AS IN MOST marriages of convenience, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy junior make unusual bedfellows. One enjoys junk food, hates exercise and loves oil. The other talks of clean food, getting America moving again and wants to eliminate oils of all sorts (from seed oil to Mr Trump’s beloved “liquid gold”). One has called the covid-19 vaccine a “miracle”, the other is a long-term vaccine sceptic. Yet on November 14th Mr Trump announced that Mr Kennedy was his pick for secretary of health and human services (HHS).

MIKE JOHNSON, the speaker of the House of Representatives, became all but guaranteed to keep his job for another two years after receiving Donald Trump’s backing on November 13th. Yet Mr Trump conspicuously withheld an endorsement in another congressional leadership contest the same day, and Senate Republicans elected John Thune as their next majority leader. The South Dakotan now has the unenviable task of managing a busy legislative schedule while also trying to reconcile the demands of his own caucus, an unruly lower chamber and an emboldened and mercurial president.

“IT IS CLEAR the next administration will try to do a U-turn and reverse much of this progress,” declared John Podesta, America’s climate tsar, at a UN climate summit held this week in Azerbaijan. His statement to the gathered greens and diplomats acknowledged a shared anxiety. Donald Trump has vowed to yank America out of the UN’s Paris climate agreement for a second time. Meanwhile conservative energy wonks around Mr Trump want him to make a push in three areas.