Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th US president at the US Capitol in Washington. He declared 'democracy has prevailed', during a ceremony at the US Capitol, where two weeks ago a swarm of supporters loyal to his predecessor stormed the building in a violent but futile last stand to overturn the results of the election
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‘This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge’: Joe Biden calls for unity in first speech as president – live
- Biden sworn in at inauguration ceremony
- Kamala Harris is US’s first female, Black and south Asian vice-president
- Trump tells Americans ‘have a good life’ as he exits White House
- Outgoing president leaves note for Biden
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In the moments following Joe Biden taking his oath of office, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, published an open letter to Biden congratulating him on his entry into office.
“I extend cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office.”
Pope Francis sends message to President Biden:
“I likewise ask God...to guide your efforts to foster understanding, reconciliation and peace within the United States and among the nations of the world in order to advance the universal common good” #PopeFrancis #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/DgoTNjBCgV
At least two Republican senators praised Joe Biden’s inaugural speech, saying it represented a necessary moment of unity for the nation.
Mitt Romney of Utah said Biden’s speech was “very strong and very much needed”. “We as a nation come together if we are told the truth,” Romney said.
ROMNEY praises Biden address “ I thought it was very strong and very much needed. We as a nation come together if we are told the truth. And if we have leaders who stand for enduring American principles”
“I thought it was very good. Very uplifting,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski tells us of her reaction to Biden’s speech.
“All the other speakers really seemed to complement the president’s words. I thought it was very well done. I thought it was what we needed.”
European leaders hail ‘new dawn’ for ties with US under Biden
Leaders say Europe again has a friend in the White House but differences with US will not disappear
European leaders have voiced relief at Joe Biden’s inauguration, hailing a “new dawn” for Europe and the US, but warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and that transatlantic ties will be different in future.
“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, told MEPs. “Once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”
Continue reading...‘It gives us hope’: migrants stranded in Mexico buoyed by prospect of Biden reform
The president-elect has promised to do away with ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, raising hopes that asylum seekers claims will be treated seriously
Selma López, 31, has spent nearly a year holed up in a two-room house not far from Mexico’s border with the US, along with her 11-year-old son Darikson and another woman who also made the long journey from Honduras in search of a new life.
Related: Remain in Mexico policy needlessly exposed migrants to harm, report says
Continue reading...Biden prepares ambitious agenda even as he cleans up Trump’s mess | Analysis
The new administration faces no shortage of obstacles to progress – but Biden is setting his sights high nonetheless
The last time a Democratic president took control of the White House, the wreckage he inherited was so great, there was little else his incoming team could prioritize.
Twelve years ago, Barack Obama’s blunt-spoken chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, liked to describe the Republican legacy – a financial crisis, deep recession and two wars – as a giant shit sandwich wrapped in a red ribbon.
Continue reading...Trump to hold early morning sendoff ceremony on Biden inauguration day
Outgoing president has issued invites for event taking place in Maryland at 8am on Wednesday
Donald Trump is planning an early morning sendoff event for himself at a military airfield in Maryland on Wednesday several hours before his successor, Joe Biden, is inaugurated as the 46th US president at the Capitol in Washington DC.
For his last presidential ceremony, Trump reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair.
Continue reading...Tense calm in Washington as small pro-Trump groups gather at state capitols across US – live
- NSA ‘moving forward’ to install GOP operative as its top lawyer
- Biden orders will reverse Trump on climate, Iran, Covid
- President exits having cleaved Republican party in two
- Robert Reich: Biden cannot govern from the center
- America is broken: can Biden and Harris put it back together?
The FBI announced that authorities had arrested the guitarist of heavy metal band Iced Earth in connection to the Capitol riot.
Jon Schaffer was allegedly among those who sprayed Capitol police with bear spray.
Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection to Jan 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Schaffer faces 6 charges including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with "bear spray."
Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada, has responded to the report that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.
“The Keystone XL pipeline represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now,” he writes.
I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.
My full statement: pic.twitter.com/vZjun1IdMH
Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters
- America on edge as troops guard state capitols
- Biden orders will reverse Trump on climate, Iran, Covid
- US politics – live coverage
Joe Biden will deliver a message of national unity when he assumes the presidency on Wednesday, seeking to begin healing a country fractured by the acrimony of Donald Trump’s administration and ongoing threats of violence by his supporters.
Related: America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?
Continue reading...America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?
The US is riven with stark inequalities, rising white supremacist terror and large numbers who believe the election was stolen. The new administration faces a truly daunting challenge
In another age, Joe Biden’s promise to heal the nation might have been regarded as the kind of blandishment expected from any new leader taking power after the divisive cut and thrust of an American election.
Related: Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other
Continue reading...Joe Biden names scientific advisers and seeks to bring Eric Lander into cabinet
- Human Genome Project co-leader to be chief science voice
- Biden must find words for a wounded nation
Joe Biden has named the geneticist Eric Lander as his top scientific adviser and will elevate the position to the cabinet for the first time, a move meant to indicate a decisive break from Donald Trump’s treatment of science.
Related: History-maker Kamala Harris will wield real power as vice-president
Continue reading...‘My neighbourhood is being destroyed to pacify his supporters’: the race to complete Trump’s wall
In his final months in office, Donald Trump has ramped up construction on his promised physical border between the US and Mexico – devastating wildlife habitats and increasing the migrant death toll
At Sierra Vista Ranch in Arizona near the Mexican border, Troy McDaniel is warming up his helicopter. McDaniel, tall and slim in a tan jumpsuit, began taking flying lessons in the 80s, and has since logged 2,000 miles in the air. The helicopter, a cosy, two-seater Robinson R22 Alpha is considered a work vehicle and used to monitor the 640-acre ranch, but it’s clear he relishes any opportunity to fly. “We will have no fun at all,” he deadpans.
McDaniel and his wife, Melissa Owen, bought their ranch and the 100-year-old adobe house that came with it in 2003. Years before, Owen began volunteering at the nearby Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, and fell in love with the beauty and natural diversity of the area, as well as the quiet of their tiny town. That all changed last July when construction vehicles and large machinery started “barrelling down the two-lane state road”, says Owen.
Continue reading...Nuclear stand-off: can Joe Biden avert a new arms race?
Analysis: new president will face threats on multiple fronts, including from Russia and Iran, and must decide future of US arsenal
Joe Biden will have to make critical decisions on arms control in his first days in the White House that could determine whether a new nuclear arms race can be averted, and possibly reversed.
When the new president takes the oath of office on 20 January, there will be 16 days left before the 2010 New Start treaty with Russia expires, and with it the last binding limit on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals left standing in the wake of the Trump era.
Continue reading...James Comey: Donald Trump should not be prosecuted after leaving office
- Fired FBI director: next attorney general must ‘foster trust’
- President has insulted Comey and threatened him with jail
Donald Trump should not be prosecuted once he leaves the White House no matter how much evidence has been amassed against him, the former FBI director James Comey writes in a new book.
Related: Trump call to Georgia secretary of state electrifies voters in Senate runoffs
Continue reading...Biden seeks term-defining wins in Georgia runoffs Trump called ‘illegal’
Contests will decide control of Senate and how far Biden can reach on issues such as pandemic, healthcare, taxation and environment
Campaigning continued in Georgia on Saturday in two Senate runoff elections which will define much of Joe Biden’s first term in office.
Related: Biden wants to fill federal court seats – but he needs to win the Senate first
Continue reading...2021 – the story of a year in 12 leaders
In 2021, the world will slowly begin to fight back against Covid. But what else will change as the vaccines are administered? Here are the figures who will shape a vital year
Joe Biden United States
Continue reading...How Joe Biden’s cold war experience will shape his approach to Russia
President-elect’s formative years of going toe-to-toe with the USSR on arms control hint at how he may deal with Putin
It was 1988, near the end of the cold war, when then-senator Joe Biden made yet another visit to the Soviet Union for talks on arms control. By that time, he felt comfortable enough in Moscow to bring a guest into the room: his teenage son.
“Would you mind my son, Hunter Biden, sitting in and listening? The gentleman is interested in international affairs and diplomacy,” he said, according to Victor Prokofiev, the Soviet foreign ministry interpreter at the meeting.
Continue reading...Joe Biden won’t inherit Trump’s millions of Twitter followers
Move marks a departure from past practice as in 2017 Twitter transferred followers of Obama administration accounts to Trump
Joe Biden will not inherit Donald Trump’s millions of followers on the official president of the United States and White House Twitter accounts when he assumes the presidency, marking a departure from past social media practice, the Democratic president-elect’s team said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Trickle-down economics doesn’t work but build-up does – is Biden listening? | Robert Reich
A new study confirms tax cuts for the rich do not benefit the rest. Recovery from the pandemic is a chance to change course
How should the huge financial costs of the pandemic be paid for, as well as the other deferred needs of society after this annus horribilis?
Continue reading...‘Folks, we’re in crisis’: Joe Biden introduces environmental advisers
President-elect announces racially diverse team to face ‘existential threat of our time’
President-elect Joe Biden announced a racially diverse slate of environmental advisers on Saturday, to help his administration confront what he called “the existential threat of our time, climate change”.
Related: US to hold world climate summit early next year and seek to rejoin Paris accord
Continue reading...Microsoft seeks Biden’s support in case against Israeli spyware firm
Microsoft’s president says NSO Group enables more nation-states to deploy cyber-attacks, including against journalists and activists
Microsoft has called on the incoming Biden administration to weigh in on a high-profile legal case involving WhatsApp and NSO Group, the Israeli spyware firm that the US software company said was helping to proliferate cyber-weapons.
Comparing NSO Group to 21st-century mercenaries, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, claimed that the rise of private companies that engineer cybersecurity attacks meant that an increasing number of nation-states could now deploy cyber-attacks – including against journalists and human rights activists.
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