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Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has described Donald Trump as a "threat to our constitutional order, whether he is in or out of office".

Schumer said that a vote to bar Trump from running again for the White House would take place if he is convicted during his Senate impeachment trial.

"Rioters, insurrectionists, white supremacists and domestic terrorists tried to prevent the transfer of power," he said. "They were incited by none other than the president of the United States."

His comments came after Mitch McConnell, the Senate's most senior Republican, said the rioters were "fed lies" and "provoked by the president and other powerful people".

Schumer is expected to take over from McConnell as Senate Majority Leader tomorrow after the Democrats won two Senate seats in Georgia earlier this month.

The Senate is now split 50-50 but Democrat Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will hold the casting vote.

McConnell has not yet indicated how he will vote in the Senate's impeachment trial.

Find out how impeachment works here.

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Joe Biden has announced a new White House Gender Policy Council.

A statement on the Biden-Harris transition website said the council will "guide and coordinate government policy that impacts women and girls".

It will focus on issues including economic security, health care, racial justice and gender-based violence.

“Too many women are struggling to make ends meet and support their families, and too many are lying awake at night worried about their children’s economic future," Biden says in the statement.

"This was true before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the current global public health crisis has made these burdens infinitely heavier for women all over this country."

The council bears similarities to the White House Council on Women and Girls, formed under Barack Obama, which was later dissolved by Donald Trump.

Trump did create, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a joint council on focused on the advancement of female business leaders.

In happy news for the Trump family, the president's younger daughter Tiffany says she is now engaged to her boyfriend Michael Boulos.

On her father's final full day in the White House, Trump shared a photo on Instagram from inside the building, with the caption: "Feeling blessed and excited for the next chapter!”

Trump, 27, and Boulos, 23, have been dating for two years.

Boulos - who is of Lebanese and French descent - hails from a wealthy family and grew up in Nigeria.

Tiffany is the only daughter from Donald Trump's second marriage - to model and actress Marla Maples - and is a law student at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Page Six reports the newly engaged couple may follow the outgoing president to Florida.

Joe Biden has just delivered a speech at a send-off event at the Delaware National Guard headquarters before heading to Washington to be sworn in as US president.

In the speech, he said he would “always be a proud son” of the state.

He described the US and Delaware as “a place of hope and light and limitless possibilities”, and said: “Delaware will always be written on my heart”.

The president-elect got emotional and teary-eyed as he paid tribute to his home state and to his son Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015, aged 46.

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The ratings are in and they aren't good for President Donald Trump.

Polling organisation Gallup's final job approval rating, external says only 34% of Americans approve of the job he has done.

It means Trump will depart the White House with a record low average job approval of 41%, lower than any other president in Gallup polling history.

Gallup began its US presidential job approval ratings in 1938 and Trump now becomes the only president in that time to have never reached 50% approval during his term.

However, the polarising president still receives high approval ratings from Republicans, who - on average - have backed his job performance by a stunning 81 percentage-point gap over Democrats.

In his final day in office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that China has committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” against the Uighur population and other minorities in the north-western Xinjiang region.

“I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state,” Pompeo said in a statement released on Tuesday, external.

The Chinese government has been accused of using high-tech surveillance against the Uighurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic group, with many detained in forced-labour camps where children are sometimes separated from their parents. Beijing says the camps offer voluntary education and training.

Beijing's human rights record is set to be an important issue for Joe Biden once he takes office.

The former vice-president has previously said China should be held accountable for unfair environment and trade practices. But instead of unilateral trade tariffs used during Trump's administration, he has proposed an international coalition with other democracies that China "can't afford to ignore" - although he has been vague about what that means.

Read more on Biden's pledges here.

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More now on the news that two National Guardsmen have been removed from the security mission to secure tomorrow's inauguration ceremony amid enhanced screening measures by the Defense Department.

The duo held ties to fringe militia groups, according to the Associated Press.

Neither the US Defense Department nor the National Guard Bureau have responded to requests for further comment, but the two men appear to be the only ones to so far be pulled from inauguration duty.

There will be as many as 25,000 members of the National Guard in and around the US Capitol for tomorrow's inauguration ceremony.

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US president-elect Joe Biden's choice for treasury secretary is urging Congress to approve trillions more in pandemic relief and economic stimulus.

At her confirmation hearing, Janet Yellen said lawmakers should "act big" without worrying about national debt.

"Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now and longer term scarring of the economy later," she said.

The US economy is struggling to rebound as the pandemic has surged across the country this winter. Jobless claims rose last week to their highest weekly total since August.

Yellen called for a focus on the unemployed and on small businesses, but Republicans pushed back.

You can read more here.

US Democrats are planning to launch the impeachment trial against Donald Trump later this week, ABC news reports.

Unnamed sources told the network that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned to send the article of impeachment to the Senate in the days following President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

The trial would then begin at 13:00 the following day, with opening arguments starting the following week.

Trump was first impeached by the House of Representatives in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but was later acquitted by the Senate.

While the Democrats control the Senate this time around, they will need the backing of 17 Republicans to secure the two-thirds majority required for a conviction - a move that could pave the way to Trump being barred from holding office again.

Find out more about the process of impeachment here.

Image source, Reuters

Joe Biden is just one day away from becoming the next US president.

He is set to deliver a final set of remarks from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, before heading to Washington ready for his inauguration.

Later, he and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris will take part in an event at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, honouring those who have died as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The event, which begins at 17:30 (22:30 GMT), will include a lighting ceremony and be attended by the Archbishop of Washington and two acclaimed gospel singers.

The president-elect is expected to spend the night at the presidential guesthouse Blair House.

The US has recorded more coronavirus cases and deaths than anywhere else in the world.

According to the latest data, it has now reported close to 400,000 fatalities, and the incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control says that number is expected to quickly rise.

"By the middle of February, we expect half a million deaths in this country," Dr Rochelle Walensky said.

It comes as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that the city would run out of vaccines at some point this week without a "major" resupply.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days in office.

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Top Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is directly blaming President Trump for the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January.

"The mob was fed lies," said McConnell on the Senate floor as it met for the first time since the attack. "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people."

McConnell has not yet indicated how he will vote in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. If he votes to convict Trump, it may convince several other Republicans to follow his lead.

Image source, EPA

Senate Democrats have announced that the first legislation they will push in the new Congress is the sweeping For the People Act., external

Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the legislation would “renew democracy, end big money in politics, and tackle corruption”.

Democrats describe it as a “sweeping package of pro-democracy reforms”.

Details include demanding that states have at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections, and requiring that early voting locations be near stations of public transport.

It also includes steps to tackle foreign interference in elections, and requires the disclosure of individual tax returns and certain business tax returns by presidents and vice-presidents.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has previously condemned it as a "half-baked socialist proposal", according to MSNBC.

You can read about the Act in detail here, external

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Joe Biden has chosen transgender woman Rachel Levine to be assistant secretary of health.

The announcement paves the way for Levine to become the first openly transgender official to be confirmed by the Senate.

Levine currently serves as Pennsylvania’s health secretary, and has been leading the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden said she was an "historic and deeply qualified choice," and would "bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic".

Image source, EPA

Celebrations over Kamala Harris’s upcoming role as vice-president are not limited to her supporters in the US.

Residents of Thulasendrapuram village, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, have gathered to celebrate and pray for her success ahead of Wednesday’s inauguration.

The village is where Harris's maternal grandfather was born and raised (her mother moved to the US as a young woman).

Image source, EPA

Harris will make history as the first female, first black and first Asian-American US vice-president.

You can find out more about her here.

Image source, EPA

There could be as many as 25,000 National Guard troops in Washington DC by tomorrow.

As many observers have pointed out on social media, that's more US troops than are currently stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.

"We're making sure that our folks are trained and ready for anything they're going to be asked to do," said General Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau.

In an interview on the TODAY Show, Hokanson said his Guardsmen - who have arrived in the nation's capital from all over the country - will co-ordinate with the Secret Service and other federal agencies on security and logistics for inauguration-related events.

Referring to fears that right-wing extremists may be among the ranks of the National Guard, Hokanson said the organisation had vetted all troops.

"I'm not concerned about that at all," said Hokanson. "We don't allow extremism of any type in our organisation."

However, according to the Associated Press, two members of the National Guard have just been pulled from the security mission after they were found to have ties to right-wing militia groups. No plot against Joe Biden has been uncovered.

Reality Check

As the final preparations are made for the inauguration, federal officials are conducting background checks on the thousands of troops arriving in Washington DC.

It’s normal procedure for some vetting to take place ahead of a presidential swearing-in, but there are added concerns following the riots at the Capitol on 6 January.

The Pentagon has stepped up efforts to identify personnel with far-right links, according to the New York Times.

Since the November election, far-right militias have been increasingly active in demonstrations against the results, those who track such groups say.

Our Reality Check team has more detail hereon far-right groups like those that took part in the Capitol riots.

Image source, Getty Images

The US Senate is back at work for the first time since its members voted to certify the results of the 2020 election.

The upper chamber is holding confirmation hearings for five nominees to Joe Biden's cabinet. They are:

• Janet Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury. She would be the first woman to hold this job
• Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence. She would also be the first woman in this role
• Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security. He would be the first Latino in the Cabinet post that oversees immigration policy
• Antony Blinken as Secretary of State
• Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense. The retired army general would be the first black person in this position

After two upset victories for the Democratic Party in Georgia earlier this month, the Senate is now split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.

Leaders of the two parties - Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell - are reportedly due to meet today to discuss how they will share power in the divided chamber.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet transmitted articles of impeachment against the president to the Senate, an action that must take place before it can begin its impeachment trial and decide whether or not to convict President Trump.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump has begun his final full day as US president. As we've been reporting, it is thought that he will use the day to focus on granting presidential pardons.

The White House says Trump "will make many calls and have many meetings" - the same wording used to describe his schedules for the past few weeks.

On Wednesday morning, just ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration, Trump is due to attend a send-off ceremony with his supporters at Andrews Air Force Base.

He will then - for the last time - board the presidential plane and travel to his golf club residence, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.

He will be only the fourth president in history to boycott his successor’s regularly scheduled inauguration.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

Confirmation hearings for Biden's new team are beginning today. But what do his foreign policy picks mean for the Middle East and what challenges are they likely to face?

The new foreign policy team is dominated by diplomats who made policy, and waves, in President Obama’s time.

In Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, Team Biden will be told that this time round Arabs must be at the table if Washington returns, against their objections, to the 2015 Iran deal President Trump pulled out of.

In Tehran there’s relief, and some smugness. But they’re braced for big battles around any table.

Ending a real war in Yemen, which President Obama initially backed, will be a priority.

The region also hasn’t forgotten how Washington sided with protesters in the so-called “Arab Spring”. That angered other leaders-for-life and encouraged activists who then felt bitterly let down.

Will Team Biden return to Syria’s daunting diplomacy?

Building on President Trump’s accords between Israel and some Arab states will be on the agenda. But Israel will want reassurance America still has its back.

And, in many capitals, they’re now asking if talk about human rights and justice is just words, or more.