Week 3 2021

Week Commencing 18th Jan 2021

Trump delivers farewell address, Donald Trump has made his final speech before leaving office, saying: “We did what we came to do - and so much more.” 

The president, who leaves office today, said he took on “the tough battles, the hardest fights... because that's what you elected me to do”. He has also issued 73 more pardons in his final hours in office, including one for his former adviser Steve Bannon, who has been charged with fraud.

In the US, Joe Biden was sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, and kicked off his term in office by immediately signing a raft of executive orders that included recommitting the US to the Paris Climate Agreement and ending the travel ban on Muslim majority countries.

26000 troops poured into the city to help protect Wednesday's inauguration events, ANTIFA mobs clashed with cops as rioters vandalized the HQ of the Oregon Democrats, burned American flags outside state capitols and chanted anti Joe Biden slurs during a series of protests held on Inauguration Day.

Hundreds of members of the militant left-wing-group gathered in cities across the US on wednesday as cops were forced to fire tear gas as protests erupted into violence and vandalism. 

President Trump left a note for incoming President Joe Biden before departing the White House, Trump spokesperson Judd Deere confirmed.

Deere said the contents of the note are just between Trump and Biden, and that it was left for Biden in the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. It's traditional for outgoing presidents to leave a note for their successor.

While Trump is breaking a century and a half tradition of every outgoing president attending the inauguration of their successor, he is keeping with the now 32-year tradition of the departing commander in chief writing a note to the incoming president.

Biden’s arrival in the White House has reportedly triggered a major charm offensive by No. 10, with Boris Johnson aiming to set the UK apart from the EU in the eyes of the new US administration. 

The prime minister is also seeking to distance himself from Donald Trump, who used his final hours in the Oval Office to issue a flurry of pardons to high-profile figures including rappers, financiers and his former adviser Steve Bannon.
Boris Johnson has become the first European leader to speak to Joe Biden since his inauguration, claims The Sunday Times. Following the call, the prime minister said on Twitter that he looked forward to “deepening the longstanding alliance” between the UK and the US. The BBC says the order in which a new occupant of the White House speaks to other world leaders is a “crude metric of relative importance.
Elsewhere on the world stage, the detention of poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on his return to Russia prompted an outpouring of condemnation from Western countries.

Vaccinated may spread Covid, People who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam said that scientists “do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission,” so even the vaccinated should continue following lockdown rules. He said “no vaccine has ever been 100% effective".

The UK’s daily Covid-19 death toll reached a record 1,610 on Tuesday 19th, while the number of new cases dropped by 4,180 to 33,355. The seven-day average for new cases is down by 22% in a week but the weekly average for deaths is up by 20%. Ministers fear a “day before Armistice” wave of infections and deaths as people relax social distancing too quickly after being vaccinated.

The daily number of coronavirus deaths had reached 1,820 on Wednesday 20th, the highest since the pandemic began.

The number of new cases rose sharply to 38,905, after a fall earlier in the week which inspired optimism that lockdown restrictions were working.

For the second day in a row, the UK recorded the biggest increase in Covid-19 deaths within 28 days of testing positive, up on Tuesday’s high of 1,610.

Boris Johnson said the record daily death toll was “appalling” and warned “there will be more to come”.

The prime minister said: “These figures are appalling, and of course we think of the suffering that each one of those deaths represents to their families and to their friends. I’ve got to tell you … there will be more to come”. He said that the new variant was now in virtually all parts of the UK

“It’s true that it looks as though the rates of infection in the country overall may now be peaking or flattening but they’re not flattening very fast and it’s clear that we must keep a grip on this. We must maintain discipline, formation, keep observing the lockdown.”

Mixed messages about the UK’s vaccination campaign have been emerging from Whitehall this week, with pundits asking whether Boris Johnson has learned a lesson about his tendency to over promise and under deliver. 

Ministers have moved to downplay expectations about the speedy UK rollout, despite reports that Johnson is privately planning to end the current lockdown in April.

Keeping those plans under wraps may turn out to be prescient, after a study by Imperial College London found “no strong evidence” that high Covid-19 infection rates fell during the first ten days of the latest national lockdown.

The research - published just days after government data suggested that shutdown measures had caused a dip in infections - means Johnson may hold fire from announcing any easing of restrictions for a while longer.

The boss of the world health organisation says richer countries like the UK should stop hoarding vaccines and allow health workers in developing nations to become vaccinated quickly.

Parents face months more homeschooling, Children may not return to the classroom until after the Easter holidays, says The Sunday Times. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, is expected to rule out children returning to the classroom after the February half-term holiday. Education leaders said they did not expect them to reopen fully until mid-April or even as late as May. Last week, Williamson said he would “certainly hope” schools could reopen before Easter.

Minister warns of more floods, Environment Secretary George Eustice has warned the “danger has not passed” and more flooding could hit parts of north-western England devastated by recent deluges of rain. After hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes, and the body of a man was recovered from a river in Cardiff, the minister warned: “The water levels remain high and there is the risk of possible further flooding next week.