WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris officially resigned and gave up her U.S. Senate seat in California as she embarks upon a new journey in the Executive Branch. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla will replace Harris, who will become the first Black, first Indian American and first female Vice President when she takes office Wednesday.

Rohit Chopra will be the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the Biden-Harris administration. Chopra is an ally of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who proposed and built the consumer focused watchdog agency. He also helped launch the Federal Trade Commission, where he is currently a member.

As Martin Luther King’s life is remembered, historians tell us how similar the challenges facing America today are to King’s era and how the influence Mahatma Gandhi had on King ensured the social justice efforts of that time remained nonviolent.

Renowned author and New Yorker writer Ved Mehta has died. He was 86. Mehta overcame blindness and became widely known as the 20th century writer most responsible for introducing American readers to India.  Mehta was a staff writer at the New Yorker for 33 years.

Ravi Kapur contributed to this report.