When he begins his presidency this week, Joe Biden will inherit a collection of crises unlike any in generations — the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil, racial strife and the aftermath of the assault on the Capitol. According to a memo from his incoming chief of staff, the new president will quickly order the following steps to immediately reverse President Trump’s most hotly contested policies:At the end of Trump’s tenure: A lucrative market for pardons is coming to a head, with some of Mr. Trump’s allies collecting fees from wealthy felons or their associates to push the White House for clemency. Potential violence: The atmosphere was tense in Washington and at statehouses across the country over the weekend.

Fear has become a way of life.“When you’re in the car you feel fear, when you are walking you feel fear, and when you are in the shop you feel fear,” said Shamsullah Amini, a 22-year-old shopkeeper, while watching over his vats of dried grains and beans in the Taimani neighborhood.“It’s gone from a state of fear to a state of being.”Fear has long been part of life in Kabul, with the possibility of sudden death from a Taliban strike.

Fear has become a way of life.“When you’re in the car you feel fear, when you are walking you feel fear, and when you are in the shop you feel fear,” said Shamsullah Amini, a 22-year-old shopkeeper, while watching over his vats of dried grains and beans in the Taimani neighborhood.“It’s gone from a state of fear to a state of being.”Fear has long been part of life in Kabul, with the possibility of sudden death from a Taliban strike.

Pilgrims to the temple that owns the complex prayed to Buddha figurines in one of the caves, the statues’ carved expressions betraying no reaction to the plip-plop-ploop of bat droppings falling on their shoulders. Collectors of bat dung, or guano, scraped up the droppings to sell as fertilizer, hefting bags of manure through an obstacle course of stalactites and stalagmites. And medical researchers, overseen by one of the world’s foremost bat virologists, trapped the winged mammals to test them for traces of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Scientists believe it originated in bats.

Thousands of migrants from Honduras have entered Guatemala and plan to continue north to the United States, potentially posing an early test of the immigration policies of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has pledged to ease the Trump administration’s restrictions on asylum. After a few hundred people were able to push past the border police on Friday, thousands more followed into Guatemala on Saturday. The government of Guatemala said that it “regrets this violation of national sovereignty and calls on Central American governments to take actions to avoid putting their inhabitants, as well as the communities through which these people pass, at risk in the face of the pandemic.”The Guatemalan authorities set up checkpoints, blocked parts of the caravan not far from where it entered Guatemala and could begin returning some of the migrants home by bus, The Associated Press reported.

MANILA — Seven Philippine soldiers, including an air force colonel, died when the helicopter they were flying in crashed in the southern Philippines during a hunt for communist rebels over the weekend. The military said the helicopter, a refurbished UH-1H Vietnam-era craft commonly known as a Huey, was flying Saturday with another Huey on a supply run to a remote base in Pantaron, a mountainous region in Bukidnon Province, when it crashed.“The other helicopter radioed and told them they were trailing smoke,” said Maj. Gen. Andres Centeno, the commanding general of the army’s Fourth Infantry Division. The soldiers’ names were not released pending notification of their families, but the highest ranking among them was an air force colonel, the military said.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A Nepali mountain-climbing team said Saturday that it had reached the peak of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, a feat never before accomplished during winter. History made for Nepal!”Seven Summit Treks, an expedition company organizing the effort, said the 10 climbers had gotten to the peak on Saturday afternoon, conquering what it called “Savage Mountain” during the most dangerous climbing season.“Nepali climbers proved their mountaineering skills.

Now, they are seeking to bring that ardor to Hong Kong, as the founders of the city’s newest political party. The arrival of the Bauhinia Party has fueled furious speculation about the future of Hong Kong’s once-vibrant, at times unruly, political scene. The party, led by business executives who moved to Hong Kong from the mainland, is entering the fray amid forceful moves by the Chinese government to quash dissent, after huge pro-democracy protests in 2019 challenged its rule. Many in the pro-democracy camp see the new party as yet another sign that Hong Kong — a former British colony that was promised 50 years of semi-autonomy when it returned to China in 1997 — is becoming just another mainland city.

The account of their escape from Hong Kong, their stay in Taiwan and their arrival in the United States was provided by Samuel Chu, founder of the Hong Kong Democracy Council, a Washington-based advocacy group that arranged for the men’s travel and lodging and is helping them apply for asylum. They believed that the United States offered the best chance for them to restart their lives, he said. After weeks of negotiations, the men were allowed entry into the United States on humanitarian grounds, Mr. Chu said. Their arrival in the United States could create further tensions between China and the United States, posing an early challenge for the incoming Biden administration just as relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in decades.