President Joe Biden has signed three executive actions targeting Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, including measures to begin reuniting families separated at the US-Mexico border and review the former administration’s asylum policies.

Alejandro Mayorkas – the president’s pick for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security – will lead reunification efforts. He was confirmed in the Senate on Tuesday and is set to be sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris.

In signing more executive orders to change the country’s course on immigration, Joe Biden responded to criticisms that he has been ruling by fiat in the early weeks of his presidency.

“There’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders I’ve signed. I’m not making new laws, I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said.

“What I’m doing is taking on the issues that 99 per cent of them, that the president, the last president of the United States, issued executive orders I thought were very counter productive to our security, counter productive to who we are as a country, particularly in the area of immigration.”

Biden says America is safer, stronger and more prosperous when there is a fair, orderly and humane legal immigration system.

“With the first action today, we’re going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families, their mothers and fathers at the border,” he said.  

“And with no plan, none whatsoever, to reunify the children that are still in custody, and their parents.”

The family of United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died as a result of his injuries sustained during the pro-Trump riots in Washington last month, has called on the media and American public not to politicise his death as they await further answers as to what happened that day at the US Capitol.

“Please honor Brian’s life and service and respect our privacy while we move forward in doing the same,” the family said in a statement issued on Friday. “Brian is a hero and that is what we would like people to remember.”

Having signed 24 orders in 13 days, Mr Biden is on track for around 647 orders a year. Trump signed 220 over four years and Barack Obama 276 over eight. But contra his critics, his out-of-the-gate sprint can tell us little about the presidency to come, writes The Independent’s Andrew Naughtie.

The coronavirus vaccine developed by Russia, known as Sputnik V, has been shown to be 91.6 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19, according to interim trial results.

No serious adverse events were deemed to be associated with vaccination, and most reported adverse events were mild, including flu-like symptoms, pain at the injection site and weakness or low energy.

Interim data from the phase three trial of Sputnik V suggests a two-dose regimen induces the same high levels of efficacy seen in the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, and is similarly effective in providing protection among those aged over 60.

Former president Donald Trump’s new legal team got off to a shaky start in a legal brief on Tuesday, addressing their arguments to the “Unites States Senate” instead of the United States Senate, the body that will try Mr Trump on 9 February on allegations he incited the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

The typo comes right off the bat, with the document declaring it is for “The Honorable, the Members of the Unites States Senate,” five lines in.

Josh Marcus has the report.

Three top Senate Democrats have vowed to work towards the legalisation of marijuana this year, including majority leader Chuck Schumer.

Sen Schumer, alongside New Jersey Sen Cory Booker and Oregon Sen Ron Wyden released a joint statement on Monday declaring their intention to push forward major cannabis policy reform.  

“The War on Drugs has been a war on people—particularly people of colour,” the statement reads.  

“Ending the federal marijuana prohibition is necessary to right the wrongs of this failed war and end decades of harm inflicted on communities of colour across the country.”

The Independent’s Joe Sommerlad take a peak at what Trump’s favourite channels have been up to in the weeks since leaving the White House.

“Newsmax has also continued to make excuses for the Capitol riot and to question the election outcome to keep the die-hard Trump supporters happy, with guest Stacy Washington declaring on Monday: ‘There’s no way I believe that Joe Biden got 81m votes.’ It’s a similar story on OAN, which, like Newsmax, has had to drop its unsubstantiated allegations against voting machine manufacturer Dominion after the company’s lawyers stepped in to demand on-air retractions.”

The Oxford coronavirus vaccine offers 76 per cent protection for up to 12 weeks after the administration of a first dose, new analysis suggests.

Researchers at the University of Oxford also said their vaccine may reduce transmission of the virus by 67 per cent.

The vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing Covid-19 disease rises to 82.4 per cent once a second dose is administered after the three-month interval, according to a pre-print paper released on Tuesday evening.

Oxford’s scientists said the findings, which are currently under view by The Lancet, supported the UK government’s decision to extend the interval between the first and second doses, having faced widespread criticism over the policy.

Samuel Lovett has the full story.

Republicans in Georgia’s state Senate are moving quickly to limit who can vote and how after Democrats won the presidential election and two U.S. Senate runoffs in the once reliably red state.

Democrats say the GOP’s bills are unnecessary, politically motivated and will suppress legal votes.

Many of the proposals target absentee voting by mail after relentless false claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies — including some Republican state senators. State election officials have said unequivocally that there was no widespread fraud in voting by mail, or irregularities that could have changed November’s results.

The bills introduced Monday would restrict who can vote absentee by mail, require a photo ID for those who do vote absentee by mail, ban ballot drop boxes and block outside groups from sending out absentee ballot applications. Other proposals would end automatic voter registration when obtaining a driver’s license and ban new residents from voting in a runoff election. –  AP