in the murder.

in the murder or whether or not they had been charged with any crimes. So what do we know about Rabbi Zvi Kogan? Zvi Kogan was a 28-year-old man who had been living in the United Arab Emirates for several years. He was a Jew, Israeli, Moldovan national. And what we understand is that he was working with the New York-based Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement. And

Through the Chabad Movement, Zvi was involved in outreach to the Jewish community here. Now, the United Arab Emirates is a country of some 10 million people where most of the population are foreigners. There is a sizable and growing Jewish community in the country. There are no official numbers on how many they are, but various Jewish groups represent that there are several thousand Jews living in the country. How has this Jewish community in the UAE reacted?

The United Arab Emirates has carefully crafted an image that it is a safe environment where people of different religions, different ethnicities can work. The investigation is still on the way and authorities have not disclosed if they've established a motive. But from some of the members of the Jewish community here that I've spoken to, they're certainly expressing shock, surprise and confusion that such a crime could take place here.

I was speaking with an Israeli foreign ministry official who was saying that their advice to Israelis is to stay alert and to lower their profile. People doubted that Azerbaijan could deliver.

They doubted that everyone could agree. COP29 President Mokhtar Babayev closing the Baku climate summit on Sunday morning. But even as he was still reading out the details of the $300 billion finance plan to help developing nations cope with global warming, recipients slammed it as woefully inadequate.

I declare the 29th session of the COP, 19th session of the CMP and 6th session of the CMA closed. While some delegates gave the deal a standing ovation, others have lambasted wealthy nations for not doing more. Valerie Volcovici was there for us.

What they agreed in the early morning hours of Sunday was a new goal for mobilizing climate finance, so money to support poorer developing countries to combat climate change, to adapt to climate change. They've agreed to mobilize at least $300 billion per year by 2035. That's replacing a previous target of $100 billion, which was met just two years ago.

So why has the deal been greeted with such anger by some countries? There was a real rush to get this deal done. And I think that forces happening outside of the COP, such as the election of Donald Trump as president in the United States, upcoming elections in Europe,

kind of really created this sense of urgency to get some kind of deal done in Baku. What we were seeing were certain parties, including India and Nigeria, raising objections to how the process was conducted. They felt that they weren't consulted in getting to this agreement.

And earlier in the weekend, we had seen a walkout by some of the least developed countries and the island states. They also walked out again feeling that they were really not consulted in the process and that there was a sense of trying to ram down this deal, which really fell short of the total amount that some of the world's most vulnerable countries wanted to see from rich countries.

Australia's groundbreaking move to ban certain social media for children under 16 is facing a critical week. But the far-reaching measure to kick younger teens off TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms is facing opposition from a variety of quarters. Alistair Powell is our breaking news editor for Australia.

Alistair, how would this ban actually work in practice? There's a 12-month window in the legislation before it comes into effect from the day that it's passed. So the government has a bit of time to work that out. They've launched a trial of various ID methods to verify that users are over 16. So it could be inputting

some form of government ID, like a passport or a driving license. It could be contacting your bank, for example, to verify that you have a credit card and therefore you're over the age of 16. Or it could even...

involve a scan, a biometric scan of your face to determine your age. And despite this support, which has been across political parties, there has been some criticism, right? What's been some of the opposition to the proposed ban? The first would be fairly obvious privacy concerns. There's a little bit of unease about sharing this level of data. Australia is a country that's suffered a

a couple of fairly major data breaches in recent years. And one of the biggest critics in this regard is the world's richest man, Elon Musk, who is obviously the owner of X. And he basically claims it's a backdoor way for the government to control access to the internet. The second is probably the impact on children. The government says it's

trying to protect children from things like bullying or child predators. But some opponents argue that it's actually risking cutting children off from the internet, which obviously now plays a huge role in all of our lives. To stay ahead in fast-moving markets, you need to transform quality data into tailored, practical, and valuable intelligence. Access your choice of pre-built and market-validated models fast.

Before we go, just time to point you in the direction of today's recommended read. All about how Donald Trump Jr. has emerged as the most influential Trump family member as the president-elect builds his cabinet.

Don Jr. has been seeking out contenders who embrace an anti-establishment worldview, including protectionist economic policies, as well as ensuring candidates are loyal to his father. There's a link to find out more in the pod description. And for more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. To never miss an episode, follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.