Earlier this month, Nicaragua confirmed its intention to build a new canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This new canal will be twice deeper than the existing Panama canal and will be able to accomodate the latest generation of giant container ships of 250,000 tons (the Panama canal can only manage ships of 65,000 tons max, which is too small for modern international commerce).
The new project is welcomed by the US since it will allow trips between the US east and west coasts to be one day shorter, it's also welcomed by the EU, China and Japan since it will allow a direct secured route between East Asia and Europe for giant container ships instead of the current route through the troubled regions of South-East and South-West Asia.
Map of the canal