Two young pandas were captured playfully fighting for bamboo in the Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda (CCRCGP) in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
In the first clip, giant panda Chun Yu quietly climbed a tree, eying the bamboo stick in her friend Ji Fu's paws. Chun Yu's plan was just about to succeed when Ji Fu found her sneaky attempt and caught her red-handed.
The second clip showed Ji Fu adopting a more "violent" approach, trying to "rob" Chun Yu's bamboo shoot. With a quick grip, however, Ji Fu's ambush failed.
Female panda Chun Yu, born in August 2022 at the CCRCGP, is the daughter of Qiao Qiao, who was rescued in Sichuan's Siguniangshan Mountain. Her friend Ji Fu, who's also female, was born on Aug 6 , 2022 in the center's Wolong Shenshuping base.
The CCRCGP is a world-leading institution dedicated to the breeding and conservation of the giant panda. The center has established the world's largest captive population of giant pandas and pioneered research on captive breeding and training for rewilding.
The center also holds the largest global platform for promoting international cooperation and exchanges on Panda reservation, involving 18 zoos from 16 countries and regions, 39 domestic animal breeding institutions, and over 10 scientific research institutes.
Panda playmates captured competing for snacks
The price of aluminum, a key industrial metal used in automotive manufacturing, construction and packaging, has been climbing as production cuts in the Gulf region, logistical constraints and Iranian attacks on two regional producers over the weekend tightened supply.
On March 31, the benchmark London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month price for aluminum rose to 3,535 U.S. dollars per metric ton, a year-on-year increase of around 40 percent.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday that they launched missile and drone strikes on aluminum plants in Bahrain and the UAE that are linked to the U.S. military and aerospace industries, in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iranian steel factories.
Emirates Global Aluminium issued a statement saying that its Al Taweela site in the Khalifa Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi was severely damaged after Iranian strikes, with some employees injured.
Aluminum Bahrain confirmed in a statement on Sunday that some of its facilities were struck by Iranian attacks, resulting in injuries to two employees.
The two aluminum plants have a combined annual output of 3.2 million tons, more than half of the approximately 6 million tons of aluminum produced every year by Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states.
The region is a key source of aluminum supply, accounting for about 9 percent of global production.
Goldman Sachs on Tuesday raised its LME aluminum price forecast from 3,200 U.S. dollars to 3,450 U.S. dollars per ton for the second quarter of 2026 after the attacks on the facilities.
Goldman Sachs also predicted a global primary aluminum market supply deficit of 570,000 tons in 2026, a sharp turnaround from its previous forecast of a 550,000-ton surplus.
Analysts point out that the aluminum market is currently facing multiple shocks, with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, aluminum production facilities in the Gulf damaged or even shut down, and production in other parts of the world currently limited.
The impact will also spread to downstream enterprises in the coming months, with higher-cost aluminum alloys, primarily used in the aerospace, automotive, and construction industries, facing the most constrained supply, analysts said.
The Gulf region has long been a significant source of these high-end products, particularly for the European market, and also supplies manufacturers in the United States.
Aluminum prices climb as effects of Middle East tensions spread through global economy
