Donald Trump begins second term as US president

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0:07This advertisement feature is paid and presented by Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When you're thinking about where to scale your business, think Poland. As one of Europe's fastest growing economies with a large talent pool, it's the ideal place for your business to grow.

0:26My name is Toma Renault. I'm the CEO of Iliad Group. Iliad is the number five telecom operator in Europe. When we expanded into Poland in 2020, we knew it would be a successful venture. Since then, we have invested over 4.5 billion euros in the Polish economy and become the country's leading mobile operator with Play. Here, we have access to over a million graduates with skilled professionals across IT, software, tech, engineering, and manufacturing. And on top of that, we benefit from favorable business regulations in order to support telecommunication network deployment, in order to push digitalization in the public sector.

1:12We also have direct access to global markets. I like to think of it as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Poland has a culture of innovation and that drives business forward. Poland embraces technology early. Digitalisation is progressing rapidly in both the public and private sectors. And that's why we are here. To innovate, to invest, to grow together. Global brands and rising scale-ups alike choose Poland as their base for smart, long-term growth. Poland, the place where scale-ups become standouts. Find out more at polandyourplacetogrow.com

2:03Every day, millions of customers engage with AI agents like me. We work round the clock and have the facts at our fingertips. We're fast and effective, but incredibly patient. And we're built on Sierra, the leading AI-powered customer experience platform. No hold music, just answers and action. Visit sierra.ai to learn more. That's sierra.ai.

2:33This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Tuesday the 21st of January, these are our main stories. Donald Trump has been inaugurated as US President for the second time, completing an extraordinary political comeback. He said he'd immediately start signing orders to prevent illegal migration, encourage oil exploitation and scrap government diversity programmes. In other news, a Palestinian minister says he and his colleagues are ready to go back and run Gaza. If we are looking for rebuilding Gaza or rehabilitating Gaza, then the Palestinian Authority should be there.

3:16There are reports that fighting between the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23 rebels has forced tens of thousands of people to flee the east of the country. And American researchers have published the results of their first study into how weight loss drugs affect the body.

3:36He's back. The second Trump era has begun in America. with a mixture of the usual formalities modified for Washington's current sub-zero temperatures and a flurry of last-minute pardons and first-day executive orders by the two presidents to hold office on the same day. Those formalities are still taking place, but it was an inaugural address by the new president that attracted much of the attention. It was given not as usual on the steps of the Capitol building, but inside in the rotunda. The first time an inauguration has been held there since the second time Ronald Reagan took the oath of office in 1985.

4:15James Kumarasamy looks back at the day's events.

4:27Inside the rotunda, a choir performed for the arriving guests as the president-elect was popping into the White House for the briefest of handovers. Welcome home, the greeting from Joe Biden to the man he replaced and who was about to replace him. After a short meeting, the two presidents drove to the Capitol building in the same limousine, oh, to be a fly on the wall. A show of unity far removed from what happened four years ago when Donald Trump snubbed the Biden inauguration. Ladies and gentlemen, the 42nd President of the United States, the Honourable William J. Clinton, accompanied by the Honourable Hillary Rodham Clinton.

5:10The 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, accompanied by Mrs. Laura Bush. The 44th President of the United States, Barack H. Obama. Once inside a roll call of presidents and first ladies, with the notable exception of Michelle Obama, took their seats alongside friends, supporters and titans of tech to watch the change of power. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear... I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear... ...that I will faithfully execute... ...that I will faithfully execute... ...the office of President of the United States... ...the office of President of the United States...

5:53...and will, to the best of my ability... and will to the best of my ability... Preserve, protect and defend. Preserve, protect and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. President.

6:12And then came the inaugural address. For the millions watching around the world and the 600 or so in the room with the golden tickets, this was his message. The golden age of America begins right now.

6:34From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. during every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first. America first, the theme that ran through a speech light on foreign policy and underpinned his priorities, from his pledge to drill baby drill to his plan to deport what he called millions and millions of illegal immigrants. First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. He said he wants illegal immigrants out, but he wants the Panama Canal back.

7:27Panama's promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. that American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form, and that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back. Joe Biden sat stony-faced, heads sometimes bowed, as his presidency was roundly repudiated by a politician who equated America's powers of survival with his own. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life.

8:20Just a few months ago in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. And that greatness, he added, wasn't confined to this planet. We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars. APPLAUSE That certainly pleased a beaming Elon Musk, whose SpaceX company also wants to put life on Mars. The promise, then, of a new space age for the Golden Age, which Donald Trump insists has just begun.

9:14MUSIC PLAYS

9:27That report was compiled by James Kumrasamy. So how has President Trump's inauguration speech been going down with voters? Eric Bolling is a longtime friend and supporter of Donald Trump and is also a conservative commentator and author. He welcomed the policies the new president says he'll pursue. First thing that he said he was going to do is fix the border situation. He's been promising to do that since he was elected president in 2016. He's been talking about that for the better part of the last two years running for president. This time, energy was going to be top of his list. That was second.

10:01And the cultural war that's going on in America that so many independent voters, not Republican, Democrat, so many independent voters felt was proceeding too quickly. Our correspondent, Nedda Torfik, who was at the Capitol building in Washington, told me how she thought Mr. Trump's speech compared to his first Broken America inaugural address back in 2017. That tone was all about American carnage. This time the tone was American decline is over. But look, I still think this wasn't a speech full of unity meant to bring the nation together. It still really did touch on some darker themes and some divisive issues.

10:42It almost sounded more of a campaign rally speech than something you would expect to hear for a state of the union. But he did say that he was returning more confident, more optimistic, that it was the start of a thrilling new era. But with Joe Biden just a few feet away with his hand on his face, he criticized that administration, saying they can't even handle a simple crisis at home. He vowed to kind of end what he saw as the radical corrupt establishment. So it was very much on brand for Donald Trump in terms of his talking points. but he is trying to signal to his base that he is moving full steam ahead on the pledges he made, whether that be on immigration, some of those very touchy culture war issues in this country.

11:26He said, for example, on transgender issues, that there's only two genders in America, male and female. There was one moment, though, where I thought he was trying to be more inclusive, particularly with regards to African-Americans and voters in the United States of Latin American origin who voted for him in larger numbers than they had before. He was saying, I want to bring peace for every race, color and creed in the United States. It's Liberation Day for everybody. Did that wash, do you think, with many people? I think that and also mentioning Martin Luther King Jr. Today is Martin Luther King Jr.

11:59Day. Donald Trump made gains with these voters in the election. He got numbers that no Republican president ever before got with the Latino male voters. Black voters trended toward Donald Trump, again, in impressive numbers. So he very much considers them now a part of his base. He sees that his message is resonating with them. But there was another line, if you caught in the speech, where he said he wanted his administration to be colorblind and a merit-based society. Now, on the surface, that sounds great. But to some of his critics, they point out that he is trying to get rid of diversity and inclusion policies across the government and in corporations.

12:40We've already seen corporations roll those back with Donald Trump coming to office. And so many see that as paying lip service to something while actually attacking diversity and other things, for example, that protects minorities in the workplace. Ned Atorfic in Washington. As we heard there, one of President Trump's priorities is to reduce immigration. In the coming hours, he's set to declare a national emergency at the US-Mexico border. He said the armed forces would be sent there to combat illegal immigration. And he talked about millions of illegal immigrants being deported. In light of this, hundreds of demonstrators have been on the streets in Chicago protesting about his plans to deport undocumented people.

13:23Cristobal Cabasas from the group Immigrants Solidarity DuPage said many of the people there felt insulted by Donald Trump's plans. There's people around you, people in the march today that have been here for 30 years, for 40 years, for 25 years, and not just twiddling their thumbs. People in Chicago, we have a lot of food manufacturing, people who have been doing essential work during COVID, essential work, sweeping the floors, cleaning, chopping the vegetables, the majority workers, undocumented workers. So we know our value here. And that's why we're out here fighting, because if we don't fight, there's not going to be any respect.

13:58Donald Trump has put a lot of insults to our community because we have a great self-respect here, and we're not going to let anybody be a bully to us. Will Grant is our Central America correspondent. He's currently in the US city of San Diego near the Mexican border. And he told me what this emergency border might look like in practice. In the short term, it means that Donald Trump can access federal funds and deploy the military to the southern border. And I think we will see elements of that really quite quickly. In the broader sense, it just sends out a message to his base. I mean, I was watching the speech alongside Republicans from the San Diego area who are watching at a convention center.

14:38And the cheer that went up when he announced that decision to declare an emergency at the border was perhaps the biggest one of the night. So, you know, that was interesting. And of course, that's one of a series of measures. He's also going to return to building the border wall, we believe. He's going to attempt to reinstate the remain in Mexico rule, where people who are waiting for the right to apply for asylum in the United States would have to stay in Mexico while they wait for those court dates to come up. And we've already seen that something called CBP1, an app introduced by the Biden administration by which asylum seekers could get a date to meet the US authorities and put their cases before them, has already closed, leaving around 30 ,000 people waiting on those coveted appointments.

15:24Very, very disappointed today. Well, just with regards to one of the things Mr Trump said. He said that all illegal entry will be immediately halted. You know that border very well, several thousand kilometres long. That's just not practical, is it? It's not really. I mean, in essence, what he seems to suggest is that there's a legal entry taking place at the ports of entry. Well, obviously, those who are coming through and presenting themselves to the authorities with a view to getting a court date and for applying for asylum are not doing anything illegal in that act. The illegal entry is taking place outside ports of entry and taking place through holes in the fence, big parts of open desert, where, of course, illegal gangs and people smugglers are running people through.

16:08That, as you say, is an extremely difficult thing to clamp down on. And I believe that is where, of course, the idea of bringing the military into all this comes in. Will Grant. Another theme Donald Trump spoke passionately about was trade, doubling down on his plans to create what he calls an external revenue service, namely the business of imposing tariffs on imports. Michelle Fleury, our North America business correspondent in New York, told me more about the tariffs and their possible timeline. Donald Trump was known as Tariff Man, and so there's been lots of speculation as to how quickly we would see tariffs introduced.

16:44It appears he's holding off for now when it comes to the introduction of tariffs. The question is for how long. Instead, what he's doing is directing federal agencies to kind of study trade agreements, tariffs and to review existing agreements. So, for example, you've got the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. That's under review next year. That could become quite contentious. He also, as you pointed out, directed or suggested this proposal of creating the external revenue service. The idea is that it would collect the revenue from tariffs. What's interesting there is that there are already agencies that exist that essentially do that job.

17:24And so for a president who's vowed to kind of try and eliminate any excess in government, this seems sort of a bit at odds with that particular goal. But we do know that he's very keen to try and find ways to raise revenue, particularly because he wants to renew his tax cuts. And so he views tariffs as a way of doing that. But the fact that we haven't seen an announcement today suggests that there are still divisions to be worked out within his economic team as to sort of how fast and what scale should the administration take when it comes to tariffs. Briefly, Michelle, that is because tariffs don't necessarily have a positive effect on the US economy.

18:01Far from it. So the US importer is meant to pay them. But most economists say actually what ends up happening is that you start to see some of these passed on to consumers and that in turn could push up inflation. Remember, this was one of the key issues Donald Trump was elected on, was to fight inflation. Our New York business correspondent, Michelle Fleury. So what could the next four years hold under a second Trump presidency? Our North America editor, Sarah Smith, has this assessment. Donald Trump certainly has ambitious plans for his second term. And he appears confident, even buoyant, as he returns to office.

18:35He has Congress on his side, a pliant Supreme Court and a significant electoral mandate. There appears to be little that could stand in the way of him enacting his bold and radical agenda. He's been making very big promises, saying he'll reshape America to make it more prosperous and successful, while bringing peace and stability on the world stage. It was these ambitious pledges that won him the election. Now he is in office, he has to start to deliver. His supporters want him to lower prices pretty quickly, as well as tackling illegal immigration and expanding oil production in the United States.

19:10Joe Biden warned that Donald Trump posed a threat to American democracy, but he failed to prevent him from being re-elected. His legacy is tainted by that attempt to run a second time when voters believed he was far too old to serve another four years in office. Now President Trump has performed the greatest comeback in American politics, surviving criminal indictments and assassination attempts to win in November. His time in the White House will doubtless be both dramatic and eventful, with consequences felt around the world. He wants to change America in fundamental and lasting ways. Our North America editor, Sarah Smith, with her analysis.

19:46And before the end of the podcast, we'll hear from our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, on the likely global implications of a second Trump term. Still to come. The drugs appeared to be a boon to heart health. There were also lower levels of Alzheimer's disease. On the flip side, people were more likely to have a range of bone and joint problems, including arthritis. The first results from a new US study into the effects of weight loss drugs on the human body.

20:24This advertisement feature is paid and presented by Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When you're thinking about where to scale your business, think Poland. As one of Europe's fastest growing economies with a large talent pool, it's the ideal place for your business to grow.

20:43My name is Toma Renault. I'm the CEO of Iliad Group. Iliad is the number five telecom operator in Europe. When we expanded into Poland in 2020, we knew it would be a successful venture. Since then, we have invested over 4.5 billion euros in the Polish economy and become the country's leading mobile operator with Play. Here, we have access to over a million graduates with skilled professionals across IT, software, tech, engineering, and manufacturing. And on top of that, we benefit from favorable business regulations in order to support telecommunication network deployment, in order to push digitalization in the public sector.

21:29We also have direct access to global markets. I like to think of it as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Poland has a culture of innovation and that drives business forward. Poland embraces technology early. Digitalization is progressing rapidly in both the public and private sectors. And that's why we are here. To innovate, to invest, to grow together. global brands and rising scale-ups alike choose poland as their base for smart long-term growth poland the place where scale-ups become standouts find out more at poland your placetogrow.com

22:18this advertisement feature is paid and presented by poland's ministry of foreign affairs looking for the perfect place to grow your business for over 30 years poland has been and a launchpad for innovation at the heart of Europe, powered by world-class research and ambitious young talent. From bold startups to established powerhouses, Poland offers the momentum, resources and reliability you need to take your business further. Poland, where businesses don't just grow, they're built to last. Find out more at polandyourplacetogrow.com. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed?

22:53In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed. hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Monday was the first full day of the ceasefire in Gaza. Three hostages are out, 90 Palestinian prisoners are free and aid trucks are moving more rapidly into the territory. More than 90 % of Gaza's population, most of whom are displaced, lack adequate shelter and are struggling to feed themselves.

23:45This Palestinian mother of nine children has been living with her family for months in a makeshift tent in the city of Deir al-Bala in Gaza. It was the first night we spent reassured, at ease, without the sound of drones or artillery or even ambulances. Even our children slept without any fear. Our children used to sleep and wake up in the middle of the night, frightened by the sound of bombardment. Well, the ceasefire doesn't address who runs Gaza in the future. Israel had made it clear it doesn't want Hamas doing that. President Biden had pressed for a reformed version of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to take over.