Good morning. Donald Trump will nominate veteran Wall Street financier Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department, the president-elect said Tuesday, elevating one of the financial world’s most vocal supporters of Trump to a crucial position overseeing the incoming administration’s aggressive trade agenda.

Lutnick, chief executive of the financial-services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, in recent months has become a close Trump ally and had been a top contender to lead the Treasury Department. 

• Evolving Commerce role: Trump, in a statement, signaled that Lutnick would have expansive authority over his trade agenda, announcing that his nominee would have “direct responsibility” over the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The office currently exists as a separate entity from Commerce. USTR is historically a cabinet-level job that reports directly to the president. Trump’s transition team didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarity on Lutnick’s portfolio.
   
• Was a Treasury contender: Trump considered Lutnick to lead the Treasury Department, but he fell out of favor for the job amid mounting tension with another leading contender, investor Scott Bessent. Lutnick’s allies, including Elon Musk, signaled their support for Lutnick for Treasury.
   
• His view of tariffs: Lutnick has fiercely defended Trump’s economic proposals in the midst of opposition from some on Wall Street, who worry the president-elect’s pledge to impose sweeping tariffs will trigger trade wars and ultimately lead to higher prices for American consumers.
   
• What's up at Treasury? Trump is expected to make a final decision soon on who will run the Treasury Department, one of his most important personnel picks. The president-elect recently expanded the search to include new candidates after expressing irritation over the aggressive lobbying campaigns launched by allies of Lutnick and Bessent.

FDIC Chairman Gruenberg will leave right before inauguration.

Six months after first announcing his plans to step down, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg said Tuesday that he will end his term on Jan. 19, one day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Gruenberg in May agreed to resign following a Wall Street Journal investigation that revealed a toxic workplace culture at the FDIC. At the time, he said he would keep serving until a successor was named and confirmed.

EU approaches a forced labor ban.

The European Union is one step closer to completing a long-awaited bloc-wide ban on the sale of products made with forced labor.

The Council of the EU on Tuesday approved a regulation that would forbid throughout the bloc’s 27 member states the sale of goods made with forced labor either within Europe or outside it. The law now goes to the presidents of the European Parliament and the council for signatures.

• Federal prosecutors charged the founder of artificial intelligence startup AllHere Education with defrauding investors out of nearly $10 million, the latest example of a tougher stance authorities are taking with young tech companies that might fudge their numbers as they try to get off the ground.
   
• Americans can’t quit paper checks. Fraudsters are cashing in.
   
• The federal government’s price-fixing lawsuit against rental-software firm RealPage could take years to resolve. Rather than wait, some cities and states are already cracking down on the company.
   
• U.K. antitrust officials said they wouldn’t open an in-depth investigation into Google’s investment in artificial-intelligence startup Anthropic.
   
• Cereal giant General Mills is the next target of food activists who are pushing companies to remove artificial ingredients from their products.
   
• A Texas community-bank operator caught up in last year's regional-banking crisis has agreed to improve its risk-management practices.
   
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it requested information on so-called forever chemicals found in some seafood, to understand their risks better.

Russia suspected as Baltic undersea cables cut in apparent sabotage.

Russia is suspected of orchestrating another major act of sabotage in Europe after two key fiber-optic data cables running below the Baltic Sea were cut off in quick succession earlier this week, government officials said.

Western officials said there are indications that Russia was behind the incidents, which they said were similar to other operations resulting from Moscow’s escalating hybrid warfare against NATO countries in Europe.

Trump isn’t at the G-20 Summit, but he’s dominating the debate.

Many leaders from Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa at the G-20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Peru last week made clear their alarm at prospects for a sharp U.S. turn inward on trade, health and environmental policy with Trump’s looming return to the presidency.

“Isolation, protectionism and trade wars only lead to recession, conflict and poverty,” said Gen. Luong Cuong, Vietnam’s new president. “Now more than ever, we need to eliminate the mindset of ‘one side wins, the other loses’ and not allow nationalism to distort policy.”

• The coming wave of artificial-intelligence usage won’t just strain data centers and power grids—it will also stress the country’s network capabilities.
   
• As Israel advances its invasion of southern Lebanon, its troops are finding large troves of Russian weapons, confirming longstanding suspicions in Israel that Hezbollah is enhancing its fighting capacity with the help of sophisticated Russian arms. Meanwhile, Iran sharply increased its stockpile of nearly weapons-grade uranium.
   
• The Fed’s December decision just got complicated.
   
• Ukraine fired long-range missiles provided by the U.S. into Russia for the first time Tuesday.

TSA cyber disclosure requirements worry natural gas companies.

The government is requiring too many intimate details of corporate cybersecurity plans, an executive representing natural-gas companies said at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

It is unclear whether the Transportation Security Administration or any U.S. agency can properly protect such sensitive information, said Kimberly Denbow, vice president of security and operations at the American Gas Association. The TSA is responsible for the security of U.S. transportation networks, including the cybersecurity of pipelines.

Union Pacific also said it hired Christina Conlin to serve as deputy general counsel, in anticipation of the transition. Conlin, who will start at the railroad company on Dec. 2, most recently served as chief risk officer and associate general counsel at Goodyear Tire and Rubber.

• New York prosecutors on