'Zelenskiy says Kyiv security guarantees will only work if US provides them'

 Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Sunday that security guarantees for Kyiv to end Russia's war would only be effective if the United States provides them, and he hoped to meet U.S. President-elect Donald Trump soon after his inauguration.

In an interview with U.S. podcaster Lex Fridman, Zelenskiy praised the incoming U.S president, who has vowed to rapidly end the war without explaining how, saying Ukrainians were counting on him to compel Moscow to agree to a lasting peace.

Almost three years after Russia's invasion, the election of Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to stop the war, but also fears in Kyiv that a quick peace could come at a high price.

Zelenskiy used the three-hour interview published on YouTube to call for Kyiv's NATO membership and emphasized his belief that a ceasefire without security guarantees for Kyiv would merely give Russia time to rearm for a new attack.

The Ukrainian leader said the White House under Trump had a vital role to play in providing security guarantees and asserted he and the U.S. president-elect saw eye to eye on the need for a "peace through strength" approach to ending the conflict.

"Without the United States security guarantees are not possible. I mean these security guarantees that can prevent Russian aggression," he said.

He said he needed to sit down with Trump to determine a course of action to halt Russia, and European governments also needed to have a voice in that process before Kyiv could sit down for direct talks with the Russian side.

https://www.aol.com/news/zelenskiy-says-kyiv-security-guarantees-222324174.html

Rival CEO spread doubt about Nippon Steel deal prospects to Wall Street, documents allege

 Even as Nippon Steel faced skepticism of its doomed $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel from the Biden administration, it was also contending with headwinds from an unlikely source: the CEO of a rival bidder for the firm who repeatedly cast doubt on the deal's prospects to investors.

Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs, which made a failed $7 billion bid for U.S. Steel in August 2023, participated in at least nine calls assuring investors that President Joe Biden would scuttle the Nippon Steel merger months before he did so on Friday, according to summaries of investor calls included in a Dec. 17 letter from lawyers for Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) and confirmed to Reuters by two participants in the calls.

“I can’t force U.S. Steel to sell to me, but I can work my magic to make a deal that I don’t agree with not to close," he told investors on a March 13 call hosted by JP Morgan, the letter quoted Goncalves as saying.

"It’s not closing, and Biden hasn’t spoken yet. He will."

The next day, Biden announced his opposition to the tie-up.

CFIUS, which reviews foreign investments in the U.S. for national security risks, could not reach consensus on whether to greenlight the Nippon Steel transaction and referred the matter to Biden in late December, setting the stage for his Friday block.

Goncalves declined to comment and a representative from Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to a request for comment. Nippon Steel and the Treasury Department, which leads CFIUS, also declined to comment. U.S. Steel said the company will continue to fight for this deal in response to questions for this story. The White House said neither Goncalves nor his comments played a role in Biden's decision to kill the deal. It said on Friday that the proposed purchase presented national security concerns.

JP Morgan declined to comment, but a note to clients summarizing its March 2024 industrials conference mentions the event with Goncalves, saying "management reiterated its expectation that the deal will not close." A participant in the call confirmed Goncalves' forecast Biden would soon take aim at the deal.

While Goncalves made similar comments about the deal to analysts on three earnings calls this year, his private remarks made throughout 2024 about the deal process show the extent of his effort to cast doubt on Nippon's bid for U.S. Steel. His comments sometimes preceded drops in the U.S. Steel share price, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel told CFIUS.

Cleveland-Cliffs has previously expressed interest in making another bid.

The steelmaker, which has been led by Brazilian-born Goncalves for over a decade, made the unsolicited bid for U.S. Steel with support from the United Steelworkers union, arguing the companies combined would "create a lower-cost, more innovative, and stronger domestic supplier."

But U.S. Steel raised concerns a tie-up with Cleveland-Cliffs risked being shot down by antitrust regulators because it would consolidate the supply of steel to U.S. automakers and put up to 95% of U.S. iron ore production under the control of one company. U.S. Steel's board rejected the offer.

Nippon Steel's December all-cash offer was valued at twice Cleveland-Cliffs' price, and Nippon later promised to revitalize U.S. Steel's aging mills with investment from an allied nation.

But the offer became politicized, with both Biden and Republican President-Elect Donald Trump pledging to kill the deal as they wooed voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania where U.S. Steel is headquartered.

Trump and Biden both asserted the company should remain American-owned after USW President David McCall expressed his opposition to the tie-up.

Biden's objections led to "impermissible undue influence" from the White House on CFIUS's national security review of the tie-up, the companies alleged in a letter obtained by Reuters last month that also contained the summaries of the investor calls with Goncalves.

Goncalves previously disputed CFIUS was considering the merits of the deal.

In a March 15 call with a top investor in U.S. Steel confirmed by a participant in the call, he said, “[T]here’s no process. This is not going to be a process. CFIUS is just cover for a President to kill a deal. CFIUS is a bunch of bureaucrats, second and third level, inside the cabinet...It means the President can do whatever he wants."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-rival-ceo-spread-doubt-190018852.html

Metro-North rider stabbed in chest after complaining about loud music on passenger’s phone

 The chaos underground spread to the commuter rails Saturday, as a Metro-North rider was stabbed in the chest over an argument about noisy music while a train arrived in Grand Central.

The attack happened at about 7 p.m. on a New Haven line Metro-North train arriving at the station, according to the MTAPD.

Abdul Malik Little, 46, was playing music over his phone’s speaker and took exception when a 31-year-old fellow rider complained about the racket.

Commuters arrive from a Metro North train at Grand Central terminal on Jan. 7, 2014.Getty Images

Little stabbed the unidentified 31-year-old man in the chest twice with a knife as the train pulled into Grand Central, the MTAPD says.

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The victim was strong enough to exit the train at the station and identify his attacker to police who were patrolling the platform.

Those patrolmen apprehended Little at the scene without incident and recovered a knife during the arrest, MTAPD reports.

The 31-year-old victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital with injuries that are considered non-life-threatening.

Little, from Jamaica, NY, is charged with Attempted Murder, Felony Assault, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon, the MTAPD says.

The attack happened at about 7 p.m. on a New Haven line Metro North train arriving in the station, according to the MTAPD.Getty Images

This is the second stabbing in as many weeks in Grand Central and comes on the tail of a series of horrifying crimes underground.

On Christmas Eve, suspect Jason Sargeant allegedly slashed a man on the wrist and a woman in the neck during a mad dash through Grand Central, according to the NYPD.

On Dec 22, a woman riding the F train was set on fire and burned to death by an illegal Guatemalan migrant, who torched her clothes, fanned the flames, and watched 57-year-old Debrina Kawam die at the Coney-Island Stillwell Avenue train stop, cops say.

Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, was indicted on first and second-degree murder charges and one count of arson for the attack. He is due back in court on Jan 7.

On New Year’s Eve, one straphanger was pushed in front of an oncoming 1 train at 18th Street in Chelsea in a shocking caught-on-tape attack.

This alarming rise in high-profile subway crime has caused the Guardian Angels to dust off the red berets.

Curtis Sliwa, Angel’s founder and former mayoral candidate, announced earlier this week that the anti-crime brigade would be resuming patrols of the city subway system for the first time since 2020.

“We’re going to have to increase our numbers, increase the training and increase our presence as we did back in 1979,” Sliwa said at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island station in Brooklyn last Sunday.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/05/us-news/nyc-metro-north-rider-stabbed-in-chest-after-complaining-about-loud-music-on-mans-phone-at-grand-central/