By Myke Uzendu, Abuja with Agency report
Recall that Trumps campaigns were marked by two attempts on his life – including one from a would-be assassin who nicked his ear with a bullet – and a pair of New Year’s Day attacks on ordinary Americans. In one, 14 people were killed and dozens injured when a U.S. Army veteran rammed a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans. The same day, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier detonated a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump-branded hotel in Las Vegas, killing himself.
“We are in a higher-threat environment,” said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool at a press briefing.
Trump’s 2024 election rival, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, conceded her defeat in the Nov. 5 contest, while Trump continued to maintain that his earlier loss to Biden in 2019 was as a result of fraud.
Security officials said they were not aware of any specific, coordinated threats to the inauguration. What they are worried about is lone wolves, such as the New Orleans attacker, or separate incidents.
Recall that just last week, a man was arrested for trying to bring a machete into the Capitol. In the other, a man was arrested for trying to ignite a fire near the Capitol, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
“That threat of the lone actor remains the biggest justification for us being at this heightened state of alert throughout the next week,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told the security briefing.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned police nationwide of the risk of copycat attacks similar to the New Orleans incident.
A large chunk of downtown Washington – stretching about 2 miles (3 km) from the White House to the Capitol – will be closed to vehicular traffic, with entry points blocked with concrete barriers, garbage trucks and other heavy items.
The 30 miles of 7-foot-tall (2-meters-tall) black fencing, designed to be unclimbable, will be the longest ever erected in Washington, officials said. Some 7,800 National Guard troops and 4,000 officers brought in from other police departments around the country will reinforce security.
While some residents of the city, where 90% of voters cast ballots for Harris over Trump, were readying to leave for the holiday weekend or hunker down at home to avoid the gridlock, tens of thousands of people were expected to descend upon the city for celebrations and protests.
About 70% of Washington’s 34,500 hotel rooms were booked for the night of the inauguration and the night before as of last week, according to data from Smith Travel Research and shared with Reuters by Destination DC, Washington’s official tourism organization. Hotel occupancy was at about 95% for Trump’s 2017 inauguration, and about 78% for former President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
Trump’s 2017 inauguration was marked by massive protests and counter-protests. His former spokesman, Sean Spicer, famously began his tenure by claiming – contrary to photographic evidence — that the crowd on the grassy National Mall was “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration – period.”
The Women’s March the following day drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of Washington — and even more in pop-up solidarity events that took place around the country.
A far smaller crowd of 25,000 people is expected to take part in the anti-Trump People’s March on DC on Saturday, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.
Thousands are expected to show up for nearly a dozen other protests or rallies that local officials have permitted between Saturday and Monday, including a Trump rally at the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena on Sunday.
Juliette Kayyem, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School who served as a homeland security official during the Obama administration, said officials appeared to follow standard practice in planning for all possibilities.
“What you’re planning for is a worst-case scenario, but my suspicion is you’re not going to get it, which is good,” Kayyem said. “In terms of planning, it’s always easier to ratchet down than ratchet up.”
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Belgium: Nationwide strike cripples air, land and train services
A nationwide strike in Belgium has disrupted traffic and public services in response to the government’s planned pension reform.
The strike especially bears consequences for train, bus, and air traffic, with a dozen connections having been cancelled. Only around one in three InterCity trains will run on the main routes and most public transport in Brussels will be cancelled.
Belgian residents had already received a warning last week about a strike between 10pm on Sunday and 10pm on Monday. The CFL also advises its customers to check the impact of the strike on CFL.lu or their mobile app.
Air traffic, too was severely disrupted. According to the Belgian news agency Belga, around half of Brussels Airlines’ European flights are cancelled while Charleroi Airport is expecting “severe disruptions.”
About 40 percent of flights taking off or landing at Brussels airport – Belgium’s largest – were cancelled, as baggage handlers, security staff and other personnel downed tools, the company operating the terminal told AFP. Flag carrier Brussels Airlines said on Saturday it was forced to pre-emptively cancel half its flights within Europe to keep long-haul routes running.
The schools in Flanders, the hygiene service, and the post office are also partially affected by the strike. A demonstration of at least 10,000 demonstrators is planned in Brussels. Many teachers, particularly in the Dutch-speaking northern Flanders region, where federal authorities have a say over education, joined the walkout, according to the unions.
The nationwide strike was called by Belgium’s three main unions to protest against pension cuts that might be enacted by the incoming government. Belgian parties are still in talks to form a new federal administration following elections in June. Elections were only held six months ago, but the signs are increasingly pointing to a centre-right coalition.
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Irregular migration into EU dropped sharply in 2024, EU border agency says
The number of migrants entering the European Union by irregualr routes has dropped overall by 38% in 2024, reaching the lowest level since 2021, the EU border agency Frontex said on Tuesday.
However, the number of people crossing from the EU’s borders with Belarus and Russia jumped 192% to 17,000, Frontex said.
Significant numbers of migrants or asylum-seekers also came from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and African countries even as routes into the bloc shifted.
Irregular migration has become a key issue in European politics with many far-right and populist parties campaigning in recent and upcoming elections, including in Germany next month, on promises of getting tough on migration.
Frontex said the drop to just over 239,000 irregular border crossings last year was thanks to intensified EU and partner cooperation against smuggling networks. It was the lowest level since 2021 when migration was still affected by the COVID pandemic.
The overall reduction in irregular migration was mainly driven by a 59% plunge in arrivals via the Central Mediterranean route due to fewer departures from Tunisia and Libya and a 78% fall on the Western Balkan route thanks to strong efforts by countries in the region to stem the flow, Frontex said.
But there were 14% more cases, reaching 69,400, of irregular border crossing attempts on the Eastern Mediterranean route driven by new corridors from eastern Libya, with migrants predominantly from Syria, Afghanistan, and Egypt.
There was also an 18% rise in the number of migrants taking the Western African route to reach the Canary Islands with arrivals reaching almost 47,000 last year, fueled by departures from Mauritania.