this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
222 points (95.9% liked)

Not The Onion

12551 readers
1555 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Comments must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23416568

Summary

Donald Trump criticized Panama Canal fees as “ridiculous” and demanded lower costs or the canal’s return to the US.

In a Truth Social post, Trump also expressed concern about potential Chinese influence over the waterway, despite no direct Chinese control of canal operations.

The canal, transferred to Panama in 1999, is vital for global trade, handling 5% of maritime traffic.

Trump’s comments follow record revenues of $5 billion announced by the Panama Canal Authority. Panama has not yet responded to his statements.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 89 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (3 children)

Panama has not yet responded to his statements.

Hopefully they just ignore him. And hopefully other countries start doing that too.

No government ahould be compelled to respond to Truth Social posts.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, best case scenario is that the rest of the world starts to consciously uncouple from the US, taking away the ability of the incoming fascist government to strongarm "allies" into doing and saying everything they want or suffer financial and diplomatic ruin.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It's already happening. If Trump attempts to go Neville Chamberlain on Ukraine, the Europeans (at least a large group of them) are willing to tell him to fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

Hopefully. Time will tell.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

No civilized person should be compelled to listen to Trump's whiny gob.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

They could do something really funny and double it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

They probably can't afford to double the fees for everyone, their canal would be out of business. But double the fees only for American-flagged vessels might be feasible.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It's my understanding the canal is already almost out of business because they don't have enough water. They limit travel through the canal to avoid emptying Lake Gatun.

[–] AA5B 3 points 10 hours ago

You could argue they need to raise prices, both to account for the natural resource degradation and to reduce congestion to a sustainable level

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

As long as the fees as still lower than the cost to go around South America, I'm sure they'll still have business.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Until global warming makes the northwest passage practical, anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

How much global temperature increase would we need for that route to be viable? Have there been any research on this?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

You bet there's been research on the northwest passage by every shipping and oil company with enough money to spend on research. A brand new shortcut around the world is the dream.