News Wrap: Panama’s president rejects U.S. claim of canal transit fee deal

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• Geoff Bennett:

  The NCAA is updating its transgender policy to limit women's competition to athletes who were assigned as female at birth. The change comes a day after President Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls and women's sports. The policy is effective immediately, and it applies to all 500,000 NCAA athletes across the organization's 1,200 schools.

  Prior to this change, eligibility was based on rules set by each sport's national or international governing body.

  President Trump signed an executive order this afternoon sanctioning the International Criminal Court. The measure includes freezing assets of court employees who work on ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or allies such as Israel. It also blocks them from traveling to the U.S.

  The move comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington. Last year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for the prime minister and his former defense minister for alleged war crimes in Gaza, which they deny. Neither the U.S. nor Israel recognize the court's authority.

  Separately, it emerged today that Netanyahu gave President Trump a golden pager mounted on a wooden stand during their meeting in Washington yesterday. It's a not-so-subtle nod to Israel's operation in Lebanon last year, when pagers and handheld radios were used to attack members of Hezbollah.

  In Panama, the country's president is pushing back on U.S. claims over transit fees for the Panama Canal. The U.S. State Department posted on social media last night that a deal was reached that would allow U.S. government vessels to pass through free of charge, saving the federal government millions of dollars a year.

  It followed Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to the critical trade route earlier this week., But this morning, Panama's president rejected that claim, calling it flat-out false.

  Jose Raul Mulino, President of Panama (through interpreter): I am very surprised by the statement from the U.S. State Department. That is simply intolerable. And today, Panama, to you and to the world, expresses my absolute rejection of continuing to explore the path of managing the bilateral relationship based on lies and falsehoods.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Mulino also said that waiving fees would violate both Panama's Constitution and laws regulating the Panama Canal Authority. He also posted on social media that he plans to speak with President Trump about the issue tomorrow.

  There are growing concerns over the spread of bird flu after dairy cattle in Nevada became infected with a new variant of the disease. The latest strain is the second instance of the H5N1 virus spilling from birds to cattle. It's been linked to severe infections in humans, including the death of a person in Louisiana last month. But it's different from the type that was detected in cattle across 16 states last year.

  That's raised concerns about the wider spread of bird flu, though officials say the risk to the general population remains low.

  On Wall Street today, stocks ended mixed ahead of Friday's highly anticipated jobs report. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped about 125 points on the day. The Nasdaq headed higher, though, gaining nearly 100 points. The S&P 500 also closed in positive territory.

  And hip-hop music mogul Irv Gotti has died. He founded the influential label Murder Inc. with his brother in the late 1990s and went on to produce dozens of hits. Gotti helped launch the careers of artists like Ja Rule and Ashanti and worked with other stars like DMX and Jay-Z.

  Murder Inc. was once investigated for allegedly laundering drug money. Gotti, whose real name was Irving Lorenzo, was charged, but eventually acquitted. No cause of death was given, but he battled diabetes and suffered a stroke last year. Irv Gotti was 54 years old.

  Still to come on the "News Hour": the Trump administration's aggressive dismantling of efforts to fight climate change; the engineering skills of beavers offers insights into managing water resources; and the so-called Poet of Havana uses his art and music to address politics and pain.