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    European leaders hail 'new dawn' for ties with US under Biden

    European leaders have voiced relief at Joe Biden’s inauguration, hailing a “new dawn” for Europe and the US, but warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and transatlantic ties will be different in future.“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, told MEPs. “Once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”The head of the EU’s executive arm said Biden’s swearing-in was “a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy”, and the bloc stood “ready to reconnect with an old and trusted partner to breathe new life into our cherished alliance”.But Von der Leyen said relief should not lead to illusion, since while “Trump may soon be consigned to history, his followers remain”.Charles Michel, the president of the European council, also said the US had changed. Transatlantic relations had “greatly suffered” and the world had grown “more complex, less stable and less predictable”, said Michel, who chairs summits between the EU’s 27 heads of state and government.“We have our differences and they will not magically disappear. America seems to have changed, and how it’s perceived in Europe and the rest of the world has also changed,” he said. Europeans “must take our fate firmly into our own hands”.A study this week showed that while many Europeans welcomed Biden’s election victory, more people than not felt that after four years of Trump the US could not be trusted, and a majority believed Biden would not be able to mend a “broken” country or reverse its decline on the world stage.The EU has invited Biden to a summit and top-level Nato meeting when he is ready, with Michel called for “a new founding pact” to boost multilateral cooperation, combat Covid, tackle climate change and aid economic recovery.The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said he was “greatly relieved” at Biden’s inauguration, hailing “a good day for democracy”. He said democracy under the Trump administration had faced “tremendous challenges and endured … and proved strong”.Steinmeier said the transfer of power to Biden brought with it “the hope that the international community can work together more closely”, and he said Germany was looking forward “to knowing we once more have the US at our side as an indispensable partner”.However, he said that “despite the joy of this day”, the last four years had shown that “we must resolutely stand up to polarisation, protect and strengthen our democracies, and make policy on the basis of reason and facts.”Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said his country was “looking forward to the Biden presidency, with which we will start working immediately.” He said the two countries had a strong common agenda, including “effective multilateralism, climate change, green and digital transition and social inclusion.”The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said Biden’s victory represented “the victory of democracy over the ultra-right and its three methods – massive deception, national division, and abuse, sometimes violent, of democratic institutions.”Five years ago, Sánchez said, the world had believed Trump to be “a bad joke. But five years later we realised he jeopardised nothing less than the world’s most powerful democracy.”Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, who has faced criticism for his close relationship with Trump, said he was looking forward to working closely with Biden, citing a host of policy areas in which he hoped to collaborate.“In our fight against Covid and across climate change, defence, security, and in promoting and defending democracy, our goals are the same and our nations will work hand in hand to achieve them,” Johnson said in a statement.The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called for Russia and the US to repair their strained ties. “The current condition of relations between Russia and the US is of great concern,” he said in an interview with the state-run news agency Tass. “But this also means that something has to be done about it in order to normalise relations. We cannot fence ourselves off from each other.”Among the US’s more outspoken foes, Iran, which has repeatedly called on Washington to lift sanctions imposed over its nuclear drive, did not miss the chance to celebrate Trump’s departure.“A tyrant’s era came to an end and today is the final day of his ominous reign,” said the president, Hassan Rouhani. “We expect the Biden administration to return to law and to commitments, and try in the next four years, if they can, to remove the stains of the past four years.”Biden’s administration has said it wants the US back in the landmark Iran nuclear accord from which Trump withdrew, providing Tehran returns to strict compliance.The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said the military alliance hoped to strengthen transatlantic ties under the new president, adding that the world faced “global challenges that none of us can tackle alone”. More

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    Donald Trump departs White House for final time as president – video

    Donald Trump has left the White House for the last time as president, saying it had been ‘the honour of a lifetime’ to serve.  He boarded Marine One with the first lady and was flown to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for a ‘sending off’ ceremony. Trump will not be attending Joe Biden’s inauguration
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    Trump leaves White House a final time as president as Biden set to be sworn in

    Donald Trump has left Washington DC and the White House for the final time as president, as Joe Biden prepares to be sworn in at midday on Wednesday.The outgoing president left the White House at 8.18am aboard a helicopter, headed for Joint Base Andrews, where Trump was due to give a speech. Trump had demanded an ostentatious ceremony with a sprawling crowd, but didn’t quite get the latter. TV footage showed several empty spaces among the people who had gathered in a viewing area.Attendees had been told to arrive at the Joint Base Andrews, a military air base used by presidents, between 6am and 7.15am, when the temperature hovered above zero. A campaign-style stage was set up at the base, with total of 17 US flags hung behind a speaker’s podium. Air force one presidential plane was parked in the background, waiting to fly the president out.Trump was due to speak at 8am, but there was a delay. Trump and Melania Trump boarded Marine Force One at the White House at 8.15am, the president offering a wave as he walked to the helicopter. At 8.18am, the helicopter took off, headed for a destination 15 miles south-east of the White House.The helicopter landed just before 8.30am, as the song Gloria by Laura Branigan blasted out at the stage. Trump exited to the sound of Don’t Stop Believing, by Journey. Both songs have been staples at Trump’s rallies.The president had been hoping for a large crowd to see him off. It didn’t happen. Senior Republicans had shunned the event, including House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, in favor of attending Biden’s inauguration. Even Trump’s vice-president Mike Pence didn’t make it – a White House official told reporters it would be difficult for Pence to attend both the send off and the inauguration.Trump, who has not left the White House for over a week, had reportedly spent recent days in a dejected mood, but according to CNN, the outgoing president had been “eagerly anticipating” the send off event.Trump is set to board Air Force One after the ceremony and head for the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. His aides are carrying the so-called “nuclear football”, which will continue to be at Trump’s behest until midday.In recent administrations the football – which serves as the key to America’s nuclear arsenal – has passed from the outgoing president to his successor after the inauguration. With Trump set to be in Florida while Biden’s inauguration takes place, the incoming president will instead take possession of a second football. At 12pm, when Biden is sworn in, Trump’s nuclear codes will go dead. More

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    Joe Biden to be sworn in as 46th president amid turmoil and loss in US

    Donald Trump on Wednesday morning left the White House for the last time as president, hours before Joe Biden is to be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States at a moment of profound turmoil and loss for America.Biden will take the oath of office on the steps of the US Capitol where exactly two weeks prior a mob of Trump supporters breached security barriers and stormed the building in an effort to overturn the results of the presidential election.He is later expected to sign a raft of executive orders to overturn many of Trump “deeply inhuman” policies, aides say. The orders – 17 of them – will see the US rejoin the Paris climate accord. There will be a new mask mandate on federal property and an end to a travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries.The president will also revoke Trump’s emergency declaration that helped fund the construction of a border wall with Mexico. Another day one executive act will be the creation of a new White House office to coordinate the response to the coronavirus and an effort to rejoin the World Health Organisation, which Trump withdrew from after accusing it of incompetence.In the aftermath of the deadly assault on the Capitol and as the death toll from the virus surpasses 400,000, Biden will assume the presidency in a city resembling a war zone and devoid of the celebratory pomp and pageantry that comes with a presidential inauguration.Even before the attack on the Capitol, the inaugural planning committee urged Americans to stay home in an effort to minimize the risk of further spreading the disease.After refusing to concede and only begrudgingly acknowledging his successor, Trump will hold a farewell event at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on Wednesday morning. When Biden takes office, Trump will be nearly 1,000 miles away, at his south Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.Diminished and furious, Trump, who was impeached for a second time on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” after the deadly siege of the Capitol, leaves Washington for an uncertain future. His grasp on the Republican party, once iron-clad, has waned, even as supporters remain loyal. Suspended indefinitely from Twitter, he lost his most powerful megaphone.Whether he mounts a political comeback in 2024 probably depends on the outcome of his Senate impeachment trial, which will forge ahead in the first days of his post-presidency. If convicted, the Senate can vote to disqualify him from ever again holding future office.Biden will be sworn in shortly before noon on Wednesday by Chief Justice John Roberts on the Capitol’s West Front, with a vista of iconic national monuments stretching across the National Mall. Instead of a vast throng of supporters, Biden will look out upon a field of flags from each of the 50 US states and territories representing those who could not attend because of the pandemic.Trump’s absence at the ceremony will be a final show of disregard for democratic norms and traditions that Trump gleefully shattered over the course of his stormy, 1,460-day presidency. Only four US presidents have skipped their predecessor’s inauguration – most recently Andrew Johnson in 1869. Mike Pence, the outgoing vice-president, will attend the ceremony to demonstrate support for a peaceful transition of power.The Clintons, Bushes and Obamas are all expected to attend the ceremony.Biden will take the oath alongside Kamala Harris, who will make history as the nation’s first female, first Black and first Asian American vice-president. She will be sworn in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and Latina member of the supreme court.Some elements will remain unchanged. Biden is expected to deliver an inaugural address, in which he will appeal for national unity, drawing a sharp contrast with the dark vision of “American carnage” conjured by Trump four years prior. After his remarks, Biden will continue the tradition of reviewing the troops.But Biden will forgo the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Instead, the inaugural committee has planned a virtual “Parade Across America” that will begin after his swearing-in.Confronted by remarkable political and cultural upheaval, and the worst public health and economic crises in generations, the committee sought to prepare a mix of celebratory events to mark the occasion – including a star-studded lineup and a number of musical performances – with somber memorials that reflect the pain and loss felt by millions of American families.On the eve of his inauguration, Biden led a remembrance ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool honoring the 400,000 people who died from the coronavirus pandemic. Confronting the virus will be Biden’s most urgent priority after he is sworn in. More

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    Ursula von der Leyen: Europe has a friend in the White House with Biden – video

    The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the EU, after four years, has a ‘friend in the White House’ on the eve of Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.
    ‘Joe Biden’s oath will be a message of healing for deeply divided nation,’ she said. ‘This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long. Europe is ready for a new start with our oldest and most trusted partner.’
    Inauguration day: a guide to what to expect as Joe Biden assumes office More

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    The end of Trump: where will the Biden era take America?

    Guardian US columnist Robert Reich reflects on the unfinished business of the Trump presidency, and what Biden’s administration should aim to accomplish

    How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

    Guardian columnist Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and a veteran of Democratic administrations stretching back to the 70s. He was secretary of labor under Bill Clinton when he was president before advising Barack Obama. Reich has attended past inaugurations, but he tells Anushka Asthana that this one – marked by the striking presence of some 20,000 National Guard troops in Washington DC – is vastly different. Biden takes office just days after the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump for “willful incitement of insurrection” in connection with his supporters’ violent siege on the Capitol. In addition to overseeing Trump’s Senate trial, the Biden administration must address the raging coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed 400,000 Americans, and a major economic downturn, among other issues. What do Biden’s cabinet picks and policy briefings tell us about his plans? And will he be able to deliver on his promises to heal and unite the country? Archive: New Yorker, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS More

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    'I know these are dark times but there is always light,' says tearful Biden –  video

    Joe Biden shed a tear as he took to the stage to deliver a farewell address to a Delaware crowd ahead of his inauguration on Wednesday, saying: ‘I know these are dark times, but there is always light.’ 
    Speaking at the Major Joseph R ‘Beau’ Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center, named for Biden’s late son, who died of brain cancer in 2015, the president elect said things ‘can change, they can and they do’. More

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    How will Trump pass 'nuclear football' to Biden if he's not at swearing-in?

    It is a responsibility that has passed to every president since John F Kennedy – the custody of the so called “nuclear football” – the hardened brief case that is handed over on the day of the inauguration of new presidents by their predecessor.The question being asked, given Trump’s almost unprecedented decision not to meet Joe Biden or attend his swearing in, is what will happen to the nuclear football?The reality is that while the briefcase, carried by a military aide, and containing nuclear attack plans, access to command and control systems and the mechanism for authorising the nuclear codes has become a shorthand for the president’s singular responsibility to order a nuclear attack, the mechanisms are a little more complex.The “football” itself – also known as the “emergency satchel” or simply “the button” is a metal Zero Halliburton briefcase covered in leather to look rather like an old fashioned doctor’s bag, weighing around 20kg.The bag is said to contain a copy – in some form – of the Black Book, the options for nuclear retaliation, the “biscuit”, an active electronic card identifying the president as the person able to authorise the “watch signal” triggering the use of nuclear weapons and the ability to communicate with command and control hubs.Finally, perhaps most important, the briefcase contains an emergency broadcast system to allow the president to communicate any orders.The football itself, however, is very much a backup, designed for use when the president is away from the fixed and protected command and control centres such as the White House situation room, where he would expect to be briefed by key officials in most circumstances ahead of authorising a nuclear retaliation as the US, while not having an all-encompassing no first strike nuclear policy, does have a “negative security assurance” on nuclear weapons use with 180 countries, although excluding the likes of Russia, China and North Korea.In 2013 Dick Cheney, Gerald Ford’s former chief of staff, described what usually happens on inauguration day when the responsibility for that attack moves to a new president.“The passing of the football occurs at high noon. No one says a word but I knew what to look for.“So you got the ceremony going down front, [but] behind one of the big pillars there, these two guys are standing in their uniforms. And at the right moment, [the outgoing military aide] reaches over and hands it to the newly designated military aide and he takes it from that moment on.”While the physical transfer has become part of the ritual of the transfer of power, albeit an unseen one among the pomp and circumstance, described by one of Bill Clinton’s aides as a “sacred duty”, the real transfer of responsibilities is actually somewhat more prosaic.During the briefing about the nuclear codes and the briefcase on the morning of the inauguration, the key thing that happens is that “the biscuit” or rather “a biscuit” is reprogrammed and given to the new president or his designated military aide activating at noon on the day of the swearing, meaning that the new president can identify himself.According to reports, the Pentagon has long had a plan for the transfer of responsibility in the event of Trump skipping the transfer of power.Given the importance of the football, with its antenna protruding from it, it seems unlikely that there would be no redundancy in so important a system, a fact underlined by reports that there are actually three physical briefcases, not a solitary presidential satchel, one that can be assigned to the vice president and one to the “designated survivor” – usually a member of the cabinet designated by the president to ensure continuity if both the president and vice president are incapacitated.“We war-game this stuff, and we practise it ad nauseam for years and years,” Buzz Patterson, who carried the football for Clinton, told Business Insider, adding that the transfer needed to be instantaneous.“There are systems in place to make sure that happens instantaneously. There won’t be any kind of question about who has it, who is in charge at that point in time.“We don’t take this stuff lightly. There won’t be any kind of hiccup. It’ll just go down without anybody even noticing, which is what is supposed to happen.”At midday, as Joe Biden is sworn in, Trump’s “nuclear biscuit” will become inactive. The most frightening of his powers will be gone. More