WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden has said President Donald Trump was the "most incompetent" presidents in US history.Sidestepping the questions related to impeachment or removal from office in the remaining 12 days, Biden said that quickest way Trump could be removed is his inauguration on January 20."I have been saying for now well over a year he (Trump) is not fit to serve," Biden said. "He is one of the most incompetent presidents in the history of the United States of America and so the idea that I think he shouldn't be out of office yesterday is not the issue.""The question is what happens with 14 days left to go or 13 days left to go and I think that what 81 million people stood up and said it is time for him to go and the United States Senate voted 93-6 to confirm that we should be sworn in. We were duly elected, so I think it is important we get on with the business of getting him out of office," Biden told reporters in Wilmington in Delaware."The quickest way that that will happen is us being sworn in on the 20th. What action happens before or after that is
THE HAGUE (REUTERS) - Dutch riot police used water cannon to disperse around two thousand people at an unauthorised protest in Amsterdam on Sunday (Jan 17) against a national lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus. The protesters gathered on a square in front of the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum art galleries, carrying signs reading "Freedom: stop this siege" and chanting "What do we want? Freedom!". None wore masks, which are not mandatory outdoors, and few respected social distancing rules, prompting the authorities to disperse the crowd due to health concerns, the Amsterdam authorities said in a statement. The city had declined an application for the protest to be held on Museum Square. The demonstrators refused to leave when police told them to do so, and some threw fireworks. Riot police then used water cannon to try to disperse the gathering. The authorities said they had arrested around a hundred people who took part in the protest. The government closed schools and most shops in December to try to stem a surge in Covid-19 cases, and this week extended the lockdown by at least three more weeks. In the
LONDON: The British government banned travel from South America and Portugal to ensure a new variant of Covid-19 found in Brazil doesn't derail the UK's vaccination program, although there are no signs the variant has reached the country, Britain's top transportation official said.UK transport secretary Grant Shapps said the entry ban, which took effect on Friday morning, was extended to passengers arriving from Portugal because many people who come to Europe from South America travel through Portugal."We don't have cases at the moment, but this is a precautionary approach," Shapps told the BBC. "We want to make sure that we do everything possible so that vaccine rollout can continue and make sure that it's not disturbed by other variants of this virus."The announcement comes just a few weeks after many countries banned travel from the UK following the discovery in England of another, more contagious variant of the virus that has been blamed for a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths. Scientists have said there is no indication the UK variant reacts any differently to coronavirus vaccines.Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva called the UK's decision "without logic" and said he would seek clarification from his British counterpart."Suspending flights
