Trump says US ships should be allowed to travel through the Panama and Suez canals for free
An aerial view shows a cargo vessel transits through the Agua Clara Locks at the Panama Canal, in Colon, Panama, on Feb 1, 2025.
PHOTO: Reuters file
PUBLISHED ONApril 27, 2025 1:56 AM
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said on Saturday (April 26) that American military and commercial ships should be allowed to travel through the Panama Canal and Suez Canal free of charge.
"I've asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialise, this situation," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The Panama Canal crosses the narrowest part of the isthmus between North and South America, allowing ships to move more quickly between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It carries about 40 per cent of US container traffic each year.
The US completed construction of the canal in the early 20th century but gave control of the strategically important waterway to Panama in 1999.
Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to "take back" the canal. Before taking office in January, he told reporters that he would not rule out using economic or military force to regain control over the canal.
ALSO READ: US recognises Panama's sovereignty over canal, Panama says after talks
Source: Reuters
Palestinian boy who lost 9 siblings arrives in Italy for treatment
A boy is carried on a stretcher towards an ambulance, after the aircraft carrying Adam Al-Najjar, a Palestinian boy from Gaza who survived an Israeli strike that killed his nine siblings and his father, landed at Milan's Linate Airport, Italy, June 11, 2025.
PHOTO: Reuters
PUBLISHED ONJune 12, 2025 2:31 AM
MILAN — A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy on Wednesday (June 11) for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members.
Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan's Linate airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the city's Niguarda Hospital.
PHOTO: Reuters
The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports.
The May 23 attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in southern Gaza.
Adam "is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves damaged," his 36-year-old mother, Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
Adam's father, Hamdi al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died a week after the attack.
"The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the nerves, I can't feel my fingers. There's still a lot of pain," Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel's Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday.
PHOTO: Reuters
The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza.
Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said.
The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since the Oct 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
In recent months, Rome has criticised the extent of the Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions.
Italy was not among numerous European Union countries that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and trade relations.
Source: Reuters