From a Cesar Chavez bust and the removal of portraits, to a desk piled high with orders tearing up Trump’s legacy
The Oval Office has long symbolised the power and grandeur of the US presidency, and incoming White House incumbents traditionally change the decor to reflect the tone of their administration.
Joe Biden has unveiled the new ceremonial backdrop to his administration, marking a number of significant changes from that of his predecessor.
Continue reading...Germany says first case of Brazilian version of virus discovered in Hesse; AstraZeneca blames production glitch for delivery shortfall
Belgium is banning all leisure travel abroad for its citizens as of next week and until March in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19, AP reports.
Prime minister Alexander De Croo said that “when people travel, the virus travels with them.”
Public outrage is growing in Spain as cases of politicians and well-connected opportunists jumping the queue in the coronavirus vaccination campaign come to light, even as delivery delays have forced some regions to stop new inoculations, AP reports.
Spain’s defence ministry has been the latest governmental department to launch an internal inquiry to find out if the military top brass dodged coronavirus vaccine protocols by receiving a jab before their turn.
Continue reading...Dr Anthony Fauci made not-so-veiled critiques of the Trump administration during a White House press briefing on Thursday. He said the new administration meant he did not need to ‘guess’ when he didn’t know the answer to questions.
The health expert said the new administration felt ‘liberating’ and he did not take pleasure correcting the president and facing consequences for doing so.
But Fauci pushed back against the characterization from some Biden officials that the new administration has to start ‘from scratch’ on coronavirus vaccine distribution
Continue reading...Treaty signatories include Africa’s most populous country and Europe’s least populated, but Russia and Nato on the sidelines
An international treaty banning all nuclear weapons that has been signed by 51 countries and that campaigners hope will help raise the profile of global deterrence efforts comes into force on Friday.
Although in some respects the step is largely symbolic because the world’s nuclear powers have not signed up, the treaty will be legally binding on the smaller nations that have endorsed it, and it is backed by the UN leadership.
Continue reading...Joe Biden has urged Americans to wear face masks for 99 days as part of a challenge for his first 100 days in office during a speech on Thursday in which he unveiled his administrations’s national Covid strategy.
Biden signed an executive order to mandate face coverings during interstate travel and within federal buildings as he noted the US coronavirus death toll is higher than that from the second world war.
Continue reading...Administration’s strategy is based on seven major goals, including restoring public trust in government efforts
Joe Biden signed another set of executive actions on Thursday, his first full day in the White House, aimed at making good on his plans to use the might of the federal government to end the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Federal judge directed that Riley June Williams be released into the custody of her mother, with travel restrictions
A Pennsylvania woman facing charges that she helped steal a laptop from the office of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, during the attack on the US Capitol will be released from jail, a federal judge decided on Thursday.
US magistrate judge Martin Carlson directed that Riley June Williams be released into the custody of her mother, with travel restrictions, and instructed her to appear on Monday in federal court in Washington to continue her case.
Continue reading...Joe Biden wasted no time as the newly elected president of the United States by signing a flurry of executive orders on issues including Covid-19, immigration and the environment.
Some of the executive actions undo policies from Donald Trump’s administration, including halting the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, and ending the national emergency declaration used to justify funding construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border
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The American Medical Association has welcomed the Biden administration’s moves to boost the production of PPE and vaccines.
“Since March, the AMA has called on the federal government to implement a coordinated national strategy and pull every lever to ramp up PPE production for N95 masks, gowns, gloves, as well as testing supplies - and coordinate distribution,” said the organization’s president, Susan R. Bailey.
Thank goodness pic.twitter.com/mDZdR9FVIR
McConnell said in a statement that he has sent a timeline for the impeachment trial to Schumer, implying that rushing a trial would be unfair.
“Senate Republicans are strongly united behind the principle that the institution of the Senate, the office of the presidency, and former President Trump himself all deserve a full and fair process that respects his rights and the serious factual, legal, and constitutional questions at stake,” he said.
Move aimed at tackling spread of new variant; Cloth masks ‘fail to provide enough protection’; Rio carnival cannot be held even in middle of year, warns city mayor
Japan’s government has privately concluded the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, The Times has reported, citing an unnamed senior member of the ruling coalition.
The government’s focus is now on securing the games for Tokyo in the next available year, 2032, the newspaper said.
French president Emmanuel Macron said France will make PCR tests compulsory for all travellers into France from Sunday, including from fellow EU countries, Reuters reports.
Cross-border workers and land transportation will be exempt from that obligation, the French presidency added. The test will have to be carried out no later than 72 hours before departure.
Continue reading...Former US presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton spoke together at the inauguration of Joe Biden and underlined the importance of a peaceful transfer of power.
The former leaders highlighted the importance of listening to people with different opinions and recognising our common humanity
Continue reading...Early in Trump’s presidency, emboldened neo-Nazi and fascist groups came out into the open but were met with widespread revulsion. So the tactics of the far right changed, becoming more insidious – and much more successful
In March 2018, on a cold, grey Monday afternoon in East Lansing, Michigan, about 500 militant antifascists gathered in a car park with the intention of stopping Richard Spencer, the high-profile white nationalist, from speaking at Michigan State University (MSU). Spencer had not been asked to come by any student group on campus, but had instead invited himself. After the university denied his initial request to speak a few months earlier, Spencer sued. As part of the settlement agreement, Spencer agreed to speak in the middle of spring break at the MSU Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education, a venue more than a mile away from the main campus.
There in the parking lot, the antifascists kept one another warm, dancing to hardcore and hip-hop played over a wheeled-in guitar amplifier, sharing cigarettes and news from elsewhere. Some people talked about the leaked chat logs of the fascist gang Patriot Front, members of which were on their way to campus that very moment. Others discussed the arraignment of one of Spencer’s followers the night before on weapons charges after he pulled a gun on protesters. About 40 police officers in riot gear huddled at the far end of the car park. Bike cops on patrol swirled by.
Continue reading...President has vowed to rejoin Paris agreement, cut fossil fuel reliance, and invest in low-carbon growth
Joe Biden’s pledges of strong action on the climate crisis have buoyed international hopes that 2021 can be a breakthrough year, resetting the world on a greener path to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate experts cheered the inauguration of the new US president, who has vowed to rejoin the Paris agreement, rethink US reliance on fossil fuels, and devote hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus spending to low-carbon economic growth.
Continue reading...Anthony Levandowski’s pardon had the support of billionaire Peter Thiel, who donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign
In his final hours of office, Donald Trump pardoned a former Google engineer who was convicted of stealing trade secrets from the company before taking up a new role with competitor Uber.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris was just one political pioneer on a day of celebration and solemnity amid the pandemic
Continue reading...Joe Biden promised to marshal a spirit of national unity in a wide-ranging speech that addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis and political polarisation. 'I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days,' Biden said. 'I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. I also know they are not new'
Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
Biden declared that 'democracy has prevailed' during a ceremony that honoured the ritual transfer of power at the US Capitol, where exactly two weeks ago a swarm of supporters loyal to his predecessor stormed the building in a violent and futile last bid to overturn the result of the election.
Kamala Harris also made history as she was sworn in as America's first female, black and Asian-American vice-president. Other highlights of the day included the US youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, who received a standing ovation for her recital her poem, The Hill We Climb
Continue reading...After four years in a heightened state of alert, many people the world over now hope that sanity will return
For four years the world had held its breath, but at last came the moment to exhale. Ever since noon on 20 January 2017, when Donald Trump took the oath that made him president of the United States, the people of the planet had found themselves in a state of heightened alert: what new madness might the most powerful man on earth unleash? Within months, he had seemed to threaten nuclear war with North Korea – in a tweet directed at Kim Jong-un, he boasted that “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” – and there were days when it seemed rational to wonder if America, and the rest of us, would even survive four years of a Trump presidency.
Eleven minutes before noon local time, it became possible to breathe out once more. Joe Biden recited the magical incantation by which a single US citizen is transformed into the head of government, head of state and symbol of the republic. As he uttered the words “So help me God,” his hand on a thick Bible, a wave of blessed relief rippled through millions of Americans – and all those, anywhere, who had lived through the stress of the Trump era. The TV networks had helpfully shown footage of the military aide who carries the nuclear “football”, the case containing the codes required to launch the mighty US atomic arsenal, and there was comfort in knowing that that aide now answered to Biden, not the man who a few hours earlier had fled to his resort in Florida.
Continue reading...Speaking for the first time as president, Joe Biden called unity ‘the path forward’ for the US. ‘I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days,’ Biden said. ‘I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. I also know they are not new.’
In a speech that touched on issues ranging from the coronavirus pandemic and climate change to racial injustice, Biden insisted that the solution was for the country to come together
Chinese foreign ministry announced sanctions against Mike Pompeo and 27 others as Biden was taking presidential oath
China has said it wants to cooperate with Joe Biden’s new US administration, while announcing sanctions against the “lying and cheating” outgoing secretary of state Mike Pompeo and 27 other top officials under Donald Trump.
The move was a sign of China’s anger, especially at an accusation Pompeo made on his final full day in office that China had committed genocide against its Uighur Muslims, an assessment that Biden’s choice to succeed Pompeo, Anthony Blinken, said he shared.
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