Massive fire breaks out at Exxon Mobil refinery in Texas

BAYTOWN, Texas (AP) — A fire burning at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Texas is sending a large plume of smoke into the air, the latest in a series of fires in the Houston area involving the petrochemical industry.

The fire broke out Wednesday at an Exxon Mobil facility in Baytown, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Houston.

The city of Baytown says the fire is in an area that contains polypropylene material and that Exxon Mobil has requested some nearby residents shelter in place as a precaution.

The area has seen large fires this year involving other petrochemical companies, too. In April, one worker died after a tank holding a flammable chemical caught fire in Crosby . And in March, a fire burned for days at a petrochemical storage facility in nearby Deer Park.

Russian spaceship brings 3 tons of supplies to space station

An unmanned Russian spaceship carrying tons of supplies to the International Space Station has docked with the orbiting laboratory.

Interested in Space?

The Progress 73 cargo ship blasted off atop a Soyuz rocket at 1210 GMT Wednesday from the Russian space complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and docked with the ISS about 3 ½ hours later after two orbits.

The Progress is carrying about 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of food, fuel and supplies to the space station, which currently has six astronauts aboard.

Those on the space station now include Nick Hague, Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan of the United States, Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Alexey Ovchinin and Luca Parmitano of Italy.

Former Senate Democrat gets accused of ‘racial dog whistles’ when she talks about how her party is leaning too far left

That’s former Sen. Claire McCaskill explaining on MSNBC after Tuesday night’s Democratic debate why the left may be leaning too far to the left if it hopes to take back the White House.

She was responding to anchor Brian Williams, who’d asked, “What happens when you walk into those communities and say, ‘Great news, you’re all going to get green jobs, we’ll need the keys to your F-150s because we’re going all-electric’?”

McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who lost her Senate seat to Republican Josh Hawley in 2018 and now is an NBC and MSNBC analyst, essentially called out her party’s presidential candidates for not waking up to the current reality in the Heartland. “America is generally not as far along the left line as Bernie and Elizabeth,” she explained, referring to two of the front runners for the Democratic nomination, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

McCaskill’s comments immediately made a splash on social media, where Sanders’s national press secretary called them “racial dog whistles”:

That seemed to be a popular take:

Watch the interview:

Apple’s stock adds nearly 130 points to Dow’s price in July, Boeing cuts about 115 points

Apple Inc.’s AAPL, +2.81% 3.9% stock surge Wednesday on the back of the technology giant’s upbeat fiscal third-quarter earnings report came just in time to lift into first place as the top Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.94% performer this month, both in price and percentage gains. The stock rose $19.00, or 9.6%, in July. That added about 129 points to the Dow’s price, which increased by 555 points this month. The next biggest contributors to the Dow’s gain were shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -0.66%, which rose $15.81, or 7.7%, to add 107 points to the Dow, followed by International Business Machines Corp. IBM, -1.31%, which hiked up $11.20, or 8.1%, to add 76 points to the Dow. Meanwhile, Boeing Co.’s stock BA, -1.06% was the biggest drag, as it fell $16.90, or 4.6%, to shave about 115 points off the Dow.

Trump touts plan to import drugs from Canada, bashes Democrats on economy

President Donald Trump on Wednesday touted a new White House plan to allow Americans to import prescriptions drugs from Canada at cheaper prices.

It’s still unclear exactly how the plan would work or if it would save patients money. Trump has long vowed to cut drug prices, a promise also embraced by Democratic presidential hopefuls.

The president was elated by a U.S. district court ruling in New York that threw out a Democratic lawsuit accusing him of conspiring with Russia to win the 2016 election.

He also retweeted a quip by Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana — no relation to the Massachusetts Kennedys — that “the lesser of two Socialists is still a Socialist!”

Related: As Democrats debate in Detroit, Trump faces stiff Michigan challenge

Also read: Trump’s ‘rat infested’ tweets about Baltimore are true in these Kushner-owned apartments

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut a key U.S. interest rate by a quarter of a point, a step unlikely to fully mollify the bank’s chief critic: President Trump.

He’s bashed the Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, for months and wants deeper rate cuts.

U.S. Private Sector Employment Climbs Slightly More Than Expected In July

A report released by payroll processor ADP on Wednesday showed private sector employment in the U.S. increased by slightly more than anticipated in the month of July.

ADP said private sector employment climbed by 156,000 jobs in July after rising by an upwardly revised 112,000 jobs in June.

Economists had expected employment to increase by 150,000 jobs compared to the addition of 102,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report said employment in the service-providing sector jumped by 146,000 jobs, while employment in the goods-producing sector inched up by 9,000 jobs.

While ADP also said employment at large and mid-sized businesses rose by 78,000 jobs and 67,000 jobs, respectively, employment at small businesses crept up by just 11,000 jobs.

“Job growth is healthy, but steadily slowing,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “Small businesses are suffering the brunt of the slowdown.”

He added, “Hampering job growth are labor shortages, layoffs at bricks-and-mortar retailers, and fallout from weaker global trade.”

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly jobs report, which includes both public and private sector jobs.

Employment is expected to climb by 165,000 jobs in July after jumping by 224,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.7 percent.