Daily Briefing: A busy Inauguration Day

President-elect Donald Trump intends to start his second White House term with a flurry of executive orders and directives. The Santa Ana winds that fanned the fires devastating Southern California are forecast to return. Ohio State and Notre Dame battle for the College Football Playoff title on Monday night.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Congrats to UConn great Paige Bueckers for her 2,000th career point! 🏀

Here's what could be coming on Trump Day 1

There's no doubt a major transformation is underway. Donald Trump is planning to pass at least 100 executive actions over his first few days of office after getting sworn in as the 47th president on Monday.

Trump is calling today a "liberation day for America." The orders will bypass Congress to undo President Joe Biden's policies ranging from climate to diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce while carrying out Trump's campaign promises to secure the southern border, expand domestic energy production and target transgender Americans.

• This aggressive transition previews a disruptive second term for Trump. The president-elect's allies and his critics tell Paste BN they expect ample upheaval over the coming months, with a new Republican administration arriving stocked with bomb-throwers and advisers like Elon Musk, the world's richest man, claiming massive change is needed to save the country.
• All eyes on the border:  Trump has promised to target immigrants with criminal records as he launches a "mass deportation" to remove millions of people from the country. Over the weekend, he said Monday "will be the most aggressive, sweeping effort to restore our borders the world has ever seen."
• Democrats: Cooperate or resist Trump 2.0? As Democrats and progressive activists reach the acceptance phase of their political grief, there is less uniformity in confronting or cooperating with the returning Trump administration.

Wait — so now TikTok IS back?!

President-elect Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order Monday afternoon, hours into his second term, temporarily halting a ban on the popular video app TikTok.

• If you've been offline, here's happened over the weekend: The Supreme Court Friday upheld a law by Congress requiring TikTok's China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest or shutter operations in the U.S. As of Saturday evening, American users couldn't open the app.
• Here's what happened next: Trump in a post on Truth Social on Sunday said his order will "extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security." Later Sunday, TikTok restored service and thanked Trump for the move.
• Now what? Trump proposed to let the United States own half of the popular social media platform to satisfy a law requiring the Chinese-owned app to divest its U.S. operations.

The bottom line: TikTok is back — for now. But content creators who rely on the app for income face an uncertain future. 

More news to know now

• Heavy snow, dangerously low temperatures put more than 70 million Americans under winter storm warnings.
• Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of a new ceasefire agreement.
• Federal workers are full of uncertainty over Trump's promise to require in- office work five days a week.
• Final day on the job: Here's what Biden said on his last full day as president.
• Black residents in Altadena, California, fear for the future of their neighborhood.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Santa Ana winds threaten Californians again

Santa Ana winds are poised to resurge as firefighters scramble to douse the deadly blazes that have destroyed more than 10,000 homes, businesses and other structures in Southern California. Weather officials said in a red flag warning the winds are expected to pick up on Monday and last through Tuesday, creating "a high risk for critical fire weather conditions." Areas of most concern, which included Ventura County and communities north of Los Angeles, were issued the "particularly dangerous situation" warning. Here's what to know about wildfire conditions in California right now.

Civil rights activists call for action as MLK Day and inauguration fall on same day

While Donald Trump is being sworn in as president for the second time on Monday, civil rights activists plan to take a different oath just a few blocks from the White House. They will remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose federal holiday named in his honor also falls on that day, by pledging to challenge any efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle hard-fought gains in civil rights. For these activists, Trump represents everything King worked against, and for them, it would dishonor King's legacy to remain silent ‒ on this of all days.

Today's talkers

• Snoop Dogg is under fire for a performance at an event celebrating the Trump inauguration.
• Here's the scoop on the "reading is political" debate.
• What are smoothie cubes?
• A Paste BN reporter is looking for love online. You can, too.
• "Severance" is back for a psychedelic Season 2, but is it too weird?

Notre Dame, Ohio State's biggest battle? Their schedules.

The College Football Playoff has been narrowed down to two teams who survived the first-ever 12-team format and are ready to compete for a national championship. The Ohio State Buckeyes will face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Monday night for the chance to be crowned kings of college football. But any team that gets this far in the new format must play 16 or 17 games, making endurance arguably the most important factor in how to reach a championship nowadays. Both teams have worked aggressively to keep healthy through a grinding calendar unlike one any other college program has faced. 

Photo of the day: Eagles freeze out Rams to reach NFC championship game 

Through sleet and snow, the Philadelphia Eagles leaned on their defense and forced two fourth-quarter turnovers to outlast the Los Angeles Rams, 28-22, in a back-and-forth NFC divisional-round contest that concluded with a final, decisive stand. Here's a full recap of the showdown.

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at Paste BN, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.