Free Republic

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...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry berated the administration of President Donald Trump, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in particular, on Friday for addressing the threat of Chinese regime influence during a tour to Central America and the Caribbean this week. Rubio made his first international travel after being sworn into the top diplomat position a visit to Panama, followed by stops in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. The growing influence of the Chinese Communist Party in these countries was a prominent topic of discussion, particularly in Panama, where Chinese influence over the Panama Canal has become...

The tides are turning. After Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit, Panama has AGREED to: 🔴 Grant U.S. Navy ships FREE passage through the Panama Canal. 🔴 TERMINATE its canal deal with China—cutting Beijing’s grip on global trade. 🔴 EXIT China’s 2017 ‘Belt and Road Initiative’—ending CCP influence in the region. This is a MAJOR blow to China’s expansionist agenda and a massive WIN for American dominance. The globalist order is crumbling, and the U.S. is BACK.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Sunday, making it clear that the U.S. won’t tolerate China’s growing influence over the Panama Canal. “Secretary Rubio informed President Mulino and Minister Martínez-Acha that President Trump has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal,” the State Department said in a statement. “Secretary Rubio made clear that this status...

MASSIVE win for @SecRubio Following his meeting with the Panamanians, the country’s president announced that it will not be renewing its deal with China’s Belt and Road ... If people don’t know anything about the historic Silk Road and China’s Belt and Road initiative, it’s time to learn. ... Ahhhh HA! Trump is right! The Chinese has been using the Panama Canal and Panama has been profiting… .... the last admin was working for the CCP ... Now let's do Cuba. Let's get rid of the Communist regime in Cuba once and for all. There should not be a communist...

Following his meeting with the Panamanians, the country’s president announced that it will not be renewing its deal with China’s Belt and Road

After the meeting, Panama's president said he discussed with Rubio the issue of Chinese ports near the Panama Canal, as well as migration. Mulino said he would not renew the Panama-China Silk Road agreement, which could be terminated early. He said that his country's sovereignty over the Panama Canal is not up for discussion, the canal is operated by Panama and will remain so. -snip- "I cannot negotiate, much less open a process of negotiations on the canal," Mulino said Thursday, saying that the issue "is sealed." "The canal is Panama's," he said.

The Monroe Doctrine, established in 1823, was originally drafted to protect U.S. interests against European powers that could try to recolonize South American countries gaining independence from Spain and to ward off Russian moves into the Pacific Northwest. Czarist Russia bloodlessly desisted from attempts to colonize the West Coast and Alaska. However, U.S. hemispheric dominance has proved more difficult to enforce in Latin America, involving the U.S. in local conflicts that have led to past military interventions. President Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, declared before the Organization of American States in 2013 that “the Monroe Doctrine is over.” But...

In the recent frenzy of commentary seeking to interpret U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s increasingly adamant comments about territorial expansion to Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, too much of the discussion has focused on matters of secondary importance. These range from assessing whether Trump is merely engaging in a game of showmanship or distraction, to deciphering how those regions’ inhabitants feel about ceding territorial control to the United States, to determining how much it would cost to purchase their acquiescence. From a policy perspective, though, more fundamental matters have gone surprisingly unaddressed, beginning with the question of whether any of...

Newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Panama for his first international trip as the nation’s top diplomat, Fox News has learned. Though details are still being worked out, the visit could come as early as next week. The planned trip comes after repeated vows by President Donald Trump – who returned to the White House on Monday – to take back the Panama Canal. Trump mentioned the Panama Canal again during his inaugural address on Monday, claiming that it was now in the hands of China and vowing to take it back. "China is operating the...

Some people have thought that Trump’s talk about the Panama Canal was just talk. They were wrong. Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio is already planning his first international trip – to Panama. Why do you suppose he is going there? Could it be because the new Trump administration is serious about the United States retaking control of the canal? It sure looks that way. Politico reported: Rubio is heading to Panama Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit Panama — the country whose canal President Donald Trump has suggested he’d seize — as early as next...

Rep. Dusty Johnson unveiled legislation that would authorize the repurchase of the Panama Canal, giving congressional teeth to President-elect Donald Trump’s wish to take back the strategic waterway. The Panama Canal Repurchase Act of 2025 would give Mr. Trump, in coordination with the secretary of state, the authority to enter into negotiations with the Panamanian government to buy the canal. Mr. Trump recently said the U.S. should regain control of the Panama Canal to bolster national security interests, largely over concerns about China’s influence over the operations... Panama became a part of China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2018...

President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his desire for the US to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal, calling both critical to American national security. Asked if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take over the autonomous Danish territory or the Canal, he responded: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two. "But I can say this, we need them for economic security," he told reporters during a wide-ranging news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both Denmark and Panama have rejected any suggestion that they would give up territory. Trump also...