A trio of stories this summer show Donald Trump in his best worst light, from financial disclosure documents that reveal a stunning level of corruption, to a quick-change flight plan that left Cabinet members and reporters hung out as bait, and renewed pressure on NATO allies to cough up territories to which he hasn’t the shadow of a right. It’s the Summer of The Donald – heated, sticky and oppressive.
On 13 July 2026, New Zealand actor Sam Neill passed away, at age 78, from pneumonia. Diagnosed with advanced lymphoma in 2022, Neill had been in remission, but requiring ongoing monthly chemotherapy treatments. A clinical trial with CAR T-cell therapy judged him cancer free in April 2026, but he succumbed to the pneumonia three months later.
For all its heat, humidity, endless days and toasty nights, Floral Summer doesn’t last all that long, nothing like the three-month span we ascribe to the summer season. In June, most plants are still ramping up, not yet in bloom; and by August, things are definitely on the wane. So it’s just July that showcases the floral fireworks we associate with summer, and that’s all too fleeting.
As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, it’s only fitting we take a closer look at the chart of the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave. This founding document was written in large part by Thomas Jefferson, working on several drafts between June 11th and 28th, 1776. In the midst of this process, on June 18th, a wee bit of space debris, an asteroid that would be named “America” nearly 150 years later, came to a critical stage in its orbit about the sun.
June 2026 saw a bevy of controversies, eccentricities, and record setting. If this is what Uranus in Gemini is going to be like, hold onto your hats for the next seven years! Throughout, referential asteroids in significant placement tell the tales, from an NBA championship to an insulted Italian Prime Minister, a tentative peace deal, a rectified name change, and the world’s first trillionaire.
Somewhere in the midst of all the fireworks and monument upgrades, the competing nonpartisan and partisan 250th birthday celebrations, the gilding and ballroom-building, and the Octagon-style cage matches on the White House lawn, is a weakened, tired, mentally-challenged old man, tuning 80 and facing his mortality. Badly.
