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
UK union leaders say Met police charges against Palestine activists an attack on right to protest

- In January, the Metropolitan Police arrested over 70 people in a pro-Palestine protest, including several prominent activists
- Union leaders called for the Met to drop charges against former NEU executive member, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
LONDON: Over 20 prominent union leaders in the UK have raised concerns about the erosion of the right to peaceful protest in the country and about the Metropolitan Police’s handling of pro-Palestinian marches.
The 22 trade union leaders criticized in a joint statement on Tuesday the Met’s decision to charge former union members who were arrested during a London protest in solidarity with Palestine.
The Met arrested over 70 people in a pro-Palestine protest on Jan. 18 in London. Among those detained were Alex Kenny, a former executive member of the National Education Union; Sophie Bolt, the general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign; and Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition.
The union leaders referred to the arrests and charges against Kenny and Bolt as a threat to the right to protest.
“Alex Kenny is a long-standing, and widely respected, trade union activist who has organised peaceful demonstrations in London for decades,” they said in a statement.
“We believe these charges are an attack on our right to protest. The right to protest is fundamental to trade unions and the wider movement. The freedoms to organise, of assembly and of speech matter; we must defend them,” they added.
They called for the Met to drop charges against Kenny, Bolt, Nineham, and Jamal.
The signatories include Paul Nowak from the Trades Union Congress, Christina McAnea from Unison, Daniel Kebede from the NEU, Matt Wrack from the Teachers’ Union, Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union, Mick Whelan of the train drivers’ union ASLEF, and Eddie Dempsey from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
They said the decision to charge Kenny and Bolt follows the prosecution of Nineham and Jamal.
Amnesty International, along with dozens of legal experts, expressed concerns over the Met’s handling of the pro-Palestine protest in January, with some describing the arrests as “a disproportionate, unwarranted and dangerous assault on the right to assembly and protest.”
At the protest, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell were interviewed under caution and released pending further investigations. MPs and peers have also called on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to review protest legislation introduced by the former Conservative government.
Europeans open to buying US arms for Ukraine under Trump plan but need details

- “Of course we can’t do it on our own, we need others to partner up,” Rasmussen told reporters
- European ministers said they would now need to examine how new purchases of US weapons could be paid for
BRUSSELS: Several European countries said on Tuesday they were willing to buy US arms for Ukraine under a scheme announced by US President Donald Trump, although arrangements still needed to be worked out.
Trump said on Monday that Washington will supply Patriot air defense systems, missiles and other weaponry to Ukraine for its war against Russia’s invasion and that the arms would be paid for by other NATO countries.
But much remains undisclosed, including the amounts and precise types of weapons to be provided, how quickly they would be supplied and how they would be paid for.
US officials have suggested that European countries will be willing to give up some of their own stocks of weapons for Ukraine and then buy replacements from the United States. But some of the countries involved say they still don’t even know what is being asked of them.
Such a move would get weapons to Ukraine more quickly but would leave donor countries’ defenses more exposed until new systems are ready.
“We are ready to participate. Of course we can’t do it on our own, we need others to partner up – but we have a readiness,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday ahead of a meeting of European Union ministers.
Speaking alongside Trump at the White House on Monday, NATO chief Mark Rutte said that Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada want to be part of the new initiative.
Many of those countries have been among the biggest military aid donors to Ukraine, either overall or per capita.
Asked whether Denmark could give US arms from its own stocks as part of the scheme, Rasmussen said: “We don’t have these kind of systems – the Patriot systems – so if we should lean in, and we are absolutely ready to do so, it will be (with) money and we have to work out the details.”
European ministers said they would now need to examine how new purchases of US weapons could be paid for. In many cases, that seems likely to involve countries teaming up to buy US weapons systems.
“Now we need to see how together we can go in and finance, among other things, Patriots, which they plan to send to Ukraine,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told Swedish radio.
In Brussels, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said his country is looking into the plan “with a positive inclination”.
Asked about the scheme, Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik told Reuters that Oslo was “in close dialogue with Ukraine” on military aid and “air defense remains a high priority for Ukraine and for the Norwegian military support”.
“Norway has contributed to significant amounts of air defense for Ukraine, including co-financing the donation of a Patriot system and missiles,” he said.
The Finnish Defense Ministry said Helsinki “will continue to provide material support to Ukraine”.
“The details of the US initiative ... are not yet known and we are interested to hear more about them before we can take more concrete lines on this issue,” it said.
Air India crash: Pilot groups push back against human error narrative

- Initial probe finds aircraft’s engine fuel switches were turned off, but does not specify by whom
- Pilots reject report as ‘inconclusive,’ say it leads media and public to ‘jump to conclusions’
NEW DELHI: Associations of Indian pilots are rejecting claims that last month’s Air India plane crash that killed 260 people was due to human error, after a preliminary investigation sparked speculation implicating the flight crew.
The London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport in the western Indian state of Gujarat on June 12.
A report released over the weekend by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said that seconds after take-off, both of the plane’s fuel-control switches moved to the position stopping fuel from the engines.
It did not specify who turned off the switches, only citing the cockpit voice recording, in which “one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he cut off,” while “the other pilot responded that he did not do so.”
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association and the Airline Pilots’ Association of India have issued statements after the release of the initial findings — and the first media and online reactions to it — rejecting speculative narratives and presumptions over the guilt of the pilots.
Capt. Kishore Chinta, an ALPA member and accident investigator, told Arab News that both associations have “raised red flags on the selective release of information” by the AAIB, which has “left the scope of ambiguity for people to jump to conclusions” and for the media to spin narratives.
“We are left defending those pilots who are not there to defend themselves,” he said. “The Western media has been painting them as if they actually committed suicide-murder.”
The London-bound flight was carrying 242 people — 230 passengers, two pilots and 10 crew members. Only one person, sitting in an emergency exit seat, survived the crash. Another 18 people were killed on the ground as the aircraft fell on a B. J. Medical College and hostel for students and resident doctors of the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital.
Investigators at the crash site recovered both components of the black box — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, days after the crash. The Ministry of Civil Aviation said at the time that the final report was expected within three months.
The early release of preliminary findings has shaken the Indian aviation community, for which it was unacceptable that experienced pilots who have flown thousands of hours would have turned off the fuel supply.
“Definitely a malfunction caused the disaster — poor maintenance or a hardware/software glitch,” said Sandeep Jain, an Indian aviator based in the US.
“Dead pilots are always the easiest target. They don’t bite back. No litigation, no shareholder value erosion.”
The Federation of Indian Pilots is planning to raise the consequences of the preliminary report with the government.
“We will be taking it up with the government no doubt. We will not let it go quietly. The report should not be open-ended,” Capt. C.S. Randhawa, the federation’s president, told Arab News.
“It is inconclusive. So many things are not answered properly. The report does not say that the pilots have moved the fuel control switches, that is why it is inconclusive, and it is leading to speculations.”
Ukraine’s prime minister Shmyhal resigns

- Zelensky nominated First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko for the post
KYIV: Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday he had filed a resignation letter, as a part of a major governmental reshuffle expected this week.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday nominated First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko for the post.
Philippines to strengthen migrant workers’ protection in labor deal with Oman

- Philippines, Oman plan to sign new MoU on labor cooperation in January
- Muscat also wants to boost ties beyond labor, explore business opportunities
MANILA: The Philippines is strengthening labor cooperation with Oman to protect the rights and welfare of Filipino workers, its Department of Migrant Workers said following a meeting with the Omani labor minister in Manila.
The majority of over 2 million overseas Filipinos live and work in Gulf countries.
While most are based in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, some 50,000 are in Oman, contributing over $340 million in annual remittance inflows to the Philippines.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi and Labor Minister Mahad bin Said Ba’awin were in the Philippines earlier this week to discuss ways to further relations.
In a meeting with Philippine Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac on Monday, they held talks over a new agreement on labor cooperation.
“A key highlight of the meeting was the pending Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Labor Cooperation, set to be signed by January 2026,” the department said in a statement.
“The MOU establishes safeguards for Filipino workers through ethical recruitment standards, fair employment terms, joint dispute resolution mechanisms, and regular monitoring through a bilateral Joint Committee.”
According to the DMW, Oman is “actively seeking Filipino domestic workers technicians, port staff, and other skilled professionals,” which could mean new employment pathways for Filipino migrant workers who are qualified.
The Philippines is also seeking to incorporate technology to streamline recruitment and deployment of overseas Filipino workers to Oman.
“By forging digital partnerships with host countries like Oman, we can make recruitment faster, more transparent, and more worker-friendly. Tech solutions can ensure every step is secure, accountable, and focused on protecting OFWs,” Cacdac said.
While labor relations have been a key aspect of Philippine-Omani ties, the Gulf state is now seeking to also explore business and investment opportunities with Manila.
“For many decades, Oman has been a popular destination for overseas Filipino workers, who have found not just employment but a second home in our country,” Al-Busaidi said at the inaugural Oman-Cebu Investment Forum over the weekend.
“Beyond the labor relations that have long defined our relations, we now open our arms to the business communities and investors of both our nations.”
A “new chapter” of Philippine-Oman relations is possible thanks to the connections created by Filipino migrant workers, he added, while urging Philippine and Omani businesses to collaborate.
“Together, we can craft a future where the thousands of people to people connections created by the overseas Filipino workers can serve as a foundation for a flourishing economic partnership, and a new era of mutual investment,” Al-Busaidi said.
“I invite you all to seize this opportunity and make it a beautiful and rewarding new chapter in the story of Oman and the Philippines.”