EL JOBO, Panama: A long, wooden boat puttered down the Indio River’s chocolate waters carrying Ana María Antonio and a colleague from the Panama Canal Authority on a mission to hear directly from villagers who could be affected by plans to dam the river.
The canal forms the backbone of Panama’s economy, and the proposed dam would secure the water needed to ensure the canal’s uninterrupted operation at a time of increasingly erratic weather.
It also would flood villages, where about 2,000 people would need to be relocated and where there is opposition to the plan, and curb the flow of the river to other communities downstream.
Those living downstream know the mega-project will substantially alter the river, but they hope it will bring jobs, potable water, electricity and roads to their remote communities and not just leave them impoverished.
“We, as the Panama Canal, understand that many of these areas have been abandoned in terms of basic services,” Antonio said.
The canal
The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and generates about a quarter of the government’s budget.
Last year, the canal authority reduced the number of ships that could cross daily by about 20 percent because rains hadn’t replenished the reservoirs used to operate the locks, which need about 50 million gallons of fresh water for each ship. It led to shipping delays and, in some cases, companies looking for alternatives. By the time restrictions were lifted this month, demand had fallen.
To avoid a repeat due to drought exacerbated by climate change, the plan to dam the Indio River was revived.
It received a boost this summer with a ruling from Panama’s Supreme Court. For years, Panama has wanted to build another reservoir to supplement the main supply of water from Lake Gatun — a large manmade lake and part of the canal’s route — but a 2006 regulation prohibited the canal from expansion outside its traditional watershed. The Supreme Court’s decision allowed a re-interpretation of the boundaries.
The Indio runs roughly parallel to the canal, through the isthmus. The new reservoir on the Indio would sit southwest of Lake Gatun and supplement the water from there and what comes from the much smaller AlHajjuela Lake to the east. The Indio reservoir would allow an estimated 12 to 13 additional canal crossings each day.
The reservoirs also provide water to the more than 2 million people — half the country’s population — living in the capital.
The river
Monkeys screeched in the thick jungle lining the Indio on an August morning. The boat weaved around submerged logs below concrete and rough timber houses high on the banks. Locals passed in other boats, the main means of transportation for the area.
At the town of El Jobo, Antonio and her colleague carefully climbed the muddy incline from the river to a room belonging to the local Catholic parish, decorated with flowers and bunches of green bananas.
Inside, residents from El Jobo and Guayabalito, two communities that won’t be flooded, took their seats. The canal authority has held dozens of such outreach meetings in the watershed.
The canal representatives hung posters with maps and photos showing the Indio’s watershed. They talked about the proposed project, the Supreme Court’s recent decision, a rough timeline.
Antonio said that canal officials are talking to affected residents to figure out their needs, especially if they are from the 37 tiny villages where residents would have to be relocated.
Canal authorities have said the Indio is not the only solution they’re considering, but just days earlier canal administrator Ricaurte Catin Vasquez said it would be the most efficient option, because it has been studied for at least 40 years.
That’s nearly as long as Jeronima Figueroa, 60, has lived along the Indio in El Jobo. Besides being the area’s critical transportation link, the Indio provides water for drinking, washing clothes and watering their crops, she said.
“That river is our highway and our everything,” she said.
The dam’s effect on the river’s flow was top of mind for the assembled residents, along with why the reservoir is needed, what would the water be used for, which communities would have to relocate, how property titles would be handled, would the construction pollute the river.
Puria Nunez of El Jobo summed up the fears: “Our river isn’t going to be the same Indio River.”
Progress
Kenny Alexander Macero, a 21-year-old father who raises livestock in Guayabalito, said it was clear to him that the reservoir would make the canal a lot of money, but he wanted to see it spur real change for his family and others in the area.
“I’m not against the project, it’s going to generate a lot of work for people who need it, but you should be sincere in saying that ‘we’re going to bring projects to the communities that live in that area,’” he said. “We want highways. Don’t try to fool us.”
One complication was that while the canal authorities would be in charge of the reservoir project, the federal government would have to carry out the region’s major development projects. And the feds weren’t in the room.
The project is not a guarantee of other benefits. There are communities along Lake Gatun that don’t have potable water.
Gilberto Toro, a community development consultant not involved in the canal project, said that the canal administration is actually more trusted by people than Panama’s federal government, because it hasn’t been enmeshed in as many scandals.
“Everybody knows that the canal projects come with a seal of guarantee,” Toro said. “So a lot of people want to negotiate with the canal in some way because they know what they’re going to offer isn’t going to be trinkets.”
Figueroa expressed similar faith in the canal administrators, but said that residents would need to monitor them closely to avoid being overlooked. “We can’t keep living far behind like this,” she said. “We don’t have electricity, water, health care and education.”
Next steps
President Jose Raul Mulino has said a decision about the Indio River project would come next year. The canal administration ultimately will decide, but the project would require coordination with the federal government. No public vote is necessary, but the canal administrator has said they are looking to arrive at a public consensus.
Opposition has emerged, not surprisingly, in communities that would be flooded.
Among those is Limon, where the canal representatives parked their car and boarded a boat to El Jobo. It’s where the reservoir’s dam would be constructed. The highway only arrived there two years ago and the community still has many needs.
Olegario Hernandez has had a sign out in front of his home in Limon for the past year that says: “No to the reservoirs.”
The 86-year-old farmer was born there and raised his six children there. His children all left the area in search of opportunities, but Hernandez wants to stay.
“We don’t need to leave,” Hernandez said, but the canal administration “wants to kick us out.”
Villagers are wary of plans to dam a river to ensure Panama Canal’s water supply
https://arab.news/9dann
Villagers are wary of plans to dam a river to ensure Panama Canal’s water supply
- Proposed dam would secure the water needed to ensure the canal’s uninterrupted operation at a time of increasingly erratic weather
- But it also would flood villages, where about 2,000 people would need to be relocated, and curb the flow of the river to other communities downstream
Iran threats in UK ‘significantly increased’: Intel watchdog
- UK parliamentary committee blames Iran for at least 15 attempts to kill or kidnap British-based individuals since 2022
- Tehran swiftly rejected the 'unfounded, politically motivated and hostile allegations'
LONDON: A UK parliamentary committee on Thursday blamed Iran for at least 15 attempts to kill or kidnap British-based individuals since 2022, saying the threat from Iran had “significantly increased.”
London’s response has been too focused on “crisis management,” said parliament’s intelligence and security committee, with concerns over Iran’s nuclear program dominating their attention too much.
Tehran swiftly issued a “categorical rejection of the unfounded, politically motivated and hostile allegations.”
The committee’s claims were “baseless, irresponsible, and reflective of a broader pattern of distortion intended to malign Iran’s legitimate regional and national interests,” said its London embassy.
The report comes after growing alarm in Britain at alleged Iranian targeting of dissidents, media organizations and journalists in the UK, including accusations of physical attacks.
Iran in March became the first country to be placed on an enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which aims to boost Britain’s national security against covert foreign influences.
It requires all persons working inside the country for Iran, its intelligence services or the Revolutionary Guard to register on a new list or face jail.
“Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals, and UK interests,” Kevan Jones, chairman of the watchdog committee, said in the report’s conclusions.
“Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity and its intelligence services are ferociously well-resourced with significant areas of asymmetric strength.”
Jones said it bolstered this through proxy groups, “including criminal networks, militant and terrorist organizations, and private cyber actors” to allow for deniability.
His committee’s report said that while Iran’s UK activity “appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China,” it “should not be underestimated.”
The physical threat posed had “significantly increased” in pace and volume, and was “focused acutely on dissidents and other opponents of the regime” as well as Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK, it said.
“The Iranian Intelligence Services have shown that they are willing and able — often through third-party agents — to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK,” the report said.
“There have been at least 15 attempts at murder or kidnap against British nationals or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022.”
Similarly, security minister Dan Jarvis said in March Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service had tallied 20 Iran-backed plots “presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents.”
The watchdog committee took evidence for two years from August 2021 for its report, a period which saw Tehran implicated in a plot to kill two London-based Iran International television anchors.
In March last year one of the Persian-language outlet’s journalists was stabbed outside his London home.
Two Romanian men have been charged in relation to the attack and face extradition to the UK to stand trial.
The counter-terrorism unit of London’s Metropolitan Police led the investigation. Iran’s charge d’affaires in the UK has said that the Tehran authorities “deny any link” to the incident.
Filipinos push back against growing Israeli presence on popular tourist island
- Siargao is a premier surfing site and one of the Philippines’ top tourist destinations
- Facebook users accuse Israeli tourists of disrespecting local rules, harassing residents
MANILA: Concerns over the presence of Israeli visitors are growing on a southern Philippine island, locals say, as they protest plans to establish an Israeli community center amid fears of displacement and reports of tourist misconduct.
Siargao — a resort island off Surigao del Norte province in Mindanao — is the Philippines’ premier surfing site and one of the country’s top tourist destinations.
It has lately become popular among Israelis, whose arrival over the past few months has resulted in numerous complaints. Siargao-based singer and community organizer Maria Lalaine Tokong went viral last week when she highlighted that many of the tourists were “disregarding the culture, the customs,” of the place.
“We are feeling less at home in our home,” she wrote. “I speak up because I refuse to let our identity, our peace, and our safety be erased.”
Tokong’s post has since resulted in tens of thousands of interactions, with Filipinos sharing similar concerns.
It came against the backdrop of Israeli plans to open a Chabad house — a Jewish community center and place of worship — on the island. The plans have been opposed by the local community, which met Israeli embassy representatives in May.
“We don’t want it,” Tokong told Arab News. “When we talked about the cultural center with the Israeli embassy, we specifically told them, ‘What’s the purpose?’ We already have an education system. We already have a church here.”
With new officials taking office following recent elections, she is now preparing with other community members to take the case forward with the local administration.
In April, Project Paradise, a Siargao-based non-governmental organization, held a town hall meeting with residents and local business owners to gather their complaints.
“We received reports primarily regarding disrespect for local customs and values — ranging from noise disturbances, reckless driving, disregard for modesty in dress in rural areas, to environmental irresponsibility such as leaving trash on beaches or protected areas,” Sofia Nicole de Asis, president of Project Paradise, told Arab News.
While De Asis said that the incidents “are not isolated to any one group, and our stance has always been that misconduct is a behavioral issue, not a nationality-based one,” members of the Facebook group Siargao Business Classified 2.0 have been reporting Israeli tourists calling local staff “slaves,” illegally raising their flags on boats, trashing local homestays, violating the island’s no-noise curfew past midnight, and verbally and physically assaulting locals.
“They have no right to put up a cultural center as they have no roots or connection to Filipinos’ history. ‘Free Palestine’ today, so we won’t be shouting ‘Free Siargao’ tomorrow,” one user wrote, as others complained over inaction from the island’s administration.
“These people were welcomed into our country and treated with genuine hospitality, yet they choose to disregard our laws and disrespect our people and communities. The local government of Siargao should strictly enforce all local rules and regulations,” another user said.
“For the local government in Siargao, you better act. Remember you’re still part of the Philippines, you might one day be surprised that Siargao is now ‘the promised land,’” another commented.
Officials in General Luna, one of the main towns on Siargao, did not respond to requests for comment from Arab News.
UK students could face jail over support for banned Palestine Action
- Ex-govt advisor urges universities to warn students of penalties for supporting illegal organizations
- Palestine Action proscribed as terrorist group after members broke into Royal Air Force base last month
LONDON: University students in the UK face jail if they support the group Palestine Action, the former government advisor on political violence and disruption has warned.
Lord Walney, who wrote a report in 2024 advising that the organization be proscribed, said vice-chancellors should let students know the penalties that could be incurred by promoting the group’s policies, displaying its symbols or voicing support for it.
Palestine Action was declared a terrorist organization earlier this month after activists filmed themselves breaking into a Royal Air Force base in England.
On Monday, 29 people were arrested for supporting it at a protest in Westminster, with some holding placards stating: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
Penalties for membership of, or eliciting support for, proscribed groups in the UK include a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Protests in support of the Palestinian cause and against Israel’s war in Gaza have been frequent features across numerous university campuses in the UK since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023.
In a letter to Vivienne Stern, CEO of Universities UK — a body representing 142 higher education establishments — Walney claimed there was a “clear danger that individuals may be unwittingly lured into expressing support for an entity whose methods are not only criminal, but now formally recognised as terrorism,” and “Universities UK has an important role to play in protecting both freedom of expression and student welfare within the bounds of the law.”
He added: “Palestine Action’s deliberate strategy has long involved drawing students into criminal activity under the guise of legitimate protest, preying on the understandable sympathy for Palestinians felt by large numbers of young people to find recruits.
“With its formal proscription, the legal threshold has shifted: expressions of support, including wearing insignia, arranging meetings, or promoting the group’s activities — whether knowingly or through naivety — now risk serious sanction with students at risk of acquiring a criminal record for a terror offence.
“This risk clearly exists whatever any individual may think of the government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action.
“My view is that the group’s systematic campaign of sabotage justifies proscription, given the fact that property damage is included in the legal definition of terrorism.”
UUK told The Times that it had “written to our member vice-chancellors to alert them to the fact that Palestine Action has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, effective from Saturday July 5, and to their obligation to ensure that staff and students are aware of this.”
A British F35 fighter jet stranded in India may finally fly back home after inspiring memes
- Jet has been stranded at airport in southern Kerala state due to technical snag, is being repaired by UK engineers
- One of the memes shows cartoon in which plane is enjoying snacks with group f locals against a scenic background
NEW DELHI: A British F-35B fighter jet stranded at an Indian airport for nearly a month, sparking memes and cartoons on social media, is expected to fly back home as early as next week, Indian officials said.
The stealth fighter, one of the world’s most advanced and costing around $115 million, is stranded at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in the southern state of Kerala due to a technical snag and is being repaired by UK engineers, officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media.
The jet was on a regular sortie in the Arabian Sea last month when it ran into bad weather and couldn’t return to the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, officials said.
The aircraft was then diverted to Thiruvananthapuram, where it landed safely on June 14. Officials said engineers hope to repair the plane in the next few days before it could fly back to UK sometime next week.
The stranded military aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, has triggered A.I.-generated memes in India. In a social media post, the tourism department of Kerala showed the aircraft on the tarmac surrounded by coconut trees and posting a fictitious five-star review.
“Kerala is such an amazing place, I don’t want to leave. Definitely recommend,” it said.
The state’s top official at the tourism department, K. Biju, said the post was put out in “good humor.”
“It was our way to appreciate and thank the Brits who are the biggest inbound visitors to Kerala for tourism,” said Biju.
Another cartoon posted on X showed the plane enjoying snacks with a group of locals against a scenic background.
The British High Commission confirmed to The Associated Press that a UK engineering team has been deployed to “assess and repair” the aircraft.
There has been speculation in India that if the engineers fail to rectify the aircraft, it could be partially dismantled and transported in a cargo plane. The UK’s Ministry of Defense dismissed the speculation in an emailed statement.
Report: Japan, UK, Italy open to Saudi joining fighter-jet program
- Tech sharing, and other issues need resolution, says report
- Riyadh ‘encouraged’ to boost its nascent aerospace industry
DUBAI: Japan, the UK and Italy are open to having Saudi Arabia join their next-generation fighter-jet initiative, but only once the project has reached a more advanced stage and key issues have been resolved, according to The Japan Times.
The Global Combat Air Program is a joint effort to develop a sixth-generation fighter.
It will likely remain a trilateral initiative until after the GCAP International Government Organization, or GIGO, and the industry-led joint venture Edgewing sign their first international contract, likely by the end of 2025, the newspaper reported recently.
The GIGO, officially inaugurated on Monday in Reading, England, was established last year to oversee government-level coordination for the program.
Edgewing, launched last month, brings together the UK’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo, and the Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co., and is responsible for designing and developing the aircraft.
“There is no preclusion in having Saudi Arabia join the program, but we first have to define certain criteria and clarify all the points,” one source told The Japan Times, speaking after a virtual meeting between the GCAP nations’ defense ministers on Monday.
Riyadh has been “encouraged” to build up its aerospace expertise — including potentially acquiring and assembling Eurofighter Typhoons — before entering the GCAP, the newspaper reported.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, several other countries are said to have expressed interest in joining the program. These include two unnamed European countries, as well as one Middle Eastern and one Asian nation, according to a source cited by The Japan Times.
The terms of participation and contributions of any future member states remain undefined. Any expansion of the program would require unanimous approval from Japan, the UK and Italy.
The GCAP aircraft will be Japan’s first major defense development with partners other than the US.
It is intended to replace the aging F-2 fighter jets used by Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, as well as the Eurofighters operated by the UK and Italy. The new jets are scheduled to enter service by 2035.
With the conceptual design phase complete, the program is moving into detailed design and development, and a demonstrator flight is expected within two to three years.
Despite overall satisfaction with the program’s progress, some tensions remain, particularly around access to sensitive intellectual property and full technology sharing.
In April, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto publicly criticized the UK for not fully disclosing technology to its partners, in an interview with Reuters.
It is a concern that The Japan Times understands is still unresolved.
