american history well he spent the 1st few hours of his presidency undoing some of the most controversial actions of his predecessor donald trump and what he's done is he's by his signs a series of executive orders they include rejoining the paris climate accord repealing trump's travel ban on 13 mostly muslim majority countries whole to the construction a few us mexico border wall you're looking at live pictures right now from the lincoln memorial that is where a final event of the inauguration is taking place it is being hosted by tom hanks it is a virtual event this year's people are told to stay home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. well biden's vice president camila harris also began her historic stint as the 1st

black woman in the nation's 2nd highest office by swearing in 3 new senators and flipping the control of the upper chamber to the democrats so once again joe biden the $46.00 president of the united states has finally begun his term at the oval office it's been one of the most bitterly contested in chaotic elections in american history he spent the 1st few hours of his presidency undoing some of the most controversial actions of his predecessor donald trump as i was saying a moment ago biden signed a series of executive orders they include rejoining the paris climate accord repealing trump's travel ban on 13 mostly muslim majority countries holding the construction of us mexico border wall and steps to address the coronavirus pandemic in which more americans have now died than during the 2nd world war. by the vice president's come a harris also began her historic stint as the 1st black woman in the nation's 2nd

highest office by swearing in 3 new senators flipping the control of the upper chamber to the democrats and earlier the momentous day in washington began with biden then harris taking an oath in a scaled back ceremony in the capital under the dual threats of the pandemic as well as security fears we have 2 correspondents following the story mike hanna is in washington d.c. and castro is also in washington d.c. but 1st party kohei and reports. they climbed the steps were just 2 weeks ago riders stormed the capitol walked the halls where they spread fear ladies and gentlemen the president elect of the united states joseph robinette biden jr and dr jill biden and took the oath of office where they try to overturn democracy the riot now forgotten in this us presidential inauguration like no other

2 weeks ago when an angry violent mob stage an insurrection and desecrated this temple of our democracy it awakened us to our responsibilities as americans protected by tens of thousands of soldiers and police a pandemic raging the thousands of usual spectators replaced by flags the dignitaries spaced out history was made the 1st african-american of south asian descent and the 1st woman to become vice president. and then just before noon joe biden that became the new president of the united states oh my god congratulations mr president. the chaos of what happened here remember just days after ryder's mom thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people to stop the work of our democracy to

drive a strong this sacred ground. it did not happen and it will never happen not today not tomorrow not ever mixing hope with the dark reality of this moment he pledged to be honest with the american people and he warned of tough times ahead we face an attack under democracy and on truth a regime virus. growing inequity. the sting of systemic racism a climate in crisis america's role in the world any one of these were enough to challenge us in profound ways but the fact is we face them all it wants. present in this nation regard one of the greatest responsibilities we right now we're going to be tested or we're going to step up this was a rebuke of the last 4 years of president donald trump not mentioned by name trump was also not in the audience peppered with past presidents only the 4th president

to refuse to attend but the very 1st to refuse to concede he left washington with only a small group to see him leave impeached twice and facing a trial in the senate for the riot he inspired he's reportedly talking about creating his own political party to mount a political comeback so just. a goodbye we love you we will be back in some form a true sign of how much has changed the biggest celebrities who shun trump's inaugural. return to washington. to celebrate a new president. and what he promises will be a new day in america to claim al-jazeera washington let's bring in mike hanna has joining us from washington d.c. mike 1st let's talk about the press secretary who gave

a 1st the white house briefing a short time ago just tell us what the main takeaway messages were from that. who 10 percent keep pledge that there would be now daily briefings the survival of a tradition that has fallen out of favor in the last few months of the trump administration she basically outlined the executive orders that president biden signed as he arrived in the oval office and a large number of executive orders ranging from an end to any construction of the border wall with mexico 'd along with the us rejoining the world health organization and becoming once again part of the paris climate agreement so significant move was made as soon as president biden entered the white house but the 1st executive order he signed a was the masking mandate for federal properties this just

a sign of how he prioritizes fighting the coronavirus pandemic as the most important thing of his administration and the press secretary outlined a very different approach to country in the pandemic it is going to become a far more federally led affair the federal government has pledged funds to all pledge assistance to the various states and the governors not leaving the states and the governors to the pandemic by themselves with no assistance from federal government the problem is too that federal government will insist sist in ramping up the entire vaccination process which has lagged to be hind in recent weeks so sweeping changes even before the 1st day of office in this fall president biden and his vice president this is what his press secretary to say.

to combat the deadly virus the president watched his 100 day masking challenge asking americans to do their part and mask for 100 days he's doing his part as well issuing a mask. over choir anyone visiting a federal building or federal land or using certain moods of public transportation to wear a mask he sends an executive order reversing trump's decision to withdraw from the world health organization this will strengthen our own efforts to get the pandemic under control by improving global health and mike biden's own but also been able to confirm his 1st cabinet nominee. indeed yes a significant and symbolic moment that is after all hames she's been confirmed in the senate as a director of national intelligence but it's more to it than that it was a bipartisan vote to she was approved overwhelmingly in the senate very promising

start terms of bipartisan action by the senate now significantly earlier on in the evening 3 new democratic party members were sworn into that senate now that gives 5050 split within the senate which with the vice president having a costing vote being that democrats control both the house of representatives and the senate chamber now this is absolutely critical to president biden as he begins to implement his very ambitious program in particular over these 1st 100 days certainly he can sign the executive orders as he has done and will continue to do but some moves need to be done in partnership with congress such as a reform of immigration in terms of a massive coronavirus relieve bull that he's already sent to congress to begin discussing so a united congress is something that joe biden is absolutely waiting for 'd in terms

of getting through his ambitious agenda and that single vote of the nominee for the director of national intelligence a very promising start given the fact that a large number of democrat republican senators joined their democratic counterparts and for joe biden this bipartisan spirit that he hopes to encourage in congress is absolutely critical to him achieve being the ends of his policy to mike hanna reporting from washington mike thank you so much or the in our place under unprecedented security arrangements and there's been no major incidents let's bring in hades or castor joining us from washington c d c and also it is a tradition. those sort of celebrations couldn't go ahead as well because of another issue and that is the coronavirus pandemic. that's right a double whammy here for those who are planning the inauguration and as you can see

around me i am in all the deserted save for a few remaining revelers plaza outside of the white house on a typical inauguration year this would be filled with longs of people celebrating the new president who has taken residence in that building behind me but due to the january 6th violent riots the mob that overtook the u.s. capital we saw and he influx of 25000 national guard troops deployed to the nation's capital they've held they put a barricades kilometer surrounding where i'm standing now barring people and vehicles from entering this of horses and the president did security increase given the f.b.i. warning was that leading up to today's inauguration there had been threats of further violent protests possible and certainly those authorities are breathing a sigh of relief that those threats have not materialized here in the nation's

capital nor other threats that were feared in the state capitals in all 50 states also the people living in this very democratic part of the country are also grieving their own sigh of relief that president former president trump is no longer in the white house he was the most unpopular american president in history and those few people who did still come out in person to watch joe biden's inauguration had to do so from outside the barricades and this is a little of what they had to say. i had to be here i would try to talk down not coming from my family that it wouldn't. but. we went through so much the last 4 years i felt that being here was part of my healing process but i wasn't a person who is going to let fear stop me from coming and celebrating even though the city of course is locked down and we can't be there when that physical grounds

. around a t.v. watching this historic day goes on i need to see everybody feels a lot more you know just like pressure just been. everything back to normal. just some of the voices of those who are celebrating president biden be inaugurated today and he is enjoying a bit of a honeymoon across the country the polls showing that more than 6 out of 10 americans so far of true love the way that he's handled this transition the certainly early days here and there is no doubt this country remains a deeply divided and president biden's goal of bringing this country together is a homeowner he sure is ok heidi thank you so much for reporting from washington d.c. on his 1st tweet joe biden said that there is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face and as we have been saying he got down to work at the white house right after being sworn in by has signed 15 executive actions reversing

several of donald trump's policies has ended a controversial ban on visitors from several muslim majority countries has put an immediate stop to the construction of the us mexico border wall the newly inaugurated president reversing several of his predecessors policies on the environment including rejoining the paris climate of core under biden the us will reengage with the world health organization that trump exited in may last year but biden's top priority is the coronavirus pandemic that's claimed more than $400000.00 lives in the country and battered its economy the new president plans to mandate wearing masks on all federal grounds. and provide economic relief to struggling americans by asking agencies to extend bans on the victuals and student loan payments earlier we spoke to steve clemons he's the host of al-jazeera is the bottom line an editor at large at the hill he explains what will be top of biden's

agenda. i think right now the priorities are trying to try and return america back to you know a normality that it had and that the strident positions of not only talking about you know immigration from our southern border as if it were a war a national security threat and diverting funds to build the wall but the muslim ban so he has you know dismantle the so-called muslim ban he is immediately said stop funding any money on the wall he has basically rolled back many many different environmental i mean he wrote an executive order on environmental regulation but it covers a vast number of chemicals and you know requirements for power plants and emissions that donald trump had deregulated during this and so there are so many different areas that in the 15 executive orders the dollar trump signed to date you know i was calling this the day of reset i'm now calling the day of whiplash

everything donald trump had done that that the biden team thought was most outrageous they put a stop to today and so it's like coming to a big halt to begin grounding you know getting a different grounding and moving in a different direction and i think tomorrow you're going to see a you know another set of executive orders 10 more executive orders signed you know the deal with cohen vaccines and others to really deal with what they see is the deficit in planning and management of the trumpet ministrations a world leaders have been reacting to joe biden's inauguration the united states southern neighbor was among the 1st to react to the inauguration lots of us presidents us calling for immigration reform the cases even if they were ready we have been proposing that our countrymen who have been working for years should be regularized contributions to the development of that great nation so i hope this will be reaffirmed today or in the near future by president biden it is good for

mexico it's called john heilemann is joining us from mexico city so john any reaction from officials there on the announcement that by then it will stop the construction of the us mexico border while it's a lot of as executive order. no reaction to that we heard from president lopez obrador that's what he said in the morning that's really what makes because peretz he was obviously the border wall president trump now ex-president trump said that he was going to get mexico to pay for it that never happened and after that i think mexicans were more sort of curious about that they saw president trump as a bit of a bogeyman and he said some pretty horrible things about mexicans while on the campaign saying that they were sending rapists and criminals the worst of them into the country but i don't think it ever went further than that i think what they'll be more interested in is what president will preside over the door we're speaking about there are about trying to regularize the status of undocumented migrants in

the u.s. and president joe biden does actually have a plan to do that a path to citizenship for more than 10000000 people. currently don't have legal status in the united states so that's mexico is probably one of their objectives another one for mexico would be trying to secure funding for countries in central america guatemala el salvador honduras that are sending lots of or not sending but lots of migrants are fleeing those countries fleeing the violence fleeing the economic situation and traveling through mexico to get to the united states it causes a problem for the u.s. which in turn causes a problem for mexico now president joe biden's place $4000000000.00 to work with those governments and try and solve those problems and also solve the problems of corruption in those countries over the next 4 years so let's he how that turns out now of course is one of the country in latin america that's an absolute powerhouse

it's one of the 2 biggest is actually the biggest economic power in latin america and that's brazil now president joe here bill sonando was a real supporter of president trump he was even called the trump of the tropics and i think somewhat reluctantly he's had to embrace president joe biden now. as well when he sent a letter to day asking for free trade in a free trade agreement between the 2 countries i think a lot of other people a lot of other leaders in latin america would be glad about the turning of the page and a new power in the united states with president joe biden all right john thank you so much reporting from mexico city well traditional u.s. allies are celebrating biden's multilateral approach france germany and nato are welcoming the departure of donald trump e.u. commission president held it as a new dog joe biden's will be a message of fueling for a deeply divided nation and it will be a message of hope for a world that is waiting for the u.s.

to be back in the circle of like minded states this time honored ceremony on the steps of the u.s. capitol will be a demonstration of the resilience of american democracy and the resound ing proof that once again after full long years europe has a friend in the white house while there is hope across western capitals others are more cautious china's foreign ministry hopes for a collaboration beneficial to both sides adding it would protect its sovereignty russia is ready for a constructive dialogue taking mutual interests into account president expressed readiness for a comprehensive and just peace process but hamas which controls gaza says it doesn't regret trump's departure because he was a real and direct partner if it is really occupation now the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is confident of continued u.s.

support. congratulations president joe biden and vice president camelot heris on your historic inauguration president biden you and i had a warm personal friendship going back many decades i look forward to working with you to further strengthen the u.s. israel alliance to continue expanding peace between israel and the our group and to confront common challenges chief among them the threat posed by iran i wish you the greatest success god bless the united states of america god bless israel all the iranian president hassan rouhani says they would welcome the u.s. returning to the 2015 nuclear pact adding the donald trump's decision to withdraw all but his aggressive policies since have been a complete failure. and ruse that is immediate the ball is now in america's court if they return and apply their commitments we will also conduct our commitments trumps political career is dead and the nuclear deal lives on his entire efforts

were put towards getting rid of the accord and he was unsuccessful. well north korea's nuclear program is one of the major foreign policy issues facing the new u.s. administration washington's approach to dealing with pyongyang changed considerably during donald trump's 4 years in office but that did little to get the country to abandon its nuclear ambitions our diplomatic editor james ways has more trillion dollars whether you will a new submarine launch ballistic missile unveiled at a military parade in pyongyang further evidence that north korea continues to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles that could deliver them to some of your peers this despite the trumpet ministrations focus on north korea which amounted to a most unusual 4 year diplomatic roller coaster ride this was september 27th team at the u.n. general assembly the united states has great strength and patients but if it is

forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. yet only 9 months later all had changed the historic meeting in singapore between trump and kim jong un after a thorough mainly engineered by south korea. there was a clear report between the 2 leaders we know of the special clubs which led to a 2nd meeting in 2019 in her noise though the u.s. wouldn't give ground on sanctions were discussing everything and north korea wouldn't agree to give up its nuclear arsenal despite this trump while at the g 20 summit in japan later in the year suggested on twitter he took a detour on the way home the 2 met again in a de-militarized trump becoming the 1st u.s. president to set foot in north korea. experts believe after all

that the mecurio north korean leader will be skeptical about future diplomacy i think it will be much more cost going forward which is not necessarily good for us the negotiations and i think you know the price of everything has gone up as well because there is skepticism that the relationship can actually ringback change in that. vice president comma harris speaking right now. at the inaugural. i mean this from the bottom are there any angels who have been there all nurses we know from our family experience what you do the courage the pain you absorb for others to thank you to heal we must remember.

simply. you do that as a nation now to shine the lights in the darkness and we do apologize that was not a live event but that was a recorded tape of the president there he is joe biden in standing alongside the vice president's come along harris and right now in washington d.c. at the lincoln memorial there is a final inauguration event taking place it's a concert of some sorts of virtual events everyone encouraged to watch it from their homes and we do expect the vice president to speak at the lincoln memorial once she does we'll cross back live to that but 1st before we cross to washington james bays had filed a report about north korea and relations with the incoming biden administration let's speak to ambassador christopher hill he's the former assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs he headed the u.s. delegation to the north korean nuclear 6 party talks he's joining us from florida

thanks very much for your time with us ambassador on al-jazeera so when you look back at the trump presidency. some would say he really had an unconventional approach when it came to north korea and kim what would you like to see from a biden administration. well there's no question it was unconventional but the results were pretty dismal 1st of all the idea of engaging the north korean president president below president was truly unusual and perhaps you could argue it was a good idea he had just to kick start the negotiations by a president or a president from the sun wanted to be the nuclear negotiator and that didn't get us very pause so i think the upshot of these last 4 years that it's that we don't have a lot of meanwhile as your senator he suggests we have a problem that has grown so has the question this is a major issue with the budget means. that they will move aggressively in

a couple weeks 1st of all they need to find out he said to which the north koreans would be interested if it was a. serious talks and i think serious talks off the song where i was at all but some people want 'd a no nuclear issues secondly i think there needs to be a lot of consultation with the foreign. allies in the region especially so you know but also to hear and thirdly i think there needs to be a hard look at work with the with the chinese working with china is very challenging. it's pretty near impossible i think there needs to be a little sit down with the chinese about those know of the challenge and let me go we haven't seen you on the issue of china in a moment a message about 1st on north korea. do you think the change of leadership in washington now presents a challenge for pyongyang. well i think john young he's going to discover that

with the leadership in washington that are on the track they understand these issues are not going to be. you know go off the wrong direction by shiny new ideas they're going to understand very clearly what needs to be done so in a way the north koreans need to brace themselves for knowledgeable people which cannot be said of the president trying to gauge so i think it is going to be a different issue for them on the other hand i think the north koreans have the opportunity really to sit down and be realistic about this the problem of course is whether north korea truly wants to give up the weapons and whether the binary most version. constructed situation more north korea could stand is better off without them than with them and you were mentioning china moments ago saying that the biden administration must work with china when it comes to north korea but how will widen be with china and seen jumping to expect them to take

a tougher approach do expect him to take a tougher stance when it comes to human rights issues with china or will he be perhaps more measured. i would call a. call when you have a serious approach to trying. to muster i do apologize will have to cross hairs speaking live in washington apology we not only see what has been. we see what can be we shoot for the moon and then we plant our flag on it we are bold fearless and ambitious we are undaunted in our belief that we shall overcome that we will rise up this is american aspiration

in the middle of the civil war abraham lincoln saw a better future and built it with the land grant colleges and the transcontinental railroad in the middle of the civil rights movement dr king fought for racial justice and economic justice american aspiration is what drove the women of this nation throughout history to demand equal rights and the authors of the bill of rights to claim freedoms that had rarely been written down before. a great experiment takes great determination the will to do the work and then the wisdom to keep refining keep tinkering keep perfecting the same determination is being realized in america today i see it in the scientists who are transforming the future i see.