News Burst 31 March 2020 – Live Feed ~ March 31, 2020

News Burst 31 March 2020

• Twitter has deleted two tweets from Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday in which he challenged the need for social distancing and urged citizens to keep the country going. In one tweet, Bolsonaro posted a video in which he mixed with supporters on the streets of Brasilia – which Twitter says contradicted public health information from official sources and could put people at greater risk of transmitting the coronavirus. Twitter has also deleted a tweet by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in which he quoted conservative influencer Charlie Kirk – who claimed that hydroxychloroquine “in at least three international tests was found 100% effective in treating the coronavirus.” Brazil is reporting ‘exactly’ 400 new cases every day.

• On the back of the recent seismic uptick observed across the Kamchatka region –including the Kuril Islands’ M7.5– comes the violent eruption of Shiveluch; Russia’s largest and most active volcano. The powerful explosion occurred on March 25, with the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) recording an ash plume reaching a maximum estimated altitude of 49,200 ft (15 km), and drifting in a NW direction.The volcano’s lava dome, at an elevation of 8,200 ft (2.5 km), remains “in a very active state”.

• President Donald Trump slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on ‘Fox and Friends,’ suggesting the federal government could take over her “slum” district San Francisco, as the two locked horns on the coronavirus pandemic response. “Look, she’s a sick puppy in my opinion,” the president said when asked about Pelosi criticizing his response to the coronavirus outbreak. “She really is. She’s got a lot of problems.” Trump continued his fuming against Pelosi later when he slammed her for “playing the impeachment game” and being controlled by “the radical left,” including freshman New York Congresswoman and Green New Deal author Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

• Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre has closed its doors to the public for the first time since the Black Death ravaged the city in 1349. The custodians of one of the holiest buildings in Christianity were forced to lock the highly carved wooden doors after the Israeli government shut down places of worship in a bid to contain the spread of the Covid-19 illness.

• Despite Tom Cruise’s desire to produce an authentic representation of military flight in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the US Navy quickly halted the American actor’s dreams by denying him the ability to fly a $70 million F/A-18 Super Hornet.

• Russia has sent a plane with medical equipment to the United States amid the pandemic of COVID-19, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday. “I have to say, we’ve had great relationships with a lot of countries. China sent us some stuff,” he told reporters during a briefing at the White House. “Russia sent us a very, very large plane load of things. Medical equipment. Very nice.”

• Authorities in Wuhan are unlikely to disclose the overall number of deaths until now in the central Chinese city despite renewed concerns about underreporting of fatalities from the coronavirus pandemic. An official at Wuhan’s Civil Affairs Bureau said on Monday that the numbers would be released in the second week of June as scheduled, and that there is no plan to alter the date. The comment came after reports that funeral homes in Wuhan have ordered thousands more urns than the official death tally of coronavirus patients in the city.

• Saudi Arabia will finance treatment for anyone infected with the coronavirus in the country, the health minister said on Monday, while the agriculture ministry took steps to boost wheat and livestock supplies amid global fears of a food shortage.

• Construction is complete on one of the biggest breakwaters in Japan, a massive seawall built alongside coastal areas here to prevent flooding in the event of a tsunami. The breakwater is up to 15 meters tall and stretches 17.5 kilometers in length. It is expected to withstand a massive tsunami caused by a Nankai Trough earthquake and dramatically reduce flooding.

• The latest safety measure of the Nagoya-based expressway operator can be found in bathroom stalls at the Ebina Service Area rest stop on the Tomei Expressway in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture. When the user sits on the toilet and presses a button on the LCD screen installed on a wall, their fatigue level will be shown about one minute later. “Fatigue can lead to careless driving. We thought about ways to let drivers know, ‘You must be tired,’” said Koji Yamamoto of NEXCO Central’s Yokohama Maintenance/Customer Service Center.

Sun Activity

A new sunspot is emerging in the sun’s northern hemisphere, right here. Its magnetic polarity identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 25. If the sunspot lasts long enough to receive an official designation, it will become the 4th numbered new-cycle sunspot this year, a sign that Solar Cycle 25, while still weak, is gaining steam.

Strongest EQ in Europe M4.4 Azores-Cape St. Vincent Ridge
Strongest EQ in North America M2.8 California
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.3 Taiwan
Deepest EQ M4.2 290 km Northern Mariana Islands News Burst 31 March 2020