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A late 19th century idea has been resurrected to build a new canal in Nicaragua, at the same time Panama is planning to widen its own canal. Nicaraguan officials say next week they will announce their $20 billion proposal to build a canal linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans that would accommodate ships too large to use the Panama Canal, according to the Los Angeles Times. If it meets with the necessary approval by Nicaragua's Congress, the project would be a joint public-private venture financed by unnamed investors, Lindolfo Monjarretz, a spokesman for Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, told the...

The Panama Canal, one of the major shipping routes through which 40 percent of container goods sold in America travels, currently has a 21-day wait time for ships attempting to make the passage. And the situation will only get worse before it gets better. The number of vessels waiting to sneak between North and South America currently stands at 154. The traffic jam is thanks to a severe drought that has afflicted the area since this Spring. About $270 billion in cargo travels through the canal every year... snip Not only are reservations for making it through the canal cut...

Panama City (AFP) – The drought-hit Panama Canal will maintain restrictions on the passage of ships for one year, a measure that has already led to a marine traffic jam as boats line up to enter the waterway linking two oceans. The canal is facing a shortage of rainwater needed to transfer ships through locks that function like water elevators, an engineering marvel that moves six percent of the world's maritime commerce up and over the isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal's sub-administrator Ilya Espino, told AFP that unless heavy rains fall in the next three months,...

John Hay was President Lincoln's personal secretary, a position that began nearly five decades of public service. A diplomat who served multiple Administrations from Lincoln to Roosevelt, he was a central figure in defining the U.S. foreign policy that would be the basis of the United States role on the world stage in the twentieth century.This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for...

David McCullough, who was known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America’s past, died on Sunday at home in Hingham Mass. He was 89. The death was confirmed by his daughter Dorie Lawson. Mr. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, “Truman” (1992) and “John Adams” (2001). He received National Book Awards for “The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal” (1977) and “Mornings on Horseback” (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family. Deep...

Nicaraguan dream to rival Panama's trade route Price of Central American ambition: $25bn and 10 years' construction over 175 miles Rupert Widdicombe in Managua Monday October 20, 2003 The Guardian (UK) Multi-billion dollar plans to create a rival to the 90-year-old Panama canal by linking a network of rivers and cutting through the jungle of central America are being backed by the goverment of Nicaragua. The new waterway - being proposed by a public private partnership called the Grand Canal Foundation - will cost an estimated $25bn (£15bn) and take 10 years to build. Its proponents say it would turn...

China poised to take over U.S. base at Ecuador's invitation Ecuador’s president has offered the Chinese government an airbase currently serving as one of the last U.S. military outposts in South America. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said during his recent visit to China that he would offer Beijing a lease on the Manta Airport, the presidential website reported last week. Currently, Manta is used by U.S. military forces for operations. The contract is up in 2009 and Correa will not renew it, a transport and public works ministry communications official told BNamericas. Correa said access to the air base is...

Yesterday on Fox News, my father claims he caught a headline on the scroll that said a boat had been boarded off Panama under suspicion of carrying WMDs.

On a Panamanian beach long after dark, a group of undergraduate students dug into the sand to excavate a sea turtle nest, their lamps casting a soft red glow as they studied eggs, inventoried the success of the hatch and checked for any surviving hatchlings stuck at the bottom of the nest. Nearby, armed members of the National Border Service stood watch for protection in an area known for drug trafficking. The students worked under the guidance of Callie Veelenturf, who founded a group that works to protect leatherback turtles and pushed for a new law in Panama that guarantees...

NEW - Iran seizes second oil tanker in a week — US Navy(Navy Video Of It In Link Below)https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1653709518247698437

Oil tanker Niovi, sailing under Panamanian flag, captured by Iran in Strait of Hormuz Iranian forces captured a foreign vessel on Wednesday, the second ship to be harassed and seized by the Middle Eastern country in a week, the U.S. Navy said. The Niovi, a commercial oil tanker flying the Panama flag, was passing through the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman when it was overtaken by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN)

Oscar “El Blue” Ramirez and Ben Bergquam of Real America’s Voice update Steve Bannon on their trip from Venezuela to Panama as they highlight the dangers for illegal immigrants heading to the United States. Starting at about 3:15 in the video you can see footage of Ramirez and Berqguam being escorted across the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama by a military patrol.

Look for news coming out about the Darien Gap mass migration-migration route through Panama. I was just down there for two weeks with some really fine men, and it was quite eye-opening and informative. The others are still down there on their mission, so I can't provide a lot of details at this point. Ben Berquam, Oscar Blue and Michael Yon will be on Bannon War Room when they are available to make reports.

"Intelligence trafficker to the world" sets up shop in the nation's capital. “It [the Cuban embassy opening] is going to be a celebration on our part,” gushed Gustavo Machin, deputy director for U.S. affairs at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. “Many Americans who have supported the Cuban Revolution will be among the 500 celebrants at the new Embassy.” Despite the innocuous professional title the mainstream media insists on using for Gustavo Machin, he’s actually a KGB-trained Cuban spy who was burnt and booted from the U.S. back in 2003 shortly before the invasion of Iraq. He was among 14 other Cuban spies...

The Biden administration, desperate to mute headlines about record illegal immigrant crossings, has secretly started a new system to let in potential lawbreakers that also puts them on a fast track to legal status. The program amounts to an amnesty ticket and preselects some of those caught up in Mexico’s immigration controls. Word of the program has spread like wildfire, swamping border camps involved in the program, according to a report by immigration expert Todd Bensman with the Center for Immigration Studies. In his report, shared with Secrets Monday, Bensman said, “Thousands are hearing about this new legal way in...

U.S. checking all toothpaste imports from China WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. health officials are beginning to check all shipments of toothpaste coming from China, following reports of tainted products in other countries, a government spokesman said Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration has no evidence that contaminated toothpaste has made its way into the United States but is taking the step as a precaution, agency spokesman Doug Arbesfeld said. China is the second-largest exporter of toothpaste to the United States behind Canada, according to the FDA. The FDA's action comes after the lethal chemical diethylene glycol was found in toothpaste...

"Health Crisis, Education Crisis, Food Crisis, Fuel Crisis, We Want New Zealand Back"... It's now Saturday down in New Zealand where protests have been held... Two children in the US test positive for monkeypox... The legendary wrestling entertainment promoter Vince McMahon announcing his retirement... In Canadian hockey a gang rape allegation from 2003... California Governor Gavin Newsom signing a gun control law that resembles the abortion law in Texas... In the Netherlands there's going to be a criminal investigation into the incident where a police officer opened fire on a 16-year old tractor driver... The Panama Price Protests: New Developments......

It's been almost two weeks since protests began in Panama aimed at the high cost of everything from food to fuel to medicine. Teachers went on strike at first but other trade unions joined in leading to crowds on streets and highways with roads blocked including the key Panamerican Highway running through the middle of the Isthmus. Last weekend it appeared that labor union leaders and the government were cutting a deal to end the protests that were impacting the movement of food to Panama City where much of the country's population lives. The deal would have cut prices some...

The Pan-American highway was cleared after heavy clashes between crowd control units and protesters keeping the highway closed. The National Police (PN) reopened the Pan-American highway on Tuesday, on the Santiago bridge, Veraguas province, to guarantee movement of the humanitarian corridor to the capital. The road was cleared after heavy clashes between crowd control units and protesters who have kept the road closed for more than two weeks. The demonstrators confronted the police units with stones. The police fired tear gas, managing to clear the road. Once the road was cleared, the circulation of trucks with supplies and food began...

Hundreds of people protested Monday against price hikes and corruption in Panama, protests that led the country’s president, Laurentino Cortizo, to announce the reduction or freezing of the price of gasoline and several products of the basic food basket. “I understand the dissatisfaction of the various sectors for the situation we are living caused by the effects of the pandemic and the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine”, said Cortizo in a message to the country. For this reason, the president informed that the price of a gallon (3.78 liters) of fuel will now cost “3.95 (dollars) for private vehicles...