Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States this afternoon. The swearing-in ceremony will take place at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol and is slated to start right before 12:00 ET. President-elect Biden will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Additional security measures — including the deployment of 25,000 National Guard members — have been implemented amid fears that right-wing radicals linked to the attack on the Capitol may try to disrupt the ceremony. 

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• Vice President Mike Pence will be at the ceremony but President Trump said he will skip the event.
• Cabinet members, lawmakers, and Supreme Court justices are also expected to attend. 
• Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem, while Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks will also perform.
• Due to coronavirus, the traditional public parade will be replaced by a virtual parade.
• The inauguration will be live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
• Trump left the White House on Wednesday morning and headed to the Joint Base Andrews where he was greeted by hundreds of supporters. 
• By the time Biden is inaugurated, Trump will be at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Joe Biden plans to take 17 executive actions on his first day as U.S. President. Eight of those actions are aimed at reversing some of President Trump's signature policies.

These include:

• Biden will cancel the construction permit for the $9B Keystone XL pipeline project.
• Overturn Trump’s travel ban for predominantly Muslim countries.
• Impose a mask mandate on federal property and on federal lands. 
• Unveil a wide-ranging immigration reform that will be sent to Congress.
• Stop construction of the wall along the border with Mexico.
• Extend a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until March 31.
• The U.S. will rejoin the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization.

President Trump has pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 140 people. The beneficiaries include former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has been charged with fraud for allegedly embezzling funds from a campaign to build a border wall with Mexico; as well as Elliott Broidy, a former Republican fundraiser who illegally lobbied the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the 1MDB corruption scandal. In total, Trump pardoned 73 people and commuted the sentences of 70 people.

Who else was pardoned:

• Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who was charged last October with cyberstalking and harassing three people.
• Former Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi, who was jailed for three years after being found guilty of several charges, including corruption and money laundering.
• Former Rep. Duke Cunningham of California, who spent seven years in prison for taking $2.4M in bribes.
• Anthony Levandowski, who had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing trade secrets from Google.
• Rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, who had been convicted on federal weapons offenses.
• Trump also commuted the sentence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has served about seven years of a 28-year prison sentence for his role in a racketeering and bribery scheme.

GOOD NEWS: Strong winds forced a wheelchair-bound climber to stop his ascent of a 1,050-foot skyscraper but the stunt allowed him to raise more than $700,000 for charity. When Lai Chi-wai, a champion rock climber who was paralyzed from the waist down following a car accident eight years ago, started climbing Hong Kong's Nina Tower on Saturday morning, there was just a gentle breeze. But ten hours later, when he had reached an altitude of about 800 feet, wind gusts were making his wheelchair spin. By then, Lai's body temperature had dropped, his arms were failing him, and his fingers were full of blisters from operating the pulley that was lifting him up. He had to stop climbing because he feared for his life, but his courage won him plenty of praise online and allowed him to raise $735,000 to fund research into spinal cord injuries.

Lab tests show that the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is effective against the COVID-19 strain that is thought to be more contagious. Speculation has been rife in recent weeks about whether existing coronavirus vaccines may be effective against the B.1.1.7 virus variant, which was first discovered in the U.K.

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• BioNTech researchers mixed the B.1.1.7 virus variant with blood from 16 patients who had received its vaccine and found that the antibodies in the blood successfully neutralized the virus.
• The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found "no biologically significant difference" in the way the vaccine protects against the new variant.
• Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca said that they expect their vaccines will be effective against B.1.1.7 but they are running tests to ensure that's the case. 
• However, South African researchers warn that vaccines may not be as effective against a second variant that is spreading in the country. 
• If vaccines become less effective, manufacturers will have to tweak their formulations to ensure that their shots protect against new variants.
• BioNTech said that it could tweak its vaccine within six weeks but it is unclear whether new versions would need to obtain further regulatory approval.

Several European countries are asking their citizens to choose medical-grade masks instead of face coverings made with cloth. The moves come amid concerns that homemade cloth masks may not be as effective at protecting against more contagious coronavirus variants.

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• This week, German authorities have started asking people to wear medical-grade masks — including KN95s, FFP2s, and surgical masks — on public transport and in supermarkets. 
• Austria will roll out a similar mandate next week.
• Health authorities in France have discouraged people from wearing cloth masks, arguing that they may not be effective enough.
• A study published in the Lancet medical journal found that N95s had "a stronger protective association" compared with surgical masks and some cotton masks.
• A Duke University study published in August compared different types of masks and found that N95s were the most effective.

Netflix estimates that 70 million households watched at least a few minutes of the French-language crime series "Lupin" during its first 28 days online. That would make "Lupin" a bigger international hit for the platform than recent buzzy series "Bridgerton" and "The Queen's Gambit."

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• "Bridgerton" scored about 63 million household views in its first month, while "Queen's Gambit" came in with 62 million.
• "Lupin" has remained in the #1 spot in France since its premiere, and has also hit #1 at various times in Brazil, Vietnam, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and several other countries.
• The series -- loosely based on a "gentleman thief" character originally created by author Maurice LeBlanc in 1905 -- was created by "Killing Eve" vet George Kay.
• The show has renewed global interest in the character and the original LeBlanc novels.

This story was first published in Inside Streaming. To read the whole issue, click here.

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