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The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 440 points to a record close on Monday after President-elect Donald Trumps pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, laid out his priorities including tax cuts.

In his first interview as Treasury nominee with The Wall Street Journal, Bessent said he will also focus on imposing tariffs, cutting spending and keeping the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency.

The Dow closed up 1% at 44,736.57, while the S&P 500 gained 0.3% and hit an intraday record.

The longtime hedge fund manager said he is focused on making Trumps 2017 tax cuts permanent, as well as eliminating taxes on tips, social security benefits and overtime pay.

Bessent himself is a very prominent investor and has a stellar track record which makes him a great choice, and the markets are responding to the excitement about how they think he will handle fiscal policy and interest rates, Ted Jenkin, co-founder and business consultant at oXYGen Financial, told The Post. 

On Friday, Trump nominated the seasoned hedge fund manager, who has studied economic history for around 40 years, as US Treasury Secretary.

That’s despite protests from Elon Musk, who donated millions to Trump campaign efforts and rallied in swing states on the president-elects behalf. Musk had dogged Bessent as a business-as-usual choice, and threw his support behind Howard Lutnick, who Trump ended up nominating to head the Commerce Department instead.

Investors and Wall Street bigwigs have largely applauded the nomination of Bessent, who worked at George Soros firm before starting his own, because he is seen as the moderate choice, Mahoney Asset Management CEO Ken Mahoney said.

Trump has ruffled feathers with some of his controversial nominations, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the health department, former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense.

Disruption is the goal when it comes to ripping DEI out of government, or getting the politics out of the Justice Department, but not when managing our banking system or world financial markets, Kenin Spivak, chief executive at SMI Group, told The Post. Bessent is an experienced, steady, capable expert in all aspects of the department he has been chosen to lead.

Spivak said investors view Bessent as the wise choice and expect him to advise Trump to use restraint when implementing some of his economic policies.

The president-elect has pushed for massive tariffs of 10% on all imports and 60% on goods from China. Economists have warned the outsize tariffs could reheat inflation.

Bessent, meanwhile, had viewed tariffs as a negotiating tool, saying earlier this year that the tariff gun will always be loaded and on the table but rarely discharged. 

[Bessent] talked about gradual tariff changes, which had been a fear and a talking point of Trump adversaries, Mahoney told The Post. This ideology of massaging in tariffs and seeing how things go makes much more sense.

Mahoney said less intense tariffs could help foreign policy which was a mess in every way with the Biden administration by encouraging fair trade practices while still gaining leverage over other countries.

Another one of Bessents popular proposals is what he calls the 3-3-3 rule, inspired by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who revitalized Japans economy with a threefold policy. Bessents three goals are to slash the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2028, boost GDP growth by 3% through deregulation and produce an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day, according to the Journal.

We also like to hear his policies around reducing the budget deficit and getting that under control, as we know there is a massive debt and spending problem within the government, Mahoney said. He also wants to increase oil productionso it is possible lower energy costs balance out the possible inflationary effects of tariffs.

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Is this the most powerful Trump’s been?

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Is this the most powerful Trump's been?

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ has passed and he’s due to sign it into law on Independence Day. Mark Stone and David Blevins discuss how the bill will supercharge his presidency, despite its critics.

They also chat Gaza and Ukraine, as Donald Trump meets with freed Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander and talks to Vladimir Putin.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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UK

Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

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Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Liverpool players past and present have joined the family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva for their funeral in Portugal.

A service was held in the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto in northern Portugal on Saturday morning.

Mourners lined the streets and some in the crowd clapped as the brothers’ coffins were carried into the church.

The funeral – in pictures


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk arrives on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota and his b
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Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters

Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva
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Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic: PA

Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.

His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.

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Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.

Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.

Diogo Jota funeral
Image:
Manchester United and Portugal player Bruno Fernandes. Pic: PA


Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool's player Andrew Robertson arrive on the day of the funeral ceremony of Liverpool's Portug
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Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s player Andrew Robertson. Pic: Reuters

Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.

Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.

‘More than a friend’

In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”

Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”

Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.

‘With us forever’

Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.

“Their spirit will be with us forever.”

The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.

He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.

“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”

The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.

Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.

Flowers have been left outside Anfield, where flags have been lowered to half-mast and all club shops, museums and tours have been closed until Monday.

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Technology

Inside a Utah desert facility preparing humans for life on Mars

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Inside a Utah desert facility preparing humans for life on Mars

Hidden among the majestic canyons of the Utah desert, about 7 miles from the nearest town, is a small research facility meant to prepare humans for life on Mars.

The Mars Society, a nonprofit organization that runs the Mars Desert Research Station, or MDRS, invited CNBC to shadow one of its analog crews on a recent mission.

MDRS is the best analog astronaut environment,” said Urban Koi, who served as health and safety officer for Crew 315. “The terrain is extremely similar to the Mars terrain and the protocols, research, science and engineering that occurs here is very similar to what we would do if we were to travel to Mars.”

SpaceX CEO and Mars advocate Elon Musk has said his company can get humans to Mars as early as 2029.

The 5-person Crew 315 spent two weeks living at the research station following the same procedures that they would on Mars.

David Laude, who served as the crew’s commander, described a typical day.

“So we all gather around by 7 a.m. around a common table in the upper deck and we have breakfast,” he said. “Around 8:00 we have our first meeting of the day where we plan out the day. And then in the morning, we usually have an EVA of two or three people and usually another one in the afternoon.”

An EVA refers to extravehicular activity. In NASA speak, EVAs refer to spacewalks, when astronauts leave the pressurized space station and must wear spacesuits to survive in space.

“I think the most challenging thing about these analog missions is just getting into a rhythm. … Although here the risk is lower, on Mars performing those daily tasks are what keeps us alive,” said Michael Andrews, the engineer for Crew 315.

Watch the video to find out more.

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