The Royal gilded cage has iron bars in highly conservative Japan where hefty restrictions on the freedom of the imperial ladies has caused serious depression for the Crown Princess, also castigated for not producing a male heir. Now Princess Mako, the daughter of Akishino, second-in-line to the throne, appears to have run foul … Read more
‘When ambitious psychopaths get control democracy goes wrong’ – a thought from author Robert Harris, whose trilogy of novels about power and ambition in Ancient Rome has been dramatized for the stage. He said when he wrote it he had “absolutely no idea the parallels with Brexit and President Trump would be so … Read more
The leaders of the Japanese religious doomsday cult who released the nerve gas sarin on the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 13 and injuring 5,500 have been executed by hanging. Aum Shinrikyo was started as a yoga and meditation group in 1984 and expanded into a popular though money-grabbing cult, with a … Read more
Michael Avenatti, the pugnacious lawyer who represents porn actress Stormy Daniels in her ongoing legal dispute with Donald Trump, says he’ll run against him in 2020 if he thinks there is no other candidate with a real chance of beating him. Avenatti’s background is as an attorney and entrepreneur, a media regular, who … Read more
Claude Lanzmann, the film maker has died, best known for his nine-and-a-half-hour epic Holocaust documentary Shoah. He filmed gruelling interviews with concentration camp survivors and pretended to be pro-Nazi in order to film the guilty. Born 27 November 1925 8.15 pm Bois Colombes, France, into a Jewish family, he joined the French communist … Read more
Angela Merkel has survived to fight on, reaching an agreement on an immigration deal that almost blew her fragile new coalition government apart. Her 4th term chart, 14 March 2018 12.02pm, is buoyed up by Jupiter so likely to slide through most hiccups and it didn’t show any indications of a cataclysmic meltdown … Read more
A landslide election victory in Mexico for the left-wing, anti-establishment Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) crushed the two main parties whom he had described as the “mafia of power”. He faces a mountain of problems with widespread corruption, drug and cartel violence, poverty and inequality – at least 48 candidates were murdered during … Read more
Three Identical Strangers is a documentary film on US cinema release about identical boy triplets, deliberately separated at their adoption when six months old as a psychological experiment on nature and nurture. One went to a working-class family, one middle-class, one wealthy and the adoptive parents were not told about the missing brothers. … Read more
Joe Jackson has died, aged 89, renowned for shaping and promotion of the Jackson 5, comprising his sons Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael, and later Randy who were a phenomenon in the late 1960s and 70s. But also known for his cruelty in beating his children and he was described by Alex … Read more
Saudi Arabian women are moving out of purdah in moves decreed by the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). They can now drive, open their own business without a male’s permission and can retain immediate custody of their children after divorce without having to file any lawsuits. The first concert featuring a female … Read more