Charles the Third

La reine est mort, vive le roi. It feels strange that the queen of queens has died, the Queen was always there almost as a matter of course. Even for the non-British, she was a wonderfully stable point for many decades. The world and the country she was queen of have changed enormously, but she…

Glasnost

This week, Mikhael Gorbachev died, who once put an end to the dark Soviet empire and ushered in a new era. Of course, the mundane- astrological cycles in his time indicated that the time for this had come, such a process can never be initiated by one man. It was around 1990 that this happened,…

Ultramonsoon

While the Ukrainian army started its counterattack to recapture the city of Cherson from the Russians and all eyes are on it, disaster is unfolding on the other side of the world. Due to persistent very heavy rains, a third of Pakistan is flooded. People and cattle are drowning, houses are being washed away, crops…

Taiwan

While all eyes were on Ukraine, tensions in the Far East have also been running high in recent weeks. After a visit by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China engaged in a series of military exercises around Taiwan. The airspace of the island republic…

R.I.P. Olivia

Last week the always fresh and young Olivia Newton-John, an” icon” as it is called today, passed away. And yes, who hasn’t seen Grease at least five times, Olivia is the star that makes John Travolta pale in comparison. For she is the Woman and no one can compete with that. In the previous post…

Charles Leclerc

It is summer break in Formula 1, at the end of this month the battle will continue again. Max Verstappen, about whom we wrote earlier, is in the lead and he seems to be heading for a second championship. But the matter has not yet been decided, the surprising number 2 of this season, the…

Napoleon

It is a troubled time with a lot of tension in the world, food shortages, hyperinflation, lack of raw materials, epidemics, the war in Ukraine, wereldwide drougths, extreme heat and an increasing threat of war in the Far East. China is making it very clear that after Hong Kong it will also add Taiwan back…

Al Qalb

During our holiday in la douce France, the pressures on the British Prime Minister Johnson eventually became too strong. He announced his resignation as the leader of the Conservative party, which means that he also has to give up his funtion as the prime minister automatically.  On this blog we have already given some attention…

Severodonetsk

The war in Ukraine has been going on for four months now and both sides suffer serious losses every day. In the south there is not too much movement, maar in the eastern Donbas all the more so. After very heavy  fighting, the Russians were able to capture the important city of Severodenetsk and the…

Assemblée

The second and final round of last Sunday’s French parliamentary elections proved to be a tough one for President Macron. His coalition “Ensemble” has lost the absolute majority in the Assemblée Nationale and so from now on they will have to negotiate with other parties in order to implement controversial measures (very controversial in France…