Inauguration Day: The defining images as Joe Biden becomes US president
Louise Hall
·1-min read
At noon on 20 January 2021, the tumultuous and divisive Trump term ended and Joe Biden, the former VP and longtime senator with working-class Scranton roots, became the 46th president of the United States.
The swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday was a stark reminder of the uphill challenges that the new president faces in office.
Washington DC is surrounded by a ring of steel and troops reminiscent of a war zone following an insurrectionist siege at the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob earlier this month. And the capital, normally packed with jubilant scenes on such a historic occasion, is strangely empty due to pandemic precautions.
Here, The Independent, takes a look at the defining images on the day that the Biden era began.
Israel’s strike on Iran on Friday morning will not come as a surprise to Western observers – but it will cause great concern in Washington and London as the region tips closer towards an all-out war.
Israel’s presumed counterstrike against Iran has proved Joe Biden and David Cameron wrong in their insistence that Israel should just “take the win”. Instead, it fought back – and yesterday Iran was trying to pretend that nothing had happened.
A Maryland high school student was arrested and charged with threat of mass violence after police say they discovered evidence revealing the teen had plans to commit a school shooting, authorities said Thursday.
While Western eyes are fixed on Tehran and Tel Aviv, Ukraine’s frontlines are showing clear signs of crumbling. There is a very real possibility they could crumble this summer if we do not throw the kitchen sink at Russia. Even if we do, it may already be too late for the weapons and munitions long promised by the West to save the day.
Aston Villa booked their place in the Europa League semi-finals in dramatic fashion by winning a drama-filled penalty shootout, where goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez received his second yellow card but was not sent off.
All but a small handful of Manchester City players and staff had already retired to the dressing room, dazed and doubtless a little confused about what had just unfolded, by the time Bernardo Silva started his slow trudge off the pitch.
A 39-year-old Singaporean woman was found dead with multiple stab wounds after going missing in Spain, and a Singaporean man has been arrested. Read on.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have reached new heights as Tehran repeats its warnings that a response to its own missile attack could be lethal for the region
Jürgen Klopp said Liverpool squandered their Europa League chances at Anfield and insisted Mohamed Salah’s wastefulness was not the cause of their exit
For only the eighth time in the past quarter of a century, England finds itself without a single representative in the last four of the Champions League. That feels, in the immediate aftermath of this soul-sapping defeat for Manchester City, like an unvarnished travesty.