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Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday for talks on the Ukraine conflict, the Kremlin said, cautioning they were unlikely to reach a breakthrough.US President Donald Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to end the more than three-year conflict, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.Witkoff’s trip to Russia, his third since Trump took office, comes after Trump voiced frustration at the slow pace of ceasefire negotiations, telling NBC News last month he was “pissed off” with his Russian counterpart.”The conversation on various aspects of the Ukrainian settlement will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the talks, set to take place in Putin’s home city of Saint Petersburg.”There is no need to expect any breakthroughs here, the process of normalising relations is ongoing,” he was quoted as saying by Russian state media.When asked whether the talks would touch on a possible meeting between Putin and Trump, Peskov was quoted as saying: “Maybe”.Witkoff has held two previous meetings with Putin in Russia since Trump returned to the White House in January.After their last meeting, Witkoff, a long-time Trump ally who worked with the US president in real estate, said Putin was a “great leader” and “not a bad guy”.The envoy’s praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington’s approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second term.Earlier in the day, Witkoff met Russia’s top economic negotiator Kirill Dmitriev.- Rocky road to reset – Trump has pushed for a broad rapprochement with Moscow, which has yielded some results.On Thursday, Russia freed dual US-Russian ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina from prison in exchange for suspected tech smuggler Arthur Petrov, the second exchange between Moscow and Washington in less than two months.Karelina, arrested last January while visiting Russia to see family, was serving a 12-year sentence on “treason” charges after she donated the equivalent of around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.The head of Moscow’s foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, said Friday that Russia would discuss more prisoner swaps in the future.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the swaps helped build confidence between the two sides, which deteriorated under former US President Joe Biden’s administration. “It helps build trust, which is much needed, but it will take a long time to finally restore it,” he told reporters.US and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks about restoring the functioning of their embassies, which drastically scaled back staffing as relations between the two nuclear powers cooled off.But despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.Trump recently told NBC News he was “very angry” with Putin after the Russian president criticised Zelensky’s credibility and called for a transitional external administration to be put in place in Ukraine.Separate talks in Saudi Arabia last month resulted in the White House saying both sides had agreed to halt aerial strikes on energy targets.But no formal agreement was put in place and both sides have accused the other of continuing such attacks.- Witkoff in Oman – Witkoff’s visit to Russia also comes ahead of crucial talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, scheduled for Saturday in Oman.Witkoff, whose sweeping remit covers the conflicts in both Ukraine and Gaza, is set to lead the US delegation for the negotiations.Trump previously appeared to threaten to bomb Iran if it does not agree to a new deal to limit its nuclear programme.Moscow, which counts Iran as a close ally, has urged for a diplomatic solution and warned military confrontation would be a “global catastrophe”.

The mighty dollar is sliding sharply as President Donald Trump’s turbulent trade agenda has battered US credibility in global markets and fanned fears of a self-inflicted economic downturn.The US currency fell by another two percent on Friday to hit a three-year low against the euro to $1.14, before paring back some losses.A weaker dollar could drive inflation in the United States by making imports more expensive, squeeze the profit margins of companies and make US markets less attractive to foreign investors.It has been a sharp reversal of fortune for the greenback, which had soared in the wake of Trump’s November election victory.Back then, there was talk that the dollar’s ascent could bring the euro down to parity with the US currency as investors welcomed Trump’s plans for tax cuts and smaller government.”The US was really at its peak,” recalled Adam Button of ForexLive. “Now it’s slipping in dramatic fashion.”The euros has gained almost 10 percent against the dollar since Trump returned to the White House on January 20, when the currencies stood near parity at $1.04.It was rocked in recent days by Trump’s stop-start tariffs announcements: The US leader announced universal duties last week, only to implement but quickly remove some of the harshest ones this week.”We don’t have a lot of trade wars to look back on, especially in the last 90 years,” Button said. “So modern markets have never dealt with this kind of shock.”- ‘Damage done’ -George Saravelos, global head of foreign exchange research at Deutsche Bank, said that despite Trump’s tariffs U-turn, “the  damage to the USD (dollar) has been done”.”The market is re-assessing the structural attractiveness of the dollar as the world’s global reserve currency and is undergoing a process of rapid  de-dollarization,” Saravelos said in a note to clients.While Trump froze higher tariffs on scores of countries this week, he left a 10 percent universal duty that went into effect last week in place.At the same time, he escalated a trade war with China, applying a 145 percent levy on goods from the world’s second biggest economy, which retaliated on Friday with a 125 percent levy on US goods.Some other Trump tariffs have also had staying power, such as sectoral levies on auto imports, steel and aluminium.”Global recession is now our baseline forecast as higher tariffs and retaliatory measures take hold,” said a JPMorgan Chase research note released Monday.- Still strong -Amid the unrest in financial markets, investors have turned to other assets such as gold and the Swiss franc, which have soared higher.The movement against the dollar is “a bit of a momentum trade and a bit of an acknowledgement that the tone of US exceptionalism is being peeled back,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.”You have foreign investors who are losing confidence in their US investments because of the policy volatility,” O’Hare added.Market watchers say it is too early to say whether the recent decline in the greenback portends any deeper shift. The long-term health of the dollar is an evergreen topic of debate, and the currency has endured earlier moments of doubt.O’Hare noted that the dollar is still “relatively strong” compared with its trading level at other times, including during the 2008 financial crisis.

China said Friday it would raise its tariffs on US goods to 125 percent in a further escalation of a trade war that threatens to bring exports to a halt between the world’s two biggest economies.Beijing’s retaliation sparked fresh market volatility, with European stocks seesawing following the announcement while Tokyo and Seoul closed in the red.In a sign of investors’ worries about the health of the US economy under President Trump’s erratic stewardship, the dollar fell to a three-year low against the euro and by 1.3 percent against the yen.In Beijing, China’s State Council Tariff Commission said new tariffs of 125 percent on US goods would take effect Saturday, almost matching the staggering 145 percent level imposed on Chinese goods coming into America.A Commerce Ministry spokesperson said the United States bore “full responsibility for this”, deriding Trump’s tariffs as a “numbers game” that “will become a joke”.The Chinese finance ministry said tariffs would not go any higher because “there is no possibility of market acceptance for US goods exported to China” — an acknowledgement that almost no imports are possible at the new level.Beijing also said it would file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the latest round of levies announced by Trump.Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned “unilateral bullying”.While the superpowers clash, the EU said its trade chief Maros Sefcovic would hold talks with US counterparts in Washington on Monday to resolve their own tariffs spat.Sefcovic is travelling “in good faith to try and find solutions that can benefit us all,” EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill said.- ‘Beautiful thing’ -Trump sent global financial markets into a tailspin by announcing historic tariffs on America’s trading partners on April 2, including a 10-percent baseline for all goods coming into the United States.After days of plunging markets, on Wednesday he froze the higher tariff rates of 20 percent or more imposed on allies such as the European Union or Japan, but kept an additional rate of 34 percent on China.Beijing has since retaliated, leading to tit-for-tat increases over the past few days that culminated in Friday’s latest move. Trump acknowledged “a transition cost and transition problems” on Thursday, while insisting “in the end it’s going to be a beautiful thing.” Speaking to reporters, he said he had respect for Xi and was hoping for a deal.”He’s been a friend of mine for a long period of time. I think that we’ll end up working out something that’s very good for both countries,” he said.Economists warn that the disruption in trade between the tightly integrated US and Chinese economies threatens businesses, will increase prices for consumers, and could cause a global recession.Trump described the European Union as “very smart” to refrain from retaliatory levies. But the 27-nation bloc’s chief Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times on Friday that it remained armed with a “wide range of countermeasures” if negotiations with Trump hit the skids.”An example is you could put a levy on the advertising revenues of digital services” applying across the bloc, she said.- European response -During talks with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday, state media quoted Xi as saying Friday that China and the EU should team up on trade.”China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,” Xi said.This, he stressed, would not only “safeguard their own legitimate rights and interests, but also… safeguard international fairness and justice.”Top EU officials are due to hold their next summit in July.After new falls on Wall Street on Thursday, Asian markets were under pressure again on Friday.Tokyo sank three percent — a day after surging more than nine percent — while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore and others also sagged. European markets opened higher only to fall after China’s retaliation, but they pared down losses later.Gold, a haven in times of uncertainty, hit a new record above $3,200 while investors spooked by Trump’s policies dumped normally rock-solid US Treasuries.”The sugar high from Trump’s tariff pause is fading fast,” said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.”Bottom line: the world’s two largest economies are in a full-blown trade war — and there are no winners.”But US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick boasted on social media Thursday that “the Golden Age is coming. We are committed to protecting our interests, engaging in global negotiations and exploding our economy.”burs-adp/lth

US envoy Steve Witkoff was in Russia on Friday, the Kremlin said, his third visit to the country as Washington pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine.US leader Donald Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to end the more than three-year-long conflict, but has expressed anger at both Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky over a lack of progress.”Yes, I can confirm he flew into Russia,” state media reported Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying when asked about reports Witkoff had landed for talks with Putin.He did not confirm if a meeting between the two would take place, but said Moscow would “inform” if it did.Witkoff has held two previous meetings with Putin in Russia since Trump returned to the White House in January.After their last meeting, Witkoff, a long-time Trump ally who worked with the US president in real estate, said Putin was a “great leader” and “not a bad guy”.The envoy’s praise of a president long seen by the United States as an autocratic adversary highlights the dramatic turn in Washington’s approach to dealings with the Kremlin since Trump took office for a second term.His visit to Russia also comes ahead of crucial talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, scheduled Saturday in Oman.Witkoff, whose sweeping remit covers the conflicts in both Ukraine and Gaza, is set to lead the US delegation for the negotiations.Trump previously appeared to threaten to bomb Iran if if does not agree to a new deal to limit its nuclear programme.Moscow, which counts Iran as a close ally, has urged for a diplomatic solution and warned military confrontation would be a “global catastrophe.”- Rocky road to reset – Trump has pushed a broad rapprochement with Moscow that has borne some results.On Thursday, Russia freed dual US-Russian ballet dancer Ksenia Karelina from prison in an exchange for suspected tech smuggler Arthur Petrov.Karelina, arrested last January while visiting Russia to see family, was serving a 12-year sentence on “treason” charges after she donated the equivalent of around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.Russia will discuss more prisoner swaps with the United States, the head of its foreign intelligence Sergei Naryshkin said Friday.”Dialogue with the new US administration will certainly continue in various directions, including the issue you mentioned,” Naryshkin told reporters when asked about future talks.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that prisoner exchanges helped build “trust, which is much needed” between the two sides after ties deteriorated under former US president Joe Biden.US and Russian delegations also met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks about restoring the functioning of their embassies, which drastically scaled back staffing as the relations between the two nuclear powers cooled off. However, despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim for a Ukraine ceasefire. Trump recently told NBC news he was “very angry” and “pissed off” with Putin after he criticised Zelensky’s credibility and called for a transitional external administration to be put in place in Ukraine.  Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire.Separate talks in Saudi Arabia last month resulted in the White House saying both sides had agreed to halt aerial strikes on energy targets.But no formal agreement was put in place and both sides have accused the other of continuing such attacks.

Six people including a senior Siemens executive and his family were killed when a sightseeing helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York.The crash on Thursday killed all those onboard the aircraft: the pilot and the family of Agustin Escobar, the CEO of a unit under global tech firm Siemens.Two of the victims were initially taken to a hospital but died later.”We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash in which Agustin Escobar and his family lost their lives,” Siemens told AFP on Friday.US media reports, including from NBC News, identified one of the other victims as Escobar’s wife Merce Camprubi.Siemens Energy, a former subsidiary of Siemens, confirmed to AFP that a “colleague” at the company was killed in the crash alongside Escobar and the pilot, without specifying that it was Escobar’s wife.The bodies of all six victims — including three children — have been recovered from the water, Mayor Eric Adams told a briefing earlier after calling it a “heartbreaking and tragic crash.”The helicopter’s landing skids were seen protruding from the river beside a tunnel vent as several boats clustered around the crash site.Police from both New York and New Jersey, which is on the opposite side of the river from Manhattan, responded to the scene along with fire department vessels.The NBC4 channel reported that its own helicopter was unable to take off because of weather conditions in New York on Thursday that were gusty with thick cloud cover.A witness told AFP it appeared as if the helicopter’s rotor blade “shattered in the sky.” “And after it shattered, then we saw the helicopter just spiral… And then it just crashed into the water just like that,” said fashion designer Belle Angel.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement the aircraft was a Bell 206 helicopter. “The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate,” it said.President Donald Trump described the crash as “terrible.””The footage of the accident is horrendous. God bless the families and friends of the victims,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.- ‘Heartbreaking’ -The river is a busy shipping channel and was the scene of a dramatic 2009 incident when a US Airways jet landed safely in the water. All 155 people on board escaped alive in an event dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.”The river is as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) at points and an AFP correspondent saw what appeared to be floatation devices deployed on the helicopter’s skids.The average temperature of the river is 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) at this time of year, according to the US Geological Survey.”Three adults and three children were on board a Bell 206 helicopter that had left from the downtown Skyport at just about 3 pm,” Adams said, adding that the tourists were a family from Spain.Police and fire service (FDNY) divers raced to pull survivors from the wreckage, he said.”NYPD divers pulled four people from the crash site, and FDNY Divers recovered an additional two. Immediate lifesaving measures were undertaken on the vessels at the scene, as well as the adjoining pier,” police commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “Four victims were pronounced dead on scene, and two more were removed to local area hospitals, where, sadly, both succumbed to their injuries.”The helicopter flew south after taking off before heading up the Manhattan shoreline to the George Washington Bridge, turning back towards the downtown Manhattan heliport, losing control and hitting the water near a Hoboken pier, Tisch said.The police commissioner said the aircraft was operated by New York Helicopter, which did not respond to a request for comment but lists the Bell 206 among its fleet.There have been around 30 helicopter crashes in New York since 1980, Brooklyn Borough President Mark Levine told reporters, calling for tighter restrictions on helicopter traffic in the city.

Music fans were descending on California’s Coachella Valley for the premier arts festival that begins Friday and features headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone.The opening day promises to be a scorcher, quite literally; a dome of high pressure is triggering a mini heat wave in southern California, with meteorologists predicting the temperature could crack 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).Organizers are urging the tens of thousands expected to arrive at the poorly shaded festival grounds to stay hydrated and use sunscreen as they gather to see other day-one lineup highlights including rapper Missy Elliott, Australian electropop band Parcels, and a rare stateside appearance from British punk ravers The Prodigy.The sprawling desert weekend marks the unofficial start of music festival season, which Lady Gaga is priming to kick off with a bang. Fresh off the release of her latest album “Mayhem,” the pop superstar has vowed “a massive night of chaos.””Can’t wait to hear you all singalong and dance dance DANCE till we drop,” she posted when the lineup was announced.South African star Tyla is also slated to perform Friday, one year after an injury forced her to pull out of the 2024 festival.”Had many opportunities to go but swore to myself that the first time I go to Coachella, imma be performing… and look now!” she wrote on X when the lineups were announced last year.And Blackpink’s Lisa — fresh off a role in HBO’s hit show “White Lotus” — will perform on her own Friday night, having twice taken the Coachella stage with her bandmates.Later in the weekend Charli XCX is expected to turn the grounds her signature “brat” green, after a blockbuster year that saw her latest album propel her to new echelons of fame.Travis Scott will play a special guest slot following Green Day’s Saturday set, years after the hip-hop performer was slated to headline the 2020 festival, which was ultimately scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.- Rock revival -Fresh off a Grammy win, Venezuelan band Rawayana is also primed to play a top slot on Saturday.And celebrity conductor Gustavo Dudamel notably will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a sunset concert. There have been orchestral performances at Coachella before — film composers Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer were showcased over the past decade — but Saturday’s performance will be the first time a major professional orchestra has played there.Hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion will helm the main stage Sunday ahead of Post Malone’s headlining performance, with Ty Dolla $ign also set to perform.Also on Sunday French duo Polo & Pan will bring their tropicalia-infused electro set back to the Coachella Valley.German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk are another draw, as are two of the 2025 Best New Artist Grammy nominees, Shaboozey and Benson Boone.And while Coachella has leaned decidedly pop over the past decade, the 2025 edition will get back to the festival’s rock roots. Along with Green Day, rock acts including The Go-Gos, the original Misfits, Jimmy Eat World, and cult punk legends the Circle Jerks are slated to play.”In this world gone sideways we know one thing for certain — rock ‘n’ roll is forever, and its spirit is needed now more than ever,” said Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong earlier this year in Billboard.Coachella 2025 will take place on April 11-13 and 18-20.

The case of Erik and Lyle Menendez will go before a Los Angeles court Friday in the latest chapter of their bid to get out of jail, decades after slaughtering their own parents.The brothers — who are among America’s most infamous murderers — are hoping the court will agree to resentence them for the 1989 shotgun slayings that left their luxury Beverly Hills mansion soaked in blood.During blockbuster trials in the 1990s, prosecutors said the men killed Jose and Kitty Menendez to get their hands on a $14 million fortune, initially blaming their deaths on a Mafia hit.Supporters say the men acted in self-defense, terrified of their parents’ rage after years of sexual and emotional abuse by a tyrannical father and a complicit mother.But despite a lengthy campaign and a seemingly sympathetic public — nourished by a hit Netflix series — Erik Menendez, 54, and Lyle Menendez, 57, face an uphill battle.Last month, the new chief prosecutor of Los Angeles County said his office wanted to withdraw its earlier support for a resentencing hearing that supporters hoped would see the brothers walk free.District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the pair should remain behind bars because they had never accepted their guilt and continued to rely on untruths.”In looking at whether or not the Menendezes have exhibited the full insight and complete responsibility for their crimes, they have not,” Hochman told reporters.”They have told 20 different lies, they’ve actually admitted to four of them, but 16 realized lies remain unacknowledged.”Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic is expected to hear arguments Friday from Hochman’s office asking to withdraw a motion filed by his predecessor George Gascon, who believed the brothers were reformed.That motion asked for the court to resentence them, changing their current life-without-parole to a minimum term with parole that would allow them to go free, given the length of time they have been in prison.The resentencing effort is one of three separate routes being pursued by attorneys for the brothers, who are also seeking a retrial and are appealing to California Governor Gavin Newsom for clemency.Hochman also opposes a new trial.The brothers’ original trials were huge events, and the case saw a surge of renewed interest last year with the release of the Netflix hit “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”Newsom is bound by no specific timeline and could release the men at any point, or refuse their appeal for clemency.He has said he has not watched dramatizations of the Menendez case or documentaries on it “because I don’t want to be influenced by them.””I just want to be influenced by the facts.”

The US Senate approved Donald Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s top military officer on Friday after the president abruptly fired the previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff this year.Lawmakers signed off on Dan Caine’s nomination and promotion to four-star general in an early morning vote of 60 to 25 ahead of a two-week recess.Trump’s administration has dismissed a series of senior officers as part of a rare and major shakeup of top US military leadership that began shortly after he returned to office in January.Democrats have sharply criticized the firings — including of the previous Joint Chiefs chairman, general Charles “CQ” Brown — accusing Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of seeking to ensure the military is led by people loyal to the president.Caine sought to allay such concerns about his nomination during his confirmation hearing last week, pledging that he would “continue the traditions and standards of my oath of office and my commission as a nonpartisan leader who will always strive to do the right thing.”He said that guarding against politicization of the military “starts with being a good example from the top and making sure that we are nonpartisan and apolitical and speaking the truth to power every day.””The nation and the Constitution all require a nonpartisan military,” said Caine, who as a retired lieutenant general was a highly unusual candidate for the top military post.Nominees for chairman of the Joint Chiefs must have served as the head of a military branch, as leader of a combatant command or as vice chairman — none of which Caine has done — but the president can waive that requirement.- Top officers fired -Caine has served in positions including associate director for military affairs at the CIA as well as in various operational and staff roles, and flew more than 150 hours in combat as an F-16 pilot — an aircraft in which he has logged more than 2,800 hours in total.Trump has described him as “an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”The president apparently became enamored of Caine after meeting him in Iraq during his first term, where Trump said the general told him that his nickname was “Razin.””I said, wait a minute, your name is Razin Caine? I love you, I’ve been looking for you for five years… this is what I want,” Trump told an investor forum in February.But Trump has soured on the country’s top military officer before. General Mark Milley began serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the president’s first term but later clashed with him and was stripped of his security detail and security clearance in retirement this year.The president fired Brown in February, less than two years into his four-year term as chairman, which began under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden — a move that cleared the way for Caine’s nomination.Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicization of the traditionally apolitical US military.

US troops will be able to deploy to a string of bases along the Panama Canal under a joint deal seen by AFP Thursday, a major concession to President Donald Trump as he seeks to reestablish 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.But it gives the United States broad sway to deploy an unspecified number of personnel to bases, some of which Washington built when it occupied the canal zone decades ago.Trump, since returning to power in January, has repeatedly claimed that China has too much influence over the canal, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade. His administration has vowed to “take back” control of the strategic waterway that the United States funded, built and controlled until 1999.The United States has long participated in military exercises in Panama.However, a longer-term rotational force — such as the one the United States maintains in Darwin, Australia — could prove politically toxic for Panama’s center-right leader Jose Raul Mulino.- ‘Country on fire’ -Mulino was on Thursday in Peru, where he revealed that the United States had asked to have its own bases.Mulino said he had 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 Abrego Wednesday, Panama won its own concessions.The United States recognized 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 have to agree to any deployments.But given Trump’s willingness to rip up or rewrite trade deals, treaties and agreements, that might offer little comfort to worried Panamanians.”What we have here is a setback to national sovereignty,” Panamanian trade union leader Saul Mendez told AFP.”What the Panamanian government has done is an act of treason. They are traitors and must be tried.”- Difficult history -The country has a long and difficult relationship with the United States. They have close cultural and economic ties, despite the decades-long US occupation of the canal zone and 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 take back the canal, and his claim of Chinese influence have prompted mass demonstrations.By law, Panama operates the canal, giving access to all nations.But 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 pull out of 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.A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal.

The Trump administration suffered a setback in a closely watched immigration case Thursday, as the US Supreme Court ordered it to “facilitate” the return of a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant.Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador last month as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Most of the deportees were suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was deported due to an “administrative error.”The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the government to “‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the conservative-majority court said in its unsigned ruling.- Protected status -Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country. Following his deportation and internment in the notorious CECOT counter-terrorist prison, lower courts had ordered that the US government return him to the United States by midnight on Monday.The Supreme Court put that order on hold hours before the deadline, after the administration requested an emergency ruling.In its challenge, the government argued that Abrego Garcia is a member of Salvadoran gang MS-13 — a claim the lower courts found lacked evidence.The US government also argued that it no longer had jurisdiction to have Abrego Garcia released now that he is on Salvadoran soil, calling the lower courts’ orders “unprecedented and indefensible” and a “demand that the United States let a member of a foreign terrorist organization into America tonight.””We’re confident that people that are (in CECOT) should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday, according to news site Axios.Noem had visited the prison in person on March 26.The White House has trumpeted a $6-million deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in return for his holding alleged gang members in the ultra-high-security jail.- ‘Deport any person’ -“The (Monday) deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective,” the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.However, “the rest of the District Court’s order remains in effect” requiring Abrego Garcia’s return, the judges added — although the lower court must clarify its order “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”A statement signed by liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson argued there was “no basis in law” for Abrego Garcia’s removal to El Salvador.”The government’s argument… implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including US citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court could intervene,” they added.Human Rights Watch on Friday called on the US government to disclose information about all the people it has moved to CECOT and allow them contact with the outside world.”The cruelty of the US and Salvadoran governments has put these people outside the protection of the law and caused immense pain to their families,” the rights group said in a statement.