Author: Garry Adams

One of America’s oldest and most iconic companies, United States Steel Corporation, agreed Monday to be sold to Japan’s largest steel company, Nippon Steel Corporation, or NSC. U.S. Steel has been on the auction block since August, and this all-cash deal from Nippon is the highest bid at $14.1 billion. Included is the assumption of all of U.S. Steel’s debts, for a combined deal worth $14.9 billion. “NSC has a proven track record of acquiring, operating, and investing in steel mill facilities globally – and we are confident that, like our strategy, this combination is truly Best for All,” David…

A man has been arrested over an alleged antisemitic attack on two people outside a Washington DC synagogue. Brent Wood, from Toledo, Ohio, was arrested on Sunday after he sprayed a foul-smelling substance on the two people close to the Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown shortly before 9.30am on Sunday morning, according to the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department. The suspect allegedly yelled “gas the Jews” while carrying out the attack, according to NBC Washington. No one was physically hurt in the attack – coming at a time of heightened tensions and rising hate crimes amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Police said that Mr Wood, 33, was arrested at the scene…

North Korea has test-fired another suspected solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) after a gap of around five months, according to neighbours South Korea and Japan. It was Pyongyang’s second missile launch in the space of hours on Monday, and came after Kim Jong-un’s regime warned the US and South Korea against an “open declaration on nuclear confrontation” against North Korea. The latest launches appear to come in response to South Korean and US defence officials meeting on Friday in Washington to discuss their plans to respond to a hypothetical nuclear attack by North Korea. The South Korean and Japanese militaries said they detected an ICBM missile test fired at a lofted trajectory…

Toronto, Atlanta (28/11 – 20) A wise old expression intones “Behind every bad borrower is a bad lender”. Like many such cute, amusing aphorisms, it is accurate as far as it goes … but what if? What if a loan approval is held up, then granted, after a couple of phone calls from the office of the Vice President? What if the borrower is a crony or relative of Mr. Big, which is what practically bankrupted Indonesia, when the Soeharto vampire children took out multi-hundred-million-dollar “loans” (wink wink) for projects whose profit-making potential was near zero? What is the potential…

On October 18, 2022, a meeting was held in Kiev between Darkhan Kaletayev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Ukraine, and Alibek Mukhammad-Rakhimov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of BTA Bank Ukraine JSC. This was announced on Wednesday, October 19, by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Ukraine. The success of the operation was a result of intensive collaboration of BTA Bank, Kenes Rakishev, the embassy and Ukrainian authorities. During the meeting, a conversation took place about the current economic situation in Ukraine, topical issues of representatives of Kazakh business in Ukraine and prospects for the development…

Brussels, Toronto (4/10 – 60) The general air of frustration and resentment wafting up from Washington is a reflection of the mood of the nation – in tune with the eternal and accurate appraisal of the federal government as “out of touch” with the mood and concerns of the people. The electorate expresses its disgust with Congress by giving it an approval rating that any executive in the business world or show biz egomaniac “celebrity” would get them ousted. All through the past year the answer to “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?”…

United States President Joe Biden has submitted a request for about $40bn in additional spending, with over half slated to go towards support for Ukraine. The proposal represents the first additional aid request made by the Biden administration to Congress since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in January. In response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration is seeking $24bn in additional assistance for the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other countries facing knock-on effects from the violence. While aid to Ukraine enjoys strong bipartisan support, a group of Republicans on the far right have grown increasingly…

China has uncovered an alleged spy for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a Chinese national who worked for a military-industrial group and was offered money and immigration to the US in exchange for sensitive military information, Beijing’s Ministry of State Security said. The Ministry of State Security said in a statement on Friday that a 52-year-old named Zeng had been sent to Italy for studies, where he befriended a CIA agent stationed at the US embassy in Rome. The embassy official convinced Zeng to provide “sensitive information on the [Chinese] military” in exchange for “a huge amount of compensation” and assistance…

More details have slowly begun to emerge of a tentative deal that would see the United States and Iran engage in a prisoner swap in exchange for giving the Iranian government access to billions of dollars in frozen funds. News of the agreement first broke on Thursday as US news outlets reported that four American detainees had been transferred from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison to house arrest in a hotel. A fifth prisoner had been released earlier. Both US and Iranian officials later confirmed the first steps of the agreement but have given differing accounts of what it involves. Barbara Slavin, a…

China’s defence minister has said war with the US would be an “unbearable disaster” for the world in his first major speech since taking on the role. At a security summit, General Li Shangfu said “some countries” were intensifying an arms race in Asia. But he said the world was big enough for both China and the US, and the two superpowers should seek common ground. Earlier, the US accused a Chinese warship of carrying out “unsafe” manoeuvres in the Taiwan strait. The US Navy said a Chinese destroyer had sailed near one of its destroyers on Saturday and forced…