This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Top story: Pence aide Nick Ayers to leave Washington

Nick Ayers, the 36-year-old chief of staff to the US vice-president, Mike Pence, has decided he would rather return home to Georgia than take on the challenge of managing Donald Trump. The president announced on Saturday that his chief of staff, John Kelly, would leave by the end of this year, but Ayers – reportedly his first choice to replace Kelly – tweeted the following day that he and his family would also be exiting Washington. The president later said he was “interviewing some really great people for the position”.

Massive fraud. As Robert Mueller’s legal net appeared to be closing in on Trump this weekend, Jerrold Nadler, the incoming Democratic chair of the House judiciary committee, said the president was “at the centre of … several massive frauds against the American people”.

Fired or retired? John Kelly was “another casualty of this president’s dismal need to destroy the reputations of those who come too close,” writes Richard Wolffe.

World’s biggest investors demand climate change action

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A coal-burning power plant in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Climate change groups demand urgent action. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

The world faces a financial crisis far bigger than the one in 2008 unless governments take action to phase out coal burning, limit carbon emissions and seriously tackle climate change, a group of leading global investors has warned. The group, including some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers, who between them manage investments worth about $32tn, made the stark warning at the UN climate summit in Poland on Monday.

Shareholder challenge. BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil face pressure from activist shareholders to set carbon targets in line with the Paris climate agreement.

Illegal mining. Campaigners have created a map showing the “epidemic” of illegal mining in the Amazon rainforest.

Macron to appeal to French public after further violence

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police examine a burnt-out car in Beaubourg Street, Paris, on Sunday. Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images

The French president is set to appeal directly to the French people with a televised address on Monday evening, in his first public comments after four weeks of nationwide anti-government protests. Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce “immediate and concrete measures” to respond to the grievances of protesters, led by the gilets jaunes movement, which staged violent demonstrations in Paris and half a dozen other cities this weekend.

Mass protests. The French interior ministry said 136,000 people took part in the weekend’s unrest, which the gilets jaunes described as “Act IV” of their campaign of action.

Saudi Arabia refuses to extradite Khashoggi suspects

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jared Kushner reportedly advised the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has rejected Turkish demands to extradite suspects in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has repeatedly demanded the kingdom hand over the men Ankara has identified as being involved in the killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October, amid widespread speculation that Khashoggi’s death was a hit ordered by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Kushner criticism. The Republican senator Marco Rubio has sharply criticised the White House over its handling of the affair, after the New York Times reported Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner counselled bin Salman over the fallout from the murder.

Crib sheet

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Moore’s photograph of US Border Patrol agents taking undocumented immigrants into custody near the Rio Grande in Texas in August. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

Agency photographer of the year: the shortlist

The Guardian’s picture desk receives millions of images each year from news agency photographers around the world. Our editors have chosen a selection of photographers whose work stood out in 2018. An overall winner will be announced on 21 December.

Hollywood’s go-to character actor takes the lead at last

JK Simmons won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 2015. Now he’s playing two leading roles simultaneously in Counterpart, a TV thriller set in parallel worlds. “Sometimes I need to make sure that I’m not just shying away from something challenging,” he tells Amy Nicholson.

Could Angela Merkel’s successor be Europe’s saviour?

For the first time in postwar German history, a national leader has managed her own succession, says Alan Posener. Angela Merkel’s chosen successor as leader of the ruling CDU party, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, also known as AKK, is decisive, capable and an instinctive European, he writes.

Why ferocious wildfires are the new abnormal

Trapped in her car as the Camp fire closed in, Ruth McLarty phoned her daughter to say goodbye. Weeks after her miraculous escape, she and other survivors tell Oliver Milman that climate change will inflict an increasing number of catastrophic wildfires on California.

Opinion

Donald Trump thinks tariffs will “make America rich again” – but by imposing them he has in effect raised taxes on most Americans and made them poorer, says Robert Reich.

Tariffs could put us into a recession. The world’s other big economies are slowing, too. In 1930, congressmen Smoot and Hawley championed isolationist tariffs that President Herbert Hoover signed into law. They deepened the Great Depression.

Sport

Atlanta United have capped their remarkable ascent by winning their first MLS Cup in front of more than 70,000 hometown fans. Graham Parker asks the club’s president, Darren Eales, how he can sustain that success next season and beyond.

River Plate have clinched Argentina’s coveted soccer trophy, the Copa Libertadores, with a 5-3 aggregate victory over arch-rivals Boca Juniors, after the game’s second leg was relocated from Buenos Aires to Madrid as a result of fan violence.

Sign up

The US morning briefing is delivered to thousands inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Sign up for the US morning briefing

Support the Guardian

We’d like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you.