In the first month of 2025, it seems the world has shifted. As a bi-weekly collegiate newspaper, our newsroom has a smaller capacity in comparison to a daily or national newspaper. Still, we commit to providing Wake Forest campus with salient information from a reliable source.
The executive board of the Old Gold & Black has compiled the headlines for the week that we believe are the most relevant to our peers. Our online coverage will continue to explore these stories, and we look forward to expanding the content of our future print editions.
Israel-Hamas ceasefire
On Jan. 17, Israel’s cabinet approved a ceasefire deal for the ongoing war in Gaza. The deal outlines the release of hostages taken by Hamas, putting a six-week pause on the conflict, which started on Oct. 7, 2023. In turn, the Israeli government will release several hundred Palestinian women and children in detention.
The full agreement has not been made public at the time of publication.
Meta
Mark Zuckerberg, the Chief Executive Officer of Meta, has announced that Facebook and Instagram will change the way content is moderated.
Instead of in-platform fact-checking, Meta’s social media sites are moving to a community-note style similar to the social platform X, owned by Elon Musk.
Musk is one of several “tech titans” to support President Donald Trump. Zuckerberg, who has been a target of the conservative party in the past, was met with praise from Trump.
TikTok
TikTok was restored on Sunday after hours of being offline. President-elect Donald J. Trump promised to issue an executive order giving their parent company (ByteDance) more time to find an approved buyer.
The platform went dark and was removed from Google and Apple’s digital stores after the Supreme Court made a unanimous decision on Friday, Jan. 17 to uphold the federal law banning the social media app, unless it’s sold to a non-Chinese parent company due to national security concerns. Once the app was restored, a message appeared on the app for users, thanking Trump.
“As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” the message read.
The inauguration
Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
During his inaugural address inside the U.S. Capitol Building, Trump touted numerous actions that he claims will ultimately usher in an American “golden age.”
Trump quickly signed several executive orders from the Oval Office, including several reversing policies of the previous administration. These included orders withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO), opening the Arctic to oil drilling and rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Presidential pardons
On Tuesday, newly-inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump went to work pardoning over 1,500 participants in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.
The sweeping pardons faced criticism from various lawmakers, who were concerned with pardoning those charged with more violent crimes such as assaulting a police officer.
Trump also pardoned 40-year-old Ross Ulbricht, founder of the dark web market site Silk Road. Sentenced to life in prison in 2015, Ulbricht created the site responsible for the exchange of some $200 million in illegal commerce using cryptocurrency.
