PANAMA CITY: Panama has signed a scaled-back security deal with the United States that allows American troops to use local military facilities but rules out the establishment of permanent US bases, following concerns over national sovereignty and public backlash.

The development is being seen as a major concession to President Donald Trump as he seeks to re-establish influence over the vital waterway.

The agreement, signed by top security officials from both countries, allows US military personnel to deploy to Panama-controlled facilities for training, exercises and “other activities”.

The deal stops short of allowing the United States to build its own permanent bases on the isthmus, a move that would be deeply unpopular with Panamanians and legally fraught.

However, it gives the United States broad authority to deploy an unspecified number of personnel to bases — some of which Washington built when it occupied the canal zone decades ago.

Since returning to power in January, Trump has repeatedly claimed that China wields too much influence over the canal, which handles around 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of global trade.

His administration has pledged to “take back” control of the strategic waterway that the United States funded, built, and controlled until 1999.

The United States has long taken part in military exercises in Panama.

However, a longer-term rotational force — similar to the one the United States maintains in Darwin, Australia — could prove politically toxic for Panama’s centre-right leader, José Raúl Mulino.

‘Country on fire’

Mulino was in Peru on Thursday, where he revealed that the United States had asked to have its own bases.

Mulino said he told visiting Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that US bases, allowed under an earlier draft, would be “unacceptable”.

He warned Hegseth: “Do you want to create a mess? What we’ve put in place here would set the country on fire.”

In the watered-down “Memorandum of Understanding”, signed by Hegseth and Panama’s security chief Frank Ábrego on Wednesday, Panama secured its own concessions.

The United States recognised Panama’s sovereignty — not a given following Trump’s refusal to rule out an invasion — and Panama will retain control over any installations.

Panama will also need to approve any deployments.

But given Trump’s willingness to tear up or rewrite trade deals, treaties and agreements, that might offer little comfort to worried Panamanians.

The country has a long and complicated relationship with the United States.

They share close cultural and economic ties, despite the decades-long US occupation of the canal zone and the US invasion 35 years ago to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega.

That invasion killed more than 500 Panamanians and razed parts of the capital.

Trump’s vow to reclaim the canal, and his claim of Chinese influence, have sparked mass demonstrations.

By law, Panama operates the canal with open access to all nations.

However, the US president 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.

Under pressure from the White House, Panama has accused the Panama Ports Company of failing to meet its contractual obligations and pushed for the firm to withdraw from the country.

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 US asset manager BlackRock for $19 billion in cash.

An enraged Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal.

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday the United States will hold direct talks with Iran this weekend to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme.

The talks between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and a senior Iranian leader are scheduled for Saturday in Oman.

“We hope that’ll lead to peace. We’ve been very clear what Iran is never going to have a nuclear weapon, and I think that’s what led to this meeting,” Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Donald Trump.

Trump on Monday made a surprise announcement that the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme on Saturday, warning that Iran would be in “great danger” if the talks were unsuccessful.

The announcement caused some confusion because Iran had said the talks would be indirect with the Omanis acting as mediators.

A US official familiar with the planning said the two delegations would be in the same room for the talks.

Trump on Wednesday repeated his threat to use military force if Iran did not agree to end its nuclear programme.

Trump said Iran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and if it declined to stop development efforts, military action could follow.

NEW YORK: A helicopter crashed in the Hudson River near lower Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, the New York City Police Department said.

ABC News reported that fatalities had occurred, citing law enforcement sources.

A New York City Police spokesman said police boats were assisting in the rescue efforts on the Hudson, but details such as how many people were on board were not immediately available. CNN reported that at least three people had been rescued.

The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately comment, while the National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information on the incident.

News footage of the crash site showed several emergency and police boats circling a patch of river where the helicopter was submerged.

The accident occurred in the river off the Tribeca neighbourhood of lower Manhattan. New York police said residents should expect emergency vehicles and traffic delays in the surrounding areas.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would love to get a deal with China to end an escalating trade war.

Trump made the comments during a Cabinet meeting opened to press. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during the meeting that as they settle deals with countries, it will bring more certainty on trade policy.

Trump said: “Would love to get deal with China.”

Speaking on the potential of ongoing talks, he said, “Think we will end up working out something good for both countries.”

Trump also commented on the war in Ukraine, stating that progress was being made toward ending the conflict. “… We’re making progress on getting Russia-Ukraine war stopped,” he added.

Addressing the financial side of his policies, Trump suggested that revenue generated from tariffs could be directed toward paying down the national debt. “Would use money from tariffs to pay down debt,” he said.

In his remarks on European Union trade, Trump noted that he was considering approaching the EU as a unified block when discussing tariffs. “Looking at EU as one block on tariffs,” he remarked.

Trump’s comments come at a time of heightened focus on US trade policies and his potential influence on international relations if he were to return to the presidency.

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This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.  

ISTANBUL: US and Russian delegations held talks in Istanbul on Thursday on normalising the work of their diplomatic missions after the war in Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

A vehicle carrying the US delegation left the Russian consulate building in central Istanbul on Thursday afternoon, some six hours after they arrived. The Russian delegation remained in the building.

The talks were to be led by Russia’s new ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

The main focus, according to Moscow and Washington, is restoring the work of diplomatic missions after relations between the two nuclear powers were complicated by years of rows, mutual claims of intimidation and even the freezing of diplomatic property.

“Ukraine is not, absolutely not on the agenda,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday.

“These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall, which can only happen, as we’ve noted, once there is peace between Russia and Ukraine.”

Both Moscow and Washington have complained in recent years about the difficulties of getting credentials for their diplomats, making the operation of their embassies extremely difficult.

Russia has said that even paying diplomats has become difficult due to Western restrictions, while U.S. diplomats say their movements are restricted in Russia. Both sides have complained of intimidation.

Among the issues is diplomatic property.

Washington has put six Russian properties under restrictions, including the Killenworth estate on Long Island, the Pioneer Point “dacha” in Maryland, the Russian consulates in San Francisco and Seattle and the trade missions in Washington and New York.

The EU paused plans for retaliatory tariffs on US goods Thursday after President Donald Trump abruptly suspended higher US duties on the bloc and other countries, leaving China in the crosshairs of his trade war.

Stocks in Asia and Europe joined a major rally on Wall Street after Trump said Wednesday that he was halting steep tariffs on scores of nations for 90 days — though he kept a global baseline 10% levy intact.

But Trump raised tariffs on China to 125% to punish Beijing for retaliating.

The European Union, which had faced a 20% tariff, welcomed Trump’s U-turn, saying it was an “important step towards stabilising the global economy”.

The 27-nation bloc responded with its own olive branch, suspending for 90 days tariffs on 20 billion euros’ worth of US goods that had been greenlit in retaliation to duties on steel and aluminium.

“We want to give negotiations a chance,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

She warned, however, that “if negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in” and that all options remain on the table.

Other countries are also lining up to bargain.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump’s reversal a “welcome reprieve” and said Ottawa would begin negotiations with Washington on a new economic deal after elections on April 28.

Vietnam said it had agreed with the United States to start trade talks, while Pakistan is sending a delegation to Washington.

China hits Hollywood

But there was no let-up in Trump’s trade war with China, which said the US tariffs policy “goes against the will of the world and goes against the whole world”.

The heightened tariffs against China took effect at the same time as retaliatory levies of 84% imposed by Beijing on US imports.

Beijing added Hollywood to its target list on Thursday as it announced it would “moderately reduce” the number of US films it imports.

But China’s commerce ministry said the door remained open for dialogue.

“We hope the US will meet China halfway, and, based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation,” Commerce Ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said.

Trump has predicted that trade deals will be made with all countries, including China, which has for now refused to roll back retaliatory tariffs on US goods.

“A deal’s going to be made with China. A deal’s going to be made with every one of them,” Trump said at the White House. However, China’s leaders “don’t quite know how to go about it”.

Trump believes his policy will revive America’s lost manufacturing base by forcing companies to relocate to the United States.

The billionaire former property tycoon has particularly raged against China, accusing it of excess production and “dumping” inexpensive goods on other economies.

‘A little queasy’

Markets have been on a roller-coaster ride since Trump announced his tariff plans last week, with the 10% global levy taking effect on Saturday and the higher ones on Wednesday before the pause.

Investors also began to dump US government bonds — a major economic red light since American sovereign debt is normally seen as a haven for investors in troubled times.

Trump denied that he backtracked on the tariffs, saying he remains flexible.

“I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy,” he said.

Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index finished more than 12% higher on Wednesday while the broad-based S&P 500 jumped 9.5%.

“What a day, but more great days coming!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.

Asia and Europe followed suit on Thursday, with Tokyo closing 9.1% higher as the Japanese government welcomed the tariff pause but demanded that other levies be halted.

Paris and Frankfurt were up more than 5% in afternoon deals while London rose 4.5%.

“This will go down in American history as the greatest trade negotiating day we have ever had,” said Trump’s senior trade advisor Peter Navarro.

“We’re in a beautiful position for the next 90 days” to seek trade deals with partners, he told ABC News, adding that more than 75 have sought to negotiate with Washington.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump in a stunning reversal said he would temporarily lower the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries while further ramping up pressure on China, sending global stocks rocketing higher.

After Trump’s announcement, Experts and politicians posted their reactions on social media after Trump’s announcement.

They put forward accusations that the president orchestrated a reverse “pump and dump” scheme with the American economy.

Democratic Senator Adam Schiff is calling for an investigation into market manipulation or insider trading.

“Is Donald Trump’s inner circle illegally profiting off of these huge swings in the stock market by insider trading? Congress must find out,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This was also backed by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Warren wrote on X: “I’m calling for an investigation into whether President Trump manipulated the market to benefit his Wall Street donors—all while working people and small businesses paid the price.”

“Did Trump help insiders cash in on his tariff flip-flopping? It sure looks like corruption,” she added.

Additionally, US senator Chris Murphy also reacted to Trump’s move and said: “An insider trading scandal is brewing. Trump’s 9:30am tweet makes it clear he was eager for his people to make money off the private info only he knew. So who knew ahead of time and how much money did they make?”

Trump’s turnabout on Wednesday, which came less than 24 hours after steep new tariffs kicked in on most trading partners, followed the most intense episode of financial market volatility since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The upheaval erased trillions of dollars from stock markets and led to an unsettling surge in US government bond yields that appeared to catch Trump’s attention.

“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line, they were getting yippy, you know,” Trump told reporters after the announcement, referring to a golf term.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives, who say the uncertainty has made it difficult to forecast market conditions.

The day’s events cast into stark relief the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s policies and how he and his team create and implement them.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asserted that the pullback had been the plan all along to bring countries to the bargaining table. Trump, though, later indicated that the near-panic in markets that had unfolded since his April 2 announcements had factored in to his thinking.

Despite insisting for days that his policies would never change, he told reporters on Wednesday: “You have to be flexible.”

But he kept the pressure on China, the No 2 provider of US imports. Trump said he would raise the tariff on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level that took effect at midnight, further escalating a high-stakes confrontation between the world’s two largest economies. The two countries have traded tit-for-tat tariff hikes repeatedly over the past week.

Trump’s reversal on the country-specific tariffs is not absolute. A 10% blanket duty on almost all US imports will remain in effect, the White House said. The announcement also does not appear to affect duties on autos, steel and aluminum that are already in place.

The 90-day freeze also does not apply to duties paid by Canada and Mexico, because their goods are still subject to 25% fentanyl-related tariffs if they do not comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement’s rules of origin. Those duties remain in place for the moment, with an indefinite exemption for USMCA-compliant goods.

“China is unlikely to change its strategy: stand firm, absorb pressure, and let Trump overplay his hand. Beijing believes Trump sees concessions as a weakness, so giving ground only invites more pressure,” said Daniel Russel, vice president of international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“Other countries will welcome the 90-day stay of execution — if it lasts — but the whiplash from constant zigzags creates more of the uncertainty that businesses and governments hate,” Russel said.

Trump’s tariffs had sparked a days-long sell off that erased trillions of dollars from global stocks and pressured US. Treasury bonds and the dollar, which form the backbone of the global financial system. Canada and Japan said they would step in to provide stability if needed – a task usually performed by the United States during times of economic crisis.

Analysts said the sudden spike in share prices might not undo all of the damage. Surveys have found slowing business investment and household spending due to worries about the impact of the tariffs, and a Reuters/Ipsos survey found that three out of four Americans expect prices to increase in the months ahead.

Goldman Sachs cut its probability of a recession back to 45% after Trump’s move, down from 65%, saying the tariffs left in place were still likely to result in a 15% increase in the overall tariff rate.

Treasury Secretary Bessent shrugged off questions about market turmoil and said the abrupt reversal rewarded countries that had heeded Trump’s advice to refrain from retaliation. He suggested Trump had used the tariffs to create maximum negotiating leverage. “This was his strategy all along,” Bessent told reporters. “And you might even say that he goaded China into a bad position.”

Bessent is the point person in the country-by-country negotiations that could address foreign aid and military cooperation as well as economic matters. Trump has spoken with leaders of Japan and South Korea, and a delegation from Vietnam met with US officials on Wednesday to discuss trade matters, the White House said.

Bessent declined to say how long negotiations with the more than 75 countries that have reached out might take.

Trump said a resolution with China was possible as well. But officials have said they will prioritize talks with other countries.

“China wants to make a deal,” Trump said. “They just don’t know how quite to go about it.”

Trump told reporters that he had been considering a pause for several days. On Monday, the White House denounced a report that the administration was considering such a move, calling it “fake news.”

Earlier on Wednesday, before the announcement, Trump tried to reassure investors, posting on his Truth Social account, “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!”

Later, he added: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

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— Additional input from Reuters

WELLINGTON: After months of protest and discussion on the role of indigenous Maori in the Pacific nation, the New Zealand parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a bill that sought to redefine the fundamentals of the country’s founding agreement.

Over 500 Maori chiefs and the British Crown initially signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, outlining their agreed-upon system of governance. Today’s laws and policies are based on how the document’s clauses are interpreted.

The failed bill was a policy of David Seymour’s ACT New Zealand party, which garnered 8.6% of the party vote at the 2023 election.

Seymour had said the purpose of the Treaty Principles Bill was for parliament to define the principles of the treaty, provide certainty and clarity, and promote debates on its place in constitutional arrangements.

In coalition negotiations, ACT’s governing coalition partners National and New Zealand First had committed to support the bill through the first of three readings but had said they would not support it into law.

The law, needing a simple majority to pass its second reading, failed with 112 votes against it and just 11 votes for it.

“The Treaty Principles Bill is dead. Our movement for Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) justice lives on,” said Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, whose party did not support the bill. “Instead of dividing and conquering, this Bill has backfired and united communities across the motu (country) in solidarity for our founding agreement and what it represents.”

The bill has garnered significant attention. In November, tens of thousands of people marched on New Zealand’s parliament as a show of opposition to the bill, in what was one of the largest protests ever in New Zealand. A deluge of submissions to the committee considering the bill followed.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Tehran is open to discussions with the United States on an equal footing, although he did not specify whether the country would engage in direct negotiations.

It came after US President Donald Trump, who has called on Tehran to hold direct negotiations on its nuclear programme, threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails.

Iran says it is ready to engage in dialogue, but refuses to hold direct talks under threats and pressure.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran wants dialogue on equal footing,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting, according to the presidency’s website.

On Thursday, Trump said he would prefer to hold “direct talks” with Iran.

“I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries,” the US president argued.

But on Saturday, Pezeshkian asked: “If you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?”

“Today, America is not only humiliating Iran, but also the world,” Pezeshkian added, in an apparent reference to recent policies adopted by Trump, including imposing tariffs on imports.

Western countries, led by the United States, have for decades accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran rejects the allegation and maintains that its nuclear activities exist solely for civilian purposes.

On Saturday Hossein Salami, head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, said the country was “ready” for war.

“We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,” the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying.

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark deal with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States, France, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, to regulate its nuclear activities.

The agreement provided for sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Iranian nuclear activities.

In 2018, during Trump’s first term in office, the United States withdrew from the agreement and reinstated sanctions.

In response, Iran rolled back on its commitments under the agreement and accelerated its nuclear programme.

On Monday, Ali Larijani, a close adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that while Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, it would “have no choice but to do so” in the event of an attack against it.