When Joe Biden was sworn in as Barack Obama’s vice president on Jan. 20, 2009, America was grappling with a financial crisis so bad its nickname echoed that of the country’s darkest economic chapter. But the Great Recession and the successful effort by Obama and Biden to extract the U.S. from its clutches was just one war. Now, as he returns to Washington, Biden has been left with three to fight: a public health catastrophe that has claimed 400,000 American lives, a buckling economy marked by crushing unemployment, and most obviously on this Inauguration Day, a nation torn asunder by unbridled bigotry and deadly insurrection. And there are more hard realities with which he must contend. Russia allegedly pulled off a cyber attack on the federal government that’s still beyond reckoning, and China is on track to surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest economy by 2028. It’s clear that Biden can’t afford to leave foreign affairs untended as he combats the pandemic and its attendant downturn while moving to reverse the policies of his predecessor. But on Jan. 20, 2021, which Biden called “America’s day” during his inauguration speech at the U.S. Capitol, the new president focused on a conflict as old as the nation itself, calling for an end to America’s “uncivil war.” —David E. Rovella

Here are today’s top stories

Biden almost immediately signed sweeping actions to combat climate change after taking the oath of office, moving to rejoin the Paris accord and imposing a moratorium on oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska

Photographer: Getty Images/Getty Images North America

Amazon is offering to help the Biden administration accelerate the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, including to its own employees.

Pfizer and BioNTech presented research showing their Covid-19 vaccine is likely to protect against a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in the U.K. A separate study on a different strain is raising deep concern, however. Scientists found that half of the blood samples from a handful of patients who already had Covid-19 don’t have the antibodies needed to protect against a South African variant, which is quickly spreading around the globe. Here is the latest on the pandemic.

BlackRock is adding Bitcoin futures as an eligible investment to two funds, the first time the money manager is offering clients exposure to cryptocurrency.

Citigroup decided to cut bonuses for dozens of its top executives after the bank was reprimanded by regulators last year.

Payoneer, an online payments specialist, is in talks to go public through a merger with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp., a blank-check firm. FTAC rose as much as 29% on the news.

Next month, unmanned spacecraft from China and the U.S. are scheduled to reach Mars, where both will dispatch rovers to the frigid surface. While it will be a decade or more before humans travel to the planet, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that both countries are angling for the expertise needed to dominate. Their competition is heating up closer to home, too, as space takes on greater economic and military importance.

Mars

Photo: Getty Images

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Scenes From an Unprecedented Inauguration

Today in Washington was a study in opposites. On one hand, you had tens of thousands of soldiers and law enforcement personnel guarding against any domestic attack like that perpetrated by Trump supporters just two weeks before. On the other, you had a presidential inauguration that, while limited in form and attendance by the pandemic, was about as normal and uneventful as they come. Here are some scenes from a U.S. presidential inauguration without precedent.

U.S. President Joe Biden, center, U.S. First Lady Jill Biden, right, and their family walk on Pennsylvania Avenue during the 59th presidential inauguration parade.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

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