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The artist who painted US President Donald Trump in what he criticized as a “purposefully distorted” portrait has said his remarks have harmed her business.Colorado removed the official portrait of Trump from display in the state’s capitol building last month after the president complained that it was deliberately unflattering.”Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol… along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on March 24.”The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” Trump said.The 78-year-old Republican called for the oil painting to be taken down, and said the artist, Sarah Boardman, “must have lost her talent as she got older.”The Democrat-controlled Colorado legislature said the same day as Trump’s complaint that the painting would be removed from the gallery in the capitol’s rotunda — where it had been hung since 2019 — and placed in storage.Boardman has responded to Trump’s critique in a statement on her website, saying she completed the work “accurately, without ‘purposeful distortion,’ political bias, or any attempt to caricature the subject, actual or implied.””President Trump is entitled to comment freely, as we all are, but the additional allegations that I ‘purposefully distorted’ the portrait, and that I ‘must have lost my talent as I got older’ are now directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years,” the British-born artist said.Boardman added in the undated statement that for the six years that the portrait of Trump hung in the Colorado capitol, she “received overwhelmingly positive reviews” on the commissioned work.However, since Trump’s comments “that has changed for the worst,” she said.In addition to Trump and former president Barack Obama, Boardman was also commissioned to paint a portrait of ex-president George W. Bush.

Violent storms battering the central-eastern United States have killed at least 16 people, officials said, with the National Weather Service warning on Saturday of “severe” flash flooding in the coming days.A line of fierce storms stretching from Arkansas to Ohio has damaged buildings, flooded roadways and produced dozens of tornadoes in recent days.Tennessee was hardest hit by extreme weather, with state authorities saying on Saturday that 10 people had died across the western part of the state.Two people were killed due to floods in Kentucky, according to state Governor Andy Beshear, including a child who was “swept away by floodwaters.”Photos shared on social and local media showed widespread damage from the storm across several states, with homes torn apart, toppled trees, downed power lines and overturned cars.”Severe, widespread flash flooding is expected” into Sunday in parts of the central-eastern region, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, warning that “lives and property are in great danger.”Two storm-related deaths were recorded in Missouri and one in Indiana, according to local media reports and authorities.A five-year-old was found dead in a home in Little Rock, Arkansas “in connection to the ongoing severe weather,” the state’s emergency management agency said in a statement.”Flooding has reached record levels in many communities,” Kentucky’s Governor Beshear wrote on social media Saturday, urging residents in the state to “avoid travel, and never drive through water.”More than 100,000 customers were without power in Arkansas and Tennessee as of early Sunday, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.The NWS on Saturday said that moderate to severe tornadoes could form in parts of the Tennessee Valley and Lower Mississippi Valley on Sunday, along with “severe thunderstorms.”Scientists say global warming is disrupting climate patterns and the water cycle, making extreme weather more frequent and ferocious.Last year set a record for high temperatures in the United States, with the country also pummeled by a barrage of tornadoes and destructive hurricanes.

A revolution is underway in gene editing — and at its forefront is David Liu, an American molecular biologist whose pioneering work is rewriting the building blocks of life with unprecedented precision.A professor at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Liu was awarded a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences on Saturday for developing two transformative technologies: one already improving the lives of patients with severe genetic diseases, the other poised to reshape medicine in the years ahead.He spoke with AFP ahead of the Los Angeles ceremony for the prestigious Silicon Valley-founded award.He will receive $3 million for his work on “base editing” and “prime editing,” and plans to donate most of it to support his charitable foundation.”The ability to change a DNA sequence of our choosing into a new sequence of our choosing is a fundamentally very powerful capability,” the 51-year-old said, foreseeing uses not just in human medicine but areas like developing more nutritious or disease-resistant crops.- Correcting the code -DNA is made up of four chemical “letters” — the nucleotide bases A, G, T and C. Mutations in this sequence cause thousands of human diseases, yet until recently, gene editing could only fix a limited number of them.Even CRISPR-Cas9, the groundbreaking technology that earned a Nobel Prize in 2020, has major limitations.It cuts both strands of the DNA helix, making it most useful to disrupt rather than correct genes, while the process can introduce new errors.”Being able to use genome editing to treat genetic diseases requires, in most cases, ways to correct a DNA misspelling, not simply to disrupt a gene,” Liu said.That insight led his lab to develop base editing, which uses the Cas9 protein — disabled so it can no longer cut both DNA strands — to find a target DNA sequence and another enzyme to convert one letter to another — for example, C to T or G to A.Reversing the change — from T to C or A to G — was tougher. Liu’s team overcame the challenge by engineering entirely new enzymes.These base editors can now correct about 30 percent of the mutations that cause genetic diseases. The technology is already in at least 14 clinical trials.In one of them, Beam Therapeutics — which Liu co-founded — announced it had treated patients of AATD, a rare genetic disorder affecting the lungs and liver, with a single drug infusion.While traditional gene therapies often disrupt faulty genes or work around them, base editing repairs the mutation itself.”This was the first time that humans have corrected a mutation that causes a genetic disease in a patient,” Liu said.- Cystic fibrosis hope -Base editing, quickly dubbed “CRISPR 2.0,” can’t fix every mutation.About 70 percent of the roughly 100,000 known disease-causing mutations remain out of its reach, including those caused by missing or extra letters.To expand the toolkit, Liu’s lab introduced prime editing in 2019 — a method capable of replacing entire sections of faulty DNA with corrected sequences.If CRISPR is like scissors that cut DNA, and base editors are like using a pencil to correct individual letters, then prime editing is the equivalent of a word processor’s “find and replace” function.Creating this tool required a series of breakthroughs Liu’s team describes as “small miracles.” The result is, he said, “the most versatile way we know of to edit the human genome.”Among the targets Liu and his team have already pursued with prime editing: cystic fibrosis, a common genetic disease usually caused by three missing DNA letters that causes thick mucus buildup in the lungs and digestive system.Liu’s lab has made much of its work freely accessible, sharing DNA blueprints through a nonprofit library used by tens of thousands of labs worldwide.”The science we create — which is ultimately funded by society, through governments and donors — ultimately goes back to benefit society.”This year’s Breakthrough Prize awards come at a fraught moment for US science, as President Donald Trump’s government strips funding for institutions like the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”The NIH is a treasure, not just for this country but for the world,” said Liu. “Trying to dismantle the heart of what supports science in this country is like burning your seed corn.”

As President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs took effect this weekend, US farmers hoping for a profit this year instead found themselves facing lower crop prices — and the prospect of ceding more ground in foreign markets.”We’re already getting below break-even at the current time,” said Jim Martin, a fifth-generation Illinois farmer who grows soybeans and corn.”We knew it was coming,” he told AFP of Trump’s tariffs. “I guess we’re anxious to see how things are going to eventually be resolved.”The president’s 10-percent “baseline” rate on goods from most US trading partners except Mexico and Canada took effect Saturday.And dozens of economies, including the European Union, China and India, are set to face even higher levels — tailored to each party — starting Wednesday.With talk of retaliation, farmers, a key support base in Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, are again in the crossfire and bracing for losses.Prices for many US agricultural products fell alongside the stock market on Friday, following Trump’s tariff announcement and China’s pushback.China, the third-biggest importer of American farm goods behind Canada and Mexico, is set to be hard hit, with a 34-percent US duty on its products piling on an earlier 20-percent levy.In response, Beijing said it would place its own 34-percent tariff on American goods, stacking on previous rates of up to 15 percent on US agricultural products.The tariffs mean businesses pay more to import US products, hurting American farmers’ competitiveness.- Market loss -“There is less incentive for them to purchase US soybeans. It is cheaper to get them out of Brazil by far,” said Michael Slattery, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat in the Midwest state of Wisconsin.At least half of US soybean exports and even more of its sorghum go to China, which spent $24.7 billion on US agriculture last year, including on chicken, beef and other crops.But the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said China’s purchases last year dropped 15 percent from 2023 “as soybean and corn sales fell amid rising competition from South America.”Slattery expects Chinese buyers will dial back further.”The loss of this market is a very big deal, because it’s expensive to find other buyers,” said Christopher Barrett, a Cornell University professor whose expertise includes agricultural economics.During Trump’s escalating tariff war in his first presidency, China was the “only target, and therefore the only country retaliating,” Barrett said.With all trading partners now targeted, farmers will likely have a harder time finding new markets, he said.- ‘Band-aid’ -“More than 20 percent of farm income comes from exports, and farmers rely on imports for crucial supplies like fertilizer and specialized tools,” the American Farm Bureau Federation warned this week.”Tariffs will drive up the cost of critical supplies, and retaliatory tariffs will make American-grown products more expensive globally,” it added.The International Dairy Foods Association cautioned Wednesday that “broad and prolonged tariffs” on top trading partners and growing markets risk undermining billions in investments to meet global demand.Retaliatory tariffs on the United States triggered over $27 billion in agricultural export losses from mid-2018 to late-2019, the USDA found.While the department provided $23 billion to help farmers hit by trade disputes in 2018 and 2019, Martin in Illinois likened the bailouts to “a band-aid, a temporary fix on a long-term problem.””The president says it’s going to be better in the long-term so we need to decide how patient we need to be, I guess,” he added.Martin, like other producers, hopes for more trade deals with countries beyond China.Slattery called Trump’s policies “a major restructuring of the international order.”He is bracing for losses this year and next.”I’ve attempted to sell as much as I can of the soybeans and corn in advance, before Trump began to indicate the amount of tariffs he was going to charge,” he said.

A $600,000 federal grant to research feminine hygiene products was axed after US officials falsely labelled it a study on transgender menstrual cycles, underscoring the way that misinformation is underpinning a breakneck cost-cutting spree.Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s billionaire advisor, has overseen a crusade by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash government spending, ordering massive cuts and layoffs that have upended scientific research and foreign aid.But the cost-cutters are spreading misinformation as they home in on their targets.For example, the cancellations include funding awarded to Southern University in Louisiana, which Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins rescinded last month. However, she falsely described it as a grant to study “menstrual cycles in transgender men.”DOGE amplified her announcement on its website and X.Outrage fueled by the misinformation grew so intense online that the professor in charge of the research, Samii Kennedy Benson, feared for her safety, multiple sources told AFP.The true purpose of “Project Farm to Feminine Hygiene” was to explore how alternatives to synthetic pads, liners and underwear could be made using natural fibers such as regenerative cotton, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and interviews with five sources.The effort also involved an outreach program educating women and girls about menstruation and the establishment of a local fiber-processing facility. “This was just one more senseless, hateful cancellation,” one organizer with Acadian Brown Cotton, a fiber-producing initiative the university partnered with to supply cotton for testing, told AFP on condition of anonymity.- ‘So angry’ -In a letter to Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins seen by AFP, Acadian Brown Cotton’s founder Sharon Donnan wrote that the funding was pulled over a “misunderstanding” and petitioned for its reinstatement.”The real loss is for women,” Donnan told AFP.”It makes me so angry that I want to start calling names.”The word “transgender” is mentioned only once in the grant document, with a line noting that transgender men “may also menstruate.”Southern University said in a statement that the project was “not a study on or including research on menstrual cycles.” The university declined to comment to AFP, and Benson did not respond to interview requests.The transgender community has become a flashpoint in culture wars roiling the United States. Trump has signed several executive orders targeting them, including one instructing the government to recognize only two sexes, male and female.The president has previously railed against experiments he falsely claimed were turning mice transgender, misrepresenting contracts revoked by DOGE.Aside from women, the economic beneficiaries of Southern University’s initiative could have included cotton farmers in Louisiana, one of the nation’s poorest states.”It would expand the market,” one grower, who produced the sample provided for Southern University’s research, told AFP. “It’s kind of sad it got cut off in the middle.”Norris Green Jr, a Black farmer who was excited to contribute to research at the historically Black university, said officials responsible for the cuts should visit the state to understand the ground reality.”Come to the Gulf and see how many of these females are impoverished,” he told AFP. “You might have a different perspective.”- ‘Hostility’ -A USDA spokesperson originally insisted to AFP that the project’s educational component “prioritized” transgender men.When asked for evidence, the agency pointed only to the grant’s single line mentioning the word “transgender.”Rollins, whose grant cancellation announcement received millions of views on X, went on to repeat the false claims during a White House Cabinet meeting.A former Louisiana mayor also repeated them on local radio.Across platforms and in the comment sections of articles echoing Rollins’s claims, posts called for people involved with the grant’s approval to be fired, publicly identified or prosecuted.The episode underscores a pattern of deception around DOGE, which has touted massive savings on a website that US media have reported is riddled with errors.Musk and other officials have repeatedly misrepresented government programs — from an invented tale about condoms for war-battered Gaza to misleading claims about Social Security recipients.”Most factual information about DOGE either never makes it in front of the people who need it most or is received with hostility,” Audrey McCabe, an analyst with the watchdog group Common Cause, told AFP.”Once a falsehood infiltrates public consciousness, an investigation correcting the lie can only do so much to cancel it out.”

Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of major US cities on Saturday to oppose the divisive policies of President Donald Trump, in the largest demonstrations since his return to the White House.Opponents of the Republican president’s policies — from government staffing cuts to trade tariffs and eroding civil liberties — rallied in Washington, New York, Houston, Florida, Colorado and Los Angeles, among other locations.”I am so angry, I’m so mad, all the time, yes. A bunch of privileged, white alleged rapists are controlling our country. It’s not great,” said New York painter Shaina Kesner, 43, joining a crowd marching through the heart of Manhattan.In Washington, thousands of demonstrators — many traveling from across the United States — gathered on the National Mall where dozens of speakers rallied opposition to Trump.”We have about 100 people who have come down by bus and van from New Hampshire to protest against this outrageous administration (that) is causing us to lose our allies across the world, and causing devastation to people here at home,” said Diane Kolifrath, 64, a bike tour guide.”They’re gutting our government.”In Los Angeles, a woman dressed as a character from dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” waved a large flag with the message: “Get out of my uterus,” a reference to Trump’s anti-abortion policies.In Denver, Colorado, one man in a large crowd of protesters held up a placard reading “No king for USA.”The rallies even extended to some European capitals, where demonstrators voiced opposition to Trump and his aggressive trade policies.”What’s happening in America is everyone’s problem,” Liz Chamberlin, a dual US-British citizen told AFP at a London rally. “It’s economic lunacy… He is going to push us into a global recession.”And in Berlin, 70-year-old retiree Susanne Fest said Trump had created “a constitutional crisis,” adding, “The guy is a lunatic.”In the US, a loose coalition of left-leaning groups like MoveOn and Women’s March organized “Hands Off” events in more than 1,000 cities and in every congressional district, the groups said. – Anger -Trump has angered many Americans by moving aggressively to downsize the government, unilaterally impose  conservative values and sharply pressure even friendly countries over borders and trade, causing stock markets to tank.”We’re out here to stop the, honestly, fascism,” protester Dominic Santella told AFP in Boston. “We’re stopping a leader from… jailing his opponents, stopping him from jailing just random people, immigrants.”Many Democrats are irate that their party, in the minority in both houses of Congress, has seemed so helpless to resist Trump’s moves.At the National Mall, just blocks from the White House, thousands heard speakers including Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who served as impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment. “No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” he told the crowd.Activist Graylan Hagler, 71, also addressed the protest, saying: “They’ve woken up a sleeping giant, and they haven’t seen nothing yet.””We will not sit down, we will not be quiet, and we will not go away.”Saturday’s demonstrations were largely peaceful. An upbeat atmosphere prevailed on a mild day in Washington, with protesters ranging from the elderly to young couples with infants in strollers.A Women’s March shortly after Trump’s first election in 2016 drew an estimated half-million protesters to Washington. Organizers for the latest Washington rally had predicted a turnout of 20,000 but by Saturday afternoon said the number appeared considerably larger. As Trump continues upending Washington, his approval rating has fallen to its lowest since taking office, according to recent polling.But despite global pushback to his sweeping tariffs and bubbling resentment from many Americans, the White House has dismissed the protests.The Republican president, still popular with his base, shows no sign of relenting.”My policies will never change,” Trump said Friday.

When Liz Gabbitas joined thousands of fellow protesters Saturday in the US capital, she thought her message to the Trump administration would be best delivered through her homemade sign: a cardboard guillotine.The 34-year-old librarian made clear she does not advocate violence, but nevertheless insisted that her one-meter (three-foot) sign, complete with tin foil blade, “communicated the visual language” of revolutionary fervor she longs for less than three months into Donald Trump’s presidency.”It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all of the horrible things going on” under Trump’s leadership, she told AFP at the base of the Washington Monument, just blocks from the White House.”I’m worried that the separation of powers is dissolving,” she added, noting Trump’s dramatic expansion of executive authority. “And I do worry that people get into the trap of feeling like, well there’s nothing I can do.”Americans were taking action all around her, however, on the biggest day of national “Hands Off” protests since Trump returned to power.Hand-scrawled “Resist” signs poked up from the crowd, which organizers said amounted to more than 20,000 people.Some protesters dressed in the red cloaks of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a popular novel and TV series about a totalitarian society. Others carried American flags upside down, traditionally a symbol of distress or danger to the country’s liberties. “You did Nazi this coming,” screamed a sign.Bob Dylan’s protest classic “Masters of War” oozed from a portable speaker. A larger-than-life paper mache model of Elon Musk, the billionaire whom Trump has tasked with slashing the federal workforce, cast a fascist salute.”Because of Trump and Elon and DOGE, my project died and I was laid off,” said Annette, a 39-year-old from Oregon who recently lost her government contractor job in international development.While she fears a collapse in US-funded humanitarian work worldwide, “I’m really heartened to see so many people out here,” she said.But “this is not enough… Congress needs to get off their asses, I think,” she said.”Unfortunately,” she added, “I feel this in my heart that people aren’t going to come out until it hurts them personally somehow.”- ‘Coup’ by oligarchs -Half a mile away, Shelly Townley and her husband were making their way past the White House, provocatively holding an upside-down American flag and a sign reading “Stop the Musk Coup.””I feel sad. This is the first time I’ve walked by here without crying,” Townley, a 62-year-old from North Carolina, told AFP. “I believe we’re under a coup right now, by oligarchs, much to my dismay,” and “the checks and balances of our government” are disintegrating, she added.Even though Trump was away in Florida, Townley found herself looking at the White House through tall metal fencing erected ahead of the rally.”I wish that instead of being at a golf tournament at Mar-a-Lago that he was in there and could see what was happening out here, that the people are out here” opposing his policies, she said.Not everyone was comfortable openly protesting in public, especially given Trump’s executive order issued last week that approves deployment of “a more robust Federal law enforcement presence” in Washington. A 51-year-old woman who represents an NGO said she was wearing a mask “to protect my identity.””I think they are using AI and different recognition technologies to out people and to then punish them,” she added.”It’s all about loyalty with this administration,” she warned. “And if you’re disloyal, you’re at risk of losing everything.”

Washington is revoking all visas for South Sudanese passport holders and blocking new arrivals, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday, complaining the African nation is not accepting its nationals expelled from the United States.The State Department “is taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and prevent further issuance to prevent entry,” Rubio said in a statement.It was the first such measure singling out all passport holders from a particular country since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, having campaigned on an anti-immigration platform.Rubio accused the transitional government in Juba of “taking advantage of the United States,” saying that “every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country… seeks to remove them.”Washington “will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation,” Rubio added.The world’s newest country and also one of the poorest, South Sudan is currently prey to tensions between political leaders.Some observers fear a renewal of the civil war that killed 400,000 people between 2013 and 2018.South Sudanese nationals had been granted “temporary protected status” (TPS) by the administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, with the designation set to expire on May 3, 2025.The United States grants TPS, which shields people against deportation, to foreign citizens who cannot safely return home because of war, natural disasters or other “extraordinary” conditions.There were about 133 South Sudanese in the United States under the TPS program, with another 140 eligible to apply, the Department of Homeland Security said in September 2023.But the Trump White House has begun overturning TPS designations, revoking protection in January from more than 600,000 Venezuelans.A federal judge this week put that decision on hold after calling into question the government’s claims that the majority of Venezuelans in the US were criminals.According to the Pew Research Center, as of March 2024 there were 1.2 million people eligible for or receiving TPS in the United States, with Venezuelans making up the largest group.The Trump administration’s singling out of South Sudan also comes after growing numbers of Africans attempted to enter the US via its southern border — an alternative to risky routes into Europe.

Protesters flooded the streets of several major US cities on Saturday to oppose the divisive policies of President Donald Trump, in the largest demonstrations since his return to the White House.Opponents of the Republican president’s policies — from government staffing cuts to trade tariffs and eroding civil liberties — rallied in Washington, New York, Houston, Los Angeles and Florida, among other locations.”I am so angry, I’m so mad, all the time, yes. A bunch of privileged, white alleged rapists are controlling our country. It’s not great,” said New York painter Shaina Kesner, 43, joining a crowd that marched through the heart of Manhattan.In Washington, thousands of demonstrators — many traveling from across the United States — gathered on the National Mall where dozens of speakers rallied opposition to Trump.”We have about 100 people who have come down by bus and van from New Hampshire to protest against this outrageous administration (that) is causing us to lose our allies across the world, and causing devastation to people here at home,” said Diane Kolifrath, 64, a bike tour guide.”They’re gutting our government.”The rallies even extended to some European capitals, where demonstrators voiced opposition to Trump and his aggressive trade policies.”What’s happening in America is everyone’s problem,” Liz Chamberlin, a dual US-British citizen told AFP at a London rally. “It’s economic lunacy… He is going to push us into a global recession.”And in Berlin, 70-year-old retiree Susanne Fest said Trump had created “a constitutional crisis,” adding, “The guy is a lunatic.”In the US, a loose coalition of left-leaning groups like MoveOn and Women’s March organized “Hands Off” events in more than 1,000 cities and in every congressional district, the groups said. – Anger -Trump has angered many Americans by moving aggressively to downsize the government, unilaterally impose  conservative values and sharply pressure even friendly countries over borders and trade, causing stock markets to tank.”We’re out here to stop the, honestly, fascism at this point. We’re stopping a leader from… jailing his opponents, stopping him from jailing just random people, immigrants,” protester Dominic Santella told AFP at a rally in Boston.Many Democrats are irate that their party, in the minority in both houses of Congress, has seemed so helpless to resist Trump’s aggressive moves.At the National Mall, just blocks from the White House, thousands heard speakers including Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who served as impeachment manager during Trump’s second impeachment. “No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” he told the crowd.Activist Graylan Hagler, 71, also addressed the protest, saying: “They’ve woken up a sleeping giant, and they haven’t seen nothing yet.””We will not sit down, we will not be quiet, and we will not go away.”Saturday’s demonstrations were largely peaceful. An upbeat atmosphere prevailed on a mild day in Washington, with protesters ranging from the elderly to young couples with infants in strollers.Protesters braved rain and gloomy conditions in New York to voice their anger.A Women’s March protest shortly after Trump’s first election in 2016 drew an estimated half-million people to Washington. Organizers for the latest Washington rally had predicted a turnout of 20,000 but by Saturday afternoon said the number appeared considerably larger. As Trump continues upending Washington, his approval rating has fallen to its lowest since taking office, according to recent polling.But despite global pushback to his sweeping tariffs, and bubbling resentment from many Americans, the White House has dismissed the protests.The Republican president, still popular with his base, has shown no sign of relenting.”My policies will never change,” Trump said Friday.

Panama hopes to maintain a “respectful” relationship with the United States, even as President Donald Trump has repeated threats to retake the Panama Canal, Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said Saturday.His comments came ahead of a visit next week by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a trip made more urgent against the backdrop of Trump’s threats and his allegations of Chinese interference in the canal. “We discussed illegal migration, organized crime, drug trafficking and (other issues),” Martinez-Acha wrote on X of a call Friday with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. “It was a cordial and constructive exchange.””I reiterated that all cooperation from Panama will take place under the framework of our constitution, our laws, and the Canal Neutrality Treaty,” he wrote. “Relations with the US must remain respectful, transparent and mutually beneficial.”The US State Department said Landau had “expressed gratitude for Panama’s cooperation in halting illegal immigration and working with the United States to secure a nearly 98 percent decrease in illegal immigration through the Darien jungle,” an arduous path northward followed by many migrants.The two officials also discussed the sale last month by the Hong Kong company CK Hutchison to giant US asset manager BlackRock of its concession in ports at either end of the Panama Canal, Martinez-Acha added. Panama’s comptroller has been conducting an audit of Hutchison since January.Landau “recognized Panama’s actions in curbing malign Chinese Communist Party influence,” the State Department said.The deal was set to close on April 2 but has been held up as Chinese regulators pursue an investigation.The United States and China are the two biggest users of the Panama Canal, which handles five percent of global maritime trade, giving it vital economic and geostrategic importance. It was inaugurated by the United States in 1914 and has been in Panamanian hands since 1999.