>> >> hello, you're watching live from paris. u.s. vice president joe biden is anthing fast to forge a coordinated federal response to covid-19 where donald trump had left pandemic planning left to the individual states. we'll bring you all of the latest on joe biden's first full day in office. and e.u. leaders are coordinating to assess how to tackle the new threat of covid-19 variants. some member states are pushing for travel restrictions on europe's internal borders to stop the spread. we'll bring you that a little later on. in iraq, two suicide bombers have killed 32 people at a busy

marquette in baghdad and more than 100 were injured. ♪ ♪ >> joe biden is keen to show that fighting the covid-19 pandemic is his top priority. a host of initiatives have been launched in the short time that he has been in office to boost vaccines, increase testing, reopen schools, and more. joe biden has assigned a series of executive orders into law two days running. they will require mask wearing in airports and on certain public transport. the administration will also expand vaccine manufacturing and its power to purchase more vaccines. let's take a listen. pres. biden: the brutal truth is it's going to take months before we get the majority of americans vaccinated.

so while we increase vaccinations, we're going to take steps necessary now to slow the spread of the disease as well. one of our 100-day challenges is asking the american people to mask up for the first 100 days, the next 99 days. the mask can become a partisan issue, unfortunately, it's a patriotic act. to wear a mask, no vaccines, the fact is that the single best thing we can do, more important than the vaccines because they take time to work. and if we do this as americans, the experts say by wearing a mask from now until april, we would save more than 50,000 lives. james: also on thursday, the u.s. said it would resume its funding of the world health organization. joe biden dispatched his chief medical visor anthony fauci to switzerland and confirmed he had

reversed the decision of former president donald trump regarding the world health organization. for more on all of that, let's bring in melissa mitchellson, professor of political science at men low college in california. thank you for talking to us this evening on "france 24." there is frequently a honeymoon period for a newly installed president, as we know here in france, that usually doesn't last long and it's highly unlikely to last long for joe biden with the current challenges that he is facing. >> yeah, i mean, everyone comes in with high hopes, even if you didn't vote for the president, you think, well, a lot of people voted for this president, maybe it's going to be great, maybe he is going to make good decisions and so they get that little boost of support, but as soon as they start making decisions and that includes making executive orders, you start to disappoint people. you tend to upset people and so, you know, on the one hand very

exciting that biden is taking all of these actions very early in his first two days, but it also means that every decision he makes, especially the controrsial ones and for some people asking everyone to wear a mask is controversial, the honeymoon period gets shorter. james: now, as we have been seeing and hearing a lot over the last couple of days, america is deeply, deeply fractured, 74 million people voting for donald trump, 811 million for joe biden and really polarized candidacies, polarized visions of america and joe biden has been really, i think, utterly torn apart and discredited in e eyes of trump supporters. is it possible for him to win any of them over? >> well, it depends. on the one hand if they see that things are getting better in their own lives, then they might change their opinions of him, right. if the country starts opening up, the economy starts to get better, their kids are back at school, you could see some republicans, some trump

supporters thinking, oh, maybe that, you know, maybe he is not so bad. so you know, it remains to be seen, but definitely there is a huge core of the republica party that remains loyal to donald trump. there was a survey the other day that said 40% of them hope that he is the nominee in 2024 and so for those 40%, there isrobably nothing biden can do or nothing that can happen that is going to change their minds about what was, you know, what's wrong with biden being president and what a horrible person he is. yeah, because we are very polarized now. james: and what about the path forward for donald trump, donald trump's trumpism if you like, he may be made ineligible for public office, we'll see a report a little bit later, his ideas will continue to hold sway, these are two visions of

america that are pretty much irreco irreconcilable, are we dealing with two incompatible visions of the united states right w, two very strong incompatible visions? >> i think we are, biden's america, he got rid of the muslim ban. he is regularizing the status of immigrants here without documentation. he is putting back the spanish language websites on the web sites and that was different than trump's america, nationalistic, closing borders and restricting immigrants and asylum seekers. those two visions of america are incompatible. i think at the very core, you really can't bring those two groups together. what remains to be seen is whether it's trump or a trump child or a trumpee person, maybe ted cruz who comes along and runs for president and tries to run the republican party, what remains to be seen is if there is enough people to bring back that sort of person into the

white house or whether the republican party regroups now and i think that remains to be decided based on does trump get declared removed from office post-leaving office, does he get indicted, is he fou guilty of any of the crimes that he is probably going to be prosecuted for and how does his legacy kind of settle in after a few years. mes: we have a report coming upton exactly that. thank you for your thoughts, melissa mikelson, professor at menlowe college, thank you. a day after the democratic party took control of both chambers of the u.s. congress, nancy pelosi says an impeachment trial must proceed in the u.s. senate, this despite republican opposition. donald trump was the first u.s. president to be impeached twice, the senate has yet to decided on the process on the charges brought against him in the house of representatives. those related to inciting violence at the capitol on

january 6. we have the details. >> a day after the new u.s. vice president joe biden called for unity, congress remains divided over whether to hold the former president accountable for the storming of the capitol. house speaker nancy pelosi insists a trial of donald trump must proceed. >> good morning, everyone, the fact is the president of the united states committed an act of [i be] sitement of in -- incitement of insurrection. i don't think it's very satisfying to say let's just move on. that's not how you unify. >> he was the first u.s. president to be impeached twice, they voted to charge him with incitement of insurrection. senators will decide whether to convict the accused of the charges. of the three u.s. presidents who

have been impeached, andrew johnson, bill clinton, and donald trump in the 2019 abuse of power trial, none has been convicted. although democrats now have control of the senate with a razor thin margin, an impeachment conviction requires a 2/3 majority vote. earlier this week, republican then majority leader mitch mcconnell signalled he was open to convicting trump. >> the mob was fed lies. they were provoked by the president and other powerful people. >> the capitol riot aimed to stop the congressional votes to confirm joe biden's election victory left five people dead. pelosi has not set a date for setting the house impeachment article to the senate but there are expectations it could happen as early as friday. >> the breakout star of the inauguration ceremony is the young poet amanda gorman. she recited a stunning poem that

she wrote for the occasion. charlie james looks at gorman's performance and america's reaction. >> it's a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one. >> making history at just 22 years old, amanda gorman became the youngest ever inaugural poet when she performed at wednesday's ceremony. her original composition, "the hill we climb" referenced works from the bible to the music "hamilton." she completed it in hours after following the u.s. capitol riots and said she wanted to send a message of hope and unity. >> the loss we carry, we braved the belly of the beast. we have learned that quiet isn't always peace in the norms and notions of what just isn't

always just is. >> the nation captivated with the reading launching the young poet to fame, in the hours after her performance, gorman gained millions of social media followers and her books became best sellers, praise poured in from politicians and celebrities including oprah winfrey who tweeted the late poet maya angelou is cheering. she gifted gorman a ring for the occasion depicting a caged bird in honor of angelou. in her poem, gorman recalled she dreamed of being president herself as a little girl, now fans including hillary clinton are saying they can't wait to vote for her. james: e.u. held a virtue summit to address the situation of new variants of villanova. they have alarmed e.u. authorities because of the increased inef infectivity.

david has more from brussels. >> caused so much chaos in the spring that in june, all of the e.u. leaders agreed to stop those e.u. border closures and keep the internal borders open. in exchange, they agreed to close the e.u.'s external borders to citizens. polar forward to now, member states have upheld that agreement, but this new more contagious strain of the coronavirus has them very nervous and several countries including germany and belgium want to reinterpro dues those internal border closures, they're looking to revisiting that agreement they came to in june and to come to some understanding how internal borders could be reclosed and the idea that this should be done this time with firm coordination with neighboring

countries, it should be agreed at e.u. level and the belgium prime minister planned to bring this up tonight. i'm told they are talking about this very issue right now and he has pretty much suggested that he won't close belgium's borders unless he gets the go-ahead from the e.u. tonight, but i think the fear is that other countries that are not belgium could just, if we don't come to an understanding tonight about the system for internal border closures, they may go ahead and do it unilaterally and the return to the same chaos we saw last spring. james: the french health ministry reported over 22,800 new cases of covid-19 in the past 24 hours. that is down by about 4,000 cases from wednesday, but hospitalizations do continue to rise here. experts are considering various options to stop the spread of the virus while hoping to avoid another lockdown. >> with the coronavirus epidemic continuing to rage in france, there is one tactic that hasn't been tried yet by the

government, a partial lockdown of only the elderly and vulnerable. >> on the streets of paris, there are mixed reactions to the idea. >> last spring, the idea of a partial lockdown of the elderly

and fragile was rejected as it was considered discriminatory. how effective such a move would actually be is debated. >> for the moment, a partial third lockdown is just one option that is being considered to stop the spread of the virus. james: at least 32 people have been killed in two coordinated suicide attacks in the iraqi capital baghdad. donald trump was accelerating troops and downsizing. we take a look. >> scenes of carnage of the square in central baghdad, two suicide bombers left dozens dead and more injured at a busy market.

one of the vendors who survived described how the first man blew himself up. >> thursday's twin bombings were the first major assault on civilians in three years, hitting the same market as the last one. suicide attacks were common and became almost a daily occurrence after the u.s. invasion in 2003 and after the islamic state over ran territories later on. it was dropped after the militants were defeated in 2017. and after the fall, the sunni extremists have remained a threat. security officials say thursday's twin attacks bear the hallmarks of the militants.

>> the violence came days after the iraqi government agreed to hold early elections in october and a day after joe biden became the new u.s. president. washington has been pulling u.s. troops out of iraqi over the past year as the iraqy government worked to move all foreign soldiers from its territory, after the killing of a top general on its soil. >> britain has sparked a post-brexit spat with the e.u. by declining to grant its first ever ambassador to the country full did he employee matich status. he is the e.u.'s envoy to the u.k. the e.u. says he should be given the same staff as a national ambassador. benedict has more from london. >> the argument that is being

made here by the foreign secretary i that the european union is an organization, not a state, so he is refusing the foreign office is refusing the full status of an ambassador here in the u.k. they are called ambassadors to the court of st. james and they are not giving him that full status. what is interesting is that downing street has waded into this today backing mr. robb's refusal. they say they are working out something or working on a settlement with the e.u., they say that he and his team are being given the same, the privileges that they need for their work, but for the moment, we see no progress and certainly no full status. brussels and its spokesman says that the u.k. as a member of the e.u., he is underlining that it

gned the lisbon treaty which established the european external action service diplomaticetwork andts representative in the u.k., it was the u.k. was very well aware of the status of external relations with the u.k., why has this not been recognized. and he specifies nothing has changed since the u.k.'s exit to justify any change in stance on the u.k.'s part. he underlines an interesting fact that the europn union has 143 delegations equivalent to diplomatic missions around the world and that, therefore, they have been given statusee equivalent to country's embassies and that's under the vienna conventions, the rules of international diplomacy. >> back to the u.s., senator bernie sanders who became an unlikely inauguration icon, he

was seen in a parka and giant mittens, one particular photo of the former presidential kandil has launched a million names. charlie james shows us the best. >> move over lady gaga and j-lo, at wednesday's star-studded inauguration, u.s. senator bernie sanders somehow managed to steal the spotlight with his super sized mittens, this photo of sanders cutting a figure in his mittens, a email frenzy. spliced on top the throne of "game of thrones," seated next to forrest gump on the famous bench and played high in new york city. sanders told cbs news, his viral attire was merely a practical decision. >> youknow, in vermont, we dressed, we know something about the cold, and we're not so concerned about good fashion, we want to keep warm and that's

what i did today. >> the mittens that stole the show were a gift from two years ago, sorry, you can't get your hands on them anytime soon because the pandemic has forced the cancellation of craft fairs, ellis hasn't been knitting mittens for sale. >> time for business with kate moody, do you approve of the mittens? kate: the kind of weather, yes. james: unemployment data, more to the point in the united states, tell us about the economic challenges facing joe biden. kate: it's a really sobering number of people that were applying for unemployment benefits last week, james, really underscoring the depth of the challenges that are facing the new administration. another 900,000 people filed applications for jobless benefits last week. that's about 25,000 fewer than

the previous week, but still over three times higher than the weekly average a year ago. the hospitality industry remains the hardest hit. it has already shed 490,000 in the month of january so far. the overall number of people claiming unemployment benefits did drop fairly substantially from 18.4 to 16 million. that's largely because of a temporary lapse in covering. it doesn't indicate that those people are back at work. the number is expected to rise again once with the latest emergency measures are put in place. rebuilding america's labor market will be a long and uphill battle that president biden hopes to tackle with aid to businesses. they were watched closely around the world and wine makers were hit with tariffs under the trump administration and they're hoping for a shift in trade policy under the new president. >> these winemakers in france's

burgundy region have seen their u.s. sales drop by 60% in the last year and they blame tariffs imposed by donald trump. their bottle of chablis has gone from 10 euros to 1250 for americans, they hope it will change under the new president. >> the tariffs, a part of the conflict between the u.s. and the e.u. ea accuse the other of illegal legally subsidizing airbus and boeing. the 16-year-old spat turned increasingly sour during trump's presidency with washington imposing 25% tariffs on wine, cheese, steel, and other european products. the e.u. responded with its own round of tariffs on u.s. imports. joe biden, however, said he hoped to repair the trade

relationship with europe prompting optimism across the atlantic. >> there is also hope the biden administration can make progress in a standoff over digital taxes which is triggered threats of even more tariffs. biden's team has committed to continue negotiations for a global deal to rewrite cross border taxation rules. >> now another day of record highs on wall street as we saw at the closing bell give more records to both the nasdaq and the s&p 500, the s&p just eeking out a gain of another record high for that index. the dow jones closing lower, the flat line there. shares of united airlines dropped after it reported massive losses for last quarter. the european indices were lower,

the european central bank decided to keep its key bond buying program unchanged but a risk to economic growth. moving on to other business headlines, google has reached a deal with french media organizations to pay them more for shows extracts of their works online. hundreds of newspapers in france will be involved by this deal with the internet giant what is called related rights for the content. they will be negotiating fees from google by showing previews of their articles in search results. volkswagen is facing fines up to 140 million euros from the european union ha after it failed to meet tough new emission standards. it had narrowly missed the target blaming the pandemic for slowing it down and said it's committed to expanding its electric and hybrid offerings this year. and klm is to cut between 800 and 1,000 more jobs if the pandemic continues to affect air

travel. the dutch carrier which is partners with air france said the recovery in the long haul sector in particular was taking particularly longer than expected. it announced 5,000 layoffs in july. airlines around the world have cut 10s of thousands of jobs in the last year. italy has issued a new two euro coin paying tribute to the royal healthcare workers in the pandemic. it shows two people wearing masks with the word thank you and a red cross and a heart. some of those will become collector items, but about 3 million of them are expected to trickle down into public use. france issued a similar coin honoring medical professionals at the end of last year, but it is not for circulation. these coins, james, might trickle across europe as they start to make their way into circulation and serve as a appointiant reminder of the year the e.u. and the world just had. >> they get mixed up for anyone who has been around different

european countries. thanks for that, kate. quick break for the weather and we'll be back with news and headlines right after. >> time now for eye on africa. >> reporting from across west africa. >> all of the latest in politics, economics, and the arts in africa on "france 24." our journalists are in every region, every country to report on the emergence of a continent of unparalleled riches bringing you africa's stories on "france 24". >> on december 15, 2020, the u.s. drug agency authorized the distribution of a first vaccine against coronavirus. it was the start of operati coordinated vaccination campaign in american history. >> we're prepared and we're doing a great job with it and it

will go away, just stay calm. >> do your job, mr. president. >> a political battle against a backdrop of a pandemic. >> the operation can only be successful if it is led by scientists, plned by the military and implemented by the best. find out how america operated operation warp speed on "france 24" on france24.com. ♪ ♪

01/21/21 01/21/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: we have learned again democracy is precious. democracy is fragile. at this hour, my friends, democracy haprevailed. amy: joe biden has been sworn in as the 46th president of the united states. kamala harris has made history as the first woman ri