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Obama Inauguration: Four More Years, Top 10 History Quiz To Swear By

REUTERS, TELEGRAPH (UK), CNN, SENATE.GOV (USA)

Worldcrunch

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Barack Obama will be sworn in Monday as the President of The United States for a second time. A swearing-in ceremony, parade and an inaugural ball will mark the event.

A private ceremony took place on Sunday because the U.S. Constitution mandates that the president take office on January 20.

photo: White House via Wikipedia

The ceremony will take place on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington D.C., followed by an address to the nation from Obama.

Reuters reports that in is inaugural address, Obama is expected to talk about the need for political compromise where possible, a reminder of the intense battles in his first term that led to paralysis and dysfunction in Washington. His top policy goals for the first year, so far, include tightening gun regulations in response to the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a Conneticut elementary school in December. Obama is seeking an overhaul of immigration laws and tax reform.

With January 21 falling on the national holiday that celebrates Dr Martin Luther King Jr., a personal idol for the POTUS, Obama will also have a chance to draw historic parallels. While taking the oath on Monday, he will place his left hand on two Bibles - one once owned by Abraham Lincoln and the other by King.

Here's 10 things you didn't know about inaugurations:

1. Until Franklin Pierce in 1853, instead of putting one’s left hand on it, the President kissed the bible. - CNN

2.Three Presidents didn’t even use a bible: John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. - CNN

3. George W Bush had the Masonic bible used by George Washington in 1789 flown in under armed guard for his first ceremony but due to poor weather, a family bible was substituted. - senate.gov

4. Obama will be the first President to take the oath both privately as well as a publicly. - CNN

5. Bill Clinton was the first President to embrace technology and have his inauguration streamed live on the Internet. - senate.gov

6. By Monday, Obama will have been sworn in four times, two for each term, matching Franklin Roosevelt, who won four terms. A second Obama swearing-in was deemed necessary in 2009 when Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the first one. - Reuters

7. George Washington delivered the shortest address at his second inauguration in Philadelphia. It totaled 135 words - tweetable for sure! - CNN

8. Lyndon Johnson is the only President to take the oath on an airplane - Air Force One en route to Washington after the assassination of JFK. - senate.gov

9. The first time women participated in the ceremony was during Woodrow Wilson’s second inauguration. - senate.gov

10. Obama seemed a bit distracted before the ceremony, declaring: "I love Michelle Obama. And to address the most significant event of this weekend, I love her bangs!” - Telegraph

The First Lady just met with Inaugural citizen co-chair David Hall ahead of #MLKDay of Service: 2013pic.org/servicetwitter.com/FLOTUS/status/…

— FLOTUS (@FLOTUS) January 17, 2013

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Geopolitics

How Russia And China Are Trying To Drive France Out Of Africa

Fueled by the Kremlin, anti-French sentiment in Africa has been spreading for years. Meanwhile, China is also increasing its influence on the continent as Africa's focus shifts from west to east.

Photo of a helicopter landing, guided a member of France's ​Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maneuver by members of France's Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maria Oleksa Yeschenko

France is losing influence in its former colonies in Africa. After French President Emmanuel Macron decided last year to withdraw the military from the Sahel and the Central African Republic, a line was drawn under the "old French policy" on the continent. But the decision to withdraw was not solely a Parisian initiative.

October 23-24, 2019, Sochi. Russia holds the first large-scale Russia-Africa summit with the participation of four dozen African heads of state. At the time, French soldiers are still helping Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger fight terrorism as part of Operation Barkhane.

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Few people have heard of the Wagner group. The government of Mali is led by Paris-friendly Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, although the country has already seen several pro-Russian demonstrations. At that time, Moscow was preparing a big return to the African continent, similar to what happened in the 1960s during the Soviet Union.

So what did France miss, and where did it all go wrong?

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