US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal be returned to Washington, complaining of "unfair" treatment of American ships and hinting at China's growing influence. Here are five things to know about the waterway connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. - Panamanian operated - The 80-kilometer (50-mile) interoceanic waterway is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous public entity. The Central American nation's constitution describes the canal as an "inalienable heritage of the Panamanian nation" that is open to vessels "of all nations." The United States is its main user, accounting for 74 percent of cargo, followed by China with 21 percent. Panama's government sets the price of tolls based on canal needs and international demand. Rates depends on a vessel's cargo capacity. "The canal has no direct or indirect control from China, nor the European Union, nor the United States or any other power," Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said Sunday as he dismissed Trump's threat. All vessels, including warships and submarines, are given a Panama Canal pilot. - National history - Panama's independence from Colombia in 1903 is linked to the canal. Following the failure of French count Ferdinand de Lesseps to open a channel through the isthmus, the United States promoted the separation of the province of Panama and signed a treaty with the nascent country that ceded land and water in perpetuity to build it. After 10 years of construction and an investment of $380 million, the canal was inaugurated on August 15, 1914 with the transit of the steamer Ancon. Some 25,000 deaths from disease and accidents were recorded during its construction. The canal "is part of our history" and "an irreversible achievement," Mulino said. - American enclave - Washington's establishment of a "Canal Zone" -- an enclave with its own military bases, police and justice system -- gave rise to decades of demands by Panamanians to reunify the country and take control of the waterway. In 1977, Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos and US president Jimmy Carter signed treaties that allowed the canal to be transferred to Panama on December 31, 1999. "Any attempt to reverse this historic achievement not only dishonors our struggle, but is also an insult to the memory of those who made it possible," former president Martin Torrijos, the general's son, wrote on social media. Under the treaties, supported by more than 40 countries, the canal is deemed neutral and any ship can pass through. The only conditions are that ships must comply with safety regulations and military vessels from countries at war must not pass through at the same time. - System of locks - Unlike Egypt's Suez Canal, the Panama Canal operates using freshwater stored in two reservoirs. A drought led to a reduction in the number of transits in 2023, but the situation has since normalized. The canal, which has a system of locks to raise and lower vessels, transformed global shipping. Crafts can travel between the two oceans in about eight hours without having to sail all the way around Cape Horn, the southern tip of the Americas. The canal allows a ship to shave 20,300 kilometers off a journey from New York to San Francisco. - Cash cow - Five percent of world maritime trade passes through the canal, which connects more than 1,900 ports in 170 countries. By the early 21st century, it had become too small, so it was expanded between 2009 and 2016. Today, the canal can accommodate ships up to 366 meters long and 49 meters wide (1,200 feet by 161 feet) -- equivalent to almost four football pitches. It generates six percent of Panama's national economic output and since 2000 has pumped more than $28 billion into state coffers. More than 11,200 ships transited the canal in the last fiscal year carrying 423 million tons of cargo. jjr/fj/dr/mlm

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NoneScott Turner, President-elect Donald Trump choice to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development , is a former NFL player who ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term. Turner, 52, is the first Black person selected to be a member of the Republican's incoming cabinet. 24/7 San Diego news stream: Watch NBC 7 free wherever you are Here are some things to know about Turner: From professional football to politics Turner grew up in a Dallas suburb, Richardson, and graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a defensive back and spent nine seasons in the NFL beginning in 1995, playing for the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. During offseasons, he worked as an intern then-Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. After Turner retired in 2004, he worked full time for the congressman. In 2006, Turner ran unsuccessfully as a Republican in California’s 50th Congressional District. Turner joined the Texas House in 2013 as part of a large crop of tea party-supported lawmakers. He tried unsuccessfully to become speaker before he finished his second term in 2016. He did not seek a third term. U.S. & World Vaccines don't cause autism. What does? Here's what to know about the new funding deal that countries agreed to at UN climate talks Motivational speaker and pastor Turner also worked for a software company in a position called “chief inspiration officer” and said he acted as a professional mentor, pastor, and councilor for the employees and executive team. He has also been a motivational speaker. He and his wife, Robin Turner, founded a nonprofit promoting initiatives to improve childhood literacy. His church, Prestonwood Baptist Church, lists him as an associate pastor. He is also chair of the center for education opportunity at America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers to lay the groundwork if he won a second term. Headed council in Trump's first term Trump introduced Turner in April 2019 as the head of the new White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. Trump credited Turner with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” The mission of the council was to coordinate with various federal agencies to attract investment to so-called “Opportunity Zones," which were economically depressed areas eligible to be used for the federal tax incentives. The role of HUD HUD is responsible for addressing the nation’s housing needs. It also is charged with fair housing laws and oversees housing for the poorest Americans, sheltering more than 4.3 million low-income families through public housing, rental subsidy and voucher programs. The agency, with a budget of tens of billions of dollars, runs a multitude of programs that do everything from reducing homelessness to promoting homeownership. It also funds the construction of affordable housing and provides vouchers that allow low income families pay for housing in the private market. During the campaign, Trump focused mostly on the prices of housing, not public housing. He railed against the high cost of housing and said he could make it more affordable by cracking down on illegal immigration and reducing inflation. He also said he would work to reduce regulations on home construction and make some federal land available for residential construction.UnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New York

Buying a house in 2025: your how-to guideNew Delhi There is more than one way to look at the assembly election results for Maharashtra and Jharkhand. And there is merit in looking at each of them in some detail. Here are three questions that can help us understand the results. The incumbent party/alliance is coming back to power with a bigger majority in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand. What explains this? The question is an interesting one because the results in both these states are in stark contrast to what happened in the Lok Sabha elections less than six months ago. What really happened in this short period. The other important question is that of identity-based ideological affinity to parties and its role in shaping the verdict. Let us look at them one by one. What is one thing both the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led government in Jharkhand and the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra did before the elections? They announced cash transfer schemes for women; Ladki Bahin in Maharashtra and Maiya Samman in Jharkahnd. Hemant Soren or Eknath Shinde were not the first chief ministers to do this. Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh have won landslide victories in their states with tail winds from similar schemes. Even the BJP government in Haryana promised a cash transfer scheme to women. It was important enough to find a mention in the speech Narendra Modi made from the BJP headquarters on the night of the Haryana results. The key takeaway is simple. Welfare, freebies, doles, whatever one may choose to call it, is becoming an indispensable part of electoral strategy in most parts of India. It does not matter whether it is a poor state or a rich one – Jharkhand and Maharashtra are extreme examples of each of these – the underclass expects tangible, even if seemingly insignificant to the well-off, amount of money in return for votes. Fiscal hawks may scoff at this trend, but it is the democratic response to what has otherwise been an extremely unequal trajectory of economic growth in the country. This trend is not going anywhere. Both the government and markets should take note. What was one thing which Narendra Modi did right when the BJP had its back against the wall after losing to the Congress in 2018 assembly elections? National security hawks will say may be the Balakot air strikes in the aftermath of terror attack in Pulwama changed the narrative. But the retrospective cash transfer scheme for farmers or PM-KISAN which was perhaps an even bigger factor. Rural distress, thanks to a worsening of terms of trade for agriculture, played a big role in generating headwinds for the BJP in not just Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 2018 but also Gujarat in 2017. Modi realised that this anger had to be pacified and this is exactly why he announced a retrospective -- send money now verify eligibility later -- scheme before the 2019 general elections. The rest, as they ,say is history. The Congress collapsed even in states where it had formed governments less than six months previously. Fast forward to the 2024 interim budget and this is exactly where the Modi government got it wrong. There was absolutely nothing for the underclass in the 2024 interim budget which was not just hawkish on fiscal consolidation but actually cut back on revenue expenditure (if interest payments were to be excluded) even in nominal terms. Revenue expenditure is what matters if you want to swing an election a few months away. If the 2024 interim budget had been more like the 2019 one, would the BJP have done better? In hindsight, particularly after the Haryana and Maharashtra results, there is evidence to suggest that it would have, and that the 2024 Lok Sabha verdict was more against the BJP’s fiscal stance than its ideological stance. Last but not the least is the question of identity. Does it really work in elections? Ask different people and you will get a different answer. Hemant Soren is now the most successful Schedule Tribe (ST) leader in not just Jharkhand but almost all of India outside the northeast. Not only has he swept the ST reserved ACs in the state but built a coalition which has demolished the historical fault line between ST and non-ST voters in the state. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and almost the entire leadership of the BJP tried very hard to convert the ST vs non-ST binary – the BJP made a non-ST the chief minister in 2014 and did not name a chief ministerial candidate in these elections – into a Hindu-Muslim one in Jharkhand. They failed miserably. The two Shiv Senas are an even bigger example. Uddhav Thackeray’s faction tried to do an ideological somersault by joining hands with the Congress. He first lost most of his legislative party to Eknath Shinde and then almost his entire popular support. What is the key takeaway from these examples? Identity can help your politics but promiscuity blunts its edge. And identity-based projects are not built in a day. The JMM has been a party of STs from the day it was born. The Shiv Sena embraced Hindutva along with nativism decades ago. The only contradiction in this alliance was whether it was willing to become a junior partner of the BJP. Uddhav Thackeray did not want to do it. Today’s results – the BJP’s MLA count is more than double that of the Shiv Sena which was its partner – should settle that question. Also, amorphous, friction-ridden identities do not work. This is exactly why things such as caste census or Maratha reservation politics have had very little traction in these elections. Is there a larger lesson to be drawn here? Acing electoral politics in India requires economic pragmatism and ideological consistency. You cannot force voters to accept an economics which suits the elite and ideology which is oblivious to entrenched social contradictions in the electoral realm. The former is mostly uniform in India and the latter extremely diverse. This is what makes Indian democracy fascinating.

Elon Musk shoots down ‘wrong-headed economic thinking,’ says there’s ‘infinite potential’ for job creation. “The ‘fixed pie’ fallacy is at the heart of much wrong-headed economic thinking. There is essentially infinite potential for job and company creation. Think of all the things that didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago!” Musk declared in a post on X. Musk’s comment was in response to a post from entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale who had mentioned Sriram Krishnan — who President-elect Trump recently tapped for a role in his upcoming administration. Last month, Krishnan advocated for lifting a cap on green cards when replying to a post of Musk’s regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new body that Musk will lead alongside businessman Vivek Ramaswamy . “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge,” Krishnan wrote. In another post, Krishnan added, “simple logic – we need the best, regardless of where they happen to be born (another bizarre quirk – the country cap is where you were born, not even citizenship).” David Sacks , who Trump tapped for White House AI and cryptocurrency czar, discussed Krishnan’s view in a post this week. “Sriram still supports skills-based criteria for receiving a green card, not making the program unlimited. In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based,” Sacks wrote in part of his post. “Makes sense,” Musk replied. Trump announced this month that Krishnan is his pick for senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in A.I., and help shape and coordinate A.I. policy across Government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology,” Trump noted in a post on Truth Social.After announcing that they are expecting their first baby, Ignacio Baladán and ‘La Segura’ are enthusiastically preparing to discover the sex of their firstborn. The couple thrilled their followers by sharing a special moment on their social networks. Ignacio Baladan and Natalia Segura, better known as ‘La Segura’, excited their followers by announcing that they are expecting their first baby. The couple, who got engaged during the reality show ‘The House of the Famous’ recently shared a moving moment when having an ultrasound and seeing the body of her first-born for the first time. The influencer published a short video on her Instagram account where, together with the Uruguayan, she stars in this emotional moment. Ignacio Baladán and ‘La Segura’ discover the sex of their baby ‘La Segura’ and the Uruguayan chef Ignacio Baladán are living one of the most exciting moments of their lives. After two years of relationship, both confirmed that they will be parents for the first time, a dream they shared publicly with a photograph of the ultrasound and a pregnancy test. Recently, the Colombian influencer shared a moving video in which, together with the father of her first child, they observe their baby’s little body for the first time. Emotional and with tears in their eyes, they were both amazed by the special moment. In her Instagram post, the influencer showed her joy at seeing her baby for the first time during a recent ultrasound. “Mom and dad, we are looking forward to seeing you.” wrote. The couple plans to reveal whether their first child will be a boy or a girl at an emotional event. Meanwhile, the influencer has challenged her followers to guess the sex of the baby. When will the sex of Ignacio Baladán and ‘La Segura”s baby be revealed? The reveal of the sex of Ignacio Baladán and ‘La Segura’s baby is scheduled for next December 6 a date that both have enthusiastically announced on their social networks. Through their publications, the couple has invited their followers to participate in a fun dynamic to guess if it will be a boy or a girl. “Anxiety is killing me, what do you think it is? “Let the betting begin.” wrote the Colombian influencer. Join the WhatsApp channel

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Clara Strack scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Teonni Key had 16 points and 13 rebounds and No. 14 Kentucky defeated Arizona State 77-61 on Tuesday in the Music City Classic to remain unbeaten. Kentucky nearly had four players with double-doubles as Georgia Amoore added 20 points and nine rebounds and Amelia Hassett had eight points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats (6-0), who shot 42% and scored 13 points off 14 Arizona State turnovers.NoneParokya Ni Edgar vocalist Chito Miranda received negative reactions for sharing this post amid the case allegedly filed against his wife Neri Miranda. Neri ventured into business after her active years in showbiz. Through her social media platforms, she shares glimpses of her businesses and different tips about being an entrepreneur and how to manage the household. Because of this, she was tagged as “Wais Na Misis” and her followers online are always engaging on her social media posts. However, the online community was shocked when a rumor surfaced that Neri was arrested . Talent manager-vlogger Ogie Diaz mentioned in his vlog that apparently, Neri Miranda’s opponent is a powerful person. Amid this issue, the Southern Police District shared a post stating that an actress “alias Neri” was arrested for violating the Securities Regulation Code . As of this writing, the celebrity entrepreneur has not released a statement yet. Netizens are also waiting for Neri’s husband, Chito Miranda, to speak about this issue. However, some netizens are quite dismayed that amid this issue, the band vocalist shared a Star Wars miniature Lego figure. “Ang pinaka-cute na Lego figure. Kay Migs ‘to pero parang gusto ko hingin eh, ” Chito wrote in the caption of his post. On his Facebook post, most commenters loved what he shared and commended him for the positive vibe. However, a netizen asked if this figure is also “estafador.” Chito Miranda also shared that same post on his Instagram page. Most netizens who commented on his post on the photo-sharing social media platform are asking what happened to his wife while some have already criticized Neri. A netizen even criticized the band vocalist for sharing this kind of post amid what his wife is going through. Here are some comments from netizens.Australian politicians pass bill that would ban young children from social media

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"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" Thanks for your interest in Kalkine Media's content! To continue reading, please log in to your account or create your free account with us.

Marinakis Q&A: Edu, VAR and Forest's 'realistic' top-six ambitions

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