The Trump log

President Donald Trump was today to sign an Executive Order to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations, a move meant to bolster domestic energy production but which environmentalists have vowed to challenge in court. The decree, dubbed the “Energy Independence” order, will seek to undo former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan requiring states to slash carbon emissions from power plants — a critical element in helping the United States meet its commitments to a global climate change accord agreed by nearly 200 countries in Paris in December 2015. A Russian bank under Western economic sanctions over Russia’s incursion into Ukraine disclosed yesterday that its executives had met Jared Kushner, Trump’s sonin-law and a top White House adviser, in December. A US Senate committee investigating suspected Russian interference in the election wants to interview Trump associates, including Kushner, 36, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and has agreed to testify. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking via satellite link from Jerusalem to the annual conference of the Aipac, the largest US pro-Israel lobbying group, said yesterday that he was committed to working with Trump to advance peace efforts with the Palestinians and with the broader Arab world. Netanyahu heaped praise on Trump, who has set a more positive tone with Israel than his Democratic predecessor, Obama, who often clashed with the Israeli leader. He thanked Trump for a recent US budget request that “leaves military aid to Israel fully funded”. Trump holds a trademark in Jordan for a Donald Trump casino, despite the fact that gambling is illegal in the kingdom. It is one of four he received before he ran for office, and suggests that the former casino executive may have had wider hopes for businesses across the Middle East than was previously known.

From construction to deconstruction A18