The grain harvest is in full swing across China, with more than 266,667 hectares of winter wheat being reaped by agricultural machinery every day and almost 20 percent of the crop already harvested, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
The harvest in wheat-growing areas in the southwest and in the central province of Hubei is coming to an end, while in Henan and Anhui, the main wheat production provinces in the Huang-Huai-Hai region, harvesting is at its peak.
In Henan's Zhumadian City, local authorities have deployed more than 30,000 combine harvesters to help farmers bring in 733,300 hectares of wheat.
"The wheat yield is around 1,200 to 1,300 jin per mu (9,000 to 9,750 kilograms per hectare), and is growing well," said Feng Pingxin, a local farmer.
More than 2.87 million hectares of wheat planted in Anhui is ready to harvest with 160,000 high-performance combine harvesters working in the fields, and local authorities coordinating operations across 567 drying centers to ensure that every grain can be collected and safely stored.
"There will be light rain in the following days, but we don't need to worry at all. Because there are 44 dryers [in the dry center], and they can process over 1,300 tons of wheat every day," said Li Peigen, a grain farmer in Auhui's Huoqiu County.
In Xuyi County, the first place in east China's Jiangsu Province to harvest wheat this year, over 5,000 combine harvesters have been urgently mobilized ahead of rain forecast in the next few days.
Local authorities have allocated agricultural machinery using big data analysis to support farmers bring in the harvest.
Four million hectares of wheat in the eastern province of Shandong is nearing harvest time, with dry land wheat in the southern part of the province gradually ripening.
Drought-resistant and high-yield wheat is the main variety grown locally in Shandong's Zhangshanzi Town. With fully mechanized reaping operations, the yield of dry land wheat is projected to increase by more than 10 percent compared to previous years.
Over 17 million agricultural machines will be put into use nationwide during this year's "three summer period," which refers to the summer harvest, summer sowing and summer management activities usually carried out from mid-May to June.
More than 800,000 combine harvesters are expected to be involved this summer, including 200,000 harvesters operating cross-regionally, to reap 22.7 million hectares of wheat planted across the country during the summer harvest season that will last for around three weeks.
In China, the main grain and oil crops harvested in summer are wheat and rapeseed sown in the previous autumn and winter.
Mechanized summer harvest in full swing across China
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Thursday U.S. "economic terrorism" threatens global economy and the sovereignty of nations worldwide.
The remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday "the most crushing economic operation ever taken" against any country providing a lifeline to Iran.
"This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale," Trump posted on Truth Social, calling the move "an ECONOMIC D-DAY."
In response, Araghchi said on X that the so-called "Economic D-Day" is a diversion from Washington's own crisis: "unprecedented debt and surging interest costs."
"Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat -- and enmity of Iranians. U.S. economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide," he added.
On June 18, Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending their war in the region on all fronts. Under the MoU, the two countries were scheduled to hold negotiations within a period of 60 days, which ended on Monday, to reach a final agreement. However, the fate of the talks remains unclear following an escalation between the two countries last month.
Washington's anti-Tehran "economic operation" comes as Iran is already under U.S. unilateral sanctions and naval blockade.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said Thursday that the United States is now further pressuring Iran under the label of an "economic war," which he views as an attempt to cover up Washington's previous failure.
Gharibabadi said in a social media post that while the United States claims Iran is "on the verge of collapse," it is reaching out to all its allies for help, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
To cover up its failure, the United States has to create an even bigger failure, Gharibabadi said, adding that the military war had failed to deliver results, and Washington was now calling the next defeat an "economic war."
Trump announced on social media Wednesday that the United States would launch "the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country" against Iran.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has said the country will use more "devastating" weapons if a new war begins against it.
Following the 12-day and 40-day wars imposed against the country in June last year and late February by the United States and Israel, Iran has expanded its military capabilities, IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said in an interview with Iran's Defa Press news agency, which was published on Thursday.
"If another war begins, our weapons will definitely be different ... in terms of the generation of missiles' warheads, as well as their precision and range," Mohebbi said.
The spokesperson emphasized that Iran has never stopped its armaments production, adding, "The destruction power of the warheads used in the IRGC's (new) missiles is far greater than the models used in the previous wars."
On Feb. 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities, killing the country's then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, military commanders and civilians. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. bases and assets in the region.
Iran's FM says U.S. "economic terrorism" threatens global economy, national sovereignty
