Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Panama next week to meet its leaders following recent U.S. allegations of Chinese interference in the operations of the critical Panama Canal shipping lane.

More than a year after Panama’s Supreme Court halted operations at a huge copper mine because its government concession was deemed unconstitutional, there’s a fresh push with the new Panamanian president to restart the mine.

Cecilio Waterman scored a stunning goal in the fourth minute of second-half injury time, and Panama beat the three-time defending champion United States 1-0 to reach the CONCACAF Nations League final.

A Colombian-American entrepreneur based in Miami-Dade County pleaded guilty to federal charges on Monday related to a tax-evasion conspiracy that prosecutors estimate involved $90 million in bank accounts in Andorra, Israel, Panama, and Switzerland.

Costa Rica and Panama are coordinating to expedite southbound migrant transit through their countries along the same route that carried hundreds of thousands north in recent years.

The heads of four major labor unions are calling on President Donald Trump to boost American shipbuilding and enforce tariffs and other “strong penalties” against China for its increasing dominance.

Panama's president has said his country has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino says there will be no negotiation with the United States over ownership of the Panama Canal.

This Sunday on This Week in South Florida, host Glenna Milberg spoke with a range of experts covering key issues. U.S. immigration attorneys Saman Movassaghi Gonzalez and Angel Leal discussed President-elect Trump’s day-one immigration plans, including mass deportations and workplace raids.

On Sunday’s episode of This Week in South Florida, former U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley weighed in on President-elect Trump’s recent remarks about the Panama Canal.

A little more than a week after announcing his plan to nominate a Miami-Dade commissioner as ambassador to Panama, President-elect Donald Trump is once again looking to South Florida to fill a diplomatic role.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Christmas that he intends to appoint Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera as ambassador to Panama.

The Panama Canal Authority is reaching out to communities that could be impacted if the Indio River is dammed to make a new reservoir ensuring the water supply needed to operate the Panama Canal.

At dawn, pilgrims like Ernesto Troya undertook the hardest stretch of their journey to reach the image of the Black Christ of Portobelo in Panama.

Mauricio Pochettino won his debut as U.S. coach, getting a 49th-minute goal from Yunus Musah off an assist from AC Milan teammate Christian Pulisic and a stoppage-time strike from Ricardo Pepi for a 2-0 win over Panama.

A 39-year-old man in Miami-Dade County stands accused Wednesday of money laundering millions as part of a scheme with links to Venezuela, Cuba, Panama, and Spain.

Human Rights Watch is calling on governments in Latin America to improve protection schemes for millions of people from Venezuela and Haiti who have struggled to get work, education and health care in their host countries and are increasingly heading to the United States.

Colombia’s national soccer team advanced to the Copa America’s semifinals after a 27-match unbeaten streak.

The U.S. is prepared to face South American power Uruguay on Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium with its future in the Copa America tournament hanging in the balance.

Tim Weah and other members of the U.S. national team were targeted with racist abuse on social media after the Americans were beaten 2-1 by Panama in the Copa America.

José Fajardo beat backup goalkeeper Ethan Horvath in the 83rd minute to give Panama a 2-1 victory over the United States at the Copa America and put the Americans in danger of elimination if they don’t beat Uruguay in their first-round finale.

Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels caused “minor damage” to a Panama-flagged oil tanker traveling through the Red Sea.

Migrants bound for the U.S. are once again crossing the Darien Gap in large numbers after being stranded for much of last week in a small Colombian town due to a work stoppage by local boat captains.

Panama’s former President Ricardo Martinelli has received political asylum from Nicaragua days after the country’s Supreme Court denied his appeal over a money laundering conviction that carried a 10-year sentence.

Officials say a civilian cargo ship has struck a Russian mine in the Black Sea near Ukraine’s Danube ports, injuring two sailors.

The jungle between Colombia and Panama used to be impenetrable for migrants heading north from Latin America.

As countries at the COP28 climate talks are wrangling over deadlines for lowering their carbon dioxide emissions, a Danish-led group of countries has decided to set the ultimate goal: to remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than they emit.

Indigenous women at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai are coming together to share some of their innovative ideas on how communities on the front lines of climate change can contend with it.

A member of Panama’s national soccer team has been killed after gunmen opened fire on a group of people gathered in the country’s violent port city of Colon.

The government of Panama says it will launch a new campaign to stem the flow of migrants through the dangerous, jungle-clad Darien Gap, after crossings hit 300,000 so far this year.

A flight from Miami International Airport to Chile’s capital diverted to Panama City Monday after one of its pilots suffered a mid-flight medical emergency and later died.

United States goalkeeper Matt Turner has joined Nottingham Forest from Arsenal for a reported 10 million pounds ($12.75 million).

Brazil starts its ninth appearance in the Women’s World Cup trying to remain undefeated in opening matches.

The game is not going to be against the rival Mexico expected, but seven and a half months after the country’s worst performance in a World Cup in 44 years, Mexico will seek to restore a bit of its tarnished image when it plays the surprising Panama in the Gold Cup final.

Adalberto Carrasquilla converted the decisive penalty kick after Cristian Roldan failed to convert his attempt, and Panama beat the defending champion United States 5-4 in a shootout after a 1-1 tie to reach the CONCACAF Gold Cup final against Mexico.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 has struck in the Caribbean Sea just off the Panama-Colombia border.

The global professional soccer players’ union says it sent a letter signed by 150 women’s national team players to FIFA calling for equal World Cup prize money.

The 20-team World Baseball Classic got underway after a six-year absence with the Netherlands defeating Cuba 4-2 in a Group A game in Taiwan to open the tournament.

The world’s biggest shipping company has sued a rival shipping line in a Danish court, seeking compensation for ship delays that resulted from the blocking of the Suez Canal by a hulking vessel two years ago.

Pulled from a sunken trunk at an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina, work pants that auction officials describe as the oldest known pair of jeans in the world have sold for $114,000.

With dashed dreams and empty hands, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants are stranded in Panama’s capital looking for a way home after surviving the crossing of the Darien Gap only to find that a United States policy change had closed the border to them.

The unveiling of a futuristic luxury model home on Panama’s Caribbean coast tanked when the SeaPod Eco prototype perched above the water on a column slumped onto an adjacent dock.

Christian Pulisic scored his first international hat trick, leading the United States to the brink of returning to the World Cup with a 5-1 rout of Panama.

Forward Jesús Ferreira, winger Paul Arriola, midfielder Luca de la Torre and right back Shaq Moore entered the United States’ starting lineup for a World Cup qualifier against Panama as coach Gregg Berhalter made four changes.

Nearly five years after the United States men’s national soccer team famously blew a spot in the 2018 World Cup by losing to a vastly inferior Trinidad and Tobago squad in October of 2017 in the final game of qualifying, the moment of redemption has finally arrived for the Americans.

At the World Wildlife Conference in Panama later this year, discussions are expected to center around African wildlife such as elephants, big cats and rosewood trees.

The U.S. has little margin for a stumble at home in World Cup qualifying.

As long as the United States wins its final three home games, the Americans likely will get back to the World Cup.

The small beachside town street vendors that used to cater to Colombian city tourists have adapted their inventory to their new customers: A new wave of desperate migrants heading to the U.S.

At the Colombian coastal town of Necoclí, there is a store selling only boat tickets to cross the Gulf of Urabá — which acts as the bridge between South and Central America.

Necoclí is no longer the secluded beachside town tourists from neighboring cities used to visit. The stop in a smugglers’ route is old. Local officials say the desperation is unprecedented.

Tim Weah scored on a shot that deflected off the goalkeeper in the 66th minute after Sergiño Dest started the comeback from a first-minute deficit, and the United States rallied to beat Costa Rica 2-1 to ease pressure as World Cup qualifying neared the halfway point.

Libya is planning an international conference next month to try to keep its political process on track.

The British government is keeping Panama on its red list, which means the United States may have to play without star Christian Pulisic and several other players for its World Cup qualifier at the Central American nation on Oct. 10.

The last time the United States Men’s Soccer Team took the field for a World Cup qualifier, it produced one of the most humiliating moments in the program’s history.

The National Hurricane Center is highlighting three areas for potential development. The one of most immediate concern is Tropical Disturbance #1, which long-range computer forecast models indicate may eventually end up in the western Gulf.

A small city on Colombia’s Caribbean shore is being crowded with migrants from Haiti and Africa making what they hope will be a journey toward the United States.

Egyptian authorities have announced the release of a hulking shipping vessel that had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week earlier this year.

The Suez Canal Authority says it has reached an agreement to settle a financial dispute with the owners of a hulking container ship that blocked the crucial waterway for nearly a week earlier this year.

Panamá cerró temporalmente el ingreso de personas por vía terrestre, marítima y fluvial a través de la frontera sur con Colombia, una zona inhóspita que siguen utilizando miles de migrantes con el objetivo de llegar a Norteamérica.

A company providing services to the Suez Canal says the maritime traffic jam caused by the Canal's blockage by a cargo ship for nearly a week is continuing to ease.

Experts have boarded Ever Given container ship that had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week before it was dislodged. A canal pilot says engineers are inspecting the Ever Given for damage and trying to determine why it ran aground. Two senior canal officials said the vessel's bulbous bow had suffered slight to medium damage. AdEver Given will not be allowed to leave the canal until the end of the investigation, Rabei added. Some broke into tears, many hugged each other as the vessel’s bow was rooted out from the eastern side of the canal.

Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, is seen in Egypt's Great Bitter Lake Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Experts have boarded Ever Given container ship that had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week before it was dislodged. A canal pilot says engineers are inspecting the Ever Given for damage and trying to determine why it ran aground. Global legal firm Clyde and Co. said the Ever Given's owner likely would pay Egypt's canal authority for the assistance already rendered to the vessel. He stood before a sign that said: "Welcome to the Suez Canal: Egypt's lifeline of peace, prosperity and development."

In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, is pulled by one of the Suez Canal tugboats, in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. Engineers on Monday "partially refloated " the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, authorities said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free. (Suez Canal Authority via AP)SUEZ – Salvage teams on Monday finally freed the colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. From the city of Suez, ships stacked with containers could be seen exiting the canal into the Red Sea. “The Suez Canal is not guilty of what happened.

This satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Saturday, March 27, 2021. Authorities are preparing to make new attempts to free the giant container vessel stuck in Egypt's Suez Canal for a fifth day and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping. The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard, a specialist tugboat, arrived at the location Sunday, according to the stuck ship's technical management company, Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement. Excavators dug Sunday on the eastern wall of the Suez Canal, hoping to free the bulbous bow of the Ever Given that plowed into the embankment, satellite photos showed. Dozens of others still listed their destination as the canal, though shippers increasingly appear to be avoiding the passage.

This satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Friday, March 26, 2021. Meanwhile, the head of the Suez Canal Authority said strong winds were “not the only cause” for the Ever Given running aground on Tuesday, appearing to push back against conflicting assessments offered by others. A Dutch salvage firm is attempting to refloat the vessel with tugboats and dredgers, taking advantage of high tides. AdSome 9,000 tons of ballast water had been already removed from the vessel, the canal chairman said. The Suez Canal Authority organized the first media trip Saturday to the site where the vessel was stuck.

This photo released by the Suez Canal Authority on Thursday, March 25, 2021, shows Lt. Gen. Ossama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, investigating the situation with the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, after it become wedged across the Suez Canal and blocking traffic in the vital waterway. Over its 150-year history, Egypt's Suez Canal has seen wars and crises — but nothing quite like the stranding of the Ever Given. The vessel entered the canal from the Red Sea on Tuesday morning and ran aground 45 minutes later. While the supersize of ships can increase their risk of running aground in the Suez Canal, boats just as big buffeted by winds just as strong have passed through the waterway without incident before. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi poured $8.2 billion into a lavish expansion of the canal that was unveiled in 2015.

Brian Kemp said all Georgians 16 and older will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Greg Abbott said Thursday that he’s hoping to increase the number of Texans getting COVID-19 vaccines after seeing a drop in people showing up for the shot. That’s a big jump from the roughly 1.8 million doses a week the state is currently getting. ___PHOENIX — Arizona on Thursday reported 138 confirmed coronavirus cases, the smallest daily increase reported in more than six months. The U.K. says its vaccination program has given at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to more than half the adult population.

This satellite image from Cnes2021, Distribution Airbus DS, shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Thursday, March 25, 2021. (Cnes2021, Distribution Airbus DS via AP)ISMAILIA – Dredgers, tugboats and even a backhoe failed to free a giant cargo ship wedged in Egypt’s Suez Canal on Thursday. The Suez Canal Authority said one idea the team discussed was scraping the bottom of the canal around the ship. Ad“Blocking something like the Suez Canal really sets in motion a number of dominos toppling each other over,” said Lars Jensen, chief executive of Denmark-based SeaIntelligence Consulting. AdOpened in 1869, the Suez Canal is a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo.

Haitian migrants cross the Tuquesa river after a trip on foot through the jungle to Bajo Chiquito, Darien province, Panama, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. But on Jan. 29, Panama announced it was reopening its land borders, setting off a surge of migration through the dense jungle covering the Colombia-Panama border. They started to walk into the jungle in Colombia on Friday, emerging in Panama five days later. He then took a bus to Colombia near the Panama border, joined other Haitian migrants and crossed the jungle into Panama in three days. Unlike Saenz, Olly said it took his family two weeks to cross the Darien jungle.

Top prospect Makur Maker was limited to 23 points in 48 minutes over just two games during his freshman season. ___The NFL reports it had no positive tests for players and one positive among other personnel during Super Bowl week. It’s the 34th game postponed so far this season, which is roughly a quarter of the way through. ___Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has tested positive for the coronavirus and has withdrawn from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Three staff members and one management official have also tested positive at the club.

Pope Francis leaves after celebrating Mass on the occasion of the Christ the King festivity, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020. But it also offers new personal insights into the 83-year-old Argentine pope and his sense of humor. Francis was elected pope, and bishop of Rome, on March 13, 2013. For Francis, the pandemic offers an unprecedented opportunity to imagine and plan for a more socially just world. “I have a sense of how people with the coronavirus feel as they struggle to breathe on ventilators,” Francis wrote.

MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. – A Hialeah man who fled to Panama after his involvement in two car crashes, one killing a pedestrian, was captured while on his way to Cuba, investigators said Friday. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and Miami Springs police said that Eddy Enrique Nuñez, 54, was involved in a three-car accident on Jan. 4, 2020, then fled that scene in Miami Springs. After leaving that scene, he crashed a few blocks away after losing control of his car and then ran over a pedestrian. Miami Springs police said Nuñez dragged Tracy Berry, 43, under his car for several blocks, killing her. Nuñez is charged with vehicular homicide and is being held in Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correction Center on a $15,000 bond.

The next World Youth Day will be held inPortugal in 2023. (Vincenzo Pinto/Pool via AP)VATICAN CITY – With no papal travels abroad this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis is cheering efforts for a youth jamboree, traditionally attended by pontiffs, in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2023. Francis on Sunday presided over a handover ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica involving young people gearing up for the next World Youth Day, which draws huge crowds of Catholics from around the globe. When Francis attended the last such event in Panama in 2019, organizers announced that the next jamboree would be held in Lisbon in 2022. Francis applauded after youths from Panama symbolically slid across the basilica's floor a towering wooden cross to counterparts from Portugal as part of preparations for Lisbon.

Nicholas Gioacchini and Sebastian Soto each scored their first two international goals in a 6-2 exhibition rout of Panama on Monday night at Wiener Neustadt, Austria, the second of two matches for the Americans that followed a 10-month pandemic break. Gio Reyna got his first goal three days after his 18th birthday, the third-youngest player to score in modern era. Sebastian Lletget also got a goal in a physical, open match against a CONCACAF rival that reached the 2018 World Cup over the Americans. By the time qualifying comes we'll be ready to compete.”José Fajardo scored his first two goals for Panama. The U.S. has used 90 players since the October 2017 defeat at Trinidad and Tobago that eliminated the Americans from the 2018 World Cup, including 52 debuting.

Members of search and recovery teams search for survivors in the debris of a massive, rain-fueled landslide in the village of Queja, in Guatemala, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Eta. The storm was expected to hit Cuba by early Sunday, and approach the Florida Keys and south Florida late Sunday or Monday. Tropical storm warnings were issued for central Cuba, southern Florida and the Florida Keys. South Florida started emptying ports and a small number of shelters opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas. The storms’ threat comes as many streets across South Florida have been inundated by heavy rains and unusual King Tides.

MIAMI – Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez declared a state of emergency on Friday as Eta was set to cause flooding on Sunday and Monday in areas of South Florida. Gimenez urged residents to expect tropical-storm-force winds beginning Sunday. Authorities are asking residents to secure objects that winds could blow around, such as garbage carts, patio furniture, garden tools, and toys. After impacting Central America as a hurricane, the storm made a U-turn and was moving across the Caribbean towards Cuba. Hurricane Eta killed dozens in Guatemala, Mexico, and Panama.

A barefooted woman makes her way around debris brought on by a landslide on a road blocking traffic, in the aftermath of Hurricane Eta, in Purulha, northern Guatemala Friday, Nov. 6, 2020. In a news conference, President Alejandro Giammattei said he believed there were at least 100 dead there in San Cristobal Verapaz, but noted that was still unconfirmed. Her home in La Lima, a San Pedro Sula suburb, is 150 feet from the roiling Chamelecon river and only a short way from the international airport’s runway. It said rescues were happening Friday in San Pedro Sula and La Lima, but the need was great and resources limited. The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that four U.S. helicopters from the Soto Cano Air Base near Tegucigalpa had flown to San Pedro Sula to participate in rescue operations.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Orozcos deportation undercut the very credibility of the criminal justice system. Neither I nor our law enforcement partners could ever allow that to stand, Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. Miami-Dade prosecutors in the extradition section of the legal unit worked closely with the Coral Gables Police Department and the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs. Officers arrested him Sept. 11, 2018 and ICE deported him 13 days later. This criminal case will finally be resolved in a courtroom, Fernandez Rundle said.

Even amid a global pandemic, theres no sign that corruption is slowing down in Latin America. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)MIAMI Even in a pandemic, there's no slowdown for swindlers in Latin America. Coronavirus clusters are still spreading in Latin America, fueling a spike in deaths, swamping already-precarious hospitals and threatening to ravage slumping economies. To be sure, disasters breed corruption all over the world, not just in Latin America. But stealing state funds is especially vexing in Latin America because of gaping poverty and a tattered social safety net.