Joe Biden inauguration LIVE: Biden signs 17 orders to undo Trump's legacy

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris take oath: Trump departs White House, leaves a letter for Joe Biden. Stay tuned for US President inauguration live updates

7:36 PM

Biden leaves Blair House for Cathedral of St. Matthew

President-elect Joe Biden leaves Blair House for Cathedral of St. Matthew, where he will be accompanied for prayer service by Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy.

Joe Biden | File Photo

7:34 PM

Trump wishes new administration good luck after leaving White House, says he'll be back

7:27 PM

I'm ready to put the Senate back to work: Senator-Elect Reverend Raphael Warnock

7:16 PM

Trump boasts of 'amazing presidency' after leaving White House

Donald Trump says his presidency was 'amazing by any standard and his was not a regular administration'. Trump left the White House for one final time minutes ago, ending tumultuous four years of Presidency in America's History. 

In the early hours of Wednesday, Trump rescinded an executive order he had issued years ago to bar former White House employees from lobbying the government after they leave their jobs, according to a report in the New York Times.

Outgoing President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. He is en route to his Mar-a-Lago Florida Resort | Photo: AP

7:10 PM

Biden’s global leadership ambitions complicated by Capitol riot

“Yesterday’s events showed that the US has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy,” tweeted Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, calling for Washington to end “painful” economic sanctions it imposed over human rights and rule of law concerns.

While unlikely to convince the world, the barbs from Harare - and other capitals antagonistic to Washington - underscore the fragile state of America’s global reputation here as Joe Biden is sworn in as president on Wednesday.

 

Trump, who for months made false claims that the Nov. 3 election was stolen from him, encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying Biden’s victory. A riot led to the evacuation of the building and five deaths.

 

“Let us not be naive that a lot of damage has been done to the American image for the last four years, and more specifically, what happened,” on Jan. 6, said David O’Sullivan, former European Union ambassador to Washington.

Joe Biden speaking at a drive-in rally | Photo: AP

7:08 PM

Over 25,000 troops guarding Capitol Hill: Decline of the American empire?

More than 25,000 troops guarding the Capitol Hill in Washington DC for the oath taking ceremony of 78-year-old President-elect Joe Biden is in many ways symptomatic of the decline of the American empire.

 

Till four years ago, the superpower US took pride in its democracy and despite assaults like 9/11, it did not feel as threatened. But today, Biden and his team, who are to assume office later on Wednesday, will be taking oath under unprecedented security in the capital city that looks like a fortress.

 

The ceremony has been scaled down and made out of bounds for the general public with tall iron barricades erected in the Capitol Hill area. This security arrangement has been made in view of the January 6 mob violence by the supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, who stormed the Capitol to protest against the alleged fraud in the Presidential elections.

 

Despite the outrage against Trump on media and predictions of the US political pundits and pollsters that Team Biden will sweep the polls, around 75 million Americans voted for Trump. The irregularities in the voting and counting process left over 77 per cent of Republicans believing that there was major fraud in the 2020 elections, as per a recent survey.

7:04 PM

Watch: Donald Trump departs from White House, skipping Biden inauguration

7:01 PM

With a nation in crisis, pressure builds on Biden to deliver

During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden vowed to fight for the soul of America. As he formally assumes office as the next US president on Wednesday, Biden now faces the steep task of repairing a nation’s soul in battered and desperate shape.

 

Few presidents, if any, have taken power in circumstances such as these: a still-raging pandemic claiming lives and shredding livelihoods, a continuing threat of armed insurrection and a defiant former president who faces a US Senate trial charged with encouraging an attack on his country’s capital.

 

A Democrat, Biden will preside over a deeply polarized electorate, with millions of voters still believing defeated Republican President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, and a divided Congress, where gridlock looms as the default and success will come only by compromise.

6:53 PM

Donald Trump departs the White House for one final time

Outgoing President Donald Trump has departed the White House for one final time. Marine One, carrying Trump dpearted the White House to Joint Base Andrews, where Air Force One is awaiting.

6:47 PM

Trump's last-minute pardons

Outgoing President Donald Trump has pardoned his former political strategist Steve Bannon, one of the key architects of his 2016 electoral victory, as he issued a wave of pardons using the final hours of his presidency to grant clemency to 143 people.

 

The record 73 pardons and 70 commutations came in addition to the dozens of similar actions that Trump took after he lost the November 3 presidential elections to Joe Biden of the Democratic Party.

 

Biden, 78, will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday.

 

The White House in a statement issued on Wednesday said that Trump granted a full pardon to Bannon, who was in charge of the final months of his 2016 presidential campaign.

President Donald Trump pumps his fist | Photo: AP

6:37 PM

Indian villagers celebrate inauguration of Kamala Harris

Residents of the ancestral Indian village of Kamala Harris celebrated her inauguration as US vice president on Wednesday by setting off firecrackers and distributing food.

 

Thulasendrapuram, a leafy village about 320 km (200 miles) south of the city of Chennai, is where Harris’s maternal grandfather was born more than a century ago.

 

Calendars featuring the faces of Biden and Harris have been distributed throughout the village by a co-operative. (Reuters)

 

6:34 PM

Theresa May rebukes Boris Johnson as UK welcomes Biden era

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the start of a new UK-US chapter on Wednesday under incoming US President Joe Biden, even as his predecessor Theresa May accused Johnson of abandoning the UK's moral leadership in the world during the tumultuous Trump era.

 

May, who resigned in 2019 amid turmoil over Brexit, has been critical of Johnson's handling of Britain's exit from the European Union. The open criticism is unusual because both prime ministers represent the Conservative Party.

 

Writing in the Daily Mail newspaper, May slammed Johnson's threat last year to breach the legally binding Brexit treaty he had signed with the EU, and his decision to abandon a commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of Britain's GDP on foreign aid.

Theresa May arrives at church Britain. File Photo: Reuters

6:30 PM

China is clearly America's most strategic competitor: Incoming Treasury Secretary

Acknowledging that China is clearly America's most important strategic competitor, the incoming Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told lawmakers that the United States needs to take on Beijing's "abusive, unfair, and illegal practices."

 

The relations between the US and China are at an all-time low. The two countries are currently engaged in a bitter confrontation over various issues, including trade, the origins of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the communist giant's aggressive military moves in the disputed South China Sea and human rights.

 

China is clearly our most important strategic competitor. As you said, we need to work with allies. We also need to strengthen our own economy so that we can compete, Yellen, who has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden as his Treasury Secretary, told members of the Senate Finance Committee during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

6:18 PM

Futures near record highs as Biden to take office

US stock futures neared record highs on Wednesday, as Joe Biden prepared to take charge as US President at his inauguration, while Netflix soared after saying it will no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies.

 

Shares of the world's largest streaming service surged 13 per cent in premarket trading, helping boost futures tracking the broader tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index.

 

Wall Street's main indexes ended higher on Tuesday after Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen urged lawmakers to "act big" to save the coronavirus-ravaged US economy and worry about debt later.

6:08 PM

Trump rescinds order barring White House employees from lobbying: Reports

In the early hours of Wednesday, outgoing President Donald Trump rescinded an executive order he had issued years ago to bar former White House employees from lobbying the government after they leave their jobs, according to a report in the New York Times