The Week In Five Points

US on edge after Trump incites attempted coup

As the House of Representatives prepares to move forward this week with attempts to remove Donald Trump from office, arrests and charges are under way for a number of his supporters who stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC on Wednesday.

Five people, including a Capitol policeman, died as a result of the violent attack, which lasted several chaotic hours and only just failed to prevent Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s victory in November’s election.

With Trump fuming after being removed from Twitter, the nation now faces an uncertain few days before he is replaced by Biden at noon on January 20^th. The President is apparently planning a trip to Alamo, Texas on Tuesday as part of what is expected to be a defiant final week.

Some Republicans, their party in danger of permanently fracturing, warned that impeaching the President for a second time could lead to more violence, but right now such a threat seems shockingly close to the surface in an uneasy nation.

In a piece titled The American Abyss for Sunday’s New York Times magazine, Prof Timothy Snyder writes: “Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions.”

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Covid numbers continue to soar

With predictions that the US could hit one million Covid deaths by May, the pandemic continues its relentless impact on both sides of the Atlantic, where Britain this week passed 80,000 deaths, recording more than 1,000 daily deaths for four straight days.

With mass vaccination centres set to open this week, there was some good news as it was confirmed that a third Covid vaccine, manufactured by Moderna, was set to receive approval next week and should be available in April; while a fourth vaccine, made by Janssen, may be on track for emergency authorization soon.

Health services across the country remain under tremendous pressure, and with hospitals at almost full capacity, on Sunday night there was a dramatic appeal on social media for medical and nursing staff to help.

Fresh lockdown restrictions here preventing people from leaving home except for essential reasons took effect on Friday and are due to remain in place until Feb 6^th, but Northern Ireland’s six health trusts warned this weekend that the number of Covid inpatients could double by the third week of January.

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Brexit effect hits supermarket shelves

As the British government warned of “significant disruption” at border crossings, fishermen who export perishable seafood to the EU became the “first casualty” of post-Brexit trade barriers, The Independent reported, because new bureaucracy was “making their business unviable.”

The Irish Times reported that: “The new rules have left some shelves empty in Northern Ireland this week as supermarkets struggle to import fresh goods from Britain and manufacturers have reported Northern Irish-bound trucks being unable to cross the Irish Sea due to difficulties with customs declarations.”

And with fears of growing food supply disruption to Northern Ireland, there were warnings this week that a break in the supply chain “could be just days away.”

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Uganda braced for ‘generational’ election

Ugandans go to the polls this coming Thursday, with 76-year-old President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since leading an armed uprising in 1986, facing a challenge from the main opposition leader, former pop star, Bobi Wine – aka 38-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi.

Wine this week asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Museveni and senior officials for sanctioning human rights abuses. The move comes after the candidate and campaign supporters had been attacked by security forces last month.

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Wild weather strikes Europe

The Spanish government is sending supply convoys to areas cut off by the effects of Storm Filomena this week, before temperatures fall still further. Four people died in the storm, which brought Spain’s worst snowfall for almost half a century, stranding travelers across the country.

As much as 20 inches of snow fell in Madrid on Friday and Saturday.

In Northern Ireland, the coldest night for ten years was recorded in Katesbridge, Co Down on Friday.

Filomena struck as meteorologists were assessing reports of a “a sudden stratospheric warming event” at high altitude above the North Pole which experts say could have repercussions for significant winter weather “across the Northern Hemisphere for weeks to possibly months.”