Joe Biden moves to undo most damaging aspects of Donald Trump's Legacy

US President Biden unleashed a full-scale assault on his predecessor’s legacy on Wednesday, acting hours after taking the oath of office to sweep aside former President Donald J Trump’s pandemic response, reverse his environmental agenda, tear down his anti-immigration policies, bolster the sluggish economic recovery and restore federal efforts aimed at promoting diversity.
 
Moving with an urgency not seen from any other modern president, Biden signed 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations from the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon. Among the actions the president took were orders to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and end Trump’s travel ban on Muslim and African countries.
 
Individually, the actions are targeted at what the president views as specific, egregious abuses by Trump during four turbulent years. Collectively, Biden’s assertive use of executive authority was intended to be a hefty and visible down payment on one of his primary goals: to, as his top advisers described it, “reverse the gravest damages” done to the country by Trump.
 
In his remarks, Biden stressed unity of purpose, urging Americans to “see each other not as adversaries but as neighbour” and pleaded with citizens and leaders to “join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature.”

 
As the US enters “what may well be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus,” Biden is putting forth a national Covid-19 strategy to ramp up vaccinations and testing, reopen schools and businesses and increase the use of masks - including a requirement that they be worn for travel. Biden also will address inequities in hard-hit minority communities as he signs 10 pandemic-related executive orders on Thursday, his second day in office. “We need to ask average Americans to do their part," said Jeff Zients, the White House official directing the national response.
 
Democrats take narrow control of US Senate
 
Democrats took control of the US Senate on Wednesday when Vice President Kamala Harris swore in three members to give the party a narrow grip on both houses of Congress as well as the White House for the first time in a decade. Biden’s Cabinet nominees won Senate approval on Wednesday night: Avril Haines, tapped for the job of director of national intelligence.
 
 China’s ‘better angels’ message to US
 
China on Thursday congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration and called for a reset in relations between Beijing and Washington.. "With cooperation from both sides, the better angels in China-US relations will beat the evil forces," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
 
Fauci pledges US Covax support
 
US infectious-disease chief Anthony Fauci pledged his country’s commitment to the WHO, including membership in a global effort to deploy Covid-19 vaccines.
 
China’s Big 3 state telcos seek review of delisting
 
China’s three biggest telecommu­nications firms said they requested a review of the New York Stock Exchange’s  decision to delist their shares more than a week ago, a move triggered by an executive order issued by Trump.
 
First foreign leader call will be to Trudeau
 
President Joe Biden's first call to a foreign leader will be to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, White House spoke­swoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday —  with the fate of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on the agenda.