the other currents battering the country

Does "currents" here simply mean "events"?

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Trump’s Illness Makes It Clear: This Election Was Always About the Virus
For all of the tumult of the race between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. — and for all of the other currents battering the country and its leaders in an election year — the issue of the virus has never retreated as the overwhelming factor.

Source: New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/politics/trump-biden-virus-campaign-2020.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur