Kofi Annan, Nobel prize-winning head of the UN for two terms, has died. The descendant of generations of Ghanaian tribal chiefs, he rose up through the ranks at the UN to become one of its most powerful leaders, pushing through reforms, although running into controversies as well, especially over Iraq and Abu Ghraib. … Read more
Mark Chapman, John Lennon’s killer, is up again for parole next week, as he has been every two years for the past decade after he had served 20 years of his sentence. He’s been turned down every time. Born 15 May 1955 7.30pm Fort Worth, Texas to a military and, he claims, abusive … Read more
The Paul Manafort trial on charges of filing false tax returns, four counts of failing to disclose his offshore bank accounts, and nine counts of bank fraud is now into its second day of jury deliberations. The jury has requested more advice on what amounts to reasonable doubt suggesting they are divided about … Read more
The slagging match between Trump and Omarosa Manigault has reached a new low with him referring to her as a ‘dog’ and a ‘crazed low life’ on a tweet. She claims there is a tape of him using the N-word; and her book Trump Unhinged has evoked a robust defence from the White … Read more
Jeremy Corbyn has been on the receiving end of a string of media attacks for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, his support over the years for terrorist leaders, and outraged headlines over his supposed commemoration of a Palestinian Black September leader (hotly denied). Whatever the absolute truth or otherwise of the accusations, he’s … Read more
Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul”, one of the best selling artists of all time, appears to be getting hospice care at home having been ill for a number of years, though she was still performing late last year. She was born 25 March 1942 10.30pm Memphis Tennessee to a well-known itinerant preacher … Read more
Monsanto, the agrochemical corporation which is a major producer of genetically modified crops, has lost their case against a claim that their weedkiller Roundup caused cancer. A San Francisco jury awarded $289 million to a terminally ill groundsman. They found that Monsanto failed to warn him of the health hazards from exposure and “acted … Read more
Robert Redford has decided to hang up his spurs with his final movie The Old Man & The Gun playing career criminal and escape artist Forrest Tucker, due out late September. He said “I’ve been doing it (acting) since I was 21. I thought why not go out with something that’s very upbeat … Read more
Just for fun. The old enmity between England and France stretches back a millennium, with wiki listing 22 wars between the two countries and that was only from 1200 onwards till the early 19th Century; so not including the Norman invasion of 1066. The England 11 May 973 JC AD chart probably works … Read more
Harlan Ellison – “one of the great living American short story writers” – has died. Staggeringly prolific he wrote 1700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts and essays, mainly in speculative new fiction, which included science fiction. Notorious as a firebrand, he once described himself as “a yapping dog with mean little … Read more