Joe Biden takes over @POTUS Twitter account after inauguration
Washington: Joe Biden on Wednesday took over the official @POTUS Twitter account of the President of the United States after his inauguration.
The 78-year-old veteran Democratic leader's Twitter account @PresElectBiden transformed into @POTUS after he took the oath of office at the West Front of the US Capitol as the 46th President of the United States in a historic but scaled down ceremony under the unprecedented security umbrella of thousands of security personnel.
POTUS is the official acronym for President of the United States; FLOTUS refers to the First Lady.
Twitter transferred institutional accounts such as @POTUS, @FLOTUS, @VP and @WhiteHouse to the Biden administration after the inauguration.
These accounts are reserved for the official government use by the current administration as they do not belong to any individual.
When previous president Donald Trump took the office in 2017, then-President Barack Obama's official accounts were transferred to him with his followers intact.
This time, these official accounts have lost tens of millions of followers. However, those dropped will receive notifications that they can follow them.
As per Twitter, the users are given a choice to whether follow the new accounts or not.
Trump's @POTUS account has been archived as @POTUS45 in the same way Obama's account was archived as @POTUS44.
On January 15, Biden's Twitter account had tweeted that the account will become the official account of the US President on January 20.
Folks This will be the account for my official duties as President. At 12:01 PM on January 20th, it will become @POTUS. Until then, I'll be using @JoeBiden. And while you're here, follow @FLOTUSBiden @SenKamalaHarris @SecondGentleman and @Transition46, it had said.
Kamala Harris, soon after she was sworn-in as America's first woman Vice President during a historic inauguration at the West Front of the Capitol, tweeted from her official Twitter account soon after the inauguration.
Ready to serve," she said in the tweet.
"For the people always," Harris tweeted from her personal account before the inauguration.
"I'm here today because of the women who came before me," she said in another tweet along with a video which featured a number of Black women, including her Tamil mother.
The inauguration was held under the watch of more than 25,000 National Guards, who have transformed the capital into a garrison city, mainly because of the threat of more violent protests by the supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, who became the first president to skip his successor's inauguration since Andrew Johnson in 1869. Outgoing Vice President Mike Pence attended the ceremony.
The time to move forward is now. pic.twitter.com/IrUUu0bxGO
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 20, 2021
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
