News Burst 1 February 2020

• Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has announced Moscow’s readiness to sign a new trade deal with London after Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. The statement comes as time is already ticking for Brexit, which is due to take place later in the day and which will be followed by an 11-month transition period.
• A full country locked in, massive amount of people isolated, commercial collaterals! Does it ring the bell?
• SpaceX has just launched a new batch of 60 Starlink satellites, bringing the total in orbit to ~240. Ultimately, there could be as many as 42,000 Starlink satellites circling Earth. 42,000!! Their goal is to provide global, satellite-based internet service. They could also bring an end to ground-based astronomy as we know it.
• An express test to identify the novel coronavirus has been developed in the Chinese city of Wuxi, eastern Jiangsu Province. The test kit delivers results in 8-15 minutes, it is highly sensitive and easy to use and transport.
• Aug 2019: The Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected Facebook Inc’s effort to undo a class action lawsuit claiming that it illegally collected and stored biometric data for millions of users without their consent. Today: Facebook plunges 8% at the open, losing more than $50 billion in market value.

• Two persons infected with coronavirus have been identified in Russia, both are Chinese citizens.
• An Asian man in his 50s was admitted to Elmhurst Hospital in New York with the illness.
• In a historic move, the CDC has issued an official federal quarantine order for the Americans who returned to Alaska then California, on a chartered Boeing jet. The 195 passengers were mostly diplomats and other professionals living in Wuhan. The quarantine order will keep them isolated for 2 weeks – the same length of time that evacuees in the UK will face.
• The EPA – Environmental Protection Agency – issued a decision yesterday to reapprove glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and the world’s most heavily used pesticide. The EPA’s assessment contradicts a 2015 WHO analysis that determined glyphosate is a probable carcinogen. [Environmental, where? Protection when? Agency? Yes, give me you’re money!]
• Scientists have witnessed a pair of stars spinning so fast they literally bend both space and time. The team has been tracking the orbit of the extraordinary binary star for about 20 years, using the CSIRO Parkes Observatory’s 64-metre radio telescope. The researchers, from the ARC Centre of Excellence of Gravitational Wave Discovery, caught the spinning celestial bodies “frame-dragging” or, in other words, twisting both space and time with their immense gravity.

• Russian telecommunications and mass media watchdog Roskomnadzor has opened an administrative case against the US companies Facebook and Twitter because they did not provide information about locating their servers with the data of Russian users on the territory of Russia. The press service recalled that companies could face fines ranging from 1 million to 6 million rubles ($15,000-$95,000).
• World Athletics has announced new rules regarding athletes’ footwear, with the controversial Nike prototype shoes worn by Eliud Kipchoge during his sub-2-hour marathon being banned. The shoes, which had super-thick soles with three carbon-fiber plates, help athletes run faster producing an effect of springs.
• More than 40,000 workers at a vast Chinese-controlled industrial complex in Indonesia have been quarantined. PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park has sealed off its nickel mining hub on Sulawesi island and is barring any of its 43,000 staff from entering or leaving without written permission.
• U.S. Senate votes NOT to compel witnesses & documents in Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump; The President is expected to be acquitted.

2019-nCov Summary

• New York Post reports first Coronavirus case in Queen, but NYC health spokesman denies.
• Confirmed cases top 10k from 7,700 a day earlier, with 257 fatalities.
• UK Researchers suggests 75,800 infected in Wuhan
• Impact of virus “not fully reflected” in rigged China PMI number
• Goldman disagrees with Ross, says virus blowback will wipe 0.4% off US GDP growth
• ‘The U.K. health department confirmed two cases of coronavirus in England on Friday, while the U.S. and Japan advised citizens to
• void traveling to China.
• UK confirms first two coronavirus cases after multiple scares
• Hong Kong schools shuttered until March 2
• Singapore closes borders to Chinese travelers, first southeast Asian nation to do so.
• More than 43 airlines cancel flights to China
• France successfully evacuates citizens
• 1,000 suspected virus cases ‘under observation’ in India
• Confirmed cases near 10,000 as Russia confirms 2
• JPM cuts global growth forecast
• United and Delta allow pilots to decline trips
• Delta expands China cancellations through April; American also suspends flights
• CDC quarantines Americans
• Canada announces fourth case
• CDC confirms 6th case in US was human to human transmission
• Hospital in 6 days almost complete

Weekely Asteroid

• 2017 AE5 2020-Feb-01 13.6 Lunar Distance 9 km/s 123 m.
• 2013 BA74 2020-Feb-04 3.7 Lunar Distance 7.4 km/s 28 m.

Sun Activity

A solar wind stream is blowing around Earth faster than 500 km/s. This is causing geomagnetic unrest (albeit not geomagnetic storms) around the poles. Arctic auroras are likely on Jan. 31st-Feb 1st in response to this stream. spaceweather.com

Strongest EQ in Europe M4.8 Romania
Strongest EQ in US M5.1 Alaska
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.8 South of Rodhos, Greece
Deepest EQ M5.7 575 km South of Fiji Islands News Burst 1 February 2020