Marco Rubio arrived in Panama Saturday on his debut trip abroad as US secretary of state, as he looks for how to follow up on President Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to seize the Panama Canal.Rubio’s mission came as Trump imposed steep tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — another step showing a far more aggressive US foreign policy.Rubio will travel later to four other small Latin American countries for an agenda focused on migration, a highly unusual first trip for the top US diplomat, whose predecessors were more likely to start the job with language of cooperation with major allies.Trump has refused to rule out military force to seize the Panama Canal, which the United States handed over at the end of 1999, saying that China has exerted too much control through its investment in surrounding ports.In his inaugural address, Trump said that the United States will be “taking it back” — and he refused to back down Friday.”They’ve already offered to do many things,” Trump said of Panama, “but we think it’s appropriate that we take it back.”He alleged that Panama was taking down Chinese-language signs to cover up how “they’ve totally violated the agreement” on the canal.”Marco Rubio is going over to talk to the gentleman that’s in charge,” Trump told reporters.Rubio will tour the Panama Canal and meet President Jose Raul Mulino on Sunday, a US official said. Mulino, generally considered an ally of the United States, has ruled out opening negotiations after complaining to the United Nations about Trump’s threat.”I cannot negotiate, much less open a process of negotiations on the canal,” Mulino said Thursday.The issue “is sealed. The canal is Panama’s,” Mulino said.Mulino’s government, however, has ordered an audit of CK Hutchison Holdings, the Hong Kong company that operates ports on both sides of the canal.- What does ‘taking it back’ mean? -Trump’s more aggressive foreign policy postures come as his administration also upends foreign aid, with US media characterizing recent firings at the nation’s international development agency as a “purge.”Amid the upheaval, which has seen swaths of humanitarian funding frozen, USAID’s websites were down over the weekend, with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy criticizing the “total destruction” of the agency.The State Department has also altered its travel advisory language to get rid of references to trans people, changing LGBTQ to LGB.In Panama, it remains to be seen how Rubio carries out Trump’s threat. Some experts believe that Trump was simply applying pressure and could declare a win by the United States ramping up investment in the canal — an outcome that most Panamanians would welcome.Rubio has played down the military option but also did not contradict his boss.”I think the president’s been pretty clear he wants to administer the canal again. Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of that idea,” Rubio told SiriusXM radio in an interview before the trip.He acknowledged that Panama’s government “generally is pro-American” but said that the Panama Canal is a “core national interest for us.””We cannot allow any foreign power — particularly China -– to hold that kind of potential control over it that they do. That just can’t continue,” Rubio said.The canal remains the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and coasts, with 40 percent of US container traffic going through it.Trump administration officials said they were blaming not Mulino but previous Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela, who in 2017 — during Trump’s first term as president — moved to sever ties with Taiwan in favor of China.Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America, charged that Panama unfairly raised costs for US ships while also seeking assistance from the United States for canal upkeep. Panama attributes rising costs to the effects of a drought, exacerbated by climate change.

In Uganda, millions of schoolchildren have benefitted from a universal education program backed by the United States. In South Sudan, US assistance has helped thousands of flood victims at risk of cholera.With one swoop of the pen, President Donald Trump froze the bulk of US foreign assistance for three months on returning to office, demanding a review to ensure all money meets his “America First” principles.The Trump administration has since issued waivers for food and other humanitarian aid. But aid workers say uncertainty reigns — and that the impact is already being felt by some of the world’s most vulnerable.Even if US assistance returns after the 90-day review, aid workers fear long-term consequences from the cutoff, and some observers see a lasting blow to US credibility as China and other powers woo the developing world.”Even if the funding eventually turns back on, great damage will have been done,” said Peter Waiswa, an accountant in Kamuli, Uganda who coordinates aid as part of a network known as the Compassion Connectors.”Missing drugs for days for the HIV/AIDS patients can cause death,” he said.Waiswa said that some schools in the universal education program that relied on US assistance have already given notices for children not to report to school.In Aweil in the northern reaches of impoverished South Sudan, orphanage teacher James Akoon Akot said that 3,000 people who lost their homes in floods were promised relief by international groups backed by US assistance.”The problem is that aid is used for both immediate relief and reconstruction,” he said.”If this decision to cut off funds is not reconsidered soon, there is a very real possibility that people will begin to die of hunger and diseases in South Sudan,” he said.- Uncertainly reigns -The United States has long been the world’s largest provider of development aid, giving $64 billion in 2023.Among its most prominent programs is PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative started under former president George W. Bush that is credited with saving some 26 million lives.Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo signed on January 24 froze all US assistance with waivers for “emergency food” and, outside of development, weapons for Israel and Egypt.In a follow-up memo, he exempted other humanitarian assistance including shelter and medicine, appearing to give the greenlight for anti-retroviral drugs funded by PEPFAR.But Suzy Dzimbiri, a nurse in Zumba, Malawi, said she heard of people stockpiling whatever medicine they can and that one local charity that administered HIV/AIDS treatment, named Lighthouse, quickly closed down.In Washington, a congressional aide who follows humanitarian assistance said that even a nine-day shutdown in theory affects one million daily doses of HIV/AIDS medication — and that guidance was still murky.”It sounds like people expect PEPFAR to go ahead, but we have nothing in terms of specifics,” the aide said.”We do know of cases where there has been medicine sitting on the shelf and ready to go and that it’s been ordered to stay on the shelf” pending guidance from Washington, the aide said on condition of anonymity.”PEPFAR was supposed to be our Marshall Plan. The idea that we would just flip a switch and it would all turn off shows us to be capricious — we don’t actually care — and that going forward they probably do need to look to countries like China,” the aide said.- ‘We don’t want to see people die’ -Explaining his decision to issue further waivers, Rubio said, “We don’t want to see people die and the like.”But he said that the waiver process was rightfully forcing groups to justify spending as “historically we’ve gotten very little cooperation.””We have this thing that I’ve called the foreign aid industrial complex — all of these entities around the world that are getting millions and millions of dollars from the United States,” Rubio said in an interview with SiriusXM.”We have to make sure that it’s aligned with our national interest.”A senior official from a US-based organization feared that the priority on “emergency” assistance was part of a broader plan to say eventually that the United States need not fund anything else.”Even the term ’emergency food’ is a contradiction in terms. You go without food for a few days, and I’ll tell you what emergency food looks like,” said the official, who requested anonymity so as not to upset US government contacts.The official said that the most affected by the cutoff were local groups that did not have financial reserves — exactly the types of organizations that US officials want to build up.”This is essentially like burning down the foundations with the professed aim of renovating your house.”

Camp queen, queer icon, a searing yet irreverent songwriter with cascading vocals: Chappell Roan has soared to pop’s upper echelons on a singular blend of vulnerability and high-production performance that has earned her legions of fans.Her supersonic ascent has made the musician from Missouri with a waterfall of red curls one of the leading contenders at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, with six nominations, including in all four major categories.Her over-the-top theater kid persona, complete with wildly lavish costumes and high-drama makeup that nods to drag culture, made her an unstoppable force on the festival circuit.And since then, the 26-year-old has since been truly inescapable — on TikTok, the radio, streaming, late-night shows and, eventually, a viral media cycle over her lukewarm support of presidential candidate Kamala Harris that proved, in case anyone doubted it, just how big she’d gotten.In an industry thirsty for “moments,” it seemed like Roan was a rare bird who appeared out of nowhere.But she’d actually been hustling for a decade — making music while working odd jobs, handling mental health struggles and coming into her own.- Midwest Princess -Born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz on February 19, 1998 in Willard, Missouri, Roan threw herself into the arts while never quite finding her social footing, and grappling with weighty emotions she would eventually learn were symptoms of bipolar disorder.Her YouTube performances earned attention, and she moved to Los Angeles — but then home again after Atlantic Records dropped her amid the early days of the pandemic that left the music industry reeling.But before she was cut loose, Roan dropped “Pink Pony Club,” a track that years later would blossom as one of her smash hits.Dan Nigro, the heavyweight producer who worked with Roan at Atlantic, reconnected with her in 2021, and the years-long build-up to her soaring takeoff began in earnest.For several scrappy years, she worked odd jobs, amassed followers on TikTok, underwent therapy to treat her unpredictable condition and finished her debut album.Roan — whose stage name pays homage to her late grandfather Dennis Chappell and his favorite song, “The Strawberry Roan” — released her bold, vulnerable album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” in 2023 to critical praise.On it, she delves into themes of sexuality and yearning with a pop-forward, dance-heavy beat and impressive vocals that one critic characterized as “singing in cursive.”Her standalone single “Good Luck, Babe!” and the cheerleader-inspired dance number “Hot to Go!” found enormous audiences.She thrived on TikTok but Roan wasn’t only magnetic online: it was her extravagant presence onstage — she did New York’s Governors Ball dressed as the Statue of Liberty after arriving in a huge apple bong — that cemented her superstar status.- Growing pains -Roan’s phenomenal rise has come with a price: she has spoken out about fame’s growing pains that have left her exhausted and at times afraid of aggressive fans.During a set over the summer, she broke down in tears, telling fans she felt “a little off today” over her career’s breakneck pace.She says many of her fellow artists have reached out with sympathy, including Elton John — who comically called her from an unidentified number 11 times before she answered and realized it was him, she told Rolling Stone.”I was telling him I was struggling a lot, and he said, ‘If you need to stop, say stop,'” she said.Roan, who grew up in a conservative, Christian household, isn’t shy about speaking out on topics from trans rights to supporting the Palestinian cause, but does not want to be pigeon-holed for her progressive politics.She also has sung of queer love, and eventually came out as a lesbian this past summer.But, in an industry that finds a marketing angle wherever possible, she insists on “being taken seriously outside of” her queerness.”Look, I love being gay. I just don’t want to talk about it every second of every day,” Roan told Rolling Stone.

Within his first two weeks in office, US President Donald Trump sent an emissary to arch-rival Venezuela, an apparent about-turn from the hard-line approach he adopted toward Caracas during his first term. Washington has not recognized Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in a vote he is widely accused of stealing, and has instead continued to consider opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela’s president-elect.Yet Trump envoy Richard Grenell met Maduro himself in Caracas on Friday, securing the release of six US prisoners held in the Caribbean country in talks Caracas said were held in “mutual respect.”On Saturday, Trump announced Venezuela had agreed to accept illegal migrants deported from the United States, including gang members — and had even agreed to provide the transport.”It is clear that the government of Donald Trump had two main interests in the relationship with Maduro as a starting point: the first is the migration issue and the second the situation of US citizens arbitrarily detained in Venezuela,” international relations expert Mariano de Alba told AFP.The meeting apparently “opens the door to an improvement in relations,” he added, though perhaps not “in the short term.”- ‘New beginning’ in US-Venezuela relations? -Venezuela has the world’s biggest known oil reserves, but production is stunted, the country is heavily sanctioned and GDP has dropped 80 percent in a decade on Maduro’s watch — prompting nearly eight million of the country’s 30 million citizens to flee.Caracas broke off diplomatic relations with Washington in January 2019 after Trump recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” after elections also rejected as neither free nor fair.The strategy of recognizing Guaido collapsed and Maduro merely tightened his hold on power. The Joe Biden administration later relaxed sanctions on oil as part of a deal for American prisoners and a promise to hold free elections.Venezuela freed 10 Americans in a swap, but Biden reimposed sanctions after Maduro did not follow through on democratic reforms.Phil Gunson, a Venezuela expert at the International Crisis Group think tank, said he was not surprised Washington and Caracas made contact, but noted “the speed with which an apparent agreement has been reached.””It was illusory to think that Trump would come with the same maximum pressure policy” that had previously failed to influence Maduro, he said.It was not clear what, if anything, Venezuela had gained from the talks with Grenell, after which Maduro called for a “new beginning” in bilateral relations.But “it is safe to assume that… there was an express request from the Maduro government not to increase pressure with sanctions,” said de Alba.- ‘Important symbolism’ -A Venezuelan government statement said “the negative impact of economic sanctions” was among the issues discussed with Grenell.But for now, it seems the status quo remains, said Gunson.Trump has so far not introduced any changes to a Biden-era concession allowing oil companies such as Chevron to continue operating in Venezuela despite sanctions against the regime.Maduro “would like to have the sanctions lifted, that’s obvious, but if he has to live with what he’s got — the concessions that Biden made — he can live with it,” the analyst added.A Trump administration official meanwhile recently said that: “we don’t need Venezuelan oil.”De Alba said Grenell’s visit, which Maduro has celebrated as a triumph, carried “important symbolism” and could be interpreted as a blow for the opposition, which has its strongest ally in the United States.”We say to President Donald Trump: we have taken a first step. Hopefully it can be sustained, we want to sustain it,” Maduro said Friday.Mauricio Claver-Carone, US special envoy for Latin America, said the talks did not imply any softening of the position on Maduro.But according to Gunson, “despite the rhetoric, the US, in practice, recognizes Maduro as president.”Trump has made the deportation of undocumented people in the United States a top priority.His administration has put an end to protections from deportation for more than 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States under a special status introduced under Biden due to fears for their safety if they return to Venezuela.