Latest news with #MichaelSilver
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
DUI suspect charged following deadly Rutherford County crash
RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A man is facing several charges after he reportedly ran a red light and collided with another vehicle Wednesday afternoon in Rutherford County. According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, a 2025 Volvo TT was traveling east on Murfreesboro Road, approaching the Fergus Road intersection, when it ran a red light and crashed into a 2012 Ford Fiesta. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → Officials said the Ford was traveling north through the intersection when it was hit. The Ford's driver—identified as 66-year-old Michael Silver—died from his injuries. Meanwhile, his 41-year-old passenger was hurt in the crash. Both were reportedly wearing their seatbelts. ⏩ THP said the 37-year-old man who was driving the Volvo—identified as 37-year-old Michael Alexander Gawlick of Illinois—also sustained injuries in the crash. However, Gawlick is facing charges for vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and DUI. No additional details have been released about Wednesday's deadly crash. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Russia Today
14-04-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
China halts exports of critical materials amid trade war with US
China has halted exports of several critical rare earth metals and magnets amid a deepening trade war with the US, the New York Times has reported. The move follows US President Donald Trump's decision to drastically raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries earlier this month. On April 4, China's Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs announced new restrictions on the export of six heavy rare earth metals and special magnets made with them, which are almost exclusively mined in the country. The materials, essential for electric vehicles, drones, missiles and computer chips, now require special export licenses. According to the NYT, the license system has not yet been implemented, and enforcement currently varies by port. Some customs offices have allowed exports with minimal traces of heavy rare earths, while others require testing to confirm compliance. Industry executives told the paper that shipments remain suspended as of the weekend. Michael Silver, the CEO of American Elements, told the NYT that his company was recently informed that licenses could take 45 days to process, adding that his firm has been forced to build up inventory in advance in order to meet current contracts. The chairman of the critical minerals advisory committee for the Office of the US Trade Representative, Daniel Pickard, also told the paper the export controls could 'have severe effects in the US' and warned that prolonged disruption could damage China's reputation as a supplier. READ MORE: 'Not good for China' to retaliate over tariffs – White House The NYT noted that the restrictions also prohibit Chinese firms from working with a growing list of US companies, particularly defense contractors. MP Materials CEO James Litinsky told the outlet that the move poses a serious risk to the US military supply chain. Earlier this month, Trump announced a sweeping escalation in tariffs, raising the total duty on Chinese imports to 145%. The White House said the measures were aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing and addressing longstanding trade imbalances. While most elevated tariffs were paused for 90 days for countries that agreed to talks, China was excluded from the reprieve. In response, Beijing imposed reciprocal tariffs of 125% on American goods on Saturday. China's Ministry of Commerce accused Washington of using tariffs as a form of coercion and warned that continued escalation would be economically meaningless. Chinese officials said no further retaliatory hikes were planned but pledged to 'fight to the end' and filed a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization.
New York Times
13-04-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies
China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors. The official crackdown is part of China's retaliation for President Trump's sharp increase in tariffs that started on April 2. On April 4, the Chinese government ordered restrictions on the export of six heavy rare earth metals, which are refined entirely in China, as well as rare earth magnets, 90 percent of which are produced in China. The metals, and special magnets made with them, can now be shipped out of China only with special export licenses. But China has barely started setting up a system for issuing the licenses. That has caused consternation among industry executives that the process could drag on and that current supplies of minerals and products outside of China could run low. If factories in Detroit and elsewhere run out of powerful rare earth magnets, that could prevent them from assembling cars and other products with electric motors that require these magnets. Companies vary widely in the size of their emergency stockpiles for such contingencies, so the timing of production disruptions is hard to predict. The so-called heavy rare earth metals covered by the export suspension are used in magnets essential for many kinds of electric motors. These motors are crucial components of electric cars, drones, robots, missiles and spacecraft. Gasoline-powered cars also use electric motors with rare earth magnets for critical tasks like steering. The metals also go into the chemicals for manufacturing jet engines, lasers, car headlights and certain spark plugs. And these rare metals are vital ingredients in capacitors, which are electrical components of the computer chips that power artificial intelligence servers and smartphones. Michael Silver, the chairman and chief executive of American Elements, a chemicals supplier based in Los Angeles, said his company had been told it would take 45 days before export licenses could be issued and exports of rare earth metals and magnets would resume. Mr. Silver said that his company had increased its inventory last winter in anticipation of a trade war between the United States and China, and could meet its existing contracts while waiting for the licenses. Daniel Pickard, the chairman of the critical minerals advisory committee for the Office of the United States Trade Representative and Department of Commerce, expressed concern about the availability of rare earths. 'Does the export control or ban potentially have severe effects in the U.S.? Yes,' he said. Mr. Pickard, leader of the international trade and national security practice at the Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney law firm, said a swift resolution of the rare earths issue was necessary because a sustained disruption of exports could hurt China's reputation as a reliable supplier. In a potential complication, China's Ministry of Commerce, which issued the new export restrictions jointly with the General Administration of Customs, has barred Chinese companies from having any dealings with an ever-lengthening list of American companies, particularly military contractors. One American mining leader, James Litinsky, the executive chairman and chief executive of MP Materials, said that rare earth supplies for military contractors were of particular concern. 'Drones and robotics are widely considered the future of warfare, and based on everything we are seeing, the critical inputs for our future supply chain are shut down,' he said. MP Materials owns the sole rare earths mine in the United States, the Mountain Pass mine in the California desert near the Nevada border, and hopes to start commercial production of magnets in Texas at the end of the year for General Motors and other manufacturers. A few Japanese companies keep rare earth inventories of more than a year's supply, having been hurt in 2010, when China imposed a seven-week embargo on rare earth exports to Japan during a territorial dispute. But many American companies keep little or no inventory because they do not want to tie up cash in stockpiles of costly materials. One of the metals subject to the new controls, dysprosium oxide, trades for $204 per kilogram in Shanghai, and much more outside China. Rare earth magnets make up a tiny share of China's overall exports to the United States and elsewhere. So halting shipments causes minimal economic pain in China while holding the potential for big effects in the United States and elsewhere. Chinese customs officials are blocking exports of heavy rare earth metals and magnets not just to the United States but to any country, including Japan and Germany. Enforcement of the new export license requirement, though, has been uneven so far among different Chinese ports, rare earth industry executives said. Most but not all rare earth magnets include heavy rare earths, which are needed to prevent magnets from losing their magnetism at high temperatures or in some electrical fields. Some rare earth magnets are made only from light rare earths, and are not subject to export restrictions. Customs officials at a few Chinese ports are tolerating exports of magnets if they have only tiny traces of heavy rare earth metals in them, and if the magnets are not going to the United States. Officials at other Chinese ports are taking a more stringent stance, however, demanding that exporters run tests to prove that any batch of magnets does not have heavy rare earth metals in them before the magnets can be loaded on a ship for export. The Chinese export restrictions began taking effect before the Trump administration announced on Friday night that it would exempt many kinds of consumer electronics from China from its latest tariffs. Magnet exports continue to be blocked this weekend, five rare earth industry executives said. Like most goods from China, the magnets are also subject to President Trump's latest tariffs when they arrive at American ports. Until 2023, China produced 99 percent of the world's supply of heavy rare earth metals, with a trickle of production coming out of a refinery in Vietnam. But that refinery has been closed for the past year because of a tax dispute, leaving China with a monopoly. China also produces 90 percent of the world's nearly 200,000 tons a year of rare earth magnets, which are far more powerful than conventional iron magnets. Japan produces most of the rest and Germany produces a tiny quantity as well, but they depend on China for the raw materials. China's Ministry of Commerce did not reply to a request for comment. The world's richest deposits of heavy rare earths lie in a small, forested valley on the outskirts of Longnan in the red clay hills of Jiangxi Province in south-central China. And most of China's refineries and magnet factories are in or near Longnan and Ganzhou, a town about 80 miles away. Mines in the valley ship ore to refineries in Longnan, which remove contaminants and send the rare earths to magnet factories in Ganzhou. China's most famous factory for these magnets is operated by the JL Mag Rare-Earth Company, whose headquarters are in Ganzhou. The factory supplies the world's top two electric car producers, Tesla and China's BYD, with the magnets that power their cars, rare earth industry executives said. BYD has said that it buys some of the world's latest, most powerful magnets from JL Mag, with 15 times the magnetic force per cubic inch of volume as a conventional iron magnet. Xi Jinping, China's top leader, made a special inspection visit to JL Mag's factory in Ganzhou in 2019, during heightened trade tensions in Mr. Trump's first term. The trip was interpreted as a hint that China was ready to use its control over the materials to disrupt American supply chains, a step it did not take then but is doing now. China paused the mining of heavy rare earths near Longnan a few years ago because it was causing severe chemical pollution. On Friday, at the site of one mine near Longnan, a diesel generator was humming and liquids were gurgling through plastic pipes, indicating that at least some mining operations had probably resumed. Heavy rare earths are mined by dumping strong chemicals into holes dug in the top of a hillside. The chemicals dissolve the ore and dribble out of the base of the hill, where they can be pumped to nearby pits for initial processing.
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
As Super Bowl end zone messages go, ‘Choose Love' is no ‘End Racism'
The beauty of Super Bowl week, from an NFL marketing perspective, is that so many mish-mashy, dim-bulb storylines are wafting in the air that sometimes the real stuff ends up getting lost. Case in point: The NFL has confirmed a report from The Athletic's Michael Silver that the league won't be stenciling an 'End Racism' message behind either end zone for Sunday's Super Bowl LIX matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. You may have missed this news, what with all the clamoring for Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce's responses to wacky questions about Taylor Swift. Advertisement But, yes, it's true: 'End Racism' will be absent from Super Bowl LIX. In its place will be 'Choose Love.' According to Silver, this will be the first time the 'End Racism' slogan hasn't been featured at a Super Bowl since 2021. During this year's NFC Championship Game, 'End Racism' was on display at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field. At the AFC Championship Game, 'Choose Love' and 'It Takes All of Us' were stenciled behind the end zones at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Those statements, but not 'End Racism,' will be featured at Sunday's Super Bowl. This is the part of the story where it needs to be pointed out that President Trump will be in attendance for Super Bowl LIX, making it the first time a sitting president is on hand for pro football's Big Game. And that turns the absence of the 'End Racism' stenciling into even more of a political football, if you will. As a point/counterpoint, the discussion begins here: Is there a connection between Trump's appearance at the Super Bowl and the jettisoning of the on-field 'End Racism' message? But there's an easy way to remove politics and still be able to talk about these end-zone slogans. Remember, this is the Super Bowl, an annual sports extravaganza that encourages us to rate and rank everything from team colors to television commercials. We do a roll call of each team's celebrity fans, and then hand out grades. We do deep dives into each city's best-known foods. We judge the play-by-play broadcast teams, as well as the national anthem performer(s). The halftime show is critiqued as though it's the opening night of a Broadway blockbuster, which in many respects is precisely what it is. (Can Kendrick Lamar possibly deliver a halftime show on par with what Prince gave us at Super Bowl XLI? Can anyone?) We thus have license to judge Super Bowl end-zone messaging. In this case, 'End Racism' vs. 'Choose Love.' And there's no competition here at all. It's 'End Racism' by a mile. 'End Racism' is bold. It's strong, powerful, meaningful. It's a statement. Even if you do not agree with the message — that is, if you're the type who sees absolutely no racism in this country so what's the big deal, and so on — 'End Racism' does have a way of stopping many of you in your tracks to do some pondering. Advertisement Now let's discuss 'Choose Love.' In a vacuum, it's wonderful. Who would not choose love? As NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told Silver, 'We felt it was an appropriate statement for what the country has collectively endured, given recent tragedies, and can serve as an inspiration.' But given that 'End Racism' represented an alternative, this discussion can't be held in a vacuum. And 'Choose Love' is unremarkable when placed on a reviewing stand next to 'End Racism.' 'Choose Love' is safe. It's G-rated. It's guaranteed not to offend anyone. It doesn't inspire a discussion … or soul-searching. You know what 'Choose Love' is? It's a Hallmark greeting card. It's a message inside a fortune cookie. It's a forgettable bumper sticker. It's that big billboard you see on the side of the road when traveling from one state to another — 'Welcome to Wisconsin. Choose Love!' You just look at 'Choose Love' and you go, 'Um, OK.' GO DEEPER NFL to remove 'End Racism' messaging in end zone ahead of Super Bowl: Sources You may be of the opinion that performative end zone art doesn't do much to combat racism. And to be sure, the NFL is proud of what it believes is a strong DEI initiative, even as the White House is going in a different direction. 'We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we're going to continue those efforts because we've not only convinced ourselves, I think we've proven ourselves that it does make the NFL better,' NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said on Monday during his annual Super Bowl Week state-of-the-game news conference, per 'We're not in this because it's a trend to get in or a trend to get out of it,' Goodell said. 'Our efforts are fundamental in trying to attract the best possible talent into the National Football League, both on and off the field.' These are powerful words by the commissioner. When we get around to doing a ranking of 'NFL Commissioner State of the Game Super Bowl Week News Conferences,' surely Goodell's remarks from this week will be contending for top honors. Until then, we're left with ranking Super Bowl End Zone Inspirational Messages. For such visible messaging, I've got 'End Racism' at the top. 'Choose Love' gets my meh button.
