PANAMA – Panama has denied making changes to allow US government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free, following White House claims it had agreed to such a move. The State Department said in a statement on X that its government vessels “can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year”. Responding to the comments, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said it was “empowered to set tolls and other fees for transiting the canal,” adding that it had “not made any adjustments to them”.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his desire to retake control of the waterway, which is key to global trade. The 51-mile (82km) Panama Canal cuts across the Central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been on a visit to Latin American countries this week, demanded that Panama make “immediate changes” to what he calls the “influence and control” of China over the canal. America’s top diplomat said Panama had to act or the US would take necessary measures to protect its rights under a treaty between the two countries. (BBC)

INDIA – India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has told parliament the government is working with the US to ensure Indian citizens are not mistreated while being deported. His statement came a day after a US military flight brought back 104 Indians accused of entering the US illegally. One of the deportees told the BBC they had been handcuffed throughout the 40-hour flight, sparking criticism. But Jaishankar said he had been told by the US that women and children were not restrained. Deportation flights to India had been taking place for several years and US procedures allowed for the use of restraints, he added. Deportation in the US is organised and executed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “We have been informed by ICE that women and children are not restrained,” Jaishankar said. He added that according to ICE, the needs of deportees during transit, including for food and medical attention, were attended to and deportees could be unrestrained during bathroom breaks. “There has been no change from past procedure,” he added.However Jaspal Singh, one of the deportees on the flight that landed in Amritsar city in the state of Punjab on Wednesday, told BBC Punjabi that he was shackled throughout the flight. (BBC)

GUYANA – In wake of the scandal over the sale of prime lands in Guyana, documents have surfaced purporting to show that a Sherwyn Greaves acquired two luxurious properties in New York. At least one of the properties was acquired without mortgage being issued. And according to the documents seen by this newspaper, the transactions were by way of a Limited Liability Company (LLC).  In one of the transactions, a property was listed at the sale price USD925, 000.00 by Liberty Avenue Associates LLC, a company of which Philip R Baldeo is the sole owner. Baldeo a medical doctor based in New York has been embroiled in a scandal over questionable sale of prime lands at Providence, Ogle and Heroes Highway.

Baldeo has been identified as a business associate of convicted Guyanese New Yorker, Ed Ahmad. Ahmad has been convicted in the US and served time for money laundering and real estate crimes. Documents seen by this newspaper purported Baldeo had sold his property on March 25, 2024 to SML Management LLC, which was owned and represented By Mishana Greaves. That LLC later transferred the property into a Living Trust with Sherwyn Leon Naftali Greaves and Mishana Greaves as trustees. It is important to note that there was no mortgage issued for the purchase of the property and it was sold below market value.

Greaves’ name is listed as the purchaser in a transaction for a property located at 115-30 142nd Street Jamaica NY 11436, USA. That property was sold at USD750,000.00 on the 15th September, 2023 by Reliable Custom Builders Inc represented by Rashaad Ahmad.  It is however unclear the connection Rashaad has with Ed Ahmad.  Ed Ahmad has been acquiring huge plots of prime land in Guyana under questionable circumstances. (Kaierteurnews)

Photo: That property was sold to Greaves at USD750,000.00 on the 15th September by Reliable Custom Builders Inc. (Documents surface showing acquisition)

DAKAR  –  On a weekday at Dakar’s open-air Fass Market, traders call out in a rhythmic buzz as some buyers approach from a nearby major highway: Boulevard du General de Gaulle, a road named after a former French president and a man not everyone here knows.

It irks meat seller Matar Seck that street names like these – remnants of a painful colonial past – exist at all. Standing in front of his stall where he patiently waited for a customer, Seck questioned the point of having an Avenue Faidherbe, named after a brutal colonial governor, or a Rue de Jules Ferry, after a French politician who once claimed colonialism was necessary. Like many Senegalese, Seck said he wants change.

“I’ve lived in Europe. I’ve been to Barcelona, Rome and Milan, but I’ve never seen white people give the names of their most prestigious historical monuments and buildings to a Senegalese,” he said. “We have no shortage of people to name our most important streets [after]. I want to see a Youssou Ndour Street for example,” Seck added, referring to the beloved Senegalese crooner.

Indeed, streets in the capital city and across Senegal were originally named by the French colonial government and honoured officials or royals of the French empire. Decades after independence, they’ve largely stayed that way, a legacy of 300 years of conquest, slavery and colonialism.

But that might soon change: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in December announced plans for a new government agency to rename streets and public squares to honour Senegalese.

It’s a notable step for Senegal, which has historically maintained close ties with Paris. In November, Faye asked Paris to remove about 350 French soldiers stationed there, in effect ending a decades-long defense pact and continuing a trend in West Africa, where nations are downgrading once-strong ties with France.

After a fraught election campaign last year that followed weeks of protests against former President Macky Sall, Faye came to power in April, promising to strengthen Senegalese identity and shrink ties with France – even replace French as the country’s official language. Under Sall, critics saw Senegal as a puppet that put France’s needs above all. Faye promised to be different. Now, not only will the new agency rename streets, but it will also rewrite Senegal’s textbooks.

Dakar-based urban planner Rakhiat Diallo Fall told Al Jazeera those efforts are necessary to do away with the sour taste of the past – from Senegal’s role as a major slave port to its centuries of colonial rule.

“Memory also passes through toponymy,” Diallo said, referring to the study of place names. “Seeing streets named after people we don’t know, people who have mistreated us, is a disgrace.” (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A street vendor walks around Place de l’Independence in Dakar. (Getty Images)

BEIRUT  –  Sudan’s army is pushing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to retreat from Khartoum, sparking hope among many in the capital for renewed stability. However, local relief workers said they fear they will be targeted in a wave of reprisals. “Every time the army recaptures an area, … they start to target civilians and the humanitarian volunteers. This is why we are all so frightened,” said Ahmed, a local relief volunteer in Sharq el-Nile, an area in Khartoum that the army is threatening to recapture.

Local volunteers like Ahmed are members of Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), grassroots networks that have led the humanitarian response since Sudan erupted into war in April 2023. ERRs provide multiple services, such as supporting soup kitchens, safe spaces for women and children, and basic healthcare for the sick and wounded. Most rely on donations from the Sudanese diaspora and funding from international NGOs and United Nations agencies. Despite their vital humanitarian role, ERR workers face arrests, kidnappings and extrajudicial killings from both sides in the conflict. Many have been targeted for their pro-democracy stances, which threatened the joint rule of the then-allied RSF and army after a popular uprising brought down their former boss President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

Four years later, the RSF and army turned their guns against each other after they cooperated to overthrow a civilian administration and sabotage popular aspirations for democracy. The war between the two sides has killed tens of thousands of people and generated the largest humanitarian crisis in the world by most measures. On top of that, at least 112 ERR members have been killed since the start of the war, according to an ERR spokesperson. The actual toll could be higher amid fears that reporting attacks could bring violent retaliation. As the army advances in Khartoum, many ERR members fear for their lives and are calling for protection.

“We have been thinking about how we get some kind of protection [for ERR members], and we need the international community to push and advocate for us,” said Mokhtar Atif, the spokesperson for ERR volunteers in Khartoum North. According to volunteers, analysts and international aid workers, the army often treats any person carrying out humanitarian activities in RSF areas as a traitor. “Many volunteers are refusing to evacuate [from Khartoum] because there are badly needed UN [aid] convoys that should be coming in the next few days [and the ERR members need to distribute the aid to hungry civilians],” said Hajooj Kuka, spokesperson for the Khartoum ERRs coordination committee. “Many of these volunteers have made peace with the fact that they will be killed [by the army] and some have already sent messages [to us and their friends] saying their goodbyes,” he told Al Jazeera. (Al Jazeera/AP)