Quick Reads

In Panama there will be maintenance work on the electricity grid from 26 August to 1 September 2024

Pavel Durov, pictured below, the founder and CEO of the messaging service Telegram, was detained at Paris-Le Bourget Airport on Saturday evening upon arrival from Azerbaijan. French authorities arrested Durov, who holds dual citizenship in France and Russia, under an international arrest warrant. The warrant, reportedly issued by France at the request of a special unit within the Ministry of the Interior, links Telegram to serious crimes including money laundering, drug trafficking, and the online sexual exploitation of minors.

A shallow 5.8 earthquake happened in Panama after midnight on Sunday.  To view Panama earthquakes, there are many apps that you can use. This is a good one.  https://earthquakelist.org/panama/

The crypto market was rocked by the arrest of Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov over the weekend, with the price of the linked toncoin (Telegram Open Network) crashing almost 20% on the news and dragging down the wider crypto market. It’s bounced back.  The bitcoin price, which had touched $65,000 per bitcoin on Saturday ahead of Durov’s arrest, has dipped to around $64,000.

Panama faces the need to unify efforts to take advantage of the potential of relations with China.  Since the beginning of the government of President José Raúl Mulino, relations between Panama and China have been gaining new momentum.

Democrat-turned-Independent Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman from Hawaii from 2013 to 2021, has officially endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race.  Gabbard in Detroit expressed her concerns about the current state of American politics and the direction of the Democratic Party.  Gabbard sharply criticized Kamala Harris for her record as California’s Attorney General.  Harris jailed hundreds of Californians for marijuana violations while laughing about her own use of the drug

Get ready for the Grand Opening of one of the biggest events in Chiriqui province! Put this event into your calendar.  This September 13 in Volcán, Chiriquí, La Octava de las Flowers. Enjoy Jonathan Chavez and Los Triumfadores, DANCE FREE with your ticket from B/. 2.00. In addition, take part in the lottery of a motorcycle, a bicycle or a scooter   Don’t miss it in the Highlands, your best destination!

Wyoming in the USA is pushing crypto payments and trying to beat the Fed to a digital dollar.

Neonatologist Doctor Iván Sierra Robles of Panama, after his 60 month conviction: ‘I am not afraid of anything, my conscience is clear’.  A demonstration pictured below was called by the medical union and parents, in support of a sentence that they consider “unfair.”

Naval operations in the Suez Canal working for the European Union have given an update from the Red Sea on the state of the blaze onboard the laden Sounion, a suezmax attacked multiple times last Wednesday by the Houthis, which risks becoming the worst tanker spill of the 21st century. 

Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha Vásquez, along with his Colombian counterpart, Luis Gilberto Murillo, visited the municipality of Capurganá, in the department of Chocó and bordering Panama, to learn about the reality of the migration crisis.

The US has imposed sanctions on seven LNG carriers linked to shipments of Russian super-chilled fuel. The move is part of the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) latest package targeting nearly 400 entities and individuals for aiding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Congressman Raul Pineda, a public figure who boasts that he has not been named — for the moment — in an investigation into drug trafficking, has remained missing from the public scene since his son Abraham Rico Pineda was arrested for the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering.  Abraham Rico Pineda pictured below is accused of laundering money for a criminal organization that brought drugs from Colombia through the trails of the Darien jungle, to then transport them to the border with Costa Rica.

US Customs and Border Protection officers in southern California discovered that a supposed watermelon shipment wasn’t what it seemed after they uncovered more than $5 million worth of methamphetamine concealed inside.  A 29-year-old man driving a commercial tractor-trailer attempted to enter the United States from Mexico with a shipment manifested for watermelons in packages as pictured below with watermelon looking wrap. 

The Panamanian foreign minister Javier Martínez Acha says that the transition in Venezuela must end with Edmundo González Urrutia as president and María Corina Machado to assist in the administration.  If the Nicolás Maduro government will not show the minutes of the election, it is because there is something they do not want to show. “It is their resounding defeat, in the face of the will of a great people like that of Venezuela.”

Artificial intelligence chip maker Nvidia, which has seen its stock rocket to make it one the world’s second most valuable company behind iPhone maker Apple over the last year, is expected to post a “mic drop” second quarter this coming week.

Panama’s Operation Jericho, which resulted in the dismantling of a vast criminal network dedicated to drug trafficking and money laundering, has exposed a worrying reality in the country: narcopolitics is challenging the State for control of power.  According to former prosecutor Giovanni Olmos, the President of the Republic himself, José Raúl Mulino, acknowledged that organized crime is penetrating the country’s security forces, which is why it is necessary to exercise greater control measures.

In 1970, there were 21 cruise ships in the world, the Transport & Environment report says. Today, there are 515, ranging from the opulent 1931 sailing yacht Sea Cloud, which carries 124 passengers and crew, to the shiny new behemoth Icon of the Seas seen below, which is longer than 15 blue whales and carries almost 10,000 passengers.

Over the weekend in Panama, 1,560 traffic violations were imposed nationwide. Among the most common, 414 were for disregarding traffic signs, 290 for speeding, 21 for using a cell phone while driving, and 21 for driving under the influence of alcohol.  Lieutenant Samuel Arrocha, of the National Directorate of Traffic Operations, reported that 126 traffic incidents have been attended to, resulting in one fatality in the Tocumen area and 15 people with minor injuries.

The founder and chief executive of YouTube alternative Rumble, which is billed as “immune to cancel culture,” Canadian national Chris Pavlovski, said in an X post he has “departed” Europe after Durov was arrested.