A possible free trade agreement amongst Commonwealth countries raised excitement at the recent London meeting. The Commonwealth is a loose organisation mainly of former British colonies and covers 20% of the world’s land area on all six inhabited continents, housing nearly a third of the world population. Brexit has opened up new possibilities … Read more
Rudy Guiliani, former NY Mayor and before that a US Attorney, is joining Trump’s legal team in order to bring the Mueller probe to an end. He was credited with making major improvements in the quality of life in New York and bringing down crime during his Mayoral administration in the 1990s; and … Read more
Miguel Díaz-Canel has been sworn in as Cuba’s new president, replacing Raúl Castro who took over from Fidel in 2006 and is the first non-Castro to head the nation since the 1959 revolution. He has worked his way up through the Communist Party and not expected to make radical changes, although he did … Read more
Singer Cliff Richard is suing the BBC over the misuse of private information and breaking data protection rules, for transmitting film of a police search of his UK home in 2014 after an allegation of sexual abuse had been made. No charges were ultimately brought. He says he suffered “profound and long-lasting damage” … Read more
A long-rumoured feud between Tom Cruise and John Travolta, both high-profile Scientologists, has been confirmed and described by a former security guard as competing for the favour of Scientology chief David Miscavige. He has naturally been discounted as an ‘apostate’. They are certainly an ill-matched pair, both with fairly Fixed charts. Tom Cruise’s … Read more
New Orleans is celebrating the 300th anniversary of its founding on 7th May this year. It’s known for its distinctive French and Spanish Creole architecture and multilingual heritage, as well as for its cuisine, jazz music and the Mardi Gras. It occupies both sides of the Mississippi River. A Taurus Sun does indicate … Read more
Fritz Haber, known as the father of chemical warfare, won a Nobel Prize for chemistry for his method of producing nitrogen fertilizers on which the food production for half the world’s current population depends. He also pioneered weaponizing chlorine gas for use in World War 1 and was proud of his achievement though … Read more
Vladimir Putin’s macho-Christian-nationalist rule begins to make sense or at least have coherence reading reviews of a new book out on his philosopher-hero Ivan Ilyin. Putin had his remains repatriated and made Ilyin’s essays required reading. Ilyin, born 28 March 1883, disliked Bolshevism and, in exile, gravitated towards Hitler and Mussolini, from whom … Read more
Speaker Paul Ryan’s surprise announcement of his resignation come November to spend more time with his family has sent shivers down the GOP, already facing sagging poll numbers. Born 29 January 1970 2.37pm Janesville, Wisconsin, he was never a good fit with Trump, but hung around to see the tax cuts through. He … Read more
Mark Zuckerburg has been gritting his teeth through two days of Senate hearings on Facebook misdemeanours over data, his delivery described as ‘robotic with a smile that looks as though he’s more used to using emojis.’ Born 14 May 1984, White Plains, NY with a putative time of 2.39pm (astrotheme), he’s got a … Read more