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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

McConnell proposes delaying Trump's trial as Biden details Covid strategy – as it happened

Mitch McConnell walks to the Senate chamber on Thursday.
Mitch McConnell walks to the Senate chamber on Thursday. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Summary

Here’s a review of today’s news, from Joan E Greve and me:

  • Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic. The president asked the country to “mask up” for 100 days to limit the spread of the virus, and he announced travelers flying into the US would be required to test negative for coronavirus and then quarantine upon arrival.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said it was “liberating” to “let the science speak” now that Biden has been sworn in. Appearing in the White House briefing room for the first time since the inauguration, Fauci criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic. Fauci told reporters, “It was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact.”
  • About 900,000 Americans filed for initial jobless claims last week, as the US economy continues to suffer as a result of the pandemic. The alarming figure underscores the monumental task Biden faces as he takes office.
  • Nancy Pelosi declined to specify when she will transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate, instead simply saying she will do so “soon”. The Democratic House speaker said the Senate has signaled it is ready to receive the article, which charges Donald Trump with incitement of insurrection in connection to the Capitol riot. On a call with Republican senators, Republican leader Mitch McConnell suggested that pushing the trial back by a week or more would allow Donald Trump to better prepare.

Updated

US residents: what are your hopes for Biden's presidency?

From the Guardian community team:

Joe Biden has entered the White House as America’s 46th president. Taking his oath of office, he told his country it had been “a day of victory and hope” and appealed for unity.

We’d like to hear from US residents, whether you voted for or against the president, about your hopes and concerns for his presidency. What issues do you think the government needs to address first?

Fill out our form here:

Updated

Following Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s swearing in on Wednesday, the Golden state once again has allies in the White House when it comes to environmental protections.

Faced with a host of challenges caused by the climate crisis, including growing water scarcity, intensifying heat waves and an ever more dire wildfire risk, environmental regulations are high on California’s policy priority list. The Biden administration shares many of the state’s concerns, and isn’t wasting any time in addressing the deregulation efforts of the previous administration.

On his first day in office, Biden released a long, non-exclusive list of Trump policies that will be up for review as part of his new initiative to prioritize public health and climate change. The list is intended as a roadmap for US officials, especially those at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Interior where Trump made significant headway in gutting regulations, and shows how the president plans to use his ambitious environmental goals to bring the country back in line.

Many of his outlined priorities neatly align with California’s goals and will ring familiar in the state. “The really ambitious goals that [Biden] has in his plan, a lot of them are modeled on California,” said Jared Blumenfeld, the state’s top environmental regulator, told Politico. “We really want to work with the administration to show what is possible. Whether it’s his goal of getting 2035 carbon-free energy or how we think about zero-emission vehicles or building standards or all the things we’ve done over the last 30 years, what we want to do is work with him to scale that.”

Read more:

Updated

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.

“We are hopeful that the steps taken today will quickly fix the supply chain issues that have plagued the US for many months,” she said.

Many nurses, doctors, and public health experts found themselves increasingly politicized, pushing back against leaders who denied science and undermined commonsense public health policy.

Though the Biden administration still has proved that it can follow through on promises to pull the country out of the largest public health crisis in more than a century, health experts have welcomed the president’s friendlier stance toward the scientific and medical communities.

Updated

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.

McConnell said he wants the House impeachment managers to send impeachment articles next week. “While we do not know what day the Managers will choose, Leader McConnell has asked for this to occur on Thursday, January 28,” his offiice said.

Then he wants Trump to have a week to respond. His approach “tracks the structure of the Clinton and Trump pre-trial processes”, his office said, before immediately admitting: “The periods between due dates are longer than in 1999 or 2020, but this is necessary because of the House’s unprecedented timeline.”

Democrats have said they want to speed the impeachment along, so it does not distract from their ability to address other issues – including the passage of a coronavirus relief bill.

Updated

Mitch McConnell proposes pushing back Trump impeachment trial

On a call with Republican senators, McConnell suggested that pushing the trial back by a week or more would allow Donald Trump to better prepare.

The AP reports:

House Democrats who voted to impeach Trump last week for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riots have signaled they want a quick trial as President Joe Biden begins his term, saying a full reckoning is necessary before the country — and the Congress — can move on.

But McConnell told his fellow GOP senators on a call Thursday that a short delay would give Trump time to prepare and stand up his legal team, ensuring due process.

Indiana Sen. Mike Braun said after the call that the trial might not begin “until sometime mid-February.” He said that was “due to the fact that the process as it occurred in the House evolved so quickly, and that it is not in line with the time you need to prepare for a defense in a Senate trial.”

The timing will be set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who can trigger the start of the trial when she sends the House charges for “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate, and also by McConnell and new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who are in negotiations over how to set up a 50-50 partisan divide in the Senate and the short-term agenda.

Although Democrat Chuck Schumer is now Senate leader, because the body is split 50-50, he will have to coordinate with Republicans to some extent to move the trial forward.

Here’s a look at some of the top moments from Fauci’s briefing:

During the first coronavirus briefing in a long time, Fauci provided a more hopeful view of the future than we’ve heard in a while.

As the Biden administration endeavors to ramp up the production and distribution of vaccines, Fauci said that “if we get the majority of Americans – 70 to 85% – vaccinated” by the summer, “we can have a degree of herd immunity to get us back to normal”.

Supply shortages and a disorganized vaccine rollout have left some states scrambling to meet vaccination goals set at the end of last year. “The best case for me is that we’d get 85% of the people vaccinated by the end of the summer,” Fauci said.

Updated

Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator of New Jersey, is now urging senators to vote on Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken.

“It is irresponsible” to not have the position filled during a time when global coordination is necessary, and global threats abound.

Jim Risch, a Republican of Idaho, remains at the helm of the foreign relations committee. Although Democrats have the majority (by one, tie-breaking vote), party leaders have not yet agreed on how to allocate committee positions. Blinken had a confirmation hearing with the foreign relations committee a few days ago. Jim Inhofe, a Republican of Oklahoma, echoed Menendez and said he supported confirming Blinken right away.

Updated

House and Senate approve waiver for Austin to become defense secretary

The House has approved a waiver for Lloyd Austin to become the secretary of defense, in a vote of 326 to 78. The Senate voted 69-27 to do the same.

Because Austin left the military less than seven years ago, the retired general needs a waiver from Congress before he can be confirmed by the Senate.

The Senate armed services committee favorably voted out Austin’s nomination earlier today, setting up a full Senate vote in the near future.

If Austin is confirmed, as is widely expected, he will become the first African American in US history to lead the defense department.

Today so far

Jen Psaki has just concluded the White House briefing, and that’s it from me today. My west coast colleague Maanvi Singh will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic. The president asked the country to “mask up” for 100 days to limit the spread of the virus, and Biden announced travelers flying into the US would be required to test negative for coronavirus and then quarantine upon arrival.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said it was “liberating” to “let the science speak” now that Biden has been sworn in. Appearing in the White House briefing room for the first time since the inauguration, Fauci criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic. Fauci told reporters, “It was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact.”
  • About 900,000 Americans filed for initial jobless claims last week, as the US economy continues to suffer as a result of the pandemic. The alarming figure underscores the monumental task Biden faces as he takes office.
  • Nancy Pelosi declined to specify when she will transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate, instead simply saying she will do so “soon”. The Democratic speaker said the Senate has signaled it is ready to receive the article, which charges Donald Trump with incitement of insurrection in connection to the Capitol riot.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Jen Psaki defended Joe Biden’s goal to distribute 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days as president.

There has been some recent criticism that the goal is not ambitious enough, given that the country distributed an average of 912,497 vaccine doses per day last week.

Psaki responded that over the past several weeks, the Trump administration distributed an average of 500,000 vaccine doses per day, so this goal represents a doubling of that rate.

Jen Psaki received a question about the Hatch Act, the law that bars federal employees from engaging in certain kinds of political activities.

The Trump administration was frequently accused of violating the Hatch Act, particularly after the president hosted the final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention at the White House.

“You will not see a political rally on the South Lawn of the White House under a President Biden,” the White House press secretary said.

Jen Psaki was asked whether Joe Biden supports the proposal from the DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, to get a DC statehood bill on his desk within 100 days.

The White House press secretary did not directly answer, instead saying she would have to “circle back” after talking to the president.

Biden has broadly voiced support for DC statehood, but it’s unclear whether he will make it an early priority of his administration.

Updated

Speaking after Dr Anthony Fauci, Jen Psaki dodged a question about whether Joe Biden supports eliminating the Senate filibuster.

The White House press secretary said Biden based his campaign around “working together and bipartisanship” to address America’s problems.

“That is his priority and is his preference, so that’s what he’ll continue to work on,” Psaki said.

Another reporter tried to push Psaki further on the matter, but the press secretary repeated her line that the president would prefer bipartisan cooperation to advance his agenda.

Senate Democrats have voiced openness to the idea of eliminating the filibuster, which would lower the number of votes needed to pass bills from 60 to 51, and Republican leader Mitch McConnell has urged Biden not to support the proposal.

Fauci: It is 'liberating' to be able to 'let the science speak' after Trump's departure

Dr Anthony Fauci did not shy away from describing the “liberating” feeling of being able to actually discuss the science of coronavirus after Donald Trump left office.

The infectious disease expert said of Trump’s presidency, “It was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based in scientific fact.”

Trump consistently made unfounded claims about coronavirus and its treatments, even once infamously suggesting that Americans could protect themselves from the virus by ingesting disinfectants.

“I take no pleasure at all being in a situation of contradicting the president, so it was really something that you didn’t feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be any repercussions about it,” Fauci said.

“The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the science is and know that’s it, let the science speak – it is something of a liberating feeling.”

A reporter noted that Fauci’s major media appearances notably declined at one point over the summer. Asked whether this moment marked a return of sorts for him, Fauci replied, “I think so.” The White House press corps laughed in response.

Updated

Dr Anthony Fauci pushed back against the characterization from some Biden officials that the new administration has to start “from scratch” on coronavirus vaccine distribution.

“We certainly are not starting from scratch,” the infectious disease expert said. “We’re coming in with fresh ideas but also some ideas that were not bad ideas from the previous administration.”

Joe Biden has said he has a goal of distributing 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days as president, but the US was already hitting nearly that rate of distribution last week.

Dr Anthony Fauci was asked about Amazon offering to help the Biden administration with the distribution of coronavirus vaccines.

The infectious disease expert said he could not speak to that matter.

Fauci added, in a not-so-veiled critique of the Trump administration, “One of the new things in this administration is, if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say you don’t know the answer.”

Fauci speaks at White House briefing

Dr Anthony Fauci and Jen Psaki, the press secretary for Joe Biden, are now holding a White House briefing.

This marks the first time that Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, has spoken at a White House briefing since Biden was inaugurated yesterday.

Fauci acknowledged that the US coronavirus death toll, which surpassed 400,000 earlier this week, is “unfortunately historic in a very bad sense”.

But on a much more optimistic note, Fauci said coronavirus cases in the US appear to be “plateauing”.

The House is currently voting on a waiver for Lloyd Austin to become defense secretary, and the measure has already passed a majority level of support.

As of now, 310 members have voted in favor of granting Austin a waiver, and 52 members have not yet voted on the measure.

Because he left the military less than seven years ago, Austin needs a waiver before he can be confirmed by the Senate to lead the Pentagon.

Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Democratic presidential candidate, had his confirmation hearing as incoming transportation secretary in front of a Senate committee earlier this afternoon.

The hearing went relatively smoothly, with Buttigieg saying that he is committed to Joe Biden’s bold national infrastructure plan, tightening safety regulation and working with local governments on their transit issues. The former mayor didn’t offer any specific policy proposals, but outlined his broader vision for the future of the department.

Biden campaigned on broad promises to fix America’s “crumbling infrastructure” and lay a foundation for growth with sustainability, including having every American city with over 100,000 people have zero-emission public transportation options.

“As our country works to emerge from the crises of this moment with a bipartisan appetite for a generational opportunity to transform and improve America’s infrastructure,” Buttigieg said.

He pointed out that transportation policies can exacerbate racial and economic inequality by dividing and isolating neighborhoods.

Some Republican senators have already said they will vote to confirm Buttigieg, though the little pushback he got during his hearing came from Republicans who raised concerned about the price tag of his vision.

“I just want to put on your radar screen that these investments that we want to make in roads and bridges and highways and all these things, we have to address the issue of financing,” said John Thune, a Republican senator from South Dakota.

Joe Biden has just signed a series of executive orders aimed at addressing the coronavirus pandemic, which has already claimed more than 400,000 American lives.

The president said one of the orders will require travelers into the US to receive a negative coronavirus test before flying and then quarantine upon their arrival.

“In light of the new Covid variants that you’re learning about, we are instituting now a new measure for individuals flying into the United States from other countries,” Biden said.

After Biden signed the orders, a reporter asked the president whether his goal to distribute 100 million vaccine doses over the next 100 days is not ambitious enough to get coronavirus under control.

Biden replied, “When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible. Come on. Give me a break, man. It’s a good start -- 100 million.”

According to Bloomberg, the US averaged 912,497 vaccine doses per day last week. Here’s what a Bloomberg healthcare editor said about Biden’s goal:

Updated

Biden asks Americans to 'mask up' for his first 100 days in office

Joe Biden once again asked Americans to “mask up” for the next 100 days to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The new president said he would be signing an executive order to mandate face masks during interstate travel.

Biden noted that the US coronavirus death toll, which surpassed 400,000 earlier this week, is higher than the country’s death toll from World War II.

With that in mind, Biden said he will sign an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to accelerate the production of supplies needed to test, vaccinate and protect Americans.

“This is a wartime undertaking,” Biden said.

Updated

Biden: US Covid death toll will likely hit 500,000 next month

Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration, without mentioning his predecessor’s name, for overseeing a “dismal failure” of a vaccine rollout.

“For the past year, we couldn’t rely on the federal government to act with the urgency and focus and coordination we needed,” the president said. “And we have seen the tragic cost of that failure.”

Biden touted his administration’s plans on confronting the pandemic, but he once again acknowledged that “things are going to continue to get worse before they get better”.

The president noted that he and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, attended a memorial on Tuesday for the more than 400,000 Americans who have already died of coronavirus.

“The memorial we we held two nights ago will not be our last one,” Biden said. “Unfortunately, the death toll will likely top 500,000 next month.”

Updated

Biden holds event on coronavirus pandemic

Joe Biden has (finally) arrived in the White House’s State Dining Room for his event on addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden opened the event by thanking the law enforcement officers who secured the inauguration yesterday, amid intensified security concerns due to the Capitol riot earlier this month.

The president described the socially distanced inauguration as an “unprecedented situation” that would hopefully never be repeated.

Time check: Joe Biden is about 45 minutes late for his event to sign executive orders on the coronavirus pandemic.

The new president was early to his inauguration yesterday, taking the oath of office before the constitutionally mandated time of noon on January 20.

But Biden is well known for arriving late to events, often because of his long conversations with aides. Reporters joked yesterday that the inauguration was the first and last time Biden would ever arrive early for an event.

Dr Anthony Fauci spoke to reporters as they waited for Joe Biden to make remarks about his plans to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci said he received his second dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, and he felt a bit “knocked out” for about 24 hours afterwards.

The infectious disease expert told Bloomberg News that he felt “fatigued” and “a little achy” but “not sick” after getting his second dose.

Fauci also expressed confidence that the country would soon be distributing an average of 1m vaccine doses a day, as Biden seeks to follow through on his promise of 100m doses delivered during his first 100 days in office.

Asked whether Dr Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator, would have any role in the Biden administration, Fauci replied, “Not to my knowledge.”

Updated

The House is now debating whether to grant a waiver to Lloyd Austin to become the secretary of defense.

Because Austin left the military less than seven years ago, the retired general needs a waiver before he can be confirmed by the Senate.

Nancy Pelosi said earlier today that she expected the House to approve Austin’s waiver, and he will likely be confirmed by the Senate as well.

If confirmed, Austin would be the first African American to lead the defense department.

Mitch McConnell is fiercely defending the Senate filibuster, as Democrats weigh the possibility of eliminating the legislative mechanism.

“Minority rights on legislation are key to the Senate. President Biden spent decades defending them. More than two dozen Senate Democrats backed them just four years ago,” McConnell said in a tweet.

“This isn’t complicated. Simply reaffirming that Democrats won’t break the rules should not be a heavy lift.”

If Democrats were to eliminate the filibuster, it would be much easier for them to advance Biden’s agenda in a 50-50 Senate. Even centrist Democrats like Joe Manchin have not ruled out the possibility of scrapping the filibuster.

During his presidency, Donald Trump repeatedly pushed McConnell to eliminate the filibuster, but the Republican leader refused to do so, warning that it would have serious repercussions whenever Democrats regained control of the chamber.

A number of Democrats who support eliminating the filibuster have noted that the mechanism was not devised by the Founding Fathers but rather came about in the antebellum years, as southern lawmakers sought to prevent the abolition of slavery.

Donald Trump is returning to a family business ravaged by pandemic shutdowns and restrictions, with revenue plunging more than 40 percent at his Doral golf property in Florida, his Washington hotel and both his Scottish resorts.

Trump’s financial disclosure released as he left office this week was just the latest bad news for his financial empire after banks, real estate brokerages and golf organizations announced they were cutting ties with his company following the storming of the Capitol this month by his political supporters, The Associated Press reports today.

The disclosure showed sizable debt facing the company of more than $300 million, much of it coming due in the next four years and a major bright spot: revenue at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, his new post-presidency home, rose by a few million dollars.

Eric Trump, who with Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s two oldest sons, has run the Trump Organization business empire for the past four years, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the disclosure doesn’t tell the whole story, calling the debt “negligible” and the outlook for the company bright, especially at its golf resorts and courses.

“The golf business has never been stronger. We took in hundreds and hundreds of new members,” he said, adding that profits were in the “tens of millions.”

Hinting at possible new ventures in the post-presidency era, Eric Trump raised the prospect of a flurry of new licensing deals in which the Trump name is put on a product or building for a fee, a business that has generated tens of millions for the company in the past.

“The opportunities are endless,” he said, declining to offer any details.

The disclosure report filed each year with federal ethics officials shows only revenue figures, not profits, but the hit to Trump’s business appeared widespread.

The National Doral Golf Club outside of Miami, his biggest money maker among the family’s golf properties, took in $44.2 million in revenue, a drop of $33 million from 2019.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, once buzzing with lobbyists and diplomats before operations were cut back last year, generated just $15.1 million in revenue, down more than 60 percent from the year before.

The Turnberry club in Scotland took in less than $10 million, down more than 60 percent. Revenue at the family’s golf club in Aberdeen also dropped by roughly the same proportion.

The Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump arrived yesterday, saw revenue rose 10 percent to $ 24.2 million.

Kerry warns world lagging behind on change needed to prevent catastrophic impacts of climate crisis

Global steps to tackle climate change must be ramped up and the world needs to more aggressively reduce its reliance on coal and other fossil fuels, US special climate envoy John Kerry today, as he put on display the greener stance of Joe Biden’s administration.

John Kerry is seen prior to Joe Biden’s inauguration as president in Washington yesterday.
John Kerry is seen prior to Joe Biden’s inauguration as president in Washington yesterday. Photograph: Getty Images

“Failure at the COP in Glasgow is not an option,” Kerry, referring to an international climate conference scheduled for November in Scotland, said at an online event of the B20 - the G20’s forum of business leaders - being held in Italy, Reuters reports.

In his first appearance as Joe Biden’s climate envoy – a newly created, high-level position – Kerry said the United States is re-entering global climate talks with “humility” after it “walked away from the table for four wasted years” under the former president, Donald Trump, who withdrew the country from the Paris climate agreement.

Biden, who has touted the need to make greater use of clean-energy sources, signed an order on his first day in office yesterday recommitting the US to the agreement.

American participation in the accord is now due to resume on 19 February.

The US is the world’s second biggest emitter, after China, of so-called greenhouse gases blamed by scientists for climate change.

Achieving net-zero global carbon emissions by 2050 is a goal of the Paris accord, which was negotiated during the Obama-Biden administration, in which Kerry served as secretary of state, succeeding Hillary Clinton in the role.

Kerry said the world needs to cut its use of coal and other fossil fuels and called out countries that continue to finance coal plants.

“Some countries are funding coal-fired power plants … Some are increasing coal-fired capacity … I’ll be blunt – we must move from the dirtier options much faster,” Kerry said.

Updated

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden will sign executive orders aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic today. The president made confronting coronavirus, which has already claimed more than 400,000 American lives, a central pledge of his campaign.
  • About 900,000 Americans filed for initial jobless claims last week, as the US economy continues to suffer as a result of the pandemic. The alarming figure underscores the monumental task Biden faces as he takes office.
  • Nancy Pelosi declined to specify when she will transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate, instead simply saying she will do so “soon”. The Democratic speaker said the Senate has signaled it is ready to receive the article, which charges Donald Trump with incitement of insurrection in connection to the Capitol riot.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Wray will stay on as FBI director, the White House confirms

The White House has confirmed that Joe Biden intends to keep Christopher Wray on as FBI director.

Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in a tweet, “I caused an unintentional ripple yesterday so wanted to state very clearly President Biden intends to keep FBI Director Wray on in his role and he has confidence in the job he is doing.”

During her first White House briefing yesterday, a reporter asked Psaki about Wray’s future under the Biden administration.

Psaki replied, “I have not spoken within him about specifically FBI Director Wray in recent days.”

The answer sparked speculation that Biden was considering firing Wray, even though he is only three and a half years through a 10-year term, but the president apparently has no plans to do so.

Updated

Mitch McConnell, who officially became the Senate minority leader yesterday, congratulated Chuck Schumer on taking over as majority leader.

McConnell noted that Schumer, a Democrat of New York, is the first Jewish person in US history to lead either chamber of Congress.

Pivoting to the new administration, McConnell said Senate Republicans are ready to “share ideas and work with the Biden administration.”

But the Republican leader warned Democratic senators against abolishing the filibuster, arguing the 50-50 split in the chamber demonstrates Americans did not want sweeping change after the November elections.

With the filibuster in place, Senate Republicans can block much of Joe Biden’s agenda, and many Democrats have voiced support for dismantling the legislative mechanism.

Kamala Harris has not yet moved into the vice-presidential residence at the Naval Observatory because work is being done on the home, according to the Washington Post.

The Post reports:

The repairs involve liners in the chimney and other maintenance, according to a person close to Harris, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not have authorization to speak publicly.

Harris, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, has a two-bedroom condominium where she will stay during the construction, according to another person familiar with the arrangement.

It was unclear on Wednesday night how extensive the work on the Naval Observatory home would be, how long it would take, and how much it would cost.

And Kevin McCarthy once again declined to hold Donald Trump directly responsible for the Capitol attack, after the former president incited rioters to storm the building.

“I don’t believe he provoked, if you listened to what he said at the rally,” the House minority leader told reporters.

Here’s what Trump said at the rally on January 6: “So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol.” He added moments later, “We’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”

Moments later, rioters attacked the Capitol, resulting in five deaths. A week later, the House impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection.

In contrast to McCarthy, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has acknowledged that Trump provoked the attack.

The Republican leader said on Tuesday, “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

Updated

Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, said he wants Liz Cheney to remain as the Republican conference chairwoman, despite calls for her ouster.

“Liz Cheney has been and continues to be a highly effective and valuable member of our Wyoming delegation,” McCarthy said. “Her strong voice and leadership will matter this next four years more than ever.”

But McCarthy acknowledged there were “questions” that needed to be addressed about Cheney’s leadership, after she supported the impeachment of Donald Trump. A number of House Republicans have since said Cheney should be removed from her leadership position.

“I do believe we’re going to have a conference next week to air the differences, unite individuals and move forward, to work for all Americans,” McCarthy said.

The Democratic chairwoman of the House oversight committee has sent a letter to Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, asking him to investigate the role of the social media platform Parler in the Capitol riot.

“I am writing to request that as part of its comprehensive investigation of the January 6 assault on the Capitol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conduct a robust examination of the role that the social media site Parler played in the assault, including as a potential facilitator of planning and incitement related to the violence, as a repository of key evidence posted by users on its site, and as a potential conduit for foreign governments who may be financing civil unrest in the United States,” Carolyn Maloney wrote to Wray.

“Questions have also been raised about Parler’s financing and its ties to Russia, which the Intelligence Community has warned is continuing to use social media and other measures to sow discord in the United States and interfere with our democracy,” Maloney added. “For example, posters on Parler have reportedly been traced back to Russian disinformation campaigns.”

Parler had become a favorite social media platform for far-right supporters of Donald Trump, due to the company’s very lax rules about content moderation.

After the Capitol riot, Parler was removed from Apple’s App store and Amazon Web Services, severely limiting its reach in the US. Maloney notes in her letter that Parler has reportedly re-emerged on a Russian hosting service.

Pelosi says House will transmit article of impeachment 'soon'

Nancy Pelosi has now concluded her weekly press conference, and she provided no further clarity on when a Senate impeachment trial might begin.

The Democratic speaker said Senate leadership has signaled it is ready to receive the article of impeachment against Donald Trump, which charges the former president with incitement of insurrection.

“It will be soon; it will not be long,” Pelosi said.

The House speaker said that it was important to hold Trump accountable, even though he has already left office.

“Just because he’s now gone, thank God, you don’t say to a president, ‘Do whatever you want in the last months of your administration. You’re going to get a get-out-of-jail card free,’” Pelosi said.

Updated

Nancy Pelosi condemned House members who echoed Donald Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud, which culminated in the violent attack on the Capitol earlier this month.

The Democratic speaker told reporters, “There is no question that there were members in this body who gave aid and comfort to those with the idea that they were embracing a lie -- a lie perpetrated by the president of the United States that the election did not have legitimacy.”

The speaker once again warned that those found to have aided and abetted the Capitol rioters could face prosecution.

Pelosi previously announced she is launching an after-action security review of the Capitol, led by retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré, and she said he would be reviewing all available evidence about how the attack occurred.

Nancy Pelosi declined to provide any clarification on when the House would transmit its article of impeachment to the Senate.

When asked if she could be more exact about the timing of an impeachment trial, Pelosi simply replied, “Nope.” That answer prompted some chuckles from the Capitol Hill press corps.

“There’s no use asking. I’m not going to be telling you when it is going,” the Democratic speaker told reporters.

But Pelosi made clear that she thought it was important to move forward with impeachment, even though Donald Trump is out of office now.

“I don’t think it’s very unifying to say, ‘Oh, let’s just forget it and move on.’ That’s now how you unify.” Pelosi said. “People died here on January 6.”

Nancy Pelosi said she believed the House would approve a waiver for Lloyd Austin to lead the Pentagon when the chamber holds its vote this afternoon.

Because Austin left the military less than seven years ago, the retired general needs a waiver from Congress before he can be confirmed as secretary of defense.

“Once the waiver is approved, I feel confident the Senate will confirm,” the Democratic speaker said.

Pelosi: 'That inauguration was a breath of fresh air for our country'

Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill, and the Democratic speaker celebrated the inauguration of Joe Biden yesterday.

Pelosi described the inauguration as “beautiful” and “so perfect”. She told reporters, “That inauguration was a breath of fresh air for our country.”

The speaker added that she was “overwhelmed with joy” about the two new Democratic senators from Georgia being sworn in yesterday, giving Democrats control of the chamber.

Updated

Biden to keep Wray as FBI director - reports

Joe Biden intends to keep Christopher Wray as FBI director, according to multiple reports.

Wray was confirmed as FBI director in 2017, after Donald Trump fired Jim Comey because of his frustration with the Russia investigation.

But Wray and Trump also bumped heads repeatedly, and the former president reportedly considered firing the FBI director after the bureau failed to provide any kind of last-minute boost to his re-election campaign.

FBI directors usually serve a 10-year term, so if he stays on, Wray would be able to remain in the role until 2027.

Updated

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have just participated in the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service, which was virtual this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden and Harris sat in the White House’s State Dining Room with their spouses – Dr Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff – to participate in the service. Some other members of Biden’s family, including his granddaughter Finnegan, were also in attendance.

A singer at the prayer service offered the new president and vice-president a blessing for their term in office.

The White House press pool was ushered out of the room after a few minutes. Biden did not take any questions.

Updated

Buttigieg testifies at Senate confirmation hearing

Pete Buttigieg, the former Democratic presidential candidate, is currently testifying before the Senate commerce, science and transportation committee.

Joe Biden nominated his former primary rival to lead the transportation department, and the Senate committee will soon vote on Buttigieg’s confirmation to that post.

Buttigieg was introduced at the hearing by Todd Young, a Republican senator from his home state of Indiana, which points to his likely confirmation by the Senate.

Buttigieg said in his opening remarks, “I want you to know that if confirmed, I will work every day to ensure that the department meets its mission of ensuring safety – for both travelers and workers – and I will work closely with Congress to do so.”

The former South Bend mayor also took a moment to introduce his husband, Chasten, who is in the committee hearing room today.

“I want to thank him for his many sacrifices and his support in making it possible for me to pursue public service,” Buttigieg said.

If confirmed, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay cabinet secretary to be confirmed by the Senate.

Updated

Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, announced a change in the chamber’s schedule. The House will now be out next week and will return the week of February 1.

The change may signal that Democrats need more time to figure out how to move forward on the next coronavirus relief bill.

Joe Biden has promised a massive relief package, but the new president has also pledged to seek bipartisan solutions to the country’s problems, and those two goals may be at odds with a 50-50 Senate.

Normally, bills need 60 votes in the Senate to pass. But according to Politico, Democrats are discussing using a budgetary mechanism called reconciliation to pass the bill, which would lower the number of needed Senate votes to 51.

Politico has more details:

In recent days, Democrats on the Hill and incoming administration officials have been privately discussing several potential paths to bringing legislation to the floor quickly. One of the leading options is a powerful budgetary maneuver that would allow Democrats to evade a Senate filibuster and muscle their package through both chambers with virtually no support from Republicans.

But that tool — known as reconciliation — would be a divisive first move for a Biden administration insistent on bipartisanship. It’s also an imperfect process: any bill would likely be limited in scope to comply with strict budget rules, and Democratic leaders would have zero room for error to secure the 51 votes for passage in the Senate. ...

Some House Democrats are also eyeing another possible alternative: a bipartisan bill to dole out quick cash for vaccine distribution and $1,400 stimulus checks that would cost far less than the $1.9 trillion package that Biden initially sought. That path, those Democrats argue, would address two critical areas of relief and deliver a much-needed win in the early weeks of Biden’s term.

And some lawmakers in both parties are still holding out hope for a big, bipartisan bill that moves through both chambers quickly with enough Republican backing that Democrats could hold reconciliation in reserve. That would require support from at least 10 GOP senators to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold — an uncertain outcome.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

House Democrats are discussing the possibility of sending over the article of impeachment as soon as tomorrow, according to CNN.

Once the article is transmitted to the Senate, the chamber must start a trial to determine whether Donald Trump should be convicted, which could result in the former president being barred from seeking federal office again.

But according to CNN, one remaining complicating factor is that Trump still does not have a lawyer to defend him in the Senate trial.

A number of Trump’s former lawyers, who represented him in his first impeachment trial, have already said they don’t want the job.

Joe Biden’s first full day in office has begun with more depressing news on the jobs front. Another 900,000 people filed for unemployment benefits last week - more people than live in San Francisco.

Another 424,000 claims were filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, an emergency federal program for gig workers, freelancers and others normally ineligible for state jobless benefits.

The 900,000 figure was 26,000 lower than the previous week but remains extraordinarily high. Before the pandemic weekly filings typically totaled around 200,000. New restrictions imposed after the latest surges in coronavirus infections have led to a rise in layoffs and until the virus is under control these historically high numbers look set to continue.

By the way, here’s president Joe Biden’s public schedule for today. It’s no “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”

100 days has become a cliched typical measure of a new administration, but John Nichols suggests a faster timetable in an op-ed in The Nation today – ten days. He urges Joe Biden to bury obstruction in a blizzard of executive orders:

Even as Biden issued Wednesday’s orders evidence of the congressional obstruction he will face came into focus, as noxious Missouri Senator Josh Hawley blocked quick consideration of Homeland Security nominee Alejandro Mayorkas. This Democratic president will have a Democratic House and Senate to work with, but the margins are so narrow that the fights on Capitol Hill will be difficult—especially with an impeachment trial in the offing. Biden, a veteran of 36 years in the Senate, is familiar with such difficulties. But he cannot allow obstructionists like Hawley and Texas Senator Ted Cruz—or reluctant Democrats like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin—to delay action. The Biden administration must be prepared to govern by every means necessary. His administration is reportedly preparing to take additional action on coronavirus policies, economic relief, “Buy American” procurement standards, racial equity, climate change, health care, immigration, and international affairs and national security by 1 February. It must do all of that—and more, including the gun violence issues that Kamala Harris proposed to address with executive orders.

Some vital initiatives will take 100 days, or longer. But the identification of this new presidency as an activist response to the failures of the past, and to the demands of the future, requires a first 10 days “blizzard” of executive orders—and it looks like that’s what’s going to happen.

Read more here: The Nation – Forget about ‘100 Days.’ These are the 10 days that will define Biden’s presidency

900,000 Americans filed initial jobless claims last week

The first jobless claims figures of the new administration are not good – around 900,000 Americans filed for initial jobless claims last week.

That’s the seasonally adjusted figure. It’s a dip on the 926,000 recorded for the week ending 9 January, and lower than economists’ projections of 925,000, but it still means that more than 18 million people in the US continue to receive some form of unemployment assistance. The figures jumped dramatically in March as the economic effects of the Covid pandemic began to bite.

You can follow reaction to the news on our business live blog with my colleague Graeme Wearden:

One group of people who will need to adapt to a change in circumstances over the next few weeks and months ahead is the diminished Republican party, which ultimately lost control of the presidency and the Senate in November’s election, despite making gains in the house of Representatives.

Steve Peoples for Associated Press reports that it is likely to be an era of diminished power, deep uncertainty and internal feuding.

He writes that the shift to minority status is always difficult, exacerbated by the fact that over the last four years, the party’s values were inexorably tied to the whims of a president who regularly undermined democratic institutions and traded the party’s longstanding commitment to fiscal discipline, strong foreign policy and the rule of law for a brash and inconsistent populism. The party now faces a decision about whether to keep moving in that direction, as many of Trump’s most loyal supporters demand, or chart a new course.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the few Republican elected officials who regularly condemned Trumpism, evoked President Ronald Reagan in calling this moment “a time for choosing.”

“We have to decide if we’re going to continue heading down the direction of Donald Trump or if we’re going to return to our roots,” Hogan, a potential 2024 White House contender, said in an interview.

“The party would be much better off if they were to purge themselves of Donald Trump,” he added. “But I don’t think there’s any hope of him completely going away.”

Whether the party moves on may come down to what Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz do next.

Cruz spent weeks parroting Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, which helped incite the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. He belatedly acknowledged Biden’s victory on Wednesday, but refused to describe it as legitimate when pressed. “He won the election. He is the president. I just came from his inauguration,” Cruz said of Biden in an interview.

Looking forward, Cruz said Trump would remain a significant part of the political conversation, but that the Republican Party should move away from divisive “language and tone and rhetoric” that alienated suburban voters, particularly women, in recent elections.

“President Trump surely will continue to make his views known, and they’ll continue to have a real impact, but I think the country going forward wants policies that work, and I think as a party, we need to do a better job winning hearts and minds,” said Cruz, who is also eyeing a White House run.

Those close to Trump believe he will lay low in the immediate future as he focuses on his upcoming impeachment trial for inciting the riot. After that, he is expected to reemerge, likely granting media interviews and finding a new home on social media after losing his powerful Twitter bullhorn.

While his plans are just taking shape, Trump is expected to remain politically active, including trying to exact revenge by backing primary challenges against Republicans he believed scorned him in his final days. He continues to leave the door open to another presidential run in 2024. Some friends believe he might even flirt with running as a third-party candidate, which would badly splinter an already fractured Republican party.

Trump issued an ominous vow as he left the White House for the last time as president: “We will be back in some form.”

Psychologist and author Andrew Solomon writes for us this morning, musing that Trump didn’t just change America, he changed Andrew Solomon:

It’s easy and dull to catalogue the president’s particular lies and transgressions. What is both harder and more important is to assess a cumulative effect that he has lacked the perspicacity to discern himself. In seeking to undermine stories in the mainstream media case by case, he convinced many Americans that truth itself was conditional. Americans have always been divided about troubling events, but until Trump, there was at least broad agreement about what those events were. Arguing with Trump’s supporters, one is presented with narratives that bear as much relationship to what happened as creationism does to the theory of evolution.

I never bought into Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” idea of the US; even at its finest, America remained a deeply flawed, prejudiced, unequal society built on the blood of Native Americans and slaves. But flawed, too, were all the others, and the United States offered a message of hope to beleaguered places where the oppression was worse. We had defeated fascism and stood up to communism, Maoist or Stalinist. We sent aid to countries aligned with our commercial and strategic interests, but at least the glowing tinge of generosity sweetened our cultural imperialism. We entangled ourselves in fruitless wars for misbegotten reasons, but also stood by our allies in tough times. Wealth was unevenly distributed, but we emblematised, for a short while, unprecedented social mobility. We also briefly stood at the acme of invention: technical, medical, artistic, even social. How we were was badly lacking, but it seemed good enough to rationalise our talk about moral leadership.

Over the past year, research took me deep into the American hinterlands. In Trump country, I found that ordinary ethics – decency, honesty, generosity, love for one’s fellow human beings, tolerance – were not merely undervalued but effectively desecrated by people who thought such ideals corroded strength and that strength was what mattered. I patiently laid out the argument that abandoning basic standards in fact weakened the country, but I might as well have told the bully who tortured me when I was eight years old that I knew a philosophy within which his assertions of dominance constituted evidence of narcissistic inadequacy. That bully would have punched me in the mouth before I finished my sentence, and so, metaphorically, did the Trumpists.

Read more here: Andrew Solomon – Goodbye, Donald Trump. You changed America. You also changed me

Time magazine’s first cover for the Joe Biden era shows the newly installed president standing in the wreckage of an oval office vacated by Donald Trump.

Biden administration inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan – reports

The pace of new coronavirus infections fell significantly over the past week, but the virus is still out of control, and a more contagious variant is gaining ground, report Axios today.

The US averaged roughly 198,000 new cases per day in the final week of the Trump administration — a 19% drop from the week before, but still a ton of cases.

The number of new daily cases fell in 44 states, compared to the previous week. South Carolina and Virginia were the only states whose outbreaks got worse over the past week.

There’s little reason to believe the US is about to turn the corner on the pandemic, or that this one week of good news will make the Biden administration’s job any easier.

198,000 cases per day is a staggering number of cases — more than enough to continue overwhelming hospitals in some parts of the country. And experts say a more contagious variant of the coronavirus will soon become the dominant strain in the US, allowing the virus to spread even more easily.

That effort by the new Biden administration is not going to be helped by what CNN are reporting this morning. In an article that has caused more than a few jaws to drop on social media this morning, MJ Lee writes:

Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House.

In the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration’s Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former president Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.

“There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch,” one source said.

Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from “square one” because there simply was no plan as: “Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence.”

Read more here: CNN – Biden inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan and must start ‘from scratch,’ sources say

One of those headlines that always makes a journalist think “There but for the grace of the dear lord…”

Fauci: US to repeal 'global gag' anti-abortion rule on aid

The Biden administration will repeal anti-abortion restrictions on American aid and join the international vaccine-sharing scheme Covax, Anthony Fauci has announced in remarks signalling a major turnaround in US global health policy.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced the changes in a speech to the World Health Organization on Thursday morning after being chosen to head the US delegation to the global health group in one of the first acts of Joe Biden’s presidency.

“President Biden will be revoking the ‘Mexico City policy’ in the coming days as part of his broader commitment to protect women’s health and advance gender equality at home and around the world,” Fauci told the group’s annual executive board meeting.

The Mexico City policy, also known as the “global gag rule”, bans foreign NGOs from performing or promoting abortions as a condition of receiving US family planning aid. Introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, it has been repealed by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican one since.

Donald Trump implemented a more stringent version of the ban, under which organisations that refused to sign on were cut off from receiving any health aid, including for HIV, nutrition, tuberculosis and malaria programmes.

One family planning group that refused to sign the agreement, MSI Reproductive Choices, lost $30m a year in funding, money it says would have helped to prevent an estimated 6m unwanted pregnancies, 1.8m unsafe abortions and 20,000 maternal deaths.

In warm remarks intended to turn the page on the hostile attitude of the Trump administration to the global health body, Fauci paid tribute to the WHO’s “relentless” work and to his “dear friend”, the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in fighting the pandemic. Tedros, in turn, called him “my brother Tony”.

Read more of Mchael Safi’s report here: Fauci – US to repeal anti-abortion rule on aid and join Covax vaccine scheme

Updated

Yesterday the US recorded 182,695 new coronavirus cases, taking the total caseload of the pandemic in the nation up to 24,418,143. There were 4,375 further deaths – the second highest daily toll of the pandemic so far. The total death toll stands at 405,825.

Hospitalizations stood at 122,700 people. There’s some good news there, as that is the eigth consecutive day that the number has fallen from 131,326 on 12 January. Nevertheless the Covid Tracking Project has now recorded fifty consecutive days with more than 100,000 people hospitalized with Covid in the US.

Madeline Holcombe at CNN reports that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is making the grim forecast of up to 100,000 more Covid-19 deaths in the next few weeks. She writes:

By 13 February, the number of deaths could reach 508,000, according to an ensemble forecast published by the CDC. The last forecast, on 13 January, projected up to 477,000 deaths by 6 February.

New CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday described the toll of the pandemic as “truly heartbreaking” but that “healthier days lie ahead” -- although that getting there would require a rapid acceleration of testing, surveillance and vaccination.

She said the agency will be conducting a review of all of its guidance regarding the pandemic, so “people can make decisions and take action based upon the best available evidence.”

Lauren Aratani reports for us today on the pressure on the Biden administration to cancel student loan debt:

Thousands of student debtors have launched a campaign urging Joe Biden to enact full student loan cancellation within the first 100 days of his presidency.

The Debt Collective, which has more than 9,300 members, has tapped 100 debtors to be a part of the “the Biden Jubilee 100” – 100 people going on a debt strike, one representing each day during Biden’s first 100 days. Many have over $100,000 of student debt.

“It’s the right thing to do as the first step to ensuring a fairer higher education system,” said the collective in a petition to Biden. “Even before Covid-19, one million new student debtors were defaulting on their student loans every year. Student loans defaults are hitting women, Black, Indigenous and brown borrowers the hardest.”

Biden campaigned on promises to make higher education more affordable for middle-class families, including debt-free community college and making tuition at public institutions free for families who earn under $125,000 a year.

While Biden fell short of promising to cancel student debt, as the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren had pushed for during her campaign, he promised to halve student loan payments by implementing a program where anyone making over $25,000 will pay 5% of their discretionary income – which does not count taxes or necessary spending like housing and food – to pay for their loans. Anyone who has paid loans for more than 20 years will have their loans forgiven.

About 45 million Americans have student debt worth over $1.5tn. The Federal Reserve has reported that 43% of adults who went to college, about 30% of all adults in the country, took on debt to pay for their education. Race also plays a big role in who has debt: Black and Hispanic Americans with student debt are more likely to be behind on their loans than their white peers.

Last week Biden officials pledged to extend the nearly year-long pause on federal student loan payments on “day one” but the administration’s plans for tackling the debt mountain remain unclear.

Read more of Lauren Aratani’s report here: ‘It’s the right thing to do’: Biden urged to cancel student loans in first 100 days

Incoming president Joe Biden’s fitness regime is potentially causing an unexpected headache for security services charged with keeping the new president of the United States safe in the White House – his Peloton exercise bike is viewed by some as a potential cybersecurity risk.

At home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden is reported to start each day with a workout in a gym equipped with weights, treadmill, and the Peloton bike. Peloton combines a stationary exercise bike with an interactive tablet that allows the rider to take part in group training sessions remotely. Already gaining traction before the coronavirus pandemic, the use of stay-at-home orders and social distancing have led to a surge in the product’s popularity among those unable to get to their regular gym.

However as well as watching an instructor, participants in the classes are also viewed – meaning the table comes equipped with a webcam and a microphone, which will be in a sensitive area of the White House.

Popular Mechanics magazine spoke to cybersecurity expert Max Kilger at the University of Texas about the risk, who said “Because you’re connected to the internet, even though there are firewalls and intrusion detection software ... those things can be gotten around if you’re really good and skilled. If you really want that Peloton to be secure, you yank out the camera, you yank out the microphone, and you yank out the networking equipment ... and you basically have a boring bike. You lose the shiny object and the attractiveness.”

It is not the first time the issue has come up with the Peloton. A 2017 review revealed that former first lady Michelle Obama had been supplied with a specially modified Peloton that came without a camera or microphone.

Prior to the pandemic, in late 2019 Peloton saw its value plunge by $1.5bn after a ‘dystopian, sexist’ advert in which a man surprises his already super-slim partner with the equipment in a bid to get her to lose weight.

The problem for Biden is not insoluble, and White House security experts have to adapt to changing technology all the time, although the issue may be particularly sensitive at the moment given the recent cyber-attack on federal agencies. At least six government departments were breached in a likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in March.

Garrett Graff, the director of the cybersecurity initiative at the Aspen Institute, told the New York Times: “The threat is real, but it is presumably a manageable risk given enough thought and preparation.”

It does, though, raise the prospect that in the coming months other US Peloton users may suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves in a riding class with their commander-in-chief.

Donald Trump did appear to try and throw one extra spanner into the works for the Biden administration with the last minute appointment of National Security Agency general counsel Michael Ellis. It’s a civil service role, not a politically appointed role, meaning it would be difficult for the Biden administration to remove or replace him. However today CNN are reporting that despite starting in the role on Tuesday, Ellis has now been placed on administrative leave:

National Security Agency general counsel Michael Ellis, who was installed by former President Donald Trump during his final days in office, was put on administrative leave Wednesday because his appointment is now the subject of a Department of Defense inspector general investigation, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday demanded former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller “immediately cease” his plans to install the Trump loyalist as the NSA’s general counsel. She called the move “highly suspect” and argued it represents a “disturbing disregard” for the country’s national security. “I ask that you immediately cease plans to improperly install Michael Ellis as the new NSA General Counsel,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Miller on Sunday.

Read more here: CNN – Last-minute Trump appointee at NSA put on administrative leave due to inspector general probe

Richard Wolffe writes for us today a not very fond farewell to Donald Trump:

On a cold January morning in the nation’s capital, a beleaguered world said good riddance to the raging fire of Trump’s presidency. It ended in a spasm of garbled thoughts, lies and language that represent the core character of the loser of last year’s election.

Trump was always a caricature of the 1980s, trapped in an amber world where greed is still good, conspicuous consumption is always plated in gold, and the mix tape only plays totally inappropriate hits like YMCA.

And so it came to pass that the colossal buffoon who pretended to be president for four years spoke to a miserably small crowd of blood relatives and paid help on the concrete at Joint Base Andrews. The TV pundits bravely suggested the scene resembled some campaign-like event, which would be true if the campaign was a jumble sale to repair a leaking roof.

Trump shuffled off the presidential stage, showing off his rather large personal collection of lies, big and small.

He pretended that his family had toiled in the White House rather than serve itself and watch TV (“People have no idea how hard this family worked”). He pretended that he respected his wife Melania, and that she was not in fact the least popular first lady on record. He fabricated once again his record of war veterans support.

And he flat-out invented a performance on job creation that was the very worst since Herbert Hoover. “The job numbers have been absolutely incredible,” he declared, in ways that are indeed barely credible.

He talked about a stock market that rose like “a rocket ship up” and he talked, confusingly, about vaccine numbers that would “really skyrocket downward”. A rocket ship that launched and crashed to earth may be the most honest, if least intended, self-description of the Trump era. Perhaps this was finally the day when Trump sounded like the president he was, just a few minutes before he was no longer president he wanted to be.

Read more here: Richard Wolffe – Trump has finally shuffled off the world stage. Good riddance

The Associated Press have provided this digested breakdown of what the new Biden-Harris administration is proposing to announce in order to combat the Covid pandemic.

They report that the administration’s new strategy is based around seven major goals. Some of the measures – like launching a national information campaign about Covid vaccinations – seem like extremely low-hanging fruit that it is surprising that the previous administration had not enacted:

Restoring trust

  • Establish a federal Covid-19 response team to coordinate efforts across agencies and restore a White House team on global health risks that was established during the Obama administration.
  • Call for regular public briefings on Covid-19 to be led by scientific experts.
  • The federal government will track data on virus cases, testing, vaccinations and hospital admissions and will make it available to the public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will start a public dashboard tracking cases at the county level.

Vaccines

  • Increase the production and purchasing of vaccines, including through the Defense Production Act that allows the president to direct the manufacturing of critical goods during wartime and ensures availability of glass vials, syringes and other supplies.
  • Accelerate vaccinations by ending a policy to hold back large amounts of vaccines while also giving states clearer projections on vaccine availability to help them plan their rollouts.
  • Partner with states to create more vaccine centers at locations including stadiums, convention centers and pharmacies.
  • Direct federal health agencies to consider raising pay for those who administer vaccines.
  • The federal government to identify communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic and make sure vaccine doses reach them at no out-of-pocket cost to residents.
  • Launch a national campaign to educate Americans about vaccines and encourage them to get shots.

Mitigate spread

  • In addition to Biden’s order asking Americans to wear masks for 100 days, he will issue a separate order to federal agencies to require masks on airplanes, trains and other public transportation.
  • A new national testing strategy will expand testing supplies and increase laboratory capacity, and the federal government will work with schools to implement screening programs to help them reopen.
  • Create a program to develop new treatments for Covid-19 and other pandemic threats.
  • Call on the CDC to develop new public health guidance to help schools and businesses make decisions on reopening.

Emergency relief

  • Increase emergency funding to states and order the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse states for certain costs tied to the pandemic, including supplies of protective equipment and for National Guard personnel supporting the pandemic response.
  • Direct federal agencies to invoke the Defense Production Act to close shortages of syringes, N95 masks, gloves and other supplies needed for virus testing and vaccine administration.
  • Call for development of a national strategy to increase US manufacturing of supplies needed to fight pandemics.

Schools and workers

  • Biden will issue an order to develop a national strategy to reopen schools, hoping to meet his goal of having most K-8 schools open within his first 100 days in office.
  • Order the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop guidelines to help schools reopen and to share best practices gleaned from schools across the nation.
  • Call on Congress to provide at least $130 billion in additional aid to schools and $35 billion for colleges and universities.
  • Ask Congress to provide $25 billion to stabilize child care centers at risk of closing and $15 billion in child care aid for struggling families.
  • Biden will issue an order calling on federal agencies to issue updated guidance on COVID-19 precautions for workers and to consider new federal emergency standards, including around mask-wearing, are needed.
  • Steer virus relief funding to the hardest-hit businesses.

Addressing disparities

  • Establish an equity task force to address disparities in rates of infection, illness and death across lines of race, ethnicity and geography.
  • Direct federal agencies to expand data collection on high-risk populations and use that information to track and evaluate the pandemic response among those populations.
  • Equity will be prioritized in the federal government’s pandemic response, including its efforts to provide protective equipment, test, vaccines and treatments.
  • Create a US Public Health Workforce Program made up of workers who will help with testing and vaccinations in their communities.

Preparing for future threats

  • The US will rejoin the World Health Organization, reversing the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the global agency.
  • Increase humanitarian aid and support other efforts to help fight Covid-19 around the world.
  • Call for congressional support to establish a national center to prevent, detect and respond to future biological threats.

Indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline

Environmentalists may approve that Joe Biden is cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline, but the new administration is far from meeting every goal of campaigners, as Nina Lakhani reports for us – indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline:

“The victory ending the KXL pipeline is an act of courage and restorative justice by the Biden administration. It gives tribes and Mother Earth a serious message of hope for future generations as we face the threat of climate change. It aligns Indigenous environmental knowledge with presidential priorities that benefit everyone,” said Faith Spotted Eagle, founder of Brave Heart Society and a member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota nation.

Biden has not spoken publicly about DAPL, but last May Kamala Harris signed an amicus brief and joined tribes in calling on a judge to shut it down while an environmental impact study is conducted.

Shutting down DAPL, which crosses through communities, farms, tribal land, sensitive natural areas and wildlife habitat across North Dakota to Illinois, would be more complicated than canceling KXL as it is already been built and is transporting about 500,000 barrels of crude oil each day.

“It is a more complex legal scenario, but they could do it tomorrow as it’s operating without a permit and has been declared illegal by federal courts,” said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer at Earthjustice, which represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in ongoing legal action. “It’s crazy to continue investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure when we need to be abandoning it.”

The proposed expansion of another huge Canadian-owned tar sands oil pipeline crossing indigenous lands, Line 3, is also under the microscope. In Minnesota, police have arrested scores of peaceful protesters trying to stop construction.

Read more of Nina Lakhani’s report: ‘No more broken treaties’: indigenous leaders urge Biden to shut down Dakota Access pipeline

Vermont’s veteran Senator Bernie Sanders may have lost out to the new president of the United States Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic nomination last year, but for many social media users, progressive figurehead Sanders outshone Biden in the fashion stakes in Washington yesterday.

Former presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders sits in the bleachers on Capitol Hill with his now famous mittens.
Former presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders sits in the bleachers on Capitol Hill with his now famous mittens. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Sander’s outfit rapidly became an internet meme, seeing him photoshopped into historic photos, comic panels and the subway, while sitting, arms folded, wrapped up warm against the DC winter weather, wearing a spectacular pair of mittens. Indeed, #BerniesMittens became one of the trending hashtags of the inauguration.

There was also political speculation about what might be fuelling the Senator’s apparent mood.

And this appears to be true.

Asked about his outfit, Sanders told CBS News in an interview after the ceremony “In Vermont, we dress warm — we know something about the cold. We’re not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm. And that’s what I did today.”

For those keen to get the Sanders inauguration look, internet sleuths including Buzzfeed’s political reporter Ruby Cramer soon tracked down the origin of the mittens. They had been given to the Senator a couple of years ago by Vermont teacher Jen Ellis.

Asked about his outfit, Sanders told CBS News in an interview after the ceremony “In Vermont, we dress warm — we know something about the cold. We’re not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm. And that’s what I did today.”

For those keen to get the Sanders inauguration look, internet sleuths including Buzzfeed’s political reporter Ruby Cramer soon tracked down the origin of the mittens. They had been given to the Senator a couple of years ago by Vermont teacher Jen Ellis.

The mittens are made from repurposed sweaters and recycled plastic by the 42-year-old second grade teacher who lives in Essex Junction, Vermont, just outside of Burlington where Sanders was mayor in the 1980s.

Interviewed on Wednesday night by Jewish Insider after the mittens had gone viral, Ellis said “He must really like them if he chose to wear them.”

“It’s been unexpected” she said of their sudden social media fame, but also confessed that she was not a regular social media user, and was struggling to remember the login for her Twitter account.

The global exposure was also not going to lead to a financial windfall – “I don’t have any mittens to sell. I don’t really do it a lot anymore. I’m flattered that they want them, but there are lots of people on Etsy who sell them and hopefully people will get some business from them. But I’m not going to quit my day job. I am a second grade teacher, and I’m a mom, and all that keeps me really busy. There’s no possible way I could make 6,000 pairs of mittens, and every time I go into my email, another several hundred people have emailed me.”

She went on to say “I hate to disappoint people, but the mittens, they’re one-of-a-kind and they’re unique and sometimes in this world, you just can’t get everything you want.”

In other exciting news for meme veterans, Sanders was wearing the same practical and sturdy coat that had become internet famous in a video where the Senator had appealed for financial support at the end of 2019.

Since that post, the picture has appeared repeatedly on social media, with the caption replaced to say “I am once again asking…” followed by a joking topical reference.

An earlier photo from the day, picturing Sanders carrying a folder of documents, also caused a stir on social media when director Rian Johnson responded to a fan who had photoshopped the label “Knives Out 2 script” onto the folder. Johnson jokingly suggested he had given a draft script of the keenly anticipated potential sequel to 2019’s surprise hit movie Knives Out– but had heard nothing back yet.

Updated

We also last night had the first video statement from Dr. Jill Biden in her new role as first lady. She issued a wide-ranging thank you for people who had put together Inauguration Day, saying:

It’s the start of a bright new chapter for our country. A time for all of us to come together as one America, with one government that serves us all. And we saw that hope and optimism in our inauguration celebration. It was a combination of 1000’s of people working together to create something incredible, especially in this uniquely difficult year.

She particularly singled out the families of the service members, first responders and civil servants who had worked on the event, which she described as “a reflection of the pride and promise of our nation.”

Biden expected to sign 10 more executive orders today in fight against Covid pandemic

The Biden administration’s work against the Covid pandemic continues in earnest today, with Reuters reporting that the new president will sign 10 executive orders later today to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including directing that disaster funds be used to help reopen schools and requiring that people wear masks on planes and buses, officials said.

Biden has promised a fierce fight against the pandemic that killed 400,000 people in the United States under Trump’s watch.

“We’re entering what may be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus and must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation,” the president said in his inauguration speech.

One order will require mask-wearing in airports and on certain modes of public transportation, including many trains, airplanes and intercity buses, Biden officials said.

He also plans to sign orders on Thursday to establish a Covid-19 testing board to ramp up testing, address supply shortfalls, establish protocols for international travelers and direct resources for minority communities hit hard by the infectious disease.

He plans to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse states and Native American tribes fully for the costs associated with National Guard and emergency supply efforts to combat the virus. Biden’s measures also restore “full reimbursement” from the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund for costs related to reopening schools.

FEMA funds are typically disbursed after hurricanes, floods or other natural disasters. Institutions including hospitals can apply after Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency in March.

The fund had previously been reimbursing 75% of costs.

“This is a national emergency and we need to treat it accordingly,” Jeff Zients,

coordinator of the Biden White House’s coronavirus response, said on a call with reporters.

Biden plans to partner with state and local governments to establish vaccination spots in conference centers, stadiums and gymnasiums. The new administration will also deploy thousands of clinical staff from federal agencies, military medical personnel and pharmacy chains to increase vaccinations, and make teachers and grocery clerks eligible.

Vaccination programs have lagged far behind the target of 20 million Americans inoculated by the end of 2020.

The administration may invoke the Defense Production Act for speedy vaccine distribution after an inventory of essential items needed to fight the pandemic.

“We have identified 12 immediate supply shortfalls that are critical for the pandemic response right now,” said Tim Manning, the administration’s new Covid-19 supply coordinator.

Speaking of Donald Trump, Richard Luscombe in Palm Beach reports for us today on Florida welcoming one more senior citizen as the one-term president heads to his new home:

Visually at least, the first days of Trump’s post-presidency will look little different from his final ones in office. A Secret Service ring of steel surrounds his Mar-a-Lago resort on Palm Beach island; nearby roads remain closed to locals and gawkers; and the tees of the beloved golf courses he visited so frequently over the past four years await his imminent presence.

But with the loss of the trappings of presidential power comes an unfamiliar challenge: how does a twice-impeached, disgraced former president chart a path forward as a private citizen and retain political relevance in the face of an upcoming Senate trial that could see him barred from a future White House run?

“I think he’s going to set up shop with Palm Beach as the headquarters of his post-presidency Maga movement,” Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach county, told the Guardian, referencing the Make America Great Again mantra from Trump’s single term in office.

“It’s definitely going to create drama, commotion, traffic and a lot of media attention. He will continue to be a lightning rod and he will continue to be the talk of the town as long as he is here.”

“I don’t think it changes the way people think about him, he will always have his supporters and always have his detractors.”

Impeachment is only one of Trump’s headaches as he traverses back to private life. Lawyers have written to Palm Beach commissioners representing neighbours who don’t want him there. An agreement Trump signed decades ago, they insist, prohibits him residing at Mar-a-Lago – a designated resort – for more than seven consecutive days, and 21 days in a year.

Trump has clashed with authorities before, suing the town of Palm Beach for $25m in a dispute over the height of a flagpole and battling over the construction of a helipad that must now be torn down.

Read more of Richard Luscombe’s report here: Florida welcomes one more senior citizen as Trump heads to new home

Donald Trump may have broken with tradition by refusing to attend his successor’s inauguration, but three former US presidents were at the Capitol yesterday. 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.

Fauci: Biden will sign executive order today for US to join WHO Covax scheme

The United States under president Joe Biden intends to join the Covax vaccine facility that aims to deliver vaccines to poor countries, his chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci told the World Health Organization (WHO) this morning.

“President Biden will issue a directive later today which will include the intent of the United States to join Covax and support the ACT-Accelerator to advance multilateral efforts for Covid-19 vaccine, therapeutic, and diagnostic distribution, equitable access, and research and development,” Fauci told the WHO executive board.

President Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking remotely during a World Health Organization (WHO) executive board meeting this morning.
President Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking remotely during a World Health Organization (WHO) executive board meeting this morning. Photograph: World Health Organization/AFP/Getty Images

The United States will remain a member of the WHO, he said. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump halted funding to the WHO, where the United States is the largest donor, and announced a process to withdraw from the agency in July 2021.

The Covax program describes itself this way:

For lower-income funded nations, who would otherwise be unable to afford these vaccines, as well as a number of higher-income self-financing countries that have no bilateral deals with manufacturers, Covax is quite literally a lifeline and the only viable way in which their citizens will get access to Covid-19 vaccines. For the wealthiest self-financing countries, some of which may also be negotiating bilateral deals with vaccine manufacturers, it serves as an invaluable insurance policy to protect their citizens, both directly and indirectly.

You can follow global coronavirus news with our live blog.

Updated

Associated Press report that two Florida men, including a self-described organizer for the Proud Boys, the far-right extremist group, were arrested yesterday on charges of taking part in the siege of the US Capitol earlier this month.

Joseph Biggs, 37, was arrested in central Florida and faces charges of obstructing an official proceeding before Congress, entering a restricted area on the grounds of the US Capitol and disorderly conduct.

Biggs appeared to be wearing a walkie-talkie during the storming of the Capitol, but he told FBI agents that he had no knowledge about the planning of the destructive riot and didn’t know who organized it, a court affidavit said.

Ahead of the riot, Biggs told followers of his on the social media app Parler to dress in black to resemble the far-left antifa movement, according to the affidavit.

Biggs had organized a 2019 rally in Portland, Oregon, in which more than 1,000 far-right protesters and anti-fascist counter-demonstrators faced off.

The Proud Boys are a neofascist group known for engaging in violent clashes at political rallies. During a September presidential debate, Trump had urged them to “stand back and stand by” when asked to condemn them by a moderator.

Jesus Rivera, 37, also was arrested Wednesday in Pensacola. He faces charges of knowingly entering a restricted building, intent to impede government business, disorderly conduct and demonstrating in the Capitol buildings.

Rivera uploaded a video to Facebook showing himself in the US Capitol crypt, authorities said. The five-minute video ends with Rivera starting to climb out a window at the Capitol, according to an arrest affidavit.

The cases are being handled by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia.

Hallie Golden in Seattle reports for us on concern for the US homeless population as street counts cancelled amid pandemic:

The first time Kirk McClain helped with the homeless count in King county, Washington, he himself had been living unsheltered for five years. He said he remembers stepping out at 2am on a surprisingly warm day in January 2014 along with the handful of others he was paired with, and the surreal feeling of looking under bridges and along a highway to search for those living in parallel circumstances to his own.

After three hours, his group identified about 30 people living unsheltered across a 2sq mile stretch of Burien, a small city just south of Seattle, interviewing some about how long they had been homeless, the services they had received, as well as asking them for their age, race and gender.

Similar scenes have played out every year across the county, which includes Seattle, since at least 1980, as part of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (Hud) Point in Time (PIT) Count. But this year, officials determined that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, gathering what is typically more than 1,000 people together to conduct the street count, was simply not possible.

“My gut doesn’t feel good about it because I know how important it is,” said McClain, who is no longer homeless and today works as a residential case manager at Solid Ground, a social service organization in Seattle.

King county is far from alone. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hud announced that it would allow exceptions to some or all of the unsheltered PIT count requirements. As of 5 January, 150 or almost 40% of Continuums of Care, which are geographical regions across the nation, have taken them up on their offer. Officials in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles county, Arizona’s Maricopa county and other areas have announced plans to cancel their outdoor counts altogether.

The agency said in an email to the Guardian that it expects more to request “exceptions or waivers leading up to the end of January”.

The hope is that this will simply be a single-year blip on the biennial street count of homeless people, which is held in January in communities across the nation in return for federal funds. But there are concerns about the potential real-world effects of not conducting the only regularly occurring national count that specifically tallies people out of doors, following a year in which experts predict the homelessness crisis, which is estimated to involve over half a million people, has only become more acute.

Read more of Hallie Golden’s report here: Concern for US homeless population as street counts cancelled amid pandemic

One of the star turns of the inauguration ceremony itself was the performance of Amanda Gorman, delivering a poem called The Hill We Climb.

Gorman was named the first-ever national youth poet laureate in 2017, gave a powerful, five-minute performance after Biden was sworn in. The poem was written, in part, on the day of the US Capitol riots on 6 January.

The performance won instant plaudits, including from Michelle Obama, who sat just behind Gorman as she spoke.

You can read the poem in full here: The Hill We Climb – the Amanda Gorman poem that stole the inauguration show

If you didn’t see the inauguration TV special last night, then Adrian Horton has reviewed it, and found it “dull yet competent”. A verdict, you suspect, that many people would be happy to see delivered on the whole term of president Joe Biden. Horton writes:

The special benefitted from perhaps the perfect choice as host: Tom Hanks, the beloved everyman actor and one of the few cultural figures on whom most Americans can agree (and also the celebrity whose coronavirus diagnosis on 11 March 2020 was, for many, the moment the direness of the pandemic really sank in). In front of the Lincoln Memorial, the actor most associated with bone-deep decency and ordinary heroism held together a staccato and still-surreal pandemic mix of socially distanced live footage and desktop webcam aesthetics.

The evening was ostensibly, in title and structure, intended to honor such Hanksian heroism on the national stage; the zippy 90 minutes was delineated by category of American hero – those who, as title cards spelled out, “feed us” (food pantry workers, farmers), care for us (nurses and medical professionals), teach us (teachers), supply us (delivery workers), among others – represented by single private citizens from around the country.

Ordinary heroism quickly bowed to celebrity culture, however, as each hero introduced musical performances, some live and some pre-taped, that cut across generation and genre: Bruce Springsteen, a cringeworthy rendition of Here Comes the Sun by Bon Jovi in Miami, the Foo Fighters coming for your throat with hope for the future, Justin Timberlake doing his Memphis thing with Better alongside Ant Clemons, Katy Perry closing the evening with Firework to some admittedly impressive fireworks over DC.

Read more of Adrian Horton’s review here: The star-packed inauguration special: a dull yet competent plea for unity

Here’s something to get your ears around – a US special from our Politics Weekly podcast team.

Yesterday was a day that many had waited a long time for. Jonathan Freedland and Richard Wolffe break down what happened on Inauguration Day 2021, as Donald Trump fled to Florida, and Joe Biden signed 17 executive orders, overturning much of the work of his predecessor.

Also overnight, Ted Cruz has been repeatedly mocked on social media for a statement which appears to suggest that he thinks the Paris climate accords are about Paris.

By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh. This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans.

If we are being generous to the Texas Senator, then you could argue he was just suggesting that rejoining a global climate agreement demonstrated that Joe Biden was not putting “America first” and was giving equal weight to citizens around the world, including in the city where the accord was agreed.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not being generous, and has accrued over 200,000 likes for this slap-down.

Overnight, Ronald Klain, the new White House chief of staff, has expressed how pleased he was with the first day of the Biden administration – thanking everyone who made it possible.

Here’s a reminder that it wasn’t just the presidency that changed hands yesterday. With the swearing in of Rev. Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and Alex Padilla, the Senate chamber is now tied at 50-50 between the parties.

Vice president Kamala Harris swears in Sen. Raphael Warnock, Sen. Alex Padilla, and Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Vice president Kamala Harris swears in Sen. Raphael Warnock, Sen. Alex Padilla, and Sen. Jon Ossoff. Photograph: AP

Vice president Kamala Harris will hold the casting vote. Oriana Gonzalez at Axios notes:

Democratic control of the Senate is crucial to President Biden’s agenda, from getting his coronavirus relief proposal passed to forgiving student debt.

After more than 20 years in the Senate, Chuck Schumer will be taking the Majority leader position from Sen. Mitch McConnell, who became majority leader in 2015.

McConnell and Schumer met on Tuesday to discuss a power-sharing agreement for the new Senate and to sort out when to hold President Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Read more here: Axios – Chuck Schumer is now majority leader as 3 new Democratic senators are sworn in

If you didn’t see Joe Biden’s inauguration speech yesterday, then here’s a useful clip-reel of the highlights for you. Speaking for the first time as president, 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.

If you are more of a text person than a video person, you can also read it in full here: ‘America has to be better’: Joe Biden’s inauguration speech – full text

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics on Joe Biden’s first full day in office as the president of the United States. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and what we might expect from today…

  • Joe Biden wasted no time as 46th president, signing an opening flurry of executive orders to address the four “crises” that he says will define his presidency: Covid-19, the resulting economic crisis, climate change, and racial inequity.
  • Some orders undo significant actions from Trump administration, including rejoining the Paris climate agreement and ending efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from census.
  • Biden also revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and instructed all executive agencies to review executive actions that were “damaging to the environment” or “unsupported by the best available science.”
  • Kamala Harris was sworn in as the US’s first female, Black and south Asian vice-president. She tweeted “Ready to serve” after taking office.
  • She was escorted at Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony by Eugene Goodman, the Capitol police officer hailed as a hero for single-handedly leading the mob that broke into the Capitol two weeks ago away from the Senate chamber.
  • Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in US history, wowed the crowd by reciting a poem at the inauguration that she had written, in part, on the day of the US Capitol riots.
  • “We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility,” Biden said in his inauguration speech. Yesterday a further 178,255 Covid cases were recorded in the US, and there were 4,229 more deaths. That’s the second highest daily death toll since the pandemic began.
  • Later today Dr Anthony Fauci is expected to speak to the World Health Organization’s executive board meeting. President Biden has promised to reverse Trump’s plan to exit the body.
  • In the morning president Biden and vice president Harris, along with their spouses, will watch the virtual presidential inaugural prayer service at the national cathedral.
  • In the afternoon the president and vice president will receive the daily briefing in the oval office and then will deliver remarks on the administration’s Covid-19 response. Biden is expected to sign more executive orders, and they will also receive a briefing from members of their Covid-19 team.
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