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U.S. Steel and Nippon sue Biden over decision to block merger

(NYT) — U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel sued the U.S. government Monday in a last-ditch attempt to revive their attempted merger after President Joe Biden blocked it last week on the basis that the transaction posed a threat to national security.

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Biden moved to block the merger after a government panel charged with reviewing foreign investments failed to reach a decision about whether the deal should proceed. In a statement Friday, Biden said he was acting to ensure that the U.S. maintains a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry. The president had previously vowed to ensure that U.S. Steel remained American-owned.

The companies are asking for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct a new review of the deal.

However, Biden’s move to terminate Nippon’s $14 billion bid for U.S. Steel raised questions about whether those powers were being abused, given that Japan is a close ally of the United States. In the rare cases where deals have been blocked, they usually involved companies with ties to U.S. adversaries such as China.

Trump says he and China’s Xi have been talking through aides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have been speaking through representatives and he believes the two leaders will get along.

“We’ve already been talking. We’ve been talking through their representatives,” Trump said in an interview with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, described Xi as a strong and powerful man who he said was revered in China.

“And I think we will probably get along very well, I predict,” he said. “But you know, it’s got to be a two way street,” Trump added, repeating an accusation that China has been “ripping off” the U.S. economically.

Trump has also said he will impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl. He threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.

Giuliani is held in contempt of court in defamation case

NEW YORK (New York Times) — A federal judge held Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court Monday for failing to cooperate in the handover of $11 million of his personal assets to Georgia poll workers he falsely accused of helping to steal the 2020 presidential election.

Giuliani, 80, a former mayor of New York City, has failed to turn over the bulk of his personal assets as a down payment on the $148 million judgment the poll workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, won in a defamation lawsuit.

He is due back in federal court in Manhattan on Jan. 16 for a civil trial in which he is expected to argue that his Palm Beach condo should be exempt from the seizure under Florida law, because it is his primary residence. But Giuliani has failed repeatedly to answer questions that could prove his residency.

The court ruled that Giuliani had obstructed the election workers’ attempts to determine Giuliani’s real primary residence, which for years had been an apartment in Manhattan.