News Burst 1 March 2020
- The reusable Starship SN1 is designed to fly to the Moon, Mars and perform other interplanetary missions; it will also serve as the second stage of the BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) super heavy rocket, which SpaceX is working on. The SpaceX Starship SN1 prototype was destroyed tonight during a pressure test on its pad at the company’s facility. A video posted on LabPadre’s Youtube channel, which broadcasts live from a test site near Boca Chica, Texas, shows that on 28 February at 22:00 local time, the Starship SN1 prototype was torn to pieces.
- Greece sealed its key land Kastanies border crossing with Turkey Friday after Ankara declared it’s allowing refugees to flee Idlib and on to Europe for at least 72 hours. The country “completely closed off its borders with Turkey: not just for refugees, but for EVERYONE.”
- The negotiators from the United States and the Taliban are meeting in Doha, Qatar to sign an accord that envisages the timetable of the US withdrawing some of its 13,000 troops. The Taliban, in turn, is expected to sever ties with all extremist groups and prevent the territories of Afghanistan from becoming havens for militants. The Taliban has commanded its fighters to refrain from any attacks on the eve of the signing of an accord with the United States.
- Cobra: All this madness is the final purification of darkness before the breakthrough.
- A peace deal between the United States and its once sworn enemy the Taliban has been sealed in twin ceremonies, in which the US has agreed to wind down the war in Afghanistan after more than 18 years of fighting that turned into the longest conflict in American history, and to withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan (in 14 months if deal upheld).
- In December, the Starliner spaceship set off on its first test flight to the International Space Station, but docking was cancelled after the spacecraft failed to execute an orbit-insertion burn on schedule. Boeing admitted on Friday that it had failed to adequately test its Starliner spacecraft before its maiden flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in December.
- Residents of the tiny Swiss village of Mitholz, population 170, may be forced to evacuate their picturesque mountain chalet community so that the military can clear out some 3,500 tonnes of explosives from a WWII-era underground arms dump. The country’s defence ministry warned this week that “total evacuation” of the community would be necessary amid an “unacceptable” risk deemed to be posed by the buried arsenal. In a statement to the press, the defence ministry warned that “depending on how the work develops, residents should expect the evacuation to last up to more than 10 years,” with work to clear out the explosives expected to start only in 2031.
- More members of Iran’s political elite fall victim to coronavirus.
- 4,000 People seeking to enter Europe rushed to the Turkish border town of Edirne, Turkey, on Friday, but found the Greek authorities were not willing to let them in. Since the 2015 migrant crisis, both Greece and Bulgaria have erected fences on their borders with Turkey. Both nations ramped up security after Ankara effectively tore up its agreement with the EU, under which it kept millions of refugees in its territory in exchange for financial aid and political concessions.
- In the wake of the riots in north-east Delhi, the AAP government is planning to launch a campaign against the use of WhatsApp in spreading misinformation and hateful messages, which the Delhi Police has identified as one of the factors that aided in the communal flare up. Senior officials attached with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office informed that a dedicated number will be launched in which people can share such viral messages, along with the name and number of the sender. The identity of the complainant will be kept secret, an official said.
- A recent study has identified Jakarta as among the world’s major metropolitan areas on the brink of sinking as a result of rising sea levels and extreme weather. 11 of the 15 cities most at-risk of sinking are Asian cities that are significant financial and trade centers, including Jakarta, which is especially threatened due to its location in the lowlands. Aside from Jakarta, other cities labeled high risk include Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shanghai in China, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Tokyo. Meanwhile, cities outside Asia that face the same risk are Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; Alexandria, Egypt; and New York City, the United States.
- According to a police spokesperson in Essen, Germany, as cited by local media, a tram stopped to let passengers get off when an 81 yo woman rammed into the people. Twelve were injured, three of them seriously.
- The Pope has canceled a third day of scheduled events to recuperate from an undisclosed illness. The Vatican has not provided any details about his illness, calling it only a “slight indisposition.” The pope has not been seen in public since he was caught on camera coughing and blowing his nose during an Ash Wednesday Mass.
Sun Activity
A stream of solar wind blowing ~500 km/s is gently buffeting Earth’s magnetic field today, and this is causing geomagnetic unrest around the Arctic Circle. spaceweather.com
Sunspot number: 0
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 27 days
2020 total: 43 days (72%)
Active Weather
Tropical Cyclone Ferdinand – Dissolved
Strongest EQ in Europe M4.8 NE of Funchal, Portugal
Strongest EQ in North America M3.9 West Yellowstone, Montana
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.3 Tobelo, Indonesia
Deepest EQ M4.1 401 km Banda Sea News Burst 1 March 2020
