This week, Australia also suspended a travel bubble with New Zealand after its first Covid case in months was confirmed to be a more contagious variant.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian welcomed the state border decisions on Thursday, saying: “I hope this brings a lot of joy and relief to people and that people are reunited.”
Ms Berejiklian had previously criticised some of the border closures from other states, arguing they were a disproportionate response. She noted many NSW residents lived far away from the Sydney hotspots.
Her state managed to curb the city’s fast-growing outbreak in December through aggressive contract tracing, restricting gathering sizes and making masks mandatory in shops and on public transport.
US President Joe Biden will sign a series of executive orders aimed to address climate change, including a new ban on some energy drilling.
The orders aim to freeze new oil and gas leases on public lands and double offshore wind-produced energy by 2030.
They are expected to meet stiff resistance from the energy industry and come as a sea change from Donald Trump, who cut environmental protections.
Mr Biden will also label climate change a “national security” priority.
The series of executive orders that Mr Biden is due to sign on Wednesday will establish a White House office of domestic climate policy and announce a summit of leaders in the movement to tackle climate change to be held in April.
Mr Biden will also call upon the US Director of National Intelligence to prepare an intelligence report on the security implications of climate change.
Mr Biden is using the power he has as president to make climate change a central issue of his administration.
The executive orders and memorandum – which cannot go as far as congressional legislation in combating climate change – can be undone by future presidents, as he is currently doing to Mr Trump.
According to a statement from the White House, Mr Biden will direct the Department of the Interior, which oversees federal public lands, to pause oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands and water “to the extent possible” and to launch a review of existing energy leases.
Mr Biden aims to conserve at least 30 percent of federal lands and oceans by 2030.
According to the New York Times, fossil fuel extraction on public lands accounts for almost a quarter of all US carbon dioxide emissions.
Public lands are controlled by the federal government. Mr Biden’s order does not affect private property owners or state-held public lands.
Mr Biden’s “whole-of-government” approach, the White House says, will create the first-ever National Climate Advisor who will lead the office of Domestic Climate Policy at the White House.
Later today, Mr Biden’s envoy for climate – another new position – will join the White House press briefing.
The orders also direct all federal agencies to develop plans for how climate change will affect their facilities and operations.
It also will require agencies to determine ways to help the public better access climate change forecasts and information.
Mr Biden is also making it clear his administration will make decisions based on the best science available.
He’s directed agencies to only make “evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data”.
There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam, and so the system is being manipulated.
Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, on Wednesday, lambasted the Nigerian government for its inefficiency in the fight against corruption in the country, saying many persons ought to be in jail if the system worked.
Soyinka noted that corruption cases involving some state governors over whom much evidence had already been gathered suddenly died down without any tangible reason.
The playwright stated this on an African Independent Television’s programme, Kakaaki, adding that the system had been so corrupted that cases were stretched out into silence by all kinds of technicalities.
He said, “There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam, and so the system is being manipulated.
“There are cases where the prosecution had reached the level where evidence had been given on governors who had been stealing and depositing in bits and pieces so as not to flout a certain regulation.
“I mean cases have been taken to that level and suddenly, silence.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which I backed solidly ever since the days of (Nuhu) Ribadu, in all kinds of ways; we no longer can distinguish from right and left.”
Asked whether the National Assembly, dominated by the All Progressives Congress, was not putting enough pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari, he said NASS had a lot of work to do in its relationship with the President.
However, Soyinka said the desire of some lawmakers for committee positions “where I think all the goodies are shared” has made them compromise.
He added, “It is the responsibility of the constituency to remind them of these derelictions; these failures to come up to scratch as expected when they come round next for elections.”
Our WCW for today is Genevieve Nnaji . Genevieve Nnaji is a beautiful dark skinned , nollywood actress , movie producer and director. She was born on the 3rd of May, 1979 in Mbaise , Imo state Nigeria but grew up in Lagos. Genevieve Nnaji attended Methodist girls college , then furthered her education in the University of Lagos, where she studied creative arts.
Genevieve started acting at the age of 19years in 1998, when she was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry with the movie, “most wanted” . She is also an activist who advocates for girls and kicks against early child marriage.
Genevieve Nnaji
Genevieve is a feminist who believes in the freedom of every woman to make her choices. In 2019 , her movie “Lionheart” was selected by the Nigerian Oscars selection commitee (NOSC) , as Nigeria’s submission to the best international feature film category of the 2020 Oscars.
The global streaming giant ‘Netflix ‘ , purchased Genevieve’ s movie , ‘Lionheart’ . That was a big success for Genevieve.
”I would have started saving money in kindergarten if I knew life was like this”- Singer Aphrodija
Singer, Aphrodija, has taken to her social media to comment on the rising cost of living.
In a post shared on her Instagram page, Aphrodija said if she knew this was how life was, she would have started saving money from her days in Kindergarten.
I would’ve STARTED saving MONEY in KINDERGARTEN if I knew LIFE was like this”
British residents arriving in England from Covid hotspots will have to quarantine in hotels, Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to announce.
The measures will apply to people coming from most of South America, southern Africa and Portugal, amid concern over new variants of the virus.
Most overseas visitors from those countries are already barred from entering the UK.
But Labour said hotel quarantine should be mandatory for all arrivals.
British nationals and those with residency rights who arrive from high-risk countries will be required to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense for up to 10 days, in a bid to improve compliance with self-isolation rules.
Senior ministers met on Tuesday night to approve the plan, following days of disagreement over the details.
They also agreed that if other areas were designated as high risk in the future, then the requirement for hotel quarantine would be extended.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had argued for a targeted approach to quarantine, while the home secretary had favoured its more widespread use, according to BBC political correspondent Iain Watson.
Ms Patel will set out further details in the House of Commons, including the timescale for the policy and who will be exempt.
She told MPs on Tuesday the government would not hesitate to take further action to protect the UK from new variants, adding: “Measures are always under review.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for tougher measures to combat the spread of new variants from abroad.
He told reporters on Tuesday: “It’s very clear that we need to have quarantine comprehensively in hotels for everybody coming into the country, we need much stronger defences at our borders.”
The Biden administration has said it will seek to push forward a plan to make anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman the face of a new $20 bill.
image captionHarriet Tubman was a spy and a nurse for the Union during the US Civil War
A note featuring Ms Tubman, who was born a slave in about 1822, was originally due to be unveiled in 2020.
The US Treasury said she would replace former President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner.
But the effort was delayed under former President Donald Trump, who branded it “pure political correctness”.
Now President Joe Biden has revived the project, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki telling reporters the Treasury was “exploring ways to speed up” the process.
The move would make Ms Tubman the first African American to appear on a US banknote, and the first woman for more than 100 years.
“It’s important that our notes, our money – if people don’t know what a note is – reflect the history and diversity of our country, and Harriet Tubman’s image gracing the new $20 note would certainly reflect that,” Ms Psaki said on Monday.
image captionA mock-up of the new $20 note
The women last depicted on US notes were former First Lady Martha Washington, on the $1 silver certificate from 1891 to 1896, and Native American Pocahontas, in a group image on the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869.
However, given the complexities of redesigning and producing US banknotes, the bill is not expected to be released any time soon.
In 2019, Mr Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said the redesign would be delayed until at least 2026. At the time, he said he was focused on redesigning bills to address counterfeiting issues, not making changes to their imagery.
Mr Trump, an admirer of his populist predecessor Andrew Jackson – whose portrait hung in his office – expressed opposition to the redesign.
While campaigning in 2016, Mr Trump suggested that Ms Tubman be put on the $2 bill instead.
Who was Harriet Tubman?
Born into slavery in about 1822, Ms Tubman grew up working in the cotton fields in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was the fourth of nine children born to two enslaved parents, Benjamin Ross and Harriet Rit.
As a teenager, she was hit in the head by an iron weight thrown by an overseer, leaving her severely injured.
She escaped from a slave plantation in 1849, fleeing north to the neighbouring state of Pennsylvania.
In the years that followed, Ms Tubman returned multiple times to Maryland to rescue others, conducting them along the so-called “underground railroad”, a network of safe houses used to spirit slaves from the south to the free states in the north.
She is estimated to have made some 13 missions to rescue more than 70 enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network.
Later, she became a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War, a prominent supporter of the women’s suffrage movement, and a famous veteran of the struggle for the abolition of slavery.
After the war, Ms Tubman toured eastern cities giving speeches in support of women’s suffrage, drawing on her experiences in the fight against slavery.
She died in 1913, aged 91, surrounded by her family
Nollywood actress, Annie Idibia has questioned the decision by the Federal Government of Nigeria to approve the resumption of schools across the country amid the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
The thespian spilled her guts on Instagram on Monday night while reacting to singer, Seun Kuti’s Instagram post in which he kicked against the decision to reopen schools amid the increasing spread of the virus.
Annie Idibia who faulted the decision also wondered if parents can trust the schools enough to know where the teachers, assistants, cleaners, school chef, security, and even the students, have been for the last two weeks.
“My question is simply about school reopening. Do the kids of those who decided for schools to resume attend the schools asked to resume?” Seun Kuti asked on his official Instagram page.
In her reply to Sen Kuti’s poser, Annie Idibia said; “Still very disturbing ooo. Honestly, I am not sure I want my kids to go back to school “NOW” with this 2nd wave of COVID!! It’s really out there! I am so SCARED!! How many parents let their kids off to school today?
“Please, tell me how u did it? And do you TRUST the schools enough to know where the teachers, assistants, cleaners, school chef, security, even the students, where they have been for the last 2weeks? Have they encountered anyone with COVID? Knowing or unknowingly??”
“Has every single staff taken the COVID test before resuming to take care of our kids? Personally, I don’t trust n can’t account for the above. Won’t these kids hug each other ?? After missing their friends from d long break?”
“I know people close who caught COVID n still healing from it! That even watched people drop in isolation centres. Please let be wise with the decision we make in the lives of our kids,” she noted.
The CEO of a casino company valued at nearly $2bn (£1.6bn) has quit after he and his wife were charged with misleading authorities to get a Covid vaccine.
Rod Baker, of the Great Canadian Gaming Corp, and his wife Ekaterina had travelled to the remote northern Yukon territory for the jabs.
The region, home to many indigenous people, has a faster vaccination rate than in the rest of Canada, data shows.
The couple had posed as motel workers.
They were only found out after asking to be taken to the airport straight after the vaccination last week in the small community of Beaver Creek, on the border with the US state of Alaska.
“I am outraged by this selfish behaviour,” said Yukon’s Community Services Minister John Streicker.
“We had not been imagining that someone would go to this sort of length to mislead or deceive,” he added.
Meanwhile, White River First Nation Chief Angela Demit, leader of the local indigenous nation, wrote on her Facebook page: “We are deeply concerned by the actions of individuals who put our elders and vulnerable people at risk to jump the line for selfish purposes.”
Mr Baker and his wife were also later fined for failing to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving in Yukon from the city of Vancouver.
Wife of Pastor Mike Davids who accused Apostle Johnson Suleman of sleeping with her, breaks her silence (video).
Pastor Faith Edeko, the wife of Pastor Mike Davids who in a viral video accused Apostle Johnson Suleman, of sleeping with her, has broken her silence.
Pastor Davids in the viral video shared on Sunday, January 24, alleged that he was a former Pastor with Omega Fire Ministeries, presided over by Apostle Suleman.
He alleged that while he was still in the Ministry, Apostle Suleman slept with his wife and then transferred her to Abuja where she is now heading the church’s branch. He also alleged that the clergyman has stopped him from seeing his three children and has also been threatening his life. He also alleged that Apostle Suleiman cast a spell on his wife.
In a video she shared online, Pastor Edeko described her husband’s allegations as cheap blackmail. She said it was Davids who walked out of their marriage and that she suffered so much abuse while she was still living with him. She said she even contemplated suicide but her son stopped her.
She stated that she did not abandon her marriage but rather, it was her husband who abandoned the family and even demanded a refund of her bride price from her family.
“I don’t know what you hope to achieve, I don’t know who paid you but the only thing I will say is haven’t you done enough? Are you not tired of flogging someone’s daughter in pain?
You left me in Kano. You called me on a certain day that you were going to leave the marriage. I thought you were bluffing. I called my people and they can testify. My elder brother called you from the UK. You told them you were leaving the marriage. My elder brother told me you were bluffing.
I remember I begged you and then I got to the office and I collapsed, according to what my principal said because I found myself in the hospital.
There are recordings which I will upload. You told my brothers that I would crawl in the gutters. I told them not to do anything to you, that you are still the father of my kids. At some point, I contemplated suicide. I had written my suicide note, I had bought sniper because I could not fathom how I would live life in so much pain. I won’t drag you because of my children… you have done too much and it is enough. I am not hypnotized. I am not under a spell.”
Some people were having to shelter in public buildings or out in the open as temperatures fell below zero, it said.
One child has reportedly died as a result of the harsh weather conditions.
image captionSome 6.6 million people are internally displaced across Syria
Children and women make up 80% of the region’s 1.5 million camp residents.
More than 12 million Syrians have fled their homes since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad almost 10 years ago. Some 6.6 million are internally displaced, while 5.6 million have sought refuge abroad.
image captionAfter snow fell in western Aleppo, children cleaned the roof of their tent to prevent it from collapsing and to stop water leaking insideimage captionSome displaced people are having to shelter in public buildings or out in the open as temperatures drop below zero
Care’s country director in Turkey, Sherine Ibrahim, said humanitarian organisations were rushing to provide emergency relief to the thousands who had lost their homes in Aleppo and Idlib, but that reaching them had been made difficult by the flooding of access roads.
They are also concerned that the situation might contribute to the rise in Covid-19 infections, she added. As of last Wednesday, health authorities in north-western Syria had recorded 20,000 confirmed cases and 379 deaths.
image captionMost camps in the region are located in flat orchards, suitable for agriculture rather than constructionimage captionThe ability to repair affected tents is limited during the winter, and floods are likely to reoccur with renewed rainfall
“With inadequate shelter and increasing hunger for displaced Syrians in the north-west of the country, they are running out of coping strategies to keep themselves and their loved ones safe,” Ms Ibrahim warned.
“Zainab”, a woman living at a camp in Idlib told Care: “The water came into the tent where I live with my grandchildren, covering the ground. We cannot live in it now. Look at how our situation has become. We do not have blankets, food, or any other supplies.
image caption”Zainab” and her grandchildren were living in one tent at a camp in northern Idlib
“The water has destroyed everything; there is nothing left. These are difficult times,” she added.
“Abu Ali”, who was displaced last year, said his family had not had any clean drinking water for more than a week because there was no way for aid agencies to deliver it to their camp.
image caption”Abu Ali” does not have dry clothes, mattresses, or blankets to keep him and his children warm at night
The Syria Civil Defence, whose first responders are known as the White Helmets, said on Sunday that it was continuing emergency operations despite the rainstorm ending. It was also providing services and assistance to more than 3,200 affected families in more than 225 camps.
Last week, the Syria Civil Defence reported that a six-year-old boy was killed in Idlib after a brick wall built around his tent collapsed on top of him.
Moderna’s Covid vaccine appears to work against new, more infectious variants of the pandemic virus found in the UK and South Africa, say scientists from the US pharmaceutical company.
Early laboratory tests suggest antibodies triggered by the vaccine can recognise and fight the new variants.
More studies are needed to confirm this is true for people that have been vaccinated.
The new variants have been spreading fast in a number of nations.
They have undergone changes or mutations that mean they can infect human cells more easily than the original version of coronavirus that started the pandemic.
Experts think the UK strain, which emerged in September, may be up to 70% more transmissible.
Current vaccines were designed around earlier variants, but scientists believe they should still work against the new ones, although perhaps not quite as well.
For this study, researchers looked at blood samples taken from eight people who had received the recommended two doses of the Moderna vaccine.
The findings are yet to be peer reviewed, but suggest immunity from the vaccine still works against the new variants.
Neutralising antibodies, made by the immune system, stop the virus from entering cells.
The blood samples that were exposed to the new variants appeared to have sufficient antibodies to achieve this neutralising.
UK regulators have already approved Moderna’s vaccine for rollout on the NHS, but the 17m pre-ordered doses are not expected to arrive until Spring.
The vaccine works in a similar way to the Pfizer one already being used in the UK.
More than 6.3 million people in the UK have already received a first dose of either the Pfizer or the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The management of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba- Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State, on Sunday ordered the closure of the institution until further notice following a fatal accident outside campus that claimed the lives of students.
The Akungba accident occurred on Saturday, Jan 23. A cement-laden truck rammed into shops opposite the institution, resulting in the death of at least nine, 3 of whom are related.
According to Joe Igbokwe, a former spokesman for the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, the mother of the three siblings killed in the crash also died of shock on Saturday after hearing the sad news about her children.
Students of AAUA came out to protest the death of their colleagues following the accident and this led to an order to close the institution for the meantime.
The directive to close down the school was contained in a circular issued by the acting Registrar, Mr Opeoluwa Akinfemiwa.
The circular read,
“Further to our circular of Saturday, January 23, 2021 and the attendant protest by students on Sunday, January 24, 2021, the acting Vice-Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Prof. Olugbenga Ige, on behalf of the Senate, has directed that the university be closed with immediate effect until further notice.”
“All students are therefore advised to vacate the campus latest by 6pm today, Sunday, January 24, 2021.”
It was a black Saturday on Jan, 23, as a truck rammed into stores, killing traders and students of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba- Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State, Nigeria.
Of the deceased, three are said to be siblings. A relative to the 3 dead siblings has gone on Facebook to mourn them.
The dead siblings are Oluwaseun Ojinni (aka Pope), Ben Ojinni (aka Benayo), and Seun Ojinni (aka Topmost).
According to their relative Ojinni Charles, Oluwaseun Ojinni just got married not up to a month ago and his wife is expecting a baby.
Course mates and friends have also been mourning the dead on Twitter.
A man who was missing in Australia for 18 days has been found after surviving on mushrooms and dam water, police say.
Search efforts launched after Robert Weber, 58, went missing in the state of Queensland were called off this week.
image captionRobert Weber was suffering from exposure when he was found but was otherwise safe and well
But police said he had been found near a dam on Sunday by a “property owner”, who has been identified in Australian media as a local politician.
Mr Weber was “suffering exposure to the elements” but otherwise safe and well, police said.
Before Sunday, he had last been seen leaving a hotel in the town of Kilkivan with his dog on 6 January. He ran into trouble when his car got stuck in dirt on a farm road.
Police said Mr Weber spent three days in the car before running out of water and setting off on foot. He then became lost but remained near a dam where he survived by “sleeping on the ground, drinking dam water and eating mushrooms”.
An extensive air and ground search was suspended after failing to find him, but local property owners and police were told to keep an eye out.
Local MP Tony Perrett and his wife were reported to have found Mr Weber on Sunday just 3km (1.9 miles) from where his car had been discovered, after searching their cattle farm.
“He was sitting under a tree near a dam waving at us,” Mr Perrett told ABC.
“We’d been past this dam on numerous occasions over the last week and when we saw him there it was just quite extraordinary,” he added.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced he has tested positive for Covid-19.
The 67-year-old said on Twitter that his symptoms were mild and that he was “optimistic” following the diagnosis.
The development comes as Mexico grapples with an upsurge in infections, with deaths nearing 150,000.
image captionThe leader says he is “optimistic” and is recieving medical treatment
Mr López Obrador says he will continue working from home, including speaking to President Vladimir Putin about acquiring a Russian-made vaccine.
It was announced earlier on Sunday that a call between the two leaders will take place on Monday to discuss their bilateral relationship and the possible supply of Sputnik V jabs.
The Mexican president said last year he would try and acquire 12 million doses of the Russian-made vaccine if it proved effective.
Mexico has not yet approved the jab for use, but officials want to expand the country’s vaccination program for the population of 128 million people amid delivery delays from Pfizer-BioNTech.
José Luis Alomia Zegarra, a senior health official, described Mr López Obrador’s condition as stable and told a news briefing that “a team of medical specialists” were attending to the president.
Mexico has recorded more than 1.75m virus cases since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University tracking.
The nation’s confirmed death toll of 149,614 is one of the highest in the world – behind only the US, Brazil and India.
Biden has been married to his second wife, Jill Biden, since 1977. The couple’s daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981. On May 30, 2015, Biden suffered another personal loss when his son Beau died at the age of 46, after battling brain cancer. “Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known,” Biden wrote in a statement about his son.
Following this tragedy, Biden considered a run for the presidency, but he put the speculation to rest in October 2015 when he announced that he would not seek the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In the White House Rose Garden with his wife Jill and President Obama by his side, Biden made his announcement, referring to his son’s recent death in his decision making: “As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along what I’ve said time and again to others, that it may very well be that the process by the time we get through it closes the window. I’ve concluded it has closed.”
Biden added: “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”
On January 12, 2017, President Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a surprise ceremony at the White House.
Obama called Biden “the best vice president America’s ever had” and a “lion of American history,” and told him he was being honored for ‘‘faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and a lifetime of service that will endure through the generations.’’ Biden gave an emotional impromptu speech thanking the president, First Lady Michelle Obama, his wife Jill and his children.
As promised, Biden refused to remain quiet even after leaving office. Known for his opposition to Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, he occasionally surfaced to criticize the 45th president. At an October 2017 event he declared that Trump “doesn’t understand governance,” and the following month he blasted the White House incumbent for his seeming defense of white nationalist groups.
Additionally, Biden occasionally revealed his mixed feelings on bypassing the chance to run for president in 2016. In March 2017, he said he “could have won,” and in November, he elaborated on those thoughts in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“No woman or man should announce they’re running for president unless they can answer two questions,” he said. “One, do they truly believe they’re the most qualified person for that moment? I believed I was — but was I prepared to be able to give my whole heart, my whole soul, and all my intention to the endeavor? And I knew I wasn’t.”
A few weeks later, on the talk show The View, Biden had a much-publicized interaction with co-host Meghan McCain, whose dad, Senator John McCain, had been diagnosed with the same brain cancer that killed Beau Biden. When Meghan McCain became visibly upset while discussing the disease, the VP gently took her hand to console her, pointing out how Senator McCain inspired everyone with his courage. “There is hope,” he said. “And if anybody can make it, your dad [can].”
In an interview with Al Sharpton the following spring, Biden said he hadn’t ruled out running for president in 2020, though he still hadn’t recovered enough from his son’s death to devote himself to the effort. “I’m really hoping that some other folks step up,” he said. “I think we have some really good people. … I got to walk away knowing that it is — there’s somebody who can do it and can win because we’ve got to win. We’ve got to win in 2020.”
The results of a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll in June suggested that Democrats weren’t ready to let Biden walk away just yet, as he topped the poll with 32 percent of participants naming him their favorite for the party’s nomination in 2020. Hillary Clinton came in second at 18 percent, with Bernie Sanders finishing third at 16 percent.
While still contemplating a presidential run the following March, Biden faced a new problem when Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman, published an essay that described Biden inappropriately kissing her at a campaign event.
Biden responded with a statement in which he recalled the “countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort,” he offered to political allies over the years, adding, “And not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”
A few days later, a former congressional aide named Amy Lappos came forward with her story of how Biden once made her uncomfortable at a fundraiser, indicating the issue would likely linger through a presidential campaign.
2020 Presidential Campaign
On April 25, 2019, Biden delivered the expected news that he was running for president in 2020.
In his 3 1/2-minute video announcement, the former VP referenced President Trump’s attempt to equate people on both sides of the violent, racially charged clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, saying he knew then that “the threat to our nation was unlike any I’d ever seen in my lifetime.”
Although he easily led most Democratic polls at the time he entered the race, Biden’s candidacy soon became a litmus test for a party with an increasingly progressive base. Underscoring the challenges of presenting himself as a moderate, Biden drew criticism for affirming his support of the Hyde Amendment, a 43-year-old measure that banned federal funding for abortions, before reversing his position shortly afterward.
During the first Democratic primary debate in late June, Biden again found his track record targeted when Kamala Harris took him to task for his opposition to busing as a means of integrating schools in the 1970s. He fared better in subsequent debates, in which he demonstrated his sound grasp of foreign policy and tied his accomplishments to those of President Obama.
Meanwhile, a new issue surfaced in September 2019 with the revelation that President Trump had pressured the Ukrainian government into investigating Biden and his son Hunter. This stemmed from Hunter’s former involvement with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, and Biden’s efforts to have the country’s prosecutor general at the time fired.
In a September 24 speech, Biden called Trump’s actions an “abuse of power” and said he would support impeachment if the president did not cooperate with Congress, a topic that took on additional urgency when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignited impeachment proceedings that same day.
After Trump’s impeachment trial ended with his acquittal on February 5, 2020, Biden finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses and then fifth in the New Hampshire primary. But he rebounded with a resounding win in South Carolina at the end of the month, and continued his momentum by claiming the majority of delegates from Super Tuesday voting in early March, his surge driving most of his top competitors from the race.
During a one-on-one debate with Sanders in mid-March, Biden committed to nominating a woman to serve as his vice president. He became the presumptive Democratic nominee when Sanders ended his campaign in early April, though he also found himself facing new allegations of sexual assault, this time from a former aide named Tara Reade.
On August 11, 2020, Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden said. “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau.
I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
In August, Biden officially became the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.
Joe Biden briefly worked as an attorney before turning to politics. He became the fifth-youngest U.S. senator in history as well as Delaware’s longest-serving senator. His 2008 presidential campaign never gained momentum, but Democratic nominee Barack Obama selected him as his running mate, and Biden went on to serve two terms as the 47th vice president of the United States.
In 2017, at the close of his administration, Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Two years later Biden launched his campaign for U.S. president and was elected as the 46th president of the United States.
President Joe Biden speaks during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)
EARLY YEARS
Long before reaching one of the highest political offices in the nation, Biden — born on November 20, 1942 — grew up in the blue-collar city of Scranton in northeast Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Biden Sr., worked cleaning furnaces and as a used car salesman. His mother was Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan.
Biden credits his parents with instilling in him toughness, hard work and perseverance. He has recalled his father frequently saying, “Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.” He’s also said that when he would come home sullen because he had been bullied by one of the bigger kids in the neighborhood, his mother would tell him, “Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day!'”
Biden attended St. Paul’s Elementary School in Scranton. In 1955, when he was 13 years old, the family moved to Mayfield, Delaware—a rapidly growing middle-class community sustained primarily by the nearby DuPont chemical company.
As a child, Biden struggled with a stutter, and kids called him “Dash” and “Joe Impedimenta” to mock him. He eventually overcame his speech impediment by memorizing long passages of poetry and reciting them out loud in front of the mirror.
Biden attended the St. Helena School until he gained acceptance into the prestigious Archmere Academy. Although he had to work by washing the school windows and weeding the gardens to help his family afford tuition, Biden had long dreamed of attending the school, which he called “the object of my deepest desire, my Oz.”
At Archmere, Biden was a solid student and, despite his small size, a standout receiver on the football team. “He was a skinny kid,” his coach remembered, “but he was one of the best pass receivers I had in 16 years as a coach.” Biden graduated from Archmere in 1961.
COLLEGE, MARRIAGE AND LAW SCHOOL
Biden attended the nearby University of Delaware, where he studied history and political science and played football. He would later admit that he spent his first two years of college far more interested in football, girls and parties than academics. But he also developed a sharp interest in politics during these years, spurred in part by the inspiring inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
On a spring break trip to the Bahamas during his junior year, Biden met a Syracuse University student named Neilia Hunter and, in his own words, “fell ass over tin cup in love — at first sight.” Encouraged by his new love, he applied himself more fully to his studies and was accepted into the Syracuse University Law School upon his graduation from Delaware in 1965. Biden and Hunter married the next year, in 1966.
Biden was at best a mediocre law student. During his first year at Syracuse, he flunked a class for failing to properly cite a reference to a law review article. Although he claimed it was an accidental oversight, the incident would haunt him later in his career.
Joe Biden and first wife, Neilia, with sons Hunter and Beau, cut his 30th birthday cake at a party in Wilmington, Delaware on November 20, 1972
Joe Biden with his first wife, Neilia; Amy, Biden’s infant daughter who tragically died in a car accident
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