News Burst 1 March 2020 ~ March 1, 2020

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

News Burst 29 February 2020 ~ February 29, 2020

News Burst 29 February 2020

Coronavirus – CoviD psyop all over the people…
A surge in production has seen Laos increase the export value of bananas by 76%. The export value of bananas to neighboring countries, mainly China and Thailand, increased to about USD 198 million in 2019 from USD 112 million in 2018.
Over the past few weeks, snow around Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base, located off the coast of Antarctica’s northernmost peninsula, has started to take on a red tinge, courtesy of an algae that thrives in freezing weather. Because of the red tinge, the snow is often dubbed “watermelon snow”. The Greek philosopher Aristotle is believed to be one of the first to give a written account of watermelon snow over 2,000 years ago. In the “History of Animals”, Aristotle has mentioned, “And, by the way, living animals are found in substances that are usually supposed to be incapable of putrefaction; for instance, worms are found in long-lying snow; and snow of this description gets reddish in color, and the grub that is engendered in it is red, as might have been expected, and it is also hairy.”
MSM Big Style in Syria: Turkey attacks terrorists, Syria attacks terrorists, Russia attacks terrorists [but… who are the terrorists?]
In order to be considered as a developing country, according to the US approach, the trade share must be lower than 0.5 percent of the world’s total trade. Meanwhile, according to the WTO’s data, Vietnam’s total export and import turnover in 2018 accounting for 1.3 percent and 1.19 percent of the world’s trade. “Therefore, Vietnam and many other countries are not listed among developing countries.”

A massive fire has broken out in southeastern Paris near the Gare de Lyon train station. The fire has prompted police to evacuate the area. The cause of the fire is not clear, it seems immigrant protest.
A lawmaker who represents the people of Rasht in northern Iran in the parliament says the real COVID-19 death toll in Iran is far higher than official figures. Iran’s Health Ministry on Friday rose the coronavirus death toll to 34 but BBC’s Persian Service says according to information it has received from sources in Iranian hospitals, the tally of the death toll in various Iranian cities until Thursday is at least 210.
The Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre laboratory where researchers published the world’s first genome sequence of the deadly coronavirus that causes Covid-19 has been shut down. It was ordered to close for “rectification” on January 12, a day after Professor Zhang Yongzhen’s team published the genome sequence on open platforms. The release of the data helped researchers develop test kits for the virus.
Tonga has limited whale watching and swimming licences for the 2020 whale watching season for the management, protection and conservation of whales, effective on 25 February, after record number of applications for licences was received. Professor Orams suggested more regulations are needed to safeguard the whales as well as tourists and operators. This includes banning swim-with-whales activities with mothers and new-born (less than three week old) calves; and having “rest periods” during the day where whales are given breaks from vessels approaching and people entering the water to swim with them (eg. 12noon-2pm each day). In addition, a ban on the use of under-water scooters or other propulsion devices; place much tighter restrictions on the use of underwater photography equipment; and mandate training for all licences operators (skippers and guides).
After weeks of avoiding travelling due to fears, many people have started travelling again thanks to improvements in epidemic prevention in Vietnam.

Nearly 900,000 Pangolins are believed to have been trafficked across Southeast Asia in the past two decades, a wildlife watchdog said Thursday, highlighting the challenge in tackling the illicit trade. As the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal, the creatures are targeted for their body parts which are highly valued in traditional medicine in countries including China and Vietnam, and their meat is seen as a delicacy.
Nine residents of Greater Jakarta have died as a result of the widespread flooding that has inundated the Indonesian capital and surrounding cities over the past few days, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency has reported.

Sun Activity

The sun has been blank (no sunspots) for 26 consecutive days. This is a sign that Solar Minimum is still underway despite recent signs of life from Solar Cycle 25. During Solar Minimum, auroras are confined mainly to the Arctic. The next episode of Arctic auroras is expected on March 2-3 when a minor stream of solar wind reaches Earth. spaceweather.com

Active Weather

Tropical Cyclone Ferdinand – N of W Australia’s coast – 45/65 kts↓ – 991 hPa↑ Moving W 4 kts – Weakening

Strongest EQ in Europe M3.2 Croatia
Strongest EQ in North America M3.5 Alaska
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.8 Neiafu, Tonga
Deepest EQ M4.1 460 km Off Japan News Burst 29 February 2020

News Burst 25 February 2020 ~ February 25, 2020

News Burst 25 February 2020

Congratulations, Tesla! You now have the approval of a German court to continue cutting down a massive local forest that has stood in Germany for hundreds of years! Ah, yes, the sweet smell of saving the planet!
The Russian military group has rooted out well-equipped terrorist groups in Syria and prevented major threats to Russia on its outer boundaries, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
Bahrein and Afghanistan announce firts Coronavirus case, while in China 150 more deaths [Who believe these Chinese numbers?].
InSight is a robotic lander tasked with studying the deep interior of the Red Planet. It’s equipped with a range of scientific tools to probe Mars, including a seismometer for detecting quakes, sensors for gauging wind and air pressure, and a heat flow probe designed to take the planet’s temperature. Studies based on the craft’s first 10 months of observations were published on Monday, and they paint a picture of a planet that is routinely roiled by marsquakes, as well as dust devils and magnetic pulses.
The ‘Breathless Winter Everest Speed Climbing Expedition’ led by Tashi Lakpa Sherpa will be attempting to set the world record by scaling Mt Everest in five days in the winter season. The team comprises three more experienced Sherpa climbers – Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, Mingtemba Sherpa and Halung Dorchi Sherpa. Tashi Lakpa, a eight-time Everest summiteer, has already set world record becoming the youngest person to scale Mt Everest without using supplemental oxygen at the age of 19 in 2003. The team will try to reach Camp II tomorrow planning to reach the summit point on February 29. The team will also carry a banner of Visit Nepal 2020 while attempting to reach the summit of Mt Everest.

The turnout in the parliamentary elections in Iran last Friday has been the lowest since 1979 when the Islamic Republic was established. Nevertheless, the government does not seem to be concerned.
US Senators Chuck Schumer and Sherrod Brown are urging the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Russia following reports alleging that the country is meddling in the 2020 presidential election.
Over 30 people, including children, have been injured as a car crashed into a carnival parade in the German town of Volkmarsen (the state of Hesse). The driver of the car has been taken into custody.
Harvey Weinstein was convicted on Monday (Feb 24) of sexual assault and rape but cleared of the most serious predatory sexual assault charges.
The central city of Da Nang, Vietnam, has decided to cancel the 2020 Da Nang International Fireworks Festival to prevent the novel coronavirus spreading in the region. Last year, Finland won after a spectacular nighttime performance on the Han River.

Sun Activity

Sunspot number: 0
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 22 days
2020 total: 38 days (69%)

2019 total: 281 days (77%)
2018 total: 221 days (61%)
2017 total: 104 days (28%)
2016 total: 32 days (9%)
2015 total: 0 days (0%)
2014 total: 1 day (<1%)
2013 total: 0 days (0%)
2012 total: 0 days (0%)
2011 total: 2 days (<1%)
2010 total: 51 days (14%)
2009 total: 260 days (71%)
2008 total: 268 days (73%)
2007 total: 152 days (42%)
2006 total: 70 days (19%)

Strongest EQ in Europe M4.8 Italy
Strongest EQ in North America M3.5 Alaska
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.0 Guatemala
Deepest EQ M4.6 471 km W of Japan News Burst 25 February 2020

News Burst 23 February 2020 ~ February 23, 2020

News Burst 23 February 2020

On Valentine’s Day, a 36-year-old lawyer Matt Ma in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang discovered he had been coded “red”. The colour, displayed in a payment app on his smartphone, indicated that he needed to be quarantined at home even though he had no symptoms of the dangerous coronavirus. Without a green light from the system, Ma could not travel from his ancestral hometown of Lishui to his new home city of Hangzhou, which is now surrounded by checkpoints set up to contain the epidemic. Ma is one of the millions of people whose movements are being choreographed by the government through software that feeds on troves of data and issues orders that effectively dictate whether they must stay in or can go to work.Their experience represents a slice of China’s desperate attempt to stop the coronavirus by using a mixed bag of cutting-edge technologies and old-fashioned surveillance. It was also a rare real-world test of the use of technology on a large scale to halt the spread of communicable diseases.
More than just an adventure, the Diamond Princess promised to be a “luxury destination in itself”. Before the cruise ship departed from Singapore on its latest voyage last month, its passengers expected to enjoy freshly prepared sashimi at a dedicated sushi bar, street performances in the extravagantly designed atrium and lavish productions at a “state-of-the-art” theatre. There was even a Japanese bathhouse for weary travellers to soak their limbs at the end of each day of entertainment and fine dining.
The results of Friday’s parliamentary elections in Iran for smaller constituencies are being announced on Saturday. So far candidate vote results for 66 out of a total of 208 constituencies nationwide have been announced.
In a statement on February 20, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Iranian elections a “sham”. Referring to the disqualification of more than 7000 candidates from even running in the elections he said the process is not free or fair.
Iran has officially the second largest number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) death toll after China with four confirmed deaths.

Central Asia’s lively, open-air markets are a dead giveaway to economists: signs of a large informal sector, or “shadow economy.” Kyrgyzstan’s massive bazaar economy is both a driver of economic growth and a hindrance. The informal sector creates jobs, but starves the government of revenues. It also hurts growth because businesses in the shadows cannot access formal bank loans. Borrowing cost more. Higher real interest rates mean less borrowing and less investment. This is especially relevant in a country like Uzbekistan, where about almost two-thirds of workers are employed in the informal sector, according to the World Bank.
Albania has extradited a Russian national who fought for the Islamic State terror group. According to the FSB, Rasul Mislayev shared radical Islamist ideas and “left for Syria in 2013 to participate in the Islamic State’s military activities against the government forces.” He was detained in Albania in July 2019 at Russia’s request and put in pre-extradition custody. Albania’s authorities granted Moscow’s extradition request after Russian law enforcement agencies had provided evidence of Maslyaev’s crimes.
At least 12 persons of a family died in a road accident near Vadodara when the tempo truck they were travelling in, reportedly carrying over 40 people, collided with a dumper.
Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has been experimenting with novel tactics to cultivate an online following, or at least the appearance of one. But one of the strategies — deploying a large number of Twitter accounts to push out identical messages — has backfired. On Friday, Twitter began suspending 70 accounts posting pro-Bloomberg content in a pattern that violates company rules. “We have taken enforcement action on a group of accounts for violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam,” a Twitter spokesman said. Some of the suspensions will be permanent, while in other cases account owners will have to verify they have control of their accounts.
Aviation Industry officials said Boeing had inspected 50 of the 400 MAX planes waiting for delivery once ungrounding occurs, indicating that some jets had debris in the fuel tanks. ‘Debris’ = “an industrial term for rags, tools, metal shavings and other materials left behind by workers during the production process.”

Google has banned nearly 600 Android apps from the Play Store for bombarding users with disruptive ads and violating its advertising guidelines.
Food poisoning cases in Britain have more than doubled since 2009, with takeaways and eating out accounting for the majority of norovirus cases. Around 2.4 million cases are recorded every year, compared to about one million in 2009. Eating out accounts for 37 percent of all food-borne norovirus cases and takeaways account for 26 percent.
Amazon along with Facebook, Google, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft, accusing them of “aggressively avoiding” $100bn of global tax over the past decade. The tax transparency campaign group Fair Tax Mark named the sic companies as avoiding tax by shifting revenue and profits through tax havens or low-tax countries, and for also delaying the payment of taxes they do incur. “The report singles out Amazon, which is run by the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, as the worst offender. It said the group paid just $3.4bn in tax on its income so far this decade despite achieving revenues of $960.5bn and profits of $26.8bn. Fair Tax Mark said this means Amazon’s effective tax rate was 12.7% over the decade when the headline tax rate in the US has been 35% for most of that period.”
Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, warned Thursday that the Covid-19 outbreak in China will have dramatic effects on its earnings.

Sun Activity

Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Feb. 22nd. A minor stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth’s magnetic field. The gas pressure is not strong enough to cause a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but photographic auroras could appear around local midnight. spaceweather.com

Active Weather

Ex-TC Vicky was lying close to Niue this morning. It has weakened considerably during the last 12 hours and only isolated patches of deep convection are visible on latest satellite imagery.
TD10F was located northwest of Apia, Samoa this morning. Organisation has remained good with deep convection wrapping into the system and with favorable environmental conditions supporting further development. The system is expected to move across Samoa later today or overnight tonight,then turn more south-/southeastwards and take a similar track to Ex-TC Vicky.

Strongest EQ in Europe M3.6 North Sea
Strongest EQ in North America M4.4 California
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.2 Tongaa
Deepest EQ M4.1 368 km Fiji Region News Burst 23 February 2020

News Burst 21 February 2020 ~

News Burst 21 February 2020

Archaeologists working in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings have made the bombshell claim that they may have discovered the secret tomb of Queen Nefertiti – hidden in a previously unknown space beyond Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. The team, led by former Egyptian minister of antiquities, Mamdouh Eldamaty from Ain Shams University, used ground-penetrating radar and found a secret corridor near the tomb of one of Egypt’s most famous royals, the pharaoh Tutankhamun. The boy king’s remarkable burial site was discovered in 1922 by English archaeologist Howard Carter.
German court allows Tesla to continue to clear forest near Berlin to build its gigafactory. The clearing work, granted to Tesla by the State Office for the Environment, was temporarily stopped by the same court earlier this month after the Brandenburg Green League filed an appeal and requested legal protection. The Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg has ruled that Tesla Inc can continue to clear forest near the capital of Berlin to build its first European car and battery factory.
Thousands of trucks are still heading for the Vietnam-China border gates, though the exports are getting stuck because of the Covid-19 epidemic. Vietnam’s farm produce remains unsold because of the closure of border gates. Retailers have decided to collect watermelons and dragon fruit in large quantities for distribution in response to the call to rescue Vietnam’s farm produce.
The Fijian Ministry for Foreign Affairs may invite Tongan counterparts to have talks over a long standing territorial dispute over the Tele ki Tonga and Tele ki Tokelau Reefs, also known as Minerva Reef. The reefs lie to the south end of Tonga and Fiji.
The deputy leader of the Taliban and one of the world’s most wanted militants has written an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he says the Afghan insurgents are “fully committed” to a deal with Washington. The article, headlined “What the Taliban Want”, represents the highest-level statement from the group on months of negotiations with the United States, and comes as they are believed to be days away from signing an agreement that would see America begin to withdraw troops from its longest war.
Researchers at cybersecurity firm McAfee have shown that two inches can make all the difference, fooling two types of Tesla car into speeding up by 50mph (80.5kph). Using a small, almost imperceptible sticker on a speed limit sign, the McAfee scientists were able to trick the cars’ MobilEye EyeQ3 camera system into thinking the sign read ‘85’ and not ‘35,’ confirming that autonomous driving systems and the machine learning algorithms that power them still have a long way to go. Both the 2016 Model X and Model S both sped up during the testing of the adversarial machine learning attacks.

‘Squad’ congresswoman Ilhan Omar told friends years ago that the man who went on to become her second husband was in fact her brother, DailyMail.com can confirm. And now for the first time one of those friends has come forward to reveal exactly how Omar and Ahmed Elmi scandalized the Somali community in Minneapolis. Abdihakim Osman is the first person to go on record to speak of how Omar said she wanted to get her brother papers so he could stay in the United States, at a time when she was married to her first husband Ahmed Hirsi.
Despite a contract that prohibits MGM from using robots to displace workers, the casino seeks to implement those plans. Its 2020 plan calls for reducing the workforce by about 2,100 people to save $300 million in the coming years.
Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison and pay a $20,000 fine on Thursday for witness tampering and lying to Congress. He will be on probation upon his release.
Julian Assange will seek asylum in France, according to the Associated Press. Lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder are currently preparing for his lates hearing, where he faces extradition to the United States on 17 criminal charges for unlawfully publishing the names of classified sources, as well as conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain access to classified information.
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a large-scale ongoing fraud scheme that lures unsuspecting Russian Internet users with promises of financial rewards to steal their payment card information. “Like of the Year” is just one of six different fraud campaigns that operate under the same modus operandi, each of these schemes was found to operate 100 to 350 domains, with the Like campaign alone accounting for more than 1,000 domains, most of which have since been blocked.

“Don’t panic! Betelgeuse is not likely to undergo a supernova explosion anytime soon,” says South Korean research astronomer Bum-Suk Yeom. “The red supergiant star Betelgeuse appears to have finally stopped its unprecedented dimming. It’s been brightening over the last few days.” According to the data, Betelegeuse reached its minimum brightness between Feb. 12th and 14th, and now it is slowly brightening again.
In December 2019, Russia’s special services detained two people planning to carry out terrorist attacks in crowded places in St. Petersburg during New Year celebrations. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) later confirmed that the two were arrested thanks to intelligence information received from the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again thanked the United States for sharing intelligence that helped to thwart a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg in late 2019.

Sun Activity

The sun has been blank (without sunspots) for 18 consecutive days. This is a sign that Solar Minimum is still underway despite recent signs of life from Solar Cycle 25. Even during the nadir of the solar cycle, however, it is still possible to observe bright polar auroras–as the events of Feb. 18-19 demonstrated. spaceweather.com

Strongest EQ in Europe M3.1 Corse, France
Strongest EQ in North America M3.2 California
Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.7 Kamchatka, Russia
Deepest EQ M5.4 201 km Philippines News Burst 21 February 2020