Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. “Restoring sovereignty” in the West Bank once was a fringe idea for Israel. Some settlers and their supporters hope Donald Trump will help them do just that in the area Palestinians see as the heart of a future state. Our correspondent Jonathan Saul joins today’s edition of the World News podcast to talk about his visits to the settlements.
Latest picks: Donald Trump will nominate Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, a choice that likely will calm the titans of finance as the next administration plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend or expand tax cuts that Trump enacted when he was president.
Indoors: Wealthy countries at the COP29 meeting in Baku agreed to raise their goal of a global finance target to help poorer nations deal with climate change. They agreed to $300 billion a year by 2035 after being told their earlier offer was insultingly low. There’s no word yet on whether the latest figure will cut it. Did you know that wealthy nations can meet their goals for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by sending their fossil fuels abroad so they can pollute the air elsewhere?
“They must take responsibility for their actions.” Gisèle Pelicot condemned the cowardice of dozens of men accused of abusing her in a decade of mass rape organized by her husband after he repeatedly drugged her into unconsciousness. Verdicts and sentences are due in December.
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro allegedly planned a coup with members of his government and military officers after his 2022 election defeat. Indictments are unlikely until 2025.
Somaliland’s opposition leaderdefeated the incumbent president as the region pushes for global recognition, something it has failed to achieve since breaking away from Somalia in 1991.
The death of Vladimir Shklyarovappears to be accidental, police said. The principal dancer at the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg fell from a fifth-floor balcony of the building where he lived.
