Joe Biden Sworn in as Oldest US President
Joe Biden, the 78-year-old Democrat from Delaware, was sworn in January 20 as the 46th president of the US, becoming the oldest to ever take the oath of office.
His vice-president, Kamala Harris, a senator from California and that state’s former attorney general from 2011 to 2017, was sworn in as the first female vice president in US history and the first Black of Asian descent to hold the office.
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The inauguration ceremony, pared down due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and security concerns in the wake of the protest at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, was attended by several former presidents, including Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president; Bill Clinton and George W Bush. Donald Trump skipped the ceremony, becoming the first out-going president to shun the inauguration of his successor since Andrew Johnson declined to attend the swearing-in of Ulysses S Grant in 1869.
Later today, Biden is expected to begin issuing a number of executive orders that will, among other moves, cancel the presidential permit for the controversial Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from Canada and rejoin the US to the Paris climate agreement. A number of other executive orders are expected in the coming days that will begin the process of rolling back several Trump measures dealing with the environment that were seen as favourable to the US fossil fuel industry, including weaker controls on methane emissions from oil and gas production.