Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email
Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter
A shadow will be cast across the Earth when Donald Trump arrives in the UK.
The president will arrive on the same day as a partial solar eclipse, when the moon moves in front of the sun and blocks out the sky. What’s more, it will arrive on the famously unlucky day of Friday the 13th.
Eclipses have long been feared as harbingers of great change or danger, throughout human society. In the past, many cultures formed myths and traditions around the events, which were seen as dangerous and awe-inspiring in equal measure.
Friday the 13th has acquired much the same reputation, being seen as a particularly unlucky day. But some have appropriated it as positive for precisely that reason, celebrating it instead.
The eclipse will not be visible in the UK or the US. It will only pass over Antarctica and Australia, though it will almost certainly be streamed online.
The dates of Mr Trump’s visit – and whether he should be invited to come at all – has long been a point of dispute in the UK. Some politicians have argued he shouldn’t be invited at all, and his arrival will be met with what could be one of the largest ever protests on UK streets.
Donald Trump stares into solar eclipse without safety glasses, while aides shout 'don't look!'
It is not the first time that an eclipse has overlapped with Mr Trump’s presidency. When the US was visited by a total solar eclipse last year he made the news for looking directly at the sun despite all medical advice, and then proceeded to tweet a bizarre animated picture in which he eclipsed President Obama.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies