Hello, you're listening to the free edition of the world in brief from The Economist.

As a reminder, if you subscribe to The Economist, you'll get access to a deeper look at the day ahead, updated three times a day.

If you're already an Economist subscriber, visit

economist.com slash espresso or visit our espresso app to start listening. Here's today's

free edition.

This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

Donald Trump made several administration picks, announcing that Lee Zeldin, a former congressman,

would take, quote, swift deregulatory decisions

as head of America's Environment Agency. Stephen Miller, who crafted immigration policy in Mr.

Trump's first term, is expected to be named Deputy Chief of Staff, and Elise Stefarnic,

a congresswoman, accepted the role of ambassador

to the United Nations. The Kremlin denied claims that Mr. Trump discussed the war in Ukraine

with Vladimir Putin over the weekend. The Washington Post reported that Mr. Trump advised Russia's president not to escalate

the conflict. Mr. Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Pezkov, called the report's false information

and said that his boss has no definite plan to speak to America's president-elect.

A court in Rome ruled that seven asylum seekers

brought to Albania by an Italian ship must be taken to Italy. The decision is the second

rejecting Italy's attempt to outsource its migrant crisis to Albania, where it built a detention

center. The judge asked Europe's

top court to decide whether the migrant's origin countries, Bangladesh and Egypt, were safe to

return to. The bankruptcy estate of FTX, a defunct crypto exchange, sued Binance and its former boss, Chungpung Jiao, to recover $1.8 billion.

...