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Trump lays out vision on first day of second term
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Trump officials describe a ‘national security and public safety crisis’ at the US-Mexico border
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Donald Trump inaugurated as US president again  
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A ceasefire in Gaza tales effect Sunday after Israel’s Cabinet approved a deal, with 24 ministers voting in favor and eight ministers rejecting the agreement. The deal to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas was achieved after more than a year of negotiations, with mediation from the...
VOA
Money laundering fears hang over Thailand’s online gambling plans 
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Rubio vows to oppose Thai Uyghur deportations as US secretary of state
Human rights advocates say Uyghurs returned to China risk torture, imprisonment, or disappearance
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About 1,500 Russians are now in exile, trying to start a fresh life while reporting on events in their homeland
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Russia adds VOA, Current Time, BBC journalists to register of 'foreign agents'
Russia names six more journalists as so-called foreign agents, including reporter at VOA
VOA News
Journalists in Azerbaijan face trials, jailings, travel bans
More than a dozen journalists are imprisoned in Azerbaijan and others are questioned about their work, analysts say
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Trump holds phone call with Xi Jinping ahead of inauguration 
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It is not known if TikTok will switch off access after losing its final bid in the American judicial system
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Report: 67 journalists jailed for their work across Africa
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Inaugural balls, protests planned in Washington
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VOA News
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US sanctions Sudan army leader, citing atrocities
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US Customs agents intercept contraband cars headed overseas
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Current law limits president to two terms; ruling party seeks to amend constitution
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UN appeals for $3.2 billion to support 8.2 million Ukrainian war victims
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Pakistan deports Afghans with UNHCR papers
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HRW report: Governments, armed groups intensify abuses in Africa
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China reaches out to US allies ahead of Trump’s inauguration
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US imposes export controls on biotech equipment over AI security concerns
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VOA News
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Donald Trump inaugurated as US president again  

Republican Donald Trump was inaugurated again Monday as the 47th U.S. president, calling for a “revolution of common sense” and vowing to quickly order sweeping policy changes, including the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States back to their home countries.

“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump declared in his half-hour inaugural address. “From this moment on, America’s decline is over. We will lead it to new heights of victory and success. There is no dream we cannot achieve. We will not be broken. We will not fail.

“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump told a crowd of about 600 people in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and millions watching on TV throughout the country.

“My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization,” he said.

Trump, 78, was the country’s 45th president, and only the second after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to serve a second nonconsecutive term. With Trump’s inauguration, President Joe Biden leaves office after a single four-year term in the White House.

In his address, Trump vowed to quickly carry out a litany of 2024 campaign promises, citing the fact that he swept all seven political battleground states in defeating his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump said he will "declare a national emergency,” close the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico to stem the flow of thousands of migrants seeking to enter the U.S., with many of them looking to escape poverty, crime and unemployment in Central American countries and elsewhere.

Trump said he would enforce a “stay in Mexico” policy for migrants looking for asylum in the U.S. and end the policy of catching other migrants at the U.S. border and then releasing to them to live in the United States while they await adjudication of their asylum requests, a process that can take months, even years.

He said he would declare Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorists,” although said nothing about how he would deal with them.

Photo Gallery:

In photos: Trump inauguration

On the domestic front, he said he would declare a “national energy emergency,” even though production is already at a record high.

“We will drill, baby, drill,” he declared emphatically.

Trump said he would end Biden policies to promote the production and sale of electric vehicles, while also overhauling U.S. trade policies, imposing new tariffs on key trade partners, levies expected to include those imposed on Canada, Mexico and China.

“The American dream will soon be thriving as never before,” he contended. “We will forge a society that is fair and merit based.”

Much like at a campaign rally last year when Biden was still running for reelection before dropping out in favor of Harris, Trump assailed his predecessor’s performance in office as Biden sat immediately behind him.

“We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home,” Trump said, “while at the same time, stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.”

Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania, new Vice President JD Vance and their families, began his second inaugural day eight years after his first by attending a traditional service for incoming presidents at St. John’s Episcopal Church across a park from the White House.

Afterward, the Trumps headed to the White House for a preinaugural tea with Biden and first lady Jill Biden, before heading to the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.

Trump is the oldest person ever inaugurated as U.S. president, eclipsing Biden who was five months younger when he took the oath four years ago. Vance, 40, and most recently a U.S. senator from the Midwestern state of Ohio, was sworn in as the 50th vice president and is the third youngest in history.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden pose alongside President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump as they arrive at the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, before departing for the US Capitol where Trump will be sworn in as the 47th U.S. President.

Trump is also the first felon to serve as U.S. president, after his conviction last year on 34 criminal charges linked to falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn film star Stormy Daniels, although a judge declined to penalize him in any way.

Charges that Trump tried to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden were dropped because of a long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.

Photo Gallery:

In photos: Trump protesters, supporters rally on Inauguration Day

U.S. presidential inaugurations, a symbol of the democratic country’s norms of a peaceful transition of presidential power, are traditionally held on the steps of the Capitol overlooking the vast sweep of the National Mall.

But with freezing temperatures hitting Washington, Trump days ago moved the ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda, where 2,000 of his supporters rioted in 2021 to keep Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory.

SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025.

Several U.S. billionaires — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla chief executive and X owner Elon Musk — were among those who watched the inauguration, as was TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew.

Foreign dignitaries were there as well, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentina President Javier Milei and Ecuador President Daniel Noboa.

Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni arrives for the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th U.S. President in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, on Jan. 20, 2025.

Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the ceremony, unlike Trump, who skipped Biden’s swearing-in four years ago and continues to falsely claim that he was cheated out of reelection in the 2020 election by voting irregularities.

Former President George W. Bush, from left, his wife Laura Bush and former President Barack Obama arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025.

Trump signaled that he would immediately begin to reshape U.S. policies, either to undo Biden’s edicts and implement his own. He could sign some executive orders in the first hours of his new presidency or later this week.

Trump also has promised to pardon many of the more than 1,500 of his supporters who rampaged through the Capitol on January 6, 2021, although he has not divulged the scope of his expected order. He did not mention the issue in his inaugural address.

The traditional inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House also was canceled because of the weather, with bands, marching units, drill teams and the like now expected to parade past Trump, his wife and other administration officials at the nearby 20,000-seat Capital One Arena. Lavish black-tie balls are still planned for Monday evening.