Brazilian Official Tests Positive for Coronavirus After Meeting with Trump(Source usnews.com)

THE PRESS SECRETARY TO Brazil’s president has tested positive for the coronavirus, just days after meeting President Donald Trump in Florida.

Fabio Wajngarten, press secretary for Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, sources told CNN. Wajngarten accompanied Bolsonaro last weekend on a trip to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

During the visit, the men all dined together and Wajngarten later posted a photo of him with Trump on his Instagram. Trump told reporters Thursday that he sat near Wajngarten, but that he wasn’t worried.

Bolsonaro is reportedly being monitored and will also be tested for the coronavirus, Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported on Thursday.

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS: THE VIRUS WILL BANKRUPT MORE PEOPLE THAN IT KILLS

(Source Blacklistednews.com)

The real crisis of the coronavirus is that it’s going to bankrupt more people than it kills, especially in the United States. Household debt has skyrocketed in the years following the Great Recession, putting many at risk for a financial disaster.

Businesses are shutting doors and closing shop to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  But this in itself is a disaster for many who live paycheck to paycheck, which is almost 80% of Americans. Not to mention household debt in the U.S. reached a record of $14 trillion in February during the coronavirus’ spread around the globe.

COVID-19’s economic danger is exponentially greater than its health risks to the public. If the virus does directly affect your life, it is most likely to be through stopping you from going to work, forcing your employer to make you redundant, or bankrupting your business. According to the Independent, that’s the main concern. It is difficult to imagine Italy not entering a recession (the world’s ninth-largest economy is now on lockdown). It is also difficult to imagine that failing to affect Europe and its largest trading partner, the United States.

 And it is impossible to see how any of this will not add up to a global downturn unless governments step in faster and harder than they did 12 years ago during the last financial crisis –The Independent

The U.S. already dropped interest rates, and that hasn’t stemmed the bleeding. But lowering interest rates hasn’t caused people to spend more money. It usually spikes mortgage refinances, however. The Trump administration has floated the idea of cutting taxes, which would help.  But only if that is swift and deep.  Any tax cut that’s too small to make a noticeable difference right away won’t save the economy either. NBC News reported that Trump’s proposal was, in fact, OK, but not great, for anyone working. His plan would eliminate the payroll tax for the remainder of the year. That means you’d get to keep a mere 6.2% more of your own money for the rest of 2020. Payroll taxes, which are distinct from income taxes, are paid by both employers and employees, with workers paying 6.2 percent of their salaries up to $137,000 to fund Social Security and employers matching that amount. The cut applies only to those who get paychecks, so it would provide little relief to people who are laid off as a result of an economic downturn. Small businesses, in particular, are struggling as supply chains dry up, leaving them without products or essential materials. Factory closures in China have led to a record low in the country’s Purchasing Manager’s Index which measures manufacturing output. China is the world’s largest exporter and is responsible for a third of global manufacturing, so China’s problem is everyone’s problem — even in the midst of a trade war between the White House and Beijing.

States scramble to prepare ahead of food stamps rule change (Source foxbusiness.com)

Having food stamps offers Richard Butler a stability he’s rarely known in his 25 years. He was in state custody at age 2, spent his teen years at a Chicago boys’ home and jail for burglary, and has since struggled to find a permanent home.

The $194 deposited monthly on his benefits card buys fresh produce and meat. “It means the world to me,” said Butler, who shares a one-bedroom apartment with two others. “We can go without a lot of things, like phones and music. We can’t go without eating.” But that stability is being threatened for people like Butler, who are able-bodied, without dependents and between the ages 18 and 49. New Trump administration rules taking effect April 1 put hundreds of thousands of people in his situation at risk of losing their benefits. They hit particularly hard in places like Illinois, which also has been dealing with a separate, similar change in the nation’s third-largest city. From Hawaii to Pennsylvania, states are scrambling to blunt the impact, with roughly 700,000 people at risk of losing benefits unless they meet certain work, training or school requirements. They’ve filed a multi-state lawsuit, expanded publicly funded job training, developed pilot programs and doubled down efforts to reach vulnerable communities, including the homeless, rural residents and people of color. Social service agencies say they won’t be able to fill the gap, making increased homelessness and more hospital visits among the biggest concerns. Experts say they’ve already seen troubling signs in some states. “This is a cascading effect,” said Robert Campbell, managing director at Feeding America, which runs hundreds of food banks nationwide. “It will increase demands on the emergency food system, food banks and pantries.”

Cash could be spreading the coronavirus, warns the World Health Organization (Source Business Insider)

Cash could be spreading the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO told Business Insider that people should wash their hands after handling cash, especially before eating. People should use contactless payments instead, the WHO told The Telegraph.

In February, China said it would destroy cash from areas highly affected by the coronavirus in an effort to slow the spread. Cash could be contributing to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO told The Telegraph that the coronavirus could remain on money for days after being exposed to it and that people should avoid touching their face after handling cash.

“We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses and things like that,” a WHO representative told The Telegraph. “We would advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes and avoid touching their face.”

The supermoon is coming to a sky near you Monday night (Source usatoday.com)

The first supermoon of the year is coming to a sky near you Monday. March’s full moon will reach peak fullness at 1:48 p.m. EDT Monday, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. “So look for the spectacularly bright moon as it rises above the horizon that evening,” the Almanac said. This year, the March full moon will also be the first of three straight full-moon supermoons and the year’s second-closest full moon overall, EarthSky said. A supermoon occurs when the moon is especially close to Earth while it’s full. 

The moon’s closeness to Earth, naturally, makes it look extra-big and extra-bright – up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a full moon at its farthest point from Earth. Monday, our moon will be “only” about 222,081 miles miles from Earth, which is about 16,000 miles closer than average.

Los Angeles port, biggest in U.S., hit hard by coronavirus (Source rappler.com)

The Port of Los Angeles, the biggest in the United States, has been significantly impacted by the new coronavirus outbreak and is forecasting a 15% to 17% drop in activity in the 1st quarter of the year, officials said Wednesday, March 4. Eugene Seroka, the executive director of the port which mainly handles cargo to and from China, told the Los Angeles City Council that the facility experienced 20% to 25% less business in February compared to the same period last year.

He said some 40 vessels that had been scheduled to arrive at the port through April had been canceled due to the outbreak of the virus.

“We have advised the marketplace that we expect quarter one container volume to be down 15 to 17%,” he added. Seroka warned that the drop in business would impact workers and the wider community.

“In summation, for our port community, less cargo means fewer jobs,” Seroka said, adding that some dock workers had been asked to stay home because there is not enough work. “It is our estimation that the effects of the coronavirus and the downturn in trade will cost us tens of billions of dollars in the industry when all is said and done,” he warned. “The issue today is that empty containers, perishable commodities, and agricultural products are stacking up at our ports because of those vessel sailing cancellations. “That will cause the American farmer further harm on top of the trade tariffs,” he said, referring to the US-China trade war.

U.S. Navy Nightmare: All Russian Warships Armed With Hypersonic Missiles (Source National Interest)                            

Here’s a scenario the U.S. Navy would rather not contemplate: every Russian surface warship armed with hypersonic anti-ship missiles. But two interesting things have happened over the last few months. First, in January 2020, Russia conducted its first launch of a Zircon missile from a surface ship. The Admiral Gorshkov, the first of the new Project 22350-class frigates, fired the missile from the Barents Sea against a ground target, according to a TASS report. “In accordance with the program of the Zircon’s state trials, the Admiral Gorshkov test-launched this missile from the Barents Sea against a ground target at one of military testing ranges of the Northern Urals in early January,” an unnamed defense source told TASS. The missile reportedly flew more than 500 kilometers (311 miles). The next step is to launch Zircons from nuclear submarines, TASS said. But a month before the Zircon test, in December 2019, the head of Russia’s top shipbuilder claimed that all new Russian warships will be capable of firing hypersonic missiles (missiles that travel faster than Mach 5). Alexei Rakhmanov, president of state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, was asked whether all Russian warships could be rearmed with Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles. “All the new projects of ships we are building are universal for a whole family of missiles from the standpoint of launchers, including those which you mentioned,’” Rakhmanov replied, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Coronavirus death toll jumps to 107 in Italy, all schools shut (Source Reuters)

Italy closed all schools and universities and took other emergency measures to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Europe’s worst-hit country as the death toll and number of cases jumped. The total number of dead in Italy rose to 107 after 28 people died of the highly contagious virus the Civil Protection Agency said. Education Minister Lucia Azzolina said schools and universities all over the country would be closed until at least March 15. Only those in the northern regions most heavily affected by the epidemic have been closed so far.

The number of cases since the outbreak surfaced rose to 3,089 from 2,502 on March 3rd. Of those who contracted the disease, about 3.5% had died, the head of the agency, Angelo Borrelli, said.

The government adopted a decree to try to slow infections which have been rising by about 500 per day. “Our hospitals, despite their efficiency, risk being overwhelmed, we have a problem with intensive-care units,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said. The decree orders “the suspension of events of any nature … that entail the concentration of people and do not allow for a safety distance of at least one metre (yard) to be respected.” It calls for the closure of cinemas and theatres and tells Italians not to shake hands or hug each other, and to avoid “direct physical contact with all people.” It also orders all major sporting events, including top flight Serie A soccer matches, to be played in empty stadiums.