Tag: News Burst

News Burst 17 July 2020 – Live Feed ~ July 17, 2020

  • Controversial video sharing app TikTok has another demerit to add to its growing list: the app was just fined by South Korea for mishandling child privacy data. The company was fined 186m (about $155,000 USD) by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) for collecting the data of children under 14 years old without the consent of their legal guardians. The KCC found that “more than 6,000 records involving children were collected over six months, violating local privacy laws.” In addition, the Chinese firm “failed to inform” its users that their personal data was being transferred overseas.
  • The best tennis player in the world, Novak Đoković, arrived in Sarajevo on Monday, and accompanied by the founder of the “Archaeological Park: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun” Foundation, Samir Osmaganić, he visited the pyramids in Visoko. Djokovic is an extremely spiritual man who is interested in energy and spirituality, which is why he decided to visit the Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids. “Archaeological and Tourist Park Ravne 2 is something new in Europe. People feel comfortable here. When you arrange an area that has been neglected for 100 years, the soil starts breathing again and paying you back multiply. It is an area where soul gets to rest,” said Samir Osmanagić.
  • The Chinese government has deployed a mass sterilization campaign against Muslim ethnic minorities in the country’s western provinces, according to a new report, which argues the tactics could amount to genocide. China’s treatment of Uighurs, the Muslim ethnic group that has historically lived in China’s westernmost province, known as Xinjiang, has come under increased scrutiny in the last couple years, as the Chinese government ramped up what it casts as a “re-education” campaign that uses mass detention camps. Those camps are used as a form of threat and punishment, with officials detaining women and families who fail to comply with pregnancy checks or forced intrauterine contraceptive devices — more commonly known as IUDs — sterilizations, and even abortions. The result is a huge drop in birth rates among China’s Muslim population, even as it moves Han Chinese, the country’s main ethnic group, into the mineral-rich region. Birth rates in Uighur areas have plunged by over 60% in the last three years alone, according to the report published by the Jamestown Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
  • A Twitter employee collaborated with hackers to take over blue-ticked accounts across the platform on Wednesday, Vice reported, citing two sources from a hacking community responsible for the attack. It also provided leaked screenshots obtained by Vice’s Motherboard allegedly proving the deed. According to the sources cited by the outlet, the Twitter insider was paid to “literally” do “all the work” for the hackers. The employee could have provided hackers with access to a necessary tool which helped them carry out the attack or simply hijacked the account by himself or herself, Vice said, citing the comments of a Twitter spokesperson. So far, the Twitter Support team has only publicly stated that: “We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.”
  • A British judge on Thursday, 2 July refused to give Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro access to 31 tons of Venezuelan gold – $1 billion in gold – being held in a Bank of England (BoE) vault, on the basis that the U.K. does not recognize the socialist leader as president of the Latin American country. Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), whose board is appointed by Maduro, took legal action to release the gold from the BoE, which it said it wanted to sell to help tackle the country’s coronavirus crisis. The BoE is the second largest keeper of gold in the world with some 400,000 gold bars, after the New York Federal Reserve. But British judge Nigel Teare ruled that the bank was not entitled to make the request since the U.K. government has “unequivocally recognized” his rival Juan Guaidó as president.
  • Portland police have brought a swift and unceremonious end to a newly-created ‘autonomous zone’ in the city, which was seen by many as an offshoot of a now-defunct protester camp in Seattle.
    Protesters camping out at the Chinook Land Autonomous Territory (CLAT) were ordered by law enforcement to leave the area on Thursday morning. Several arrests were made due to non-compliance. Portland demonstrators began setting up barricades and tents on Tuesday night, meaning CLAT existed for less than 48 hours.
  • Piracy and armed robbery incidents on ships in the Singapore Strait doubled in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to a maritime information sharing centre on Jul 16. Such incidents in the region as a whole also doubled, said the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre. In the first half of the year, 16 piracy and armed robbery incidents were reported in the channel, and 51 altogether in Asia. According to its half-yearly report, the centre said what is “of concern” is the “continued increase of incidents” in the Singapore Strait. The other incidents occurred in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and South China Sea.
  • Flash floods and landslides killed at least 30 people on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and left hundreds displaced, authorities said on Thursday Jul 16. Fifteen people remain missing, Indonesia search rescue agency spokesman Yusuf Latif said in a statement. The flash floods struck the North Luwu district of South Sulawesi province after heavy rain on Monday caused three nearby rivers to burst. More than 4,000 residents were affected.
  • India: Monsoon floods have swamped large parts of India’s densely populated eastern states, forcing more than a million people into makeshift shelters despite the risk of coronavirus, senior officials said on Thursday Jul 16. The floods have killed at least 10 people and injured more than 70 in the states of Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand, where heavy rain has submerged thousands of villages in the past 24 hours as authorities battle to ensure social distancing in relief camps.
  • Using execution as a means of suppressing dissent has a long history in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian officials appear to have only one solution for all problems from drug trafficking to social protests: Execution. The Islamic Republic has been using execution as a solution and a preventive measure. Hours after executing two prisoners, Saber Sheikh Abdollah and Diako Rassoulzadeh, on July 14, the West Azarbaijan Province Justice Department said in a statement: “It is a firm policy of the Judiciary to be decisive and teach people a lesson at this time of change.” The Judiciary claims that it has been undergoing a “change” since Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raeesi as Judiciary Chief in February 2018. During the 18 months he has been in office as Judiciary chief, his supporters say his main mission has been campaigning against financial corruption. But the issuance of a large number of execution orders during this period indicate that Raeesi’s mission during this “period of change” has been one of suppressing dissent. For a long time, execution has been a tool for maximum suppression of dissent in Iran. Reports by Amnesty International and the Iranian Human Rights Organization reveal that 8,071 executions have taken place either in public or behind the walls of prisons between the years 2000 and 2019.
  • Indigenous tribes in Brazil should be safer than the rest of the population in the country hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, as their lands are supposed to be protected from unauthorised entries. Instead, the coronavirus is dangerously spreading across their territories. According to the Secretariat of Indigenous Health, more than 8,000 indigenous people living in villages have developed COVID-19 and 184 have died as a result. Indigenous people and rights activists accuse the government of an incompetent response and state authorities of a lack of desire to protect the native population from the deadly coronavirus. The Illegal miners that regularly invade the protected territories, and health-care workers sent by the government, are being blamed as the main source of infection.
  • An environmental disaster is the making sits off the coast of Yemen. The oil tanker FSO SAFER has been left abandoned off the coast of the Yemen port Hodeida with its 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and risks sinking in the Red Sea. The result would be a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe, according to statements made during a UN Security Council meeting. The UN is prepared to send a team of experts to assess the situation.
  • A 17-year-old was arrested following the rape last week of a 12-year-old Grade 7 pupil in Bulwer, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The young girl was reportedly turned away from a screening point at a school in order to go back home and fetch her face mask. Upon returning, she informed her teachers that she had been raped. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga demanded severe punishment for the 17-year-old accused. New lockdown regulations have also been amended, stating strict protocols to ensure children’s safety in the event they forget their face masks when arriving at school.

News Burst 17 July 2020 – Bonus IMG

News Burst 4 July 2020 - Neowise Comet Above Tucson

Neowise Comet Above Tucson, USA

Seeing the icy visitor on its visit to the central solar system is a truly once in a lifetime opportunity. It won’t be coming back past the Earth for around 7,000 years.

News Burst 4 July 2020 - Images Of The Sun Taken By Its Solar Orbiter

Images Of The Sun Taken By Its Solar Orbiter

The European Space Agency (ESA) has today released the first images of the Sun taken by its Solar Orbiter. This is the closest any camera has ever been to the Sun, with the satellite just 77 million km away from it when the photographs were taken – about half the distance between Earth and the star. “It’s as if the spacecraft had sent us a postcard from its journey,” said Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA. The satellite was launched on February 10, 2020, and made its first up-close approach to the Sun in mid-June. In the lead up to the big reveal, Müller said: “The first images are exceeding our expectations.”

News Burst 17 July 2020 – Bonus Video

Palermo, Italy July 15 2020

Dozens swim to safety after floods trap cars in Palermo underpass. A flash flood in Palermo, Sicily, left dozens of people trapped in their cars on Wednesday. Mud and water swept away the vehicles and left them blocked in a highway underpass. Drivers and passengers escaped and swam to safety, but a witness reported seeing two people disappear in the water. Firefighters worked all night searching for them.Two children, who were stuck in a car with their parents, have been hospitalized with hypothermia.

News Burst 17 July 2020 – Solar Activity

News Burst 17 July 2020 - Sunspot 16-7-2020

Solar Cycle Update: Solar Minimum is here, and it’s a deep one–a century-class lull in solar activity. At the same time, the next solar cycle is showing signs of life. A recent profusion of reversed-polarity sunspots, plus a big solar flare in May, herald the coming of Solar Cycle 25. Despite the recent quiet, Solar Maximum could be only a few years away.

News Burst 17 July 2020 – Earthquakes

July 15 2020

Europe – M3.5 France

North America – M5.3 Adak, Alaska

Central America – M5.8 Panama

South America – M4.2 Chile

Asia – M4.5 Turckey

Pacific – M4.7 Papua New Guinea

Deepest EQ – M3.0 306 km Italy

News Burst 17 July 2020 - Europe 16 July 2020

An M3.0 earthquake occurred between the Aeolian Islands and the underwater Marsili Volcano (located on the Pliny underwater mountain), this movement could generate a push for a medium-high M3 shallow earthquake even if at the same time as the deep quake there was a shallow M3.3 in the Sicilian hinterland 50 km west of the Etna Volcano. The force later flowed toward Gibraltar with M4.3 probably to move again the Azores tomorrow.

News Burst 17 July 2020 - New Zealand 16 July 2020

Yesterday we saw the two deep earthquakes in the Wets Pacific and the one south of the Fiji Islands has pushed a shallow shock of M4.3 in New Zealand, we can see how today’s earthquake is located in the intermediate point between the two previous shocks. Earthquakes Last 24 Hours – M4 and Above

News Burst 7 July 2020 – Live Feed ~ July 7, 2020

  • A 71-year-old man has been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the murder of Police Constable Sharon Beshenivsky, who was shot dead in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 2005, police have confirmed. Piran Ditta Khan, a former nightclub doorman, appeared in an Islamabad court on Wednesday where his extradition was discussed. The major development in the long-running murder investigation follows an operation involving the UK National Crime Agency and local partners.
  • Shocking new research indicates that not only do pesticides and flame retardants cause unprecedented levels of irreversible childhood brain damage, but the knock-on effects have cost the US economy trillions of dollars. The latest research from New York University indicates that polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were the greatest contributor to IQ loss and intellectual disability among American children, resulting in a total of 162 million IQ points lost and over 738,000 cases of intellectual disability. Many children were likely exposed in utero – though many household objects are known to contain at least trace amounts of these harmful toxins – and this exposure is proven to be harmful to the developing nervous system.
  • Each year, more than 6,500 cases of bladder cancer, roughly five percent of all cases in Europe, are found to be attributable to exposure to trihalomethanes (THMs) in drinking water – and it’s all perfectly legal. For a study of countries’ water quality, the EU28 became the EU26, as adequate data for Bulgaria and Romania could not be obtained. Nevertheless, the project covered 75% of the total EU population, and a reading of its findings is ominous. THMs are a class of molecule that appear as a by-product of the disinfectants used to clean drinking water. When chlorine, the main chemical used to clean drinking water, comes into contact with organic matter, it breaks down into THMs. And despite being legal up to certain levels, long-term exposure to them has been consistently associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The EU has set that legal limit at 100 lg=L, but anything over 50 lg=L causes a 51 percent increase in the probability of bladder cancer, in men at least. This study was undertaken at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, in a city which has THM levels above the present regulatory maximum limit of 100 lg=L. Astonishingly, there is no provision for the lowering of this maximum in the latest European Council directive.
  • At least 147 people have been killed by lightning strikes in India’s northeastern state of Bihar in the past 10 days, with already severe monsoon weather intensifying and exposing farmers to fatal bolts from the blue. Authorities reportedly recorded some 26 lightning-related deaths last Thursday, followed by 15 on Friday, and 21 on Saturday. A further 40 people have been injured as weather conditions favorable for farming prove to be a deadly, double-edged sword for local communities. The death toll from lightning strikes in the area since the beginning of March has climbed to over 215 people. More extreme bouts of lightning are expected in the coming days, the Indian Meteorological Department has warned.
  • Applications for new diamond licenses have recommenced following the review requirements and procedures by the Namibia Ministry of Mines and Energy. “The Ministry of Mines and Energy is hereby informing the public that it will recommence to accept/receive new applications for licenses issued under the Diamond Act with effect from the date of this notice,” the diamond commissioner Miina Gahutu said in a statement on Monday. She said the recommencement comes after the ministry finalised the review of the requirements and procedures leading to granting of new licenses for diamond cutting, diamond dealing, diamond tool-making and diamond research in terms of the Diamond Act.
  • Germany has been focusing on cases against concentration camp suspects in recent years. However court proceedings are difficult to execute due to the advancing age of the suspects. Bruno D. is relatively young in comparison with previous defendants. The 93-year-old’s trial has taken place in a juvenile court because he was 17 at the time. His defense argued that he was assigned to the camp because a heart condition prevented him from serving on the frontline. The 93-year-old is accused of complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 people at the Stutthof camp during World War II.
  • Women parliamentarians are not safe in the Namibia National Assembly as their male counterparts from opposition benches use their physical strength to harass them. This was said by Swapo parliamentarian, Evelyn Nawases-Taeyele, who claimed that Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters legislator, Kalimbo Iipumbu, almost attacked her in the house on Wednesday before he nearly came to blows with ex-deputy finance minister Natangue Ithete. She added that Iipumbu has not shown any remorse for his actions. “It’s like a man who rapes a girl and afterwards says ‘it’s because of the way she was dressed that I raped her’, same narrative,” she said.
  • Former Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao admitted in a Sunday night tweet that she knew about Jeffrey Epstein ‘madam’ Ghislaine Maxwell procuring underage girls as far back as 2011. In response to a tweet in expressing relief at never having been photographed with Maxwell, Pao replied: “She was at the Kleiner holiday party in 2011, but I had no desire to meet her much less have a photo taken with her. We knew about her supplying underage girls for sex, but I guess that was fine with the “cool” people who managed the tightly controlled guest list”. Shortly after sending the tweet, Pao locked her Twitter account.
  • Google has just confirmed its intention not to cooperate with CCP officials or Hong Kong police regarding data requests under the new nat sec law. This follow the same decision of Twitter, Facebook (and his WhatsApp messaging service) and Telegram. That leaves Apple left… will Tim Cook dare to jeopardize Apple’s access to Chinese markets just to show solidarity with Hong Kong?
  • A day after 30 kg gold was seized at Thiruvananthapuram airport, India, from a diplomatic cargo addressed to a person in the UAE Consulate-General in India, a local resident who had earlier worked with the Consulate-General’s office as a public relations officer was arrested by the Customs and a woman employee of the state IT Department was dismissed from service on Monday as the arrested main accused said during questioning that she too was allegedly. The UAE Consulate General office has disowned the cargo and “promised to cooperate with the investigation.” UAE is the land of the pirates of the third millennium.
  • The central Chinese city of Wuhan raised its flood alert level on Monday as torrential rain and thunderstorms battered swathes of the country, including the Yangtze river on which it sits. Wuhan upgraded its emergency flood response to Level II from Level III, the second highest on its four-tier scale, after days of heavy downpours submerged many of its roads. Authorities warned in March that Wuhan and other flood-prone cities on the Yangtze’s middle reaches faced higher than usual levels of rainfall this year.
  • Indonesia’s Lion Air Group is slashing 2,600 jobs as the coronavirus pandemic hammers Southeast Asia’s biggest carrier, a company spokesman said on Monday. The layoffs – about 9 per cent of the airline’s 29,000 employees – would mainly affect contract workers, it said. The job cuts come after Lion earlier reduced management and staff salaries.

News Burst 7 July 2020 – Bonus Video

The worldwide volcanic uptick associated with the next Grand Solar Minimum is continuing. We can now add Nishino-shima volcano to the list after its ongoing effusive-explosive, high-level eruptions which started in mid-June. Nishino-shima volcano (Volcano Islands, Japan) awoke last December after a two-or-so year quiescence. And now, on the back of June’s string of 12,000 ft vulcanian-strombolian-type eruptions and active lava flows on its northern slopes, the volcano has ejected a very dense ash plume to an altitude of 27,230 ft (8,300 m). Today, July 6, both the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and HIMAWARI-8 satellite data have confirmed the July 4 eruption, which is considered to be the highest ash plume of the volcano since 2013.

News Burst 7 July 2020 – Solar Activity

News Burst 4 July 2020 - Northern hole in the Sun's atmosphere

A minor stream of solar wind is buffeting Earth’s magnetic field today, stirring geomagnetic unrest around the poles. The gaseous material is flowing from a northern hole in the sun’s atmosphere. Antarctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras in austral winter darkness.

News Burst 7 July 2020 – Active Weather

Tropical Storm EDOUARD. Winds: 40-50 knots. Pressure 1007 hPa. Movement: northeast at 32 knots

News Burst 4 July 2020 - Active Weather

1. A small low pressure system has moved inland over the Florida panhandle. The small low is forecast to evolve into a larger low pressure system and move northeastward, near the coast of the Carolinas. Since the low is currently over land, no development is expected today or tomorrow. However, some development will be possible if the system moves back over water on Wednesday or Thursday.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…10 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days…medium…40 percent.

2. A tropical wave continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms several hundred miles east of the Windward Islands. Some slight development of this system is possible today before environmental conditions become hostile for development on Tuesday. The wave is forecast to move through the Lesser Antilles on Tuesday and could produce locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds on some of those islands.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…10 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…10 percent.

News Burst 7 July 2020 – Earthquakes

July 6 2020

Europe M4.4 Ionian Sea, Italy

North America M4.5 Nevada

Central America M3.8 Puerto Rico

South America M5.2 South Sandwich Islands

Asia M5.6 Izu Islands, Japan

Pacific M6.2 Micronesia

Deepest EQ M6.6 528 km Java, Indonesia

News Burst 7 July 2020 -Earthquake Europe 6 July 2020

In the News Burst of July 5th we talked about the possible evolution of the new seismic wave in Europe by mentioning central-southern Italy and the Azores, in this image that shows the shocks higher than the M3 at 16:30 UTC on July 7th you can see the movements in the areas mentioned. It should be noted that the shock of M4.4 occurred in the Ionian Sea instead of on the mainland, no coincidence [+++], a shock of this kind in southern Italy would have caused some houses to collapse. Romania, another area we have named, also saw the expected movement, mitigated to M3.3. The seismic wave has also reached Iceland, where they believe an eruption is imminent while in reality it is only the final release point.

News Burst 7 July 2020 -Earthquake Western Pacific 6 July 2020

A couple of days ago we had noticed a strong deep earthquake in northern Borneo and guessed the possibility of a movement higher than M6 in the Northern Philippines, the movement happened but the area was not that, it occurred in Micronesia. Note also in the image the deep shock off the coast of Japan, M 6.6 at 380 km depth, also this earthquake can generate a shallow movement above M6. Here there are two options, either Japan itself or the halfway point between these two shocks shown on the picture. It should also be noted that when a movement occurs in the Guam area, a “twin” earthquake occurs in Taiwan.

News Burst 7 July 2020 -Earthquake Indonesia 6 July 2020

Another movement of M6.6 occurred in Indonesia just at the time of this update, at a depth of 528 km, we had mentioned this area as a possibility on July 5 update, this powerful earthquake add again the possibility of other shallow movement, this time potentially higher than M7, in the northern part of Sumatra up to the Andaman Islands. Even in the Southern Indian Ocean we may see some significant movement, the timing of these movements is generally up to 7 days. Earthquakes Last 24 Hours – M4 and Above

News Burst — Live Feed – June 24 2020 ~ June 24, 2020

Featured News

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 24, 2020 Last Updated 2020-06-24 18:45:10

Oogesa Taro, a Japanese artist, activist and reporter went to Seattle to cover the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) and to show that the protest was non-violent. He left within 15 minutes having been severely beaten up. Taro, the organizer of a collaborative social art project called ‘Without Borders’, travelled to the US to explore the ongoing protests that erupted in the wake of the George Floyd killing by Minneapolis police. Reporting from the ground within the CHAZ, it didn’t take long before Taro was set upon and beaten up by some of the area’s less welcoming residents. Despite the unsavoury encounter and hostility, Taro’s indomitable spirit led him back to the scene of the crime. “Im back to prove that this is not a protest that affirms violence” he said. The plucky documentarian’s voyage into the heart of America’s civil unrest has generated a few chuckles online, with some sharing visual representations of Taro’s expectations versus reality.
Germany is still reeling from a massive child abuse scandal as it was revealed that Helmut Kentler long considered to be one of the “founders of modern sexology” in fact acted as a “matchmaker” for pedophiles by sending neglected children into their care under the passive eye of Berlin authorities. Helmut Kentler died back in 2008 at the venerable age of 80 and till the very end, he was considered a progressive thinker and a respectable member of the scientific community. At the time of his death Germany’s Tageszeitung daily called him a “meritorious fighter for a permissive sexual morality” in an obituary, while various human rights advocacy groups and even some protestant church authorities were vying with each other while praising his life achievements. It seems even more bizarre since Kentler himself admitted in the 1990s to sending children to live with pedophiles as part of an “experiment.” Kentler’s project, which some German media are now describing as nothing short of a powerful pedophile “network” in disguise, could not have lasted so long without tacit support of the authorities, a group of researchers that recently issued a report on the topic, believe. The man never made a secret of his views on the topic either as he repeatedly argued in his works that social stigma is virtually the only traumatizing part of a sexual relationship between an adult and a child.
NASA has raised the alarm over yet another five space rocks headed our way. Fortunately, researchers have also revealed a potentially ingenious new strategy for dealing with such threats should they come too close to Earth. However, much the same as the standard deflection methods which have long been considered but, of course, never actually tried, including using a nuclear weapon or a battering ram in the form of a rocket to nudge the space rock off course, early detection and action would be absolutely vital. Another week, another warning of impending asteroid activity in Earth’s vicinity, as at least five asteroids ranging in size from a small passenger jet to roughly the size of an apartment building are set to shoot past the Earth, three of which were only spotted in the last two months. The closest any of them will come to us is 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) away. That’s five times the distance between the Earth and Moon.
Researchers reported on Monday that hackers are now exploiting Google’s Analytics service to stealthily pilfer credit card information from infected e-commerce sites. According to several independent reports from PerimeterX, Kaspersky, and Sansec, threat actors are now injecting data-stealing code on the compromised websites in combination with tracking code generated by Google Analytics for their own account, letting them exfiltrate payment information entered by users even in conditions where content security policies are enforced for maximum web security. “Attackers injected malicious code into sites, which collected all the data entered by users and then sent it via Analytics,” Kaspersky said in a report published yesterday. “As a result, the attackers could access the stolen data in their Google Analytics account.”
China launched the last satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) from Xichang, marking the completion of the deployment of its own global navigation system.
After decades of widespread use as company scientists played down research showing a definitive link between the product and growing rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Monsanto parent company Bayer has agreed to pay up to $10 billion to settle claims that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, causes cancer.
Bayer inherited the glyphosate problems during its $60 billion acquisition of Monsanto. After losing three lawsuits, Bayer changed its strategy and abandoned its aggressive defense in favor of trying to negotiate a sweeping settlement of the tens of thousands of US lawsuits pending. Bayer holds numerous studies against the classification of the IARC and other researchers. The US environmental agency EPA supports the group and, despite the heated debate about glyphosate, has so far maintained that the controversial pesticide poses no health risk to people if used properly.
Central banks around the world are examining the use of digital currencies. As of recent, central banks of the U.K., Sweden, Thailand, China, and the US are studying whether there are advantages of the digital form of their fiat money. And the government and banking elites will seize even more power from the people.
A CBDC gives a government complete control over its currency. This will increase their financial-surveillance over the people. When a bank fails, there will be no bank run, because people can’t withdraw their money from that bank. This means when a financial crisis strikes, it will allow governments to do “bail-ins” where the people, like it or not, will be forced to take a haircut on their deposits to save the failing institution.
Faced with growing pressure to crack down on the “occupied” protest zone following two weekend shootings, Seattle’s mayor said Monday that officials will move to wind down the blocks-long span of city streets taken over two weeks ago. Mayor Jenny Durkan said at a news conference that the violence was distracting from changes sought by thousands of peaceful protesters seeking to address racial inequity and police brutality. She said the city is working with the community to bring the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone to an end. “The cumulative impacts of the gatherings and protests and the nighttime atmosphere and violence has led to increasingly difficult circumstances for our businesses and residents,” Durkan said. “The impacts have increased and the safety has decreased.”
US President Donald Trump has authorized federal authorities to arrest anyone accused of vandalizing or destroying “any monument, statue or other such Federal property,” with any persons charged with doing facing up to 10 years in prison, in accordance with “the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act, or such other laws that may be pertinent.”
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who is currently ranked number one in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals, said he has tested positive for COVID-19. He’s not showing any sympthom.
News Burst Live Feed
Blooming verbena flowers at an ecological garden on border of the Maowusu desert in Yinchuan, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Efforts were made to turn desertification lands into the ecological garden in Yinchuan and ornamental plants are cultivated here as part of plans to promote local tourism.
News Burst Live Feed
Barcelona’s opera house has reopened and performed its first concert since the coronavirus lockdown. To an audience that didn’t have to worry about social distancing. Instead of people, there were 2,292 plants, one for each seat in the theater. Monday’s concert was also livestreamed for humans to watch. The event was conceived by a Spanish artist who said he was inspired by nature during the pandemic. At the end of the eight-minute concert, the sound of leaves and branches blowing in the wind resonated throughout the opera house like applause. The theater says it will gift the plants to local health workers as a thank you for their efforts during the pandemic.
News Burst Live Feed
Huge geotextile sheets put up on the Presena glacier (2700m-3000m) on the Val di Sole near Pellizzano in Trentino, northern Italy, in order to delay snow melting on skiing slopes. According to news agency AFP, the tarp is made of “geotextile tarpaulins that reflect sunlight, maintaining a temperature lower than the external one, and thus preserving as much snow as possible”. Situated at an altitude of 3,000 metres, the tarp is laid down every year. The tarp is meticulously placed across the mountain, and sewed shut to prevent hot air from sneaking in. It is then covered with bags of sand to restrict movement. To someone looking from a distance, the sheets will look just like snow. Tarps are made in Australia and cost $450 each, and the work takes six weeks each, for installing and removing them.
News Burst Live Feed
On June 21st, something rare and magical happened in London. The skies of the great city filled with noctilucent clouds (NLCs). Phil Halper noticed the display, grabbed a camera, and raced from one landmark to another, hurriedly recording pictures like this one. If NLCs look alien–that’s because they are. The clouds are seeded by meteoroids. They form every year around this time when summertime wisps of water vapor rise up to the mesosphere, allowing water to crystallize around specks of meteor smoke. Usually you have to be under a dark sky at high latitudes to see these rare clouds–but 2020 is not usual. Record-cold temperatures in the mesosphere are boosting NLCs, brightening them enough to see from places like London.

Bonus Video

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 24, 2020

This is SIRIAN technology, like an advanced camera. It’s meant to look strange and be seen by us to provoke questions. There’s a cloaked craft close by. Sirian crafts are rare to see. I’ve shown Arcturian versions of this, each looks different. Via Neioh.

Solstice Crop Circle – Berwick Bassett – Wiltshire 21/6/20

Solar Activity

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 24, 2020

News Burst Live Feed
The sun is blank, no sunspots

Sunspot number: 0
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 7 days
2020 total: 129 days (74%)
2019 total: 281 days (77%)

Active Weather

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 24, 2020

A vast cloud of Sahara dust is blanketing the Caribbean as it heads to the US with a size and concentration that experts say hasn’t been seen in half a century. Air quality across most of the region reached record “hazardous” levels and experts who nicknamed the event the “Godzilla dust cloud” warned people to stay indoors and use air filters if they had them. “This is the most significant event in the past 50 years,” said Pablo Méndez Lázaro, an environmental health specialist at the University of Puerto Rico. “Conditions are dangerous in many Caribbean islands.” Many health specialists were concerned about those battling respiratory symptoms tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Lázaro, who is working with Nasa to develop an alert system for the arrival of Sahara dust, said the concentration was so high in recent days that it could even have adverse effects on healthy people. Extremely hazy conditions and limited visibility were reported from Antigua down to Trinidad & Tobago, with the event expected to last until late Tuesday. Some people posted pictures of themselves on social media wearing double masks to ward off the coronavirus and the dust, while others joked that the Caribbean looked like it had received a yellow filter movie treatment.

Earthquakes

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 24, 2020

23/6/2020
EuropeM4.4 Greece
North-AmericaM3.8 Alaska
Central-AmericaM7.4 Mexico
South-AmericaM4.6 Argentina
AsiaM4.5 China
PacificM5.9 Guam
Deepest-EQM4.4 528 km Fiji
News Burst - Earthquakes
23 JuneHere we see the earthquakes of the last 12 hours, we note how the deep shock that took place in Italy yesterday pushed the seismic force towards the coasts of North Africa, a possibility we had talked about yesterday. A new wave from the east manifested itself just north of the island of Corfu in Greece with a shock of M4.4, this went to fill the intermediate point between the two similar shocks that happened today, in Algeria and Turkey. There is a possibility that central Italy and/or the area from Croatia to Slovenia may experience a movement of high M3, even M4, very shortly. The Canary Islands may also be subject to movement on the M3 while it is possible that the Azores Islands, the final release point in the North Atlantic, will see the arrival of the seismic wave with movements greater than the M4.
News Burst - Earthquakes
23 JuneA massive earthquake of M7.4 occurred in Mexico in the Oaxaca area at 15:29 UTC, deep EQ on the other side of the Pacific created enormous pressure on the plate and near the area of the huge shock of last year in Mexico, a seismically weak zone and prone to earthquakes, we see this strong movement. In this area, on the occasion of the M8 movement last year, there was a movement of the plates of about 1 meter. This is the second major shock to the M7 in a week, no coincidence! The surrounding areas, North, South and East will have to compensate for this movement with settlements that could also reach the M6.
News Burst - Earthquakes - Click to enlarge in a new tab
23 JuneThe two M7.4

Earthquakes Last 24 Hours – M4 and Above

News Burst — Live Feed – June 21 2020

Featured News

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 21, 2020 Last Updated 2020-06-21 00:00:11

Beijing has slammed Taiwan for its new plan to harbor asylum seekers from Hong Kong, which has seen massive anti-government protests and rioting. This “plot” will backfire, China said. “Providing shelter for and taking onto the island the rioters and elements who bring chaos to Hong Kong will only continue bring harm to Taiwan’s people,” China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson, Zhu Fenglian, told reporters. Earlier this week, Taiwan unveiled a plan to set up a government-funded agency to help asylum seekers from Hong Kong, a self-governing region of China, settle on the island. The proposed scheme includes a basic living allowance and help with employment for Hongkongers seeking “shelter” from Beijing. Zhu slammed the plan as a “political plot to intervene in Hong Kong affairs and undermine Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability.” She said that the idea undermines the ‘one country, two systems’ formula, which allows Hong Kong to retain a degree of autonomy in its domestic policy, while China handles its foreign affairs.
The Nepal Department of Immigration on Monday decided to ban five of the six foreigners, detained for participating in a youth-led anti-government protest on Saturday in Maitighar, from entering Nepal for two years. Ramesh Kumar KC, director-general at the department, told that the foreigners had violated the terms of their visa by taking part in the protest. “Foreigners can’t take part in any demonstrations over internal issues of the country, as per prevailing laws. The six appear to have violated this law,” said KC. The detainees are: Kalani Gacon, 24, from Australia; Stephanie Ann Thornton, 32, from the US; Marita Liverod, 31, from Norway; and Qin Li, 40; Li Xu, 26, and Yanan Jia, 30, from China. “The department has banned five foreigners from China, USA and Australia from entering Nepal for two years,” said KC. “But in the case of the Norwegian national, Marita Liverod, she was found to be on a marriage visa,” said KC. “The five will be deported after the lockdown ends and will not be allowed to enter Nepal for two years.” The department has released them on bail for now.
Ten people were missing after a boat carrying 16 fishermen capsized in Indonesian waters near the Anak Krakatau volcano, officials said Saturday. Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said the motorboat sank on Thursday after being hit by strong waves in the Sunda strait. “Six were rescued alive on Friday and we continue searching for the 10 people still missing today,” Indonesia’s search and rescue agency spokesman Muhammad Yusuf Latif told AFP on Saturday. The group had attempted to swim to nearby Rakata island, he added.
“Six returned to the capsized boat and they were rescued. But the other 10 continued swimming and their whereabouts remain unknown,” Latif said. Rescue teams expanded their search for survivors on Saturday. Boat accidents are common in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, due to lax safety standards.
US identifies 12 Mexican products linked to forced or child labor. Import sanctions could be imposed on tomatoes, chiles and other exports. Child labor could trigger issues under the new trade agreement. The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) maintains a list of goods and their source countries which it has reason to believe are produced by child labor or forced labor in violation of international standards, as required under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005. The List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor comprises 148 goods from 76 countries, as of September 20, 2018. The list of prohibited Mexican products also includes pornography.
Lockdown could be bad for you back. Thanks to measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, many of us are now working from home. This means you might not be moving around as much, and your home desk setup (and the posture you adopt while working) might not be as good as it should be. These are all things that can lead to back pain. Common poor desk posture is actually very similar to the posture astronauts adopt during spaceflight in zero-gravity. Usually this is a forward leaning posture with a forward head position and the loss of normal spinal curves. Being in space also has similar effects to staying in bed all day. At the Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory at Northumbria University (UK), a team of researchers look into ways of keeping the spine healthy in astronauts during space missions. But this research can also be used to help those of us on Earth keep our spines healthy when working from home.
The People’s Republic is making certain progress in the development and testing of new digital systems of payment, seeking to escape dependence on the US dollar. China is reportedly mulling over the creation of an East Asia “stablecoin” – with the Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, Korean won, and Hong Kong dollar pegged to it – in a move which may bring global competition for supremacy in digital currencies to the next stage, as Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei noted last Sunday. The plan was purportedly outlined by Neil Shen, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and founding partner of Sequoia Capital China. If implemented, a regional stablecoin may bolster cross-border transactions and reduce the usage of the US dollar within the region.
Britain’s foreign ministry appeared to agree with several points Russian President Vladimir Putin made in his new article on the legacy of World War II. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said in a statement that “our shared history should not be used as a political instrument or re-written” by governments in their own interests. The spokesperson noted that it was the courage and sacrifices of the USSR, the United States, the United Kingdom and all their allies that led to the “defeat of the Nazi regime”. Vladimir Putin has penned an article outlining his views on the origins of the Second World War and rejecting attempts to blame the outbreak of the conflict on the Soviet Union. An English translation appeared in the magazine The National Interest this week. The magazine’s editor, Jacob Heilbrunn, explained that the idea of the publication was to trigger “more debate about the past and the present” and steer American policy toward a more realist viewpoint. In September 2019, the European Parliament adopted a resolution blaming the outbreak of the war in part on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact signed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Putin at the time described the resolution, which was backed by Polish MEPs, as “complete nonsense”, and a diplomatic feud ensued between the Polish and Russian leadership over the origins of the war.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is practically completed, and the United States has no way of influencing the situation, reported Die Welt. Despite Washington’s efforts to hamper the process, Moscow managed to circumvent restrictive measures imposed against the ambitious project, that is scheduled to carry up to 1.942 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia to Germany through the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, and Sweden. The German publication notes that the Akademik Cherskiy pipe-laying vessel owned by Gazprom has now been registered with the Samara Thermal Energy Property Fund (STIF), operating in Russia, according to the international registry of ships. This allows the state-owned corporation to complete the gas pipeline, circumventing Washington’s restrictions. “Akademik Chersky” has been thrown in the spotlight after it was identified as the vessel potentially linked with the completion of the Nord Stream-2 venture. The pipe-laying vessels of the Swiss contractor Allseas had withdrawn from the project after their owners were threatened with US sanctions for their involvement.
Airlines have yet to approve most passengers’ requests for cash refunds of cancelled international flights following the massive number of cancellations amid the pandemic, the Indonesian Travel Agent Association (Astindo) has stated. From Rp 2.45 trillion (US$173.2 million) worth of cash refunds requested for cancelled international flights issued between January to February this year, only Rp 852 billion have been refunded so far, according to Astindo data collected from its members. “This is only for international flights, not to mention domestic flights,” Astindo secretary-general Pauline Soeharno told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, adding that customers still preferred cash refunds over travel vouchers.
News Burst Live Feed
Sometime in the late 1800s, a British-Indian Railway Company headquarters received a curious telegram: ‘Tiger jumping about platform, men will not work; please arrange’, it said. Then in 1892, an artist turned this little note into a sketch and published it in The Graphic, a popular British weekly illustrated newspaper. It was captioned, ‘An Awkward Visitor at an Upcountry Railway Station in India’.
News Burst Live Feed
Fuji TV, Sankei Shimbun used opinion polls with fake replies. Executives of a media conglomerate faced the embarrassment of having to admit that outsourced opinion polls carried out over the past year included made-up answers. The Sankei Shimbun concerned public opinion surveys conducted between May 2019 and May 2020 by Fuji News Network Inc., made up of 28 Fuji TV-affiliated stations, and Sankei. Officials of the two companies said 17 percent of total responses made over a series of 14 public opinion surveys were fictitious. Fuji TV and Sankei retracted all TV reports and articles based on the findings of the surveys. Officials traced the problem to the fact the two companies outsourced the actual handling of the survey.
News Burst Live Feed
Skywatchers along a narrow band from west Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, India and southern China will witness on Sunday the most dramatic “ring of fire” solar eclipse to shadow the Earth in years.
News Burst Live Feed
New Delhi: the celestial object has blown the mind of netizens as it appears to be very attractive and glittery. While some are calling it “fascinating” others have termed it an “alien mask” because of its shape. A celestial object, which geologists have classified as a “very rare and valuable” metallic meteorite, has fallen from the sky in the Indian state of Rajasthan’s Jalore district. The shiny and metallic object which weighs around 2.78 kilograms fell in the Sanchore area of the district at around 7:00 a.m. on Friday. Because of its weight, the object is believed to have sunk 4-5 feet into the ground. The object was retrieved by police and is set to be further examined by a team of scientists. Such events are not new to the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. Recently, residents in the village of Alwar woke up to a loud thud in the wee hours, when a meteor-like structure crashed on the ground, emanating a bright light.

Bonus Video

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 21, 2020

Crop Circle – Hunt’s Down Nr Wilton Wiltshire – 17/06/2020

Istanbul 17 June 2020

Solar Activity

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 21, 2020

Ring Of Fire’ Solar Eclipse: The sun is about to turn into a “ring of fire.” On June 21st, the Moon will pass directly in front of the sun, producing an annular solar eclipse over Earth’s eastern hemisphere. Annular eclipses are not total. Only about 99% of the solar disk will be covered. The remainder juts out around the Moon, creating a “ring of fire.” The narrow path of angularity stretches from east Africa to the Pacific Ocean, with greatest coverage occurring over the Himalaya of northern India at 06:41 UTC. A partial eclipse, in which a smaller fraction of the sun is covered, can be seen across a much wider area including parts of Europe, the Middle East, India, almost all of Asia, and northernmost Australia. Observers, be careful! A partially eclipsed sun is still dangerously bright and should not be looked at through magnifying optics. Try projection techniques instead. Because annular eclipses are not, technically, total, they are sometimes considered to be lesser events. Decide for yourself … after watching this video of an annular eclipse at sunrise over western Australia on May 10, 2013.

Active Weather

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 21, 2020

News Burst Live Feed
Waves of anomalous cold are coloring the majority of the 11.73 million mi² African continent “blue” and “purple” this week, as the Grand Solar Minimum continues its intensification. Latest GFS runs reveal temperature departures some 4C – 10C below the seasonal norm will stretch the length and breadth of Africa today, June 19, from Morocco in the north down to South Africa.

Earthquakes

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 21, 2020

20/6/2020
EuropeM5.7 Iceland
North-AmericaM4.2 Nevada
Central-AmericaM4.7 Mexico
South-AmericaM4.4 Chile
AsiaM4.5 Philippines
PacificM5.4 Tonga
Deepest-EQM4.5 469 km Fiji
News Burst - Earthquakes
June 20Europe after the strong shocks in Western Asia, Middle East and the earthquakes in Crete was set in motion almost everywhere by shocks on the M3, Iceland instead, the final release point, saw the accumulation of all the seismic force with an impressive swarm with the strongest shock reported at M5.7. The image shows the initial push close to the M6 and the final release in Iceland of almost the same magnitude.
News Burst - Earthquakes
June 20Yesterday (below image) we talked about the deep earthquakes that would have moved the areas to the west and south, today’s image shows how this manifested with a series of movements on the M5 in the west and with movements on the M4 in New Zealand.
News Burst - Earthquakes - Click to enlarge in a new tab
June 19The South West Pacific still shows a series of deep earthquakes with the most powerful shock of M5.6 at 534 km of depth occurred this morning at 10:07 UTC in Fiji. The second movement took place at 17:54 UTC south of Fiji, M4.3 at 502 km. These will certainly put in motion the areas to the west and south, the latter already suffered in recent days. For now, the shocks stop in the Kermadec Islands without reaching New Zealand.

Earthquakes Last 24 Hours – M4 and Above

News Burst — Live Feed – June 20 2020 ~ June 20, 2020

Featured News

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 20, 2020

Last Updated 2020-06-20 09:45:11

The discovery of new fast radio burst (FRBs)from an unknown source outside of our galaxy, made by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) Collaboration, was detailed in a report released in Nature magazine on Wednesday. Although already shrouded in mystery, what makes these FRBs, dubbed FRB 180916.J0158+65, so special is that they are the first to have produced a periodic pattern. FRB 180916.J0158+65’s cyclical pattern stretches over a 16-day period. The pattern begins with a noisy four-day period in which FRBs are emitted from the unknown source. This is followed by a 12-day period of radio silence, before the cycle starts over again. “This FRB we’re reporting now is like clockwork,”says Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
B&G Foods has retired the black ‘chef’ mascot who once graced its Cream of Wheat packaging. B&G stated they were “initiating an immediate review of the Cream of Wheat brand packaging” because of “concerns regarding the Chef image.” The brand promised to “proactively take steps to ensure that we and our brands do not inadvertently contribute to systemic racism” and reminded consumers that they “unequivocally stand against prejudice and injustice of any kind.” Cream of Wheat fans might wonder how the anonymous smiling chef perpetuates systemic racism, but they know better than to voice their doubts out loud. No one, from large corporations to the people who buy their products, wants to be seen as racially insensitive, and the range of behaviors that fall under that heading appears to be expanding rapidly. Aunt Jemima, of pancake syrup fame, is the character based on the offensive “mammy” racial stereotype; the original model for the character was born a slave in the South. Over the last 70 years, Quaker gradually lightened Jemima’s skin and made her thinner, finally ditching her “mammy” bandana entirely for the most recent 1989 reinvention. In short, she’s been “problematic” since day one, even before you get to the ingredients in the products marketed under her name (spoiler alert: Aunt Jemima syrup contains no actual maple syrup, but it does have a lot of high fructose corn syrup).
An internal CIA report about the Vault 7 fiasco paints a damning picture of the main US spy agency. WikiLeaks released the CIA’s hacking tools, likely leaked by an insider, while CIA chiefs were too busy cooking up Russiagate. Vault 7 was the name given to cyber attack tools developed by the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), and published by WikiLeaks in March 2017. It was the largest data breach in Langley’s history, with long-lasting consequences. For example, Chinese cybersecurity companies recently used Vault 7 evidence to show that the US has been hacking China for over a decade. According to a just-released internal CIA report, “CCI had prioritized building cyber weapons at the expense of securing their own systems. Day-to-day security practices had become woefully lax. Most of our sensitive cyber weapons were not compartmented, users shared systems administrator-level passwords, there were no effective removable media controls, and historical data was available to users indefinitely,” the report goes on to say. The heavily-redacted document actually dates back to October 2017 and was only made public Tuesday by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), in an effort to pressure the new Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe into imposing new security measures. While the CIA ineptitude is the obvious takeaway, no one seems to have noticed the real bombshell: the timing of the breach and its implications.
Sky News is the latest broadcaster in the UK to tell its staff not to tweet about politics in an attempt to portray itself as an impartial outlet. It’s time UK broadcasting grew up and admitted there is no such thing. Bias is a fact of life, everyone has prejudices about almost every facet of life. Everyone knows this, even children know it, but there seems to be one segment of society that believes it can inoculate itself against bias, British journalists. Many in this profession think they are capable of being completely fair minded. Unlike the rest of society, they think they have found clear objectivity, they just relay facts and leave it up to those watching or reading to make up their minds. The BBC, Sky, ITN and Channel 4 will all plead till the cows come home that they are impartial, even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. The latest indication of this is Sky News’ new guidelines for staff on social media. Such is the extent to which they believe their staff are capable of displaying impartiality, that they have banned all those who do not work in the politics department from tweeting about politics, completely. This even extends to “liking” posts that are “at odds with Sky News’ obligations and values”.
As a number of projects planned under government-to-government deals have sparked controversy in Nepal over their transparency, a government committee has recommended that Germany’s Munich Airport not be appointed as the operator of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa. Located in south-central Nepal, Gautam Buddha International Airport, which will serve as the gateway to the international pilgrimage destination of Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, will be Nepal’s second international airport. “We have suggested that in view of the controversy in Nepal regarding government to government deals, Gautam Buddha International Airport’s operation should not be handed over to Germany’s Munich Airport,” said Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism. “We have suggested that the permit should be awarded through an open competition,” said Lamichhane, who led the committee.
Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi announced that Indonesia would prevent haj departures to Saudi Arabia this year, a decision that affected hundreds of thousands of would-be pilgrims in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Indonesia has the largest haj pilgrim quota of any country. The House of Representatives and lawmakers on Commission VIII overseeing religious affairs criticized him for not consulting with the House before deciding to cancel the 2020 haj pilgrimage over coronavirus concerns. John Kennedy Azis of the Golkar Party, a political party in President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s ruling coalition, questioned Fachrul’s sudden announcement of the policy, saying there had been no pressure for the central government to announce it immediately without consulting the legislative body. Indonesia initially planned to send about 221,000 people on the annual pilgrimage, and nearly 180,000 people had already paid for the journey, Religious Affairs Ministry data shows. The government said the pilgrims would be placed on next year’s haj.
Police have arrested a 42-year-old church caretaker from Pancoran Mas district in Depok, West Java, over alleged sexual abuse. Parents had reported “suspicious behavior” of the caretaker, identified only as SPM, said Azas Tigor Nainggolan, the alleged victims’ attorney. “He often kissed and hugged the boys and put them on his lap. Some parents also claimed that he verbally bullied the kids,” Tigor told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. The parents reported their suspicions to the church pastor, who conducted an internal investigation. Afterward, some 20 boys reportedly came forward and said they had been molested by SPM. “The investigation revealed that SPM has been abusing kids since 2002. All the victims are male, aged 11-15,” Tigor said.
News Burst Live Feed
Retired nurse Feridia Rojas, 82, walks past a vintage car as she wears cardboard shaped like a house to protect herself from the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Havana, Cuba, 16 June 2020. The words on the cardboard read: “I am at home. And you?”
News Burst Live Feed
A German-Russian space telescope has beamed back a truly breathtaking map of the entire sky as seen through x-rays from the observational post some 1.5 million km from Earth. The eRosita instrument, mounted on the Spektr-RG orbital telescope which was launched in July last year, captured the universe in all its glory, replete with black holes devouring everything in their vicinities, exploding stars, and searing hot gas clouds sprawling across the Milky Way and beyond. The telescope only became operational in December and began scanning the entire sky, sending back the first all-sky data-set just last week for processing. The results were published on Friday. The team used a technique called Aitoff projection, developed by Russian cartographer David A. Aitoff in 1889, to unravel the sphere of the sky onto an ellipse shape.
News Burst Live Feed
This morning in Europe, astronomers witnessed a lunar occultation of Venus in broad daylight. Surrounded by blue sky, the Moon eclipsed the second planet. Didier Favre of Brétigny-sur-Orge, France, photographed the event moments before Venus disappeared behind the sunlit edge of the Moon.
News Burst Live Feed
New Delhi: the celestial object has blown the mind of netizens as it appears to be very attractive and glittery. While some are calling it “fascinating” others have termed it an “alien mask” because of its shape. A celestial object, which geologists have classified as a “very rare and valuable” metallic meteorite, has fallen from the sky in the Indian state of Rajasthan’s Jalore district. The shiny and metallic object which weighs around 2.78 kilograms fell in the Sanchore area of the district at around 7:00 a.m. on Friday. Because of its weight, the object is believed to have sunk 4-5 feet into the ground. The object was retrieved by police and is set to be further examined by a team of scientists. Such events are not new to the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. Recently, residents in the village of Alwar woke up to a loud thud in the wee hours, when a meteor-like structure crashed on the ground, emanating a bright light.

Bonus Video

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 20, 2020

Crop Circle – Hunt’s Down Nr Wilton Wiltshire – 17/06/2020

Istanbul 17 June 2020

Solar Activity

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 20, 2020

News Burst Live Feed
The sun is about to turn into a “ring of fire.” On June 21st, the Moon will pass directly in front of the sun, producing an annular solar eclipse over Earth’s eastern hemisphere. Greatest coverage occurs over the Himalaya of northern India. A partial eclipse will be visible over eastern Africa, the Middle East, India, and most of Asia.

Active Weather

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 20, 2020

News Burst Live Feed
Waves of anomalous cold are coloring the majority of the 11.73 million mi² African continent “blue” and “purple” this week, as the Grand Solar Minimum continues its intensification. Latest GFS runs reveal temperature departures some 4C – 10C below the seasonal norm will stretch the length and breadth of Africa today, June 19, from Morocco in the north down to South Africa.

Earthquakes

News Burst Live Feed – Jun 20, 2020

19/6/2020
EuropeM5.1 Crete
North-AmericaM4.2 Alaska
Central-AmericaM4.3 Mexico
South-AmericaM4.4 Argentina
AsiaM5.2 Taiwan
PacificM5.6 Fiji
Deepest-EQM5.6 535 km Fiji
News Burst - Earthquakes
June 19The development of the last 24 hours in Europe shows how the seismic push continues to arrive on the M5 in the Eastern Mediterranean and is then, in a certain sense, mitigated and reduced to movements on the M3 further west. An M5.1 shock occurred in the Pliny Trench south of Crete this morning and this time the transfer toward the west and the Atlantic occurred on the coasts of North Africa with a movement on the M3 on the border between Algeria and Tunisia. In Iceland the swarm on the M3 continues, here all the seismic force that has passed through Central Europe regroup.
News Burst - Earthquakes
June 19Nevada continues to be in motion, in the last 24 hours various movements have occurred, a shock of M4.3 at 10:26 UTC and a shock of M5 at 20:42 UTC. In the image you can see some earthquakes above M5 at the Aleutian Islands, the previous stop of the transfer of the seismic force. The intermediate zone where we could see movements falls at the height of the southern coast of Canada.
News Burst - Earthquakes - Click to enlarge in a new tab
June 19The South West Pacific still shows a series of deep earthquakes with the most powerful shock of M5.6 at 534 km of depth occurred this morning at 10:07 UTC in Fiji. The second movement took place at 17:54 UTC south of Fiji, M4.3 at 502 km. These will certainly put in motion the areas to the west and south, the latter already suffered in recent days. For now, the shocks stop in the Kermadec Islands without reaching New Zealand.

Earthquakes Last 24 Hours – M4 and Above