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The apparent meeting of Jupiter and Saturn in the skies – known as the ‘great conjunction’ – marks the birth of a new astrological epochOn December 21st, the planets Jupiter and Saturn – which are actually more than 400m miles apart – will appear to come together in the night sky, forming what is called a “Great Conjunction”. This is one in a series of meetings the planets make roughly every 20 years, due to Jupiter’s orbit of less than 12 years around the sun lining up with Saturn’s, which is 29.5 years long. On the night of the conjunction, the planets will seem as if they’re separated by about one fifth of the diameter of the typical full moon, appearing to touch or form a single brilliant heavenly body. Besides its visual dazzle, this event has special significance through an astrological lens: it marks the official shift from a 200 year period during which Jupiter and Saturn made conjunctions primarily in Earth signs into a 200 year period of conjunctions in Air signs, marking the advent of a new epoch in a larger 800 year macro-cycle.Thinkers have used Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions to track history for thousands of years – Johannes Kepler’s early 17th-century trigon diagrams are famous ephemera from the beginning of our current macro-cycle. Jupiter and Saturn are the slowest and furthest away of the planets available to the naked human eye, and function as the short hands of the astrological clock, sketching the broad strokes of an era. In astrological terms, Jupiter signifies expansion, growth, and coherence – but can also lead to cancerous hypertrophy. Saturn represents the opposite principle, of limitation, structure, and containment, often considered the cruel taskmaster of the zodiac. Together they are like life and death, warp and weft, and their conjunctions signal key moments in the formation of collective reality. Continue reading...

The college player was more accustomed to her role as a soccer goalkeeper at Vanderbilt – until the men’s football team came callingSarah Fuller must have felt that her fame had peaked when her performance in goal helped the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team to a Southeastern Conference title earlier this year. Little did she know she was about to find fame in the other football.When Covid-19 tore through the men’s football team, they were left without a recognised kicker. The Commodores quickly did a talent search around the college’s athletic department and became familiar with Fuller, who could kick a ball 60 yards by the time she was in high school and, at 6ft 1in, was unlikely to be intimated by the very large human beings who play football. Continue reading...

The Patriots’ 20-year run of dominance may never be matched, but the ahead-of-schedule Dolphins have confirmed a new day has indeed arrived in the AFC EastDing-dong, the Pats are dead! The Pats are dead, the Pats are dead. Ding-dong, the wicked Pats are deaaad!OK, maybe the official end of the New England Patriots’ remarkable dynasty wasn’t quite so dramatic, but for a brief moment Sunday, anyone observing football for the past 19 years had to wonder if there was a sliver of Belichickian magic left. The Patriots marched to the locker room at the half up 6-0 over the Miami Dolphins thanks to a cocktail of clunky play by the hosts and sheer luck. A Cam Newton fumble, recovered by Xavien Howard and returned for 86 yards and a score that was reversed because it had touched a Dolphins defender. A 52-yard field goal missed by Dolphins kicker Jason Saunders. Would the Pats somehow pull off this elimination game with Newton channelling his 2015 self and all the bounces going Bill Belichick’s way? Not exactly. Continue reading...

Lessons have been learned about how to convert the forces that demand equality into those that deliver it

Shamrock Jack’s Irish Pub in New York has a tree made out of 800 Jameson bottles. It’s a testament to ingenuity, dedication – and honoring their employeesSome are wishing for a white Christmas. But others prefer it to be green.The owners of the Shamrock Jack’s Irish Pub prefer it to be green. Green as in the color of Jameson Irish whiskey bottles. Don’t believe me? If you happen to be in Irondequoit, New York (which is just outside of Rochester) anytime between now and the New Year, go ahead and visit the pub. Outside you’ll see a big green Christmas tree. And it’s made entirely out of Jameson whiskey bottles. Eight hundred of them, as a matter of fact. Continue reading...

The actor, who passed away tragically earlier this year, brought depth and empathy to the characters he playedChadwick Boseman was more than just an actor. When he died in August at the young age of 43, it felt like the world had lost not only one of the most outstanding cinematic talents of his era, but also a brother, and a friend. An emotional tribute from Black Panther co-star Lupita Nyong’o gave us a glimpse into just what it was that made Boseman so lovable, his spirit so much larger than life. “You got the sense that he was fully present and also somehow fully aware of things in the distant future,” she wrote. “He was absorbent. Agile. He set the bar high by working with a generosity of spirit, creating an ego-free environment by sheer example, and he always had a warm gaze and a strong embrace to share.”Related: Chadwick Boseman remembered by Ruth E Carter Continue reading...

In his book A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe describes 17th-century behavior that is unmistakably familiar today

The outgoing US president has his eyes on a Saudi Arabia-Israel accord – no matter who gets hurtPeace deals that entrench injustice, punish the weak and are propelled by greed, blackmail and weapons sales have precious little to do with peace – and are unlikely to endure. Yet the Middle East has witnessed a recent spate of such dodgy deals. All concern Israel and all were hastily cobbled together by the White House. As his curtailed presidency grinds to an unlamented close, Donald Trump appears engaged in a frantic foreign policy fire sale.Peace is always a welcome prospect – but never at any price. Trump’s horse-trading on Israel’s behalf has made a cruel mockery of Palestinian rights. By agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, the UAE and Bahrain broke with the 2002 Arab peace plan that makes recognition conditional on the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state. The deal was sweetened with offers of advanced US weapons and money-spinning business and trade opportunities. Continue reading...

The two maintained a strong working relationship in the Senate – but now it will face a new test when Biden is sworn as presidentWhen they were both in the Senate, Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, maintained a strong working relationship that survived some of the most partisan legislative fights in decades.That relationship will now face a new test when Biden is sworn in as president of the United States and McConnell will be the highest-ranking Republican in the country. Continue reading...

The one thing that upsets everyone is big earnings gaps between people working in the same sectorAs a society, we’ve become much more worried about inequality. But what determines whether individuals see levels of inequality as fair? We think what matters is people’s politics: a “lefty” will think big gaps between top and bottom unjustified, the right believe the rich are simply being rewarded for hard work. But new research, combining information on what people think with data on what they earn, shows that our social status also matters a lot.Generally, we have a fairly accurate view of where we sit in the income pecking order, although we assume others are more like us than they are. The rich think everyone is better off than the reality, while the poor underestimate top incomes. Continue reading...

A new study confirms tax cuts for the rich do not benefit the rest. Recovery from the pandemic is a chance to change courseHow should the huge financial costs of the pandemic be paid for, as well as the other deferred needs of society after this annus horribilis?Related: Jeff Bezos became even richer thanks to Covid-19. But he still won't protect Amazon workers | Robert Reich Continue reading...

The president-elect’s ability to fix the crisis hinges on whether or not Democrats win the Georgia runoffs – but there are a few areas where he could act unilaterallyWhen Joe Biden is inaugurated next month, he will inherit an America where democracy is in crisis.The 2020 election exposed the urgent need to protect the right to vote in America. Throughout the year, voters waited hours in line to cast their ballots, some until the early hours of the morning. Democrats and voting rights groups brought an explosion of lawsuits seeking to ease restrictions around mail-in voting as Republicans around the country refused to budge. Continue reading...

Rudy Giuliani and other advisers opposed president’s suggestion, according to New York TimesDonald Trump pushed to have the lawyer and “kraken” conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell named as a special counsel to investigate supposed electoral fraud, the New York Times reported on Saturday.Related: Trump downplays government hack after Pompeo blames it on Russia Continue reading...

Top US infectious diseases expert tells Sesame Street event Father Christmas is ‘good to go’ for present-delivery duty

Anthony Fauci told children he had visited Santa Claus at the north pole and personally gave him the vaccine so he could deliver presents this year.The US infectious disease expert responded to video messages sent in to CNN on Saturday from children who were concerned they would not receive their presents due to spread of Covid-19 Continue reading...

Cory Johnson and Dustin John Higgs test positive before planned executions in Trump administration’s series of rushed deaths

Women’s health concerns are often dismissed and their health problems are under-researched – no wonder they’re skeptical Continue reading...

Rebuilding something like the New Deal coalition may require winning back socially moderate and conservative voters“If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined,” lamented King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose costly triumph in 279 BC inspired the phrase “Pyrrhic victory”. In 2020, the Democratic party learned what King Pyrrhus was talking about. They recaptured the White House and narrowly held on to the House of Representatives. And if the Democrats win both Senate runoffs in Georgia, they may yet capture the Senate. But Republicans increased their share of the House, making it easier for them to recapture it in 2022, and they control a majority of state legislatures whose redistricting plans for the US Congress can help the Republican party.Perhaps the greatest blow has been to the progressive interpretation of American politics. Most progressives have understood Trumpism as the last gasp of a dwindling, reactionary white male population. The future of the Democrats, it was said, lay with women and minorities. And yet in 2020 white men shifted more toward Biden than white women did. Black and brown Americans still voted mostly for Democrats, but there were significant shifts toward the Republicans among black and Hispanic voters and all of the Republicans who took contested seats from the Democrats were minority group members or women. Continue reading...

The 157-year-old restaurant with breathtaking ocean views was known for its location on Lands End as ‘the place that draws you’At the place where San Francisco drops into the ocean, a door is shutting on a vibrant chapter of the city’s history.The longtime proprietors of the Cliff House, a 157-year-old iconic San Francisco restaurant with breathtaking ocean views once enjoyed by Mark Twain, announced this week that they would be forced to close by the end of the year. They cited both coronavirus restrictions and their landlord, the federal government, stalling on a long-term lease, as factors in their decision. Continue reading...

Backlash following the 2020 election underscores how severely the party is willing to cut off access to the ballot amid signs of a changing electorateAfter record turnout in the 2020 presidential election, Republicans in some states are already signaling they will pursue measures that make it harder to vote in the coming years.The Republican efforts come after an election in which nearly 160 million people voted, the highest in a presidential election in over a century. About half of voters cast their ballots by mail, a big increase from 2016, while about another quarter cast their ballots in person ahead of election day. Continue reading...

David Werking can seek damages after parents got rid of films and magazines worth $29,000A man who sued his parents for getting rid of his pornography collection has won a lawsuit in western Michigan and can seek compensation.The US district judge Paul Maloney ruled in favour of David Werking, who said his parents had no right to throw out his collection. He lived at their Grand Haven home for 10 months after a divorce before moving to Muncie, Indiana. Continue reading...

The massive, ongoing hack of US federal agencies, relations with China and North Korea will be urgent issues for Biden to addressJoe Biden’s foreign policy in-tray is only looking more difficult as he approaches inauguration day – even as the US still confronts the pressing issue of record coronavirus deaths and infections.The massive and ongoing hack of US federal agencies – blamed on Russia – has so far elicited no response from Donald Trump, who has a long history of denying or downplaying Russian interventions. Continue reading...

The president could use the funds to ensure he and his allies remain a powerful force in US politics

Today I should be cleaning up after a party before my children come home to watch The Muppet Christmas CarolBy rights, this should be my most hungover day of the year. If life were as it should be, I would be getting a lie-in until about noon, which is seven hours later than my children usually grant me. I would slump to the kitchen, fall back into bed with some toast and Marmite, followed shortly thereafter by a Sali Hughes-approved jacket potato with cheese and Marmite (see potato-based musings passim), which is – and you might have already spotted this genius detail – basically the same meal twice but with different carbohydrates.Then I would scramble to clear away all the debris in the kitchen, in the manner of the young man in the seminal 1990s Yellow Pages advert about the heroism of French polishers, still the most powerful storyline ever committed to celluloid. But, unlike him, instead of cleaning up after the party before my parents come home, I’d be cleaning up after the party before my children come home, which they would at around mid-afternoon. We’d then watch The Muppet Christmas Carol, the kids exhausted from the excitement of spending the night at their grandparents’, my partner and me just exhausted. And then we would go to bed at 7pm, just as the Good Lord intends for us all. Continue reading...

Exodus that started after 9/11 has accelerated — and many fear New York’s financial district will not recover

I should be able to slack off while my wife claims the instructor’s attentionMy ideal morning workout routine goes something like this: I turn up at the gym at about 7am, drag a mat from the stack and begin some preliminary stretching; at about 7.06am I get a text from the trainer I’ve booked, telling me that he has a domestic emergency and won’t be able to make it, whereupon I ease into a standing position and punch the air while no one is looking. Then I go home and get into the bath.In over a decade of gym-going, I experienced this only five or six times, but I always woke up in the morning with the same hope. Continue reading...

Trump signs measure into law hours before shutdown was due to take effect, allowing coronavirus aid package negotiations to continueThe US Congress approved a stopgap measure to fund the government just hours before a shutdown was due to take effect on Friday night, buying time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1tn coronavirus relief package.The House passed the temporary funding bill, followed almost immediately by an approval in the Senate. Afterwards, Donald Trump signed the measure into law-. Continue reading...

Planemaker and US regulator may have tried to cover up important information relating to deadly crashes – official reportBoeing officials “inappropriately coached” test pilots during recertification efforts after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people, a US congressional report has concluded.The report by the Senate commerce committee raised questions about testing in 2020 of a key safety system known as MCAS tied to both fatal crashes. Continue reading...

Emerging from the shadows to address Purdue’s role in the opioid crisis, David and Kathe Sackler misjudged the moodIf the idea was to burnish the image of what might be the most hated family in America, it didn’t go well.Little has been heard directly from those members of the Sackler family who owned and ran Purdue Pharma, the company that turned them into multibillionaires by selling the drug widely held responsible for creating the US opioid epidemic, OxyContin. Continue reading...

Vice-president got vaccine in televised event amid concerns US rollout could be hampered by doubts from AmericansMike Pence received the Covid-19 vaccination on live television on Friday morning, saying it was a “medical miracle” and reassuring Americans facing a surging rise of cases around the country “that hope is on the way”.The televised event came amid concerns that the rollout of the vaccine in the US could be hampered by doubts from people over its quick authorization, the anti-vaxxer movement, and skepticism from some in the Black community because of historic distrust of institutions. Continue reading...

Wall Street Journal column mocked doctorate in education but incoming first lady tells husband to ‘take high road’

At least 275,000 prisoners have been infected as spread of coronavirus behind bars shows no signs of slowingOne in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times as high as the general population. In some states, more than half of prisoners have been infected, according to data collected by the Associated Press and the Marshall Project.As the pandemic enters its 10th month, and as the first Americans begin to receive a long-awaited Covid-19 vaccine, at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, more than 1,700 have died and the spread of the virus behind bars shows no sign of slowing. New cases in prisons this week reached their highest level since testing began in the spring. Continue reading...

Body camera footage released this week shows Anjanette Young insisted at least 43 times officers had broken into the wrong homeDuring a botched raid by Chicago police, Anjanette Young waited naked, handcuffed and terrified, insisting at least 43 times that officers had targeted the wrong home.“I was afraid if I did anything, or made any moves, that they would shoot me,” she told Good Morning America on Friday. “They had guns pointed at me. I feared for my life that night.” Continue reading...

State has 1.7m cases, nearly as many as Spain, with ICU capacity in southern California at 0%The coronavirus toll in California reached another frightening milestone on Thursday, with health officials announcing a one-day record of 379 deaths and a two-day total of nearly 106,000 newly confirmed cases.The most populous US state has recorded more than 1,000 deaths in the last five days. Its overall case total now tops 1.7m, a figure nearly equal to Spain’s and only surpassed by eight countries. The state’s overall death toll has reached 21,860. Continue reading...

The US vice-president, Mike Pence, received his Covid-19 vaccine on Friday morning. Dr Anthony Fauci, who was present for the 'symbolic' inoculation, said it should serve as an example for all Americans called to do so to get vaccinated.US deaths from coronavirus topped 3,000 for a third straight day and the country reported a record number of new infections

The party is trying to lure college-educated suburbanites while holding minorities and the white working class. It’s a tough task

Lawyers have asked a judge to order the release or transfer of half of the patients at Patton state hospitalLawyers representing patients at a southern California psychiatric hospital describe the state-run facility as a “tinderbox” for Covid-19 infections. Continue reading...