Finland became a NATO member yesterday as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which was launched by Putin in the expectation it would check Nato’s expansion and weaken Western cooperation. Finland’s entry will more than double the size of NATO’s border with Russia, adding another 800 plus miles. Finnish support for Nato membership … Read more
Tom Cruise may well have saved movies as he soared to the number one banking star in Top Gun Maverick, grossing $1.5 billion, but there are still puzzling questions over his complicated private life. A celebrity magazine alleged he had not seen his daughter Suri, now 16, since he divorced her mother Katie Holmes a … Read more
Pope Francis has cancelled engagements after being hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia and breathing problems. Now 86 and facing internal dissension in the Vatican he must be wondering whether taking the Pope Benedict route to resigning might not be a relief. His election chart, 13 March 2013 7.06pm, is heading into a road … Read more
The USA’s obsession with guns has always felt like a lost cause. An evil jinn that has been allowed to flourish with no hope of corking it back in a bottle. Another school shooting evokes local grief and general sighs of disbelief, outrage and despair but no solution. Barack Obama said it was his … Read more
Humza Yousaf won the leadership of the SNP in the second round with 52.1% of the 50,000 member votes after Ash Regan had been knocked out. Kate Forbes who had lambasted his record saying when he was transport secretary, the trains were always late; when he was justice secretary the police were in crisis; as … Read more
Child actress Brooke Shields miraculously survived an alcoholic stage mother who turned her into the family breadwinner from aged 11 months onwards as an advertising star. Then agreed for her to pose nude for Playboy aged 10 and signed up for her role as a child prostitute a year later in Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby. … Read more
Turmoil in Israel with 600,000 on the streets protesting, the military up in arms and threats from the largest union to paralyze the economy by striking, look likely to force Benjamin Netanyahu to back down on his controversial judicial reforms. The Israeli government, the most right-wing ever, wants to take full control over the committee … Read more
Monaco is aflutter over a magazine story of a split between Prince Albert and his beleaguered wife Charlene with hot denials being issued about ‘the malicious rumours’ and assurances about their joint appearance at King Charles’ Coronation in May. Their relationship chart always was atrociously bad. The explosively unstable wedding chart equally was an omen … Read more
Solar activity is heading for a peak period lasting several years which could result in power outages, grounded flights, and auroras. Solar flares which are powerful bursts of energy can disrupt radio and GPS communications and electric power grids. Intense geomagnetic storms do appear to occur when there is an astrological parallel though there’s … Read more
Nerves fraying at fears of a global banking crisis nosedived European banking stocks this morning with Deutsche Bank’s shares down by 14 per cent, Commerzbank by 9 per cent, Société Générale 7 per cent and the Stoxx Europe 600 banks index, dropped by 5.2 per cent. “Europe is very tilted towards banks, which have been … Read more