Inauguration Day, Israel-Hamas Ceasefire, TikTok
12:58 Share

Good morning, A. Have you gotten your village people itch out of the system? Oh, it's been out since 1983. Really? Because on Friday, you were all about your one joke. That's me. A, one joke Martinez. Just do it for Milton one more time. Milton, are you listening to me? I said Milton.

A new American president takes over today. And Donald Trump is making lofty promises for his second term. I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country. What to expect on day one. I'm Leila Faldin with A. Martinez and this is Up First from NPR News.

The first Israeli hostages to be released in the ceasefire deal with Hamas are now home. It's just been the craziest emotional roller coaster for the families. Dozens of Palestinian detainees also freed in the deal were reunited with their families. This says displaced Palestinians returned to destroyed homes in Gaza.

What lies ahead? And TikTok is back online after a brief weekend pause. Trump is taking credit and the popular video app is giving it to him. So is the app back for good? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

Donald Trump is starting his second term as president. What will his administration do and what policies will it promote? On the NPR Politics Podcast, we'll break down what the new administration does and explain why it matters. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast every day.

On NPR's Wildcard podcast, comedian Michelle Buteau says she's glad she ignored the people who told her to lose weight. I'm just going to show you what it looks like to love my body, my double chin, my extra rolls, okay? My buckets of thighs. So it's on the side you can't afford it. I'm Rachel Martin. Michelle Buteau is on the Wildcard podcast, the show where cards control the conversation.

It still feels a bit surreal to me that I got to spend an hour talking with filmmaker David Lynch in the last year of his life. Life is such a gift and can be enjoyed, and it's all okay. Nothing to worry about, really. I'm Rachel Martin. My conversation with the legendary filmmaker David Lynch is on The Wild Card Podcast, the show where cards control the conversation.

President-elect Donald Trump will get sworn in today for his second term in the White House. Now, he's a president who has proved unconventional. At a rally last night, he promised quite a show on his first day in office. Oh, you're going to have a lot of fun watching television.

But his inauguration will be a little pared down. It had to be moved into the rotunda because of the below-freezing weather in Washington, D.C., and the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up to see him in person will have to squeeze into the Capital One arena instead.

Danielle Kurtzleben is covering the inauguration. That includes Trump's pre-inaugural rally yesterday. So, Danielle, yeah, I think the high today is supposed to be, what, 25, 26 at most? Yeah. So can't blame them for what they're doing. Can you tell us more about what to expect today?

Yeah, well, it's a full day of activities, and I'll mention just some of them. Following a service at St. John's Church, which is right next to the White House, the Bidens welcome the Trumps to the White House. And then midday, there's that official swearing-in ceremony. And again, like you said, it's in the Capitol because it's chilly outside today here in Washington. Many supporters, however, will be watching that live stream in Capitol One Arena downtown, again, because of the cold.

Then after that, Trump has a ceremony midday that could involve signing executive orders. And then in the afternoon, the inaugural parade has also been moved to the arena, which is where last night's rally was also held. So all that time spent cheering in an arena, it's really going to maybe fittingly feel like a lot of time at a traditional Trump rally. Yeah, Trump previewed some of those day one actions during that rally last night at the Capitol One Arena. What else did he say that stood out to you?

Well, there is very much this pervasive feeling that the underdogs had won. That's definitely the story that a lot of speakers told, at least. It was celebratory, but also in very Trumpian fashion, there was a lot of focus on how the MAGA movement has a lot of enemies, as they said.

and needs to keep fighting them. And supporters outside told me that this win just feels bigger right now than the win in 2016 because they think they have more of America behind them. This time, after all, Trump did win the popular vote, unlike in 2016. Now here is Cindy Pugh. I spoke with her as she stood in line. She came to D.C. from her home in the Minneapolis suburbs.

This win reflects a compelling call to action by the American people to act on our behalf, to not be beholden to the political establishment. So it does feel different to me. Now, inside the rally, there were a lot of people besides Trump. So were there any other speakers who made a mark?

Yeah, quite a few. I mean, there was billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk. He gave an impromptu speech. Political commentator Megyn Kelly really stood out. She gave this very harsh speech that insulted Democrats and their famous supporters. She insulted Vice President Kamala Harris herself.

And besides all of that in his speech, Trump called out cabinet members he's picked. The crowd had big cheers, especially for Pete Hegseth, who is the defense nominee, who was questioned at his hearing recently about allegations of drinking in the job and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied all of those. Now, Trump last night spoke about many of his priorities, including border security and boosting U.S. production of energy. So what else are we expecting from him today and also in the coming days as he comes back to the White House?

Well, he's talked about doing a lot of executive orders. For example, he talked about carrying out mass deportations. And he also talked about pardoning people convicted of their actions during the January 6th riot four years ago. All right. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot, Danielle. Thank you. All right. Turning now to the Middle East, where there was a chaotic scene, a celebration in the West Bank last night.

Yeah, thousands of people greeted busloads of Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed from Israeli jail. That was after three Israeli women hostages held by Hamas were released earlier in the day and they had emotional reunions with their families. And this is just the start of the first phase of what's being called a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. NPR's Adil Al-Shalchi has been covering the events from Tel Aviv, joins us now. So what was it like being there yesterday?

Well, after 15 months of grief, everyone was actually nervous it wouldn't happen. But then from the moment the ceasefire did go into effect almost three hours late, you could feel this collective sigh of relief just blanket the country. It was a day of tears, jubilation,

embraces for Israelis seeing the three hostages released, for Palestinians in Gaza who got a respite from the fighting, and for those in the West Bank reuniting with their imprisoned relatives. Yeah, we just heard what it sounded like in that moment. What about the release of Palestinian detainees, which included women and minors in the West Bank?

Well, it was bitterly cold there and families bundled up waiting for hours, waving Palestinian flags. There was singing, people held balloons. People had also been confused for a long time about when and how the detainees were going to be released. My colleague Kat Lonsdorf was in Ramallah and told us that around two in the morning, buses pulled up and dozens of detainees got out. And then the crowd pushed and pulled, chanted, danced and fireworks decorated the sky.

And you were in Israel at the hospital earlier when the three hostages were taken there from Gaza. What did you see there?

Yeah, so the hostages were Emily Damari, Romy Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, all between the ages of 24 and 31. They were brought in on helicopters. Some of their friends were there and we could hear these shouts of happiness ring in the hospital halls when they saw each other. Emily Cohen spoke on behalf of the Damari family. It's just been the craziest emotional roller coaster for the families. It's only three of them that have come out and so it's kind of bittersweet.

Okay, so now the ceasefire has held for more than 24 hours. What are you hearing from Palestinians inside Gaza? Well, in the morning when the ceasefire took effect, Palestinians blasted their music from their homes. They cheered, honked their car horns, and then the skies went silent for the first time in months. The past few days had actually been some of the deadliest, with dozens killed in Israeli airstrikes. Also, we know that more than 600 trucks of desperately needed aid rolled into Gaza, according to the United Nations Agency.

And as Israeli troops partially withdrew from parts of the north, some displaced Palestinians made their way back to see what was left of their homes. Our producer in Gaza, Enes Baba, spoke with one of them. Here's Tamer Al-Akul.

It's an unimaginable happiness, he says, like I stumbled on a million dollars. But Hamas was very quick to send a message that it's still in charge of Gaza. We saw videos of Hamas police organizing aid distribution, patrolling the streets, and there were masked militants parading in the neighborhoods. All right, so all this feels like a lot, Hadil, but what do we expect to happen in the coming days?

This phase of the ceasefire is six weeks. Another swap is expected on Saturday. Hamas is supposed to release four more hostages. But you know, Palestinians in Gaza have suffered so much loss and devastation. Israelis are desperate to start healing from the worst attack on their country. So many people here just want the war to end. Yeah, that's NPR's Adil Alshalchi in Tel Aviv. Thank you. You're welcome.

TikTok is back online in the U.S. after going dark for about 14 hours starting Saturday night. Yeah, the blackout affected 170 million American users. And then it was lifted after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to pause the federal ban. But the app isn't fully back to normal. Here to talk about this moment in TikTok limbo, we're joined by NPR's Juliana Kim. So, Juliana, TikTok is up and running again. I imagine users are at least happy about that.

Yeah, you know, a lot of users are relieved that it's back, but also feeling some kind of whiplash. I mean, leading up to the ban, I'd see videos on TikTok of people saying goodbye to the app with tears in their eyes. Then on Saturday night, the app just stopped working earlier than expected.

It left TikTok users feeling shocked, grief, confusion. But yesterday, surprise again, it was back. Yes, it was back. So remind us again what ban was triggered in the first place.

Congress passed a law last year basically requiring TikTok to shut down in the U.S. unless it cut ties from its China-based owner ByteDance. The concern being that China could manipulate TikTok in ways that would pose a risk to American security. Okay, President Biden signed the ban. Incoming President Trump sought the ban in his first term and then he made that about face and said he wanted to save the app. And he addressed that right. I mean, what else did he say about this?

Trump said he's going to issue an executive order to pause the ban once he's sworn in, so sometime today. Though it's worth noting that legal experts have questioned whether Trump can even use an executive order as an end run around a law Congress has already passed.

Trump says he wants to give his administration more time to work out a deal. And he didn't mention a timeline, but he did tell NBC News that he was considering around 90 days. Okay, 90 days. So during those 90 days, what does that mean for TikTok and the companies that are involved with the app, like maybe Apple and Google?

Yeah, I mean, it's unclear, which is why Apple and Google haven't allowed TikTok back on their app stores after removing it. It's left new users unable to download TikTok. It also means the app can't receive important software updates, you know, to fix bugs and other glitches. The law says the White House has to certify to Congress that a TikTok sale's in progress before it can pause the ban. Otherwise, Apple, Google, and other companies could potentially face hefty financial penalties.

And it's why, for now, legal experts told my colleague Bobby Allen that Apple and Google are waiting to see Trump's next steps. So on those penalties, has Trump spoken on those penalties at all? Yeah, I mean, Trump assures companies that they won't be held liable if they help to bring TikTok back online. But not everyone is sure that companies will be let off the hook that easily. Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who's also the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned about this on X.

He said companies working with TikTok before it splits from ByteDance could face hundreds of billions of dollars in fines, not just from the Justice Department, but from shareholder lawsuits and state attorneys general. All right. That's NPR's Juliana Kim. Juliana, thanks a lot. Thank you.

And that's a first for Monday, January 20th. I'm A. Martinez. And I'm Leila Fadel. Make your next listen, Consider This. The team behind NPR's All Things Considered goes deep into a single news story in just 15 minutes.

Listen now on the NPR app. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukoninoff, Denise Rios, Jerome Sokolofsky, Olivia Hampton, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Nia Dumas, and Milton Gavata. We got engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott. Join us again tomorrow.

Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor-free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Up First Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.

Support for NPR and the following message come from Sattva. Sattva luxury mattresses are every bit as elegant as the most expensive brands, but because they're sold online, they're about half the price. Visit s-double-a-t-v-a-dot-com-slash-n-p-r and save an additional $200.

Plus dot NPR dot org.