Up First from NPR - Inauguration Day, Israel-Hamas Ceasefire, TikTok

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Donald Trump becomes the 47th president of the United States; the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is in effect; and TikTok is back after going offline temporarily, but will it stick around?For more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Denice Rios, Jerome Socolovsky, Olivia Hampton and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, Milton Guevara. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 Faldon with A Martinez and this is Up First from NPR News. to expect on day one. I'm Leila Faldon 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 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.

Matt Wilson spent years doing rounds at children's hospitals in New York City. I had a clip-on tie. I wore Heelys, size 11. Matt was a medical clown. The whole of a medical clown is to reintroduce the sense of play and joy and hope and light into a space that doesn't normally inhabit. Ideas about navigating uncertainty. That's on the TED Radio Hour

podcast from NPR. On the Embedded podcast from NPR, what is it like to live under years of state surveillance? So many people have fear of losing their families. For years, the Chinese government has been detaining hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs. This is the story of one family torn apart. Listen to The Black Gate on the Embedded podcast from NPR. All episodes are available now. It's a new year, and according to Pew, 79% of resolutions are about one thing, health. But there are so many fads around how to keep ourselves healthy. On It's Been a Minute, I'm helping you understand why some of today's biggest wellness trends are,

well, trendy. Like, why is there protein in everything? Join me as we uncover what's healthy and what's not on the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR. 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 gonna 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 Kurtz-Slaven 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? Yep. 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 gonna 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 Capital One Arena. What else did he say that stood out to you? Well, there was 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 DC 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 and 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 from 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 6 riot four years ago. All right. That's MPR's Danielle. Chris, thanks a lot, Danielle. Thank you. All right. Turning now to the Middle East, where there was a chaotic scene of 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. MPR'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. Uh, 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 Demare, 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 Demare family. It's 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 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.

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, Anas Baba, spoke with one of them. Here's Tamer Al-Akool. 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 a distribution, patrolling the streets, and there were massed 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, A, 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 as a deal. I'll show you 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, yes it was back. So remind us again why the, 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 sales 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 helped 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 the first from Monday, January 20th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Laila Fadil. 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 Yukhaninoff, Denise Rios, Jerome Sokolovsky, Olivia Hampton, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Milton Guevara. We get engineering support from Arthur Larent, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott. Join us again tomorrow. Usher, Yo-Yo Ma, Boy Genius, Shaka Khan, Billie Eilish, Weird Al, one thing all these big stars have in common, they've all played behind NPR's Tiny Desk. And if you enter NPR's Tiny Desk Contest between now and February 10th, you could be next. Unsigned musicians can find out more and see the official rules at npr.org slash tiny desk contest.

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