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☆ Column: The road to war: An ex-Reuters journalist recalls the chase for WMD in Iraq
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Louis Charbonneau | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

March 20 (Reuters) - Louis Charbonneau covered the UN weapons inspections prior to the Iraq war and later became UN bureau chief. The U.S. was threatening to use military force to rid Iraq of WMD, which the administration of President George W. Bush insisted Iraq was developing in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. Reuters colleagues Evelyn Leopold and Irwin Arieff quickly cobbled together a story on doubts about the Niger uranium intel based on what I dictated. The next morning, I reached out to UN sources for more information on the Niger uranium. The IAEA experts had concluded they weren’t useful for a nuclear weapons program.

☆ Last Dodge Challenger makes 1,010 hp, has optional parachute
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The unveiling of the 1,025 horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 has been long anticipated, and long delayed. Dodge had originally expected to just modify the Dodge Challenger Demon engine, which is capable of producing up to 840 horsepower. The 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 can reach 60 miles per hour in under two seconds. StellantisIntroduced in 2008, the modern Dodge Challenger shares much of its engineering with the four-door Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans. Options for the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 include a Direct Connection Parachute Mounting System.

☆ Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Minneapolis CNN —As head of PAWS Atlanta, Joe Labriola can get a good sense of the region’s economic well-being from the day-to-day activity of the city’s oldest no-kill animal shelter. And the shelves at PAWS Atlanta’s Pet Food Pantry quickly go bare. She said her pet food costs for Lola, her Australian Shepherd mix, and for Phoebe, her Golden Retriever, have doubled to $250 per month. Josh Fiala, Animal Rescue League of Iowa's Pet Support Services Manager, helps load pet food into a vehicle during a Pet Food Pantry in January 2022. Courtesy Animal Rescue League of IowaARL gave out about 40,000 pounds of pet food in both 2020 and 2021.

☆ Why SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket looks unlike anything the company has ever built before
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Rupendra Brahambhatt | Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Not only is Starship the world's largest, most powerful rocket, it also looks unlike anything SpaceX has ever built. Veronica G. Cardenas/ReutersThis silver-black color scheme is a vast change from SpaceX's white Falcon 9 rockets or NASA's orange and white Space Launch System. SpaceX's silver rocket made of steelSpaceX's Starship rocket is made of stainless steel. SpaceX's black-studded Starship spacecraftStarship is covered on one side with black tiles to help protect it upon atmospheric re-entry. SPACEXSpaceX wouldn't comment on whether, or not, that's the reasoning for their silver Starship rocket.

☆ Russia is so cut off from the international financial system that the Kremlin thinks Western sanctions have 'insured' the country against the banking crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Kremlin said Russia will not be impacted by the US bank crisis. Sanctions over the Ukraine war have cut Russia off from the international financial system. Russia is now so cut off from the global financial system that the Kremlin thinks it will face no impact from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. In contrast, Russia — like much of the world — faced a credit crunch due to the fallout from the US subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, which ultimately led to the Global Financial Crisis. As the country recovered from the recession, it started working towards its grand ambition of making Moscow a global financial hub.

☆ McCormick's red-cap bottles are getting a makeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —McCormick, the top-selling maker of seasonings and spices, is giving its iconic red-cap bottles their first makeover in more than 40 years. Shoppers will soon see newly designed bottles that feature updated labeling and a new “snap” cap that the company says keeps spices and seasonings fresher compared to its previous design. McCormick’s new sleeker bottles, which have already begun rolling out in the United States, will first contain its most popular herbs and spices, including cinnamon, garlic powder and crushed red pepper. The inside is getting a makeover, too. “This is a winning proposition from top to bottom and we have tons of consumer research to validate that,” she said.

☆ France is already sending one armored 'oddity' to Ukraine. Now it might send a slightly odder one.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

France is reportedly considering sending AMX-10P amphibious infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. France has already sent its AMX-10RC armored vehicle to Ukraine, among other military hardware. Troops exit an AMX-10P armored vehicle in France KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesAbout 2,000 AMX-10Ps were manufactured between 1973 and 1985. It is also relatively easy to learn and operate, Péria-Peigné said, describing it as "simpler than most modern" infantry fighting vehicles. As Ukraine struggles to assimilate a plethora of Western arms quickly, an old but simple armored vehicle may be good enough.

☆ You can stay in this 'delightfully quirky' tiny home in a remote part of Scotland that looks like a submarine tower
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

The building is made from sheets of industrial aluminum joined by aircraft-style rivets. Aluminum can endure pretty harsh weather so it's quite well-suited to this isolated corner of Scotland. Markham and Rogers initially considered using oak but they wanted something more "contemporary." Nigel RigdenSource: Out Of The Blue

☆ 2024 Ferrari Purosangue: A Touring Wagon That Howls
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dan Neil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

GOOD SPORT The Purosangue’s front-mid-mounted V12 typically sends torque only to the eight-speed, dual-clutch rear transaxle, ensuring a super-sporty, rear-drive character. The AWD comes by way of a power takeoff and two-speed gearbox that transfers torque to the front predictively when the dynamic controls sense slip at the rear. IN ITS WISDOM, Ferrari staged the global press launch for the new Purosangue AWD wagon in February, in the Dolomites, near Madonna di Campiglio in northern Italy. Unfortunately, the region’s mild winter meant that scenic, snow-covered mountain trails were in short supply. While I waited my turn, visions of tree-slapping the six-figure, 12-cylinder Purosangue raced through my mind.

☆ Canada bans Russian aluminum and steel imports
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

OTTAWA, March 10 (Reuters) - Canada on Friday banned the import of all Russian aluminum and steel products in a move that Ottawa said was aimed at denying Moscow the ability to fund its war against Ukraine. "We are ensuring Putin cannot pay for his war by selling aluminum and steel in Canada, in coordination with action taken by the United States today," Freeland said. Last month, the United States announced a 200% tariff on Russian aluminum and related products that came into effect on Friday. Russian aluminum is produced by Rusal (RUAL.MM), which accounts for about 6% of global supplies. Canada imported C$45 million of aluminum and C$213 million of steel products from Russia In 2021, according to official data.

☆ Russia could weaponize metal exports next, Citi warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Russia has restricted exports of natural gas to Europe and announced it will temporarily slash oil output this month in response to Western sanctions. Next, it could weaponize exports of important metals such as aluminum and palladium, researchers at Citigroup have warned. For example, last year Russia made deep cuts to its natural gas exports to Europe, its top customer. Russia’s role in the global nuclear power industry is also under the microscope. The country is a key exporter of nuclear fuel and its nuclear sector has so far mostly escaped Western sanctions.

☆ Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Ukraine opts to fight on in Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine has decided to fight on in the ruined city of Bakhmut because the battle there is pinning down Russia's best units and degrading them ahead of a planned Ukrainian spring counter-offensive, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. DIPLOMACY, WEAPONS* The European Union could soon top up the fund used for purchasing weapons for Ukraine by 3.5 billion euros ($3.7 billion), a senior EU official said on Friday. * The United States accused Russia on Friday of seeking to destabilize Moldova and said it would help the Eastern European country fight off such attempts by sharing information and providing other assistance, the White House said. * Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that a conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in India last week was "constructive", but he heard nothing new from the U.S. side. * Canada on Friday banned the import of all Russian aluminum and steel products in a move that Ottawa said was aimed at denying Moscow the ability to fund its war against Ukraine.

☆ Goldman Sachs has added 3 stocks to its conviction buy list, giving one 100% upside
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Goldman Sachs has this year added a number of stocks to its conviction list — buy-rated stocks it expects to outperform — giving them further share price upside. Rio Tinto Its most recent addition was Australian miner Rio Tinto on March 3. It comes as Goldman Sachs turns bullish on commodities such as iron ore on the back of an expected recovery in China. It gave Rio Tinto a price target of $140, or upside of 10% from the Friday close. Goldman also raised the price target for Alibaba to $138, giving it over 50% potential upside from its U.S.-listed stock's Thursday close.

☆ Morris Tanenbaum, Who Helped Put Silicon in Microchips, Dies at 94
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Morris Tanenbaum earned seven patents for his work on silicon semiconductor technology. One evening in 1955, Morris Tanenbaum ’s wife was playing bridge with friends. Dr. Tanenbaum, a chemist who worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories, the research arm of American Telephone & Telegraph Co., saw a chance to dash back to work to test his latest ideas about how to make better semiconductor devices out of silicon. He tried a new way of connecting an aluminum wire to a silicon chip. He was thrilled when it worked, providing a way to make highly efficient transistors and other electronic devices, an essential technology for the Information Age.

☆ Russia may run of out money next year and needs foreign investors due to 'serious' pressure from sanctions, oligarch warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska warned Thursday that Russia may run out of money in 2024. Deripaska said Russia needs foreign investors due to "serious" pressure from western sanctions. Deripaska, who founded Rusal, one of the world's biggest aluminum producers, said the gloomy economic outlook was due to "serious" pressure from western sanctions, per the report. The US has imposed more than 2,700 sanctions against Russia, more than any other country, according to the Atlantic Council's database. He told the forum that Russia needed to ensure a safe business climate for foreign investors, Bloomberg reported.

☆ ArcBest Rolls Out Technology to Speed Up Freight Loading
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

The freight-management system, called Vaux, is a steel-and-aluminum racking system that sits underneath and around cargo inside trailer beds. Warehouse workers can latch a forklift onto the Vaux platform to push freight into a trailer or pull freight out in one move, instead of having to handle pallets individually. ArcBest says loading or unloading a truck using Vaux takes less than five minutes, compared with the traditional process the company says can take 45 minutes. “What our customers have been telling us is that they are really under pressure,” ArcBest Chief Executive Judy McReynolds said. Rival trucking company TFI International Inc. recently disclosed it had taken a 4% stake in ArcBest, prompting speculation TFI is looking to buy ArcBest.

☆ Apollo in Talks to Acquire Arconic
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Lauren Thomas | Laura Cooper | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An aluminum coil at an Arconic manufacturing facility in Alcoa, Tenn., last year. Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. is in talks to acquire aerospace-parts maker Arconic Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. Apollo submitted a bid in February and has debt financing in place, the people said.

Student loan borrowers gathered at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., the evening before the court hears two cases on the White House student loan relief plan. Jemal Countess | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesOn the night before the Supreme Court was set to hear oral arguments over the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan, Amanda Smitley sat outside the court on an aluminum blanket holding an umbrella. Student loan borrower Amanda Smitley, 20, joined the student loan borrowers gathered at Supreme Court on Feb. 27, 2023, the night before the court hears two cases on student loan forgiveness. With a $175 monthly student loan bill, though, he won't be able to help them. Student loan borrowers gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 27, 2023, the night before the court hears two cases on student loan forgiveness.

☆ Goldman Sachs downgrades Arconic, cites uncertain demand outlook in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

It's time to sell shares of Arconic , according to Goldman Sachs. Analyst Emily Chieng downgraded the aluminum products maker to sell from neutral, citing a weak European demand outlook. ARNC 1D mountain Arconic shares fall premarket Shares of Arconic this year have gained about 4.6% following a roughly 36% slump in 2022. Chieng trimmed the firm's price target to $21 from $23 a share, representing more than 5% downside from Monday's close. Shares fell about 4% premarket.

Aluminium will be hardest hit with penal tariffs of 200% on imports of Russian metal, effective March 10, and imports of any third-country product containing Russian metal, effective April 10. This sort of "super contango" is the market's cry for financiers to pick up spare metal, particularly Russian metal. The Gwangyang deliveries are reported to be Russian aluminium being delivered by Glencore (GLEN.L), which has a long-term off-take deal with Rusal. The cash-to-threes time-spread will be a litmus test of financing appetite for Russian aluminium over the coming period. The only get-out for supplier nations is if they too impose minimum 200% tariffs on their own Russian aluminium imports.

"America will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes," Yellen, flanked by sandbags at the cabinet ministers' office, told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Yellen also announced the transfer of the first $1.25 billion from the latest, $9.9 billion tranche of economic and budget assistance from Washington. The latest funds are part of $45 billion in new military, economic and humanitarian approved by Congress in December as part of broad U.S. budget legislation. Yellen said such economic support is keeping Ukraine's government and critical public services running, schools open and pensions paid, providing a "bedrock of stability" that fuels Ukrainian resistance. 168, where the salaries of teachers, administrators and support staff are reimbursed from U.S. budget support funds.

☆ U.S. Aluminum Producers Support Biden Tariffs on Russian Imports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Bob Tita | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Reliance on imported aluminum from producers including Rusal has declined in recent years. U.S. aluminum companies said they supported the Biden administration’s move to impose steep tariffs on imported Russian aluminum, as analysts and executives predicted the new duties would have a minor effect on domestic aluminum costs. The White House on Friday imposed 200% tariffs on imported aluminum from Russia, as well as aluminum imports from elsewhere that include Russian aluminum, as part of a package of duties on Russian metals, minerals and chemicals worth about $2.8 billion. The tariff package coincided with the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The United States joined with G7 allies with plans to impose sanctions that will target 200 individuals and entities and a dozen Russian financial institutions. They planned to form an "Enforcement Coordination Mechanism," at first chaired by the United States, to counter Russian efforts to circumvent the sanctions. The sanctions are aimed at targets in Russia and "third-country actors" across Europe, Asia and the Middle East that are supporting Russia's war effort, the White House said in a fact sheet. "We will sanction additional actors tied to Russia's defense and technology industry, including those responsible for backfilling Russian stocks of sanctioned items or enabling Russian sanctions evasion," it said. Biden was also set to sign proclamations to raise tariffs on Russian products imported to the United States.

☆ Natural-Gas Prices Plunge, and Drillers Dial Back
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Ryan Dezember | David Uberti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chesapeake Energy says it will drop three of the 14 rigs drilling on its properties this year. Natural-gas prices have dropped more than 65% since mid-December and this week hit their lowest level since 2020’s pandemic lockdown, leading producers to throttle back drilling in a dramatic turn in the market for the heating and power-generation fuel. Expensive natural gas was a major contributor to inflation over the past two years, pushing up the price of electricity and staying warm as well as manufacturing costs for fertilizer, steel, glass, aluminum, plastic and cardboard.

☆ This little-known aluminum products maker is too cheap to ignore and can rally nearly 40%, Credit Suisse says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Shares of aluminum company Constellium look too cheap to ignore, according to Credit Suisse. Analyst Curt Woodworth highlighted the firm's bull case for Constellium, saying in a Thursday note to clients that its $22 price target suggests shares could gain almost 40% from Wednesday's close. So far this year, the stock, which trades on the New York Exchange, has surged nearly 34%, after slumping 34% in 2022. CSTM YTD mountain Shares in 2023 While Constellium faces continued inflationary pressures, Woodworth highlighted his confidence in the company's management. "CSTM continues to execute well as evidenced by excellent price vs cost progression in 2022 and guidance for 2023 that was better than expected driven by some relief on energy prices and solid price actions achieved in 4Q," he wrote.

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