From LNG to drilling in Alaska, here’s everything you need to know about Trump’s energy and climate executive orders

Through a flurry of executive orders, a newly inaugurated Donald Trump has made clear his support for the ascendancy of fossil fuels, the dismantling of support for cleaner energy and the United States’ exit from the fight to contain the escalating climate crisis.

“We will drill, baby, drill,” the president said in his inaugural address on Monday. “We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have – the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it. We’re going to use it.”

Six million fewer US viewers tuned in than for his first inauguration – and nine million fewer people than for Biden in 2021

Nine million fewer viewers tuned in for Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony than for Joe Biden’s in 2021. According to audience measurement company Nielsen, 24.6 million people watched the former reality TV personality take office, compared with 33.8 million who saw Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration.

The number of viewers was also significantly down on the 30.6 million Americans who watched coverage of Trump’s first inauguration. This time, the majority of viewers were aged 55 and over, with 17% of all US citizens in that age bracket watching, compared with 1.9% of people aged 18 to 34.

If criminal charges were meant to deter acts of violence, the pardons of over 1,500 people do the opposite, say experts

Donald Trump spent the four years after the January 6 insurrection attempting to rewrite the violence and chaos he inspired as his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

On the first day of his second term as president, he took the rewriting to its final step by issuing pardons and reducing sentences for those involved in the insurrection, including the leaders of far-right militias and those who battled with police that day.

Some say it was an unambiguous Nazi salute but others are unsure and say focus should be on Musk’s stated support for far-right

• Did Elon Musk give a Nazi or Roman salute, and what’s the difference?

There were angry reactions across Europe to Elon Musk’s apparent use of a salute banned for its Nazi links in Germany, where some condemned it as malicious provocation or an outreach of solidarity to far-right groups.

Michel Friedman, a prominent German-French publicist and former deputy chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, described Musk’s actions – at an event after Donald Trump’s swearing in as US president – as a disgrace and said Musk had shown that a “dangerous point for the entire free world” had been reached.

Jim Newman claims band who performed at inauguration is ‘entirely separate entity’ from group he was in

A former member of Village People has distanced himself from the band that performed at Donald Trump’s inauguration events, stating that the current group has “nothing to do with the group that I was a part of”.

Village People, whose song YMCA is widely considered a gay anthem and a favorite of the returning US president’s, performed at several of Trump’s inaugural events over the weekend and on Monday. However, only one original member, the lead singer and songwriter Victor Willis, 73, is still part of the band and participated in the performances.

Confusing and capricious, he started as he means to go on. To all the leaders pledging to work with him: good luck with that

Full American democracy is barely 60 years old, yet seems to be in an advanced state of cognitive decline. At his inauguration yesterday, Donald Trump seated the tech bosses, his nerd broligarchy, in front of his supposed cabinet. Needless to say, it was all a hopelessly overstimulating day for Elon Musk, whose double salute on stage later was a pure Dr Strangelove spasm, generously described by the Anti-Defamation league as “an awkward gesture”. Listen, if your friends won’t tell you, then who will?

As for the staging of the inauguration, which was moved indoors several days earlier, it was an occasion devoid of a sense of occasion. I would honestly have preferred Trump to ride in on the QAnon shaman. Instead, and not to get all British about state events, the world was forced to watch a quite staggeringly inept and lo-fi ceremony. You constantly expected someone to grab the mic and say: “Could the owner of a red Honda Civic please move your car as it’s blocking in the burger van.” Or maybe, as viewers round the globe sat waiting in mortified vain for singer Carrie Underwood’s basic backing track to kick in, to announce: “Apologies, ladies and gents, we have a tech fail. Is there anyone who knows about tech in the house?”

Trump took a whistlestop world tour from his Oval Office desk, touching on topics including imposing tariffs, rebuilding Gaza and withdrawing (again) from the Paris climate agreement and the WHO

• Donald Trump returns to office – live updates

Donald Trump said he planned to impose 25% tariffs on both Canada and Mexico and withdrew from a signature international climate treaty during an impromptu, wide-ranging news conference from the Oval Office where he tackled topics from trade wars to TikTok and said he was “not confident” that the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel would hold.

The offhand remarks came as Trump signed a flurry of executive orders on domestic and international politics, including a decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, which analysts have warned could hamper efforts to fight future pandemics.

The cold forced the speeches indoors but it didn’t stop Donald Trump from announcing a flurry of executive orders dismantling much of the work of his predecessor. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the US commentator Molly Jong-Fast about what a virtual declaration of war against an American ally, a promise to “expand America’s territory” and a couple of declarations of emergency say about what we can expect from the next four years

People worldwide take to the streets after Donald Trump was sworn in as US president on Monday

On first day back as president, Trump signs letter giving notice to UN of US exit from treaty seeking to curb climate crisis effects

• What executive orders did Trump sign on day one?

Donald Trump on Monday moved to withdraw the US, the world’s second biggest emitter of planet-heating pollution, from the Paris climate agreement for a second time, and put the United Nations on notice.

On his first day back as president, Trump signed an executive order on stage in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC which he said was aimed at quitting what he called the “unfair one-sided Paris climate accord rip off”.

A look at the events and festivities in Washington as Donald Trump and JD Vance are sworn into office