It’s Inauguration Day for Donald Trump, where he will take the oath of office as the nation’s 47th president. And the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is underway, with the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Trump expected to sign executive orders shortly after swearing-in
For just the second time in our nation’s history, the U.S. will see the inauguration of a former president for a non-consecutive second term. President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office to become the 47th president on Monday, Jan. 20.
Last week, Trump decided to move his inauguration ceremony indoors to the Capitol Rotunda due to dangerously cold temperatures in Washington, D.C.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal previewing excerpts from the inaugural address, Trump will call for a “revolution of common sense.” The Journal said Trump is expected to tell the American people the country is “at the start of a thrilling new era of national success.”
President Joe Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration, as well as former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. However, former first lady Michelle Obama will not attend.
Tech CEOs, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Tim Cook, will also be in attendance. Foreign leaders, including Argentina’s president, Italy’s prime minister and China’s vice president, will also attend.
Country singer Carrie Underwood will perform “America the Beautiful” along with the Armed Forces Chorus and the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club.
Following his inauguration, Trump said he will possibly sign as many as 100 executive orders. Trump’s incoming White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller told a small group of Republicans about the president-elect’s plans during a phone briefing Sunday afternoon, Jan. 19.
Reports said Trump will focus on declaring a national emergency on the southern U.S. border and reversing some of Biden’s policies, including those concerning DEI, offshore drilling and repealing rules on electric vehicles.
Trump said he may also sign more executive orders at the Capital One Arena, where the inaugural parade will take place.
On Sunday, Trump held a “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” at that venue. He told an estimated 20,000 people in attendance about his plans for day one.
“Tomorrow at noon, the curtain closes on four long years of American decline, and we begin a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride,” Trump said. “You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make [you] extremely happy, lots of them. We have to set our country on the proper course. By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt, and all the illegal border trespassers will in some form or another, be on their way back home.”
He added, “We will be a free and proud nation once again. And that will take place tomorrow at 12 p.m. Everyone in our country will prosper, every family will thrive and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope and also filled with a thing called the American dream, that you don’t hear much about anymore.”
The nation will watch as the inauguration ceremonies begin.
3 Israeli hostages, 90 Palestinian prisoners released as ceasefire begins
A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is now in effect and humanitarian aid is flowing into the region. It started Sunday, Jan. 19, with a stop in fighting in the war-torn enclave with the Israeli military saying it has withdrawn from several locations.
The exchange of hostages held by Hamas for the last 15 months and Palestinian prisons in Israeli custody is also underway.
Hamas released three Israelis so far, confirmed as Romi Gonen, 27; Doron Steinbrecher, 31; and Emily Damari, 28. They’ve returned to Israel in good health.
They’re the first of 33 captives Hamas said it would release throughout the six-week ceasefire. In exchange, Israel is releasing almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
On Sunday, Israel released 90 prisoners. According to a list from the Palestinian authority’s Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs, all of those released were women or teenagers, the youngest 15 years old.
Despite warnings from the Israeli military, Palestinians turned out to celebrate the prisoner release in droves, with crowds surrounding the buses the freed prisoners were riding in after leaving the prison.
Displaced Palestinians also started to return to their homes in Gaza — or what was left of them.
In December, the United Nations reported that Israeli strikes damaged or destroyed more than 170,000 buildings. That’s nearly 70% of Gaza’s total infrastructure.
Experts estimated that the reconstruction of Gaza could take years and cost billions of dollars.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel, killing at least 1,200 people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then said Israel would retaliate with such force that it would crush Hamas and drive the terror group out of Gaza.
Access to TikTok restored in US after Trump steps in
After spending around 12 hours offline following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, TikTok is back online in the United States. The popular social media app was unusable for Americans from late Saturday night, Jan. 18, into Sunday, Jan. 19.
Instead of videos, users who tried to access the app saw a message reading in part, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, this means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
Early Sunday morning, Trump said he would issue an executive order once he’s inaugurated to delay enforcement of the law which would force TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell the app or be banned in the U.S. It appears that time extension would be for 90 days, with Trump saying he would like to see the U.S. have a 50% stake in the company.
Within hours of that announcement, access to TikTok began to return for U.S. users with a message thanking them for their patience and support.
More than 70 million people under winter storm warnings as arctic blast moves east
More than 70 million Americans are under winter storm warnings as an arctic blast brings some of the coldest temperatures so far this winter.
Temperatures dropped below zero in parts of the upper Midwest, with wind chill temperatures falling to minus 20 degrees in some areas.
The cold front is sweeping east into the mid-Atlantic and northeast, with winter storm warnings now posted. Snow and ice will be seen from New England to the Gulf of Mexico over the next couple of days — even in the south. Charleston, South Carolina, could potentially see snow, and New Orleans, Louisiana, braces for ice.
Notre Dame, Ohio State vie for College Football National Championship
A champion will be crowned in college football in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday night, Jan. 20. Either Notre Dame, the seventh seed, or Ohio State, the eighth seed, will win the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.
This will be the ninth meeting between the two teams, with Notre Dame looking for a bit of revenge. The Fighting Irish last defeated the Buckeyes in 1936. Ohio State has a powerful offense and is heavily favored.
Over in the NFL, NFC and AFC championship match-ups have also been set after this weekend’s divisional round.
On Saturday, Jan. 18, the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders stunned the top-seeded Detroit Lions 45-31 to reach the NFC Championship game for the first time in 33 years.
Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes, Jason Kelce and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are in their seventh consecutive AFC title game after defeating the Houston Texans 23-14.
In snow conditions on Sunday, Jan. 19, it came down to the final drives in both divisional games. The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Los Angeles Rams 28-22 to advance to the NFC championship game.
The Buffalo Bills are headed to the AFC title game after surviving a late rally by the Baltimore Ravens. The Bills got the 27-25 win after the Ravens scored with less than two minutes to go but missed the two-point conversion when the receiver dropped the ball.
Only four teams remain as Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans gets closer.
Bernice King on importance of inauguration falling on MLK Day
While Monday is Inauguration Day, it is also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The federal holiday honors the late civil rights leader and is the only federal holiday designated as a National Day of Service.
The youngest of MLK’s four children, Bernice King — the CEO of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change — said that this time of transition in the U.S. is also a good time to remember her father’s legacy.
“I think it’s wonderful that this occurs on the King holiday — the inauguration — because it reminds us of King. It points us back to King. It says, ‘When we move forward, we’ve got to do it in the spirit of King,’” Bernice King said.
She added, “Many people talk about doing the work of Dr. King, but I always ask, ‘Are you doing it in the spirit of Dr. King?’ In the spirit of Dr. King is nonviolence and nonviolence is not just a posture. It’s a mindset for us. We define it as a love-centered way of thinking, speaking, acting, and engaging that leads to personal, cultural, and societal transformation. So, it works on you first. You have to be in the right frame of reference to fight these injustices so that you don’t become like the unjust.”
This will be just the third time Inauguration Day falls on MLK Day. The first was in 1997 for President Bill Clinton’s second inauguration, and the second was in 2013 for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
