US news | The Guardian

The passing of power from a dangerous man to one set on healing his country is a relief. But American democracy remains in perilIt was a moment of immense relief across the world, rather than unbridled celebration. Washington saw an orderly transition of power at the Capitol, just two weeks after the attack on it; the departure of a man who has thrived on division and the anointment of Joe Biden, who pledges unity; the arrival of Kamala Harris – the first female vice-president and a woman of colour – after the racism and misogyny of Donald Trump. Yet there were no cheering crowds to greet the new president, and 25,000 members of the National Guard stood watch, thanks to his predecessor’s legacy: the deadly toll of the pandemic and the political violence epitomised by this month’s insurrection. That threat did not recede when the 46th president took his oath of office. It is part of America’s body politic, as are the bitter political forces that birthed it. Though Mr Trump was resoundingly defeated, more than 70 million Americans voted for him and a huge number of those now believe that President Biden stole his job. One in five voters supported the storming of the Capitol.Mr Trump, petty to the last, slunk away to Florida rather than face his defeat. But whether or not the twice-impeached ex-president can maintain political momentum, Trumpism in the broader sense is thriving. Its next standard bearer – there are plenty of hopefuls – could well be smarter and more dangerous. So the sombre mood was not only inevitable but apt. The perils facing the republic have rarely been greater. Mr Biden’s speech rose to the moment. He acknowledged the constant struggles of his nation, and the current dangers. But he also promised: “Democracy has prevailed … Our better angels have always prevailed.” Continue reading...

The 22-year-old poet wowed the crowd with her reading during Joe Biden’s swearing-in. Here’s the transcript of her textMr President, Dr Biden, Madam Vice-President, Mr Emhoff,Americans and the world, Continue reading...

Biden takes oath on steps of US Capitol where two weeks ago a pro-Trump mob stormed the building in effort to overturn electionDonald Trump on Wednesday morning left the White House for the last time as president, hours before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States at a moment of profound turmoil and loss for America.Biden took 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. Continue reading...

Outgoing president has broken with tradition by refusing to attend his successor’s inaugurationDonald Trump left Washington DC and the White House for the last time on Wednesday morning, giving a typically pugnacious and misleading speech as he departed and offering his parting words to America: “Have a good life, we will see you soon.”The outgoing president, who has broken with tradition by refusing to attend his successor’s inauguration, took a government helicopter from the White House at 8.18am, leaving what has been his home for four tumultuous years, and headed for Joint Base Andrews, a military facility in Maryland. Continue reading...

From New York to Atlanta, federal and state prosecutors may be lining up for their shot at the twice-impeached presidentDonald Trump has departed Washington DC in greater legal jeopardy than when he arrived. Despite the president’s pronouncement that he possesses the “absolute right to PARDON” himself, he flinched. When Trump delivered scores of late-night pardons with just hours to go in the job, his name and those of his family members were not on the list, not even Ivanka.Related: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris arrive at the US Capitol following Trump's final exit – live Continue reading...

We witnessed what I call liquid authoritarianism: far-right politics for an age of instability and flux“When fascism comes back, it will not say ‘I am fascism’; it will say ‘I am antifascism’.” This prophecy, attributed to the Italian writer Ignazio Silone, has been appropriated by the online right and become a tired Twitter meme. Users now replace “antifascism” with basically anything. Some attempts to come to grips with the storming of the US Capitol have adopted a similar syntax: it was an (attempted) coup disguised as something else. Others insisted it wasn’t a coup but a “venting of accumulated resentments” (Edward Luttwak), “a big biker gang dressed as circus performers” (Mike Davis), an “alt-right charivari” (Alex Callinicos), or a “re-enactment” of fantasies originally tested on social media (Wolfgang Ullrich).Some of these interpretations have been accused of trivialising the events. But the semantic helplessness in face of the Washington events suggests a wider uncertainty about the more general phenomenon. The confusion about the event mirrors confusion about the movement as a whole. Is contemporary “rightwing populism” best described as “authoritarianism” or even “fascism”? The answer depends on which level one focuses on: the ideology, the structure of their institutions, the aesthetics, the supporters or the consequences of their actions. If we follow the Hungarian philosopher Gáspár Miklós Tamás, with his very broad definition of fascism as “a break with the enlightenment tradition of citizenship as a universal entitlement”, the similarities sharpen. A penchant for violence and machismo also points in that direction. Continue reading...

Donald Trump said it had been his ‘greatest honour and privilege’ to have served as US president in a speech to supporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. ‘Goodbye, we love you, we’ll be back in some form,’ Trump said, before boarding Air Force One to the sound of the Village People’s 'YMCA'. Trump is the first president in more than 150 years not to attend the inauguration ceremony of his successor.

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

Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director, has called the outgoing US president, Donald Trump, a 'seditious traitor'. He said many Americans would 'breathe a sigh of relief' after Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

Whether it is deaths from Covid-19 or his own election defeat, admitting loss is something Trump finds impossible to do

In this time of unprecedented crises, Congress and the Biden administration must respond through unprecedented actionA record-breaking 4,000 Americans are now dying each day from Covid-19, while the federal government fumbles vaccine production and distribution, testing and tracing. In the midst of the worst pandemic in 100 years, more than 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and can’t afford to go to a doctor when they get sick. The isolation and anxiety caused by the pandemic has resulted in a huge increase in mental illness.Over half of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, including millions of essential workers who put their lives on the line every day. More than 24 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work, while hunger in this country is at the highest level in decades. Continue reading...

Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the US later today, as Donald Trump hosts his own departure event and pardons Steve Bannon. Plus, wildfires hit California yet againGood morning.Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next president of the US today, taking the oath of office at the Capitol two weeks after it was stormed, smashed and looted by rioters seeking to overturn his election victory. Washington is a far cry from the usual inauguration setting: the parades and cheering crowds have been replaced by a militarised zone and 25,000 National Guard troops. A dozen troops were removed from their posts yesterday after FBI screening, amid fears of an insider attack. Continue reading...

The playmaker left home at the age of 12 to pursue her soccer career. Now she has signed with the most successful club in the women’s gameIt has been a week to remember for Catarina Macario, the Brazilian-born, San Diego-bred midfielder who for years has been touted as the future of the US women’s national team but at the moment appears increasingly bound to its present.Three months after receiving her American citizenship, the 21-year-old playmaker wept tears of joy with her family last Wednesday after receiving confirmation from Fifa of her approval to represent the four-time world champions in international play. The paperwork was finalised a day after Macario signed a contract to start her professional career with European champions Lyon, forgoing her senior season at Stanford University. Then on Monday night, she cut the figure of a polished veteran while making her USA debut in a 4-0 friendly win over Colombia at Orlando’s Exploria Stadium. Continue reading...

The president-elect has promised to do away with ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, raising hopes that asylum seekers claims will be treated seriouslySelma López, 31, has spent nearly a year holed up in a two-room house not far from Mexico’s border with the US, along with her 11-year-old son Darikson and another woman who also made the long journey from Honduras in search of a new life.Related: Remain in Mexico policy needlessly exposed migrants to harm, report says Continue reading...

Only seven former US presidents did not attend the event, violating a democratic normDonald Trump, the first US president to have been impeached twice, refuses to attend president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration this Wednesday.He is one of seven US presidents ever to have done so, joining the company of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and most recently, Richard Nixon. Wilson had had a stroke and Nixon had resigned. Presidents have seldom rejected this norm of attendance, usually seen as an important symbol of the peaceful transition of power. Continue reading...

To some the Brooklyn Nets guard is an entitled conspiracy theorist. To others he is a superstar millionaire with a conscienceMidway through the feature film Uncle Drew, the titular character confronts the coach who lured him and his over-the-hill teammates out of retirement and into a basketball tournament at New York City’s famed Rucker Park. Feeling conned into cooperating for the love of the game while a $100,000 winner’s prize went purposefully unmentioned, Uncle Drew flips his totally convincing wig. “You just don’t get it, do you, Young Blood,” he says. “This game, the love I got for it – it’s all sacred to me.” Looking back, it was a hell of an acting job by Kyrie Irving.It has been two weeks since the 28-year-old All-Star guard was last seen in uniform for the Brooklyn Nets. That’s counting the Barclays Center dates against Orlando last Saturday and against Milwaukee on Monday, which saw former league MVP James Harden back up his axis-tilting trade out of Houston with 66 points and 26 boards in a pair of Nets wins. “Personal reasons” was the line Irving offered up as cover for his extended leave, which ended on Tuesday. And in these quote-unquote unprecedented times, only a monster would have thought to challenge him on it. Or at least that was until a maskless Irving was caught on video celebrating his sister’s birthday at a packed New Jersey nightclub last week. Continue reading...

The former Manchester United player will take the reins at a club establishing itself on the field, and grappling with challenges off itOn Monday morning, Inter Miami announced that Phil Neville would step down from his role as manager of the England women’s team to take the helm at the MLS club. The club, co-owned by Neville’s former teammate David Beckham, played their first season in MLS amid the tumultuous backdrop of 2020, and will look to Neville to turn the team into a force to be reckoned with in the seemingly ever-expanding league.In his first statement as Miami manager, Neville described Inter as a “very young club with a lot of promise and upside”. But if he expects his new job to be all beach days and sunshine, he is in for a shock. Continue reading...

A display in London will share the spirit of the 2018 protests with a wider audience – and create new chances for changeNo sooner had the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi thrown his shoes in protest at the US president George Bush than people were calling for the offending items to be displayed in a national museum. They didn’t make it that far: US security forces destroyed them while checking for explosives. Luckily, the Trump baby balloon dodged a similar fate in July 2018, when it floated above crowds that had gathered to protest the president’s visit to the UK.Ahead of Trump’s departure from the White House, the activists who designed and handled the blimp (its self-described “babysitters”) have decided to donate it to the Museum of London. The balloon will sit alongside ephemera from the movements led by the suffragettes and Chartists. Still, unlike these causes, the fight against Trump and everything he stands for – from rising inequality to the pollution of public discourse and the rise of the far-right – is far from over. Continue reading...

The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, has said she welcomes the incoming Joe Biden administration in the US. Patel told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday ahead of the president-elect's inauguration: 'This is a new era in US politics.'On Wednesday, Joe Biden will assume office in a ceremony at the US Capitol, signalling an end to Donald Trump's presidency.

In the aftermath of the attack, a huge security crackdown has left local residents disoriented and prompted condemnationIn early 2003, as government buildings across Iraq were being looted, Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, “Freedom’s untidy.” Iraq was “being liberated”, he said. “Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also free to live their lives and do wonderful things.”Iraqi journalist Ali Adeeb Alnaemi was in Baghdad at the time. “I was driving around and seeing looting and burning while American soldiers were standing there, and they would say to me, ‘We have no orders to interfere,’” he said. Continue reading...

Analysis: The new administration faces no shortage of obstacles to progress – but Biden is setting his sights high nonethelessThe last time a Democratic president took control of the White House, the wreckage he inherited was so great, there was little else his incoming team could prioritize.Twelve years ago, Barack Obama’s blunt-spoken chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, liked to describe the Republican legacy – a financial crisis, deep recession and two wars – as a giant shit sandwich wrapped in a red ribbon. Continue reading...

Climate, trade and China are all on the table as the Morrison government prepares to build bridges with Trump’s successorDonald Trump’s final day in office has sparked fresh political debate in Australia about whether Scott Morrison allowed himself to get too close to the outgoing US president. But the focus will soon shift to building bridges with the incoming Joe Biden administration.What will the new administration mean for Australia when it comes to renewing the alliance, navigating tensions with a rising China, dealing with a newly ambitious US approach to climate policy, working together on global trade rules and reforming global bodies? Continue reading...

Former senior adviser had previously been considered an unlikely name among the 143 people who received clemency

US president has pardoned 70 people and commuted the sentences of a further 73 people

TRUMP WAS SO WEIRD ALL THE TIME. I HATED IT.

The triple crises of Covid, the economy and the climate can only be solved globally. Thankfully, this plays to his strengthsOn the campaign trail, Joe Biden quoted the following words of his favourite poet, Seamus Heaney: “Hope for a great sea change / on the far side of revenge.”As the US president-elect finally takes the oath of office in Washington DC, the rest of the world desperately needs him to effect a sea change. If his first task is to reunite a divided America, his second is to end American isolationism: to show Americans that they need the world, and show the world that we still need America. Continue reading...

With Washington under lockdown and Covid-19 raging, the inauguration will be different, but there will still be pomp and ceremonyAccording to the constitution of the United States, a president’s four-year term “shall end at noon on the 20th day of January”. On Wednesday, the end of Donald Trump’s presidency will see Joe Biden assume the office in the enduring inauguration ceremony at the US Capitol. Continue reading...

Guardian US columnist Robert Reich reflects on the unfinished business of the Trump presidency, and what Biden’s administration should aim to accomplishGuardian 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? Continue reading...

Vladimir Fardin arrived in San Francisco with a valid visa but faces being deported by US immigration along with his brotherIn the final hours of the Trump presidency, immigration officials detained a nine year-old Haitian boy with a valid US visa, separated him from his elder brother and incarcerated him, according to lawyers and activists.Vladimir Fardin arrived in San Francisco from Haiti on Sunday, on a tourist visa. He was travelling with his 19-year-old brother, Christian Laporte, who has been studying in Diablo Valley College outside San Francisco, and had a valid student’s visa, according to lawyers acting for him. Continue reading...

Correct decision to declare the state for Biden took anchors by surprise and infuriated Donald Trump and supportersTwo top news executives who were involved in the Fox News Channel’s election night decision to call Arizona for Democrat Joe Biden are out at the network.Bill Sammon, senior vice-president and managing editor at Fox’s Washington bureau, announced his retirement to staff members on Monday. The following day, the politics editor Chris Stirewalt was let go as part of a restructuring of Fox’s digital operations. Continue reading...

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have honoured the more than 400,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19 at a lighting ceremony in Washington. ‘Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights in the darkness along the sacred pool of reflection, remember all whom we lost,’ Biden said. Lori Marie Key, a nurse from Michigan, sang Amazing Grace and the gospel singer Yolanda Adams sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. The memorial took place at the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial, with 400 lights placed around the pool to commemorate the 400,000 American victims of the pandemic. The memorial also included 400 bell tolls at the National Cathedral and churches across the country

Video message touts Trump’s accomplishments but does not acknowledge successor’s legitimate election winDonald Trump has delivered a “mission accomplished” valedictory address that failed to name Joe Biden or acknowledge the legitimacy of his election victory.On his last full day at the White House, the outgoing US president released a nearly 20-minute video message in which he spoke from a lectern against a backdrop of four national flags, two busts and two framed paintings. Continue reading...

The White House has released Donald Trump’s farewell address, a 20-minute pre-recorded video of the president touting his accomplishments in office. ‘I did not seek the path that would get the least criticism,' Trump said celebrating his controversy-laden presidency. ‘I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices’. The outgoing president also offered a message of encouragement to his successor, but avoided saying Joe Biden's name. He ended by hinting at a possible political future, even as he awaits the start of his second Senate impeachment trial. 'Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning’

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, acknowledged the violent mob that attacked the Capitol earlier this month was 'provoked' by Donald Trump, going on to say that the inauguration of Joe Biden would be 'safe and successful'.Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell said: 'The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people' Continue reading...

Thousands more deaths expected this season as more transmissible strain spreads and vaccinations move slowlyMore than 400,000 Americans have now been killed by the coronavirus, a horrific marker of the misery the virus has spread across the country, as the rate of deaths from Covid-19 increases.The latest death toll comes as thousands more deaths are expected in a bleak American winter with widespread Covid transmission, as a more transmissible strain spreads across the country and a mass vaccination campaign gets off to a slow start. Continue reading...

Judge orders Oklahoma zoo featured in hit Netflix series to surrender cats and their mothers for violating animal welfare lawsA federal judge in Oklahoma has ordered the new owners of an Oklahoma zoo featured in Netflix’s Tiger King documentary to turn over all the lion and tiger cubs in their possession, along with the animals’ mothers, to the federal government.Related: 'It's pretty messed up': Americans’ deadly love for tigers Continue reading...

Figure arrived with stunning speed as southern and central California grapple with brutal outbreaksCalifornia has become the first state to record more than 3m coronavirus infections, as it grapples with an unprecedented surge of cases that has left hospitals overwhelmed.That remarkable figure, which comes from Johns Hopkins University, was not entirely unexpected for the nation’s most populous state – but the speed at which it arrived has been stunning. Continue reading...

The US president-elect’s nominee for treasury secretary has told lawmakers that "the smartest thing we can do is act big" on the next coronavirus relief package, adding that the benefits outweigh the costs of a higher debt burden.In testimony at her virtual confirmation hearing, Janet Yellen said her task as treasury chief would be twofold: to help Americans endure the final months of the coronavirus pandemic, and to rebuild the US economy “so that it creates more prosperity for more people and ensures that American workers can compete in an increasingly competitive global economy”

One in every eight households owes water debt, survey shows, with Black and Latino neighborhoods more likely to be in arrearsThe magnitude of America’s water affordability crisis has been laid bare by shocking new data from California where debt owed on water bills has hit $1bn and one in every eight households is currently in arrears. Continue reading...

But sources say neither Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon or president himself are on the list