Vilsack to Join White House Briefing This Afternoon
Politico: House Ag reconciliation package to include $1 billion for biofuels
In Today’s Digital Newspaper
Market Focus:
• USDA daily export sale: 106,000 MT soybeans to China, 2021-2022 marketing year
• St. Louis Fed’s Bullard backs end of bond buys in first half 2022
• Port of New Orleans fully opened; container operations resumed
• Vilsack: No major disruptions to grain shipments via Ida
• Boston port officials hope new cranes, plan to deepen ship channel will draw big ships
• Hedge fund takes on railroad barons
• World’s largest nitrogen plant declares “force majeure,” sending fertilizer prices surging
• Search for low-carbon fuels heating up fight over vegetable oil
• Toyota to spend $9 billion by 2030 to develop batteries and battery supply system
• Bitcoin fell as much as 17% on day El Salvador made national currency
• Ag demand update
• Corn, beans rebound overnight
• Corn, soybean CCI ratings edge lower
• Ukraine grain exports running 7.6% ahead of year-ago
• Weaker cash cattle expectations
• Cash hog prices, index continue to slide
Policy Focus:
• Vilsack to appear this afternoon at White House briefing
• Overall price tag for the reconciliation package major concern for Manchin, Sinema
• Axios: Manchin may only support a package with $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion overall cost
• USDA to provide Covid aid to farm, slaughter, grocery workers
• Vilsack: $700 million coming in grants for producers, farmers and others
• White House to ask Congress for over $20 billion as part of CR
• Ways and Means Committee release large portion of $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill
• Biden on life after Ida: Sun will come out tomorrow…
• CFAP 2 payouts at $13.8 billion
Afghanistan:
• Taliban announce formation of government and name acting prime minister
• Biden admin.: More than 65,000 Afghans will arrive in U.S ‘by end of September’
China Update:
• PBOC comments cool monetary policy easing expectations
• Chinese soybean imports up from July but down vs. year-ago
• China meat imports slow in August
• Chinese authorities drop case against Alibaba manager accused of sexual assault
Trade Policy:
• NCBA calls on Biden administration to remain vigilant on Brazilian beef
• WTO members remain far apart on provisions in draft negotiating text on ag
Energy & Climate Change:
• House Ag reconciliation package to include $1 billion for biofuels: Politico
• National Biodiesel Board rebrands
• Activity ramping up at OMB on proposed RFS levels
• Biden links recent extreme weather events to climate change
• Biden to announce goal of producing almost half nation’s electricity from the sun by 2050
• Climate change ag impacts ahead: Good for Canada, bad for Europe
Livestock, Food & Beverage Industry Update:
• Lawsuits escalate over labels
Coronavirus Update:
• Biden’s approval rating on his handling of pandemic dropped by 10 points since June
• British PM Johnson announces tax increases to deal with Covid, health care reform
Politics & Elections:
• Twitter suspends JD Vance’s Senate campaign press account
• Canadian PM Trudeau faces rival party leaders tonight in debate
• Trump announces rallies in Georgia, Iowa as 2024 speculation mounts
Congress:
• Senators scheduled to return to Washington Monday; House to return Sept. 20
• Democrats press Biden on navigable waters rule
Other Items of Note:
• Warren calls to publicly manufacture drugs
• Statue of Robert E. Lee removed from pedestal in Richmond, Virginia’s capital
• Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in country
• Iran blocking international inspectors’ access to nuclear-related sites
MARKET FOCUS
Equities today: Global stock markets were mostly down in overnight trading. The Dow opened slightly lower then moved around 70 points higher in early trading. Asian equities ended mostly lower though Japan’s Nikkei bucked the trend and ended with gains. Japan’s Nikkei was up 265.07 points, 0.89%, at 30,181.21. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 32.70 points, 0.12%, at 26,320.93. European equity markets are posting losses in early trading. The Stoxx 600 is down 0.5% with regional markets seeing losses of 0.1% to 0.8%
U.S. equities yesterday: The Dow retreated 269.09 points, 0.8%, to 35,100.00. The S&P 500 index fell 15.40 points, 0.3%, to 4,520.03. The Nasdaq added 10.81 points, 0.1%, to 15,374.33, a record close.
On tap today:
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold a news conference in the Capitol. 9:45 a.m. ET.
• U.S. job openings are expected to hold at 10.1 million in July, unchanged from a month earlier. (10 a.m. ET)
• Bank of Canada releases a policy statement at 10 a.m. ET.
• Vilsack: White House press secretary Jen Psaki will brief alongside USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Brian Deese. 2 p.m. ET. Update: Unclear if this will occur as USDA announced a different date (tomorrow) for its unveiling of aid for renewable energy.
• Federal Reserve releases its beige book report at 2 p.m. ET.
• U.S. consumer credit for July is out at 3 p.m. ET.
• Fed speakers: New York’s John Williams on the economy and monetary policy at 1:10 p.m. ET, and Dallas’s Robert Kaplan at a virtual town hall at 6 p.m. ET.
• China's producer-price index for August is expected to increase 9% from one year earlier, and the consumer-price index is forecast to rise 1% from one year earlier. (9:30 p.m. ET)
St. Louis Fed’s Bullard backs end of bond buys in first half 2022. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he still backs starting the tapering of the Fed’s purchases of bonds and sees that effort winding down in the first half of 2022 despite the disappointing August Employment report. Bullard told the Financial Times there is “plenty of demand for workers and there are more job openings than there are unemployed workers.” He predicted the tapering of bond buys that have gone off at $120 billion per month would start “this year and will end sometime by the first half of next year.” His expectation is that there will be around 500,000 jobs added monthly this year, a figure that is still on track even with the August result. “These numbers are going to bounce up and down.” While acknowledging the Delta variant, Bullard said there are other supply side issues at play, including the recent expiration of extra jobless benefits. “The jobs are there, it’s that the workers may not want to take those jobs right now,” he commented, pointing to hefty savings by consumers is allowing them to be “careful about which jobs they take, or they feel like they can get an even better job by waiting or searching more diligently.”
As for inflation, Bullard said the view that inflation will come down next year may be right, but “there’s also a case to be made that it won’t moderate and may go in the other direction [due to] additional supply constraints coming from international sources now because of the Delta variant.”
Another factor in quickly tapering the bond buys, he noted, is the “incipient housing bubble” that could have been fueled in part by the Fed. Bullard is a 2022 voter and has long been one of the more hawkish members of the Fed and is clearly more worried about the Delta variant’s impact on inflation rather than the economy. There are several more Fed speakers on tap this week before the blackout period arrives Saturday (Sept. 11) before the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting Sept. 21-22. The focus will be on whether officials offer any comments on the tapering of the bond buys and their views on inflation and the overall U.S. economic path. The next FOMC session will also see the Fed release updated economic forecasts which will shed even more light on their economic outlook.
Market perspectives:
• Outside markets: The U.S. dollar index is higher as most foreign rival currencies are weaker against the greenback ahead of U.S. trading. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note has eased to trade around 1.35% with a mixed tone in global government bond yields. Gold and silver futures are both firmer, with gold around $1,802 per troy ounce and silver around $24.41 per troy ounce.
• Crude oil prices are higher ahead of the U.S. trading start with U.S. crude trading around $69.10 per barrel and Brent around $72.30 per barrel. Futures were slightly higher in Asian action, with U.S. crude up 12 cents at $68.47 per barrel and Brent up one cent at $71.70 per barrel.
• Port of New Orleans fully opened, and container operations resumed following the shutdown under Hurricane Ida. Much of New Orleans, Louisiana, has its power restored. It has been reported that yesterday the ADM Destrehan export grain elevator received power and resumed operational status receiving and loading vessels. The Bunge Destrehan location supposedly does not have power as of this morning. Two of the 10 export grain elevators on the lower Mississippi River are now operating. Restoring power to the Convent, Reserve, and Westwego areas along the Mississippi River, where the core export elevator network is based, will be important to restore export loading operations, sources note. Meanwhile, the head of Maersk-owned APM Terminals says consumer demand must slow down to end the “vicious circle” creating supply-chain congestion.
• Vilsack: No major disruptions to grain shipments via Ida. The U.S. will likely avoid major disruptions to grain shipments linked to damage from Hurricane Ida at the Gulf Coast, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. "I understand that while there's going to be some disruption, that it's not going to be so critical as to significantly curtail our capacity to export," he told reporters on an unrelated call. "At this point, I am fairly convinced we are not going to see major disruptions to our exports."
• Boston port officials hope new cranes and a plan to deepen the ship channel will draw big ships to the gateway. Link to more via Bloomberg.
• Diesel vs donuts. A search for low-carbon fuels is heating up a fight over vegetable oil. Link to more via the Financial Times (paywall). “We support renewable fuels and the green agenda, but soybean oil [prices] have tripled. Our members are worried that they may not be able to buy any oil,” said Robb MacKie, chief executive of the American Bakers Association. The trade group, which counts Krispy Kreme, Bimbo Bakeries USA and Pepperidge Farm as members, recently met officials at the Environmental Protection Agency to urge lower federal mandates for biofuels. Energy Information Administration forecasts that renewable diesel production capacity will reach 5.1 billion gallons a year by 2024. While a fraction of petroleum refining output, it would be up from 600 million gallons at the end of 2020. By 2028 the U.S. renewable diesel and biodiesel industry would need almost 30 billion lbs of feedstocks including soyabean oil, canola oil, used cooking oil and grease, predicts commodity broker StoneX. (Source for chart: Financial Times)
• Toyota said it expects to spend $9 billion by 2030 to develop batteries and its battery supply system — a bid to lead in the key automotive technology over the next decade, as it gears up to sell two million pure electric cars annually by 2030. The company declined to say how many battery factories would be built but said it planned 10 production lines by 2025 and eventually around 70. A single factory can contain several production lines. Link to details via the WSJ.
• Bitcoin fell as much as 17% on the day El Salvador made it the world’s largest cryptocurrency its national currency. The coin’s price initially jumped to $52,000 upon the news that the government had purchased 400 of the scarce digital coins, but swayed wildly throughout the day, losing nearly $10,000 in value before settling at $45,000. President Nayib Bukele has championed Bitcoin as a way for citizens to avoid millions in remittance transaction fees. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian’s Instagram post on cryptocurrency prompted the U.K.’s financial watchdog to react. The head of the Financial Conduct Authority criticized her promotion of the Ethereum Max token. And, NBA star Steph Curry has signed on as an ambassador for the crypto exchange FTX, joining the NFL’s Tom Brady
• Hedge fund takes on railroad barons. Canadian National’s bid to buy Kansas City Southern and create a rail network that stretches across North America is facing a new challenge. This week, the longtime railroad investor TCI Fund Management started a proxy battle to oust the railroad company’s CEO, Jean-Jacques Ruest. TCI wants Canadian National to stop pursuing the acquisition and overhaul its board. Canadian National’s bid “exposed a basic misunderstanding of the industry and the regulatory environment,” TCI argues. Along with its stake in Canadian National, TCI also owns nearly 42% of Canadian Pacific, making the hedge fund the company’s largest shareholder, according to the market data firm Sentieo. Even though the size of TCI’s investment in Canadian National is slightly bigger than its Canadian Pacific stake — about $4.1 billion compared with roughly $4 billion, a person familiar with the investments tells the New York Times’ DealBook — the hedge fund TCI’s dual investments raise questions about whether its efforts to stop the Canadian National deal also serve to strengthen its investment in Canadian Pacific. A spokesperson for Canadian National said the company “values input” from all of its shareholders and will continue to “make carefully considered decisions” in line with its priorities.
• World’s largest nitrogen plant declares “force majeure,” sending fertilizer prices surging. Spot prices for nitrogen fertilizer on the U.S. Gulf Coast rose to a near-decade high on a report the world’s largest nitrogen manufacturing plant declared force majeure. CF Industries Holdings Inc. in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, closed its massive complex ahead of Hurricane Ida. The complex has 19 plants, including six ammonia and five urea facilities, producing nitrogen-based products for agricultural and industrial markets. According to the letter seen by Bloomberg (link), CF Industries said, “due to these circumstances, CF Industries Sales, LLC has declared an event of force majeure affecting the production and shipment of product from the CF Donaldsonville, LA nitrogen complex.” The letter was dated Sept. 3, and at that time, the facility remained closed. This stoked fears of production declines at a time when supplies are already tight.
• USDA daily export sale: 106,000 MT soybeans to China, 2021-2022 marketing year.
• Ag demand: South Korea passed on an international tender to buy 69,000 MT of corn, 65,000 MT of feed wheat and 15,000 MT of feed barley. Japan is seeking to buy 80,000 MT of feed wheat and 100,000 MT of feed barley. Results of Jordan’s tender to buy 120,000 MT of wheat are expected later today.
• NWS weather: Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain possible today from the northern Mid-Atlantic to western New England... ...A heat wave in the western U.S. will gradually shift eastward into the central/southern High Plains by Friday... ...Watching for the potential of tropical cyclone development near the eastern Gulf Coast to the Southeast U.S. coast the next couple of days.
Items in Pro Farmer's First Thing Today include:
• Corn, beans rebound overnight
• Corn, soybean CCI ratings edge lower
• Ukraine grain exports running 7.6% ahead of year-ago
• Weaker cash cattle expectations
• Cash hog prices, index continue to slide
POLICY FOCUS
— Overall price tag for the reconciliation package remains a major concern for Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). President Biden told reporters that he can work out a deal with Manchin, saying “He's always been with me. I think we can work something out. I look forward to speaking with him.”
However, Axios reported that Manchin may only support a package with a $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion overall cost, and that any new legislation must be fully paid for by revenue increases. That position could also endanger passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill that Manchin helped put together.
— USDA to provide Covid aid to farm, slaughter, grocery workers. USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack announced Tuesday that USDA will make $600 payments to farmworker and meatpacking workers to help with pandemic-related health and safety costs. The $700 million in competitive funding will be available through the new Farm and Food Workers Relief (FFWR) grant program. The money will be distributed by nonprofit and labor group-related entities that can prove they can reach the workers. It may take as long as one or two years to reach everyone who deserves the payments, Vilsack said in a call to reporters. Vilsack said he expects applications will begin to be accepted “in the next couple of weeks” and the application period would be open for 60 days.
The workers will not have to show receipts to prove they are entitled to the aid. Vilsack said that the number of workers affected by the pandemic is “sobering.” He could not say whether undocumented workers can get the payments, because there are legal issues that have to be resolved. But he said personally he believes that as many workers should be helped as possible.
There is no requirement in terms of vaccination status, Vilsack said.
Additionally, to recognize the essential role and costs borne by front-line grocery workers, $20 million of this amount has been set aside for at least one pilot program to support grocery workers, and to test options for reaching them in the future. That program is not large enough to cover all grocery workers, but Vilsack said he hopes Congress will provide more money that could be used to aid other food production workers and grocery store workers.
Vilsack said he plans another announcement Thursday of $700 million in grants for producers, farmers and others, including seafood processors.
— House Ways and Means Committee released a large portion of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill — the panel’s portion dealing with universal paid family and medical leave, retirement, childcare, Trade Adjustment Assistance, Medicare and more. These were sent to Ways and Means Committee members this afternoon ahead of Thursday’s markup. The committee also posted the legislation on its website. These are the provisions that will be under consideration initially. Ways and Means will consider tax changes next week.
A proposal from progressive lawmakers to lower the Medicare eligibility age is not part of the draft.
Other proposals in the plan include:
• An increase in wages for childcare workers;
• A new requirement for employers to automatically enroll employees in retirement plans; and
• Funding for recruiting more elder-care workers.
— White House will ask Congress to include over $20 billion as part of an upcoming continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal gov’t open beyond the end of September, Acting OMB Director Shalanda Young said Tuesday (Sept. 7) in a blog post (link). Of that request, $14 billion will go toward disaster relief, and another $6.4 billion will cover resettlement costs for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees. Most of that resettlement money would be directed toward the State and Defense departments. There will be additional “anomaly” funding requests as part of the CR.
OMB is estimating it will cost at least $10 billion more for the federal government to respond to the damage from Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and the Northeast, but that is not included in the coming request. Administration officials said they hope “Congress addresses Ida’s needs in the CR.”
Congress has already approved more than $1.1 billion for Afghan resettlement as part of a recent Capitol security bill. But with thousands of Afghans currently being housed on military bases inside the U.S. and overseas, the cost for this effort will mount.
Timing for the legislative request: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the Senate will aim to enact emergency relief funding by the end of September to help victims of Hurricane Ida as well as other natural disasters including wildfires and flooding. “Given the scale and scope of these natural disasters, everyone must work together to get Americans the help they desperately need,” Schumer said in a statement.
— The sun will come out… President Biden, before leaving for New York, where he is surveying damage from Hurricane Ida: Asked how he's going to get Democrats on board for his [infrastructure] proposal he said: “The sun is going to come out tomorrow.”
— CFAP 2 payouts at $13.8 billion. Payments approved under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2) were at $13.81 billion as of Sept. 6, with 916,126 applications approved. The total includes $6.29 billion in acreage-based payments, $3.46 billion for livestock, $2.78 billion for sales commodities, $1.22 billion for dairy and $65.34 million for eggs/broilers. Producers currently have until Oct. 12 to file either new applications or modify their prior CFAP 2 applications via program updates announced by USDA Aug. 24.
CFAP 1 payouts were at $10.6 billion as of Sept. 6.
AFGHANISTAN
— Taliban announce formation of government and name acting prime minister. The temporary Cabinet is dominated by senior Taliban officials, including the leader of the Haqqani network — a faction of the militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. While the movement’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada will oversee the government’s main decisions, the new cabinet will be headed by Mullah Hassan Akhund, who served as foreign minister in the Taliban government of the 1990s. The interior ministry, responsible for police and security, went to Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani Network that is designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization because of its links to al Qaeda.
— Biden administration official said Tuesday that more than 65,000 Afghans will arrive in the United States “by the end of September and part of this fiscal year, and up to 30,000 additional Afghans over the following 12 months.” The officials also noted that these Afghans are not counted as part of the annual refugee program, which President Joe Biden raised to 62,500 for this fiscal year.
CHINA UPDATE
— PBOC comments cool monetary policy easing expectations. Officials with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said Tuesday the Chinese central bank will not resort to flood-like stimulus, as they expect liquidity supply and demand will remain basically balanced in coming months. Signs China’s economy was losing steam have fueled expectations PBOC would need to ease its monetary policy. But the latest comments by PBOC officials cooled market expectations for any imminent policy easing.
— Chinese soybean imports up from July but down vs. year-ago. China imported nearly 9.5 MMT of soybeans in August, up 9.5% from July but down 1.1% compared with last year. In the first eight months of this year, China imported 67.1 MMT of soybeans, up 3.6% from the same period last year. Weak crush margins and ample supplies held by crushers are expected to limit Chinese soybean imports the next few months.
— China meat imports slow in August. China imported 758,000 MT of meat (including offal) in August. That was down 11.2% from July and 8.9% compared with August 2020. In the first eight months of this year, Chinese meat imports totaled nearly 6.7 MMT, up 1.7% versus the same period last year.
— Chinese authorities dropped a case against an Alibaba manager accused of sexually assaulting a co-worker, saying it didn’t rise to the level of a crime.
TRADE POLICY
— NCBA calls on Biden administration to remain vigilant on Brazilian beef. The discovery of two positive atypical BSE cases in Brazil prompted the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to issue a statement calling on USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to “remain vigilant in enforcing our standards,” said NCBA CEO Colin Woodhall, pointing out that it was key to hold Brazil “accountable.” Emphasizing the cases in Brazil pose no threat to the U.S. or to U.S. beef, Woodhall said it was key for USDA to “to examine Brazil and to continue implementing science-based safeguards that ensure all imported beef meets the same rigorous science-based food safety and animal health standards as American beef.”
— WTO members remain far apart on provisions in draft negotiating text on agriculture. The chasm between developing and developed countries continues relative various agriculture policy reform plans included in a draft negotiating text that was unveiled July 29. An informal meeting of the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session was held this week on the draft negotiating text from Ambassador Gloria Abraham Peralta of Costa Rica which covered domestic support, market access, export restrictions, export competition, cotton, public stockholding for food security, a special safeguard mechanism and transparency. The U.S. urged countries not to simply cite well-known issues that have prevented progress for years in several areas that the draft negotiating text covers. The goal is for an agreement to be found so that agricultural issues can be resolved for at the 12th Ministerial Conference set for Nov. 30-Dec. 3 in Geneva. Discord between developing and developed countries has thwarted such an outcome previously.
ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE
— House Ag reconciliation package to include $1 billion for biofuels: Politico. The House Agriculture Committee’s initial reconciliation package will include $1 billion over eight years for USDA to provide grants for expanding biofuel pump infrastructure, upgrade existing tanks and pumps in a bid to increase ethanol usage via higher blends, according to Politico which cited sources in the office of Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa). She has been vocal about making sure that funding for biofuels efforts is included in the massive social infrastructure package being crafted via reconciliation.
— National Biodiesel Board rebrands. The association told its members yesterday that their new name and brand will be: Clean Fuels Alliance America.
— Activity ramping up at OMB on proposed RFS levels. There have been 13 meeting held or scheduled by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the proposed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) levels from EPA. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and NATSO (represents travel plazas and truck stops) and some of their individual members have met with meeting this week on tap with the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), Center for Biological Diversity and American Petroleum Institute (API).
Another seven sessions are scheduled for next week, including the Coalition for Renewable Gas, World Energy, Growth Energy, PBF Energy, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA) and American Bakers Association (ABA).
— President Biden links recent extreme weather events to climate change. Visiting some of the areas battered by Hurricane Ida, Biden said that the U.S. and the world were “in peril” from climate change, and that drastic action would be needed to limit further global warming. As previously noted, the White House sent Congress an urgent funding request for $14 billion to aid recovery from natural disasters that occurred before Ida, adding that billions more would be necessary to respond to the damage incurred by that storm.
— Biden administration will announce a goal of producing almost half the nation’s electricity from the sun by 2050, a major shift in energy policy. Solar energy provided less than 4% of the country’s electricity last year, and the administration’s target of 45% would represent a huge leap and would most likely take a fundamental reshaping of the energy industry. Link or more via the New York Times.
— Climate change ag impacts ahead: Good for Canada, bad for Europe. The Economist magazine notes that some Canadian financial companies, including Bonnefield Financial, hopes to benefit from the ways climate change is changing Canadian agriculture. The company is buying fields and leases them to farmers, both in Manitoba and elsewhere, betting that a warmer climate will steadily increase how much its assets are worth, by enabling farmers in the places where it is investing to grow more valuable crops than traditionally selected. Meanwhile, new research suggests that without dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, Europe faces "a future of more extreme drought" that will endanger agricultural fields, hydropower generation and river transportation. For more details on that, link to a Bloomberg item.
LIVESTOCK, FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY
— Lawsuits escalate over labels. Activists are ramping up legal challenges to food labels they describe as deceptive, making unsupported claims about everything from animal welfare to environmental benefits. Link for more via the New York Times.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
— Summary: Global cases of Covid-19 are at 221,987,291 with 4,587,495 deaths, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. case count is at 40,280,094 with 650,532 deaths. The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center said that there have been 375,995,378 doses administered, 176,659,496 have been fully vaccinated, or 53.8% of the U.S. population.
— President Biden’s approval rating on his handling of the pandemic has dropped by 10 points since June, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey found 52% of adults said they approved of the way he is handling Covid-19, down from 62% who said he was doing a good job in late June. Biden will deliver remarks on Thursday laying out a six-pronged strategy involving both the public and private sectors in his administration's latest efforts to boost vaccination rates and stop the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus.
— British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced tax increases to support the country’s state-funded National Health Service as it struggles to manage a backlog of millions of patients in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the announcement, Johnson is renouncing an election pledge not to raise payroll taxes, a move that sparked criticism from within his own Conservative Party and underscored the pressure the pandemic has put on governments to find funding for social services stretched by Covid-19 and aging populations. The U.K. government will increase payroll and dividend taxes by 1.25% respectively to raise £12 billion, equivalent to $16.5 billion, a year starting in 2022. The government aims to pump cash into the NHS and, in the longer term, overhaul the country’s social-care system.
POLITICS & ELECTIONS
— Twitter suspends JD Vance’s Senate campaign press account. Republican Senate candidate and venture capitalist JD Vance, who has been posting statements rejecting Afghan refugees and on other issues, said Twitter suspended his campaign press account. “No warning. No explanation of what rules I allegedly broke,” Vance said on his personal Twitter account. “But this is what happens when we allow five companies to control what we’re allowed to say.”
— Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces rival party leaders tonight in the second of three debates before a general election on Sept. 20. Trudeau’s snap election gambit appears in jeopardy as polls show his Liberal party currently trailing the Conservative party, led by Erin O’Toole. Tonight’s debate, like last week’s, will take place in French, while an English-language debate follows tomorrow.
— Trump announces rallies in Georgia, Iowa as 2024 speculation mounts. Former President Donald Trump will hold two more campaign-style rallies in the coming weeks — one in Georgia and one in Iowa — as speculation continues to grow that he will make yet another run for the White House in 2024. Another signal: Trump had lost about 15 pounds as of April. Meanwhile, Trump is set to offer live commentary at a boxing event from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., that falls on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
CONGRESS
— Senators are scheduled to return to Washington on Monday, though they’ll only be in for three days that week because of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday. The House is set to return on Sept. 20. “I think that reconciliation is going to take all the oxygen out of Washington,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), responding to a question about prospects for agricultural legislative priorities when the Senate returns next Monday.
— Democrats press Biden on navigable waters rule. Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) urged the Biden administration to formally dismantle the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule through federal rulemaking. “We are encouraged by your agencies’ June 9 announcement beginning the process to repeal the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) and to replace it with a robust definition of ‘waters of the United States,’” the senators wrote. The U.S. District Court for Arizona vacated and remanded measure, which opponents call the “dirty water” rule, on Aug. 30.
OTHER ITEMS OF NOTE
— Warren calls to publicly manufacture drugs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) urged President Biden to publicly manufacture key drugs like insulin, naloxone, and EpiPens. “Let’s send a message to Big Pharma: You can’t just keep jacking up prices forever,” Warren said in a tweet. Warren has previously introduced legislation that would give the Health Secretary authority to manufacture generic drugs in cases “where the market has failed and strengthen the generic market for the long term by jump-starting competition.”
— Statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from its pedestal in Richmond, Virginia’s capital. It was one of the nation’s largest Confederate monuments. The Lee statue was erected in 1890, the first of six Confederate monuments — symbols of white power that dotted the main boulevard in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. On Wednesday, it was the last of them to be removed.
— Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in the country, ruling that penalizing the procedure was unconstitutional. The ruling comes on the heels of Argentina’s historic legalization earlier this year and a recent decision by the neighboring U.S. state of Texas to effectively ban abortion. Before Tuesday’s decision, only four of Mexico’s 32 regions had decriminalized the procedure.
— Iran is blocking international inspectors’ access to nuclear-related sites while continuing to expand its nuclear activities, casting doubt on efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
