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To: tired&retired
(Chuck Holton)Live Breaking from Iraq: Iranian Port Destroyed by Huge Explosion

I get the gentleman is quite literally reporting from within Iraq, but does anyone else find that headline construction a little weird, like it's implying the newsworthy event occurred in Iraq?

Huge explosion of 24 shipping containers of sodium perchlorate received from China for use in Iranian missiles in the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran.
... He estimates it is about 2X the size of the Beirut Lebanon explosion.


These two things don't square. 24 full 40' connex containers can carry around 700 tons of actual load. The Beirut explosion was estimated at ~6100 tons. Even allowing for sodium perchlorate being the more potent explosive, we're nowhere near parity, much less this being 2x Beirut. There's already video published from 200 yards of the explosion. Unfortunately having viewed it, you may only take the distance to imply that the recording device survived, not necessarily the person utilizing it :(

This chemical is more explosive than ammonium sulfate.

I should hope so! Because so is sawdust. Ammonium sulfate is non-flammable, non-explosive. I'm pretty sure he meant "ammonium nitrate"- the common fertilizer component that's been blowing up in ports for about 100 years now, to much sorrow across all humanity. But still.

And speaking of basic fact checking (sulfate≠nitrate), and other existing videos, he doesn't have any of the existing shots or videos in his stream.

All the above is disappointing: this live stream is time-stamped on Youtube as initiated about 12 hours after the explosion happened. The fact that it's the middle of the night in Iraq in the livestream vs daylight in photos and videos of the explosion bears this out. Dude and his crew had 12+ hours to get basic facts right and acquire freely available footage, and they whiffed on both counts.

I didn't recognize CBN News and had hoped I'd found another new media outlet willing to tell the truth and not self-censor, but this wasn't a great first impression. If I want my news factually wrong and late, I might as well just watch CNN.
49 posted on 04/26/2025 5:57:21 PM PDT by verum ago (I figure some people must truly be in love, for only love can be so blind.)
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To: verum ago

The text is my commentary based upon listening to the video.

The word slip replacing nitrate with sulfate was mine. I’m a farmer and familiar with ammonium nitrate and sulfate, just mixed up the terms.

The explosions progressed in sequence as additional containers caught fire.

If you listen to the video, he explains that the revised figures on the Beirut explosion were much smaller. Most of the ammonium nitrate had disappeared prior to the explosion.

If you listen to the video, he explains most of your criticisms in detail. But complainers love to complain.


53 posted on 04/26/2025 7:35:20 PM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings )
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To: verum ago

CBN (700 Club) - Christian Broadcasting Network’s purpose is End Times evangelism and has a certain hyperbolic method. Holton is frequently out over his skis.


58 posted on 04/26/2025 9:49:59 PM PDT by jjotto ( Blessed are You LORD, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.)
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