Irish Examiner view: A new battle begins in the United States

Battle lines are being drawn as Donald Trump's administration seeks to tighten its authoritarian grip on the US by sending national guard troops into Washington DC

Personnel in semi-military uniforms including these Department of Homeland Security Investigation officers have been patrolling the streets of Washington DC. Picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

As Donald Trump tries to tighten his authoritarian grip on America by sending national guard troops into Washington DC, securing a federal takeover of the city’s police force, and with the Pentagon planning for the deployment of the national guard in Chicago, it seems battle lines are being drawn.

Trump, the subject of increasing health speculation, has thus far targeted areas that voted against him in the presidential election, and has indicated that New York will be next.

It is worth noting here that, while Trump and his Maga mandarins have alleged that violent crime is out of control in Washington DC and other conveniently opposing cities, the real hotspots for murder and other violent crimes are in Republican heartlands.

Indeed, national guard members from Louisiana have been redeployed to the nation’s capital when their own state has the highest murder rate per capita in America — though this is less about law and order and more about attempting to crush resistance before a feared blue wave crashes over Congress in 2026. 

It is no wonder that California governor Gavin Newsom — by no means universally loved among Democrat voters — has been so staunch in his attempts to counteract the Texas powergrab. However, while his powerful and unceasing satirisation of Trump’s social media postings has stimulated online resistance, it now seems to be emboldening other governors to follow his example of gerrymandering California.

We should note that gerrymandering should not be a feature of any functioning democracy. We should note also that Newsom’s supporters — and his proposal is currently very popular among voters — may feel that desperate times call for desperate measures.

The governors of New York and Maryland, both Democrats, have suggested they too may join the mission.

New York’s Kathy Hochul simply responded “game on” when news broke that Texas had formally reworked the districts. Maryland, meanwhile, has exactly one Republican member of Congress as things stand. However, with the Republican majority slim as it is, it would seem that Newsom’s message that American democracy is under threat is hitting home with at least some of his fellow governors. 

It remains to be seen if Illinois governor JB Pritzker will join in, though he has been an outspoken critic of Trump so far and has clearly stated that there is no emergency crime in his state that warrants sending federal forces to Chicago.

The 11-week period between now and California’s special referendum on Newsom’s legislation could transform an off-cycle election year into a high-stakes national showdown.

Even after that, the national outcome is still unclear.

Everything is changed, changed utterly, and the next three years could be very long and fraught indeed.

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Arctic sea ice 

News last week that the melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the last 20 years appeared, on the face of it, be music to the ears of climate change deniers It is not.

While the findings of this latest research are surprising, especially given the rise in fossil fuel burning since 2005, scientists reckon natural variations in ocean currents that limit ice melting may have balanced the continuing rise in global temperatures. 

But this, they maintain, is only a temporary reprieve, and expect melting is highly likely to resume in the next five to 10 years, but at about double the long-term rate.

The area covered by Arctic sea ice has halved since 1979 when measurements began and scientists say the climate crisis remains “unequivocally real” with the need for urgent action to combat its worst impacts remaining unchanged.

The slowdown means that earlier predictions — 10 to 15 years ago — that the ice would be gone by now, have not happened and that natural variability has largely cancelled sea ice loss.

What has been achieved by this is simply that humankind has been given a little more time to try and sort out the mess we’ve created.

The sad fact of the matter is that this is nothing more than a temporary reprieve and that when the sea ice disappears, as it inevitably will, it will not be good news in any shape or form. 

Experts say the Arctic will probably see ice-free conditions later this century, harming the people and wildlife in the region.

Even despite the slowdown, the fact remains that climate change is indisputably real and the urgency for climate action remains unchanged.

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Admire Blasket wildlife — from a distance

Imagine tramping through a native seal colony and picking up a pup so you can take a selfie with it? Or flying a drone devastatingly close to nesting bird colonies, just so you can impress your friends with the resulting footage?

It seems unconscionable that people would so readily — and ignorantly — disturb nature in such a fashion, but there are growing concerns that that is exactly what is happening on the Great Blasket Island.

There are almost daily reports now about how human disturbance is threatening seal and bird colonies. This is no longer simply a matter of intrusive tourism, it is a form of vandalism that threatens the very existence of native species.

It is known that, in 2022, a seal pup died after tourists picked it up for a selfie before throwing it into the sea. It was too young to swim and drowned.

The incident was widely reported at the time, but observers on the island are reporting that tourists are still approaching grey seal colonies. These are a protected species in a special area of conservation.

Home to about 2,000 grey seals, the Great Blasket is a tourist hotspot and while undoubtedly most of them pay proper respect to the wildlife living there, some are reckless at worst and unthinking at best.

Wildlife experts point out that one of the big dangers of approaching the seals is that mothers get scared and abandon their pups, leaving them to die. Similarly, the use of drones to film bird colonies is equally hazardous to them.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service say that new signage and educational leaflets handed to all visitors work well, but the fact of the matter is that there is simply no talking to certain people who will seemingly do anything to attain notoriety or a few minutes of social media fame.