A bit of good news regarding the virus. The national death rate  remains much lower than it was three months ago.

COVID-19 gives the lieto global healthexpertise

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak began spreading in Europe and the USA, a chart started circulating online showing ratings from the 2019 Global Health Security Index, an assessment of 195 countries’ capacity to face infectious disease outbreaks, compiled by the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security. The USA was ranked first, and the UK second; South Korea was ranked ninth, and China 51st; most African countries were at the bottom of the ranking. Things look different now. 

Expert warns China's Three Gorges Dam in danger of collapse

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As torrential rains in China continue to wreak havoc on more than 24 provinces, notable Chinese hydrologist Wang Weiluo (王維洛) has questioned the safety of the massive Three Gorges Dam, warning that it could collapse at any moment.

Quick Overview

• Year to date inflows into bullion-backet ETF’s are setting a record.…FREEEEEEE Money
• 

• Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic warned Thursday that real-time data suggest the recovery is flattening out, possibly warranting more monetary or fiscal action..

• As someone quipped: If Martians are invading Earth, the first thing we will do is lower interest rates.

• The rate on the 30-year fixed U.S. mortgage — the most popular home loan — dropped to 3.03%, according to Freddie Mac, down from 3.07% from the week before. A 50-year low.

• Bloomberg: Wells Fargo, the largest employer among U.S. banks, is preparing to cut thousands of jobs starting later this year.

• Some 200,000 marine crewmembers remain trapped at sea by the virus.

• Chinese stocks have added more than $1 trillion in value, far outpacing gains in every other market worldwide.

• 7/5/2020 Le monde: 37% of Italian companies will go bankrupt in September.

• ECB President Lagarde expects euro zone to face 2 years of disinflation.

• The Facebook boycott now numbers more than 300 advertisers and is growing…Tolerating and spreading hate speech is perhaps not a particularly good business plan after all. 

• 7/6/2020 for the first time Amazon shares closed above $3,000, and climbing, as demand for its e-commerce and cloud-computing services continues. Up some 90% in the middle of a seriously big recession. … 

• Wired Mag: A study involving 61,000 participants in Spain has shown that only around 5 percent of the country's population is carrying coronavirus antibodies. The findings back up those of other smaller studies that suggest that herd immunity—which experts say can occur when 60 to 70 percent of the population has immunity—may be unrealistic to achieve.

• UK’s health secretary Jeremy Hunt: They did not model a Korean style test and trace – which turned out to be the best way of tackling coronavirus.
• Death per 1 mill. Population 
• South Korea    = 6
• UK                = 660
• US       = 414
• Sweden           = 547
• New Zealand had 74 death per million. Their lock-down worked. Schools are open. Everything is back to normal, except international travel.

• Trump disagrees with the CDC strategies for reopening schools – as excessively restrictive.

• US reports record single-day spike of 60,000 new coronavirus cases 7/7/20

• Despite Florida’s covid-19-cases rising 107% in the last 2 weeks Disney Land (DIS) decides to open. 

• ‘Unknown pneumonia’ deadlier than corona-virus sweeping Kazakhstan, Chinese embassy warns.

• Tesla's Musk believes Level 5 self-driving cars are right around the corner. A corner with perhaps a few more years in it?

• US rivers and lakes are shrinking for a surprising reason: cows  “The fact that over half of that water is going to cattle-feed crops just floored us,” Richter said. “We had to double and triple check to make sure we got the numbers right.”

• The USDA says that China bought 1.3 million mt of US corn. Its biggest purchase since 1994

• Heat Index Oklahoma today is 120
• New Orleans 117    
• Swiehan UAE reached 123.8
• Potentially Fatal Combinations of Humidity and Heat Are Emerging Across the Globe