CNA938 Rewind - Done deal between Nippon Steel, US Steel ends 18-month saga

CNA938 Rewind
Nippon Steel has closed its US$14.1 billion acquisition of US Steel, bringing an end to a bruising 18-month takeover battle that was embroiled in American politics for months until finally gaining support from US President Donald Trump. Andrea Heng and Susan Ng take a closer look at the terms and implications for the steel industry, and impending tariffs, with Professor Lim Tai Wei, Department of Business Administration, Soka University and Japan expert.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Straits Times

an hour ago

• Straits Times

Juneteenth holiday goes uncelebrated at White House as Trump complains about too many holidays

Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the US, went unmarked by President Donald Trump in 2025. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS Juneteenth holiday goes uncelebrated at White House as Trump complains about too many holidays Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated at the White House each June 19 since it was enshrined into law four years ago. But on June 19 , it went unmarked by the president – except for a post on social media in which he said he would get rid of some 'non-working holidays'. 'Soon we'll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year,' Mr Trump said in mangled syntax, not mentioning Juneteenth by name nor acknowledging tha t June 19 was a federal holiday. 'It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' Ms Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, indicated to reporters earlier in the day that she was not aware of any plans by Mr Trump to sign a holiday proclamation. In the past week alone, he'd issued proclamations commemorating Father's Day, Flag Day and National Flag Week, and the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill – none of which are among the 11 federal holidays. In response to a reporter's question about Juneteenth, Ms Leavitt acknowledged that June 19 was 'a federal holiday,' but noted that White House staff had shown up to work during a briefing that focused primarily on the matter of whether Mr Trump would order strikes on Iran. Mr Trump, who has often used holidays as an occasion to advance his political causes and insult critics and opponents on social media, chose the occasion of Juneteenth instead to float the idea of reducing the number of federal holidays, claiming that they are costing businesses billions of dollars. While most federal employees get those holidays off, private businesses have the choice to close or remain open. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, nearly 2½ years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, to finally inform enslaved African Americans there that the Civil War had ended and that all enslaved people had been freed. Months later, the 13th Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the final four border states that had not been subjected to Mr Lincoln's order. It is the newest federal holiday, enshrined into law in 2021 by Congress and then-President Joe Biden. Mr Trump cannot undo it without an act of Congress. The lack of revelry at the White House for a holiday that has been cherished by generations of Black Americans was perhaps not a surprise. Since returning to office, Mr Trump has moved to purge the federal government of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and sanitise - or even erase - references to Black history. Even so, the decision not to mark the holiday was an abrupt reversal from his last term, when Mr Trump issued statements on Juneteenth for three years, before it was ever a federal holiday. 'Melania and I send our warmest greetings to all those celebrating Juneteenth, a historic day recognising the end of slavery,' he wrote in 2017, extolling Major General Gordon Granger's announcement in Galveston that all slaves were free. In 2018 he invoked Mr Granger again, and praised 'the courage and sacrifice of the nearly 200,000 former enslaved and free African Americans who fought for liberty'. But Mr Trump's second term has been marked by a widespread effort to slash funding for diversity initiatives, prompting backlash from states, schools and the corporate world. Some cities and institutions that have had their funding cut reported that their Juneteenth celebrations would be smaller this year. Mr Trump's critics dug in sharply, using Juneteenth to call attention to what they called the administration's attempts to bury Black history. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, accused the White House and Mr Trump's allies of engaging in 'an intentional effort to turn back the clock' and divide the country by banning books about Black history, dismantling DEI programs and undermining the citizenship protections of the 14th Amendment. 'Today, we celebrate the freedom that Black Americans long fought for and the rich culture that grew from that great struggle,' Mr Jeffries, the first Black leader of a party in either chamber of Congress, said in a statement. 'That struggle roars on.' The holiday also came as Mr Trump marked a new low in his relationship with the NAACP, the oldest and largest US civil rights organisation, which said this week that it would not invite Mr Trump to its national convention, breaking from a 116-year tradition of inviting the president to its marquee event. Mr Biden established Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2021, after interest in the history of the day was renewed during the summer of 2020 and the nationwide protests that followed the police killings of Black Americans including Mr George Floyd and Ms Breonna Taylor. During his presidency, Mr Biden held a concert on the South Lawn of the White House to commemorate the holiday and gave remarks. On t he evening of Ju ne 19, Mr Biden attended a Juneteenth celebration at Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Galveston, sitting at the head of the church next to local leaders. He was honoured for signing the federal holiday into law and praised for his appointment of Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Speakers did not name Mr Trump, but criticised his administration's policies, especially on diversity. 'Black history is American history,' Mr Biden told the crowd to cheers, according to a livestream of his remarks. Mr Biden also took to task those who thought Juneteenth should not be a federal holiday. 'Some say to you and to me that this doesn't deserve to be a federal holiday,' Mr Biden said. 'They don't want to remember what we all remember – the moral stain, the moral stain of slavery.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Business Times

an hour ago

• Business Times

Trump extends deadline for TikTok sale by another 90 days to Sep 17

[WASHINGTON] US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday (Jun 19) that he has given social media platform TikTok another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States. 'I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025),' he posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok's sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump's January inauguration. The Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video-sharing app. 'I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,' Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. 'If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.' TikTok on Thursday welcomed Trump's decision. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users,' the platform said in a statement. Digital Cold War? Motivated by a belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor. TikTok 'has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control,' said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain. Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform – which boasts almost two billion global users – after coming to believe it helped him win young voters' support in the November election. The president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office. A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19. He said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance 'a lot of money' for the video-clip-sharing sensation's US operations. Trump knows that TikTok is 'wildly popular' in the United States, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday, when asked about the latest extension. 'He also wants to protect Americans' data and privacy concerns on this app, and he believes we can do both things at the same time.' The president is 'just not motivated to do anything about TikTok,' said independent analyst Rob Enderle. 'Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape.' Tariff turmoil Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over his tariffs on Beijing. ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be 'subject to approval under Chinese law'. Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company. Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance's share in the new TikTok. Much of TikTok's US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company's chairman Larry Ellison is a longtime Trump ally. Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok's valuable algorithm. 'TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand. It's simply not as powerful,' said Kelsey Chickering, a principal analyst at Forrester. Despite the turmoil, TikTok has been continuing with business as usual. The platform on Monday introduced a new 'Symphony' suite of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform. AFP

CNA

an hour ago

• CNA

Slow rate hikes could cause wage-price spiral, BOJ paper says

TOKYO :Hiking interest rates only gradually as raw material costs rise could heighten the risk of an upward spiral in wages and consumer prices, the Bank of Japan said in a research paper released this week. The paper's publication on Thursday comes as the central bank faces an increasingly complicated policy environment, with inflation at a more than two-year high and U.S. tariffs fanning economic uncertainty. While the staff papers do not represent the BOJ's official view on monetary policy, they provide hints on key topics of attention within the central bank in setting interest rates. The BOJ staff paper, using data from 2002 to 2024, analysed trends in Japan and Europe - which both rely heavily on imported commodities - to study the extent to which rising material costs led to second-round effects on inflation. In Japan, the pass-through of prices from rising raw materials was more moderate than in Europe, the paper said. The second-round effects were moderate but sustained in both Japan and Europe, it said. "Both in Japan and Europe, the initial effects of high raw material costs were the main cause of inflationary trends since 2020. The second-round effects may have heightened the sustainability of price rises," the paper said. Central banks typically raise interest rates to avoid second-round effects on inflation, or a state in which initial price shocks like higher energy costs trigger a spiral of rising wages and inflation that could lead to a broad-based, persistent inflationary environment. A closer look at Japan's data suggested the BOJ's slow pace of interest rate hikes could be enhancing the second-round effects on inflation, the paper said. Structural changes in Japan's labour market could also be making wages less rigid - or more likely to move flexibly reflecting a tight job market - and enhancing the second-round effects on inflation than in the past, the paper said. The analysis comes amid heightening attention within the BOJ board on how persistent rises in food and raw material costs could affect underlying inflation, and households' perception of future price moves. While uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy has put the BOJ on hold in raising interest rates, Governor Kazuo Ueda has signaled the bank's resolve to keep pushing up borrowing costs if Japan stays on course to durably hit the bank's 2 per cent inflation target. Japan's core inflation hit a more than two-year high in May and exceeded the central bank's 2 per cent target for well over three years, keeping it under pressure to resume rate hikes despite economic headwinds from U.S. tariffs.