BY TYLER DURDEN
Last year was a bad year for corn — the latest US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report shows drought conditions and extreme weather wreaked havoc on croplands.
USDA unexpectedly slashed its outlook for domestic corn production amid a severe drought across the western farm belt. Farmers in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas were forced to abandon drought-plagued fields.
The agency estimated farmers harvested 79.2 million acres, a decline of 1.6 million acres versus the previous estimate — the smallest acres harvest since 2008.
The unexpected cut to US harvested corn acres means grain supplies are a lot tighter than realized. A report Thursday showed the corn area in the world's largest producer is at the smallest since 2008 with crops failing in states such as Texas and Nebraska. That's due to persistent drought conditions in the western part of the country that could also hit harvests for wheat plants that are currently dormant for the winter. -- Bloomberg
The crop-failed lands reduced total harvest corn acreage to levels not seen since 2008. ........more below
The spokesman for the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces issues a stark warning to the senior authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq against cooperating with the United States and the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic.
Speaking during a televised interview on Friday, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi cautioned the officials that any cooperation with Washington or Tel Aviv would bear severe consequences.
"If you cooperate with the United States and the Zionist regime, we will crush you; you will be trampled under our feet and will never enjoy security again," he said.
The spokesman also warned against allowing terrorist groups to use the region's territory as a corridor.
"If the leaders of Iraq’s northern region open a corridor for these [terrorist] groups, we will strike all the infrastructure and facilities of this region; we will show no mercy to our enemies."
'US military grappling with serious hardware....more below
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Iran strongly welcomes the escorting of oil tankers and the claimed presence of US forces to ensure passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has said.
Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini made the remarks on Thursday, responding to recent statements by the US president and the White House spokesperson.
“Iran strongly welcomes the escorting of oil tankers and the claimed presence of US forces to facilitate passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” he remarked.
“In fact, we are awaiting their arrival.”
Brigadier General Naeini further said Iran recommends that before taking such a decision, Americans recall the incident in 1987 when the American supertanker Bridgeton struck a mine and caught fire, as well as tankers that have been targeted recently.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the US Navy will escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary to help restore.....more below
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Iraq's Nujaba resistance group has vowed to avenge the assassination of a resistance commander in a terrorist US strike.
In a statement on Friday, Nujaba offered its deepest condolences over the assassination of Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah Commander Abu Hassan al-Furaiji in a "treacherous and cowardly" American attack in Babylon.
The movement stressed that the killing of al-Furaiji, who played an important role in purging the country of terrorists, constitutes "a clear violation of Iraq’s sovereignty" and "a deliberate insult to the country’s official military institution, namely the Popular Mobilization Forces (al-Hashd al-Sha'abi)", which operates under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The statement stressed that al-Furaiji’s killing will "undoubtedly not go unanswered or unpunished."
"The fragile language of diplomacy is no longer effective against an enemy that understands nothing but the language of force and gunpowder," the movement said, warning ...
