Free Republic

A dangerous flesh-eating parasite is rapidly marching toward the United States despite several desperate efforts to halt its advance. And one can thank the Mexican drug cartels for this. As The Atlantic notes, the United States has been fighting an aerial war against the New World screwworm for 70 years. This parasite eats animals alive, including cows, pigs, deer, dogs, and even humans. The larvae of the parasitic fly harboring the worm rip through flesh and transform small pricks into huge, revolting wounds. Worse, they produce foul-smelling odors resembling sewer gas. It’s no wonder the worm’s scientific name, C. hominivorax,...

The mayor of Panama City, Mayer Mizrachi, said the city could potentially establish a bitcoin reserve. The Mayor of Panama City, Mayer Mizrachi, is taking notes on bitcoin from the leader of El Salvador. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on Thursday, Mizrachi said he’s been thinking of ways Panama’s capital city, which is home to the Panama Canal, could implement bitcoin payments. This includes potentially setting up a strategic bitcoin reserve for Panama City, as well as possibly taking payments — including for passage through the Panama Canal — in bitcoin, Mizrachi said. “What if you have a...

Greek authorities in Thessaloniki located and seized 1.6 mln euros worth of cocaine hidden inside a container of bananas from Ecuador. Greek authorities in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki located and seized a significant quantity of cocaine hidden inside a container of bananas from Ecuador, reports MEGA TV. During targeted inspections in the early morning hours of Tuesday at the container terminal (SEMBO), fifty plastic packages containing a total of 57.919 kilograms of the narcotic substance were discovered. The packages were carefully concealed within the container’s refrigeration units. Oddly enough, this is not the first time that a shipment...

Communism is not dead in Latin America. In fact, the dominoes are falling south of the border, but no one seems to be noticing. “It’s a new day. Communism is dead. It’s even dead in Cuba.” So declared Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in May 2002. “I hate to say it,” she continued, “it’s dead.” The senator’s proclamation was a surprise, no doubt, to Fidel Castro, whose regime was (and is) alive and as Red as ever. It also must have come as welcome news to the people of Cuba, still suffering, after nearly half...

Stand back, I’m on the ground Here I come, full of gas, touched down Hot shot, runnin’ to signal virtue Model citizen, need no discipline Don’t you know he’s coming home with me? You’ll lose him at CECOT I’ll get him Abrego, Abrego Abrego, Abrego Ain’t nothin’ like it, it’s MS 13 Got the feel for the kill, keep the slicin’ knives clean Hot shot, runnin’ to signal virtue Got off the ramp comin’ to the prision Don’t you know he’s coming home with me? You’ll lose him at CECOT I’ll get him Oh! Abrego, Abrego Aw! Abrego, Abrego Woo!...

China’s activities in the Western Hemisphere pose a direct challenge to US interests and regional security ... Donald Trump understands that modern threats – China’s predatory mercantilism and its massive military buildup, including the ability to destroy our reconnaissance satellites in orbit – requires an urgent reinvigoration of the 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine, America’s fundamental national security imperative, seeks to exclude outside powers from the Western Hemisphere. It is key to protecting the U.S. and our neighbors from China’s malicious designs. ... Trump understands that Greenland and Panama aren’t merely the key in any potential conflict with China,...

Smugglers living along key migration routes thrived off the U.S. border crisis, but are now left with next to no income after illegal migrants have largely given up trying to reach the southern border under the Trump administration’s watch. Residents living in the Darien Gap — a vast jungle region between Colombia and Panama that serves as a pivotal way station for northbound migrants — took advantage of the endless number of illegal immigrants who trekked across their lands during the Biden-era, according to locals who spoke with the Associated Press. Noticing an opportunity from those that needed to be...

While the focus of the Trump administration has been on seizing control of the Panama Canal from China, another port on the Pacific Ocean side of South America, CopiaPort-E in Chile, billed as the “Rotterdam of the Pacific,” demands President Trump’s attention. The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Chinese Communist Party had long planned for CopiaPort-E’s 8-kilometer-long natural breakwater peninsula to be the landing pad for China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) in South America. If the Trump administration acts fast, President Trump can block the final step in China’s BRI expansion plans in South America before China finalizes the...

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said he intends to partially reopen the “Jungle School,” where up to 9,000 troops a year trained in jungle warfare from the 1950s to 1999 in the former Panama Canal Zone. Secretary Hegseth made the announcement to U.S. troops in Panama amid an ongoing trip to the Central American country, where he will attend the Central American Security Conference (CENTSEC). Thanking the troops for their service, Hegseth said, “We will have your back; President Trump has asked me to share that with all the groups of troops I talk to,” stressing the importance of...

In a bold move signaling America's renewed strength on the global stage, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is set to visit Panama as President Donald Trump declares the U.S. is "reclaiming" control over the Panama Canal. With the Trump administration focused on asserting American influence and safeguarding vital national interests, this trip marks a significant step in strengthening ties with Panama and reinforcing the strategic importance of the canal to U.S. trade and security. As the president takes decisive action on the world stage, Hegseth's visit underscores a broader push to reclaim America's leadership role in global affairs. Hegseth is...

The Chinese government has intervened to stop the planned April 2 sale of two Panama Canal ports owned by the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchinson to the US-based conglomerate Black Rock. CK Hutchinson operates two of the five ports adjacent to the Panama Canal. Panama first awarded the company the concession to run the ports in 1998 and extended it for another 25 years in 2021. The Canal is a major maritime chokepoint and manages about 3% of the global maritime trade. The issue of Chinese ownership of critical ports serving the Panama Canal predates President Trump's second term; see...

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and China deported from the United States and dropped into limbo in Panama hopped door-to-door at embassies and consulates this week in a desperate attempt to seek asylum in any country that would accept them. The focus of international humanitarian concern just weeks before, the deportees now say they’re increasingly worried that with little legal and humanitarian assistance and no clear pathway forward offered by authorities, they may be forgotten. “After this, we don’t know what we’ll do,” said 29-year-old Hayatullah Omagh, who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban takeover....

Trump’s Blackrock deal is far from over. Generations of sending American jobs, tech, and manufacturing to China was equivalent to feeding wild tigers near the local kindergarten. And now jungles are full of tigers used to getting their way. I made the tiger photograph in the wilds of India. I made the video below in the wilds of Darien Gap. At an Embera village called Bajo Chiquito. Notice the Georgia Bulldogs tattoo. Maybe this guy is going to Georgia. And the man to his right. Wearing the cross. As many do. And the nice watch. After crossing through Darien Gap....

"The ship was in the midst of a southbound transit through the canal when it suffered the casualty, Under orders from U.S. 3rd Fleet commander Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, Zumwalt is now stopped for repairs at the former U.S. Naval Station Rodman, he said." Hutchison Whampoa Limited controls former U.S. Naval Station Rodman.

Summary Thirty-seven people have been brought ashore after a cargo vessel collided with an oil tanker off the east coast of England One person is in hospital while the other 36 mariners from both crews are "safe and accounted for", says local MP Graham Stuart Jet fuel is spilling into the North Sea following the collision off the East Yorkshire coast, the owner of the tanker says Video shows thick smoke billowing out from the tanker, with reports of a "massive fireball" being seen The US-flagged Stena Immaculate - which was carrying fuel for the US government - appears to...

LONDON (AP) — A cargo ship hit a tanker carrying jet fuel for the American military off the coast of eastern England Monday, setting both vessels on fire and sending fuel pouring into the North Sea.SNIPThe U.S.-flagged chemical and oil products tanker MV Stena Immaculate was at anchor near the port of Grimsby on Monday morning after sailing from Greece, according to ship-tracking site VesselFinder. The cargo vessel, Portugal-flagged container ship Solong, was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands when it struck the side of the tanker.

A U.S. oil tanker and a Panama-flagged cargo vessel have collided off the coast of Yorkshire, England, triggering a large-scale rescue operation Collision between a cargo ship and an oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast in England has resulted in both vessels catching fire

Snip>> As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban — which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country — would mean he would be killed. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas. Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the U.S., which he was denied. “My hope was freedom. Just freedom,” he said....

A BlackRock-led consortium has agreed a $22.8 billion deal to buy two major Panama Canal ports owned by a Hong Kong-based conglomerate following intense pressure from US President Donald Trump over alleged Chinese interference in the critical trade route. The sale is a victory for Trump, the Financial Times noted. The president had repeatedly suggested the US could take the Canal back, citing national security concerns: The waterway is controlled by Panama, but the ports at either end are privately owned. This deal brings two at either entry to the Canal under US ownership. The BlackRock-led group will acquire a...

PANAMA CITY — Panama transferred about one-third of the deportees from various nations it had received from the United States to a camp in its Darien province Wednesday, an area that became the main thoroughfare for migrants traveling from South America to the U.S. border in recent years, security officials said late Wednesday. The migrants sent to Darien had refused to voluntarily be repatriated to their countries and will be held there until third countries can be found to take them, said a Panamanian official familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly...