Breaking News Live: Trump names fossil fuel executive Chris Wright as energy secretary

Breaking News Live: President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in a second Trump administration. Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve US “energy dominance” in the global market.

• Ahead of the G20 summit in Brazil, Israel dubbed the summary statement addressing the Israel-Gaza conflict “unbalanced” and “biased” towards the nation and urged to “include recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself.”
• In a post on X, Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that he held telephonic conversations with his counterparts participating in the forum regarding the matter.
• “Ahead of this week’s G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, I held phone conversations over the weekend with foreign ministers of countries participating in the forum. This was in light of information we received regarding a draft of a summary resolution that is both unbalanced and biased against Israel,” Sa’ar stated in the post.
• Sa’ar said that he placed demands regarding additions to the summary statement addressing the Isreal-Gaza conflict during his conversation.
• “In my discussions with my counterparts, I stated that the summary statement addressing the conflict in our region must include recognition of Israel’s right to defend itself, a demand for the release of all hostages held by Hamas terrorists for more than 400 days under horrific conditions, and condemnation of both Hamas and Hezbollah,” Sa’ar said.

• China’s leader Xi Jinping met for the last time with U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday but was already looking ahead to President-elect Donald Trump and his “America first” policies, saying Beijing “is ready to work with a new U.S. administration.”
• During their talks on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru, Xi cautioned that a stable China-U.S. relationship was critical not only to the two nations but to the “future and destiny of humanity.”
• “Make the wise choice,” he cautioned. “Keep exploring the right way for two major countries to get along well with each other.”

• Netflix said on Saturday that 60 million households worldwide had tuned in for the highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, and the event peaked at 65 million streams, according to a statement.
• The bout between the 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prize fighter Paul and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson, which Paul won, was streamed live on Netflix.

• President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in a second Trump administration. Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve US “energy dominance” in the global market.
• Wright has won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
• Hamm helped organise an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate USD 1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
• Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
• Wright has criticised what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight”. (AP)