Donald Trump forces Panama's hand, halts South Africa aid

TOI Correspondent from Washington: US President Trump continued to dynamite global trade and diplomatic ties in pursuit of his "America First" agenda, once again seeking to absorb neighbouring Canada into the US and carrying his battle to distant South Africa.

Effectively demonstrating that his audacious bid to gain control of Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal is no joke, Trump's secretary of state Marco Rubio's first trip to Panama City resulted in President Jose Raul Mulino signing what was virtually a surrender document - agreeing not to renew Chinese contracts that gave Beijing a toehold in the country.

Trump also unsentimentally targeted Canada and Mexico with tariffs, while questioning the very basis of Canada's existence as an independent country. Canadian meltdown cascaded over the sporting arena where fans were booing US anthem.

Trump also took aim at South Africa's treatment of white farmers, an interest evidently triggered by his surrogate Elon Musk who was born in apartheid South Africa. In a social media post, Trump accused the South African govt of "treating certain classes of people very badly", saying US "won't stand for it" and will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full probe into the situation. Its president Cyril Ramaphosa pushed back saying white extremists were misrepresenting a law he recently signed on land expropriation, which struck a balance between using land for public good and protecting private property rights. "Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?" Musk responded to Ramaphosa's X post.

South Africa is part of Brics, a bloc whose other nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, are also coming under US pressure.