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The Daily Dose Recap is our way of providing to you an overview of everything that was covered during the show. Here you will have easy access to all of the news that was talked about that day.
Authored by Ven Ram, Bloomberg cross-asset strategist,
The risk premium investors demand from technology stocks is now the lowest since the dotcom bubble, underscoring the extent to which valuations have run up this year -- and sending a warning.
The prospective earnings yield on the Nasdaq 100 adjusted for the Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate turned negative late last year, with this year’s stunning rally taking it further south:
The magnitude of inversion was on a similar scale but less pronounced in the run-up to the financial crisis, and clearly both prior episodes didn’t end well for investors.
This time around, the Nasdaq 100 is trading way above its fair value of 12,877 derived by looking at it as a long-duration bond, with this year’s gains driven by a handful of stars.
The return from the summer lull hasn’t been great so far for stocks, and any hint of disappointing news from the upcoming earnings season may spell a bearish outlook for the remainder of the year.
China is set to pour billions into a copper and gold mine in eastern Serbia, marking another dramatic increase in investment in the Balkan country by Beijing.
According to a memorandum of understanding signed over the weekend in China’s Xiamen, Chinese state-owned company Zijin Mining will invest 3.8 billion dollars (3.5 billion euros) into the mining complex in the eastern city of Bor.
“Thanks to this memorandum (…) Serbia will align itself with Europe’s largest copper and gold producers, but also create opportunities for new investments,” said Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic, Serbia’s minister of mines and energy, in a statement posted online.
In 2018, Zijin purchased a majority stake in the copper and gold mining operation in Bor following years of failed efforts by Belgrade to privatise the troubled operation.
Serbia’s state mining company had once been a pillar of its industrial sector before the collapse of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
But it became a burden on the country’s struggling economy because of mismanagement and international sanctions during the 1990s regime of late president Slobodan Milosevic.
Copper plays a key role in renewable energies and green technologies due to its thermal and electrical conductivity properties — leading to a surge of investment in mining operations around the globe.
Beijing has invested billions in Serbia and neighbouring Balkan countries in recent years, hoping to expand its economic footprint in central Europe.
Serbia has been quick to cash in on China’s interest, as it seeks to court a range of investors amid the ongoing tug of war between the East and West over influence in the Balkans.
The White House on Monday announced its opposition to a proposed defense appropriations bill backed by Republicans and threatened to veto the legislation should it reach President Joe Biden's desk.
"If the President were presented with H.R. 4365, he would veto it," the White House stated.
"House Republicans had an opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process, but instead, with less than a month before the end of the fiscal year, are wasting time with partisan bills that cut domestic spending to levels well below the [Fiscal Responsibility Act] agreement and endanger critical services for the American people," the White House stated.
In particular, the White House took exception to a litany of provisions that would curtail existing social policies within the military, as well as its policy of providing paid leave for servicemembers to obtain abortions.
"The draft bills also include numerous new, partisan policy provisions with devastating consequences including harming access to reproductive healthcare, threatening the health and safety of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Americans, endangering marriage equality, hindering critical climate change initiatives, and preventing the Administration from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion," the statement continued.
The bill comes amid an anticipated spending battle over supplemental spending in the wake of Congress's negotiation of the FRA earlier this year.
A group of far-left activists stormed the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday and were seen angrily chanting in favor of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that combats HIV/AIDS.
Repeated declarations of "Pass PEPFAR now, McCarthy," rang in the House speaker's office. A woman can be seen wearing a shirt that reads, "HIV POSITIVE."
"As activists from @housingworks and @HealthGAP are arrested in an act of civil disobedience in Speaker McCarthy's office, a reminder that @PEPFAR exists today because of brave activist direct action targeting duty bearers. Proud of activists! #ProudofPEPFAR," read a post on the X account for Health GAP, an advocacy group that organized the protest along with Housing Works.
Housing Works also mentioned the protest and said that its CEO, Charles King, and Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell had been arrested along with others.
Newsweek reported that the U.S. Capitol Police made the following statement: "This morning, multiple individuals were demonstrating inside a House Office Building. After the demonstrators refused to cease demonstrating, USCP then arrested the 4 males and 3 females for Unlawful Entry."
Image Credit: Former president and 2024 Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks during the South Dakota Republican Party's Monumental Leaders rally at the Ice Arena at the Monument in Rapid City, S.D., on Sept. 8, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself from a federal election subversion case brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith, according to a court filing submitted on Monday.
In the filing (pdf), President Trump pointed to public comments that Mrs. Chutkan, an Obama appointee, in cases involving Jan. 6 protesters. Those statements and others “unavoidably taint these proceedings, regardless of outcome,” it said.
“Judge Chutkan has, in connection with other cases, suggested that President Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned,” the filing stated. “Such statements, made before this case began and without due process, are inherently disqualifying.”
The judge is the only person ruling on this motion, meaning that any decision on her recusal would come solely from her. It’s not clear if she will recuse herself, but if she does, a new judge would be assigned to the Trump case.
Should Mrs. Chutkan disagree, she’ll continue to preside over the case. If she denies the request, President Trump’s attorneys could petition an appeals court for a writ of mandamus, which would require the judge to step aside.
In the court papers filed Monday, the former president’s lawyers pointed to October 2022 remarks that Mrs. Chutkan made before Mr. Smith, the special counsel, was appointed. She was commenting during the sentencing phase for Jan. 6 protester Christine Priola, a Cleveland schools worker who got 15 months in prison.
“This was nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legally, lawfully, peacefully elected government by individuals who were mad that their guy lost. I see the videotapes,” she said, according to President Trump’s motion. “I see the footage of the flags and the signs that people were carrying and the hats they were wearing and the garb.”
She then claimed that the “people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man—not to the Constitution, of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant; not to the ideals of this country; and not to the principles of democracy. It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
Image Credit: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in an undated photo. (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts via AP)
His team then highlighted the final sentence about President Trump, arguing that the judge was suggesting that he should not be free. They also cited another statement she made in a separate case that, according to his lawyers, is evidence that she believes President Trump should be prosecuted for the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
“[Trump] didn’t like the result, and he didn’t want the transition of power to take place because his guy lost,” Mrs. Chutkan said, referring to the former president’s statements after the 2020 election. “So you have a point, that the people who may be the people who planned this and funded it and encouraged it haven’t been charged, but that’s not a reason for you to get a lower sentence,” she told another Jan. 6 defendant during sentencing, adding that “I have my opinions, but they are not relevant.”
Those statements, President Trump’s team wrote, suggest that the judge agreed with the Jan. 6 defendant’s argument that “similarly” and “wrongly” blamed the former president, and “complained that he had not been charged.”
“Public statements of this sort create a perception of prejudgment incompatible with our justice system. In a case this widely watched, of such monumental significance, the public must have the utmost confidence that the Court will administer justice neutrally and dispassionately,” his attorneys wrote Monday.
Mrs. Chutkan has, meanwhile, handed down some of the harshest prison sentences in Jan. 6 cases—often handing out more severe terms than Justice Department prosecutors had recommended, according to The Associated Press.
The judge also previously ruled against President Trump in a separate Jan. 6 case. In November 2021, she refused his request to block the release of documents to the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee by asserting executive privilege.
On social media, President Trump has accused Mrs. Chutkan of being “highly partisan” and “unfair” due to her past comments during sentencing hearings for Jan. 6 cases. Last month, she issued a warning to President Trump’s lawyers that his defense should not be mounted “on the internet.”
Previously, President Trump attempted to remove a judge overseeing his case in Manhattan, where he is accused of making false business statements in connection to his 2016 campaign. Judge Juan Merchan should have recused himself because his daughter performed consulting work in President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, argued the former president’s lawyers; Merchan denied the request.
Last month, in a separate case, the former president and 18 other co-defendants were charged in Fulton County for allegedly trying to interfere with the 2020 election. All have pleaded not guilty
As of Monday evening, Mrs. Chutkan has not made a public statement about the latest motion.
The U.S. government has confirmed that it seized nearly a million barrels of crude oil from Iran that was allegedly bound for China.
The Justice Department (DOJ) confirmed on Sept. 8 that in April, the United States seized a shipment of crude oil from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
In confirming the confiscation, the department also announced its first criminal resolution involving the illicit sale and transport of Iranian oil, which is a violation of U.S. sanctions.
"This is the first-ever criminal resolution involving a company that violated sanctions by facilitating the illicit sale and transport of Iranian oil and comes in concert with a successful seizure of over 980,000 barrels of contraband crude oil," the announcement reads.
US Seizes Sanctioned Oil
Unsealed court documents show that in April, the United States seized from the tanker Suez Rajan contraband cargo that was allegedly being sold by the IRGC to China.
On April 19, the vessel's owner, Suez Rajan Ltd., pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in smuggling the sanctioned Iranian crude oil. Under a plea agreement, the company agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine and face three years of corporate probation.
Greek shipper Empire Navigation, the operating company of the Suez Rajan, agreed to cooperate and transport the Iranian oil to the United States at its own expense, a task that has since been completed.
"The contraband cargo is now the subject of a civil forfeiture action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia," the DOJ stated. "The United States’ forfeiture complaint alleges that the oil aboard the vessel is subject to forfeiture based on U.S. terrorism and money laundering statutes."
Hiding Oil's Origin
The U.S. Treasury has stated that Iran’s oil smuggling revenue supports the Quds Force, an elite unit within the IRGC that operates across the Middle East.
The complaint accuses several groups linked to Iran’s IRGC and the Quds Force of secretly selling and shipping Iranian oil to China.
The prosecution relied on satellite images, as well as documents, to allege that the Suez Rajan attempted to disguise its acquisition of Iranian crude oil from one tanker by falsely claiming that it received the oil from a different tanker.
They allegedly hid the oil's origin through methods including ship-to-ship transfers, as well as masking the locations and identities of the vessels involved via false reporting and false documents.
The complaint also alleged that the vessel's charterer used the U.S. financial system to facilitate the transportation of the oil.
The court documents allege that "profits from oil sales support the IRGC’s full range of malign activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism and both domestic and international human rights abuses," according to the DOJ.
For months, the tanker sat in the South China Sea near Singapore's northeast coast, before sailing for the Texas coast. The vessel transferred its cargo to another tanker, which released its oil in Houston in recent days.
At the time, U.S. authorities wouldn't confirm that they were seizing the cargo or that the vessel was en route to the United States. But the DOJ on Sept. 8 confirmed that the U.S. government had seized the oil.
Iran Seizes Tankers
Shortly after the Suez Rajan headed to the United States, Iran seized two tankers in late April—the Advantage Sweet, flying the Marshall Islands flag and heading toward the United States in the Gulf of Oman, and the Niovi, owned by Greece traveling to the United Arab Emirates's Fujairah from Dubai. In response, the U.S. Navy condemned Iran for its "continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters."
That same month, the top commander of the IRGC's naval arm threatened further action against anyone offloading the Suez Rajan with Iranian state media linking the recent seizures to the cargo’s fate.
Late on Sept. 6, the United States updated its warning to shippers traveling through the Middle East.
“Commercial vessels transiting through the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman continue to be illegally boarded and detained or seized by Iranian forces,” the warning reads.
With the world's fourth-largest reserves of oil, Iran is highly dependent on oil revenue. But sanctions have restricted its ability to pump at anywhere near capacity since 2018.
This year, Iranian oil exports have mostly been above 1 million barrels per day despite U.S. sanctions, according to the commodity data firm Kpler. In May and June, it went above 1.5 million barrels per day, with figures in August sitting at 1.4 million barrels daily, Kpler's data show. China is believed to be a major buyer of Iranian oil, likely at a significant discount.
North Korea said Monday that leader Kim Jong Un would visit Russia and meet President Vladimir Putin, with the reclusive ruler’s armoured train reportedly on its way to the border.
Experts suggest Putin is seeking artillery shells and antitank missiles from North Korea for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, while Kim is reportedly in search of advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines, as well as food aid for his impoverished nation.
Kim “will soon visit the Russian Federation at the invitation of… Putin,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
“The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un will meet and have a talk with Comrade Putin during the visit,” it added.
The Kremlin also confirmed Monday that Kim would visit Russia “in the coming days”.
Washington swiftly derided the upcoming summit as a sign that Putin was “begging” for help with his 18-month-long anti-Kyiv operations.
The announcement ends days of speculation after US and other officials told The New York Times recently that Kim, who rarely leaves North Korea, was likely to head by armoured train to Vladivostok for arms talks with Putin.
Kim has not travelled outside the North since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified official as saying “intelligence authorities believe the train presumed to be carrying Kim Jong-un is moving to Vladivostok”.
Broadcaster YTN said Seoul “expects that Chairman Kim will hold a meeting with President Putin of Russia around the day after tomorrow”, meaning Wednesday.
Moscow, a historical ally of Pyongyang, was a crucial backer of the isolated country for decades and their ties go back to the founding of North Korea 75 years ago.
Kim has been steadfast in his support for Moscow’s Ukraine invasion, including, Washington says, supplying rockets and missiles.
In July, Putin hailed Pyongyang’s “firm support for special military operations against Ukraine”.
Vladivostok will be hosting the Eastern Economic Forum until Wednesday.
– ‘Pay a price’ –
The White House recently warned that Pyongyang would “pay a price” if it supplies Moscow with weaponry for its war in Ukraine.
On Monday the United States described Putin as desperate over the conflict in seeking a meeting with Kim.
“Having to travel across the length of his own country to meet with an international pariah to ask for assistance in a war that he expected to win in the opening month, I would characterize it as him begging for assistance,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“President Putin launched this war against Ukraine, with its full-scale aggression, with a dream of restoring the glory of the Russian Empire. That hope, that expectation of his, has failed,” Miller said.
Washington has said Russia could use weapons from North Korea to attack Ukrainian food supplies and heating infrastructure heading into winter to “try to conquer territory that belongs to another sovereign nation”.
Miller renewed US warnings that a Moscow weapons deal with Pyongyang could trigger sanctions, noting: “any transfer of arms from North Korea to Russia would be in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul, told AFP that a Putin-Kim summit was part of Moscow’s “gentle diplomatic blackmail” of Seoul because Russia did not want South Korea to supply weapons to Kyiv.
Seoul is a major arms exporter and has sold tanks to Kyiv’s ally Poland, but longstanding domestic policy bars it from selling weapons into active conflicts.
“The major worry of the Russian government now is a possible shipment of the South Korean ammunition to Ukraine, not just one shipment but a lot of shipments,” Lankov said.
Cheong Seong-chang, researcher at the Sejong Institute, told AFP that, were North Korea to expand military cooperation with Russia, “there is an increased likelihood of prolonged conflict in Ukraine”.
Kim has become well-known for his preference for train travel when it comes to international trips. His father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, was famously scared of flying.
In 2019, the current leader made the 60-hour return train trip from Hanoi to Pyongyang by train after a summit with then-US president Donald Trump collapsed, and reportedly hinted at physical fatigue from spending hours on the rails.
During a speech at the E.U. Parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg clearly and repeatedly acknowledged that Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine because of fears of NATO expansionism.
His comments, initially flagged by journalist Thomas Fazi, read as follows:
"The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.
The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that.
So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders."
Image Credit: the European Parliament
Stoltenberg made these remarks as part of a general gloat about the fact that Putin invaded Ukraine to prevent NATO expansion and yet the invasion has resulted in Sweden and Finland applying to join the alliance, saying it “demonstrates that when President Putin invaded a European country to prevent more NATO, he’s getting the exact opposite.”
Stoltenberg’s remarks would probably have been classified as Russian propaganda by plutocrat-funded “disinformation experts” and imperial “fact checkers” if it had been said online by someone like you or me, but because it came from the head of NATO as part of a screed against the Russian president it’s been allowed to pass through without objection.
In reality Stoltenberg is just stating a well-established fact: contrary to the official western narrative, Putin invaded Ukraine not because he is evil and hates freedom but because no great power ever allows foreign military threats to amass on its borders — including the United States. That’s why so many western analysts and officials spent years warning that NATO’s actions were going to provoke a war, and yet when war broke out we were slammed with a tsunami of mass media propaganda repeating over and over and over again that this was an “unprovoked invasion”.
It would have been so very, very easy to prevent this horrific war. Off-ramp after off-ramp after off-ramp was passed to get us to where we’re at now. Chance after chance after chance to avoid all this pointless death and misery was passed up, both before 2014 and every year since. The US-centralized power structure knowingly chose this war, and it did so to advance its own interests. If people really, deeply understood this, the entire western empire would collapse.
It’s the damnedest thing how you’ll get called a Kremlin agent for saying that this war was provoked by NATO expansionism and that it serves US interests, even when NATO openly says this war was provoked by NATO expansionism and US officials keep openly saying that this war serves US interests.
The latest entry in the latter category came in the form of a Thursday tweet by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which reads, “Standing with our allies against Russian aggression isn’t charity. In fact — it’s a direct investment in replenishing America’s arsenal with American weapons built by American workers. Expanding our defense industrial base puts America in a stronger position to out-compete China.”
When official authorized narrative-makers acknowledge these things it’s okay, but when normal human beings do it it’s Kremlin disinformation. This is because when the authorized narrative-makers do it they’re doing it to advance the information interests of the US empire — to explain to war-weary Americans how this war benefits their country, or to mock Putin’s failure to stop the enlargement of NATO — whereas when normal people do it it’s to establish what’s true and factual.
This all happens as a study sponsored by the EU with a group funded by US oligarch Pierre Omidyar is being circulated by mass media outlets like The Washington Post finding that Twitter under Elon Musk has not been doing enough to censor “Russian propaganda” on the platform. This would put Musk in violation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to restrict such materials.
As Glenn Greenwald has noted, the Digital Services Act defines “Russian propaganda” so extremely broadly that it includes “ideological alignment with the Russian state” in the category of materials that must be censored, which includes people who “parrot the Kremlin’s narratives through originally produced content or by spreading Kremlin aligned narratives to different target audiences and languages.”
Anyone who speaks out against US foreign policy relating to Russia online is always immediately accused of “parroting Kremlin narratives” by empire apologists mindlessly regurgitating what they’ve been told to believe by outlets like The Washington Post, whether they have anything to do with the Russian government or not. I myself have no affiliation or interaction with the Russian state whatsoever, yet I receive many of these accusations every single day online just for criticizing US foreign policy.
If I were the NATO Secretary General publicly gloating about how Putin’s efforts to stop the expansion of NATO have failed, it would be fine for me to acknowledge that NATO expansion provoked this war after our refusal to prevent a needless conflict. But because I am harming the information interests of the western empire instead of helping them, that makes me a Russian propagandist.
This isn’t because the definition of “Russian propaganda” is flawed, but because it is working exactly as intended. The push to marginalize and eliminate “Russian propaganda” has never had anything to do with fighting the actual materials put out by the Russian state (which have essentially zero meaningful existence in the western world); the push has always been about stomping out opposition to US foreign policy.
Like so much else in this world when examining the behavior of power, it’s ultimately all about narrative control. The powerful understand that whoever controls the dominant narrative about world events actually controls the world, because real power isn’t just controlling what happens but controlling what people think about what happens. That’s the real glue holding the US-centralized empire together, and the world will never have a chance at knowing peace until people start bringing consciousness to it.
Nato is preparing its biggest live joint command exercise since the cold war next year, assembling more than 40,000 troops to practise how the alliance would attempt to repel Russian aggression against one of its members. The Steadfast Defender exercise comes as part of Nato’s rapid push to transform from crisis response to a war-fighting alliance, prompted by the invasion of Ukraine. It will start in spring next year and is expected to involve between 500 and 700 air combat missions, more than 50 ships, and about 41,000 troops, Nato officials said. It is designed to model potential manoeuvres against an enemy modelled on a coalition led by Russia, named Occasus for the purposes of the drill. The exercise is also a first in terms of technical capability, using real world geographical data to create more realistic scenarios for troops. Sweden, whose Nato bid is yet to be ratified by Turkey and Hungary, will also be included, bringing the total number of nations involved to 32. The drill will take place across Germany, Poland and the Baltics in February and March and forms part of a new training strategy that will see the military alliance carry out two big exercises every year, instead of one. Nato will also train to counter terrorist threats outside its immediate borders. Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said in June last year that the alliance would increase the number of its high-readiness forces from 40,000 to “well over 300,000”. It forms part of a historic overhaul to shift the alliance towards heavy military capabilities as opposed to the light and mobile forces deployed in the Balkans and Afghanistan. Following that statement, Nato leaders agreed at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July to new regional defence plans and the creation of the so-called Allied Reaction Force, a multinational force able to respond rapidly to threats. Baltic countries have been particularly vocal in calling for Nato to bolster its eastern flank as troops have built up on the Belarusian border. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said nuclear weapons would be moved into Belarus in early July, although their presence is unconfirmed. Nato has positioned multinational battalions in the Baltic states to slow the progress of any aggressor in the event of an invasion. Germany said in June it would keep 4,000 troops in Lithuania permanently. Exercises are also seen as a key part of demonstrating to Moscow that the alliance is prepared to fight, Nato officials said.
Puppet President Joe Biden turned heads with a bizarre remark saying his administration would work to increase the severity and amount of extreme weather events.
Biden made the eyebrow-raising flub last week as he delivered comments following Hurricane Idalia in Live Oak, Florida.
Speaking to the press, Biden said, “I also convened my entire Cabinet as part of a whole-of-government response. And that response is to increase the number and intensity of the extreme weather eventsand be wary — we’re going to be — use all the resources available to the government to do it.”
A White House transcript of the event included alterations to Biden’s speech, inserting segments that he had omitted in an attempt to refine his remarks.
The gaffe arrived in the wake of the wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, where conspiracy theories suggested the fires might have been intentionally ignited using government-operated direct energy weapons.
Multiple people were injured Sunday when an explosion rocked a food processing plant in Illinois.
The eruption occurred around 7:15 p.m. inside ADM’s complex in Decatur, a city of roughly 70,000, the company said in a statement.
The blast caused significant damage throughout the complex’s East Plant, images show.
Image Credit: Several people were injured in the large ADM explosion in Illinois, which caused massive damage throughout the complex - X @ShaunPTyson
Heavy smoke was seen billowing from the grounds as city fire officials battled the subsequent fire.
“Several” employees were rushed to a local hospital for treatment, the company said.
The exact number of the injured and their conditions were not immediately known.
Image Credit: The explosion occurred around 7:15 pm inside the complex in Decatur, the company said in a statement. - X @ShaunPTyson
The explosion was enough to shake nearby homes, neighbors told WAND.
The plant was evacuated, but the Decatur Fire Department said no private homes needed to be cleared.
Multiple agencies are monitoring the situation and expect to release new information as the investigation continues.
Image Credit: The ADM explosion in Illinois - X @KevinLighty
“My team and I are in touch with local officials as we closely monitor the situation at ADM this evening,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski (R-Ill.) said on X , formerly known as Twitter.
The blaze is the third fire at ADM this year, and comes less than 12 weeks after firefighters extinguished a “very labor-intensive” inferno at the same plant.
Two responding smoke eaters were rushed to the hospital with injuries sustained during that firefight but were later released in good condition.
In April, three employees were injured in a separate explosion at ADM’s west plant.
During the recent G20 Summit, member nations emphasized the need for intensified efforts in combating climate change. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, countered the prevailing narrative by stating that climate change will not lead to the world’s demise, as some assert.
Reacting to a follower who posted that 14-year-olds are being told climate change is going to end the world as we know it and essentially nothing can be done, Musk replied that climate change definitely will not end the world as we know it.
However, “we shouldn’t be complacent about changing the chemical constituency of our atmosphere & oceans,” the billionaire stressed. “If people keep pushing hard, humanity will solve the sustainable energy problem in time,” Musk added.
Musk had previously faced criticism from the scientific and agricultural communities for his assertion that farming has a negligible impact on climate change.
In June this year, Musk posted: “Overwhelmingly, the risk of climate change is due to moving billions of tons of carbon from deep underground into the atmosphere”. “Over time, if we keep doing this, the chemical makeup of our atmosphere will change enough to induce meaningful climate change”.
The G20 Summit in New Delhi concluded with participating nations pledging to expedite their actions in response to environmental crises, particularly climate change. Additionally, they reaffirmed their commitment to achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions and carbon neutrality by or around mid-century.
At least 2,681 people died in the strongest-ever earthquake to hit Morocco, the interior ministry said on Monday, revising an earlier toll of nearly 2,500 dead.
Another 2,501 people were injured, the ministry said, as rescue workers race against time in an effort to find survivors.
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo told Americans to avoid the new COVID-19 shot to become available later this month.
“There’s essentially no evidence for it,” Ladapo said at a ‘Mandate Freedom’ press conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“There’s been no clinical trial done in human beings showing that it benefits people. There’s been no clinical trial showing that it is a safe product for people,” he continued.
“These mRNA COVID-19 products actually increase your chances of contracting COVID-19. That’s not normal,” he added.
And while the US Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and most nations around the world tout mRNA-style COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective, Ladapo dismissed supporters of vaccines and encouraged people who don’t want to get vaccinated to go with their gut.
Lapado also applauded the governor for standing against experts with “PhDs and MDs” who pushed for social distancing, masking and vaccinations despite his nonexistent background in the medical realm.
“Remember that experience of hearing these very educated people telling you what you should think but then listening inside to what makes sense, right? What feels right. You know what feels like truth,” Lapado said.
“We’re all in different points in our spiritual journeys, but we all have that connection at some level. And when they try to convince you to be comfortable and agree with things that don’t feel comfortable, and don’t feel like things you should agree with, that is a sign … That’s a gift that’s one of that’s something that we’re endowed with from our Creator.”
Watch Dr. Ladapo’s full speech at the press conference:
Ladapo previously told Americans to refuse participation with policies known to cause harm.
“What do you call re-imposing mask policies that have been proven ineffective or restarting lockdowns that are known to cause harm? You don’t call it sanity. These terrible policies only work with your cooperation. How about refusing to participate,” Ladapo said.
Daily Mail noted that approval of the latest COVID-19 booster by the Big Pharma-captured regulatory agencies is imminent.
Approval of the updated COVID-19 booster shots is expected within days. Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax all have manufactured new versions of the vaccine.
Similar to how flu shots are updated each year, the FDA gave COVID-19 vaccine makers a new recipe, targeting the variant that was dominant over the summer.
But as expected, the XBB.1.5 variant it targets has faded away in the months it took to tweak the vaccine.
CDC estimates show XBB.1.5 is responsible for about 3 percent of current cases, while a soup of other newer Omicron variants dominates, led by EG.5 at about 20 percent.
In his remarks at Thursday’s event, held inside an Irish pub in Jacksonville, DeSantis vowed Florida would not be temporarily closing schools or mandating mask-wearing because of the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases.
‘People are lurching toward this insanity again,’ DeSantis said. ‘As we see these things being orchestrated … there needs to be pushback.’
-Danielle, 100 Percent Fed Up
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