Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Inauguration Moves Indoors; TikTok Goes Dark For 16 Hours; Hostages Freed; CNN Loses Trial

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

The Money Rehab guest hosts this week are Mosh Oinounou and Jill Wagner, journalists and cohosts of the independent news podcast Mo News. All week, you'll hear their non-partisan, conversational breakdown of the top news and breaking news stories. Today, they cover: – Trump’s 2025 Inauguration Moved Indoors, Executive Orders On Deck (03:25) – TikTok Says It Is Restoring Service For U.S. Users And Thanks Trump (21:20) – Three Hostages Released to Israel As Long-Awaited Gaza Ceasefire Takes Force (29:00) – Trump Promotes New Meme Coin Before Taking Office On Pro-Crypto Agenda (33:20) – Food Prices Are Rising Again (35:50) – CNN Ordered To Pay Millions After Losing Defamation Trial (37:30) – A Look At MLK Day (40:20) – What We’re Watching, Reading, Eating (42:20) — Mosheh Oinounou (@mosheh) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022. Jill Wagner (@jillrwagner) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. She's currently the Managing Editor of the Mo News newsletter and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News, Cheddar News, and News 12. She also co-founded the Need2Know newsletter, and has made it a goal to drop a Seinfeld reference into every Mo News podcast. Follow Mo News on all platforms: Website: www.mo.news Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mosheh/ Daily Newsletter: https://www.mo.news/newsletter Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@monews Twitter: https://twitter.com/mosheh TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mosheh Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoshehNews Snapchat: https://t.snapchat.com/pO9xpLY9

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Timing depends on submission of payment file. Fees apply at out of network ATMs. I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Hi, this is Moe Schwannunu, the Moe from Moe News, a longtime TV news producer who launched Moe News, that independent news brand you may have heard of. And I'm Jill Wagner, a longtime journalist and TV anchor.

And we are the hosts of MoNews, a daily nonpartisan podcast where we break down the news headlines and bring you just the facts. Jill, we also like to say that we read the news so you don't have to and bring it to you in a conversational way, telling you the news like you would get from a friend. Nicole and I actually go way back. You may remember I've been a guest on

Nicole's show several times on this podcast. She's appeared on our podcast. We go back to our traditional journalism days before we entered the digital journalism world here. So we're thrilled at the opportunity to guest host Money Rehab this week while Nicole is on maternity leave. Each day we'll be sharing the latest episode of MoNews right here in the Money Rehab feed. So you get the news you need to know. Here is today's episode. Hey everybody, it is Monday, January 20th.

You're listening to the MoNews podcast. I'm Mo Shwenunu. And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. And we read all the news and read between the lines so you don't have to on this inauguration day 2025, also Martin Luther King Day here in the US. Not your typical MLK weekend though. Lots of news, lots of news today.

Jill, we will begin the day with one president and end the day with another president. Yeah, it's a holiday weekend. So if you were surprised to see us pop up in your feed, because normally we do take these federal holidays off, we had to make an exception because it is a big news day. Yeah, I mean, I rarely take a weekend off for the premium folks, but I will say some of these holidays quieter than

others, some busier than others. Jill, we were tracking three major stories this weekend, the presidential transition, the TikTok outage heard around the world for about 16 hours there, we'll talk about it. And then of course, the hostage release or the beginning of the hostage release and beginning of the ceasefire in the Middle East. Though I should note, I am in Washington tracking it all. I made my way down here this weekend. And Jill will be watching what is an atypical for many reasons inauguration today as one of the headlines that popped over the weekend,

the outdoor ceremony, the traditional outdoor ceremony has been canceled due to the weather. Trump, for the first time since the mid 80s, since Reagan too, will be taking the oath of office inside the US Capitol. All right, so that gets us to our top story. Let's get to the headlines here. The big story today, Donald Trump will officially become

the 47th president of the United States this afternoon. His inauguration was moved, as most just mentioned, indoors because of freezing temperatures expected in Washington, D.C. We're going to have a look at what to expect from his first day in office. Plus, TikTok went dark and then it came back. The company restored service after less than a day, giving thanks to Donald Trump in a message to all of its users. Your long national nightmare is over, kids.

Jill, we got some messages Saturday night from some members of the MoNews committee who are like, my teenager is in their room crying right now. And I said, listen, at worst, this is Monday or Tuesday. It turned out this thing lasted like 16 hours. We'll tell you what was behind it and what's next. Over the weekend, the long awaited ceasefire in Gaza began with Hamas releasing three female hostages. Now back with their families after 15 months in exchange,

Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners. Back here in the US and back to politics, Donald Trump debuted a new crypto meme coin on Friday ahead of the inauguration, raking in billions of dollars and signaling his pro crypto agenda. But there are some concerns. A lot of concerns. We'll lay them out. Plus, why are food and grocery prices rising again? Sorry to make you report that one, Jill. And CNN ordered to pay millions of dollars after losing a defamation trial related to a 2021 story about evacuations in Afghanistan. Finally, a look at the history of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Moshe's on this day in history.

We'll look at a little inauguration history for you. All right. With that, let's get to the news. President-elect Donald Trump set to be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States today at 12 p.m. Eastern time. He will be the first president to return to office after losing reelection. Since Grover Cleveland in 1893, Cleveland was our 22nd and 24th president.

Trump is our 45th and 47th. A little bit of trivia for you, everyone. There's been 45 presidents. Two of them, though, carry those multiple labels. Notably, the inauguration will be held indoors at the Capitol Rotunda because of the expected freezing temperatures that is a first since 1985 when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated for the second time.

It is said to be the coldest inauguration day in 40 years. The temperature at noon is expected to be in the low 20s, but feel like the single digits. Reagan's was seven degrees with a wind chill of below zero. Moshe, I remember it was also a bitter cold when President Obama was inaugurated for the first time. You're in DC. How does it feel? So this will be my fifth inauguration in person. I was actually at that first Obama inauguration.

We'll see how cold it gets. Right now, the latest projections are a high of 25 degrees, a low around 12. But again, there will be the windchill. So windchill, the feels like temperature will be somewhere between seven and 15 degrees. Nonetheless, about the Obama 09 numbers, but Trump made the call to move it inside. It does have some wondering whether there might have been a security component here that they're not telling us about.

Officially again, they moved it in because it's cold and they don't want any frostbite or medical issues for the 100,000 plus that would have been in the crowds. Several hundred, you know, we won't know. Some people due to the fact that they already made this call on Friday, canceled their trip to Washington. So we'll never have a sense of what the full crowd size was gonna be.

Notably, Jill, we would find out later, again, that Obama 09 inauguration was held outdoors in 09, but that one actually, in addition to the coal temps, that'll be similar to today, also had a terror threat. We would find out years later. Turned out to be a false alarm, but they were so serious about the terror threat in 09 that Obama actually had a note in his jacket on how to direct people should there have been an explosion or some sort of attack on the national mall.

This one moved preemptively inside. They like the connection in talking to Trump folks to the second Reagan inaugural. He likes that historical analogy there. We'll be watching the proceedings all day on our Instagram thread. I'll try to pop up live as I can. I won't be out on the mall. No one else will be out there, but I'll be monitoring it from indoors like the rest of you. Also, it's being moved to the Capitol Rotunda, the Capitol Rotunda inside the Capitol. Those tickets,

though, reserved for only the most important people. Jill, we're going from a situation where we're going to see thousands of people seated, tens of thousands of more standing, everyone out there on that main platform, members of Congress and the cabinet and the Supreme Court and former presidents inside the rotunda, they can fit a couple hundred people, I got a sneak peek there yesterday, 250 seats in the rotunda. Like that's not even all members of Congress. That's not even the spouses of cabinet, I'm told, will not even be allowed in the

rotunda. So it'll be a very intimate affair there. It's a small space if you've ever taken a tour of the Capitol. And so those tickets are very, very hot tickets, even among the most important and most significant or those who would like to think so, members of the government. Right. All week, Trump supporters have been vying for a spot. among the most important and most significant or those who would like to think so, members of the government. Right. All week, Trump supporters have been vying for a spot.

But as you're mentioning, there's just not a lot of room. So consider who we know will be there. Melania Trump. Right. The first lady gets a seat. Okay, check. The president elects five children, their spouses, his grandchildren, they're all expected to attend. And Jill, at that point, you're already at like 10%

of the rotunda. Right, then there are the nine Supreme Court justices. You've got military leaders, former presidents and their spouses, cabinet nominees, visiting dignitaries, and 535 members of Congress. They're not all getting in. Although some Democrats are set to skip and we know Michelle Obama not going to be there. So that's that leaves room for another.

Michelle Obama was like, I was going to say in Hawaii anyway. And now this reinforces my decision. Tesla and ex owner Elon Musk, Metta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tiktok CEO Shozi Chu, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were originally invited to sit on the dais when the ceremony was outside. Unclear though if they'll get the rotunda invite. I think Elon gets in.

What do you think, Jill? Or he will find his way into that rotunda. I think they're all getting in. Prediction by Jill Wagner, everyone. Let's see if she turns out to be right. How do you go from an invite to sit on the dais to not even get into the room? That seems like a maybe they get in the room, but maybe they're standing room in the back. Yeah, my only prediction is that they're going to be in the room.

They'll find a way like behind the camera somewhere to like just kind of crouch. Meanwhile, Capital One Arena will be open for a live viewing of the event and to host the presidential parade. Trump is set to join there after he is sworn in. one arena will be open for a live viewing of the event and to host the presidential parade. Trump is set to join there after he is sworn in. By the way, some extra imagery to look for prior to the ceremony at 9 40 a.m. Eastern Time, Donald and Melania Trump set to arrive at the White House for a tea and coffee reception hosted by the Bidens.

It will be a moment that was not afforded to Biden when he took the oath of office four years ago as Trump decided to break with tradition and not stick around. At 1025 a.m. Eastern, the Bidens and Trumps will travel together to the Capitol for the inauguration ceremony inside of the Capitol Rotunda. Oh, to be in that limousine with the four of them. Jill, again, this has been tradition going back a very long time, the exiting president, the exiting president,

the incoming president riding together. We saw it as most recently as 2017 when the Obamas took the Trumps to the Capitol. But again, Trump upset about the 2020 loss, which he still claims was a victory, decided he won't be doing any of that for the Biden's, decided to get out of Dodge, not even attend the inauguration. The last time we saw that was John Adams in 1801 upset about Thomas Jefferson winning. So he didn't do that. Trump didn't do that. But now Biden's bringing it back, thinking that tradition is super important, despite his personal feelings about Mr. Trump. So, most you're there.

Give us a little behind the scenes. Like, what's the vibe check? Vibe check in DC. Fascinating. I happened to be at the Capitol on Sunday with a bunch of conservative creators. They invited a group of creators, a couple non-Parisian but mainly conservatives

up there to the Capitol to get a sneak peek inside the Capitol Rotunda, the setup. We happened to have a chance to meet briefly with speaker Mike Johnson as well. This is the sense you get. inside the Capitol Rotunda, the setup. We happen to have a chance to meet briefly with Speaker Mike Johnson as well. This is the sense you get. Overall, yes, there's disappointment among Trump supporters who made their way to Washington,

some who spent thousands of dollars to come to Washington. Hotels are super expensive. The flights were expensive for some, hoping for a glimpse to be in the same place as Donald Trump for the second inaugural, the revenge of Trump after the impeachments and the indictments and the assassination attempts. So certainly people who are like, what will I get a chance to see him? Well, what about the basketball arena?

You mentioned the Capital One arena. Well, that's like 20, 30, maybe 40,000. It will seem people that can fit in there, but not for everybody. So some people came all the way to Washington only to like watch it from a bar or hotel room. Nonetheless, there's a lot of camaraderie. You look at the streets here, full of people wearing the red MAGA hats, really excited about what's to be. And when I asked them, like, what's the most important thing for you time and time again, Joe, immigration, the border, he's got to take care of the border. That's what I keep hearing from the folks who made their way to Washington.

There's also excitement that Trump will make his best effort to stop by the arena and try to get out there to see people. Keep in mind that inaugurations are not just that event, but inaugural balls and parties. There are balls devoted to the states, devoted to issues. There's a crypto ball. There's a South Carolina ball that I met some folks headed there, some from South Carolina, some not, but they heard that South Carolina ball had some exciting

musical talent and was letting some folks in. So a lot of excitement. I mean, from the Republican side, I remember being here for the 01 inauguration when Bush came in and feeling the excitement from Republicans after eight years of Clinton. You saw a bit of it in 2017 when you were here, but nonetheless, you know, that was still people,

the Republicans and Trump supporters in 17 still were shocked by the entire thing. They're like, oh my God, I can't believe we're doing this. And this is crazy that, you know, he made it in, you know, we weren't expecting this. This time around, there is a feeling of vindication. There is a feeling of realication. There is a feeling of real excitement that Republicans now control. They have the 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court.

They can have the majority in the House, majority in the Senate. And there's a lot of excitement that they can get a lot of things done here. I happened to be at a few different events yesterday. One of them was hosted by the folks over at the All In podcast. If you're familiar with the All In podcast, Hack and VC executives who co-host that, very close to Elon Musk. The Tech Bros, so to speak. Sam Altman was at the event, saw RFK Jr. and Cheryl Hines at the event. RFK told me briefly, asked him, what are you excited about? And he said, you know, that cabinet confirmation, we got it.

Cheryl Hines, again, by his side. And then I happened to have a moment with incoming Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum. Doug Burgum, a roughly run for president, was considered seriously to be VP, a former North Dakota governor, tech billionaire, Interior Secretary. What do they do? They control all federal land and national parks, including federal drilling rights. And he says, you know, we're going to unwind all those regulations that Biden imposed. We're very excited about what we can handle in interior. There's an energy you feel from the Trump folks. And notably, Joe, a lot of Democrats not in town this weekend. They did not want to be here for this. Some of whom just like didn't want to deal with it. Some of whom just like don't like didn't want to be here for a party for Trump. Someone who they didn't want to be president, right? So there's just a lot of Democrats who are like,

yeah, we'll come back after the inaugural festivities are done on Monday night or Tuesday morning. And Moshe, you also had a chance to see Speaker Johnson during a visit to the Capitol. What did he have to say? So he addressed us briefly. He was like, you know, nearly skipping, I would say, in terms of happiness, not like literally skipping. Like giddy. Like giddy, yeah, super, super pumped.

Here's a bit of when we asked him, how are you feeling? What his reaction was. There's an excitement in the air that probably hasn't been felt around here since maybe Reagan in the early 80s hasn't been felt around here since maybe Reagan in the early 80s. It might not be a coincidence that he moved his in the real time as well in 85 and hadn't been done since then. So it's a new morning in America. That's what we felt in it and that's what we feel now. New golden age.

So Jill, just to reinforce that, Johnson is calling this upcoming period, quote, a new golden age for the country. And this is going to be a huge challenge for Republicans, even with majorities, right? It's a very slim majority in the House, a slim majority in the Senate. Trump knows that he has to overcome a second term curse of sorts. When you look at recent presidents in the second term, Obama was hung up with some Obamacare issues, the re-rise of ISIS in his second term, loss of a congressional majority, Bush in his second term, Katrina, Iraq started to go downhill, as did Afghanistan, the financial collapse, Clinton, well, Monica Lewinsky, enough said, in his second term.

Now, what's unique about Trump here is this is not your typical second term straight off of a first term. He's had four years out of office. So he had his four years where he was a newbie didn't really know how Washington work learned a lot of painful lessons, right. But now he's had four years out of office time to gather time to learn lessons from that first term. This is a very unique second term. Again, you mentioned the top. The first time we've seen this sort of situation

since Grover Cleveland in the 1890s, when the presidency mattered much less, presidents now have much more power. So how much can you learn about overreach? That's always the challenge is like thinking you have more of an agenda than you have. And also knowing that time is of the essence, that ultimately he's a second term president, which means he's done. The clock is starting towards an open race on the Dem side and open race on

the Republican side. So really in essence, he's got a year, maybe 18 months here to accomplish everything that he wants to going into midterms in 2026. They're really looking at the July 2026 date as a deadline of sorts that happens to also be the 250th birthday of America, not this July 4th, but the following July 4th. So they're looking at that deadline, that party, the 250th birthday party of America, trying to get as much done as they can.

Trump stopped by a rally of supporters yesterday, super pumped about what they're gonna be able to accomplish, what he says they'll be able to accomplish here. But back to the festivities here for a second. Again, this weekend is not just today's swearing in, but in entertainment, these parties happening all weekend, another indication for the Trump people that they feel that this time is different.

Who's performing here? Last time, there was like nothing in the way of A-list talent that Trump could pull in in 2017. Super controversial. There were huge protests here eight years ago. The women in pink hats, the women's march, all those protests against Trump. Nothing like that this go-around. Jill, who's inside the balls and the parties? Snoop Dogg was DJing one of the Trump balls, the crypto ball, over the weekend. This is the same Snoop Dogg was DJing one of the Trump balls, the crypto ball over the weekend. This is the same Snoop Dogg who eight years ago literally said F Trump in a variety of ways saying that any black performer was a literal Uncle Tom for performing for a president

like Trump at the time. This weekend Snoop is DJing at a ball in front of people with MAGA hats. I mean, for a price, of course, you gotta pay for Snoop Dogg services. But another indication that the Trump folks feel like, well, this time is different. Yeah, as for more on the entertainment today, Carrie Underwood sets to sing America the Beautiful.

Opera singer Christopher Macchio will perform the national anthem at the inauguration. Tonight, the inaugural ball will see performances by Jason Aldean, Rascal Flats, Parker McCollum, Gavin DeGraw and the Village People. In case you're not familiar, the Village People, the band behind Trump favorite YMCA. Yeah, the the all of you should be familiar with the Village People. And from entertainment to policy, Trump has promised to sign a record setting number of

executive orders on day one. We don't know exactly how many or what they'll be, but we do know he said he's going to delay the TikTok ban by 90 days. He'll pardon some of the January 6th rioters and he'll begin what his team is calling the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. And on Tuesday, his team is expected to initiate a large scale deportation operation targeting illegal immigrants in U.S. history. And on Tuesday, his team is expected to initiate a large-scale deportation operation targeting illegal immigrants in Chicago. Yeah, so a lot of presidents do this.

They like to do stuff on day one. It's a sign of enacting our promises from the start. In fact, Trump plans to sign some of these orders at the Capitol. He's not even waiting until he makes his way to the White House. A couple hours later, he might sign some at Capitol One Arena. We're told he has a very long list and he likes to break records. So he's probably has somebody researching right now. How many executive orders is the most amount anyone's ever signed? I want to do one more than that or 10 more than that. Like, who knows? But look for that. Now, remember, executive orders, some are meaningful, some are not meaningful, some are

really symbolic. So we'll try to work through all of them. It'll be a busy week working through all the various things that he has promised among some of the significant executive actions that will likely lead to legal moves. He's looking to weaken the power of federal employee unions, stripping workers of collective bargaining rights. This is something that project 2025 was working on that he's talked about. They want to weaken what they call the deep state, the more than 2 million career civil

servants who work in the government, regardless of whether there's a Democrat in charge or Republican in charge. Trump looking to replace some of these career folks with political folks that he gets to appoint or any president will get to appoint when they come in there. He has clashed repeatedly. He thinks that they blocked him from his agenda the first time. So look for executive actions on that and then look for lawsuits related to that. Trump in AIDS, looking at a lot of things on Capitol Hill. They're already talking about one what Trump calls one large, beautiful bill that will include all of his priorities.

The extension of his tax cuts from 2017 immigration measures, reversing a Biden climate initiatives, a variety of domestic energy production initiatives. So there's gonna be a lot, and we'll try to get to all of them. He's going to try to be very busy at the front, part of his goal. So some, even some of the controversial things,

if there's like six controversial things in a day, it's hard to cover all those things. Well, that's part of the goal here is a shock and awe, according to officials around Trump shock and awe in terms of the number of things he has promised in the coming hours and coming days. Jill, you mentioned the TikTok thing. We'll get to that in that next story. Keep in mind a place to ask questions about all of this, the MoNews premium page. If you're not already a member of Mo.News, a slash free trial to become a premium member. It's an Instagram members only page

where you ask questions and we break down everything that you want to know and the questions you have related to all of that and everything else going on in the news. Okay, now to the story we were just talking about, the TikTok ban. We all know where we were Saturday night when TikTok went away, mosh.

Joe, I was watching acts. I knew that something was popping. I didn't realize how early it was, but I was in my friend's basement watching NFL playoff football yourself. Maybe I'm the only person who doesn't know where I was on Saturday night when TikTok went dark. I mean, I know where I was. I was home,

but I'm not on TikTok and I wasn't really on my phone. Anti-climactic coach. Yeah, I'm sorry. You know, I'm part of that group of elder millennials, I think that never got into TikTok. And for a few fleeting hours, I felt very lucky and happy about that. But and then it was back. But it's back. OK, so Tick Tock went dark on its 170 million U.S. users at 1030 p.m. Eastern Time Saturday night. Oh, that's why I didn't know because I was sleeping by Sunday afternoon. The company announced that it would begin restoring service after soon to be President Donald Trump promised to activate a 90 day provision to temporarily

lift the ban. In a statement, the company said, quote, in agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they'll face no penalties. So let's rewind a bit. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the law passed by Congress that said the Chinese-owned TikTok owner, ByteDance, would need to sell TikTok or face a ban in the U.S. The deadline to sell was January 19th. ByteDance, if you remember, tried to challenge that law, making the First Amendment argument, but they failed and announced that they would go dark on the deadline. but they failed and announced that they would go dark on the deadline. And Saturday night and Sunday morning, if you logged into the app, it gave a pop-up message saying, quote, a law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.

Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. But hours after the app went dark, Trump promised to enact a provision in the ban that would allow it to come back for 90 days. He said he was going to do that just after he's sworn in today at 12 p.m. Eastern. So that means watch out for the executive order as soon as this afternoon. It is just a temporary solution. He also did propose some long-term options.

On Sunday, he floated the idea on True Social for the U.S. to have a 50% ownership in TikTok, a joint venture between the current owners or new owners that the U.S. chooses. Other sources say he's not ruling out letting ByteDance continue to own TikTok with extra safety provisions in place, although that goes directly against the bipartisan bill that was passed by Congress that cites major national security issues with the

Chinese-owned company that could spy on U.S. citizens, harvest their data and spread disinformation. So listen, ByteDance was proving a point this weekend. They didn't need to completely go dark. They decided to go dark. Officially, it was on the internet service providers to stop accepting updates and drop them from the store. They didn't need to go dark on existing users, but they did. Why would they do such a thing? Well, number one, they asked explicitly for a written assurance from Joe Biden. They wouldn't enforce a law. You know, they, their legal team looked at it and they're like, uh, I know that

you say you won't going to enforce it. That's what the Biden team said effectively on Friday, but they didn't put it out. Formally, the tick tock team, the bite dance team, I should say, bite dance owns tick tock was looking for more. And the Biden team was like, no, we're not going to do anything more than that. Besides just saying, don't worry about it. Trump will deal with it on Monday. So they got a chance this weekend to remind 170 million Americans or however many of them noticed who have the app and love the app of what life is like without TikTok for at least a few hours

with the prospect of not knowing how long it would last. In fact, they also made a move to shut down another app called Capcom, which many creators, marketing folks and video editors use. It's a mobile video editing app, which also happens to be owned by ByteDance. So they wanted to make a point this weekend of what life is like with that. They're in a negotiation, right? ByteDance and the Chinese government above them does not want to sell to anybody else. They want to come to a compromise here that doesn't entail selling TikTok.

So they made this move. They tried to push public support here. It also gives Trump a win here. It gives Trump a chance to be like, and look, you know, as simple as it was, I made an assurance to them on Sunday and poof, I'm the guy who saved TikTok. For many of you, you saw that in their messaging, they made a point of praising Donald Trump, a show true among the many tech CEOs you mentioned that will be in Washington today for the inauguration. And Trump is the dealmaker, you know, he

wants to go to China this year, according to an NBC report. He wants to visit there. He had a call with the Chinese leader on Friday. They put out a readout that included among the many topics he says he discussed, TikTok. So he understands that this is significant for many Americans. Remember, some Americans run businesses on TikTok. It's hugely impactful to some people, but at the same time, there are huge national security concerns.

Why did they ban it over the Chinese ability to potentially mess with the algorithm and influence? I mean, there was so many concerns on the national security level that overwhelming majorities of Republicans and Democrats in Capitol Hill decided to vote for said ban. Now, the TikTok folks say there's got to be some sort of compromise here in terms of preserving American privacy and information security on servers here in the US. We'll see what comes of this 90-day extension, expect legal maneuvers. I mean, guys, just this is going to be messy. This is the law of the land. Trump's going to make a push here. He even has people in his own party who oppose this. Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator from Arkansas, said over the weekend, any company that hosts, distributes services or otherwise facilitates

communist controlled TikTok could face hundreds of billions of dollars in ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but from state AGs, shareholder lawsuits, securities law. That's a Republican. That's a Trump supporter. There's some Republicans that are very hard here on the Chinese issue. By the way, one of them was Donald Trump. Not so long ago, he was the first guy who wanted to ban TikTok during his first term, before he decided to turn over a new leaf on TikTok in recent years.

Unclear exactly why that is. Now some of his big supporters are TikTok people. And so there's that, and some of his big donors are TikTok or bite dance investors, and so as many people are drawing the line there, at the same time, Trump has now said he wants to save TikTok. And so we're gonna watch all of this, but they made a point this weekend. A lot of people heard them. As I mentioned at the top,

some people in the Mo News community said their kids were in tears over the weekend without the prospect of TikTok for a few hours. Someone joked to us, Jill, that there could be a lot of TikTok babies, or I should say TikTok band babies in nine months from the night without TikTok. I got a good note from a couple of people being like,

wait, what should I do tonight? Because normally it's just me on TikTok. Do I have to talk to my spouse tonight? I thought it was a bold move of TikTok to kind of unilaterally and proactively go dark because depending on how long it lasted, you never know what the impact would have been. It's possible that had they been dark for longer, that people may have actually been

like, wow, I got a lot of things done. I went outside. I went for a walk. I wrote the great American novel. Yeah, exactly. But it was, I think, too short for there to be a real impact. Well, not for some people. It was very dramatic and emotional for some people, Jill.

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She was shot in her hand and kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival. 28 year old Emily Demary, a British Israeli dual citizen who was taken from her home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the Gaza border. And 31 year old Daron Steinbrecher, a nurse also from that same Kibbutz. They were released to Israeli officials and brought to an Israeli military outpost near the border where their moms were waiting alongside medics for an initial exam. And then they were later transferred to a hospital in Israel where they met the rest

of their families. The hospitals reported that they are in good physical condition, so they were able to focus on reunifying them with their families. But they are going to stay at the hospital for a few days to get more comprehensive medical checks. During the release and the start of the ceasefire, thousands of people in both Gaza and Israel were celebrating in the streets, which was quite a sight to see on both sides. Now, in exchange for those three female hostages, Israeli officials released 90 Palestinian prisoners. Now the IDF will remain in Gaza, but gradually withdraw to areas closer to the

border. In addition, hundreds of aid trucks will be permitted to enter the Gaza Strip each day. There were images of displaced Palestinian families moving back on foot toward their homes in the north. This signaled the beginning of the first phase of a six-week ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas after 15 months of war. Now in this initial phase, 33 hostages are set to be released, about 25 of whom are believed to be alive. On day 16 of this initial phase, talks will resume to negotiate the second phase of the

deal. There's a lot of specific measures in place. So this is just the beginning of it. The three hostages released. It appears at least as of this first exchange that they're demanding 30 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage they release. That's something we'll watch for. Whatever that formula is that was agreed to in the coming weeks here

as they release both hostages that are dead and alive here. A hugely controversial in Israel. Some of the hostages will be released in exchange for prisoners who are in Israel on life sentences for committing murder. So Israelis actually in those cases will have a chance to protest the release. If a prisoner murdered a family member, they'll have a chance to protest that with the Israeli high court. So we're going to watch this day by day here in this carefully orchestrated agreement. Now even at the end of this phase one, there will still be just over 60 hostages remaining inside the Gaza Strip, mainly men and then also a whole bunch of remains of Israeli hostages who are dead that Hamas is holding on to as leverage. So this is

going to be very precarious a few weeks here. As part of the deal, Hamas is obligated to give the names of the hostages. They're set to release 24 hours in advance. They didn't do that. And so this deal almost fell apart on Saturday night into Sunday morning, way past the deadline. They finally gave the names here. It's very powerful moments on both sides, given the circumstances. We haven't seen this since November of 2023. Early on in the war was the last time we saw these exchanges on a day by day basis. Photos of the Israelis coming home for the first time, no audio, we don't have a sense of what they don't have these women talking for

obvious reasons after 470 days and being held by Hamas to the media anytime soon. But you see the images, the hugging, their mothers with them, just incredibly powerful images, very complicated politics here for the Israeli side. There's people on the right who say they should not be making a deal with Hamas. There have been people in the country too, who say, no, make a deal, whatever it takes to bring home Israeli citizens, because it's taken so long. Some Israelis are now dead over the course of the past year. And so we're going to watch how this deal proceeds here. But so far, at least day one and today, too, here, the deal holds.

From Axios three days ahead of his inauguration, President-elect Trump launched a new cryptocurrency token called Trump Coin. It was announced Friday at the first ever crypto ball in Washington, D.C., celebrating Trump's pro-crypto policies ahead of the inauguration. By Sunday, Trump's crypto holdings had reached up to $58 billion, 85 percent of his total net worth, making him one of the 25 richest people in the world. Very briefly, Joe, and then the value of the Trump coin then dropped significantly right after that. The tokens are marketed with a picture of Trump holding a fist up superimposed over the words fight, fight, fight, a reference to his response to the assassination attempt back in July of 2024.

There are concerns, though, over the ethics of the scheme, including whether it's illegal for him to benefit financially off of the presidency in this way. Yeah, there are a lot of concerns here because as president he oversees the CFTC, which would oversee this sort of thing. And ultimately, you don't see the CFTC with a Trump appointee going after Trump coin here.

Critics say it could be a way for special interests foreign governments to try to buy influence with him. There's little to no transparency here over who's buying this sort of thing. It was released by the Trump organization, which has said Trump will have no role in day-to-day decision-making, but it has significantly and can again,

enrich Trump personally in a very massive way. Trump ran on a very crypto friendly agenda. He's promised to be very lenient on crypto. It's essentially a meme coin is a digital playing card, the purchase of which is supposed to symbolize a show of support for Trump, but the Trump organization here owns about 80% of supply and appears to collect a fee on sales. And he's also promoting this to his nearly 100 million followers on social media. The total value of Trump coin keeps

fluctuating there to the tens of billions of dollars. There have been a lot of meme coins out there. I mean, we told you recently about the Hawk to a girl and her meme coin, and how that was under investigation in terms of how that enriched, how that popped, and then how that collapsed. So a lot of folks here worried about the potential consumers of this who might not know what they're doing but want to do this as a show of support.

Fair warning on meme coins, they go very high and they go very low. It's like Bitcoin on crack in terms of valuation here and it could really ride the headline. So be aware of all of this and look for more headlines on all of this as we learn more about the the Trump meme coin and what else they might do in the in the crypto space. From the Wall Street Journal, food and grocery prices might be on the rise again. The cost of groceries in the US increased nearly two percentage points from December 2023 to December of 2024, and that marks the fastest increase in more than a year, according to the Labor Department data released last week.

It said grocery prices in December were nearly 30% higher than the same time five years ago. Experts say there are a lot of reasons why the prices could be climbing. For one, bird flu is affecting chickens and cutting egg supplies, creating record high wholesale prices. The average price for a carton of a dozen eggs is up to $4.15. Plus, you've got extreme heat and dry weather in coffee growing regions of the world.

That has meant coffee prices are higher these days. Other price increases you might see meat, candy, and chocolate. All the good stuff, coffee, meat, candy, chocolate, eggs. Remember stuff, coffee, candy, chocolate eggs. Remember, this is a big thing for Trump. You know, he did say during the campaign he would lower prices. Some are looking at that and he sort of changed his tune on that saying, I'm not going to lower prices, but I try to keep prices flat here. The thing about inflation is and prices as they go up over time,

it's just a matter of, you know, how slowly or how quickly that they go up over time, which is a matter of, you know, how slowly or how quickly that they go up. And so here, you know, we're seeing that we're also going to watch how his potential tariffs here, that's something he's promised potentially as soon as today, imposing tariffs here, what they could mean for higher commodity prices, since a lot of our food and other items come from abroad. So imposing tariffs could mean the prices go up there. We'll see here if companies try to absorb the prices or pass it along to consumers, something that'll be closely scrutinized here.

From the Associated Press, CNN will have to pay at least $5 million to a US Navy veteran after it lost a defamation trial in Florida on Friday. A jury in Panama City found that the network defamed a security contractor named Zachary Young. It came after CNN showed an image of that security contractor on screen during a story that aired in 2021. The story claimed that Young was part of a black market of smuggling desperate Afghans trying to flee the Taliban for exorbitant, often impossible amounts of money. Young was reportedly asking for $75,000 to

transport a vehicle of passengers to Pakistan or $14,500 per person to end up in the United Arab Emirates. The CNN story included a response from Young saying that his services were for Afghans who have sponsors that can bear the costs. No other companies or people were named in the story offering different prices. So Young sued CNN saying that the network painted him as a criminal profiteer. Insiding with Young, the jury concluded that CNN recklessly pursued the story and disparaged Young with false assertions. The jury also concluded that CNN set out to harm Young. So look for potential additional

penalties here. CNN is informing the jury. You know, the media business is tough right now. So don't go crazy with this fine. At the trial here, Young testified that the story's portrayal rendered him a pariah and the industry sent him on a spiral of depression, sleeplessness, panic attacks, hurt his marriage. He said that CNN didn't make clear that his clients were nonprofits and corporations, companies like Bloomberg and Audible, and that his prices reflected complex evacuation logistics. He felt that things were taken out of context here.

He also was able, his legal team was able to obtain damning CNN internal messages. It showed staffers, and this is something I always told folks at CBS. Like if you're having a controversial story, do not opine about the story subject and emails and text messages. It is all findable by lawyers. And here in this case, the CNN producers apparently texted and emailed that they called them an S bag, you know, an obscenity that starts with an S, an a hole saying he had a punchable face as they put

together this story. Well, the jury got to see those text messages and it reinforced to them that they felt that CNN did have an agenda in this story. Now, CNN did issue an on-air apology back in 2022. However, several CNN staffers actually took the witness stand to say they didn't feel an apology was necessary. Some of them were standing by the story here. Nonetheless, the jury found otherwise, there's a very high bar for defamation in the US because the First Amendment, freedom of the press, but ultimately here the jury feels that CNN went too far in this story, significant at a time where Trump in particular has been going after media believing

that they have an agenda here. And so this is a story that we thought we should bring to your attention. And one item as we are celebrating MLK Day and we're heading into On This Day in History, a little background here. In addition to Inauguration Day, many of you might be off from work as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr., a pastor and civil rights leader who dedicated his life to service and justice. MLK Day is always celebrated on the third Monday in January. The federal holiday was established to honor Dr. King near his January 15th birthday. He was the first modern private citizen to be recognized with the federal

holiday. U.S. Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan proposed legislation to recognize King four days after his assassination outside of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4th, 1968. But that did not happen until 1983 when Congress passed a law declaring it a national holiday and President Reagan signed it. It actually took states upwards of two decades, more than that, for every state to recognize MLK Day here. Jill, key to that lobbying effort for MLK Day, Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday song. Happy birthday to you. That is, sorry for the off key version of it. You can listen to Stevie's version though. It's about MLK's birthday. It was part of the lobbying effort

to get a day for MLK. A reminder, he was just 39 years old, very young as he was assassinated there. And at the time of his death, he was very polarizing figure. He had actually taken on the Vietnam War. He had taken on the poverty, housing, other issues that he saw as part of the civil rights movement. And so there were a lot of people at the time who thought he was way too radical. He's not the figure that we look back at today

in their unanimity back then, very controversial. So they had to rally for a while there for support 17 years to finally get 50 states to observe it. Clinton back in the 90s made it a national day of service. So many of you engaged in volunteer projects today. Which takes us, Jill, into on this day in history on this January 20th, a couple items. On this day in 1841, Hong Kong was

ceded by China to Great Britain. During the first opium war, it would take a very long time for China to then get back. Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control in 1997. On this day in 1981, inauguration day. This has been inauguration day, actually, going back to FDR, back before then in the first 120 years or so of American history. I was actually in March. And then they're like, listen, we now have cars, we don't need horse and buggy anymore.

We don't need this long period of time between presidents. So they moved up inauguration day from March to January in the Constitution. On this day, 1981, by then it was already a January inauguration. Minutes after Jimmy Carter's presidency ends, Ronald Reagan takes the oath of office. 52 Americans released from Iran after being held hostage for 444 days. Many folks drawing a connection there to the hostage deal, the hostage release in Israel over the weekend.

Ending here with a bit of pop culture news on the same 1982 Joan Jett and the Black Hearts release, I Love Rock and roll and TV history. One of the more iconic shows of all time, Breaking Bad, starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, premiered on this day in 2008. So a happy 17th birthday to Breaking Bad. Jill, I were you a Breaking Badder. I've seen it. I liked it, but I wasn't like a crazy Breaking Bad fan.

Some breaking bad. I clearly you were. Oh, I think it was phenomenal. No, I did love it, but I wasn't like obsessed with it. All right. As I do get over certain shows. Noted noted. OK, Moj, you stay warm over there in D.C.

as for everybody else, thanks for listening to the Mo News podcast. If you like what you hear, share this with your friends. Please, it will help us grow. Follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode and review us in the App Store. Thanks for listening, everyone. Live coverage all day over on Mo News Instagram. All right. Bye, everyone. Thanks for listening to the Mo News Podcast.