Nailing down the definitive chart for modern Russia isn’t easy in the chaos which followed the collapse of the USSR. Astrologers argue endlessly and often bitterly that one symbolic moment means more than another. Since working charts have to be just that – produce illuminating answers – I tend to ignore pronouncements about which start … Read more
The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola’s epic gangster movie, considered one of the greatest artworks made about the US, is being re-released 50 years after its premiere. It was nominated for 11 Oscars, winning three, and on its $6 million budget grossed $101 million for Paramount within 18 weeks of release. In hindsight it … Read more
John Bercow, former Speaker of the House of Commons, has been deemed a “serial bully” and a “serial liar” following a two-year investigation into his conduct during his ten-year tenure at Westminster which will see him banned from the parliamentary estate. Last night his wife Sally called the police over a domestic assault. He left … Read more
Tucker Carlson, Fox News host, long a promoter of conspiracy theories favouring Trump and the far right, and recently accused of echoing Russian propaganda about the Ukraine invasion, has garnered favour with Putin. Evidently Moscow has instructed friendly media outlets to use clips of Carlson’s show. Late last year Carlson’s three-part series on Fox “Patriot … Read more
For a dummies guide to infiltrating the British establishment look no further than Eugeny Lebedev, proud owner of two UK newspapers, who was shoehorned into the House of Lords by Boris Johnson against the advice of the security services. Not that Lebedev is remotely stupid, far from it, but his targets certainly were, bewitched by … Read more
The Endurance, the lost vessel of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of the great undiscovered shipwrecks, has been located 107 years later in 3 kms (10,000 feet) of water. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. But the ship was crushed by sea-ice and sank in 1915, … Read more
International Women’s Day this year was marked by the bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine, which hardly bears thinking about. The goddess Hera, protector of pregnant women and childbirth, usually associated with the lunar sign Cancer, must be ready to throw down thunderbolts. Looking back to warrior women of the past who fought … Read more
Pluto sign changeovers are spotlighted in Russian history again and again, and regrettably in significant wars elsewhere as well. Catherine the Great took over the Russian throne in 1762 when Pluto was in final degree Sagittarius and ruled to powerful effect through Pluto in Capricorn and Aquarius, dying as Pluto was poised to moved into … Read more
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine gets bogged down in logistical failures with the military convoy heading for Kyiv stuck and Ukrainian resistance proving more effective than Putin expected, the question is what comes next? Longer range missiles are being hauled in with destructive potential but even Putin must see he doesn’t have the manpower … Read more
Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State said yesterday that NATO members have the go-ahead to send fighter jets to Ukraine. “That gets a green-light,” he said in an interview with “Face the Nation” when asked whether the Polish government, a member of NATO, could send fighter planes to Ukraine. And the US is in discussions … Read more