The United States is due to swear in Democrat Joe Biden as its 46th president, who is inheriting a country beset by deep political divides and battered by a coronavirus pandemic.
The inauguration event, scheduled to start after 10:30am local time (15:30 GMT) on Wednesday, will be organised amid unprecedented security in the wake of the storming of the US Capitol building on January 6 by supporters of the outgoing President Donald Trump.
The crowd size will be extremely limited as the capital Washington, DC, has been under lockdown due to security fears prompted by the deadly riot at the Capitol – the seat of the US government.
Trump was impeached for his role in the Capitol mayhem, becoming the first president in US history to be impeached twice. Critics say the outgoing president’s repeated false claims that the November election was stolen triggered the Capitol violence.
Breaking with tradition, Trump will not attend Biden’s swearing-in and the subsequent gathering of all living presidents.
Here are some of the latest updates:
24 mins ago (10:07 GMT)
Biden to sign 15 actions to address US ‘crises’
Joe Biden will sign 15 executive actions after he is sworn in as US president on Wednesday, aides said, undoing policies put in place by outgoing President Donald Trump and making his first moves on the pandemic and climate change.
To address the “crises” of the pandemic, the economy, climate change and racial inequity, Biden will sign the executive orders and memorandums in the Oval Office in the afternoon, and ask agencies to take steps in two additional areas, said incoming Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
The actions include a mask mandate on federal property and for federal employees and an order to establish a new White House office coordinating response to the coronavirus.
Biden will also begin the process of re-entering the Paris climate accord and issue a sweeping order tackling climate change, including revoking the presidential permit granted to the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Among a raft of orders addressing immigration, Biden will revoke Trump’s emergency declaration that helped fund the construction of a border wall and end a travel ban on some majority-Muslim countries.
Further actions will include revoking the ban on military service by transgender Americans, and reversing a policy that blocks US funding for programs overseas linked to abortion.
1 hour ago (09:07 GMT)
EU’s von der Leyen says Europe ‘has a friend in the White House’
The European Union’s chief executive hailed on Wednesday as a new dawn Joe Biden’s term as US president but warned that the bloc would strive to regulate American technology companies, calling for global standards.
“After four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, who welcomed outgoing President Donald Trump’s ban on Twitter.
But she added: “This kind of decision must be taken in accordance with laws and rules … not by an arbitrary decision in the power of Silicon Valley CEOs.”

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/20/us-set-to-swear-in-joe-biden-as-46th-president-live-updates