US President-elect Donald Trump has announced his campaign manager, Susan Summerall Wiles, will serve as his White House chief of staff when he takes over the presidency next year.
In a statement, Trump said that Wiles "just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history" and "is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected".
"It is a well deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history," he continued. "I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Wiles, 67, is the first woman to be appointed White House chief of staff.
The Trump transition team is currently working to choose top members of the incoming Republican administration, including the heads of all 15 executive departments, such as the secretaries of state and defence, from 20 January.
In his victory speech this week, Trump referred to Wiles as "the ice maiden" as she stood behind him on stage.
She operates mostly “in the back”, the president-elect said, but she is known as one of the most feared political operatives in the US.
"Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again," he added in his statement on Thursday, referring to his oft-repeated campaign slogan.
Who is Susie Wiles?
Getty Images
Susie Wiles briefly appeared alongside Donald Trump at his election victory event
Less than a year after Wiles started working in politics, she joined Ronald Reagan’s campaign ahead of his 1980 election.
She went on to play a key role in transforming politics in Florida, where she lives.
In 2010, she turned Rick Scott, a then-businessman with little political experience, into Florida’s governor in just seven months. Scott is now a US senator.
Wiles met Trump during the 2015 Republican presidential primary and became the co-chair of his Florida campaign. He went on to win the state over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who put her in charge of his successful gubernatorial race two years later, described Wiles as “the best in the business”.
Wiles worked on the Trump campaign alongside Chris LaCivita, a veteran of Republican politics with decades of experience.
The two worked with Trump to formulate a winning presidential primary strategy.
In her Politico profile, the 67-year-old grandmother - who is the daughter of late American football player and broadcaster Pat Summerall - said that she comes from a "traditional" political background.
“In my early career things like manners mattered and there was an expected level of decorum," she said, describing the Republican party as significantly different than the one of several decades ago.
"And so I get it that the GOP of today is different," she said, referring to the Republican party, who are also called the Grand Old Party (GOP).
"There are changes we must live with in order to get done the things we’re trying to do."
The chief of staff is considered to be the president's top aide, and plays a crucial role in every president's administration.
They essentially serve as the manager of the White House and are responsible for putting together a president's staff. A chief leads the staff through the Executive Office of the President and oversees all daily operations and staff activities.
They also advise presidents on policy issues and are responsible for directing and overseeing policy development.
The majority of women cast their ballots for Harris, but not by the margins she needed to win
At least one thing was taken for granted before voting day - women across the US were going to turn out for Kamala Harris.
Just as months of relentless polling showed Harris in a virtual tie with Donald Trump, many of those same surveys told the story of a yawning gender gap.
It was a strategy Harris’s team was betting on, hoping that an over-performance among women could make up for losses elsewhere.
It didn’t happen.
Across the country, the majority of women did cast their ballots for Harris, but not by the historic margins she needed. Instead, if early exit polls bear out, Harris’s advantage among women overall - around 10 points - actually fell four points short of Joe Biden’s in 2020.
Democrats suffered a 10 point drop among Latino women, while failing to move the needle among non-college educated women at all, who again went for Trump 63-35, preliminary data suggests.
The shortfall was not for lack of trying.
Throughout her 15-week campaign, much of Harris’s messaging was aimed directly at women, most obviously with her emphasis on abortion.
On the trail, Harris made reproductive rights a cornerstone of her pitch. She repeatedly reminded voters that Trump had once bragged about his role in overturning Roe v Wade - a ruling that ended the nationwide right to an abortion.
“I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justice took away from the women of America,” Harris said at her closing address in DC last week.
Her most powerful advertisements featured women who had suffered under state abortion bans - deemed “Trump abortion bans” by Harris - including those who said they were denied care for miscarriages.
The strategy, it seemed, was to harness the same enthusiasm for abortion access that drove Democrats’ unexpected success in the 2022 midterms.
And even these election results seemed to underline that. Eight out of the 10 states where abortion was on the ballot voted in favour of abortion rights.
But that support did not translate into support for Harris.
Getty Images
Abortion did matter to women, it just didn’t matter enough, said Evan Ross Smith, a pollster and campaign consultant.
“Voters - particularly the women - who feel strongest about abortion are already voting for Democrats,” he said. But Democrats were unable to raise the salience of abortion for women who didn’t yet see it as a pressing issue.
“The abortion argument did not penetrate at all with non-college educated women, did not move them an inch. And they lost ground with Latinos,” Mr Smith said.
For many, the decisive issue proved to be the economy.
In pre-election surveys and preliminary exit data, inflation and affordability continued to top lists of voters' concerns. And for these voters, Trump was the overwhelming favourite.
Jennifer Varvar, 51, an independent from Grand Junction, Colorado said she had not even considered a vote for Harris because of the financial stress she faced over the past four years.
“For me and my family, we’re in a worse position now than we ever have been financially. It’s a struggle. I have three boys to put food on the table for,” she said. Things had been better under Trump, she said, and that’s why she voted for him.
Getty Images
White women turned out for Trump, just like they did in 2016 and 2020
But if gender didn't divide the electorate in the way some expected, it still played a part in the Harris defeat, say some analysts.
There have been many explanations offered for Trump’s resounding victory but for some there is one thing that stands out.
“I do think that the country is still sexist and is not ready for a woman president,” said Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, to Politico.
Unlike Clinton, who explicitly leaned into her gender and the history-making potential of her campaign, Harris was noticeably reluctant to do the same.
There is a widespread belief that the country is more ready for a woman president now than when Clinton ran a second time in 2016. But it's still an open question.
An Israeli football fan has described being attacked by several men in overnight violence that Amsterdam police say involved youths on scooters carrying out "hit-and-run" attacks that were hard to prevent.
Adi Reuben, a 24yr-old Maccabi Tel Aviv fan who was visiting Amsterdam for the club's Europa League match with Ajax, told the BBC he was kicked on the floor by a group of young men who confronted him when he was walking to his hotel.
He said more than 10 men came up to him and his friends and asked them where they were from.
"They shouted 'Jewish, Jewish, IDF, IDF',” Mr Reuben said, referring to the Israeli military.
"They started to mess with me and I realised I had to run, but it was dark and I didn't know where to go. I fell to the floor and ten people were kicking me. They were shouting ‘Palestine’.
"They were kicking me on the floor for about a minute, then they walked off, they weren’t afraid of anything.
“I realised I had full blood on my nose and my nose was broken and it is very painful."
Mr Reuben said he could not see properly for about 30 minutes after the attack. But he said he decided against going to hospital in Amsterdam because he had heard that taxi drivers were involved in the violence.
Instead he said he was flying to Israel on Friday afternoon on a flight organised by the Israeli government and would get medical treatment there.
"This was a specific attack that was organised beforehand,” he added.
Pnina, another Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter, also told Dutch media organisation NOS that the violence against Israelis appeared pre-planned.
"It seems like it was organised. There was a lot of people. They jumped on us... We hid in the hotels until it was safe to go outside," she said.
Esther Voet, editor-in-chief of a Dutch Jewish weekly newspaper, lives in the city centre and says she offered her home to shelter several Israeli fans, after she saw footage of the violence.
"I told them this is a Jewish home and you are safe here," she told Israeli public broadcaster Kann. "People were really scared. I never thought I would go through this in Amsterdam."
Dutch police said Israeli fans had suffered "serious abuses" during "hit-and-run" attacks many of which were carried out by young men on scooters.
Dozens arrested after post-match violence in Amsterdam
Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said it had proved difficult to prevent such attacks even though police had been present in the city centre in numbers. The force eventually decided to bring Maccabi supporters together and protect them before transporting them out of the area in buses, he said.
Five people were injured but had left hospital and between 20 and 30 more had been lightly hurt, he said.
The attacks overnight into Friday followed some tensions between Maccabi fans and people in Amsterdam over previous days, officials said.
On Wednesday Maccabi fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag, police chief Holla said. Taxi drivers then headed towards a location where about 400 Maccabi fans had gathered but police were able to take them out of the area. There were further clashes in Dam Square overnight into Thursday but police were mostly able to keep the groups separate.
On Thursday evening before the match police accompanied pro-Palestinian demonstrators and mostly managed to keep them separate from football fans - but were then unable to prevent attacks later in the evening.
"We are looking back on 36 hours that really shocked me. Supporters from Israel have been attacked and some abused in a terrible way," Holla said.
"I'm particularly shocked by fact that we’ve had one of largest police actions and we were not able to control or prevent this violence."
Reuters
There had been tensions between Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and some people in Amsterdam ahead of Thursday night's violence
Amsterdam's mayor Femke Halsema said the "war in the Middle East has threatened the peace in our city" and there had been a "terrible outburst of antisemitism".
She said Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were not considered to pose a threat of violence and there was no animosity between them and fans of Dutch club Ajax.
"I do understand that this reminds us of pogroms and that this happened in Amsterdam is reprehensible. Not only people got injured last night but the history of our city has been deeply damaged, the Jewish culture has been threatened," she said.
Some Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have previously been involved in racist incidents in Israel, including cursing at the team’s Palestinian and Arab players and reportedly applying pressure on the team to oust them.
Fans of the team have also previously attacked protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Asked about video footage appearing to show Maccabi fans in Amsterdam chanting offensive slogans, Mayor Halsema said: "What happened last night has nothing to do with protest. There is no excuse for what happened."
Additional reporting Shaina Oppenheimer in Jerusalem
此外，绿党因提倡开放式社会模式，一直被选项党视为头号敌人。不过，过去一段时间以来，基民盟基社盟的保守立场也遭致选项党的强力抨击。去年的欧洲议会大选中，选项党候选人克拉（ Maximilian Krah）就曾宣布，基民盟是选项党的主要敌人，并发出了“摧毁”基民盟的呼吁。除此之外，选项党高层党魁中拒绝同基民盟开展任何形式合作的，也大有人在。他们抨击基民盟已经演变成了“高高在上的精英政党”。
Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who is on track to win re-election in a rural Washington district, says her party needs to stop demonizing others and change the candidates it supports.
“The fundamental mistake people make is condescension,” Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said. “A lot of elected officials get calloused to the ways that they’re disrespecting people.”
Hamas's attack on 7 October triggered the war with Israel
The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is one of the region’s most respected religious authorities, so his legal opinion carries significant weight among Gaza’s two million population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic legal ruling from a respected religious scholar usually based on the Quran or the Sunnah - the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.
Dr Dayah’s fatwa, which was published in a detailed six-page document, criticises Hamas for what he calls “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”.
Jihad means “struggle” in Arabic and in Islam it can be a personal struggle for spiritual improvement or a military struggle against unbelievers.
Dr Dayah adds: “If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying people’s lives. This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided.”
For Hamas, the fatwa represents an embarrassing and potentially damaging critique, particularly as the group often justifies its attacks on Israel through religious arguments to garner support from Arab and Muslim communities.
The 7 October attack saw hundreds of Hamas gunmen from Gaza invade southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign to destroy Hamas, during which more than 43,400 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Dr Dayah argues that the significant civilian casualties in Gaza, together with the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and humanitarian disaster that have followed the 7 October attack, means that it was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islam.
Hamas, he says, has failed in its obligations of “keeping fighters away from the homes of defenceless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters, and providing security and safety as much as possible in the various aspects of life... security, economic, health, and education, and saving enough supplies for them.”
Dr Dayah points to Quranic verses and the Sunnah that set strict conditions for the conduct of jihad, including the necessity of avoiding actions that provoke an excessive and disproportionate response by an opponent.
His fatwa highlights that, according to Islamic law, a military raid should not trigger a response that exceeds the intended benefits of the action.
He also stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to ensure the safety and well-being of non-combatants, including by providing food, medicine, and refuge to those not involved in the fighting.
“Human life is more precious to God than Mecca,” Dr Dayah states.
His opposition to the 7 October attack is especially significant given his deep influence in Gaza, where he is seen as a key religious figure and a vocal critic of Islamist movements, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
His moderate Salafist beliefs place him in direct opposition to Hamas’s approach to armed resistance and its ties to Shia-ruled Iran.
Salafists are fundamentalists who seek to adhere the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the first generations who followed him.
Dr Dayah has consistently argued for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that adheres strictly to Islamic law, rather than the political party-based systems that Hamas and other groups advocate.
“Our role model is the Prophet Muhammad, who founded a nation and did not establish political parties that divide the nation. Therefore, parties in Islam are forbidden,” he said in a sermon he gave at a mosque several years ago.
He has also condemned extremism, opposing jihadist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and has used all of his platforms to issue fatwas on various social and political issues, ranging from commercial transactions, social disputes over marriage and divorce, to the conduct of political violence.
The fatwa adds to the growing internal debate within Gaza and the broader Arab world over the moral and legal implications of Hamas’s actions, and it is likely to fuel further divisions within Palestinian society regarding the use of armed resistance in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
Sheikh Ashraf Ahmed, one of Dr Dayah’s students who was forced to leave his house in Gaza City last year and flee to the south of Gaza with his wife and nine children, told the BBC: “Our scholar [Dr Dayah] refused to leave his home in northern Gaza despite the fears of Israeli air strikes. He chose to fulfil his religious duty by issuing his legal opinion on the attack”.
Ahmed described the fatwa as the most powerful legal judgment of a historical moment. “It’s a deeply well researched document, reflecting Dayah’s commitment to Islamic jurisprudence,” he said.
Catalonia's fire service shared a picture of cars piled up on a bridge
New floods have hit the region of Girona in north-eastern Spain, sweeping away around 30 cars in the town of Cadaqués, according to Spanish media reports.
Videos posted by a local journalist showed a torrent of water gushing down the street and a pile of cars blocking a bridge early on Friday.
No casualties were reported in the latest round of flooding to hit the country.
More than 200 people were killed last week, most in the Valencia area, in one of the worst floods in Europe this century.
The disaster ignited intense anger at the authorities for not issuing emergency alerts sooner.
Flooding in Cadaqués in the early hours of Friday morning caused around 30 vehicles to pile up under a bridge, Catalonia's fire service said on X. No one was injured or trapped, the emergency responders added.
More potentially dangerous weather is expected in the region overnight.
Catalonia's meteorological service issued a rain warning from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon for the area of Alt Emporda, where Cadaqués is located. The weather agency warned rain intensity could exceed 20 mm (0.7 inches) in 30 minutes.
The agency recorded 76.8 mm (3 inches) of rain in Cadaqués on 7 and 8 November, with more than 100 mm (4 inches) logged in two other towns nearby.
Spain received 72% more rainfall from 1 October to 5 November than the normal value for that time period, according to Aemet, Spain's weather agency.
Donald Trump waits in court during his Manhattan criminal trial in May.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House effectively slammed the door on the two cases involving federal criminal charges against him.
A state case against him for allegedly conspiring to interfere with Georgia’s election in 2020 will go on hold until after his term in office ends - if it's still alive by then.
But next week, the fate of the remaining case – his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York – will be determined. It could stand, or it could be swept away in the same political and legal tide that has allowed him to escape the others.
Justice Juan Merchan will decide by Tuesday whether to grant Trump’s pre-election request to throw out his conviction. Should Justice Merchan side with Trump, it would almost wipe clean his slate of criminal woes.
But should the judge uphold the conviction, he would proceed to sentencing later this month. It would likely spark even more delay attempts from Trump and open up an unprecedented new front for America’s criminal justice system.
“This is truly uncharted territory,” said Anna Cominsky, a professor at the New York Law School.
Will Trump’s case get thrown out?
In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records. The convictions stemmed from Trump’s attempt to cover up reimbursements to his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, who in 2016 paid off an adult film star to remain silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump’s lawyers argue that a recent US Supreme Court ruling granting presidents a degree of immunity from criminal prosecution applies to certain aspects of his New York case, and therefore the indictment and conviction should be tossed.
During the trial, Justice Merchan dismissed attempts by Trump’s lawyers to throw out the case on immunity grounds. But that was before the US Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favour this summer – and before Trump decisively won re-election.
If he throws out the conviction, that will be the end of the case.
But if he denies the defense's request, Trump’s much-delayed sentencing will remain scheduled for 26 November.
An unprecedented sentencing – with jail unlikely
Even if Justice Merchan upholds the conviction and keeps the scheduled sentencing, Trump’s team is almost certain to seek more delays and appeals.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, did not respond to inquiries about whether he planned to seek a delay.
Because Trump will be tied up with a presidential transition and the legal questions about sentencing a president are so complex, some scholars see very little chance it will stay on the calendar.
“I think the most likely outcome in the state case is the judge putting off sentencing until after Trump's term in office,” said Daniel Charles Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School.
“To actually impose a sentence would raise any number of messy issues in the short term,” including political ones, he said.
If Trump does find himself in a Manhattan courtroom later this month, deciding his fate still would be an unprecedented challenge.
Under the law, Trump faces a range of sentences, including fines, probation and up to four years in prison. But many options are rendered impractical by his imminent return to the White House.
“Sentencing a sitting president may be one of the most complicated, fraught sentencing decisions you can imagine,” Ms Cominsky said.
“It’s hard to imagine what sentence could be imposed that would not impede a president’s ability to do their job or compromise the president’s security."
Few expect Justice Merchan to sentence Trump to a stint behind bars at this point.
“He’s a 78-year old man with no criminal history, who has been convicted of a non-violent felony,” said retired New York Supreme Court Justice Diane Kiesel. “I don’t think a judge would give a person under those sentences an incarceration sentence.”
Even if Justice Merchan did reach for such a sentence, Trump’s team would almost certainly appeal it, delaying actual punishment.
Trump could leave a sentencing hearing with the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Justice Merchan could ask the former president to pay a relatively small fine in the three- or four-figure range.
He could also give Trump an unconditional discharge; “basically, goodbye,” as Justice Kiesel puts it.
Trump has no pardon power here
The only thing that is certain is that Trump cannot make this conviction go away on his own.
Trump has explored the possibility of pardoning himself from potential criminal charges in the past, and could do so for his federal indictments when he becomes president in January.
But he cannot pardon himself in New York, as the conviction occurred in state court.
His fate, at the moment, is in the hands of the court. But regardless of the outcome, Trump will likely avoid the most serious punishments facing him.
The chair of the Federal Reserve made clear he would not resign, even under pressure. But pressure from the White House is likely, market watchers say.
US President-elect Donald Trump has announced his campaign manager, Susan Summerall Wiles, will serve as his White House chief of staff when he takes over the presidency next year.
In a statement, Trump said that Wiles "just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history" and "is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected".
"It is a well deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history," he continued. "I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Wiles, 67, is the first woman to be appointed White House chief of staff.
The Trump transition team is currently working to choose top members of the incoming Republican administration, including the heads of all 15 executive departments, such as the secretaries of state and defence, from 20 January.
In his victory speech this week, Trump referred to Wiles as "the ice maiden" as she stood behind him on stage.
She operates mostly “in the back”, the president-elect said, but she is known as one of the most feared political operatives in the US.
"Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again," he added in his statement on Thursday, referring to his oft-repeated campaign slogan.
Who is Susie Wiles?
Getty Images
Susie Wiles briefly appeared alongside Donald Trump at his election victory event
Less than a year after Wiles started working in politics, she joined Ronald Reagan’s campaign ahead of his 1980 election.
She went on to play a key role in transforming politics in Florida, where she lives.
In 2010, she turned Rick Scott, a then-businessman with little political experience, into Florida’s governor in just seven months. Scott is now a US senator.
Wiles met Trump during the 2015 Republican presidential primary and became the co-chair of his Florida campaign. He went on to win the state over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who put her in charge of his successful gubernatorial race two years later, described Wiles as “the best in the business”.
Wiles worked on the Trump campaign alongside Chris LaCivita, a veteran of Republican politics with decades of experience.
The two worked with Trump to formulate a winning presidential primary strategy.
In her Politico profile, the 67-year-old grandmother - who is the daughter of late American football player and broadcaster Pat Summerall - said that she comes from a "traditional" political background.
“In my early career things like manners mattered and there was an expected level of decorum," she said, describing the Republican party as significantly different than the one of several decades ago.
"And so I get it that the GOP of today is different," she said, referring to the Republican party, who are also called the Grand Old Party (GOP).
"There are changes we must live with in order to get done the things we’re trying to do."
The chief of staff is considered to be the president's top aide, and plays a crucial role in every president's administration.
They essentially serve as the manager of the White House and are responsible for putting together a president's staff. A chief leads the staff through the Executive Office of the President and oversees all daily operations and staff activities.
They also advise presidents on policy issues and are responsible for directing and overseeing policy development.
Parents have been "paying over the odds" for baby milk because of a lack of competition in the formula market, a government watchdog has said.
It stopped short of recommending price controls, but said they remain a possibility, adding parents have been "shouldering the costs" of price increases in the market for years.
The Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) interim report said the baby milk industry needed a shake-up to help parents struggling to afford it.
"We're concerned many parents opt for more expensive products, equating higher costs with better quality for their baby," CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said.
Just two companies - Danone and Nestle - control the majority of the UK market.
Both firms have previously welcomed the investigation.
Catalonia's fire service shared a picture of cars piled up on a bridge
New floods have hit the region of Girona in north-eastern Spain, sweeping away around 30 cars in the town of Cadaqués, according to Spanish media reports.
Videos posted by a local journalist showed a torrent of water gushing down the street and a pile of cars blocking a bridge early on Friday.
No casualties were reported in the latest round of flooding to hit the country.
More than 200 people were killed last week, most in the Valencia area, in one of the worst floods in Europe this century.
The disaster ignited intense anger at the authorities for not issuing emergency alerts sooner.
Flooding in Cadaqués in the early hours of Friday morning caused around 30 vehicles to pile up under a bridge, Catalonia's fire service said on X. No one was injured or trapped, the emergency responders added.
More potentially dangerous weather is expected in the region overnight.
Catalonia's meteorological service issued a rain warning from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon for the area of Alt Emporda, where Cadaqués is located. The weather agency warned rain intensity could exceed 20 mm (0.7 inches) in 30 minutes.
The agency recorded 76.8 mm (3 inches) of rain in Cadaqués on 7 and 8 November, with more than 100 mm (4 inches) logged in two other towns nearby.
Spain received 72% more rainfall from 1 October to 5 November than the normal value for that time period, according to Aemet, Spain's weather agency.
Hamas's attack on 7 October triggered the war with Israel
The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is one of the region’s most respected religious authorities, so his legal opinion carries significant weight among Gaza’s two million population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic legal ruling from a respected religious scholar usually based on the Quran or the Sunnah - the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.
Dr Dayah’s fatwa, which was published in a detailed six-page document, criticises Hamas for what he calls “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”.
Jihad means “struggle” in Arabic and in Islam it can be a personal struggle for spiritual improvement or a military struggle against unbelievers.
Dr Dayah adds: “If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying people’s lives. This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided.”
For Hamas, the fatwa represents an embarrassing and potentially damaging critique, particularly as the group often justifies its attacks on Israel through religious arguments to garner support from Arab and Muslim communities.
The 7 October attack saw hundreds of Hamas gunmen from Gaza invade southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign to destroy Hamas, during which more than 43,400 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Dr Dayah argues that the significant civilian casualties in Gaza, together with the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and humanitarian disaster that have followed the 7 October attack, means that it was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islam.
Hamas, he says, has failed in its obligations of “keeping fighters away from the homes of defenceless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters, and providing security and safety as much as possible in the various aspects of life... security, economic, health, and education, and saving enough supplies for them.”
Dr Dayah points to Quranic verses and the Sunnah that set strict conditions for the conduct of jihad, including the necessity of avoiding actions that provoke an excessive and disproportionate response by an opponent.
His fatwa highlights that, according to Islamic law, a military raid should not trigger a response that exceeds the intended benefits of the action.
He also stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to ensure the safety and well-being of non-combatants, including by providing food, medicine, and refuge to those not involved in the fighting.
“Human life is more precious to God than Mecca,” Dr Dayah states.
His opposition to the 7 October attack is especially significant given his deep influence in Gaza, where he is seen as a key religious figure and a vocal critic of Islamist movements, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
His moderate Salafist beliefs place him in direct opposition to Hamas’s approach to armed resistance and its ties to Shia-ruled Iran.
Salafists are fundamentalists who seek to adhere the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the first generations who followed him.
Dr Dayah has consistently argued for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that adheres strictly to Islamic law, rather than the political party-based systems that Hamas and other groups advocate.
“Our role model is the Prophet Muhammad, who founded a nation and did not establish political parties that divide the nation. Therefore, parties in Islam are forbidden,” he said in a sermon he gave at a mosque several years ago.
He has also condemned extremism, opposing jihadist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and has used all of his platforms to issue fatwas on various social and political issues, ranging from commercial transactions, social disputes over marriage and divorce, to the conduct of political violence.
The fatwa adds to the growing internal debate within Gaza and the broader Arab world over the moral and legal implications of Hamas’s actions, and it is likely to fuel further divisions within Palestinian society regarding the use of armed resistance in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
Sheikh Ashraf Ahmed, one of Dr Dayah’s students who was forced to leave his house in Gaza City last year and flee to the south of Gaza with his wife and nine children, told the BBC: “Our scholar [Dr Dayah] refused to leave his home in northern Gaza despite the fears of Israeli air strikes. He chose to fulfil his religious duty by issuing his legal opinion on the attack”.
Ahmed described the fatwa as the most powerful legal judgment of a historical moment. “It’s a deeply well researched document, reflecting Dayah’s commitment to Islamic jurisprudence,” he said.
The maths contest results prompted a nationwide debate about China's schools and academic pathways
A 17-year-old girl in China hailed as a genius in a mathematics contest cheated, competition organisers have said - ending months of scepticism over her stellar results.
Jiang Ping, a fashion design student from a rural town in Jiangsu province, made headlines in June when she came 12th in the qualifiers of an international maths contest run by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
She was the first finalist since the competition began in 2018 to have come from a lowly vocational school, Chinese media reported. The vast majority of the 800 finalists came from elite universities.
Jiang's results turned her into an overnight sensation, and she was labelled a "prodigy" in the press and on social media.
Under China's notoriously cut-throat education system, academic excellence is lauded. Many people online were encouraged by Jiang's results, seeing them as proof that students from vocational institutes could still excel academically.
However, as doubt surrounding her abilities snowballed, competition organisers said last Sunday that Jiang had violated competition rules in the preliminary round, by receiving help from her teacher, who was also a contestant himself.
“This has exposed problems like inadequacies in the competition format and the lack of rigour in supervision. We sincerely apologise,” organisers said in a statement.
According to the final results announced on Sunday, neither Jiang nor her teacher was among 86 winners in the competition.
The rise of a maths sensation
The annual mathematics contest is open to contestants from institutions worldwide and hosted by Damo Academy, Alibaba’s research institute.
This year, Jiang, a student at Jiangsu Lianshui Secondary Vocational School, outperformed other finalists from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions — including Peking University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Oxford.
She had chosen to study at the vocational school both because she was interested in fashion design, and because her sister and friends were there, said local media outlets.
Jiang's results and unconventional educational background soon grabbed nationwide attention. Her story was featured in a video produced by Damo Academy and she was interviewed by news outlets across the country.
“Learning maths is bumpy, but every time I solve the problems I feel quite happy,” she told the state-run People’s Daily. “No matter what the future holds, I will keep learning.”
Jiang’s teacher, Wang Runqiu, was also thrust into the spotlight, hailed as an educator who noticed and encouraged her passion for maths. Speaking to the media, he described her as an attentive student who had learnt advanced mathematics herself.
"I have encountered many setbacks in the process of learning maths,” he said. “So, I want to do everything I can to help my students and let them know that there are other possibilities in the future.”
But along with an outpouring of praise for Jiang and her teacher, the student’s story also sparked a discussion about whether China’s education system did enough to support gifted students in less academic pathways - especially those who may not have received similar recognition by their teachers.
China's education system focuses much of its resources on those taking the "Gaokao" - the notoriously difficult exam that students need to take in order to get into university. Those in vocational schools had long faced restrictions in taking the gaokao and enrolling in regular universities, until an education reform in 2022 offered vocational school students an alternative university entrance exam.
An earlier op-ed in state-news media outlet Xinhua said that Jiang's results “hint[ed] at an awkward truth: even youths as talented as her may be easily buried without good education credentials”.
'She was not the mastermind'
But as Jiang’s fame burgeoned, criticism and scepticism surrounding her skills also started to bubble.
In June, dozens of other finalists published a joint letter they wrote to the competition organising committee demanding an investigation into Jiang. They also called for her answers to the preliminary test questions to be made public.
The finalists alleged that Jiang had made “several apparent writing mistakes” in an online video and that she “seemed unfamiliar with these mathematical expressions and symbols”.
While the preliminary round of the competition allowed participants to use programming software, the final round was a closed-book exam. The results of the finals, which were initially set to be released in August, were postponed for several months.
When the results were finally made public on Sunday, Jiang was not among the 86 winners of the final round.
Her school also confirmed in a statement on Sunday that Jiang had been helped by her teacher Wang, and that Wang had been given a warning and disqualified from teachers’ awards for the year. The statement also called for leniency and protection for the teenager.
Attempts by the BBC to contact Jiang's family were unsuccessful. A social media account once used by her mother is now defunct, and a phone number linked to her father has been deactivated. Multiple phone calls by the BBC to Jiang's school went unanswered, and a village official declined to discuss Jiang when contacted by the BBC.
While Sunday’s revelation unleashed a wave of criticism of Jiang and her teacher, many social media users also spoke up for the teenager, arguing the bigger responsibility lay with her school and teacher.
“Jiang Ping is not innocent, that’s without question. But who are the worst parties in this?” reads a post on Weibo. “The adults brought this child along to do a bad deed, and let her suffer all the consequences.”
“Even if the whole thing was faked, Jiang Ping was not the mastermind behind it,” another wrote on Weibo. “She should not be burned at the stake.”
Elon Musk and RFK Jr are among Trump's most prominent backers, while Susie Wiles (centre) co-managed his election campaign
Donald Trump's transition team is already vetting potential candidates who could serve in his administration when he returns to the White House in January.
On Thursday, he made the first announcement naming his campaign co-manager Susan Summerall Wiles as his White House chief of staff.
Many of the figures who served under Trump in his first term do not plan to return, though a handful of loyalists are rumoured to be making a comeback.
But the US president-elect is now surrounded by a new cast of characters who may fill his cabinet, staff his White House and serve in key roles across government.
Here is a look at the some of the names being floated for the top jobs.
Robert F Kennedy Jr
Reuters
The past two years have been quite a journey for the nephew of former President John F Kennedy.
An environmental lawyer by trade, he ran for president as a Democrat, with most of his family speaking out against his anti-vaccine views and conspiracy theories as they endorsed Joe Biden's re-election.
He then switched to an independent candidacy but, failing to gain traction amid a series of controversies, dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
In the last two months of the 2024 election cycle, he spearheaded a Trump campaign initiative called "Make America Healthy Again".
Trump recently promised he would play a major role related to public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Safety Administration (FDA).
RFK Jr, as he is known, recently asserted he would push to remove fluoride from drinking water because "it's a very bad way to deliver it into our systems" - though this has been challenged by some experts.
And in an interview with NBC News, Kennedy rejected the idea that he was "anti-vaccine", saying he wouldn't "take away anybody's vaccines" but rather provide them with "the best information" to make their own choices.
Rather than a formal cabinet position, Kennedy used the interview to suggest he could take on a broader role within the White House.
Susie Wiles
Reuters
Trump's landslide victory over Kamala Harris was masterminded by campaign co-chairs Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, who he referred to in his victory speech on Wednesday as "the ice baby".
Wiles, who Trump claimed "likes to stay in the background”, is considered one of the most feared and respected political operatives in the country.
Less than a year after she started working in politics, she worked on Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980 presidential campaign and later became a scheduler in his White House.
In 2010, she turned Rick Scott, a then-businessman with little political experience, into Florida’s governor in just seven months. Scott is now a US senator.
Wiles met Trump during the 2015 Republican presidential primary and she became the co-chair of his Florida campaign, at the time considered a swing state. Trump went on to narrowly defeat Hillary Clinton there in 2016.
Wiles has been commended by Republicans for her ability to command respect and check the big egos of those in the president-elect's orbit, which could enable her to impose a sense of order that none of his four previous chiefs of staff could.
Elon Musk
Reuters
The world's richest man announced his support for the former president earlier this year, despite saying in 2022 that "it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset".
The tech billionaire has since emerged as one of the most visible and well-known backers of Trump and donated more than $119m (£91.6m) this election cycle to America PAC - a political action committee he created to support the former president.
Since registering as a Republican ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Musk has been increasingly vocal on issues including illegal immigration and transgender rights.
Both Musk and Trump have concentrated on the idea of him leading a new "Department of Government Efficiency", where he would cut costs, reform regulations and streamline what he calls a "massive, suffocating federal bureaucracy".
The would-be agency's acronym - DOGE - is a playful reference to a "meme-coin" cryptocurrency Musk has previously promoted.
Mike Pompeo
Reuters
The former Kansas congressman served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and then secretary of state during Trump's first administration.
A foreign policy hawk and a fierce supporter of Israel, he played a highly visible role in moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He was among the key players in the implementation of the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He remained a loyal defender of his boss, joking that there would be "a smooth transition to a second Trump administration" amid Trump's false claims of election fraud in late 2020.
He has been tipped as a top contender for the role of defence secretary, alongside Michael Waltz, a Florida lawmaker and military veteran who sits on the armed services committee in the US House of Representatives.
Richard Grenell
Reuters
Richard Grenell served as Trump's ambassador to Germany, special envoy to the Balkans and his acting director of national intelligence.
The Republican was also heavily involved in Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, in the swing state of Nevada.
Trump prizes Grenell's loyalty and has described him as "my envoy".
In September, he sat in on Trump's private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The former president has often claimed he will end the war in Ukraine "within 24 hours" of taking office and Grenell has advocated for setting up an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine as a means to that end - an idea seen as unacceptable by Kyiv.
He's considered a contender for secretary of state or national security advisor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.
Karoline Leavitt
Reuters
Karoline Leavitt was Trump campaign's spokeswoman
The Trump 2024 campaign's national press secretary previously served in his White House press office, as an assistant press secretary.
The 27-year-old Gen-Zer made a bid to become the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress in 2022, to represent a seat in her home state of New Hampshire, but fell short.
She is tipped to become the White House press secretary - the most public-facing position in the cabinet.
Tom Homan
Getty Images
Tom Homan served as the acting director of the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during the first Trump administration, where he was a proponent of separating migrant children from their parents as a way to deter illegal crossings.
At the time, he made headlines for saying politicians who support sanctuary city policies should be charged with crimes. He later resigned from his Ice position in 2018, mid-way through the Trump presidency.
He has since emerged as a key figure in developing Trump's mass migrant deportation plan, and has been floated as a potential pick to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Homan spoke on the deportation plan last month in an interview with BBC's US partner CBS News, saying that "it's not going to be - a mass sweep of neighbourhoods."
"They'll be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find ‘em based on numerous, you know, investigative processes," he said.
Donald Trump waits in court during his Manhattan criminal trial in May.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House effectively slammed the door on the two cases involving federal criminal charges against him.
A state case against him for allegedly conspiring to interfere with Georgia’s election in 2020 will go on hold until after his term in office ends - if it's still alive by then.
But next week, the fate of the remaining case – his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York – will be determined. It could stand, or it could be swept away in the same political and legal tide that has allowed him to escape the others.
Justice Juan Merchan will decide by Tuesday whether to grant Trump’s pre-election request to throw out his conviction. Should Justice Merchan side with Trump, it would almost wipe clean his slate of criminal woes.
But should the judge uphold the conviction, he would proceed to sentencing later this month. It would likely spark even more delay attempts from Trump and open up an unprecedented new front for America’s criminal justice system.
“This is truly uncharted territory,” said Anna Cominsky, a professor at the New York Law School.
Will Trump’s case get thrown out?
In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records. The convictions stemmed from Trump’s attempt to cover up reimbursements to his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, who in 2016 paid off an adult film star to remain silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump’s lawyers argue that a recent US Supreme Court ruling granting presidents a degree of immunity from criminal prosecution applies to certain aspects of his New York case, and therefore the indictment and conviction should be tossed.
During the trial, Justice Merchan dismissed attempts by Trump’s lawyers to throw out the case on immunity grounds. But that was before the US Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favour this summer – and before Trump decisively won re-election.
If he throws out the conviction, that will be the end of the case.
But if he denies the defense's request, Trump’s much-delayed sentencing will remain scheduled for 26 November.
An unprecedented sentencing – with jail unlikely
Even if Justice Merchan upholds the conviction and keeps the scheduled sentencing, Trump’s team is almost certain to seek more delays and appeals.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, did not respond to inquiries about whether he planned to seek a delay.
Because Trump will be tied up with a presidential transition and the legal questions about sentencing a president are so complex, some scholars see very little chance it will stay on the calendar.
“I think the most likely outcome in the state case is the judge putting off sentencing until after Trump's term in office,” said Daniel Charles Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School.
“To actually impose a sentence would raise any number of messy issues in the short term,” including political ones, he said.
If Trump does find himself in a Manhattan courtroom later this month, deciding his fate still would be an unprecedented challenge.
Under the law, Trump faces a range of sentences, including fines, probation and up to four years in prison. But many options are rendered impractical by his imminent return to the White House.
“Sentencing a sitting president may be one of the most complicated, fraught sentencing decisions you can imagine,” Ms Cominsky said.
“It’s hard to imagine what sentence could be imposed that would not impede a president’s ability to do their job or compromise the president’s security."
Few expect Justice Merchan to sentence Trump to a stint behind bars at this point.
“He’s a 78-year old man with no criminal history, who has been convicted of a non-violent felony,” said retired New York Supreme Court Justice Diane Kiesel. “I don’t think a judge would give a person under those sentences an incarceration sentence.”
Even if Justice Merchan did reach for such a sentence, Trump’s team would almost certainly appeal it, delaying actual punishment.
Trump could leave a sentencing hearing with the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Justice Merchan could ask the former president to pay a relatively small fine in the three- or four-figure range.
He could also give Trump an unconditional discharge; “basically, goodbye,” as Justice Kiesel puts it.
Trump has no pardon power here
The only thing that is certain is that Trump cannot make this conviction go away on his own.
Trump has explored the possibility of pardoning himself from potential criminal charges in the past, and could do so for his federal indictments when he becomes president in January.
But he cannot pardon himself in New York, as the conviction occurred in state court.
His fate, at the moment, is in the hands of the court. But regardless of the outcome, Trump will likely avoid the most serious punishments facing him.
Elon Musk and RFK Jr are among Trump's most prominent backers, while Susie Wiles (centre) co-managed his election campaign
Donald Trump's transition team is already vetting potential candidates who could serve in his administration when he returns to the White House in January.
On Thursday, he made the first announcement naming his campaign co-manager Susan Summerall Wiles as his White House chief of staff.
Many of the figures who served under Trump in his first term do not plan to return, though a handful of loyalists are rumoured to be making a comeback.
But the US president-elect is now surrounded by a new cast of characters who may fill his cabinet, staff his White House and serve in key roles across government.
Here is a look at the some of the names being floated for the top jobs.
Robert F Kennedy Jr
Reuters
The past two years have been quite a journey for the nephew of former President John F Kennedy.
An environmental lawyer by trade, he ran for president as a Democrat, with most of his family speaking out against his anti-vaccine views and conspiracy theories as they endorsed Joe Biden's re-election.
He then switched to an independent candidacy but, failing to gain traction amid a series of controversies, dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
In the last two months of the 2024 election cycle, he spearheaded a Trump campaign initiative called "Make America Healthy Again".
Trump recently promised he would play a major role related to public health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Safety Administration (FDA).
RFK Jr, as he is known, recently asserted he would push to remove fluoride from drinking water because "it's a very bad way to deliver it into our systems" - though this has been challenged by some experts.
And in an interview with NBC News, Kennedy rejected the idea that he was "anti-vaccine", saying he wouldn't "take away anybody's vaccines" but rather provide them with "the best information" to make their own choices.
Rather than a formal cabinet position, Kennedy used the interview to suggest he could take on a broader role within the White House.
Susie Wiles
Reuters
Trump's landslide victory over Kamala Harris was masterminded by campaign co-chairs Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, who he referred to in his victory speech on Wednesday as "the ice baby".
Wiles, who Trump claimed "likes to stay in the background”, is considered one of the most feared and respected political operatives in the country.
Less than a year after she started working in politics, she worked on Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980 presidential campaign and later became a scheduler in his White House.
In 2010, she turned Rick Scott, a then-businessman with little political experience, into Florida’s governor in just seven months. Scott is now a US senator.
Wiles met Trump during the 2015 Republican presidential primary and she became the co-chair of his Florida campaign, at the time considered a swing state. Trump went on to narrowly defeat Hillary Clinton there in 2016.
Wiles has been commended by Republicans for her ability to command respect and check the big egos of those in the president-elect's orbit, which could enable her to impose a sense of order that none of his four previous chiefs of staff could.
Elon Musk
Reuters
The world's richest man announced his support for the former president earlier this year, despite saying in 2022 that "it's time for Trump to hang up his hat and sail into the sunset".
The tech billionaire has since emerged as one of the most visible and well-known backers of Trump and donated more than $119m (£91.6m) this election cycle to America PAC - a political action committee he created to support the former president.
Since registering as a Republican ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, Musk has been increasingly vocal on issues including illegal immigration and transgender rights.
Both Musk and Trump have concentrated on the idea of him leading a new "Department of Government Efficiency", where he would cut costs, reform regulations and streamline what he calls a "massive, suffocating federal bureaucracy".
The would-be agency's acronym - DOGE - is a playful reference to a "meme-coin" cryptocurrency Musk has previously promoted.
Mike Pompeo
Reuters
The former Kansas congressman served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and then secretary of state during Trump's first administration.
A foreign policy hawk and a fierce supporter of Israel, he played a highly visible role in moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He was among the key players in the implementation of the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He remained a loyal defender of his boss, joking that there would be "a smooth transition to a second Trump administration" amid Trump's false claims of election fraud in late 2020.
He has been tipped as a top contender for the role of defence secretary, alongside Michael Waltz, a Florida lawmaker and military veteran who sits on the armed services committee in the US House of Representatives.
Richard Grenell
Reuters
Richard Grenell served as Trump's ambassador to Germany, special envoy to the Balkans and his acting director of national intelligence.
The Republican was also heavily involved in Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, in the swing state of Nevada.
Trump prizes Grenell's loyalty and has described him as "my envoy".
In September, he sat in on Trump's private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The former president has often claimed he will end the war in Ukraine "within 24 hours" of taking office and Grenell has advocated for setting up an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine as a means to that end - an idea seen as unacceptable by Kyiv.
He's considered a contender for secretary of state or national security advisor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.
Karoline Leavitt
Reuters
Karoline Leavitt was Trump campaign's spokeswoman
The Trump 2024 campaign's national press secretary previously served in his White House press office, as an assistant press secretary.
The 27-year-old Gen-Zer made a bid to become the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress in 2022, to represent a seat in her home state of New Hampshire, but fell short.
She is tipped to become the White House press secretary - the most public-facing position in the cabinet.
Tom Homan
Getty Images
Tom Homan served as the acting director of the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during the first Trump administration, where he was a proponent of separating migrant children from their parents as a way to deter illegal crossings.
At the time, he made headlines for saying politicians who support sanctuary city policies should be charged with crimes. He later resigned from his Ice position in 2018, mid-way through the Trump presidency.
He has since emerged as a key figure in developing Trump's mass migrant deportation plan, and has been floated as a potential pick to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Homan spoke on the deportation plan last month in an interview with BBC's US partner CBS News, saying that "it's not going to be - a mass sweep of neighbourhoods."
"They'll be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find ‘em based on numerous, you know, investigative processes," he said.
Watch: Secret footage shows COP29's chief Elnur Soltanov discussing gas and oil deals
A senior official at COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan appears to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals, the BBC can report.
A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing "investment opportunities" in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.
"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed," he says.
A former head of the UN body responsible for the climate talks told the BBC that Soltanov's actions were "completely unacceptable" and a "betrayal" of the COP process.
Reuters
Baku is hosting this year's COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference
As well as being the chief executive of COP29, Soltanov is also the deputy energy minister of Azerbaijan and is on the board of Socar.
Azerbaijan's COP29 team has not responded to a request for comment.
Oil and gas accounts for about half of Azerbaijan's total economy and more than 90% of its exports, according to US figures.
COP29 will open in Baku on Monday and is the 29th annual UN climate summit, where governments discuss how to limit and prepare for climate change, and raise global ambition to tackle the issue.
The BBC has been shown documents and secret video recordings made by the human rights organisation, Global Witness.
It is understood that one of its representatives approached the COP29 team posing as the head of a fictitious Hong Kong investment firm specialising in energy.
He said this company was interested in sponsoring the COP29 summit but wanted to discuss investment opportunities in Azerbaijan's state energy firm, Socar, in return. An online meeting with Soltanov was arranged.
Getty Images
Azerbaijan has rich oil and natural gas deposits
During the meeting, Soltanov told the potential sponsor that the aim of the conference was "solving the climate crisis" and "transitioning away from hydrocarbons in a just, orderly and equitable manner".
Anyone, he said, including oil and gas companies, "could come with solutions" because Azerbaijan’s "doors are open".
However, he said he was open to discussions about deals too – including on oil and gas.
Initially, Soltanov suggested the potential sponsor might be interested in investing in some of the "green transitioning projects" Socar was involved in - but then spoke of opportunities related to Azerbaijan's plans to increase gas production, including new pipeline infrastructure.
"There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established," Soltanov says on the recording. "Socar is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia."
Soltanov then described natural gas as a "transitional fuel", adding: "We will have a certain amount of oil and natural gas being produced, perhaps forever."
The UN climate science body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, acknowledges there will be a role for some oil and gas up to 2050 and beyond. However, it has been very clear that "developing… new oil and gas fields is incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5C".
It also goes against the agreement the world made at the last global climate summit to transition away from fossil fuels.
Soltanov appeared eager to help get discussions going, telling the potential sponsor: "I would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [Socar] so that they can start discussions."
A couple of weeks later the fake Hong Kong investment company received an email - Socar wanted to follow up on the lead.
Attempting to do business deals as part of the COP process appears to be a serious breach of the standards of conduct expected of a COP official.
These events are supposed to be about reducing the world's use of fossil fuels – the main driver of climate change – not selling more.
The standards are set by the UN body responsible for the climate negotiations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The UN said it could not comment directly on our findings but remarked that "the same rigorous standards" are applied to whoever hosts the conference, and that those standards reflect "the importance of impartiality on the part of all presiding officers".
Its code of conduct for COP officials states they are "expected to act without bias, prejudice, favouritism, caprice, self-interest, preference or deference, strictly based on sound, independent and fair judgement.
"They are also expected to ensure that personal views and convictions do not compromise or appear to compromise their role and functions as a UNFCCC officer."
Getty Images
Christiana Figueres, who presided over the historic Paris agreement, says doing deals on fossil fuels is a “betrayal” of the COP process
Christiana Figueres, who oversaw the signing of the 2015 Paris agreement to limit global temperature rises to well below 2C, told the BBC that she was shocked anyone in the COP process would use their position to strike oil and gas deals.
She said such behaviour was "contrary and egregious" to the the purpose of COP and "a treason" to the process.
The BBC has also seen emails between the COP29 team and the fake investors.
In one chain, the team discusses a $600,000 (£462,000) sponsorship deal with a fake company in return for the Socar introduction and involvement in an event about "sustainable oil and gas investing" during COP29.
Officials offered five passes with full access to the summit and drafted a contract which initially required the firm to make some commitments to sustainability. Then it pushed back, one requirement was dropped and "corrections" were considered to another.
The BBC asked Azerbaijan's COP29 team and Socar for comment. Neither responded to the requests.
The findings come a year after the BBC obtained leaked documents that revealed plans by the UAE to use its role as host of COP28 to strike oil and gas deals.
COP28 was the first time agreement was reached on the need to transition away from fossil fuels.
Donald J. Trump’s biggest gains anywhere were along the Texas border, a Democratic stronghold where most voters are Hispanic. He won 12 of the region’s 14 counties, up from five in 2016.
The support for President-elect Donald J. Trump across South Texas, a working-class region, provided the starkest example of what has been a broad national move toward the Republican candidate among Hispanic and working-class voters.
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