Mr Austin, a retired army general, spoke of the need to rescind the ban during his Senate confirmation hearing last week.
“If you’re fit and you’re qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve,” he said.
Mr Trump announced on Twitter in 2017 that the country would no longer “accept or allow” transgender Americans to serve in the military, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption”.
The ban took effect in April 2019. Trans personnel who were already serving were allowed to continue, but new recruits were locked out.
Jim Mattis, the then defence secretary, refined the policy to limit it to individuals with a history of gender dysphoria, or when a person’s biological sex and identity do not match.
President Biden has repeatedly said he plans to overturn the ban.
Prior to the inauguration, a memo from Ron Klain, now the White House Chief of Staff, said Mr Biden planned to use his first full week as president “to advance equity and support communities of colour and other underserved communities”.
He has already signed orders halting construction of the Mexico border wall, overturning a ban on travellers from several predominantly Muslim countries, and launching an initiative to improve racial equity
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.
Nine Chinese miners have been found dead a day after 11 of their colleagues were rescued after two weeks trapped in a gold mine in Shandong province.
The mayor of Yantai city was quoted by state broadcaster CCTV as confirming the deaths. One miner remains unaccounted for.
The miners became trapped in the Hushan mine when the entrance to the tunnel collapsed after a blast on 10 January.
There was joy on Sunday after the 11 were brought to the surface.
“From Sunday afternoon to this afternoon, rescue workers have not stopped searching, and found a further nine trapped miners who unfortunately all died,” Yantai Mayor Chen Fei told a briefing on Monday.
“Along with one miner who died on Thursday, the bodies of the nine deceased miners were all lifted out of the mine.”
Rescue efforts had been expected to take weeks, but took a “big step forwards” on Sunday morning when “a huge obstacle blocking the well suddenly fell to the bottom of the shaft,” lead rescue worker Du Bingjian told the state-run Global Times.
image captionThe surviving miners wore blindfolds to protect their eyes after spending two weeks in darkness
The first man to be rescued had been trapped in a different part of the gold mine to the main group of 10.
TV footage showed him being lifted out as emergency workers cheered. He was blindfolded to protect his eyes from the light and was immediately taken to hospital for treatment, with his condition described as “extremely weak”.
About an hour after his rescue, 10 more miners were brought out from a different section of the mine. CCTV said one of them was injured.
Several others were seen walking by themselves, supported by rescue workers, before being transported to hospital
The burnt bodies of 19 people have been found close to the Mexican border with the US, according to officials from Tamaulipas state.
Police found two burnt-out vehicles on Saturday and initial findings indicate the people were shot and then set alight.
Violent drug gangs operate in the area, where migrants also try to cross into north America.
An official said the victims may be undocumented migrants, reports AFP.
The north-eastern state of Tamaulipas is known for violent killings and disappearances, often linked to powerful drug cartels who battle for territory.
The Mexican government is fighting what it calls a war on drugs, and its security forces have previously been accused of detaining suspects who later go missing.
In the latest incident the bodies were found near the town of Camargo which borders the US state of Texas.
Autopsies are underway, but the Tamaulipas state prosecutor’s office said that the poor condition of the remains was complicating the procedures.
An investigation has begun to determine if the people killed were migrants travelling from Guatemala to try to reach the US.
Officials have contacted the Guatemalan consular authorities in Mexico “to provide the necessary information and try to identify some of the people believed to be Guatemalan migrants,” an official told AFP news agency.
Every year thousands of people from Central American attempt to make the long journey, often on foot, to the US through Mexico, many fleeing poverty and violence.
image captionSome people, like Maria Guadalupe, remain stranded on the border waiting for asylum in the US
Drug gangs often extort money from migrants travelling through their territories, and run people smuggling operations that take advantage of people’s desperate wish to reach north America.
In 2019 24 corpses were found in neighbouring town Miguel Aleman, 15 of which were burnt.
Nearly 500 migrants from Central and South America died in 2019 near the US-Mexico border, according to the UN.
Travellers ‘attacked’ and some allegedly kidnapped by unknown men along Benin-Ore Road .
An empty bus with the doors open wide was found in the middle of the expressway along Benin-Ore Road.
According to locals, the occupants of the bus were attacked and kidnapped, leaving behind the vehicle and luggage of the victims.
Footage shows that the windows of the bus were broken during the alleged attack on the travellers.
Locals who claimed to witness the attack said the kidnappers came out of Fulani herdsmen bush.
Other travellers that witnessed the alleged attack abandoned their vehicles and ran in different directions.
A particularly moving moment in the video shows a little girl rejoicing when she finally sighted her father after everyone started coming out from their hiding places when they were sure the attackers had left.
American singer/rapper, Trey Songz has been arrested over a violent altercation with Police at Kansas City Chiefs vs Buffalo Bills game on Sunday January 24. The Back Home rapper was taken into custody after he was recorded getting into a physical altercation with a police officer at the AFC Championship Game.
In a video obtained by TMZ, Songz can be seen punching the officer in the head and tries to get him into a headlock before getting detained.
According to TMZ, witnesses claim Songz was being taunted by others in the stands and asked them to be quiet. The witnesses also said a police officer allegedly got physical with the rapper without provocation and that the alleged altercation was self-defense on Songz’ part. TMZ reports that Songz was arrested and accused of trespassing, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer.
Falana said the order was in tandem with Section 42 (1) (e) and (g) of the Forestry Law of Ondo State which provided that whoever in any forest reserve, except with authority in writing of the prescribed officer, digs, cuts, turns or cultivates the soil or makes a farm or plantation; pastures cattle or permits cattle to trespass or trespasses in any part of forest reserves in which trespass shall be prohibited by an order of the government.
Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), says the order by the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, that herdsmen should leave forest reserves within seven days is legal.
In a statement on Sunday, Falana said the order was in tandem with Section 42 (1) (e) and (g) of the Forestry Law of Ondo State which provided that whoever in any forest reserve, except with authority in writing of the prescribed officer, digs, cuts, turns or cultivates the soil or makes a farm or plantation; pastures cattle or permits cattle to trespass or trespasses in any part of forest reserves in which trespass shall be prohibited by an order of the governor.
Femi Falana (SAN)
The human rights lawyer said the Presidency ought to have studied the law properly before issuing a statement last week to condemn Akeredeolu.
“Without addressing the relevant provisions of the Forestry Law or reaching out to Governor Akeredolu, the Presidency rushed to the media to challenge the directive of the Ondo State Government as it might affect undocumented herders operating in the said forests. Regrettably, such official mismanagement of the crisis has been allowed to polarise the people along ethnic lines to the detriment of national security,” Falana said.
However, he urged the state government to extend the deadline given to the herdsmen while also calling on the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria to register with the state government.
Falana stated, “Concerning the brewing crisis in Ondo State, we call on Governor Akeredolu (SAN), to extend the seven-day ultimatum to allow all farmers and herders operating in the forest reserve to register with the state government without any delay.
“The Miyetti Allah and similar groups should ensure that all their members who have not registered with the state government do so without any further delay in the overall interest of the security of the people in the state.”
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to summon a Nigeria Police Council meeting to address the country’s heightened insecurity.
He added, “As a matter of urgency, the Federal Government should mobilise adequate police and other security forces to halt the menace of kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, armed robbery and other violent crimes in the land.”
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.
Israel has started vaccinating 16 to 18-year-olds against Covid-19, in an effort to enable them to sit exams.
More than a quarter of Israel’s population of nine million have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine since 19 December, its health ministry says.
It started with the elderly and others at high risk, but people aged 40 and over can also now get the jab.
Israel hopes to start reopening its economy in February.
The inclusion of 16 to 18-year-olds – with parental permission – is meant “to enable their return (to school) and the orderly holding of exams”, an education ministry spokeswoman said.
The matriculation exams that Israeli students sit at the end of high school play an important role in deciding where they will go to university. Their results can also affect their placement in the military, where many young Israelis do compulsory service.
The education ministry has said it is too early to say whether schools will reopen next month.
Israel started its rapid vaccination drive – the fastest in the world – in on 19 December, reaching 10% of its population by the end of 2020.
Israel has recorded more than 596,000 cases and 4,392 deaths with Covid-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
On Sunday, the government said it would ban passenger flights in and out of the country from Monday night for the rest of January, in an effort to halt the spread of new virus variants.
“Other than rare exceptions, we are closing the sky hermetically to prevent the entry of the virus variants and also to ensure that we progress quickly with our vaccination campaign,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Foreigners have largely been blocked from entering Israel during the pandemic.
A court has ruled that French arms supplier Thales will have to face charges in South Africa over allegedly corrupt payments made to embattled former President Jacob Zuma.
The Times Live website in a report on Saturday said that the order was issued by Judge Alsa Bezuidenhout who ruled that there was reasonable and probable cause to believe that Thales had “directly or indirectly or with common purpose, participated in the enterprise run by Mr Schabir Shaik through a pattern of racketeering activity”.
In its reply, Thales South Africa, denied the allegations, adding that it had “noted” the high court’s decision and was “studying the judgement to consider its legal options”.
This came weeks after Zuma failed in an attempt to have a judge recuse himself from the inquiry into alleged corruption during his presidency.
Judge Raymond Zondo had ruled that claims that he was biased against Mr Zuma had not been made. He also denied being “friends” with the former president.
The police in Russia have arrested no fewer than 3,000 supporters of jailed Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, and also violently broke up rallies across Russia as tens of thousands of protesters marched through the country.
Reports say many protesters ignored extreme cold and police warnings to demand the immediate release of Navalny who was arrested shortly after arriving Russia from Germany.
Prosecutors in St Petersburg said in a statement late Saturday they were probing violations including “on the part of law enforcement” and the use of force against an unidentified woman.
“There were violent clashes with the police using their batons to beat them down,” Al Jazeera’s Aleksandra Godfroid, reporting from Moscow, said.
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, said on social media she was detained at the rally and later released. Lyubov Sobol, a prominent aide of Navalny and lawyer, was also among those held.
Yesterday, scores of Navalny supporters clashed with police in Russia over the continued detention of the opposition leader who recently arrived from Germany.
Reports say scuffles broke out early in the morning as Navalny’s supporters gathered in Khabarovsk despite elaborate measures by the government to curb demonstrations planned in more than 60 Russian cities.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has sacked the heads of US media organizations appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Those affected in the mass sack on Saturday, include the acting chief of the US Agency for Global Media, and the directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, The Independent reports.
Before now, Biden had also forced Trump’s pick to run the USAGM to resign within hours of resuming office, a move political analysts say was meant to start on a new footing without having any of Trump’s appointees around him.
The latest changes come just a day after the director of Voice of America and his deputy were removed and the chief of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting stood down.
The now former head of the USAGM, Michael Pack, had been accused by Democrats of trying to turn the networks into pro-Trump propaganda outfits.
All of those fired by the acting CEO of USAGM, Kelu Chao, were appointed by Pack in December after he claimed that its newsrooms were filled with anti-Trump journalists.
It is unclear if the firings of Victoria Coates of MEBN, Stephen Yates of RFA and Ted Lipien of RFE, will be subject to legal challenges but Chao was quoted as saying in a memo to staff before the sackings:
“We have a lot of work ahead of us: reaffirm the firewall, the highest standards of professionalism, and the sacred editorial independence and journalistic integrity; and ensure the safety and security of our journalists.”
A 26-year-old Nigerian woman, Jacinta Okonowo Ofana has been arrested by the police in India for allegedly defrauding an Indian women as well as impersonating a Customs officer with the intent to commit crime.
According to Mumbai Mirror, Ofana was arrested by the Vinoba Bhave Nagar police in Delhiba on Saturday for allegedly defrauding a 34-year-old woman in Kurla of Rs 17.22 lakh by posing as a Customs officer.
In a police report, the suspect was also said to have defrauded several women of huge sums of money in the same way.
Police say Ofana’s latest victim who is a divorcee, had met a man on social media in August last year and the man introduced himself as Andrea Olivera from the United Kingdom.
The man claimed to be a pilot working in Russia.
The police statement reads:
“The two exchanged their numbers and started talking and after weeks of contact and dozens of conversations later, Olivera asked for her address to be sent to her on the pretext.
“Even after her reluctance to receive gifts, he insisted on sending her one. A few days later, Olivera told her he had sent her a gift and notes in foreign currency.
“A few days later, the victim received a call from a woman who identified herself as Ankita Sharma from Customs.
“She told her that there was a package for her from Russia, but she had to pay a customs clearance fee online. She told the victim that the box contained a gift and foreign currency worth Rs 65 lakh and that she would have to pay a fee and taxes to get her hands on the package.
“After paying Rs 17.22 lakh in multiple transactions, the woman realised she had been duped.
“She then approached VB Nagar police station and filed a complaint.
“Police soon identified the exact location of the caller, Ankita Sharma, in New Delhi.
“A team consisting of police sub-inspectors Jitendra Sapkale and Ambika Ghaste were sent to Delhi where they arrested Ofana, posing as Ankita Sharma, to mislead the victim.
“She used more than a dozen international and local SIM cards to trick women.”
Oyo police command says one police officer was killed during the mob action in Igangan on Friday.
As the police begin an investigation into the violence that erupted in Igangan, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State on Friday, January 22, 2021, the state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko has appealed to youths in the state to remain calm.
The police boss also vowed to bring those responsible for the burning of properties in Fulani settlement and other criminal activities in the town to justice.
Recall that following the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum a Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo issued to the Fulani in Oyo state, the activist and his supporters stormed Igangan to eject Seriki Fulani and herdsmen accused of perpetrating crimes in the town.
Two people were reportedly killed during the confrontation between the Yoruba youths led by Adeyemo better known as Sunday Igboho and the Fulani community in Igangan.Some properties belonging to the Fulani in the area were also reportedly set ablaze by the youths.
The state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko.
Following the clash, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu ordered Onadeko to arrest Igboho and bring him to Abuja.
However, in a statement signed by Olugbenga Fadeyi, the Police Public Relations Officer in Oyo on Sunday, January 24, 2021, the Oyo police command said one officer was also injured while discharging his duty during the mob action.
The statement reads in part; “Sadly, the relative peace and calmness, being enjoyed, due to the visibility patrols of the security agencies were truncated by the visit of Sunday Igboho to Igangan, at about 1630hrs on 22nd January 2021.
“The visit had culminated in a mob action by some youths in the town, who, armed with different types of weapons, embarked on arson and a breach of peace. In the process, grievous hurt was committed against one of the police officers, while discharging his statutory duties.
“The commissioner of police will like to reiterate that the security agencies will not watch while some criminal elements take laws into their hands.
“Investigation into the arson and the breach of the peace, which occurred at Igangan will be investigated to logical conclusion and culprits shall be brought to justice.”
Meanwhile, former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has cautioned the Inspector-General of Police and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State against the plan to arrest Igboho.
He advised them to use dialogues to solve the herders-farmers crisis in Oyo rather than arresting the activist.
The National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, has declared that nobody has the power to remove Fulani herdsmen from Ondo State’s forests.
Bodejo stated this in an interview with The Sun, noting that all lands in the country belong to the Fulani.
He also said only Fulani herdsmen could tackle the bandits kidnapping and killing people across the country.
The Fulani leader stated this just as the seven-day ultimatum the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, issued to herdsmen to leave forest reserves in the state expired today, Sunday.
He said, “The Ondo State governor doesn’t have any right to give such ultimatum to our people. People, including Fulani voted for him to be the governor; so he should be the governor of everybody in the state.
“Fulani have been in the forests he is talking about even before he was born; they have been there for over 250 years. No matter how dangerous a forest may be, Fulani would go and settle there.
“After staying there for a long time and their cow dung has made the place fertile, people would begin to come there to farm and settle and after then, they begin to make claims that our cattle are destroying their farms.
“We are suing the governor and seeking an injunction restraining him and others from carrying out his threat. But even at that, nobody, no power can send the herdsmen out of Ondo State.
“We are making consultations with our legal team. But before then, the governor and his people should stop embarrassing our people in the forests and all their businesses. No herdsman will obey the governor; the herdsmen will not step an inch out of Ondo forests; they are going nowhere.”
The Miyetti Allah leader added that his group was also against the herdsmen kidnapping and robbing people while also operating from forests.
“We are not in support of any form of criminality — armed robbery, kidnapping, gun running, etc. These crimes are the reasons why we have the Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Army, Department of State Services, and even the Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps to nab perpetrators. And there are courts everywhere to try them and if found guilty, appropriate punishments should be meted out to them.
Miyetti Allah Leader, Bodejo.
“I have just concluded a meeting with my fellow Fulani and we have found out that some people will adorn Fulani attire to carry out various crimes.
“How can a Fulani man living in the forest kidnap and ask people to pay ransoms ranging from N5 million to N10 million? What will he be doing with that kind of money inside the forest? If you pay herdsmen N20 million, N10 million, N5 million in the forest, where will he carry the money to and what will he be doing with such money?” he added.
President Biden’s administration on Friday revoked a last-minute memo issued by former President Trump’s Justice Department that sought to limit the scope of a landmark Supreme Court decision on workplace discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Greg Friel, the acting head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, on Friday issued a memo revoking a Trump administration directive in response to the Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. The justices ruled in a 6-3 decision that the country’s laws on sex discrimination in the workplace also apply to discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Justice Department’s 23-page memo dated Sunday said the court’s ruling should not extend to areas where gender-based policies on bathrooms and sports teams are relevant. The memo also indicated that employers could cite religious beliefs as justification for discrimination against LGBTQ employees.
However, Friday’s move, first reported by Politico, revoked the Trump administration’s memo, with Friel arguing that the directive conflicted with a Wednesday executive order from Biden that committed the federal government to preventing any type of discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
“I have determined that this memorandum is inconsistent in many respects with the E.O.,” Friel wrote in his Friday directive to civil rights division colleagues, according to Politico. “I plan to confer with Department leadership about issuing revised guidance that comports with the policy set forth in the E.O. As part of that process, we will seek the input of Division subject matter experts.”
Biden’s executive order, one of several actions taken on his first day in office, calls on federal government agencies to review current policies against sex discrimination to make sure they prohibit discrimination toward members of the LGBTQ community.
“Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love,” the order states. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes.”
“All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation,” the order adds.
Sunday’s memo from former acting Assistant Attorney General John Daukas, released publicly one day before Trump left office, sided with Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent in the Bostock case.
“We must hesitate to apply the reasoning of Bostock to different texts, adopted at different times, in different contexts,” Daukas wrote.
“Unlike racial discrimination, the Supreme Court has never held that a religious employer’s decision not to hire homosexual or transgender persons ‘violates deeply and widely accepted views of elementary justice’ or that the government has a ‘compelling’ interest in the eradication of such conduct,” the memo added, according to the Journal.
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
image captionGiuseppe Conte has vowed to take legal action against the two companies
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says a delay in the supply of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca is “unacceptable”.
Both companies have warned they will not be able to deliver vaccines to the EU as agreed due to production issues.
Mr Conte has accused them of serious contract violations.
A senior Italian health official has warned that the country will have to rethink its vaccination programme if supply issues continue.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by Oxford University, has not yet been given EU approval; however the bloc’s drug regulator is expected to give it the green light at the end of this month.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca said on Friday that “initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated” without giving further details.
Officials have not confirmed publicly how big the shortfall will be, but an unnamed EU official told Reuters news agency that deliveries would be reduced to 31m – a cut of 60% – in the first quarter of this year.
The drug firm had been set to deliver about 80m doses to the 27 nations by March, according to the official who spoke to Reuters.
Last week Pfizer announced it was slowing supplies to Europe to make manufacturing changes that will boost capacity. The EU has ordered 600 million doses from Pfizer.
On Saturday, Mr Conte wrote on Facebook: “Our vaccination plan … has been drawn up on the basis of contractual pledges freely undertaken by pharmaceutical companies with the European Commission.”
“Such delays in deliveries represent serious contractual violations, which cause enormous damage to Italy and other countries,” he added.
The head of Italy’s Higher Health Council Franco Locatelli said Pfizer deliveries were 29% lower than planned this week but the levels were expected to return to those agreed by 1 February.
Alexei Anatolievich Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, politician, lawyer and anti-corruption activist. He came to international prominence by organizing demonstrations, and running for office, to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Putin’s government.
Navalny is an anti-corruption campaigner and the most prominent face of Russian opposition to President Vladimir Putin
He attempted to stand in the 2018 presidential race, but was barred because of an embezzlement conviction that he says was politically motivated
An outspoken blogger, he has millions of Russian followers on social media and managed to get some supporters elected to local councils in Siberia in 2020
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The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
