🇺🇸🇨🇳🇵🇦 China Halts Panama Port Sale to BlackRock

Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, led by tycoon Li Ka-shing, will not sign a deal next week to sell its two strategic ports at the Panama Canal to a BlackRock-led group, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday.

The deal was expected to be signed on April 2, according to the sale announcement made on March 4.
It is understood the situation does not mean the deal has been called off, the South China Morning Post added, citing the source.

CK Hutchison and BlackRock did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Chinese authorities have reacted negatively to plans by the conglomerate, while the deal was hailed by U.S. President Donald Trump who wants to retake control of the strategic waterway.

https://gcaptain.com/china-halts-panama-port-sale-to-blackrock/

📈 The modern day gold rush:

Gold prices are now up +70% in 16 months with a new record market cap of $20.75 trillion.

In fact, gold is worth $1.25 trillion MORE than the COMBINED value of the remaining top 10 most valuable assets.

What is gold telling us?

(a thread)

https://fxtwitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1906117296919019630

🇸🇸 The world’s youngest country fought for decades to govern itself. Now it’s on the cusp of another civil war

A peace deal ending a conflict that killed tens of thousands in South Sudan is in danger of collapsing, raising fears that the world’s youngest nation — and one of its poorest — could swiftly lapse back into war.

South Sudan split from the rest of Sudan in 2011 after decades of pro-independence unrest but has struggled to keep the peace in its territory, which is divided along ethnic lines.

What’s the current crisis about?

The nation is governed by a coalition government, led by President Salva Kiir and five vice presidents, who include Kiir’s rival Riek Machar, the leader of the SPLM/A-IO party.

Machar was arrested this week, prompting the SPLM/A-IO to issue a statement Thursday saying his detention “effectively brings the (peace) agreement (between him and Kiir) to a collapse.”

“The prospect for peace and stability in South Sudan has now been put into serious jeopardy,” it added.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/29/africa/sudan-peace-deal-cusp-civil-war-intl/index.html

💸 Paper Promises, Golden Truths

The dollar will remain an important player for some time to come. But the era of the petrodollar system, where the dollar was the only way to buy oil, is over.

We are entering a new multi-polar era where countries use their own currencies to buy oil and other goods. And the U.S. is no longer the sole superpower.

Central banks around the world are gobbling up gold and diversifying away from the dollar as debt spirals out of control.

We’re approaching the end game now. This is why we’ve been pounding the table on gold and silver so much lately. And it’s why we will continue to going forward.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/paper-promises-golden-truths

🇪🇨🇺🇸 Ecuador is preparing for US forces, plans show, as Noboa calls for help battling gangs

Ecuador is laying the groundwork for US forces to arrive, according to plans obtained by CNN – as its president calls on US President Donald Trump to help battle powerful gangs in a country once known as the “island of peace.”

According to a high-level Ecuadorian official familiar with the planning, construction of a new naval facility in the coastal city of Manta is part of that preparation, with barracks-style housing and administration offices designed to support sustained operations and US military personnel. The official requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

“The expectation is that these will be eventually occupied by US troops,” the official told CNN.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made no secret of his desire for foreign boots on the ground as gangs unleash terror across the country – a request he is expected to reiterate this weekend. Noboa is set to meet Trump in Florida on Saturday to discuss immigration, trade and “security cooperation.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/29/americas/ecuador-trump-noboa-gang-intl-latam/index.html

🇺🇸🚢📝 Sal Mercogliano: Remember when US shipyards actually built ships!

The US made the decision to end the symbiotic relationship between the US Navy and the US Merchant Marine.

Instead, they outsourced US commercial shipping and shifted naval construction into private yards like HII and GDNASSCO.

Even now, with calls for reform, we default back to putting naval officers in charge of US maritime reform.

🔗 mercoglianos

🇪🇺💶 "Where will the EU source the funds to re-build its defense base?" - Macro & geopolitical commentators

"Because that's where the money is." -Bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks.

Where the money is:

🔗 Luke Gromen

🇲🇽🇺🇸 Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called her meeting with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “fruitful,” saying both nations benefit from a relationship grounded in “respect for each other’s sovereignty.”

🔗 AF Post

🇫🇮🗣🇺🇸🗯🗣 — 🇬🇧 The Guardian | Trump ‘running out of patience’ with Putin over Ukraine ceasefire, says Finnish president | Alexander Stubb – who played golf with Trump this weekend – suggested deadline and US sanctions package | March 30, 2025:

"(...)

“The half-ceasefire has been broken by Russia, and I think America, and my sense is also the president of the United States, is running out of patience with Russia. I think that’s good news for engagement and negotiation. So this is what I sensed over the weekend as well.”

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source:

🇺🇬❌🇨🇩❗️ — Ugandan General Muhoozi Kainerugaba claims that Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) is now deployed in Bule in Ituri region in Northeastern Congo

Uganda, following Rwanda, has also invaded Congo

Ituri is plagued with a heavy ISIS presence since the last decade which have been persecuting the Anglican-Evangelical local population, which pleaded on their fellow co-religionists in Uganda for help as the situation in Eastern Congo goes down

🔗 Muhoozi Kainerugaba (@mkainerugaba)

🇺🇸🇺🇸❌🇮🇷❗️— United States President Donald Trump to NBC News about the Ultimatum to the Iranian Regime on the nuclear issue:

“If they don’t make a deal,” Trump said about Iran, “there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

🇵🇦❌🇳🇮 Nicaragua will not receive former President Martinelli until the Interpol alert is clarified.

The Government of the Republic of Nicaragua informed the Government of Panama this Sunday that they will not be able to receive him until the status of whether or not an Interpol alert exists against former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal.

The Nicaraguan government has assured that former President Martinelli will continue to be offered refuge and humanitarian asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama.

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/panama/politica/nicaragua-no-recibira-al-expresidente-martinelli-hasta-que-se-aclare-la-alerta-de-interpol-AM11487610

@FelipeChannel

🇺🇸⚡️🇺🇦❌🇷🇺 — 📰 The New York Times | The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine | This is the untold story of America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies | March 29, 2025:

"ON A SPRING MORNING two months after Vladimir Putin’s invading armies marched into Ukraine, a convoy of unmarked cars slid up to a Kyiv street corner and collected two middle-aged men in civilian clothes.

Leaving the city, the convoy — manned by British commandos, out of uniform but heavily armed — traveled 400 miles west to the Polish border. The crossing was seamless, on diplomatic passports. Farther on, they came to the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, where an idling C-130 cargo plane waited.

The passengers were top Ukrainian generals. Their destination was Clay Kaserne, the headquarters of U.S. Army Europe and Africa in Wiesbaden, Germany. Their mission was to help forge what would become one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war in Ukraine.

One of the men, Lt. Gen. Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, remembers being led up a flight of stairs to a walkway overlooking the cavernous main hall of the garrison’s Tony Bass Auditorium. Before the war, it had been a gym, used for all-hands meetings, Army band performances and Cub Scout pinewood derbies. Now General Zabrodskyi peered down on officers from coalition nations, in a warren of makeshift cubicles, organizing the first Western shipments to Ukraine of M777 artillery batteries and 155-millimeter shells.

Then he was ushered into the office of Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, who proposed a partnership.
Its evolution and inner workings visible to only a small circle of American and allied officials, that partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology would become the secret weapon in what the Biden administration framed as its effort to both rescue Ukraine and protect the threatened post-World War II order."

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source: