AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Trump sets out to erase Biden’s legacy with pardons and orders immediately after taking office

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump began erasing Joe Biden ’s legacy immediately after taking office as the nation’s 47th president on Monday, pardoning nearly all of his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and issuing a blizzard of executive orders that signal his desire to remake American institutions.

It was an aggressive start for a returning president who feels emboldened and vindicated by his unprecedented political comeback. Four years after being voted out of the White House, Trump has a second chance to launch what he called “a golden age” for the country.

He signed orders for increasing border security, designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, limiting birthright citizenship, freezing new regulations and establishing a task force for reducing the size of the federal government. He also rescinded dozens of directives issued by Biden, including those relating to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Trump said that walking back into the already-remodeled Oval Office after his inauguration was “one of the better feelings I’ve ever had.” Unlike during his first term, when new staff members scrambled to figure out what exactly their president was trying to achieve, Trump moved rapidly and methodically to advance his agenda Monday.

His first action after arriving at the White House was pardoning about 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, even if they had been convicted of assaulting police officers. Trump commuted the sentences of another 14 people, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

___

Inauguration Day Latest: Trump issues pardons for Jan. 6 rioters and signs more executive actions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump, who overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, was sworn in Monday as the 47th U.S. president, taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions.

Trump’s swearing-in ceremony moved indoors due to intense cold. After being inaugurated, he attended a parade in his honor at Capital One Arena and signed a number of executive orders and pardons for his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Here’s the latest:

Cuban president says Trump’s decision to redesignate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is an act of “arrogance and contempt for the truth.”

“It is not surprising. His goal is to continue strengthening the cruel economic war against Cuba for the purpose of domination,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on the social platform X.

___

Trump issues sweeping pardon of 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including rioters who attacked police

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers, using his clemency powers on his first day in office to undo the massive prosecution of the unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.

Among those set to be released from prison are defendants captured on camera committing violent attacks on law enforcement as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups who were found of seditious conspiracy in the most serious cases brought by the Justice Department will also be freed from prison after having their sentences commuted. Trump is directing the attorney general to seek the dismissal of about 450 pending cases.

The pardons were expected after Trump’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack that left more than 100 police officers injured and threatened the peaceful transfer of power. Yet the scope of the clemency, coming hours after Trump returned to power, still comes as a stunning dismantling of the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in the county’s history.

Trump had suggested in the weeks leading up to his return to the White House that instead of blanket pardons, he would look at the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis. Vice President JD Vance had said just days ago that people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned.

Casting the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages,” Trump has claimed they were unfairly treated by the Justice Department that also charged him with federal crimes in two cases he contends were politically motivated. Trump said the pardons end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”

___

Senate confirms Marco Rubio as secretary of state, giving Trump the first member of his Cabinet

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate quickly confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of state Monday, voting unanimously to give President Donald Trump the first member of his new Cabinet on Inauguration Day.

Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, is among the least controversial of Trump’s nominees and vote was decisive, 99-0. Another pick, John Ratcliffe for CIA director, is also expected to have a swift vote, as soon as Tuesday. Action on others, including former combat veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, is possible later in the week.

“Marco Rubio is a very intelligent man with a remarkable understanding of American foreign policy,” Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior-most Republican, said as the chamber opened.

It’s often tradition for the Senate to convene immediately after the ceremonial pomp of the inauguration to begin putting the new president’s team in place, particularly the national security officials. During Trump’s first term, the Senate swiftly confirmed his defense and homeland security secretaries on day one, and President Joe Biden’s choice for director of national intelligence was confirmed on his own Inauguration Day.

With Trump’s return to the White House, and his Republican Party controlling majorities in Congress, his outsider Cabinet choices are more clearly falling into place, despite initial skepticism and opposition from both sides of the aisle.

___

Senate passes immigrant detention bill that could be the first measure Trump signs into law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh off President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Senate on Monday passed a bill that would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of theft and violent crimes, the first measure he likely will sign into law and giving more weight to his plans to deport millions of migrants.

Trump has made a broad crackdown on illegal immigration his top priority, and Congress, with Republicans in control and some Democrats willing to go along, is showing it is ready to follow suit. The bill passed 64-35, with 12 Democrats joining with Republicans voting in favor.

Passage of the Laken Riley Act — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign — was a sign of how Congress has shifted sharply right on border security and immigration. Passage came just minutes before Trump signed the first of his executive orders.

“We don’t want criminals coming into our country,” Trump told supporters at the Capitol earlier Monday, adding he looked forward to holding a bill signing “within a week or so.”

The bill now heads back to the Republican-controlled House, which passed its version earlier this month and will need to approve changes made in the Senate. The Senate expanded the legislation to target immigrants who assault a police officer or are accused of crimes that kill or seriously injure someone.

___

Biden pardons Fauci, Milley and the Jan. 6 panel. It’s a guard against potential ‘revenge’ by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden, in one of his final acts as president, pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in an extraordinary use of executive power to guard against potential “revenge” by the new Trump administration.

The decision Monday by Biden came after now-President Donald Trump had warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the Capitol siege four years ago. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.

“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”

The prospect of such pardons had been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.

Trump said after his inauguration that Biden had pardoned people who were “very very guilty of very bad crimes” — “political thugs,” Trump called them.

___

Bitter cold spreads across much of the US as Texas and the South brace for rare winter storm

Frigid temperatures engulfed the South on Monday ahead of a winter storm that’s expected to spread heavy snow and disruptive ice around a region from Texas to north Florida that rarely sees such weather, sending residents rushing to insulate pipes, check heating systems and stock up on emergency supplies.

In Texas, both Houston airports announced flight operations would be suspended starting Tuesday in expectation of hazardous conditions from an unusual blast of severe winter weather taking aim at a huge swath of the South including much of the northern Gulf Coast.

Elsewhere, the East Coast contended with a thick blanket of snow while people from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine shivered in bitterly cold temperatures from an Arctic air mass that sent temperatures plunging well below normal Monday with dangerously cold wind chills.

Around 40 million people, primarily across the southern U.S., were under some type of weather hazard, including more than 21 million under a winter storm warning, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. He added about 170 million people from the Rockies to points eastward were under either an extreme warning or a cold weather advisory.

Lakesha Reed, manager of Beaucoup Eats catering in New Orleans, had plans to leave Tuesday to cook for a Mardi Gras-style event in the nation’s capital, but flights were canceled amid extreme cold. The 47-year-old New Orleans native said it was in the 30s early Monday afternoon in her port city, where near-freezing temperatures are rare.

___

Fire crews in Southern California quickly extinguish brush fires amid extreme fire weather

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters quickly extinguished several brush fires that erupted Monday in Southern California amid windy and dry conditions. The extreme fire weather is raising the risk of new wildfires like the two major blazes that started two weeks ago and are still burning in the Los Angeles area.

Gusts could peak at 70 mph (113 kph) along the coast and 100 mph (160 kph) in the mountains and foothills during extreme fire weather that is expected to last through Tuesday.

The National Weather Service issued a warning of a “ particularly dangerous situation ” for parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego counties from Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning due to low humidity and damaging Santa Ana winds.

“The conditions are ripe for explosive fire growth should a fire start,” said Andrew Rorke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

On Monday afternoon, Los Angeles fire crews quickly put out a small brush fire that broke out south of the iconic triple-domed Griffith Observatory. A man suspected of starting the fire was taken into custody, said David Cuellar, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman. Firefighters also quickly extinguished a brush fire along Interstate 405 in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Granada Hills that temporarily closed the northbound lanes.

___

After 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza

As a ceasefire brought calm to Gaza’s ruined cities, Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.

The militant group has not only survived 15 months of war with Israel — among the deadliest and most destructive in recent memory — but it remains firmly in control of the coastal territory that now resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. With a surge of humanitarian aid promised as part of the ceasefire deal, the Hamas-run government said Monday that it will coordinate distribution to the desperate people of Gaza.

For all the military might Israel deployed in Gaza, it failed to remove Hamas from power, one of its central war aims. That could make a return to fighting more likely, but the results might be the same.

There was an element of theater in Sunday’s handover of three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, when dozens of masked Hamas fighters wearing green headbands and military fatigues paraded in front of cameras and held back a crowd of hundreds who surrounded the vehicles.

The scenes elsewhere in Gaza were even more remarkable: Thousands of Hamas-run police in uniform re-emerged, making their presence known even in the most heavily destroyed areas.

___

Authorities say a US border patrol agent was fatally shot in Vermont south of border

COVENTRY, Vt. (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol agent was fatally shot Monday on a highway in northern Vermont south of the Canadian border, authorities said.

The death was confirmed by the FBI and Benjamine Huffman, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.

In a statement, the FBI said that in addition to the agent, a suspect in the shooting was killed and a second suspect was injured and taken into custody during the encounter on Interstate 91 in Coventry, about 20 miles (32 km) from the Canadian border.

The FBI said there was no ongoing threat to the public.

Huffman said the death occurred “in the line of duty.” The identity of the agent, who was assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector, was not immediately released. The sector encompasses Vermont and parts of New York and New Hampshire.