The storming of the US Capitol last month left five people dead, over 100 police officers injured and millions of dollars in damage to the building.

Most of the rioters were allowed to leave the building without facing arrest, but a month-long search for offenders has resulted in charges against a reported 221 people.

Among those arrested, there have been state lawmakers, military veterans and even a gold medal-winning Olympian.

Here's a closer look at who conducted the siege and why.

1. Ties to right-wing extremist groups were few

Far-right insignia was spotted on the clothing, badges and flags of several insurrectionists, but the vast majority of the 200-plus people charged so far are ordinary pro-Trump activists.

So far, only about 10% of those charged have been found to have ties to organised far right militias or other right-wing extremist groups.

"What we are dealing with here is not merely a mix of right-wing organisations, but a broader mass movement with violence at its core," wrote Dr Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Security & Threats.

Dr Pape led a 22-person research team from the University of Chicago in a study - titled Faces of the American Insurrection - that takes a closer look at who has been arrested since 6 January.

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The report found that FBI arrests of violent right-wingers over the past five years were almost five times as likely to uncover militia and gang connections as those arising from the violence on 6 January.

At least 12 people linked to the Proud Boys - an all-male group with a history of street violence against left-wing opponents - currently face charges.

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It includes prominent members like a leading organiser of its Hawaii branch, a self-proclaimed "sergeant in arms" and a former US Army captain who ran for a seat in a state legislature.

Bomb-making manuals were located in the home of one arrested Proud Boy. Another was a self-professed white supremacist who had previously expressed his desire to become a "lone wolf killer".

Other extremists had connections with militant anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and the Aryan Nations, several of whom have military experience.

One arrested Three Percenter - Guy Wesley Reffitt, 48, a drilling rig worker from Texas - reportedly threatened his children, saying: "If you turn me in, you're a traitor and you know what happens to traitors...traitors get shot."

2. More rioters came from 'Biden counties' than 'Trump counties'

The mob was largely pro-Trump, but they came from all parts of the country.

The rioters facing federal charges hail from 41 out of the 50 US states and the District of Columbia, according to the George Washington University extremism tracker.

The University of Chicago report finds that most of the insurrectionists came from large urban counties where Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by slim-to-moderate margins in the 2020 election.

These counties typically contain big and racially diverse populations.

Only a few came from pro-Trump strongholds.

"This will come as a surprise to many Biden supporters, who presumably think that the insurrectionists are coming from red counties - rural, almost completely white, and with high unemployment - far from Biden strongholds," said Dr Pape.

"This is fundamentally a political movement, one not only centered in "red" parts of the country, but also consisting of pro-Trump supporters who are in the political minority in many places."

3. The crowd was not a young one

Much like other right-wing activists arrested for deadly violence since 2015, the protesters facing charges have been predominantly white and male.

But whereas the extremists charged from 2015 to 2020 were mostly under the age of 35, two thirds of those facing charges for the Capitol attack are over the age of 35.

"As the data started to roll in, the very first surprise was the age because the last thing I was expecting was for the median age to be around 40," said Dr Pape.

He noted the average age for those involved in political violence around the world is late 20s to early 30s.

"With political violence, we think that individuals will age out of it. They'll grow up, get married, have kids and become less politically violent," he explained.

More than four-fifths of them are employed and come from various backgrounds, from business owners to white collar professionals.

There is Dr Simone Gold, 55, from Beverly Hills, California, who was among a group of doctors that last year spread misleading claims about the coronavirus, including that hydroxychloroquine - a drug touted relentlessly by Mr Trump - was an effective treatment.

Jenna Ryan - a real estate broker from Dallas, Texas - garnered attention on social media after she flew to DC by private jet to join the march to the Capitol.

Cogensia - an Illinois-based marketing company - fired its chief executive Bradley Rukstales, after he was federally charged for being a part of the violent mob.

"What that means is there's more at work here than the usual drivers like unemployment and you can count less on usual solutions like 'give them a job'," said Dr Pape.

4. Many of them say Trump motivated them

Some of those involved in storming the Capitol have suggested they were at least partially motivated by Donald Trump.

Jacob Chansley - the "QAnon shaman" from Arizona who wore a Viking pelt to the riot - told the FBI he was in DC "at the request of President Trump".

A lawyer for Robert Bauer, a Kentucky man, said he "marched to the US Capitol because President Trump said to do so".

In an FBI interview, Valerie Elaine Ehrke from Northern California said she heard President Trump tell the crowd to go to the US Capitol and "decided she wanted to be part of the crowd, and she walked to the US Capitol", according to court documents.Several have indicated they believed the election was not over and there was still a path to preventing the results from being certified.

This false claim was repeatedly made by Mr Trump since his election defeat and - prior to the riot - he told gathered supporters at a rally near the White House that he "won by a landslide".

With the second impeachment trial of Mr Trump starting this week, these statements may form the backbone of the prosecution's case as they try to prove the former president was "personally responsible" for inciting an insurrection.

5. Military members and veterans were involved

The Pentagon has acknowledged that "some of the extremists who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 were active duty service members and others were military veterans."

Although it has not released exact numbers, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin will institute a one-day military "stand down" in the next two months to address the issue of extremism in its ranks.The New York Times has discovered at least two current military members, and 20 veterans that have been charged.

One veteran - Larry Rendall Brock Jr, 53 - was pictured in combat gear and carrying zip-tie handcuffs. He had repeatedly posted on social media about the Three Percenters and Oath Keepers militias.

Two others who face charges - Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker - previously served in the US Army and were also active members of the Rocky Mount Police Department in Virginia.

It remains unclear how many off-duty police officers may have been involved, but reports suggest that at least 31 police officers from agencies across the US are under investigation for their alleged participation in the protest and the eventual mob violence at the Capitol.

Capitol riots: Five takeaways from the arrests

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 Nepal has banned two Indian climbers and their team leader for six years from mountaineering in the country after an investigation found they had faked their 2016 climb up Mt Everest.

Narender Singh Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami's climb was certified by the tourism department at the time.

The action against them came when they failed to produce any evidence after Mr Yadav was nominated for an award.

Mr Yadav and Ms Goswami are yet to comment on Wednesday's announcement.

Reaching the top of the 8,848.86m (29,032 ft) mountain is considered to be a shining feat for mountaineers around the globe.

When Mr Yadav was listed for the prestigious Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award last year, the pairs' claims were queried by other climbers.

A Nepal tourism ministry official told AFP that during their investigations with other climbers, they found that the two "never reached the summit" and had failed to produce any reliable pictures of the summit and other evidence.

"In our investigation, we found that they had submitted fake documents [including photographs]. Based on the documents and the conversation with the officials concerned, including sherpas [expert Nepalese mountaineers], we reached this conclusion," an official from Nepal's tourism and culture ministry told The Indian Express newspaper.

Mr Yadav, Ms Goswami and team leader Naba Kumar Phukon have been placed under a six-year ban - starting retrospectively in 2016. Their Everest summit certification has also been revoked, AFP reported.

The tourism ministry has also fined the company that organised the climb and the sherpas that supported them.

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Indians first summited Everest in the 1960s and in 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb the mountain. Indians have also set records for "the first twins", "the first female amputee", "the youngest girl ever" and "the oldest woman ever" to ascend the peak.

Many of those who have succeeded in scaling the mountain have subsequently gone on to have lucrative careers as motivational speakers and authors.

But this is not the first time Indian climbers have been called out for faking claims that they reached the summit.

In 2017, police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra sacked two officers after an inquiry found their claim to be the first Indian couple to climb Everest was fake.

Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod said they had successfully reached the summit in 2016, but Maharashtra police said the couple had "morphed photographs" to show a successful ascent.

Nepal's tourism department had initially certified their ascent but rescinded that decision after an investigation.

Source: bbc.com/news

Nepal bans India climbers for faking Everest summit

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India and China are to pull back troops from part of their disputed Himalayan border in what's seen as a breakthrough following a deadly clash in June.

India's defence minister said the move to withdraw troops in Ladakh was the result of "sustained talks" between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

His remarks came a day after a similar announcement from China.

Tensions have been high since the clash that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and a number of reported Chinese fatalities.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told India's parliament that since September, both sides had been communicating through military and diplomatic channels. He said that after nine rounds of meetings between senior military commanders, "we have been able to reach an agreement on disengagement in the north and south bank of the Pangong Lake".

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defence said on Wednesday that a "synchronised and organised disengagement" from Pangong Tso lake had started. Colonel Wu Qian said the disengagement was in accordance with consensus reached by both sides at during military commander-level talks.

Indian and Chinese troops have been facing off on the north and south shores of the glacial lake that lies in territory claimed by both sides.

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Mr Singh also told parliament that China had "mobilised a large number of troops and armaments" along the border in Ladakh, and had illegally occupied 38,000sq km (14,700sq miles) of Indian territory in the region.

China disputes such claims. But in June last year, satellite images suggested that China had built new bunkers, tents and storage units for military hardware overlooking the Galwan river.

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The disputed 3,440km (2,100 mile) long de facto border - called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC - is poorly demarcated. The presence of rivers, lakes and snowcaps means the line can shift. The soldiers on either side - representing two of the world's largest armies - come face to face at many points.

But the June clash - fought with sticks and clubs, not guns - was the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975 and followed earlier non-deadly violence. China has never commented on reports that it too suffered fatalities.

The two armies also clashed in January this year along the border in the north-east in India's Sikkim state, leaving troops on both sides injured.

"I want to assure this house that in these talks we have not conceded anything," Mr Singh told parliament.

"There are still some outstanding issues with regard to deployment and patrolling at some other points along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. These will be the focus of further discussions with the Chinese side," he added.

Relations have deteriorated since June as both sides traded accusations.

In August, India accused China of provoking military tensions at the border twice within a week. China denied both charges and blamed India for the stand-off.

In September, China accused India of firing shots at its troops. India accused China of firing into the air.

Source: bbc.com/news

Pangong Lake: India and China to pull back from disputed border

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 London (CNN)A man lies alone in a hospital bed, frightened and cut off from most of his family and friends, while the outside world grapples with the growing threat of an unfamiliar virus. As he lies stricken, he is cared for by doctors and nurses dressed head to toe in PPE. Eventually he begs for his mother to make him better and asks her through tears if everyone who has contracted this disease has died.

But this isn't a sequence in a news report from an overwhelmed Covid ward. The year is 1985 and this is a scene from "It's a Sin," a searing British television miniseries that explores the AIDS crisis over a ten-year period through the lens of those that lived it.

The parallels between the devastation wreaked by AIDS and the tragedy of Covid-19 today are clear. Thousands of lives lost, people dying alone in hospital, denied the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones, with only medical staff to offer comfort in their final moments. Funerals devoid of crowds of mourners, misinformation and confusion over the surging crisis spread rapidly across the globe.

But -- when it comes to the public health response -- have governments and politicians learned the lessons of the past?

Marc Thompson, HIV campaigner and activist

Marc Thompson, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 at the age of 17 and now works promoting public health in underserved communities in the UK, doesn't think so. "I have yet to speak to a government minister working on the Covid response who has asked the question as to what we have learned from the HIV and AIDS crisis," says Thompson.

Even if the comparisons are obvious, the context is different. At the peak of the AIDS crisis, many victims died alone, not because of contamination fears -- though those certainly existed -- but, as writer Russell T. Davies' series makes clear, because of shame.

Funerals for Covid-19 victims are so sparsely attended because coronavirus thrives at social gatherings, regardless of whether their purpose is to commemorate or celebrate. Many AIDS victims were buried alone simply because of the stigma attached to those who contracted the disease.

Nurses wearing PPE attend to patients in a California ICU. The parallels with the AIDS era are clear.

When one of the gay characters in Davies' show dies of complications from AIDS, their family gathers to burn clothes, photographs, books and memories, as a way of excising them -- and the shame that was so commonly associated with the condition -- from their lives.

There are striking contrasts between the crises, too.

"Only when the UK government woke up to the fact that the straight population would be at risk [from AIDS] did they actually finally speed up their response to the threat of the crisis," says Lisa Power, a co-founder of Britain's foremost LGBT lobby group, Stonewall, and an adviser on "It's A Sin."

"One of the reasons there has been such an immediate response to Covid is because it affects the general population. It is far more random than HIV in who it infects," she says. "Everyone has a grandmother. But not everyone had a gay friend back then, and not everyone has a gay friend now."

AIDS response hindered by homophobia

Thompson says that the lack of urgency in responding to the AIDS crisis occurred largely because "the bodies that were the most affected were the bodies that weren't valued."

HIV and AIDS campaigners in the UK say that the fact the response to coronavirus has been significantly more timely than the reaction to AIDS comes down to widespread homophobia and a societal and political disregard for marginalized groups.

"ACT UP and Larry Kramer used to refer to AIDS as a genocide by neglect," says Ben Weil, an activist and PHD researcher on the exclusion of gay men from blood donation programs at UCL's department of science and technology in London. "Covid is a genocide of the clinically vulnerable and disabled by neglect."

AIDS campaigners in the 1980s complained of a lackluster response from governments.

Power says the press in the 1980s and 1990s fostered a culture of shame around HIV and AIDS, while the (mistaken) belief that heterosexuals were not at risk encouraged a lackluster reaction on the part of the UK and US governments, led at the time by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan.

"The press, and the tabloid newspapers in particular, were essentially saying that this disease would only affect gay people and 'junkies' [intravenous drug addicts] and it wasn't something to worry about because they don't matter," Power says.

Weil agrees that the media -- on both sides of the Atlantic -- has played a key role in influencing the seriousness and speed with which the two diseases were approached. "When 100,000 people died of Covid in the US, it was the front page of The New York Times, but it took a number of years and many AIDS-related deaths for them to make the AIDS crisis a leading story," Weil says.

He argues that the fundamental difference between the responses to AIDS and to Covid-19 has turned on who society in general, and particularly those in power, believe deserve protection. "All risk is political," says Weil. In the early stages of the AIDS crisis, gay people were seen as not worthy of priority. In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, many nations were slow to respond to the threat at residential facilities for the elderly, with devastating consequences.

For those who have lived through both crises -- particularly those who remain part of the battle against the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS, the huge contrast in responses, highlighted by "It's a Sin," is telling -- but it is the similarities, and the repetition of past grave mistakes, that worry them most.

It is a strange time to watch "It's a Sin," says Thompson. It is simultaneously an "emotional, occasionally triggering watch and a fun one," he says. The series -- met with wildly enthusiastic reviews in the UK since its launch in January -- will stream on HBO Max in the US from February 18. (CNN and HBO share the same parent company, WarnerMedia.)

Watching "It's a Sin" can be "emotional, triggering and fun," one activist says.

Throughout the series, there is exuberance and euphoria shared between members of the LGBTQ+ community as they navigate their late teens and early twenties at raucous house parties and what Thompson describes as "grimy little pubs where the dancefloor lay next to the bar."

Yet where there is unabashed pleasure and delight to be found in "It's a Sin," there is also grief as the shadow of AIDS that hangs over the first episode gradually envelops the characters.

The series has prompted one positive and perhaps unexpected public health benefit: Activists in the UK have used its success as a launchpad for new campaigns around the importance of HIV testing and the efficacy of treatment. The show's enthusiastic cast of young gay actors have rammed home that message in TV interviews and social media posts.

Still, much like AIDS, Covid-19 has robbed us of collective joy and suddenly forced us to confront trauma and death on a daily basis -- and as the parallels between the two epidemics don't stop there, with some key lessons of the past remaining unlearned, HIV and AIDS activists are experiencing a sense of déjà vu.

Source: edition.cnn.com

How a hit TV show exposed the failure to learn the lessons of the past on Covid-19 (Update)

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 (CNN)The number of new Covid-19 cases reported across the globe has declined for a fourth week in a row, according to data from the World Health Organization, offering a glimmer of hope that the world is turning a corner in its efforts to contain the pandemic.

The number of Covid-19 deaths reported worldwide decreased for the second week running, with 88,000 new deaths reported last week, a 10% drop compared to the previous week, according to WHO.

More than 3.1 million new cases of Covid-19 were reported around the world last week, the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update. That was a 17% decline from the previous week and the lowest number of cases worldwide since the week of October 26, 2020.

Covid-19 cases are falling, but are we past the peak?

"Although there are still many countries with increasing numbers of cases, at the global level, this is encouraging," the weekly update said.

The United States accounted for the highest number of new Covid-19 cases, with 871,365. However, this figure represented a 19% decline in cases from the previous week, according to WHO data.

Brazil, France, Russia and the United Kingdom were also among the nations reporting the highest number of new cases worldwide, the WHO noted, although all of them saw a decrease compared to figures from the previous week.

Of all the regions, compared to WHO's previous weekly update, Africa saw the greatest decline in cases, at 22%, while the Eastern Mediterranean saw the smallest, at 2%.

Overall, new cases in the Americas accounted for more than half of all new cases worldwide, with more than 1.5 million new cases and more than 45,000 new deaths.

Globally, there have been almost 107 million Covid-19 cases, and more than 2.3 million deaths from the virus, since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.

Many countries are hoping that coronavirus vaccines will offer a way out of the crisis.

Why bad news for AstraZeneca's vaccine is a roadblock on the way out of the pandemic

But while some countries have already administered millions of doses, about 130 countries -- home to some 2.5 billion people -- are yet to administer a single dose, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing Friday.

Early data this week showing that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may provide only "minimal protection" against mild to moderate illness caused by the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa has dented optimism in some quarters.

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is cheaper and easier to transport and store than some of the other vaccines approved for use to date and, as such, has been tipped to play a key role in combating the pandemic in low and middle-income countries.

Global Covid-19 cases declined 17% worldwide last week, WHO says....

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Washington (CNN)Battle lines are forming across Washington as the Biden administration grapples with how to handle dozens of Trump loyalists the former President installed after the election. Over the past two weeks, the new administration has made an effort to remove a number of Trump appointees across various government agencies and boards. While some have gone quietly, others have not, raising questions about the legal authority President Joe Biden holds in removing his predecessor's appointees, and how successful he will be in rooting out people he doesn't want.

On Monday, newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin opted to wipe the slate completely clean, dismissing hundreds of members across 42 advisory boards, including a number of last-minute Trump appointees such as former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, Trump's deputy campaign manager.

On Tuesday, eight members of the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) resigned at the request of the Biden administration, according to Aloysius Hogan, a spokesperson for the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which oversees the FSIP. The other two members who refused to resign from the panel, which resolves disputes between government agencies and labor groups, were terminated by the 5:00 p.m. deadline that day.

On Wednesday, Roger Severino, a Trump appointee to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, sued in DC district court to seek an injunction to prevent his removal from the council on the basis that the President has no authority to terminate his appointment.

Hours after this story published on Saturday, Severino told CNN, "President Biden's attempt to remove me contrary to law exposes his lofty promises of healing and uniting all Americans as nothing more than cynical manipulation."

Severino stated in the lawsuit that he received an email Tuesday sent "on behalf of President Biden" asking him to resign by Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. or his appointment to the council would be terminated.

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According to the lawsuit, three other Trump appointees to the council also received similar requests to resign or risk termination. As of 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, all four Trump appointees mentioned in the lawsuit no longer appeared on the council's website, though Ronald Cass and Adrian Vermeule, who were appointed by Trump alongside Severino, remained.

The Biden administration has also removed people from Voice of America, where there was public outcry over what was perceived as Trump's attempts to create a news network that would act as an extension of his administration.

Two appointees to the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees development of federal property in the DC area, have also been dismissed.

"The National Capital Planning Commission was notified by the White House on February 3, 2021 that presidential appointees Chairman Paul Dans and Commissioner Gibson Worsham are no longer members of the Commission," an NCPC spokesperson said in a statement.

Reflecting the more mundane sides of government bureaucracy, most of these boards are not household names, and these presidential appointees usually don't make national news. But in an increasingly polarized Washington, the fates of several of Trump's other last-minute appointments remain unclear as they undergo review and receive heightened scrutiny.

"The Biden administration is conducting a thorough review of holdover appointees on councils, commissions, and advisory boards," White House spokesperson Michael Gwin said.

According to a White House official, as part of the review, the White House "may remove individuals whose continued membership on the board would not serve the public interest."

It remains to be seen what legal recourse appointees may have if their tenures are cut short by the Biden administration, especially if they are working full-time and can attempt to claim labor protections afforded to government workers. While positions in federally funded organizations like Voice of America and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks are full-time and salaried, of eight other federal boards, councils or commissions CNN contacted for this article, only members of three -- the Federal Service Impasses Panel, the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the National Capital Planning Commission -- are compensated.

Though the Biden administration's strategy appears in some cases to attempt to do away completely with advisory boards and panels in order to build them back from scratch, including those that require a security clearance, it may prove difficult for Biden to successfully undo Trump's flurry of appointments to many of the prestigious boards and councils that are a permanent part of  the Washington, DC, social scene.

"We are not aware of any process for removal," John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts spokesperson Brendan Padgett told CNN of the center's board of trustees, where Pam Bondi, the Florida lawyer who served on Trump's first impeachment defense team, was recently appointed to serve through September 2026.

Other loyalist appointments include  Hope Hicks, Trump's longtime aide who was appointed to the 12-member J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board; Matt Schlapp, a Republican lobbyist whose appointment to the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board was announced in early December; and Nick Luna, Trump's body man, who is now on the US Holocaust Memorial Council along with Rudy Giuliani's son. 

In many cases, these boards were predominantly or entirely filled with Trump's allies, former advisers and supporters at the start of Biden's presidency.

Last-minute presidential appointments

It's not uncommon for an outgoing president to give loyal supporters seats on government boards and institutions. President Barack Obama, for example, announced dozens of these appointments in the last days of his presidency, including top advisers like Valerie Jarrett to the Kennedy Center's board and Benjamin Rhodes to the Holocaust Memorial Council. 

"It's normal for these positions to get filled especially at the end of an administration. What's not normal are appointees with so little connectivity or qualifications," said Max Stier, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.

Appointments to prestigious boards and commissions can be a glamorous part of Washington, DC's social scene, and appointees are often responsible for making policy recommendations or advising government leaders on various topics, depending on the board.

Although these roles usually do not come with full-time salaries, appointees may enjoy the prestige associated with an appointment to a high-profile board or commission, as well as some exclusive perks. At the Kennedy Center, for example, board members are eligible for trustee boxes in select theaters on a first come, first serve basis, according to the center's spokesperson  Padgett. On other boards, members may also be eligible for reimbursements related to travel or government work. 

Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University who has researched the political appointment process, also noted that while it's "very common" for presidents to announce appointments at the end of their terms, what sets these apart is that "Trump's appointments have been about Trump -- end of story."

"Some are quite talented and have plenty of hopeful energy, but others are insults to the agencies and boards they are joining," Light said, adding that in some cases, Trump's appointees have been directly opposed to the mission of the board or agency they've joined.

According to a White House official, Trump's FSIP appointees were opposed to Biden's goal of strengthening the role of unions and giving workers greater protections in the workplace.

Biden administration's response

The day after Biden's inauguration, Robert Reilly and Elizabeth Robbins received an email with a simple message -- resign their posts as director and deputy director of Voice of America immediately  or be terminated.  

Under the impression their roles were protected, the two Trump hires decided not to go quietly and pushed back. Reilly was fired first by the acting chief executive officer, who then immediately named a new acting director, who terminated Robbins.

The emails stated that "incoming leadership has the authority to select staff in whom it has personal confidence to carry out its policy goals." It went on to say that their termination "should not be construed in any way as a reflection" on them personally or on their performance.

Not only were Reilly and Roberts ousted, the controversial Trump-appointed head official Michael Pack  resigned  after a request from the Biden administration. Pack, a conservative documentary filmmaker who became CEO of the US Agency for Global Media in June, has been widely criticized for his stewardship of the international news services under USAGM, including the Voice of America.  

Victoria Coates was also fired as president of Middle  East Broadcasting Networks, which is government funded, despite her having signed a two-year contract with US Agency for Global Media, she told CNN. The Biden administration called her  deputy, Rob Greenway, to tell him that he would be fired as well, according to Coates, who said she called human resources about Greenway's firing. Twenty minutes later, Coates said she received an email to her personal account notifying her that she had been terminated effective immediately, and her emails had been cut off. Coates and her attorneys sent a letter to the USAGM general counsel expressing that they believe her contracts were violated and are prepared to litigate if they are not honored.

"This is a shocking repudiation of President Biden's call for unity and reconciliation ...and a clear violation of MBN's grant and my employment contracts," Coates said in a statement.  

What's next for appointees

In conversations with individuals across multiagency boards and commissions, some appointees told CNN they have been left in the dark about the status of their appointments and have not heard anything from the new Biden administration. 

Schlapp said he was "honored" to be appointed to the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board  and that  all  his  necessary  paperwork  has been completed.  According to Deputy Director of Communications for the Library of Congress Bill Ryan, Trust Fund Board members serve without pay and manage trusts or other gifts to the library, including by giving advice on how to invest them. "I know of no roadblocks or issues and I look forward to using my experience and contacts to further the mission of this great American institution," Schlapp said in a statement.

Luna, similarly, has not heard anything about his role changing with Holocaust Memorial Council.

Individuals on several government boards contacted by CNN said recent appointments made under the Trump administration are expected to remain on the boards. One recent appointee to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, William Ruger, told CNN he intends to serve out his entire term. 

"I was appointed back in early December and sworn into the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board two weeks ago.  I am looking forward to serving my full term on the board in order to support this very important program," Ruger, who is vice president for research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute,  said in a statement last Friday. 

Andy Hollinger, communications director for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, confirmed to CNN last Friday the Biden administration has not contacted him about potentially removing any members from the Holocaust Memorial Council. "To my knowledge this has never happened since the first Council was established in 1980," Hollinger said, of members being removed. 

Thomas Luebke, secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) -- which is tasked with advising the President, Congress and government agencies on "matters of design and aesthetics" in the nation's capital, according to the commission's website -- echoed the rarity of such a removal if it were to occur. "To my knowledge, no CFA members have ever been replaced prior to the completion of their terms unless they have resigned," Luebke told CNN. 

Four new members were appointed to the arts commission in the final days of the Trump administration, replacing Obama-era members whose terms had expired and were eligible for replacement, according to Luebke.  The seven-member arts commission now consists entirely of Trump appointees. 

Biden administration works to clean house of Trump appointees

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