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.
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.
On May 13, 2026, 22-year-old neo-Nazi leader Michail Chkhikvishvili was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, on one count each of soliciting violent felonies, and distributing instructions to make explosive devices and poison. Chkhikvishvili, known to his followers as “Commander Butcher,” was the leader of Maniac Murder Cult, an international, internet-based extremist group that encouraged people to commit acts of hate and violence.
As ever, stories come whooshing over the transom, and fly right on by, with no time to deal with them properly in these hectic times. We’ll try to play catch-up here, with yet another AAA version of an “omnibus bill,” compiling several small stories (and some big ones) in a comprehensive review of the doings of late. Topics include the Hungarian elections, a shooting at a Mexican archeological site, and a federal investment in a failing airline.
It’s been a head-spinning few weeks, with rising gas and energy prices, increased inflation, and the war with Iran, but somehow, America’s sweethearts, Donald and Melania Trump, have managed to keep us entertained.
After a fashion. From threatening genocide to profane tweets on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, ramshackle ceasefires and blaspheming memes, and vigorous denials of accusations of wrongdoing that haven’t been made, the Trumps have outdone themselves in this first half of April 2026. What follows is a barebones overview of the high jinks and shenanigans.
