New York
Within hours of being sworn in on Wednesday as the US President, Joe Biden plans to sign a number of executive orders, including rejoining the 2016 Paris climate accord and ending the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries. These actions are designed to signal an immediate break from President Donald Trump.
“President-elect Biden will take action but also to start moving our country forward,” incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain wrote in a memo released Saturday.
One of Trump’s first actions as president in 2017 was to suspend entry to the United States of travelers from seven majority Muslim nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, for 90 days. That executive order created chaos at airports around the world, and lawsuits against the ban quickly followed.
Meanwhile, ten days after rioters breached the US Capitol in a deadly attack that stunned the world, cities nationwide were girding for a potential new wave of violent protests over the weekend, erecting barriers and deploying thousands of National Guard troops.
The FBI warned police agencies of possible armed demonstrations outside all 50 state capitol buildings starting Saturday through President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, fueled by supporters of President Donald Trump who believe his false claims of electoral fraud.
Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Washington were among more than a dozen states that activated their National Guards to strengthen security. Meanwhile, downtown Washington, D.C., was virtually empty, with streets near the Capitol closed and battalions of camouflaged National Guard soldiers taking up positions across the city center.
A heavily armed man was arrested in Washington at a security checkpoint near the US Capitol, where President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated next week, authorities said. Wesley Allen Beeler, of Virginia, was taken into custody after police found him with a handgun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition, shotgun shells and a magazine for the gun.—Agencies
