Kamala Harris’s Indian uncle plans to visit the United States to congratulate her once he receives a COVID-19 vaccine, he said on Thursday, January 21, after his niece became the first woman, Black American and Asian American to hold the office of vice president.

The political success of Harris, the daughter of an Indian cancer researcher and a Jamaican father, has been widely celebrated in India.

Her maternal uncle, Gopalan Balachandran, is a senior defense scholar who lives in Delhi. He said he was happy to hear Harris mention her mother in her speeches.

“She is a good speaker. She didn’t throw any surprise, she mentioned her mother which she does often. I was happy about that,” Balachandran told Reuters partner ANI.

The 79-year-old, who had wanted to attend the pared-down inauguration on Wednesday, January 20, in Washington, added that he would like to celebrate with her in person once it was safe to travel.

Harris’s parents met in California, where they had gone to study in the 1960s.

Indian media celebrated her rise to power as another sign of the success of Indians abroad.

“Namaste Madame Vice President” ran a headline in the Deccan Herald. The Times of India said Harris had beaten sexism and racism to make history.

President Joe Biden launched initiatives on Thursday, January 21, to rein in the raging COVID-19 pandemic, tackling his top priority on his first full day in the White House as he tries to turn the page on Donald Trump’s tumultuous leadership.

His administration plans a coordinated federal coronavirus response aimed at restoring trust in the government and focused on boosting vaccines, increasing testing, reopening schools and addressing inequalities thrown up by the disease.

“We can and will beat COVID-19. America deserves a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is driven by science, data, and public health – not politics,” the White House said in a statement outlining the administration’s National Strategy on for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness.

Read more here.

The United States under President Joe Biden intends to join the COVAX vaccine facility that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to poor countries, his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, told the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday, January 21.

Fauci, speaking to the WHO executive board, confirmed that the United States would remain a member of the UN agency and said it would work multilaterally on issues from the COVID-19 pandemic to HIV/AIDS.

“This is a good day for WHO and a good day for global health,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

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China struck an optimistic tone toward President Joe Biden’s new administration on Thursday, January 21, saying “kind angels can triumph over evil forces” and playing down early irritants as the result of an atmosphere poisoned by Donald Trump’s term in office.

Bilateral relations worsened dramatically during Trump’s tenure. Biden, who took office on Wednesday, January 20, is expected to maintain pressure on Beijing but with a more traditional and multilateral approach.

Read more here.

File photo shows then US Vice President Joe Biden (left) talking with Pope Francis in Paul VI hall at the Vatican April 29, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo

Pope Francis told President Joe Biden on Wednesday, January 20, that he was praying that God would guide his efforts to bring reconciliation in the United States, while the head of the nation’s Catholic bishops condemned Biden’s pro-choice stand on abortion.

In a message sent shortly after the second Catholic US president was sworn in, Pope Francis also said he hoped Biden would work towards a society marked by true justice, freedom and respect for the rights and dignity of every person, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those with no voice.

“Under your leadership, may the American people continue to draw strength from the lofty political, ethical and religious values that have inspired the nation since its founding,” Francis said.

Three days after the January 6 attack on the US Congress by supporters of former president Donald Trump, Francis said the violence had left him “astonished”.

In Wednesday’s message to Biden, the Pope said the “grave crises facing our human family call for farsighted and united responses”. Read the full story here.

After taking the oath of office and a brief dash to shake some hands, Joe Biden made it safely to the White House in a barricaded city guarded by more than 25,000 troops and devoid of the hundreds of thousands of spectators who normally throng to the quadrennial ritual.

The unprecedented precautions ensured the new US president and Vice President Kamala Harris took office free of incident in a ceremony outside the US Capitol, two weeks to the day after a mob attacked the building in a failed attempt to keep Congress from certifying their victory.

After being driven from the Capitol in a slow motorcade, Biden briskly walked the last block from the Treasury to the White House, unexpectedly greeting some invited and screened guests and members of the news media along the way in a highly secured area. Harris walked part of the way to her office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House.

“Just days after a riotous mob thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people, to stop the work of our democracy, to drive us from this sacred ground, it did not happen. It will never happen. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” Biden said in his inaugural speech at the Capitol. Read the full story here.

Taiwan’s ties with its most important global backer the United States are off to a strong start under President Joe Biden’s government, after the island’s de facto ambassador attended an inauguration for the first time with an official invitation.

Former President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up support for Taiwan, increasing arms sales and sending senior officials to Taipei, angering China and stirring even greater enmity from Beijing towards Washington.

That had made Trump a popular figure in democratic Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, to be taken by force if needed, and raised concern in its government that Biden may not be as helpful. Read the full story here.