Inauguration
Fall Out Boy Play Joe Biden Pre-Inauguration Concert: Watch
On Sunday night, Fall Out Boy helped kick off inauguration week by playing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ We the People concert. The pop-punk group celebrated the President-elect and Vice President-elect by playing “Centuries”, and you can replay their performance down below. Fall Out Boy were wise to choose “Centuries” as their presidential hype song considering they originally imagined the American Beauty/American Psycho hit as an empowering “David vs. Goliath story”. With its Suzanne Vega-inspired refrain and anthemic chorus, “Centuries” feels like an appropriate soundtrack for Biden’s upcoming presidential era, especially considering he dethroned one of the most idiotic, dangerous, and unpopular presidents of all time. Perhaps the biggest reason Fall Out Boy were destined to us...
TikTok “Dreams” Sensation to Skateboard in Joe Biden’s Inauguration Parade
With that one loser finally on his way out of the White House, Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day celebrations are expected to be all about the good vibes. And who better to bring them than Mr. “Good Vibes Only” himself, Nathan Apodaca, a.k.a. TikTok “Dreams” skateboarder @420doggface208. According to TMZ, the viral sensation is scheduled to appear as part of Biden’s virtual inauguration parade later this week. The President-elect’s planning team reportedly tapped Apodaca “because they saw how his feel-good video uplifted the world this past fall during social unrest and pandemic anxiety.” For those who may have somehow missed it, Apodaca’s famed TikTok clip saw him skateboarding blissfully to Fleetwood Mac hit “Dreams” while sipping from a bottle of Ocean Spray. For a brief moment, the hum...
Garth Brooks Added to Joe Biden’s Inauguration Ceremony Lineup
Country icon Garth Brooks has been added to the performance schedule for Wednesday’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Future First Lady DR. Jill Biden extended the invite to Brooks last week, and he confirmed his participation during a press conference held by the Biden Inaugural Committee today. As the musician explained, he’s performed for every president since Jimmy Carter, with two exceptions: Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. The latter had asked him to play at the 2017 inauguration, but a tour scheduling conflict prevented him from attending. Brooks did, however, play for Biden’s other inauguration — as Vice President alongside Barack Obama — in 2008. “This is a great day in our household. This is not a political statement; this is a sta...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Share Inauguration Playlist: Kendrick Lamar, MF DOOM, Tame Impala
Tame Impala (photo by Philip Cosores), MF DOOM (photo via Getty), and Kendrick Lamar (photo by Philip Cosores) Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have shared the official playlist for their upcoming inauguration. The collection spans a whopping 46 songs in total and includes artists like Kendrick Lamar, MF DOOM, Tame Impala, and Beyoncé. Curated by D-Nice and Raedio, the label founded by Issa Rae and Benoni Tagoe, the playlist kicks off with “Lupitas Interlude” by Brooklyn rapper Kota the Friend. From there, it transitions into selected tracks by The Internet, Bruce Springsteen, SAULT, Mac Miller, Bob Marley, and A Tribe Called Quest. There’s also plenty of vibrant artists meant to inspire joy on the inauguration playlist as well, including Vampire Weekend, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, SZA, Steely...
Lady Gaga to Perform National Anthem at Biden’s Inauguration
Lady Gaga has been tapped to sing the National Anthem at Presiden-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. The Chromatica popstar will perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” during Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ swearing-in ceremony on January 20th (via Variety). It’s a grand honor for Gaga, a culmination of her long-standing support for the Democratic politician, which included stumping and performing at a rally on the eve of the 2020 election. Elsewhere on the inauguration docket is Jennifer Lopez, who is set to perform. National Youth Poet Laureate/activist Amanda Gorman will give a poetry reading, while Andrea Hall, the first woman firefighter to reach the rank of fire captain in Fulton Georgia, will deliver the Pledge of Allegiance. Long-time Biden family friends Father Leo J. O’Don...
Donald Trump declares state of emergency in D.C.
President Donald Trump on Monday declared a state of emergency in Washington, D.C., citing the “emergency conditions” surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had declared a state of emergency in the city on Wednesday in the aftermath of the takeover of the Capitol by rioters incited by Trump. Reports of further planned violent demonstrations have continued to circulate ahead of Inauguration Day, and Trump’s order on Monday allows the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist the city in any emergency response. Details of the violent Capitol attack have become increasingly clear in the days since a mob broke into the building, and Democrats and Republicans alike expressed concern about a similar security brea...
Coronavirus: Concern grows over potential superspreader event during US Capitol riot
Concerns are mounting about the health of lawmakers and other people in the Capitol last week, after the first member to test positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) since Wednesday’s chaos, said she believed she was exposed in a crowded hiding place with hundreds of other legislators. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., tested positive on Monday while experiencing mild symptoms, and said in a statement that she believes she caught the virus from her fellow lawmakers while hunkering down as Capitol Police struggled for hours to contain a Trump-inspired mob attack on the Capitol. Lawmakers were trapped in a room near the Capitol with hundreds of others, in some cases for hours, where at least one person who later tested positive for the coronavirus was present. The Office of the Attending P...
Minister: Over 60 workers contracted coronavirus during Lagos-Ibadan rail project
Over 60 workers, who were working on the Lagos-Ibadan rail, tested positive for coronavirus while trying to complete the project, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said. Mr Ameachi disclosed this, on Monday, on a Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) programme, Good Morning Nigeria. The rail project, which was delivered recently, and had since been in use, is the second rail project completed in 2020. The Itakpe-Warri was the first and was commissioned on September 29, 2020. The minister had disclosed at the inauguration of elected members of the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria (CIoTA) that the Lagos-Ibadan rail will be commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari, in January 2021. He, however, said the commissioning will be put on hold, due to the u...
Republican senator: Donald Trump must ‘go away as soon as possible’
A second Republican senator in the United States has called on Donald Trump to step down after some of the president’s supporters overran the Capitol building in Washington, DC this week in a deadly riot. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press news programme on Sunday, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey said Trump should resign for the good of the country. “I think the best way for our country is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible,” he said. Toomey said president’s resignation is the “best path forward, the best way to get this person in the rear-view mirror for us”, but added that he did not believe Trump would step down before his term ends on January 20. He also said the president’s role encouraging the riot was an “impeachable offence”. Momentum has been buildi...
Woman shot dead in US Capitol was a veteran and Trump supporter
The woman who died Wednesday of a bullet wound during the violent storming of the US Capitol was shot by police, authorities said. The only fatality tied to Wednesday’s unrest was the woman, reportedly a dedicated Donald Trump backer and air force veteran who was among a throng of supporters of the president that invaded the US legislature. Washington police chief Robert Contee said three other people, one woman and two men, had died Wednesday in the area around the Capitol, but did not link those deaths to the violence. Each of the three “appeared to have suffered medical emergencies which resulted in their deaths,” Contee told reporters. Contee said 52 people had been arrested Wednesday, 26 of them on the grounds of the Capitol, for curfew violations, unlawful entry and weapons charges. ...
Governor Abiodun: Agro-allied airport underway in Ogun
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has disclosed plans by his administration to have an agro-allied based airport to aid the development of the state as a destination of choice for agriculture in Nigeria. Abiodun, who spoke during the inauguration of Agbeloba Aquaculture Hub in Owiwi, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state, said the agricultural sector remains the sure way out of poverty and unemployment ravaging the country. The project is being promoted by a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. While also expressing optimism that his administration believes that the state and the country as a whole can actually grow what it eats, the governor commended Obasanjo for continuously and tirelessly walking his talk on agriculture. He said, “We are looking at having an ag...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...