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      Pentagon chief says US could ‘revive’ Panama bases

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      The US defence secretary has floated the idea of the country’s troops returning to Panama to “secure” its strategically vital canal, a suggestion quickly shot down by the Central American country’s government.Pete Hegseth suggested during a visit to Panama that “by invitation” the US could “revive” military bases or naval air stations and rotate deployments of its troops to an isthmus the US invaded 35 years ago.He also said his country was seeking free passage through the canal for its navy ships – which Donald Trump had said were “severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form”.Trump, since coming to power in January, has repeatedly claimed that China has too much influence over the canal, which handles about 40% of US container traffic and 5% of world trade.His administration has vowed to “take back” control of the strategic waterway that the US funded, built and controlled until 1999.Hegseth suggested on Wednesday the former US military bases that dot Panama could be used again to host American troops.He said a deal signed with Panama this week was an “opportunity to revive, whether it’s the military base, naval air station, locations where US troops can work with Panamanian troops to enhance capabilities and cooperate in a rotational way”.While Hegseth cited the possibility of joint exercises, the mention of a rotational force was likely to raise the hackles of Panamanians, for whom sole ownership of the canal is a source of national pride.The US has long participated in military exercises in Panama. However, a longer-term rotational force – such as the force the USmaintains in Darwin, Australia – is politically toxic for Panama’s centre-right leader, José Raúl Mulino.His government quickly slapped down the idea. “Panama made clear, through President Mulino, that we cannot accept military bases or defence sites,” said Panama’s security minister, Frank Abrego, in a joint public appearance with Hegseth.Hegseth also said the US was seeking an agreement under which its warships could pass through the canal “first, and free”.Jose Ramón Icaza, Panama’s minister for canal affairs, said: “We will seek a mechanism by which warships and auxiliary ships can have a compensation system for services, that is, a way to make them cost-neutral but not free.”The independent Panama Canal Authority (PCA) that manages the waterway said on Wednesday that it was seeking a “cost-neutral scheme” to compensate services rendered in security matters for warship tolls.Under current treaties, the canal is open to all countries and vessels must pay the same rates according to their capacity and cargo, regardless of their country of origin or destination.The PCA said the US recognised Panamanian sovereignty over the waterway, although Hegseth did not mention it in the news conference.The Pentagon chief’s two-day visit has been peppered with comments about China and its influence in Latin America. He said the US was not looking for war with China but would counter Beijing’s “threats” to the region.“We do not seek war with China. And war with China is certainly not inevitable. We do not seek it in any form,” Hegseth said. “But together, we must prevent war by robustly and vigorously deterring China’s threats in this hemisphere,” the former Fox News anchor said.China hit back after Hegseth’s comments, saying Washington officials “maliciously attacked China … exposing the US’s bullying nature”.Trump has zeroed in on the role of a Hong Kong company that has operated ports at either end of the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for decades.Hegseth asserted that China-based companies were also capturing Latin American land and infrastructure in strategic sectors, such as energy and telecommunications, and that China had too large a military presence in the hemisphere.“Make no mistake, Beijing is investing and operating in this region for military advantage and unfair economic gain,” he said.Under pressure from the White House, Panama has accused the Hong Kong-backed Panama Ports Company of failing to meet its contractual obligations and pushed for it to pull out of the country.The company rejected an audit on Wednesday that suggested it had failed to pay $1.2bn due under its concession.The ports’ parent company, CK Hutchison, announced last month a deal to offload 43 ports in 23 countries – including its two on the Panama canal – to a consortium led by the US asset manager BlackRock for $19bn in cash. A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal.The US invaded Panama in 1989 to oust the dictator Manuel Noriega, killing more than 500 Panamanians and razing parts of the capital. More

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      Thursday briefing: Trump puts global tariffs on pause – but hikes them for China

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      Good morning. Two main pieces of news from Donald Trump yesterday: he has rolled back water efficiency standards to “make America’s showers great again”, because he likes “to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair”; and he has rolled back the exorbitant tariffs he applied to many countries last week to 10% – but increased them for China. “No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless,” the White House said. This will come as welcome news for the many investors who have recently been taking a bath.It was a pretty chaotic change, all told: there were contradictory messages from Trump’s advisers on which countries would be affected, why he did it, and what Beijing should expect to happen next. Still, the markets breathed a large sigh of relief, and the S&P 500 had one of the strongest days of its postwar history. This morning, share indices in Asia have jumped in turn.But that still isn’t enough to undo the full damage that Trump’s hot-and-cold tariff policy has inflicted on the American and global economy – and only a fool would presume that a more settled approach is now a given. For the very latest, head to the business live blog; today’s newsletter explains what’s going on, and whether the reversal is a sign of strength or weakness. Here are the headlines.Five big stories

      Gaza | Israeli aircraft struck a residential block in war-ravaged northern Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 23 people, including eight women and eight children health officials said, as the Israeli military is reportedly preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah.

      Trade | The UK and India have agreed 90% of their free trade agreement, businesses were told on a call with negotiators this week. There are hopes the UK government will succeed in finalising a highly coveted trade deal with India, a booming economy of 1.4 billion people, this year.

      Smartphones | Almost all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils, according to a survey run by Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England. Among 15,000 schools, 99.8% of primaries and 90% of secondaries have some form of ban.

      Defence | Hot weather is expected to bring highs of 24C to the UK as fire services continue to warn of wildfires across the country. The Met Office said temperatures would peak on Friday in London and south-east England, which could make it the hottest day of the year so far, while temperatures could hit 23C on Thursday.

      BBC | A controversial sculpture outside the BBC’s headquarters has been restored and put back on display behind a screen after being vandalised, with the corporation saying it in no way condoned the “abusive behaviour” of its creator, Eric Gill. There have long been calls for Gill’s works to be removed since his diaries revealed he had sexually abused his two eldest daughters.
      In depth: ‘THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!’View image in fullscreenAt 9.37am Eastern Time, Donald Trump advised his followers with an appetite for speculation: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” Less than four hours later, in what Treasury secretary Scott Bessent magnificently described as “one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency,” he announced the rollback of his tariff policy, and the market duly soared. Is it insider trading if your source is the president?Anyway, as the dust settled, traders kept buying. That was claimed as a major victory by Trump: “It’s up almost 2,500 points,” he said. “Nobody’s ever heard of it. It’s got to be a record.” But the reality is that the mood of uncertainty he has created will not easily be dispelled.What does the US tariff regime look like now?With the caveat that this is liable to change at any moment even though everyone in the White House is now asleep, here’s where things now stand: China’s tariff was raised to 125%, which means – given an existing 25% tariff – that some goods are now subject to an additional 150% rate. That is massively up on the 34% Trump announced last week. With a new 84% tariff in response yesterday, Trump again said that Beijing has been “ripping off the USA”. Every other country which saw its tariff raised above the baseline 10% in Trump’s “liberation day” announcement has seen the rate dialled back to that 10%. So no change for the UK; a very significant change for Vietnam (46%), India (26%), the European Union (20%), and the Falkland Islands (41%), whose 3,600 residents can now resume selling Americans frozen fish. Trump initially claimed that this was because more than 75 countries, of 190 affected, had sought to negotiate a deal without retaliating. The higher tariffs are paused for 90 days, and could be reimposed or increased again. There was some confusion over what would happen to Mexico and Canada, whose tariffs were not included in the announcement last week because they had already been set as high as 25% on a large proportion of their exports. Scott Bessent said the 10% rate would apply to them too; the White House later contradicted him and said that their tariffs would remain unchanged.Where does this leave China?In truth, the new announcement doesn’t change much. With tariffs that high, Trump might as well set them to a gazillion per cent and demand every import comes with a free Fabergé egg: the additional rate will make a minimal difference, because hardly anyone will be exporting anything from China to the US. The World Trade Organization forecast yesterday that trade between the two countries could drop by 80%, or $466bn a year.So is the goal to tank the Chinese economy, or to force China to negotiate? That was unclear yesterday. Bessent praised Trump for “goading China into a bad position” so that they “showed themselves to the world to be the bad actor”. That would seem to imply the tank strategy. But Trump himself took a much sunnier line later on: he told reporters that president Xi Jinping “is a smart guy and we’ll end up making a very good deal.”It is certainly plausible that the two sides will eventually arrive at some figure that both can present as a victory domestically. But as Amy Hawkins writes in this piece, that is unlikely to be on the basis of a major Chinese retreat. That is partly because Chinese exports to the US are largely consumer goods, badly exposed to eye-watering price increases, while the goods going the other way are commodities whose expense can be at least somewhat absorbed before they reach the consumer market.What about the UK?In one sense, the UK is exactly where it started: because it was already on the lowest 10% rate, nothing has changed. On the other hand, the fact that 10% is now the same rate as almost everyone else erases the comparative advantage that has been presented as a bright side.Speaking to ITV before the latest announcement, Keir Starmer reiterated that “a trade war is in nobody’s interest” but that retaliatory measures remained on the table. He also acknowledged that it was impossible to know if the 10% will ever be removed. In this piece, Rowena Mason reports that Whitehall sources are “increasingly downbeat” about striking a deal to reduce the tariffs.Why did Trump do it?That depends on who you ask. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt implied that the change was part of a long-term strategy, saying that reporters had “clearly missed the art of the deal” and “failed to see what President Trump is doing here”. Bessent claimed similarly that this had been Trump’s “strategy all along”. And Trump advisor Stephen Miller claimed it was “the greatest economic master strategy from an American president in history”.But those confident assertions looked a bit shakier when Trump himself emerged to speak to reporters and said that he was acting in a “flexible” way, and that he reacted because “people … were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid”. He also said that “A lot of times it’s not a negotiation until it is”, so make of that what you will. As for what he does next: that will be based on “instinct”, he said.The economist Mohamed El-Erian suggested that Trump was responding above all to a major sell-off in US government debt, a dangerous sign of investor scepticism of the US since its bonds are generally viewed as a safe harbour in an economic storm. The New York Times reports that Bessent and other advisors emphasised the issue in a meeting with Trump yesterday morning. But if you concluded that Trump may just as easily have made a capricious choice based on no serious rationale at all, you wouldn’t sound like an idiot.Where does this leave the markets – and the wider global economic outlook?In the context of the last week, this was a euphoric day for traders. The S&P 500 rose 9.5%, its biggest single-day climb since 2008; 494 of the 500 stocks covered ended higher than they began. One index of the improving mood was Goldman Sachs’ decision to rescind their recession forecast within hours of making it. Overnight, Asian markets have also climbed, and futures – a way to bet on prices ahead of markets opening – were up for European stocks and the FTSE 100.On the other hand, the S&P 500 is still down a significant 11.2% on where it was in February – and 10% universal tariffs are still a really big deal. Bob Elliott, a prominent hedge fund manager, said the market response was “likely far too positive” and noted that when taken alongside the Chinese rate and sector-specific rates elsewhere, the effective overall rate on imports is closer to 20%. That is only down 5% on where it stood before Trump’s announcement, and higher than it has been since the 1930s.The China tariffs alone could lead to a long term reduction in global GDP by nearly 7%, the WTO estimated. And when the dust settles, many companies will still be deeply sceptical that they can count on the kind of stability that tends to promote investment, new hiring, and economic growth.For now, the next questions are whether deals start to be struck, and whether improving share prices are the start of a sustained recovery or merely a “relief rally”. Jake Schurmeier, a portfolio manager at Harbor Capital Advisors, told Bloomberg: “Good news doesn’t eliminate the overarching uncertainty. We [will] likely go higher for a few days, but I think permanent damage has been done.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhat else we’ve been readingView image in fullscreen

      Richard Wright (above) once painted 47,000 stars on the ceiling of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. Charlotte Higgins talks to the Turner prize-winning artist about his gorgeous, insanely intricate work – which he describes as “torture”. Alex Needham, acting head of newsletters

      Amazon’s prestige drama about Jesus Christ, The Chosen, claims to have reached 280 million viewers – and it’s just the tip of the holy iceberg. Steve Rose has a great piece about how the Messiah became TV and box office gold. Archie

      Could New York ever have a democratic socialist mayor? The city’s residents could, in the unlikely event they vote for Zohran Mamdani. He’s offering a rent freeze, free buses and universal childcare. For Interview magazine, 18 New Yorkers grill him. Alex

      Alice Wilkinson has lived in eight houseshares, and has the stories to show for it. They are compulsively readable, especially the one about the housemate who stole all the cutlery. Archie

      The speed of Trump’s transformation (or degradation) of America has been breathtaking. Osita Nwanevu steps back and surveys the epic scale of the damage: “Humiliation, immiseration, chaos and more of all to come.” Alex
      SportView image in fullscreenFootball | A late goal for Nuno Mendes (above) gave Paris St-Germain a two-goal cushion in their Champions League quarter-final tie against Aston Villa. The 3-1 victory in the first leg came despite Morgan Rogers’ 35th minute opener for the visitors. In the night’s other first leg match, Barcelona beat Dortmund 4-0.Football | Liverpool are increasingly confident Mohamed Salah will sign a contract extension beyond this summer after progress in talks over recent weeks. It is a significant boost with the captain, Virgil van Dijk, also likely to extend his stay beyond June.The boat race | The bad blood between Oxford and Cambridge continues to fester in the buildup to Sunday’s University Boat Race, with fallout from the row over a ban on PGCE students competing leading to the abandonment of the women’s trial race on Wednesday morning.The front pagesView image in fullscreenTrump’s 90-day pause on tariffs dominate the front pages today. The Guardian splashes on “Trump pauses global trade war but hits China with 125% tariffs”, the Times leads with “Trump puts the brakes on tariffs for 90 days” and the Daily Telegraph has “Trump blinks first in trade war”. The FT is going with “Stocks soar as Trump presses tariffs pause button and hits China harder”, the Mail leads with “Trump blinks … but doubles down on China” and the Metro has “Trump risks the great maul of China”. In the Mirror, it’s “Great War of China”.In the Express, it’s “Kemi: PM must make more of our Brexit freedoms.” And the Sun runs with a story about Chelsea footballer Moises Caicedo allegedly driving without a licence, and “Police in swoop on £115m Chelsea ace”.Today in FocusView image in fullscreenRats, rubbish and rising taxes: why Birmingham stinks right nowWhy have the city’s bin collectors gone on strike? Jessica Murray reportsCartoon of the day | Ben JenningsView image in fullscreenThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badView image in fullscreenMetuktire, a village in the Indigenous Capoto-Jarina territory in the Brazilian Amazon , stands as a stronghold against logging and mining in the rainforest. The village has preserved its traditional ways while embracing sustainable energy through solar panels.The community actively resists illegal intrusion by patrolling their territory and educating younger generations on environmental protection. They maintain their customs, such as harvesting cassava, while adopting modern conveniences such as mobile phones and solar panels (pictured above).Chief Beptok Metuktire remains a beacon of resilience fiercely defending the local heritage. “We have had goldminers and outsiders who wanted to occupy our lands,” he says. “We show them that this is our territory.”Bored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.

      Quick crossword

      Cryptic crossword

      Wordiply More

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      Trump orders DoJ to investigate two former officials who defied him

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      Donald Trump’s persecution of critics intensified on Wednesday when he ordered the justice department to investigate a whistleblower and a cybersecurity director who refuted unfounded claims of election fraud.The US president signed memorandums targeting Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, former homeland security officials who served in the first Trump administration.Taylor had worked in the George W Bush administration and as a senior aide on Capitol Hill. After Trump’s election in 2016, he joined the homeland security department, eventually becoming chief of staff to the secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen.But in 2018, under the pseudonym “Anonymous”, he wrote a column in the New York Times newspaper under the headline “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”. Trump demanded that the Times reveal his identity, tweeting: “TREASON?”Taylor subsequently quit the administration and followed up with a book, A Warning, attributed to “Anonymous: A Senior Trump Administration Official”, again portraying the president as unfit for office. Taylor made his identity public in October 2020.On Wednesday, Trump, who campaigned with a promise of “retribution”, signed a presidential memorandum accusing Taylor of leaking classified information, stripping him of any active security clearance and ordering the Department of Justice to investigate his activities.Sitting in the Oval Office, the president said he could barely remember Taylor: “I said, who the hell is Miles Taylor? And he made a living on going on CNN talking about the president. And I think what he did – he wrote a book, Anonymous, said all sorts of lies and bad things. I think it’s like a traitor. It’s like spying.”Trump added: “I didn’t know anything about him and he wrote a book, Anonymous, and I always thought it was terrible … We’re going to find out whether or not somebody is allowed to do that. I think it’s a very important case and I think he’s guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth, but we’ll find out.”Taylor responded on social media that Trump had proved his point by using the justice department to pursue revenge. He wrote on X: “I said this would happen. Dissent isn’t unlawful. It certainly isn’t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path. Never has a man so inelegantly proved another man’s point.”Asked by the Guardian whether he had concerns about his civil liberties were officials to seek to prosecute him, Taylor said in a text message: “Well, if they do that, all Americans should be worried about their own.”Trump also took action against Krebs, who served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the homeland security department. Krebs was responsible for coordinating efforts to secure the 2020 presidential election and countered false claims of voter fraud. Trump fired him two weeks later.Wednesday’s memorandum accused Krebs of weaponising his position against free speech in the context of the election and the Covid pandemic, again addressing his clearances and ordering the justice department to investigate.Trump repeated his bogus claims of a “badly rigged election”, which have been widely debunked by courts and experts. He said: “We’re going to find out about this guy, too, because this guy’s a wise guy.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“He said this is the most secure election in the history of our country. No, this was a disaster and frankly we should go to paper ballots, same-day voting, voter ID and one other thing: a vote, you should get a little certificate that says you’re a citizen of our country.”The president added: “I think he said this is the safest election we’ve ever had and yet every day you read in the papers about more and more fraud that’s discovered. He’s the fraud. He’s a disgrace. So we’ll find out whether or not it was a safe election and, if it wasn’t, he’s got a big price to pay, and he’s a bad guy.”The actions against Taylor and Krebs came amid a flurry of executive orders and memoranda signed by Trump, who was flanked by cabinet members including the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick and the interior secretary, Doug Burgum.One executive order was aimed at reviving US shipbuilding and reducing China’s grip on the global shipping industry. Trump told reporters that he would be spending “a lot of money on shipbuilding” because the country had fallen “way behind” in the sector.Another launched a review of procurement programmes at the Pentagon. The order aims to modernise the structure at the department to ensure the US is “getting value for the money [and] to ensure that we’re getting the best possible systems in the field”.One of the orders ends what was billed as Joe Biden’s “war on showers” by deregulating water pressure from shower heads and household appliances. “In my case I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump mused. “I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes till it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.” More

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      ‘Go Trump’: Florida shoppers back tariffs – but others are worried

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      In Gainesville, Florida, a small city in the north-central part of the state, small businesses and shoppers are bracing for the impacts of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.The Trump administration announced a baseline of 10% tariffs on nearly every country in the world last week, with much higher rates on countries such as China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and 20% tariffs on European Union countries.The tariffs are expected to increase prices on household goods, clothing, electronics and groceries; the Budget Lab at Yale University reported the tariffs could cost the average US household $3,800.As criticism of the tariffs has mounted, the White House has touted support for the tariffs from “everyday Americans”. And in Gainesville, that message seems to have worked – for now.“Make America great again,” said Justin Godwin, an electrical contractor in Ocala, Florida, just south of Gainesville. “We are not the world police, nor are we the global providers of welfare.”Kim Roberts Rogel, a retiree in Lakeland, Florida, added: “Go, Trump. He’s a businessman and knows exactly what he is doing.”Samantha Gore, a stay-at-home mom in Interlachen, Florida, just west of Gainesville, repeated a claim from Trump that Canada has 250% tariffs on some products, though the truth is more complicated: there are also zero tariffs on thousands of metric tons of US dairy that Canada imports, thanks to a deal brokered by Trump in his first administration, and the US dairy industry isn’t reaching the levels of import quotas on any dairy products to receive the maximum tariffs from Canada.“Why is it OK for the rest of the world to charge us, but when we start doing the same, everyone has a fit? This is a short-term sacrifice for long-term gain,” Gore said. “The gain will be for the American people because this will bring back better-paying jobs, better-quality goods, not China-sweatshop or slave-labor goods, and it will keep our money in our economy instead of sending it overseas.”But others are worried. And nationally, consumer and small-business confidence is falling as the tariffs loom.Gainesville, home to the University of Florida, with a population of just more than 145,000, is a blue dot surrounded by counties that voted for Trump. Trump won the state in 2024 by 13.1% points.View image in fullscreenGainesville, along with Tallahassee, Orlando, Broward and Palm Beach counties in southern Florida, had among the last vestiges of Democratic support in the 2024 election, as the state trended from a swing state that Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012 to a Republican stronghold.“As far as shopping goes, we have cut back considerably on spending for several months,” said 74-year-old Cynthia Bertelsen of Gainesville, who is fearful of a looming economic recession and anticipating price increases on coffee, olive oil, paper products, wine and other food items.“Trump’s unyielding stance on the tariffs has caused my family to lose money we can ill afford to lose.”Grocery prices in Florida are among the highest in the US, ranking fifth out of 50 states in a 2024 analysis of US Census Bureau data.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Prices are already too high,” said Sammie Bartz of Gainesville, who said they’ve been pre-buying their kids’ clothing for the next school year from Shein, as well as some electronics. “I’m done spending for a while on anything that is not absolutely essential.”Sweetwater Organic Coffee Company, a coffee-roasting company based in Gainesville that supplies coffee to several grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants in the area, was already anticipating having to hike prices as coffee costs had just hit a record high before the tariffs were enacted.“All of our fellow importers with whom I have spoken will be passing the cost of tariffs along to their roastery clients. Our margins at the importing and roasting point in the supply chain are quite slim in normal times, and I know no one who will or can absorb these tariff costs on behalf of the next point in the supply chain,” said Bill Harris, chief financial officer of Sweetwater.Harris explained the company had been in the process of adding $0.60-$1.20 per pound of coffee to wholesale prices before the tariffs, noting the tariff taxes will have to be passed along, with at least $1-$3 per pound added for high-tariff origin coffees from Indonesia, Laos and Nicaragua.Coffee can only be grown in tropical climates and is often sourced from developing countries, several of which have received higher tariff rates, such as Indonesia at 32%, Nicaragua at 18% and Laos at 48%.“Everyone that I have spoken to about these tariffs in our industry feels that this administration’s chaotic ‘liberation day’ tariff rollout is only hurting importers, roasters and thousands of coffee shops across the country, which were already struggling due to the unprecedented rise in coffee prices and the uncertainty and disruptions created by this administration’s first three months in office,” added Harris.“The net result of our president’s short-sighted tax grab is inflation for consumers, destabilizing our supply relationships and added stress on thousands of coffee businesses that were already struggling.” More

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      China fires back after Pete Hegseth calls country a threat to Panama canal

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      US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the Panama canal faces ongoing threats from China but that together the United States and Panama will keep it secure.Hegseth’s remarks triggered a fiery response from the Chinese government, which said: “Who represents the real threat to the Canal? People will make their own judgement.”Speaking at a ribbon cutting for a new US-financed dock at the Vasco Nuñez de Balboa Naval Base after a meeting with Panama president, José Raúl Mulino, Hegseth said the US will not allow China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation.“To this end, the United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security cooperation than we have in decades,” he said.Hegseth alluded to ports at either end of the canal that are controlled by a Hong Kong consortium, which is in the process of selling its controlling stake to another consortium including BlackRock Inc.“China-based companies continue to control critical infrastructure in the canal area,” Hegseth said. “That gives China the potential to conduct surveillance activities across Panama. This makes Panama and the United States less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign. And as President Donald Trump has pointed out, that situation is not acceptable.”Hegseth met with Mulino for two hours on Tuesday morning before heading to the naval base that previously had been the US Rodman naval station.On the way, Hegseth posted a photo on Twitter/X of the two men laughing and said it was an honor speaking with Mulino. “You and your country’s hard work is making a difference. Increased security cooperation will make both our nations safer, stronger and more prosperous,” he wrote.The visit comes amid tensions over Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that the US is being overcharged to use the Panama canal and that China has influence over its operations – allegations that Panama has denied.Shortly after the meeting, the Chinese embassy in Panama slammed the US government in a statement on X, saying the US has used “blackmail” to further its own interests and that who Panama carries out business with is a “sovereign decision of Panama … and something the U.S. doesn’t have the right to interfere in”.“The US has carried out a sensationalistic campaign about the ‘theoretical Chinese threat’ in an attempt to sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation, which is all just rooted in the United State’s own geopolitical interests,” the embassy wrote.After Hegseth and Mulino spoke by phone in February, the US state department said that an agreement had been reached to not charge US warships to pass through the canal. Mulino publicly denied there was any such deal.The US president has gone so far as to suggest the US never should have turned the canal over to Panama and that maybe that it should take the canal back.The China concern was provoked by the Hong Kong consortium holding a 25-year lease on ports at either end of the canal. The Panamanian government announced that lease was being audited and late on Monday concluded that there were irregularities.The Hong Kong consortium, however, has already announced that CK Hutchison would be selling its controlling stake in the ports to a consortium including BlackRock Inc, in effect putting the ports under US control once the sale is complete.Secretary of state Marco Rubio told Mulino during a visit in February that Trump believes China’s presence in the canal area may violate a treaty that led the US to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the US-built canal.Mulino has denied that China has any influence in the operations of the canal. In February, he expressed frustration at the persistence of the narrative. “We aren’t going to speak about what is not reality, but rather those issues that interest both countries,” he said.The US built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on 31 December 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by Jimmy Carter.“I want to be very clear, China did not build this canal,” Hegseth said on Tuesday. “China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponize this canal. Together with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations through the deterrent power of the strongest, most effective and most lethal fighting force in the world.” More

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      To my husband, Mahmoud Khalil: I can’t wait to tell our son of his father’s bravery | Noor Abdalla

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      Exactly a month ago, you were taken from me. This is the longest we have been apart since we got married. I miss you more and more every day and as the days draw us closer to the arrival of our child, I am haunted by the uncertainty that looms over me – the possibility that you might not be there for this monumental moment. Every kick, every cramp, every small flutter I feel inside me serves as an inescapable reminder of the family we’ve dreamed of building together. Yet, I am left to navigate this profound journey alone, while you endure the cruel and unjust confines of a detention center.I could not be more proud of you, Mahmoud. You embody everything I ever hoped for in a partner and the father of my children. What more could I ask for as a role model for our children than a man who, with unwavering conviction, stands up for the liberation of his people, fully cognizant of the consequences of speaking truth to power? Your courage is boundless, and now more than ever, I am in awe of your strength and determination. Your voice, your belief in justice, and your refusal to be silenced are the very qualities that make you the man I love and admire.We will not forget those who have orchestrated this injustice, the government officials and university administrators who have targeted you without cause, without any shred of evidence to justify their actions. They sit in their ivory towers, scrambling to fabricate lies and distort the truth, throwing accusations like stones in the hope that something will stick. What they fail to realize is that their efforts are futile. Their wrongful detention of you is a testament to the fact that you have struck a nerve. You’ve disrupted the false narratives they’ve worked so hard to maintain, and spoken a truth that they are too terrified to acknowledge. What more do we have than our fundamental right to free speech, when they constantly attempt to strip us of our dignity, telling us we are unworthy of life, of respect, of voice? Now, they seek to punish that very speech, to silence the words that challenge their corrupt and oppressive systems.They are trying to silence you. They are trying to silence anyone who dares to speak out against the atrocities happening in Palestine. But they will fail. We will not be silenced. We will persist, with even greater resolve, and we will pass that strength on to our children and our children’s children – until Palestine is free. I eagerly await the day when I can tell our son the stories of his father’s bravery, of the courage that courses through his veins, and of the pride he should feel to carry Palestinian blood … your blood. And, more than anything, I pray that he will not have to grow up fighting the same fight for our basic freedoms.We will be reunited soon. Until then, I will continue to fight for you, for us and for our family. Your resilience and your courage will guide us through the storm. You are my best friend, my comrade, the very air that sustains me when it feels as though there is none left. I know your spirit is unwavering, that they cannot break you, and that you will emerge from this stronger than ever. I have no doubt that, when you are finally released, you will raise your hands in the air, chanting: “Free Palestine.”

      Dr Noor Abdalla is a dentist and a soon-to-be mother. She is the wife of Mahmoud Khalil More

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      in US Politics

      Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and didn’t mention Gaza once. That’s no surprise | Judith Levine

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      Seven and three-quarters hours into his 25-hour speech on the Senate floor, the New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker uttered the word “Gaza”. He was not talking about the war. He stepped nowhere near the 50,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli armed forces since 8 October 2023, or the US’s military and political support of the genocide.Rather, Booker was searching for a particularly ludicrous lie from a presidential administration that has told thousands. “There are lies about USAID, like, I don’t know, 5 million condoms going to Gaza or something outrageous,” he said. Considering the other outrageous things Trump has said about Gaza – such as his plan to “clean out” the strip to make room for luxury resorts – the remark felt trivializing.The word “Gaza” came up once more, when the senator mentioned his “humanitarian and peace-building work” with the UN there.It was not until hour 13, more than halfway through his oratorial marathon, that Booker engaged at any length with the subject of Israel and Palestine. This time it was not about the war, either. Instead, he was condemning the Trump administration’s attacks on free speech at universities and its summary deportation of legally resident foreign students who “espouse certain views on topics like Israel and Palestine”.The senator recounted the abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Turkish Tufts University graduate student who was surrounded on the street by masked plainclothes agents, handcuffed and hustled into an unmarked vehicle, then shipped to a hellish Louisiana detention center, where she faces deportation – all apparently because she co-wrote an op-ed in the student newspaper urging the college to divest from Israel. “Her arrest,” said Booker, “looks like a kidnapping that you might expect to see in Moscow rather than in the streets of Boston.” True.Denouncing censorship, the senator self-censored. “Certain views on topics”: he neglected to specify which views. He didn’t say that punishment is being meted out exclusively to critics of Israel and never to its supporters, or that those supporters are supplying homeland security with the names of the critics – in other words, collaborating in the very violations of constitutional rights that he decries.The atrocities Israel has been committing in Gaza since the temporary ceasefire collapsed are arguably the worst yet. Trump is cheering Bibi on like a fan at a wrestling match. His support of Israel’s policies is not only unconsciously racist, like Biden’s, but blatantly racist. Yet few Democrats are saying – or, more importantly, doing – anything to stop him. In fact, a few days after the speech, Booker voted against Bernie Sanders’ resolutions to block $8.8bn in arms sales to the Netanyahu government. Only 14 of his colleagues voted in favor.Perhaps senators are hoping their constituents won’t notice their inaction. Indeed, as the mudslide of executive orders buries immigrants, federal workers, transgender people, science, regulation, the economy, the rule of law and US democracy, it is hard for the press, or anyone else, to take their eyes off what is going on at home. Even when horrors are taking place abroad. Especially if they’re taking place in Palestine.For example: senior national security officials discussed classified military operations on the commercial message app Signal and inadvertently included a reporter on the call. The super-blunder got a name, and Signalgate was all over the news. But on the subject of that discussion – US airstrikes on Houthi militants in Yemen – virtual silence.Only the most tuned-in of US news hounds know who the Houthis are, let alone why we might bomb them: their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, perpetrated in support of the Palestinians. Was the US strike a good idea? Was it consonant with the US’s Middle East strategy – if there is a Middle East strategy? Do the Houthis pose a threat to national security? Is the Yemen bombing an escalation of US involvement in the Gaza war? Don’t ask the mainstream media. Fixated on the incompetence of Trump’s cabinet and the president’s laid-back attitude toward classified information, Signalgate turned a military aggression in a country against which we have not declared war into a domestic story – about Trump.As in Booker’s speech, as last spring, when university administrators called in the police to break up student Palestine-solidarity encampments, the press focused narrowly on individual Americans’ acts in relation to a response to the war in Gaza, rather than on the war itself.Antiwar activists are having a hard time catching anyone’s eyes – including the eyes of those who are sympathetic to their cause. This Saturday, at opposite ends of the National Mall in Washington, two demonstrations occurred simultaneously: the Emergency March for Palestine and the much larger Hands Off rally, one of about 1,500 taking place nationwide.At the former event, a ribbon-like white banner inscribed with the names of the Palestinian dead flowed from hand to hand above the heads of the participants, drawing the crowd together like a seam stretching into the distance. Solemn, elegant, a symbol of the interminable war and the immensity of its damage, it was the kind of mediagenic political spectacle that deserved to be broadcast widely, at least at the end of the newscast. But it can be viewed only on social media.Why did these two events happen at the same time anyway? Was there no communication between Indivisible and the other Hands Off organizers and the groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestinian Youth Movement, that planned the Palestine action? Did Indivisible consider the war too divisive for an action seeking to attract everyone from socialists to Republicans worried about their 401ks? Or was Trump’s stance on Israel not on the bill of indictments against him?What the Trump administration is doing to the US and what he is eagerly helping Netanyahu to do to the Palestinians are of a piece. Both are criminal, immoral campaigns against domestic and international law, causing immense suffering. Yes, it’s exhausting to contend with two major catastrophes at once. But we don’t have the time or the privilege to put either one aside.

      Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books. Her Substack, Today in Fascism, is at judithlevine.substack.com More