Trump has left the White House, Biden arrives, a page is turned

Sylvie Claire / January 20, 2021

Joe Biden takes the oath of office in Washington on Wednesday, a historic day of strict protocol that will culminate at noon when he officially becomes the 46th president of the United States.

Donald Trump and his wife Melania left the White House for the last time as U.S. presidential couple on Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. with some delay.

They boarded the Marine One helicopter bound for Maryland. Mr. Trump will not greet his successor Joe Biden at the White House as is the tradition. As he left the building, he said a few words, referring to a fantastic four-year term , representing the honor of a lifetime.

Joe Biden will take upon entering the White House on Wednesday 17 presidential actions to revisit Donald Trump's landmark measures. Joe Biden will in particular engage the return of the United States in the Paris agreement on the climate and within the World Health Organization, according to his advisers. To limit the spread of the virus, which has caused 400,000 deaths in the country, the president will also sign an executive order to make it mandatory to wear masks in federal buildings, or for federal agents.

To mitigate its impact on those who have lost income, it will also extend the moratorium on housing evictions and the pause in federal student loan repayments, he added. On migration policy, he will also take the flip side of Donald Trump, who made the fight against illegal immigration a hallmark of his presidency. Joe Biden will overturn a controversial migration order passed by his predecessor to bar nationals of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. This measure was rooted in xenophobia and religious animosity, justified Jake Sullivan, the future National Security Advisor to the White House.

Another front is the fight against racial inequality. Joe Biden will sign an executive order directing federal agencies to assess inequalities in their programs and policies, said Susan Rice, future director of the Domestic Policy Council, and to reinstate diversity training cancelled by his predecessor. These measures are only a first salvo and will be followed by other decrees and proclamations in the coming days, the advisers said.

In India, the entire ancestral village of Kamala Harris prays for her. In southern India, the entire Tamil village where Kamala Harris's maternal grandfather was born is praying and blowing firecrackers Wednesday before the inauguration ceremony in Washington that will make her vice president of the United States. Thulasendrapuram, a village of 400 souls in the state of Tamil Nadu, has been celebrating since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the U.S. presidential election in November. The 56-year-old vice president-elect was born in California, but developed personal ties to India by traveling to the country of her ancestors alongside her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan. The breast cancer specialist was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) before moving to the United States at the age of 19.