🇺🇸🤝🇵🇦 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today announced an expanded partnership between the U.S. and Panama to secure the Panama Canal in order to counter "China's maligned influence" in the region.

"The era of capitulating to coercion by the communist Chinese is over," Hegseth said while delivering prepared remarks earlier in the day.

"[China's] growing and adversarial control of strategic land and critical infrastructure in this hemisphere cannot and will not stand," he added.

Hegseth, who has been in Panama City for a three-day security conference with the host nation, later made the expanded partnership announcement during a joint press conference with Panamanian Public Security Minister Frank Abrego.

"The Panama Canal is key terrain that must be secured by Panama, with America, and not China," Hegseth said.

He added that, just prior to the news conference, the U.S. and Panama signed a memorandum of understanding related to cooperative security activities in the region and that the signing of an additional declaration related to the security and operation of the Panama Canal would be forthcoming.

That declaration, Hegseth said, would provide a framework for U.S. warships and auxiliary ships to travel "first and free" through the canal.

"These documents reaffirm [the U.S. and Panama's] historic ties and outline how we will deepen our relationship and strengthen bilateral canal security cooperation," Hegseth said.

Full document here below 👇👇👇

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4150935/hegseth-says-us-partnering-with-panama-to-secure-canal-deter-china/

https://x.com/canaldepanama/status/1910120747680358667/photo/1

@FelipeChannel

🇯🇵📞🇺🇸❗️ — According to Fox Business Correspondent Charles Gasparino and top money managers, today’s “90-Day Pause” on the reciprocal tariffs announced last week by U.S. President Trump, was forced by mainly by the Government of Japan and other countries selling bonds overnight causing the bond market to skyrocket, not Communist China.

🔗 OSINTdefender (@sentdefender)

🇺🇸🇮🇱❌🇮🇷❗️ — The US has already started discussing potential targets inside Iran, either for Israel or the U.S., officials say.

Potential targets include Iran’s main nuclear facilities and enrichment sites as well as its ballistic missile- and drone-production facilities.

🇺🇸❌🇨🇳❗️ — US President Donald Trump has raised tariffs on Communist China to 145%, a White House official confirmed to CNBC

The figure reported by Trump yesterday did not include an existing 20% tariff.

The extra 20% is a fentanyl-related tariff that Trump previously imposed on China.

#BREAKING

Another day, another record for GOLD!

🥇📈🚀GOLD spot hit a new All Time High at $3174.8/oz!

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🇩🇪 📊 AfD now the strongest party in Germany, polling at 25% nationwide. CDU + CSU for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic are in second place to a party that is not the Social Democrats. German politics have changed in a very big and historic way.

Migrations from other parties – esp. CDU/CSU – to AfD are sticky. For a time last year, the novel Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) pulled some AfD voters away, but many of those have returned, and others have come too. This is not a temporary blip.

German politics are different now, and they will stay different whatever happens – whether the AfD are banned or not, however long the firewall persists. (IMHO ban proceedings become more likely but their success less likely, the stronger AfD get).

🔗 eugyppius

🇺🇸🇾🇪 CENTCOM on X: The United States will not tolerate any country or commercial entity providing support to foreign terrorist organizations, such as the Houthis, including offloading ships and provisioning oil at Houthi-controlled ports. Such actions risk violating U.S. law.

📝 Carolina Lion: The ships docking in Yemen tend to be Russian, Chinese and Iranian. Make of that what you will.

🔗 CENTCOM

🇺🇸🇵🇦 US Defense chief Hegseth says US could ‘revive’ Panama troop deployments

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday floated the idea of US troops returning to Panama to “secure” its strategically vital canal, a suggestion that would face fierce local opposition.

During a visit to Panama, Hegseth suggested that “by invitation” the United States could “revive” military bases or naval air stations and rotate deployments of US troops to an isthmus the United States invaded 35 years ago.

https://insiderpaper.com/us-defense-chief-hegseth-says-us-could-revive-panama-troop-deployments/

🇺🇸💸 Fox News anchor: "The art of the deal is all over the Twittersphere right now as people say, maybe this is the way he planned it"

Fox Business Sr. correspondent: "I want to tell you Donald Trump outsmarted the world, but that's not really what happened here"

📝 Alexander Stahel: Bingo. The bond market turned ugly, Japan hit the sell button, and Bessent had to beg Trump to come to his senses before something breaks.

This wasn’t 3D chess—it was a panic stop and the end of another amateur hour.

🔗 BurggrabenH

🇺🇸🇵🇦 Hegseth in Panama City says U.S. & Panama to sign a joint MoU that "allows U.S. warships to sail first and free" through the Panama Canal.

🔗 DODResponse

🇺🇸🇵🇭 Armed Forces of the Philippines Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. recently gave a speech in which he described the Philippines involvement in a Taiwan contingency as an "inevitability."

This map visualizes the expanding US military presence in the Philippines.

🔗 Taiwan Monitor

📉 ‼️❌ — DXY (the US Dollar Index that measure the value of the United States dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies) down to 100.761 points, at the levels seen in October 2024, the worst daily fall since 2022.

@FelipeChannel

#BREAKING

📉 ‼️❌ Chinese Yuan fall to the lowest level against US Dollar since 18 years ago!

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🇦🇷🤝🇵🇾 — Argentine President Javier Milei said that his country and Paraguay will be “an example” for South America, emphasizing that he shares values such as “freedom” with Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, which he called “the only possible path” to prosperity

“I have no doubt that both Argentina and Paraguay will be an example for all of South America. Internally, by fighting the eternal battle against the omnipresent state and fiscal deficit, and externally, through peaceful cooperation and trade. The path to prosperity is none other than deregulation and fiscal surplus!”

💬 Peña described the conversation with Milei as “very interesting” and emphasized that they deepened and reaffirmed “the ties of political, commercial, and cultural integration,” which he considered “fundamental” for their nations.

Source 🖇

🇺🇸❗️ CNN's Fear & Greed Index now shows 6 points, indicating an even higher level of extreme fear in the market than yesterday.

@TabZLIVE