Inauguration Day, Donald Trump, C.I.A.: Your Friday Briefing
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Good morning.
Here’s what you need to know:
• It’s Inauguration Day.
Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States today at a ceremony beginning at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.
We have a comprehensive guide to the festivities, including how to watch and what security measures to expect. Follow our live coverage.
We also looked back at Mr. Trump’s life and path to the White House, in pictures.
• Inquiry into Trump aides’ ties to Russia.
Intercepted communications and financial transactions are part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of Mr. Trump, including his former campaign chairman.
• No Beyoncé? No U2? No problem.
The president-elect arrived in Washington on Thursday and greeted his supporters at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial, where the low-wattage lineup of musicians didn’t seem to bother the crowd. “This is a celebration of America,” one attendee said. (Our critic was less impressed.)
Speaking of crowds, we looked at how people gathered at the Capitol have been counted, from Lincoln’s inauguration to Barack Obama’s, and spoke to Trump voters who are going to Washington.
There will also be demonstrations in the capital and beyond today and Saturday.
• A new administration, still taking shape.
Mr. Trump’s transition team is scrambling to fill key posts and has retained 50 officials from the Obama administration.
Problems of fabulous wealth have dogged several of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks, including Steven T. Mnuchin, the Treasury nominee, who failed to disclose $95 million in assets.
• It’s moving day at the White House.
It turns out you can’t just hire two guys with a truck.
• An ethical “minefield” at Trump’s hotel.
The federal government owns the building that houses the Trump International Hotel in Washington. As soon as he’s sworn in, that could be a problem.
• Mexican drug kingpin is extradited to U.S.
The transfer of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a master of escape known as El Chapo, will draw to a close a decades-long quest to prosecute the head of one of the world’s largest narcotics organizations.
He is scheduled to appear in court today.
• New details of C.I.A. torture.
Slamming terrorism suspects into walls. Confining them in coffinlike boxes. Subjecting them to waterboarding. These are some of the revelations in recently released documents about the Central Intelligence Agency’s former torture program.
• Survivors found after avalanche in Italy.
At least six people were rescued on Friday after a hotel was destroyed by an avalanche more than a day before.
Business
• Chinese tourists, who make up a growing share of visitors to Japan, are threatening to boycott the Japanese hotel group APA over a book it placed in rooms that denies the 1937 Nanjing massacre.
The company said in a statement that it had “no intention” of withdrawing the book.
• Welcome back, Vegemite. Australia’s beloved spread is going home.
The U.S. company that owns the brand is selling the product to an Australian dairy company for nearly $350 million.
• Earlier, we told you about lawsuits against the student loan collector Navient, accusing the company of illegally driving up costs for borrowers.
If you believe you were affected, we’d like to hear your story.
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Noteworthy
• In memoriam.
Wayne Barrett, 71, whose four-decade career as a reporter and columnist with the Village Voice featured investigations of New York City developers, landlords and politicians, among them Mr. Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani.
And we pay tribute to a pair of notable musical figures: Roberta Peters, 86, a star soprano for over 35 years with the Metropolitan Opera, and William Onyeabor, 70, whose African electro-funk albums of the 1970s and ’80s were a prized rediscovery for musicians and D.J.s in the 2000s.
• Finding common ground, for history’s sake.
Many archaeologists consider metal detectorists to be looters who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near their dig sites.
But one scientist in Connecticut is taking a different approach. “To what extent do we embrace hobbyists or amateurs? You’re not going to stop them so … join them,” he said.
• New at the movies.
Our reviews include “The Founder,” about the entrepreneur Ray Kroc, who turned McDonald’s into a billion-dollar business, and “Split,” directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Our critic doesn’t give any spoilers for the thriller, but he says Mr. Shyamalan’s movie “is all plot, an ingenious (and also ridiculous) conceit spun into an elegant ribbon of suspense.”
Smarter Living: Morning Edition
(In this new section, we’ll help you start your day right.)
• Start your day and weekend right with some inner peace: Here’s our beginner’s guide to meditation.
• Increasing levels of optimism have been tied to lower risks of death from cancer, heart disease, stroke and infections.
Back Story
There are nearly 200 countries in the world. Sometimes, politicians accidentally add more.
Poland’s foreign minister, Witold Waszczykowski, had to endure days of mockery for inventing a country in recent comments to reporters.
He has been campaigning for Poland to have a seat on the United Nations Security Council, and said the effort included holding talks with dozens of countries, “such as Belize or San Escobar.”
A fictitious People’s Democratic Republic of San Escobar soon had a Twitter account, poking fun at the mistake.
But Mr. Waszczykowski was hardly the first politician to make this type of gaffe.
In 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry praised American diplomats for supporting democratic institutions in “Kyrzakhstan,” possibly a conflation of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
A similar mix-up was committed in 2015 here at The Times. In our story about the climber Tommy Caldwell, who was once kidnapped by militants, we mistakenly invented Kyrzbekistan. “Caldwell was in Kyrgyzstan, not Kyrzbekistan, which does not exist,” our correction reads.
Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican candidate for president, took the blunder to a new level during an interview question about Uzbekistan.
“And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say, you know, I don’t know. Do you know?”
Patrick Boehler contributed reporting.
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P.C: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/briefing/inauguration-day-donald-trump-cia.html
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