UK Today in Coronavirus
With GCSE and A-level exams having been cancelled the UK government has announced that teacher assessments will be used to give grades and this time without interfering algorithms that led to uproar and embarrassment last year for both the UK and Scottish governments and of which were reversed. With this news hopefully many young people can be convinced that they should be likely to get a good grade from teachers who know best.
South Africa’s top advisor on immunisations has also warned the UK that by delaying the 2nd dose of the coronavirus vaccine will put vulnerable people more at risk from new variants of the coronavirus, such as the new South African strain for example. It is worried that the South African strain could possibly reduce how effective the current vaccines are and also lead to more re-infections in people who have already recovered from the virus, due to it being more resistant to antibodies (unlike the new England variant that was simply only more contagious but not more resistant), the SA strain is both more contagious and more resistant.
So far there have been two known cases of the South Africa variant in the UK but luckily so far it does not sound like it is yet spreading out of control here like it is in South Africa.
South Africa has said that nonetheless increased border controls would not stop the new variant entirely and has advised that both doses of the coronavirus vaccine should be administered as fast as possible to decrease the severity of the new SA variant.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has said that England’s latest national lockdown should be the last one, in quite a bold statement, but reasonable enough if vaccinations go to plan, but that in itself is a tight rope. Hancock also said there is uncertainty over how long immunity would last from the vaccines and said that it may be likely people will need to be revaccinated, possibly every six months or every year. He also said that he expects coronavirus testing and vaccines to still be ongoing into 2022 as well.
Siege of the US Capitol
Yesterday some very crazy scenes were witnessed in Washington D.C when crowds of Trump supporters managed to storm the US Capitol building, even breaking into the Senate chamber and a number of offices within the building. Both chambers had to be evacuated as well as a number of other Capitol buildings as police were overwhelmed.
It comes as the US Congress were counting and certifying the Electoral College vote of which Mike Pence, the current Vice-President said that he would be respecting the democratic process and not overturning the result. Mike Pence was also evacuated from the chamber due to the mob that had broken in and both chambers had to go into recess, suspending counting of the EC vote and of the debates on the objections.
Trump later, perhaps after a degree of pressuring, put out some tweets and a video on Twitter asking the mob not to attack authorities and to also go home, but at the same time much anti-election rhetoric was still included, eventually Twitter took action against Trump, limiting his tweets and eventually even totally freezing his account, Facebook also did the same.
After the chaos was brought under control by mass numbers of police, SWAT and National Guard (with the National Guard having been authorized by Mike Pence instead of Trump) reinforcements both chambers resumed the counting of the Electoral Vote rather than delaying it until the next day as a way of showing they were not cowed or intimidated by the mob. The siege of the Capitol had the effect of turning a number of GOP members off of any further attempts at objecting to the votes in certain states (such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) including all GOP senators, which made the process much faster as without a Senator signing any of the objections there could be no delay for a debate on them.
The scenes certainly shocked the world, the US meant to be a beacon of democracy with its democratic center under siege in what seemed to be an attempt to prevent the next administration from being confirmed, some would even call it an attempted coup. Sadly one person was shot dead by plainclothed security who had barricaded the entrence to the House floor. Three others died due to medical emergencies. Many say this blood is now on Trump’s hands. After all this it is apparent Trump said he will now commit to a peaceful transfer of power on the 20th January, though he still continued to highlight his belief that the election was rigged.
I myself did not realize how bad this could get, I did think there may possibly be some violence from what were originally protests but I did not think it would turn into a full scale breach of the US Capitol, as if it were some kind of movie. And it was also a monumental failure in security and policing, many are wondering how authorities were not prepared for this possibility, considering they had days of advanced warning of the planned protests.
Some have even accussed the police of being complicit with the mob, allowing them access into the Capitol, such have called for investigations into exactly the role the authorities played during the siege.
It is also evident that Mike Pence has further broke ranks with Trump, perhaps in an attempt to save his own face for the future, similar to many Republicans in Congress on that day. People have begun asking for Trump to be removed from office early via his Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment, but whether this will happen or not is to be seen. It is possible that doing this could have the adverse effect of causing more unrest from Trump supporters and as such Trump may be kept in until the final day. At the same time you do not want to be seen giving in to mob mentality.
Personally I think Trump should resign after all of this which he is responsible for causing through his dangerous rhetoric, but I highly doubt he will resign off his own accord. There is talk of impeachment although I am not sure how long the process would take before the 20th rolls around anyway.
All I can say is that I am very shocked that this happened. But Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will still be sworn in as President and Vice-President on 20th January nonetheless. It is just very sad it has boiled down to this, and quite the embarrassment for the US.
Watching security point guns out of a barricaded House of Representatives is something I’ll never forget, in-fact that whole day is something I will never forget.
Kim Joung-un Admits Economic Failure
In a rather unexpected move it is reported that the North Korean leader Kim Joung-un has admitted that his economic plans for the country have been a failure, this he told to the congress of his Workers’ Party.
Kim Joung-un was reffering to his 5-year finance programme which he says has failed to meet its goal in almost all areas to a great extent. Kim Joung-un has now called for a replacement of the finance plan and also reviews into the country’s key industries. North Korea’s economy, one of the poorest in Asia, has been hammered by years of US sanctions over nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing and historic 2018 peace negotiations led to a stalemate over the ending of these sanctions.
Recent natural disasters in the country and also the fallout of border closures with its economic lifeline China due to pandemic issues has led to further chaos for the country’s ailing economy. State money being spent on expensive nuclear and ballistic missile development and testing is also thought to be a contributing factor.
I wonder what Joe Biden’s approach towards North Korea will be like?
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