Politics
Panama Canal will be removed from Chinese ‘influence,’ Pentagon chief says – National TenX News
The United States will take back the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday during a visit to the Central American nation.
Hegseth, following talks with Panama’s government, vowed to deepen security cooperation with Panama’s forces and said China would not be allowed to “weaponize” the canal by using Chinese firms’ commercial relationships for espionage.
“Together, we will take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence,” Hegseth said, speaking at a pier renovated with U.S. assistance in Panama City.
“China did not build this canal. 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.”
More than 40% of U.S. container traffic, valued at roughly US$270 billion a year, goes through the Panama Canal, accounting for more than two-thirds of vessels passing each day through the world’s second-busiest interoceanic waterway.
Hegseth is expected to get a close-up look at the Panama Canal later on Tuesday, the first full day of a rare visit to a nation still unsettled by Trump’s threats to take back the canal.
While Hegseth spoke about removing Chinese influence, Trump has spoken in broader terms and not ruled out using military force, if necessary.
Hegseth is the first U.S. defense secretary to visit in decades, and his trip follows reports that the Trump administration has requested options from the U.S. military to ensure access to the canal, which the United States built more than a century ago and handed over to Panama in 1999.
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Trump has complained that was a bad deal for the United States.
Hegseth was greeted by Panama Public Security Minister Frank Abrego and held closed-door meetings with President Jose Raul Mulino and other officials.
Given Trump’s tough rhetoric, the stakes are high for Hegseth’s visit.
“On the whole, this hasn’t been a winning issue for the United States in terms of public diplomacy in Panama,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Still, current and former U.S. officials and experts say the United States has found a willing partner in tackling Chinese influence in Mulino.
In February, Mulino announced Panama’s formal move to exit China’s Belt and Road Initiative and he has aided Trump’s crackdown on migrants.
He has accepted deportation flights of non-Panamanians and worked to stem migration from South America by those crossing through his country’s dangerous Darien jungle.
Hegseth praised Mulino, saying his government understood the threat from China, and his remarks about Panama being in the lead on addressing the canal’s security concerns appeared to be a nod to Panamanian sensitivities.
Hegseth, a U.S. military veteran and former Fox News host, has enthusiastically backed Trump’s southern-focused security agenda, by means such as dispatching U.S. troops to the U.S. border with Mexico and offering military aircraft for deportation flights.
Trump has falsely claimed that China is operating the canal, something even Hegseth said was not true on Tuesday, and that Chinese soldiers are present.
But experts acknowledge U.S. security concerns, particularly regarding espionage, with an expansive Chinese commercial presence in Panama that also includes plans by Chinese firms to build a bridge over the canal.
Last month, Trump celebrated a deal led by U.S. firm BlackRock to buy most of the US$22.8-billion ports business of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, including its ports on either end of the Panama Canal.
Trump said the purchase was an example of how the United States was “reclaiming” the canal.
But China has criticized it, with the market regulator saying it will carry out an antitrust review of the deal.
Current and former U.S. officials say the Panama Canal would be critical for the passage of U.S. warships during any future conflict in Asia, since Navy vessels would transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific to support the war effort.
Even without blocking the canal, China could have an enormous advantage by being able to surveil vessels passing through it.
Still, John Feeley, who was U.S. ambassador to Panama from 2015 to 2018, disputed the Trump administration’s assertion that China’s presence in Panama was a violation of the U.S.-Panama treaty.
“What’s not legitimate about the way Trump has gone about this is the bullying tactic that he’s used, which is to claim that there has been a violation of the neutrality treaty. There hasn’t been,” Feeley said.
Mulino has defended Panama’s administration of the canal, saying it has been handled responsibly for world trade, including that of the United States, and that it “is, and will continue to be, Panamanian.”
—Reporting by Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Rod Nickel and Alistair Bell
Politics
UK refuses to invite Israeli government officials to London arms fair over the war in Gaza – National TenX News
The U.K. has barred Israeli government officials from attending the country’s biggest arms fair over growing concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The decision does not cover representatives of Israeli defense contractors, who will be allowed to attend the DSEI UK exhibition, scheduled for Sept. 9-12 in London. The event was formerly known as Defense and Security Equipment International.
“The Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong,” the British government said in a statement. “As a result, we can confirm that no Israeli government delegation will be invited to attend DSEI UK 2025.”
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The decision comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer in July announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel takes steps to end the crisis in Gaza, agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas and commits to a long-term peace agreement. Britain previously barred sales to Israel of any arms that could be used in the nearly 23-month war in Gaza.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said the decision was based on politics and “serves extremists.”
“These restrictions amount to a deliberate and regrettable act of discrimination against Israel’s representatives,” the ministry said.
The Israeli ministry said it would withdraw from the exhibition and will not establish a national pavilion.
Pro-Palestinian and anti-war groups have announced plans to for protests during DSEI, which will take place at the Excel center in east London.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Politics
Israel soon will halt or slow aid to northern Gaza as military offensive grows – National TenX News
Israel will soon halt or slow humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza as it expands its military offensive against Hamas, an official said Saturday, a day after Gaza City was declared a combat zone.
The decision was likely to bring more condemnation of Israel’s government as frustration grows in the country and abroad over dire conditions for both Palestinians and remaining hostages in Gaza after nearly 23 months of war.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, told The Associated Press that Israel will stop airdrops over Gaza City in the coming days and reduce the number of aid trucks arriving in the north as it prepares to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people south.
Israel on Friday ended recently imposed daytime pauses in fighting to allow aid delivery, describing Gaza City as a Hamas stronghold and alleging that a tunnel network remains in use, despite previous large-scale raids. The United Nations and partners have said the pauses, airdrops and other measures fell far short of the 600 trucks of aid needed daily in Gaza.
A ‘massive population movement’ coming
AP video footage showed several large explosions across Gaza overnight. Israel’s military Saturday evening said it had struck a key Hamas member in the area of Gaza City, with no details.
In recent days, Israel’s military has increased strikes on the outskirts of Gaza City, where famine was recently documented and declared by global food security experts.
By Saturday there had been no airdrops for several days across Gaza, a break from almost daily ones. Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment or say how it would provide aid to Palestinians during another major shift in Gaza’s population of over 2 million people.
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“Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care,” Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement.
It’s impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City can be done in a safe and dignified way, she said.
Hundreds of residents have begun leaving Gaza City, piling their remaining possessions onto pickup trucks or donkey carts. Many have been forced to leave their homes more than once.
Killed while seeking food
Israeli gunfire killed four people trying to get aid in central Gaza, according to health officials at Al-Awda Hospital, were the bodies were taken.
An Israeli strike on a bakery in Gaza City’s Nasr neighborhood killed 12 people including six women and three children, the Shifa Hospital director told the AP, and a strike on the Rimal neighborhood killed seven.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said another 10 people died as a result of starvation and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, including three children. It said at least 332 Palestinians have died from malnutrition-related causes during the war, including 124 children.
At least 63,371 Palestinians have died in Gaza during the war, said the ministry, which does not say how many are fighters or civilians but says around half have been women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
“There is no food and even water is not available. When it is available, it is not safe to drink,” said Amer Zayed, as he waited for food from a charity kitchen in Deir al-Balah on Friday.
“The suffering gets worse when there are more displaced people,” he added.
Israelis rally again to demand a ceasefire deal
Israelis waited to hear the identity of the remains of a hostage that Israel on Friday said had been recovered in Gaza. It also said it recovered the remains of hostage Ilan Weiss.
Forty-eight hostages now remain in Gaza of the over 250 seized in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Israel had believed 20 are still alive.
Their loved ones fear the expanding military offensive will put them in even more danger, and they were rallying again Saturday to demand a ceasefire deal to bring everyone home.
“Netanyahu, if another living hostage comes back in a bag, it will not only be the hostages and their families who pay the price. You will bear responsibility for premeditated murder,” Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder, said in Tel Aviv.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
The Trump administration said Friday it was denying and revoking U.S. visas from members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
That comes ahead of next month’s United Nations General Assembly, where Canada and several other countries have said they intend to officially recognize a Palestinian state.
The U.S. State Department cited the groups’ efforts to secure statehood recognition at the UN, along with their appeals to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to investigate alleged Israeli crimes in Gaza, as reasons for the decision by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,” the department said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”
The statement did not name the officials being denied entry. It was not immediately clear if the list included Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was expected to travel to New York for the UN gathering.
The Palestinians’ ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters at the UN headquarters that they were checking exactly what the U.S. move means “and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly.”
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Representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the UN, led by Mansour, will be granted waivers so they can continue their New York-based operations, the U.S. statement said.
Mansour said Abbas still intends to lead the delegation to the high-level meetings and is expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years — and to attend a meeting on the afternoon of Sept. 22 on a two-state solution co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to New York and address the general assembly on Sept. 23, the White House said on Thursday.
Canada, Britain, Australia and France in recent weeks have announced or signalled their intention to recognize a Palestinian state during the meeting.
The countries have said their recognition is conditional on the Palestinian Authority — which has limited self-rule over parts of the occupied West Bank and has for years been positioning itself as a legitimate government alternative to Hamas in Gaza — undergoing reforms and new elections.
Abbas has signalled he will co-operate with the Western nations’ demands.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization is an internationally recognized coalition that represents Palestinian people in its occupied territories and abroad.
The Trump administration has staunchly backed Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. The U.S. has also refused to condemn expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Canada and other allies have said undermine two-state solution efforts.
Rubio hosted Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Washington on Wednesday “to reaffirm our two nations’ close cooperation,” the U.S. secretary said in a post on X.
Saar, asked after the meeting what the plan was for a Palestinian state, said there would not be any.
The Israeli minister on Friday thanked Rubio for holding the PA and PLO “accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel” in a social media statement.
Officials with the Palestinian Authority reject that they’ve undermined peace prospects.
Under the 1947 UN “headquarters agreement,” the U.S. is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, terrorism and foreign policy reasons.
Hamas earlier this month said it had accepted a U.S.-backed proposal on a ceasefire in Gaza that would see the release of some hostages in exchange for talks with Israel that would end the conflict and see the return of all remaining hostages.
But Israel has said it will only accept the full return of all the hostages and has pressed ahead with a plan to occupy Gaza City, which international monitors like the UN have warned could worsen a famine already afflicting the Palestinian territory.
Rubio last week announced sanctions against multiple International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors involved in the court’s investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza and the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
—With files from Reuters
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
UK refuses to invite Israeli government officials to London arms fair over the war in Gaza – National TenX News
Israel soon will halt or slow aid to northern Gaza as military offensive grows – National TenX News
U.S. scraps Palestinian officials’ visas ahead of UN General Assembly – National TenX News
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