WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Former California senator Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president of the United States on Wednesday, the first woman ever to hold the post. Harris, 56, took the oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a ceremony at the US Capitol. She is the first Black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to become US vice president. © Agence France-Presse
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Donald Trump left a letter for Joe Biden: spokesman
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump left a letter to his successor Joe Biden before leaving the White House, spokesman Judd Deere told AFP minutes after the outgoing president’s departure. Trump, who refused to accept his defeat for more than two months, never congratulated Biden on his victory. “We are just temporary occupants of this office,” Barack Obama wrote in his own note to Trump four years ago, left in the Oval Office in […]
Bomb threat at US Supreme Court ahead of Biden inaugural
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrived at the US Capitol on Wednesday for their official inauguration ceremony. Biden, 78, is to be sworn in at noon (1700 GMT) by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as the 46th president of the United States. Harris, 56, will be the first woman to become vice president. Donald Trump left Washington three hours before Biden’s swearing-in, the first American president […]
Biden arrives at US Capitol for inauguration as 46th president
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris arrived at the US Capitol on Wednesday for their official inauguration ceremony. Biden, 78, is to be sworn in at noon (1700 GMT) by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as the 46th president of the United States. Harris, 56, will be the first woman to become vice president. Donald Trump left Washington three hours before Biden’s swearing-in, the first American president […]
Trump departs Washington for Florida on Air Force One
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump left Washington on Air Force One on Wednesday three hours ahead of the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden. Trump, 74, will be at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when Biden is sworn in at noon (1700 GMT). He is the first president in more than 150 years to snub the inauguration of his successor. © Agence France-Presse
Biden to be sworn in as 46th US president, ending Trump era
by Sebastian Smith and Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th US president Wednesday, drawing a curtain on the most tumultuous administration of modern times and charting a new course to tackle Covid-19 and unite a splintered nation. Outgoing President Donald Trump entered the White House four years ago as a brash billionaire outsider, but he is being ousted by a polar […]
Trump pardons 73 people, including Steve Bannon, on last day
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned 73 people, including his former aide Steve Bannon and other allies, just hours before he was due to leave office. “President Donald J. Trump granted pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of an additional 70 individuals,” the White House said in a statement. The president and his children were not on the list. Bannon was granted clemency having been charged […]
US passes 400,000 deaths from Covid-19: Johns Hopkins
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — More than 400,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday, the eve of the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden, who has made the fight against the coronavirus a priority of his first term. The bleak threshold was reached only about a month after the US recorded its 300,000th death from the disease, in mid-December, and nearly a […]
Trump says he is first president ‘in decades’ with ‘no new wars’
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump in a farewell address Tuesday said he was the first president in many years to have left office without starting a war. “I am especially proud to be the first president in decades who has started no new wars,” he said, according to excerpts from the address, which the White House said would be broadcast shortly. © Agence France-Presse
Biden State pick agrees China committing Uighur ‘genocide’
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to be secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Tuesday that he agreed with incumbent Mike Pompeo’s finding that China is committing genocide against Uighurs and other mostly Muslim communities. “That would be my judgment as well,” Blinken said at his confirmation hearing when asked by Senator Lindsey Graham about Pompeo’s determination announced earlier in the day. © Agence France-Presse
Trump mulling pardons on last full day in power
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump began his final full day in the White House Tuesday with a long list of possible pardons to dish out before snubbing his successor Joe Biden’s inauguration and leaving for Florida. On Wednesday at noon, Biden will be sworn in and the Trump presidency will end, turning the page on some of the most disruptive, divisive years the United States has seen since the […]
In farewell message, outgoing First Lady Melania Trump says “violence is never the answer”
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — First Lady Melania Trump released a farewell message Monday as she prepares to leave the White House, saying that “violence is never the answer,” weeks after the president’s supporters stormed the US Capitol. In a formal, six-minute speech recorded on video, she made only a fleeting reference to her husband as she paid tribute to military families, pandemic health workers and those helping victims of opioid abuse. “The past […]





