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We have entered the era of coronavirus anniversaries. Today marks one year since the announcement of the first patient with Covid-19 in the United States. It happened in Washington state, where a male in his 30s who had just returned from visiting Wuhan, China, started experiencing symptoms and quickly sought help at a clinic. Unlike
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump left him a “very generous letter” before departing the White House. Biden, speaking from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office after signing Day One executive orders, said he would not immediately reveal the contents of the letter out of respect for Trump. “The President
Continue ReadingFormer Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton honored President Joe Biden Wednesday evening as America’s new leader in a joint message that emphasized the new President’s call for national unity. Appearing side-by-side in a video message recorded as part of the “Celebrating America” inauguration concert, the trio each wished Biden well as
Continue ReadingLady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez delivered powerful performances at Wednesday’s inauguration. Gaga sang the national anthem, while Lopez performed a medley of patriotic songs that included “This Land Is Your Land.” Leading up the the event, Lopez shared a picture with National Guard troops near the Capitol, which she shared on Instagram. “What an honor
Continue ReadingA version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here. “Let’s do this again tomorrow,” President Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said at the close of her first White House press briefing on Wednesday, and many Americans, regardless of political bent, profession, state, or identity,
Continue ReadingThe US Capitol in Washington, DC, and state capitols across the country were under tight security as President-elect Joe Biden was inaugurated on Wednesday. After a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol two weeks ago, the FBI warned of possible armed protests at the Capitol and all 50 state capitols in the days leading up
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday looked a bit different from past ceremonies ushering in a new administration. The day’s historic events navigated heightened security measures in Washington, DC, Covid-19 precautions and the absence of the outgoing President, the first time that’s happened in more than a century and a half. Still, the unprecedented day
Continue ReadingAs state leaders clamored for more Covid-19 vaccine doses, Joe Biden became President on Wednesday with an eye toward changing approaches to the pandemic that has claimed more than 400,000 lives in the US. Some state officials say they aren’t seeing as many doses as the federal government reports distributing and the demand for the
Continue ReadingChina is rushing to build a massive quarantine camp that can house more than 4,000 people, after an outbreak of Covid-19 this month that has left tens of millions of people under strict lockdown. The quarantine camp is located on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei province, which surrounds the country’s capital,
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Other inaugural celebrations have festooned chilly Washington, DC, nights in white ties, gilded gowns, and crowded dance floors. Not this one. Forget the imperial pomp, gaudy bunting, multi-kilowatt star power summoned, say, 60 years ago on this same night when John F. Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic President and the youngest man ever elected, was
Continue ReadingHuman rights lawyer Tara Murray had hopes of somehow witnessing Kamala Harris’ vice-presidential oath in person. But a raging pandemic and the January 6 violent siege on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob got in her way. So on Wednesday, Murray — the founder of a pro-Harris group, Mamas for Momala — celebrated the
Continue ReadingFox News host Judge Jeanine successfully lobbied former President Donald Trump in an eleventh-hour effort to pardon her ex-husband in the final hours of Trump’s presidency, CNN has learned. Pirro was upset that her ex-husband Albert J. Pirro Jr. wasn’t on Trump’s final pardon list that came out early Wednesday morning, and that message was
Continue ReadingThe Chinese government has announced sanctions against outgoing secretary of state Mike Pompeo and 27 other high-ranking officials under former United States President Donald Trump, accusing them of “prejudice and hatred against China.” In a strongly-worded statement published after US President Joe Biden was sworn into office in the early hours of Thursday morning, Beijing
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order to dissolve the 1776 commission, a panel stood up by President Donald Trump as a rebuttal to schools applying a more accurate history curriculum around slavery in the US, Biden’s transition team announced Wednesday. The commission had been formed as an apparent counter to The New
Continue ReadingThe Department of Homeland Security is pausing deportations for 100 days, the department announced late Wednesday, with some exceptions. The announced pause on deportations joins a list of sweeping changes made by President Joe Biden only hours after taking office, including halting border wall construction, drawing down the controversial “remain in Mexico” policy and revoking
Continue ReadingAmanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever youth poet laureate, challenged Americans Wednesday to unify and “leave behind a country better than the one we were left” as she delivered a stirring inauguration poem. Speaking at a US Capitol that just two weeks before was the site of a harrowing attempt to overthrow American democracy, Gorman bridged
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris weren’t the only ones in their families to receive new titles on Wednesday after the Inauguration Day ceremonies. There were several young faces on the US Capitol platform where Biden and Harris took their respective oaths of office, and later accompanied them as they walked onto the
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden ended his first day in office with a note of hope and optimism, closing his inaugural activities with an appearance at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday night, where he asked the nation to answer his call for unity, saying it will require “us to come together in common love that defines us
Continue ReadingPresident Joe Biden kicked off his term by signing out a series of immigration executive actions, moving swiftly to undo many Trump administration policies and ending the national emergency that diverted millions of dollars to the border wall. Biden outlined an ambitious immigration agenda on the campaign trail that would reverse the actions of his
Continue ReadingDays from the end of Donald Trump’s term, his administration rushed to push through possible legal land mines to make President Joe Biden’s goal of immigration reform more difficult. Biden has outlined an ambitious immigration agenda that would reverse the actions of his predecessor, vowing, for example, to undo policies that largely sealed the US
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