President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in tomorrow — indoors. For the first time since 1985, the presidential inauguration will take place inside the Capitol, due to the freezing temperatures forecasted for Washington, D.C. Trump plans to hold an indoor rally this afternoon at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington. Trump announced Friday that supporters could also watch the inauguration from the arena. Multiple prominent Democrats, including former first lady Michelle Obama and Speaker Emirata Nancy Pelosi, have said they will not attend the event. Outgoing President Joe Biden delivered his farewell address Wednesday evening, warning against "oligarchy" and a "tech-industrial complex."
Early Tuesday, the Justice Department released special counsel Jack Smith's official report on Trump's election interference case. In his 170-page report, Smith defended his decision to bring charges against Trump and wrote that he believes Trump would have been convicted for his alleged crimes in the case had he not won the presidential election.
On the Hill, confirmation hearings are underway for Trump's prospective Cabinet nominees. Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Sen. Marco Rubio, Govs. Kristi Noem and Doug Burgum, Lee Zeldin and others were pressed on their goals and backgrounds. Hearings are scheduled to continue this week.
The popular social media app TikTok lost its Supreme Court bid to prevent a U.S. ban that begins today. The justices, citing the government's national security concerns about Chinese control of Americans' data, rejected a First Amendment challenge from the app's owner, ByteDance. Users are currently unable to access TikTok, instead seeing a pop-up message on their screens saying "a law banning TikTok has been enacted."
Abroad, the long-awaited ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war began early this morning, aiming to halt Israeli strikes that have killed more than 46,800 Palestinians, plus see the gradual release of hostages. The ceasefire was initally delayed after Israel said Hamas had failed to produce the names of the first three hostages expected to be released on Sunday under the truce.
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