THE YEAR THAT WAS
A NEW CHAPTER
As we entered the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hoped that, with the advent of vaccines, 2021 would be a year of recovery, hope and healing. And while the ensuing 12 months did deliver moments of optimism and joy – as chronicled in the coming pages – the cataclysmic events in Washington DC, just six days into the new year, clearly stated that upheaval and discord would still very much be a part of the year’s script.
After he lost the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump’s enraged supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to disrupt the session of Congress that was ceremonially counting the votes to formalise then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Thousands surrounded Congress and the White House, five people were killed and politicians in the Senate feared for their lives as the mob stormed the building. It was a shocking scene and ensured that our entrance into 2021 would not be a peaceful one.
‘MY NAME IS CLEO’
The nightmare started on October 16 when Ellie Smith woke up after the first night of their camping trip at Blowholes camp site near Carnarvon, Western Australia, to find her 4-year-old daughter, Cleo, had vanished from their family tent. A search of the remote beachside area, about a 10-hour drive north of Perth, turned up nothing, and the state’s Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch described
