BREAKING
Turkey/Syria-
Reports of substantial Turkish fighter and ground attacks throughout Idlib and northern Syria. Also reports of Russian aircraft scrambling from Syrian bases. Next few hours are going to be intense.
More bad against worse. I hope we stay out of this.
Wuhan virus -
Now 24 cases of virus with one death in the US as more travel restrictions are set up. In Oregon panic buying has been reported following announcement of infected person from unknown source. In California over 100 healthcare workers are in “containment” following exposure to the country’s first case. Washington state has declared a state of emergency after virus detected in a nursing home (source of nations first death).
In S Korea in the hot zone of Daegu comes this snapshot of the core source The BBC reports that in Daegu, South Korea, 1900 Shincheonji Church members have been tested for coronavirus. 1300 had symptoms & 600 did not. Among those 1300 with symptoms, 87.5% were confirmed with the virus . BUT out of the 600 WITHOUT symptoms, 70% were confirmed with coronavirus This shows the sneaky behavior of this virus and why it is becoming hard to contain.
Economic hardship this pandemic can cause is becoming more apparent. China’s PMI is reported to have dropped 50+% when reported next week. Global markets have gone into tailspin mode. Chinese products and parts largely unavailable and in an interesting twist satellite photos suggest the broad economic shutdown has cleared the air of substantial levels of pollution. In America primary preparation should be directed at economic chaos and not focused on the lethality of the virus (though in itself is high).
Turkey/Syria -
Turkish and Russian plains avoided each other overnight. That lead to heavy Turkish bombing of Assad’s forces in southern Idlib. Rebel forces regained substantial territory lost in previous weeks. Syrian forces are resorting to burning tires to protect from air attacks.
Israel -
Israelis go to the polls for a third time within a year. Recent polls show Netanyahu with a slight advantage.
Afghanistan-
US signed a cease fire agreement/ treaty with taliban. Time will tell if they will hold to their agreement.