We can’t say we weren’t warned. This week Donald Trump began to flesh out his cabinet with some nominations that left even congressional Republicans reeling in shock. Our journalists have been making sense, or trying to, of the team poised to shape US policy over the next four years.

On Thursday, Trump named Robert F Kennedy Jr, one of the biggest disseminators of disinformation on the efficacy of vaccines, as his pick for health and human services secretary. It followed the wildcard pick of Trump hyper-loyalist Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Lauren Gambino and Joan E Greve profiled the firebrand Florida representative who has caused chaos in Congress and was investigated by the justice department for sex trafficking (charges were never brought) – and whose nomination, like other cabinet appointees, still requires Senate approval. Gaetz has also been investigated by a congressional committee over allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and other alleged ethical breaches, though he fiercely denied wrongdoing.

As global affairs correspondent Andrew Roth put it in this piece of analysis: the key determinant for Trump appointees appears to be loyalty above ideology. Andrew contrasted the hawkish pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, with director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has defended Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and said that the west provoked Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. Anna Betts wrapped up the positions of some of Trump’s other controversial appointments including immigration hardliner Stephen Miller, pet-killer Kristi Noem and Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth. Julian Borger reported on the shock in the Pentagon at the appointment of the latter, a former soldier who has called for a purge of generals for pursuing “woke” diversity policies.

Beside Gaetz, the appointments that caused the biggest noise were Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, brought in to run a new Department of Government Efficiency (or … Doge) which will be devoted to slashing federal budgets. Do Americans, asked Blake Montgomery, really “want the world’s richest person admonishing them to cut their expenses”? Nick Robins-Early recapped the remarkable five months in which Musk had gone “from not endorsing a candidate to becoming a fixture of the president-elect’s inner circle”.

Musk’s use of his extraordinary wealth and power, including on his social network, X, is one of the reasons – alongside its toxic content and diminishing usefulness – why the Guardian announced this week that we will no longer post on X from official editorial accounts. We have rarely received so much support from readers as we did for this announcement.

If you don’t already, please consider supporting the Guardian today.

Our environment team has been reporting from Cop29 in Baku, Azerbaijan and provided crucial context for this year’s summit, where the focus is to address the issue of climate finance. Fiona Harvey landed an exclusive interview with climate champion and Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, who said she wants a sit-down meeting with Donald Trump to discuss their common aims on climate. Fiona also revealed the UK’s newly announced target to cut its emissions by 81% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2035.

In addition, we launched a series called This is climate breakdown where, over each day of Cop, we are telling the story of someone who has lived through an extreme weather event and the devastating impact it has had on them. The series began with Tera, who described how her six-year-old son Colton died after being sucked out of their car during flash flooding in Canada last year.

With fears growing of the likely impact of a second Trump term on the Middle East, our team of correspondents continue to report extensively on the war in Gaza. Peter Beaumont covered a new report accusing Israel of crimes against humanity over the forced displacement of civilians in the strip, while Jason Burke reported on how aid to Gaza has dropped to its lowest level in nearly a year despite a US ultimatum to Israel. Patrick Wintour interviewed a senior Unrwa official who warned that the planned shutdown of the agency by Israel would bring further untold suffering to people in the territory.

Our UK team covered the dramatic resignation of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury. The Anglican church leader resigned over his failure to tackle a major child abuse scandal. How will the man who once vowed to take on the church’s shameful past now be judged by history, asked Harriet Sherwood. And who else knew about the abuse?

Kelly Burke revealed in an exclusive this week how British chef Jamie Oliver had caused offence in Australia with his “disrespectful” portrayal of First Nations people in his latest children’s book. He issued an apology and the book was later shelved globally. Columnist Arwa Mahdawi had a suggestion for him: maybe celebrities should just stop writing children’s books?

Larry Elliott, our retiring economics editor, shared what he learned from his 28 years in the role, from the failures of trickle-down economics, to globalisation going into reverse.

In Afghanistan, photographer Kiana Hayeri and journalist Mélissa Cornet documented how the Taliban are erasing women from all areas of public life including schools, universities, most workplaces – even parks and bathhouses.

For a new series called The wait, Sam Wollaston shared the shocking story of a heart attack victim’s nearly 10-hour wait for an ambulance in north Wales. It was a delay that likely cost Dave Strachan his life.

A restaurant around the corner from the Guardian’s London office has quickly become notorious for its chef’s unique brand of social media marketing: angrily lambasting his customers for not spending enough money. Morwenna Ferrier visited The Yellow Bittern to see whether she could avoid his ire.

Steph Harmon had a great Q&A with writer and broadcaster Jon Ronson for Guardian Australia’s 10 chaotic questions series. Ronson talked about his former “nemesis” Louis Theroux, nearly dying on Concorde while sat next to Keith Richards and how he thinks the next culture war target for the right will be autistic people.

Our excellent coverage of a very enjoyable year of the Booker prize was topped off by an interview by Lisa Allardice with this year’s winner Samantha Harvey, on what it took for her to write Orbital, a 136-page love letter to our troubled planet set on the International Space Station. The piece featured a gorgeous portrait of the author taken by Sarah Lee.

One more thing …The resignation of the archbishop of Canterbury this week was an electrifying story full of shocking detail. I learned a lot from watching Cathy Newman’s 2017 Channel 4 documentary An Ungodly Crime?, and listening toSamira Ahmed’s podcast Disgusted, Mary Whitehouse, on BBC Sounds.

Cook this | Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy chipotle mushroom tacos

A mixture of chestnut and oyster mushrooms works so well in this easy, weeknight taco feast, says Rukmini. Pile the spicy mushrooms on to warm tortillas with the peanutty celeriac slaw and soured cream.

Listen to this | The briefcase, the Porsche and the collapse of the German government

Der Spiegel journalist Regina Steffens and author John Kampfner explain how Germany’s traffic light coalition came to an end, and the profound problems facing whichever government comes next.

Watch this | Justin McCurry’s day of eating only Japanese convenience store food

Unlike their western counterparts, convenience stores – or konbini – are a neat and functional retail institution in Japan. Tokyo correspondent Justin McCurry took up the challenge of buying breakfast, lunch and dinner – and a nightcap – exclusively from konbini.

The Guardian’s crosswords and Wordiply are here to keep you entertained throughout the weekend.