00:00:47.320And we were at the Pentagon a couple days ago talking to some of the people that were working closely with this.
00:00:54.820The stuff that we have, we can speak about some of the stuff.
00:00:57.460So Panama's top court has annulled a contract for a Hong Kong-based company to operate a pair of ports on the country's famous canal,
00:01:05.640casting doubt over a deal to sell the terminals and boosting President Trump's effort to reassert U.S. influence in the region.
00:01:13.660In a unanimous ruling published late on Thursday, the Central American country's Supreme Court said the concession for a unit of C.K. Hutchinson holding to run the ports at either end of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional.
00:01:26.960The case stems from a lawsuit dating back to 2021 in a government audit in 2025, alleging irregularities.
00:01:37.880The ruling will delight the U.S. president who vowed last year to take back control of the canal connecting to the Pacific and the Caribbean.
00:01:45.860And as criticized Chinese influence over the waterway, Kevin Marino, U.S. ambassador to Panama, hailed the ruling as strongly affirming the rule of the law.
00:01:54.880It confirms that Panama's independent judiciary enforces legal compliance, transparency, and public service obligations.
00:02:41.560And he probably also knows that President Trump may do something like the Cuba and something like the Greenland or Venezuela and some of that stuff.
00:02:48.940But they actually have an okay working relationship to get.
00:02:52.260But I've got some thoughts on this, but, Tom, I'll come to you first.
00:02:55.260So what's really interesting is we talked about it on this podcast.
00:03:00.280And we dug up all of the business dealings on what business would own what.
00:03:06.200Can you pull up the two ports, by the way, that C.K. Hutchinson owns, Rob, so the audience can see exactly why these two are so important.
00:03:12.100By the way, C.K. Hutchinson owns about 43 to 45 that Larry Fink and BlackRock was trying to buy.
00:03:18.140But out of the 43, 45 ports that they have, a couple are in Mexico as well.
00:03:22.220The two that matters the most are these two.
00:03:24.680If you want to type in Key Balboa and Crystal Ball and just go to Maps, Rob.
00:03:29.300Key Balboa and Crystal Ball and then go to Maps.
00:07:49.100So that tells you how important it is.
00:07:51.600And when you see the map there and you see how all this freight comes from all over the place, the Panama Canal was the shortcut for east to west.
00:08:00.160It's a huge economic importance for all the stuff that comes from the Pacific Ocean coming to, again, New Orleans, Houston, and Miami, which are actually Port Everglades, bigger, the ports that are bringing up product here in the United States.
00:08:15.780Yeah, I mean, multiple people tried to build this.
00:08:19.560They saw this as a good opportunity to build the canal.
00:09:17.180We funded, we gave $375 million of 1904, 1908 money, which in today is like $13 billion, $10 or $13 billion.
00:09:27.160But to me, the fact that the alignment of the new president, July of 2024, got elected, Trump comes in six months later, there is that affinity.
00:09:37.700They both realized we have a similar enemy, and that enemy is China.