Biden inks several executive orders in inauguration day

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (KUNA) -- US President Joe Biden signed Wednesday several executive orders reversing his predecessor Donald Trump's policies on a number of issues including climate change, coronavirus and immigration.
In his first hour in the White House, Biden hammered out three executive orders: one ordering a facemask mandate in all federal buildings, another cancelling travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries and the third ordering US rejoining Paris Climate accord.
"This is going to be the first of many engagements we're going to have in here," Biden told reporters in the Oval Office.
"I thought with the state of the nation today there's no time to waste. Get to work immediately." He added that he is going to be signing a number of executive orders over the next several days to week.
"Some of the executive actions that I'm going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the Covid crisis and combat climate change in ways we haven't done so far," he said. "I think some of the things we're going to be doing are going to be bold and vital and there's no time to start like today." Earlier, Biden took the oath of office as the 46th leader of the United States and Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female US Vice-President. (end) asj.ibi