FirstFT: BlackRock to buy Panama Canal ports from Hong Kong owner

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Under the agreement, the ports' Hong Kong-based owner CK Hutchison would sell the business to a consortium including BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited, according to a company statement yesterday.
42% : Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was "ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible" and called last week's dramatic clash with Trump in the Oval Office "regrettable".
39% : In today's newsletter: BlackRock has agreed to buy two major ports on the Panama Canal from their Hong Kong-based owner as part of a $22.8bn deal, following pressure from Donald Trump over alleged Chinese influence at the vital waterway.
22% : Trump has frequently alleged that "China is running the Panama Canal", and rattled Panama when he threatened earlier this year to "take it back" under American control.
22% : One person familiar with the deal said: "When President Trump won and he started making noise about annexing Canada and Greenland and Panama, the pressure was put on the Panamanians."
16% : Trump's apparent readiness to abandon Kyiv, suspending military aid to Ukraine, has left many Taiwanese worried that Trump could abandon their country, leaving it to the mercy of China.

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