Rising gas prices pushed up inflation in February, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Originally Published: 11 MAR 24 07:00 ET
By Tami Luhby, CNN
(CNN) — Hearing that big corporations are raking in hefty profits frustrates Nick Rosolino. As the owners of a small cleaning business in rural Maine, Rosolino and his wife are finding it increasingly difficult to break even after the prices for the products they use soared in recent years.
While supply chain problems and high demand may have helped spur inflation early in the pandemic, Rosolino believes there’s another key reason why prices have soared and remained high: Corporate greed.
“Many CEOs are stating that profits are up as a result of rising prices,” said Rosolino, 51, who lives in New Gloucester, Maine, about a half hour from Portland. “It’s definitely a driving force, greed. It’s corporate greed.”
Reluctantly, he had to raise his prices by 15% earlier this year for the first time since the pandemic began, a move his customers said they understood. The increase will help him better afford the environmentally friendly products he uses, such as the 28-ounce bottle of all-purpose cleaner that now costs as much as $4.29, up from $2.49 not too long ago.
Asked how they are feeling about the economy, Rosolino was among a number of CNN readers who blame companies’ drive for higher profits as a main factor for the dour mood. That has kept prices elevated and left them, and the nation, struggling, they say.
President Joe Biden has also seized on the idea of corporate greed as he struggles to get his economic message to resonate with voters and to deflect blame. It was a central talking point in his State of the Union address on Thursday.
“Too many corporations raise prices to pad their profits, charging more and more for less and less,” Biden said. “In fact, the snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer … same size bag for fewer chips in it.”
Biden’s sentiments were echoed last week by Cookie Monster, who complained on X about “shrinkflation,” lamenting that his cookies are getting smaller.
Companies are doing well
Corporate America has enjoyed healthy profit margins in recent years, even as many people have had to make sacrifices to cope with the surge in prices. Inflation hit 40-year highs in 2022, and though it has cooled since, consumers have not gotten a break.
Corporate profits as a share of the national economy remain near post-World War II highs, Lael Brainard, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said in a January 2023 speech when she was vice chair of the Federal Reserve.
Profit margins at nonfinancial firms should remain elevated this year, as they benefit from lower costs, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. Companies are typically slower to reduce their prices when costs decline than they are to raise prices when their expenses jump.
Profit margins were higher in 2023 than they were just before the pandemic began, the analysts said.
Corporate profits have contributed to inflation, though experts differ on the extent.
A recent report from Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive advocacy group, argues that corporate profits drove 53% of inflation during the second and third quarters of 2023 and 34% since the start of the pandemic.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found in a 2023 report that corporate profits contributed 41% of inflation in the first two years of the economic recovery following the recession sparked by the pandemic. It noted that’s actually less than the historical average in prior recoveries.
The increase in corporate profits tracks with what’s expected to happen when prices rise due to supply and demand imbalances, said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the US Chamber of Commerce.
“This is still a really strong economy from a consumer purchasing standpoint,” he said, noting that demand remains higher than prior to the pandemic, when profit margins were lower.
To control their own costs, companies at times prefer to reduce the size of their products rather than raise their prices – otherwise known as shrinkflation. That’s because research shows that consumers are more sensitive to price changes than size changes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in an article last year.
Household paper products and snacks are the most common items that manufacturers downsize, according to a bureau analysis that looked at changes between 2015 and 2021. The changes affect consumers’ cost of those goods, particularly at the grocery store, though they have a very small impact on overall inflation.
However, the bureau said the number of shrinkflation reports is falling.
Tough on families
High prices, particularly at the supermarket, have left Heather Vargas and her family struggling to make ends meet. The Citrus Heights, California, resident’s most recent grocery tab came to $165 – and she’s buying ground beef, not steak, she pointed out. Last year, she was paying less than $100 on a typical trip to the store.
“Corporations are greedy!” Vargas, 45, wrote to CNN. “Every time I go to the store, prices are raised a quarter to a dollar. That all adds up.”
Vargas, who cares for a special needs child but also works as a delivery driver when she can find gigs, and her husband – a truck driver – have cut back on spending and carefully plan each meal to stay on budget. She did not appreciate WK Kellogg CEO Gary Pilnick’s recent suggestion that families looking for more affordable options can eat cereal for dinner. It was like “a slap in the face” from a CEO who is paid millions of dollars a year, she told CNN.
Companies haven’t seen the need to change their ways because Americans are continuing to spend even as prices have climbed, said Aaron Hackman, 38, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his husband, McKinley Conner.
“Corporations just got used to ‘If I can charge the consumer X, Y and Z during the pandemic, and I can still continue charging them that now and they’re going to pay it because we know this is important to them, we’re going to do so’,” said Hackman, an administrator at a college.
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Prices are still high
**This image is for use with this specific article only** A customer shops at a Miami grocery store in 2022.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
The national average for a gallon of regular gas climbed to a four-month high on Friday.
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Originally Published: 11 MAR 24 06:45 ET
Updated: 11 MAR 24 08:13 ET
By Monica Haider, CNN
(CNN) — The month ofRamadan feels heavier this year for 33-year-old Palestinian American Nadia Duwaik, than it has in the past.
Duwaik told CNN she ordinarily approaches Ramadan excited about the chance to celebrate and reflect during her family’s rituals, such as gathering together every night for iftar.
But this year,as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, Duwaik said her feelings about the holy month have been complicated by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Since the October 7 Hamas attack, Israel’s siege of Gaza has killed more than 30,000 people and injured some 70,000 others, according to the Ministry of Health in the enclave.
As desperation grows, and Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering Gaza continue to diminish supplies, humanitarian groups are sounding the alarm over the worsening conditions as the United Nations says hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are on the brink of famine.
On Friday, the European Union announced it’s opening an emergency maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza with allies including the US. The day prior, President Joe Biden announced the US Military is planning to build a temporary port along the Gaza coast to try to deliver much-needed humanitarian relief.
The international push for aid comes after more than 100 people were killed earlier this month, when Israeli soldiers opened fire while people were gathering around food aid trucks according to eyewitnesses and Palestinian officials, who said chaos subsequently erupted, causing many to be run over by the trucks, injured or trampled.
CNN previously reported Israel confirmed its forces fired on people, saying crowds had threatened their troops, but disputed the account given by eyewitnesses and Palestinian officials.
Gaza’s entire population of roughly 2.2 million people are facing “crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity,” according to the World Food Programme, and the organization saidchild malnutrition in Gaza is “higher than anywhere in the world.”
As the crescent moon makes its appearance Monday to mark the first night of Ramadan,American Muslims, like Duwaik, tell CNNthey feel a urgent need to fulfill a core tenantof Ramadan and their Islamic faith known aszakat, or giving to charity, to help provide Gaza relief.
Jad Shaheen, who is also Palestinian American, said the worsening humanitarian crisis and his family in the West Bank are never far from his mind.
“People need more help than they’ve needed in the past because the situation is obviously worse – they’re being actively starved,” he said. “Food and water are being blocked from people in Gaza to access, so it’s extra important to try and get those things to people who need it.”
Duwaiksaid since the war began, she’s donated to thePalestinian Children’s Relief Fund and the United Nations Agency for Palestine refugees. This year because her birthday falls during Ramadan, Duwaik said she will ask friends to donate to a nonprofit that supports relief efforts, instead of buying gifts.
In 2023, the nonprofit Islamic Relief raised more than $30 million in online donations during Ramadan, according to a spokesman for the organization.
Awrad Saleh, assistant director for international programs and partnerships at the nonprofit, said her organization has found“people want to give during Ramadan more than any other time.”
Islamic Relief’s goal this year, she said, is to have the food donations and aid available from the first day of Ramadan to the last in each of the countries where they provide assistance.
“For Ramadan, for Gaza, we’re supporting them through hot meals,” Saleh said.
She said they hope to reach 250,000 people and are working with partners in the region to distribute the meals to areas that include Khan Yunis and Rafah.
In addition to the hot meals, they’re also providing vegetables for suhoor, which is the time people typically consume a meal before fasting at dawn.
“It’s literally for anybody in the area who needs a hot meal, but in particular because this is specifically for Ramadan, it’s just to ensure that people who are fasting also have access to food that they need every day,” she said.
The organization is guided by the passage from the Quran, according to its website, which states, “Establish prayer and give zakat, and whatever good you put forward for yourselves — you will find it with Allah. Surely Allah sees what you do.”
Nasma Shehadeh, a Christian from Bethlehem who now lives in New York, said while she doesn’t share their Islamic faith, she’s donated to aid agencies like Islamic Relief, to help Muslims in need. Shehadeh said she’s concerned for her friends in the region who are facing Ramadan with scant supplies.
“There’s no food, and they have such strong faith, so surely they’re going to be fasting,” Shehadeh said. “The idea of them fasting and not having food is just crazy to me.”
Shehadeh said she’s focused on trying to help her friend in Gaza, who lives in a shelter after her home was destroyed and is now depending on donations to pay for herself and her family to flee to Egypt.
The charity, Human Appeal, hasprovided humanitarian relief in Gaza since 1991, according to Samina Taj, the organization’s associate director of communications.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Taj said their teams have mobilized to try to meet the desperate need for aid.
Taj said the charity is working to establish a mobile kitchen in Gaza to help feed fasting families during Ramadan “so that people are nourished during this spiritual time.”
Since October 7, donations made to Human Appeal have enabled the charity to deliver roughly $1.9 in medical supplies, medicine and winter clothes through the Rafah border crossing and into Gaza, according to a February 2024 report.
Since then, the charity has seen increasing donations and expect even more during Ramadan, Taj said.
Noor Traina, a 24-year-old consultant in Washington, DC, who is originally from Libya, said while Ramadan is about giving, she knows donations will not be enough to bring about the much-needed end to this war.
Traina consistently donates to mosques during Ramadan in what constitutes sadaqa, a concept in Islam of voluntarily giving charity, a slight variation from the more obligatory zakat.
“I just end up giving more, you know, it’s just a spiritual month, so I just have the intention of giving more, as well,” she said.
But Traina worries whether her aid is actually getting to its destination.
“We try to find the most reliable sources but, is there much hope it’s actually going to reach people?” she said.
Negotiators had hoped to reach a deal for a ceasefire ahead of Ramadan, but talks fell apart last week. Traina said she and her fellow Muslims will continue to pressure lawmakers to take action.
“This Ramadan, in addition to fasting and giving, while remembering the starving and wounded families and orphans of Gaza and Palestine, we will be worshipping by protesting and demanding a ceasefire and humanitarian aid for Palestinians,” she said.
“That’s what Ramadan is about, but especially this Ramadan.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Nadia Duwaik’s age. She is 33.
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Food aid distribution in Gaza
**This image is for use with this specific article only** Palestinians flock to receive flour distributed by The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza.
Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Food aid distribution in Gaza
**This image is for use with this specific article only** Palestinians, who are unable to meet their basic needs due to the Israeli army’s obstruction of humanitarian aid, receive a bag of flour from an aid truck that arrived at al-Rashid Street in the west of Gaza City, Gaza.
Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Displaced Palestinian children
**This image is for use with this specific article only** Displaced Palestinian children prepare to have a meal of rice near a food distribution point in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants.
Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Originally Published: 11 MAR 24 08:08 ET
By Madeline Holcombe, CNN
Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.
(CNN) — With an early meeting in the morning, I had done everything I could think to do to get through my latest bout of insomnia and go to sleep.
I had exercised, eaten an early dinner, given myself time to wind down, read a few chapters until I felt drowsy, and softly closed my eyes.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, it was as if someone opened a web browser I had forgotten that I minimized, and all the tabs started reloading. What if it rains when I get married next year? Did I annoy my friend when I asked for pet-sitting help? I should really do a better job of keeping in touch with extended family. Am I taking too much time off? Not enough?
Before I knew it, I was buzzing. I did get some sleep, eventually, but it was constantly interrupted by my tossing and turning. Once the first rays of sunlight came through my bedroom window, I had given up.
I am one of the 1 in 10 people who have chronic insomnia, said Dr. Shalini Paruthi, codirector of the Sleep Medicine and Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, Missouri, and American Academy of Sleep Medicine spokesperson.
Chronic insomnia is when a person takes more than 30 minutes to fall asleep or fall back asleep up to three times a week for more than three months — which, as a result, impacts their day with symptoms such as concentration problems or changes in mood, said Dr. Rachel Salas, professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
There are several useful methods to treat the condition, including fixing your sleep hygiene and engaging in cognitive behavioral therapy specifically for insomnia. But those take weeks to take effect.
What do you do on those nights where you just know sleep isn’t coming — or, at least, not without a fight?
Why do you have insomnia?
The first step is to identify where the insomnia is coming from, said Paruthi, who is also an adjunct professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Sometimes insomnia can come on with big life changes, such as grieving a loved one or a experiencing a medical event, she added. Often, insomnia can go hand in hand with stress, anxiety and depression.
But that doesn’t mean that the condition doesn’t deserve treatment or will just go away when the grief, stress or illness does, Paruthi said.
“Insomnia is a real disorder,” she said. “You have to treat both in order to get that person back to their full mental health.”
It’s also possible for insomnia to be caused by restless leg syndrome. The condition affects a lot of people, but is often underestimated as a cause of insomnia, Paruthi said.
A feeling of restlessness and an urge to move in your arms, legs or torso is a state of hyperarousal and can keep you from a good night’s sleep, she said.
Many people go undiagnosed because they don’t have the words to describe what is happening to them, and it can be a missed because it isn’t always just the legs that are affected, she add.
If that is the case, she recommends getting up, walking around the house and doing some stretches to ease the restless feeling before trying again to get to sleep.
Do you stay in bed?
Don’t let bed become a place associated with long stretches of stressing to get to sleep, said Salas, who is also a sleep neurologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep and Wellness.
“The worst thing somebody with insomnia could do is stay in bed and not sleep,” she said.
If you worry, check your phone or watch TV in bed, the brain gets conflicting messages about what your bed is for, Salas said.
Instead, try to do your normal pre-bedtime routine, and then get into bed at your bedtime and give yourself roughly 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep — don’t look at the clock, just estimate, Salas said.
If you haven’t fallen asleep by that time, use a flashlight that isn’t your phone to go into another room and try another activity until you start to feel drowsy and try again, she added.
Does that mean if you aren’t drowsy at the bedtime you have set for yourself, you shouldn’t get into bed at that time? Salas said no.
“Most people are quick to be like, ‘Well, I’m not sleeping. I’m just going to stay awake, and I’ll go to bed when I’m tired,’” she said. “But now you’re dealing with the variability of a bedtime and awakening time. And we know from studies that people that even if they got 10 hours of sleep, if they’re going to bed at different times and waking up at different times, you can actually function like a sleep-deprived person.”
Sleep-friendly activities
Whatever you do in those times when you get out of bed needs to be relaxing and follow good sleep hygiene, Paruthi said.
Salas recommends that her patients listen to classical music or nature sounds to help their brain make the association with sleep. Or you can read a book that isn’t terribly interesting or magazines with short articles by flashlight, she added.
That is not the time to do that load of laundry or start checking work emails, Salas said. Remember, it’s all about teaching your brain that it’s time to wind down.
If you are trying all the recommended practices but still having a hard time, there are effective over-the-counter or prescription medications that you can talk to your doctor about to get you through particularly difficult nights, Paruthi said.
If you find yourself getting seven to nine hours of sleep and still feeling tired during the day, there could be an underlying sleep disorder you need to treat, Salas said.
“That’s the worst thing because we know sleep is definitely important not only for memory, cognition, but for immunities, all sorts of other things,” she said. “I would say that if you notice that you feel like you’re getting enough sleep but you’re still tired and dragging and having problems during the day, it’s time to talk to your doctor.”
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Sleep study
**This image is for use with this specific article only** It can be hard to know the best way to deal with insomnia in the immediate term. Experts are here to help.
Natalia V. Osipova via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
The plane was a twin-engine IAI Astra 1125 and was described by police as a private jet, according to the FAA.
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Originally Published: 11 MAR 24 00:00 ET
Updated: 11 MAR 24 09:42 ET
By Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand, Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky, CNN
(CNN) — Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year.
Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.
The US military set a goal to produce 100,000 rounds of artillery a month by the end of 2025 — less than half of the Russian monthly output — and even that number is now out of reach with $60 billion in Ukraine funding stalled in Congress, a senior Army official told reporters last week.
“What we are in now is a production war,” a senior NATO official told CNN. “The outcome in Ukraine depends on how each side is equipped to conduct this war.”
Officials say Russia is currently firing around 10,000 shells a day, compared to just 2,000 a day from the Ukrainian side. The ratio is worse in some places along the 600-mile front, according to a European intelligence official.
The shortfall comes at perhaps the most perilous moment for Ukraine’s war effort since Russia first marched on Kyiv in February 2022. US money for arming Ukraine has run out and Republican opposition in Congress has effectively halted giving any more.
Meanwhile, Russia recently took the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka and is widely seen as having the initiative on the battlefield. Ukraine is struggling not just with ammunition but also growing manpower shortages on the front lines.
The US and its allies have given Ukraine a number of highly sophisticated systems, including the M-1 Abrams tank and, soon, F-16 fighter jets. But military analysts say the war will likely be won or lost based on who fires the most artillery shells.
“The number one issue that we’re watching right now is the munitions,” the NATO official said. “It’s those artillery shells, because that’s where Russia really [is] mounting a significant production advantage and mounting a significant advantage on the battlefield.”
Russian war machine in ‘full gear’
Russia is running artillery factories “24/7” on rotating 12-hour shifts, the NATO official said. About 3.5 million Russians now work in the defense sector, up from somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million before the war. Russia is also importing ammunition: Iran sent at least 300,000 artillery shells last year — “probably more than that,” the official said — and North Korea provided at least 6,700 containers of ammunition carrying millions of shells.
Russia has “put everything they have in the game,” the intelligence official said. “Their war machine works in full gear.”
A rough equivalent in the US would be if President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a US official said, which gives the president power to order companies to produce equipment expeditiously to support the nation’s national defense.
Russia’s ramp-up is still not enough to meet its needs, US and Western officials say, and Western intelligence officials do not expect Russia to make major gains on the battlefield in the short term. There is also a limit to Russian production capacity, officials say: Russian factories will likely hit a peak sometime in the next year.
But it’s still far beyond what the US and Europe are producing for Ukraine — especially without additional US funding.
Competing with Putin’s managed economy
European nations are trying to make up the shortfall. A German defense company announced last month that it plans to open an ammunition factory in Ukraine that it said will produce hundreds of thousands of 155mm caliber bullets each year. In Germany, the same company broke ground on a new factory expected to eventually produce around 200,000 artillery shells per year.
US and Western officials insist that although Russia has been able to jump-start its factory lines, in part because it has the advantage of being a managed economy under the control of an autocrat, capitalist western nations will eventually catch up and produce better equipment.
“If you can actually control the economy, then you can probably move a little bit faster than other countries out there,” Lt. Gen. Steven Basham, the deputy commander of US European Command, told CNN in an interview last week. But, he said, “the West will have more sustaining power.”
“The West is just starting their ramp-up of building the infrastructure to add in the munitions capability that is needed.”
When the money was still flowing, the US Army expanded production of artillery shells in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Texas.
“Russia’s output is 24/7. I mean, huge, immense,” one European lawmaker said. “We should not underestimate their will to outlast us with patience, and with resilience.”
Intelligence officials believe that neither side is poised to make any large gains imminently, but the overall math favors Moscow in the long run — particularly if additional US aid does not materialize.
“It’s not going well, but it all depends,” said one source familiar with Western intelligence. “If aid restarts and comes quick, all is not lost.”
Targeting Ukraine’s weapons production
Russia has also recently targeted Ukraine’s domestic defense production with its long-range weapons.
“If we were talking about this last fall, we would have talked about how they were targeting critical infrastructure,” the NATO official said. “Now what we see is some critical infrastructure targeting, but also a lot of targeting the Ukrainian defense industrial base.”
According to the senior NATO official, Russia is producing between 115 to 130 long-range missiles, and 300 to 350 one-way attack drones based on an Iranian model provided by Tehran, each month. Although before the war, Russia had a stockpile of thousands of long-range missiles in its arsenal, today it is hovering around 700, the official said.
The Russians have lately conserved those weapons to use in large volleys to try to overwhelm Ukrainian missile defenses. And they have compensated by increasing their use of drones, sending out on average four times as many drones per month as they did last winter.
Perhaps Russia’s biggest challenge has been in tank and other armored vehicle production. It is churning out about 125 tanks a month, but the vast majority are older models that have been refurbished. About 86% of the main battle tanks Russia produced in 2023 were refurbished, the NATO official said. And although Russia has about 5,000 tanks in storage, “probably a large percentage of those can’t be refurbished and are only good for cannibalizing parts,” the official said.
Moscow has lost at least 2,700 tanks, more than twice the total number that they deployed initially to Ukraine in February of 2022, when the invasion began.
Russia’s ‘transformed’ economy
Officials are also closely watching Russia’s economy for signs of how the interplay between a super-charged defense sector, Western sanctions, and Putin’s efforts to gird his economy for war impact Russia’s ability to sustain the conflict.
The war has absolutely “transformed” Russia’s economy, the NATO official said, from the post-Soviet period when oil was the leading sector. Now, defense is the largest sector of the Russian economy, and oil is paying for it.
That creates some long-term imbalances that will likely be problematic for Russia, but for now, it’s working, the NATO official and Basham, the US European Command official, both said.
“In the short term — say, the next 18 months or so — it may be unsophisticated, but it’s a durable economy,” the NATO official said.
The Pentagon is weighing whether to tap into the last remaining source of funding it has — but it has previously been reluctant to spend any of that remaining money without assurances it would be reimbursed by Congress, because taking from DoD stockpiles with no plan to replenish that equipment could impact US military readiness, CNN has previously reported.
“If no more US aid coming, do the Ukrainians change how they feel about negotiating?” the source familiar with Western intelligence said.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting.
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Ukrainian soldier
**This image is for use with this specific article only** A Ukrainian serviceman holds an artillery shell near the town of Kreminna, Ukraine, March 4.
Inna Varenytsia/Reuters via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine
**This image is for use with this specific article only** A 122mm howitzer D-30 is fired in Donetsk region.
Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/Sipa USA via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Destroyed Russian tanks
**This image is for use with this specific article only** Destroyed Russian tanks near the village of Bohorodychne in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on February 13.
Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto/Reuters via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Originally Published: 11 MAR 24 09:30 ET
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN
(CNN) — Porsche today introduced the most powerful production, or mass-produced, car it has ever made. The electric 1,093-horsepower Taycan Turbo GT, coming to market this summer, has already set two race track speed records for an electric car. It even beat one set by a Tesla Model S by a gigantic 18 seconds.
High horsepower numbers and eye-popping acceleration are more common among electric cars than gasoline-powered ones, especially since EVs can have multiple motors. Performance numbers figures like these serve little practical value, of course. It would be impossible to approach this car’s potential other than at a track and few would have the driving skills to do it.
This is about giving customers the ability to brag about what their car can, theoretically, do. And, for Porsche, it’s about putting aside concerns about whether electric cars, with their heavy batteries and near silent operation, can be exciting as gas-powered as regulatory pressure mounts to sell more EVs.
The Taycan Turbo GT set a world record lap time on Germany’s famous Nürburgring Nordschleife, a twisty, challenging track where automakers frequently test their most competitive sports cars. The Nürburgring requires cars that are not only very fast and accelerate quickly but also corner well.Setting a record there is something sports car manufacturers brag about; Porsche certainly will.
This Turbo GT, a new version of the electric Porsche Taycan, features two motors. Together they can produce more than 1,000 horsepower. This kind of high-horsepower EV experience won’t come cheaply, though. The Porsche will cost around $230,000.
Most of the time, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT has a maximum power output of 777 horsepower which, by any normal standards, is a lot. However, it has a “launch control”button for maximum acceleration from a stop. When pressed, power output can be increased briefly, reaching a maximum of 1,093 horsepower for a zero to sixty time of as little as 2.1 seconds. .
How powerful is powerful? By contrast, a standard gas-powered Porsche 911 Carrera produces 379 horsepower – and is still definitely fast. A standard Toyota Prius, not especially fast, can put out 196 horsepower.
The new Porsche also has a special “Attack mode” that can be enabled, pushing power up to 937 horsepower but also making the car’s suspension firmer for better cornering. “Attack mode” will only last for ten seconds at a time, though.
These kinds of power levels can’t be maintained long, a Porsche spokesperson said, because the necessary cooling for the motors and batteries, plus just the actual power output itself, would drain the batteries too quickly.
The previous record holder on the Nürburgring Nordschleife was the Tesla Model S Plaid Track Package. (A $2.2 million Rimac Nevera electric supercar, which is not considered a regular production car, was two-tenths of a second faster than the Porsche .) The lap time of the Taycan makes the Turbo GT the fastest four-door car, electric or not, on that track.
Porsche’s EV
Taycan is a Turkish word loosely translated as “spirit of a colt.” The Taycan is usually a four-seat, four-door car and was Porsche’s first fully electric carwhen it was released in 2019. (The German sports car company was founded 1931and is today owned by part of Volkswagen Group.)
The Taycan Turbo GT will come in two versions. One, the standard Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, will be fast but reasonably comfortable for street driving. It will have four seats, as most Porsche Taycan models do.
The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package, though, will dispense with backseats and other comfort items to save weight. Even things like the standard clock in the dashboard are left off. This more aggressive, track-oriented version of the car won’t cost any more though, thanks of the money saved on things like seats and a clock.
Despite the Turbo in the title, neither of these cars has actual turbochargers, of course, since electric cars don’t use turbochargers which push air into internal combustion engines. In this car, the name just denotes that they are powerful – and fast.
Porsche has said that the next generation of its Boxster and Cayman 2-door sports cars will be electric But Porsche executives have said that its iconic 911 sports car will be the last Porsche model to ever go all electric.
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Porsche fastest road car in the world
The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package has no back seats to save weight.
Porsche via CNN Newsource
11 Mar 24
Porsche fastest road car in the world
Porsche reveals a 1,000 horsepower electric car.
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11 Mar 24
Originally Published: 11 MAR 24 10:29 ET
By Daniel Smithson
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GALLATIN, Tennessee (WSMV) — The Animal Rescue Corps announced that 85 of 214 dogs seized from a North Carolina puppy mill will soon find their way to Middle Tennessee at its headquarters in Gallatin.
The dogs and puppies, mostly miniature schnauzers and schnauzer mixes were removed from alleged “deplorable conditions” at a Chatham County, North Carolina puppy mill by ARC in collaboration with law enforcement and the BISSELL Pet Foundation, with support from Nashville Humane Society, the rescue group said.
The dogs were allegedly subjected to high levels of ammonia, resulting in dehydration, malnutrition, parasites, untreated injuries and illnesses, severe matting, skin conditions, and other life-threatening medical conditions consistent with chronic neglect, according to ARC.
The remains of several dogs were also found at the puppy mill site. The animals were transferred to ARC under a court order by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
“The surrender agreement enables Animal Rescue Corps to initiate the transport and placement process for these dogs,” the rescue group said in a media release. “While these 85 dogs are on their way to new beginnings, the remaining dogs are still considered evidence of a crime and remain in the care of Animal Rescue Corps, under the custody of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.”
The surrender agreement allows ARC to begin matching each dog with vetted shelters and rescue organizations in high-adoption regions throughout North America, where they will ultimately be available for adoption, the rescue group said.
“Animal Rescue Corps allows animal victims of cruelty, neglect, disaster, and other large-scale cases to recover from their trauma, which helps keep communities’ resources available to support their at-risk animals,” ARC executive director Tim Woodward said. “We couldn’t be happier for these 85 dogs about to find their place as a loved family member.”
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After the State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic expressing frustration with how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting Israel’s war with Hamas amid mounting civilian casualties.
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