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Colombian president and Trump put aside insults for amicable White House meeting

After months of trading insults – from “sick man” and “drug trafficking leader” on one side, to “accomplice to genocide” with a “senile brain” on the other – the first meeting between Donald Trump and Gustavo Petro ended with pleasantries, autographs and a Maga cap. The Colombian president was received by his US counterpart for a closed-door meeting at the White House, with no press access. The encounter had been highly anticipated after months of exchanges between the two in which Trump went as far as to suggest Petro could meet the same fate as the former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, captured after the US assault a month ago. Although journalists were not allowed to watch or photograph the meeting, as has been the case with visits by other heads of state, both governments posted images on social media, and Petro went further. The leftwing Colombian leader shared a photo of a signed copy of Trump’s 1987 book The Art of the Deal, apparently poking fun at reports before the meeting that said he did not speak English and would need an interpreter. “What was Trump trying to tell me in this dedication? I don’t understand much English,” Petro wrote, alongside a photo showing “You are great” written above Trump’s autograph. On the same social media platform, X, where months earlier he had warned Trump to “do not wake the jaguar” after the US leader suggested Colombia could be targeted by a US attack, Petro also posted a printed photo he got from Trump, bearing the handwritten message: “Gustavo, a great honour. I love Colombia.” Colombia’s first leftwing president – who will not run in the May elections because the constitution allows only a single term – was also photographed leaving the White House wearing a red Maga (Make America Great Again) cap. At a press conference in the Oval Office shortly after the meeting, Trump was asked whether they had reached an agreement on drug trafficking – Colombia’s position as the world’s largest cocaine producer had been a constant feature of his criticism of Petro – and said they had. “We got along very well. He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted [with Petro’s comments] because I never met him. I didn’t know him at all, and we got along very well,” said the US president. In an interview with Colombia’s Radio Caracol, Petro praised Trump. “The truth is, I like frank gringos. People who say what they feel. We are undoubtedly very different, but frankness comes first,” he said. Trump added that the meeting had been “very productive” and “fantastic”, and that they would continue working “on other issues, including sanctions”. Despite the cordial tone, there was no immediate announcement about Petro’s removal from the so-called “Clinton list”. In October, Petro, his wife, his son and his interior minister were included on the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) list over what the US Treasury department said was “their involvement in the global illicit drug trade”. Petro said he had not discussed the matter with Trump, but added: “If there were legal evidence, I would not be speaking here; I am on the Ofac list because of what I said in New York.” The Colombian president was referring to last year’s UN summit in New York, when he called on American soldiers to disobey any illegal orders from their commanders during a pro-Palestinian rally. After that, his visa was revoked and he was granted a special visa by Washington specifically for this trip. At a press conference at the Colombian embassy in Washington, Petro said his government was the one that had “seized more thousands of tonnes of cocaine than at any point in the history of humanity”. He said he told Trump that “we have to go after the capos”, the criminal bosses, who do not live in Colombia but “in Dubai, in Madrid, in Miami. US agencies know who they are. I gave their names to President Trump,” said Petro. Before the meeting, the Colombian government extradited to the US Andrés Felipe Marín Silva, known as “Pipe Tuluá”, identified as the leader of a drug gang. The defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the move showed that “Colombia is a reliable partner and will continue working with the US with respect, cooperation and concrete actions, protecting citizens and suffocating those who live off crime,” said Sánchez.

Jimmy Lai’s son says UK government did not do enough to help him on China visit

The British son of the jailed Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has criticised the UK government for failing to place conditions on his father’s release during the prime minister’s visit to China last week. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, Sebastien Lai said his father’s incarceration was not only a humanitarian and national security issue, but an issue “where our values are being locked up” along with him. The remarks come after the first trip to China by a UK leader in eight years, during which Keir Starmer is said to have raised the case of the former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong’s most significant pro-democracy voices. In December 2025, Lai, a British citizen, was convicted of national security offences in December after a near two-year trial that international rights groups criticised as politically motivated and an attack on press freedom. Weeks before the prime minister’s visit, it is understood Lai met with the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, and discussed the importance of his father’s case as well as the 78-year-old’s deteriorating health in solitary confinement. “If it is so important then surely there should be some conditionalities put on my father’s release. The trip was a big thing to have been given away, the embassy as well,” said Lai, speaking at an all-party parliamentary group on arbitrary detention and hostage affairs hearing on his father’s case. The UK government wants closer ties with the world’s second biggest economy and approved the new highly contested Chinese embassy in London last month. While there were some tangible gains from the trip – a visa waiver, the dropping of sanctions on British MPs and peers, and investment in China by British firms – criticism came from parliamentarians questioning why the prime minister travelled to Beijing with the embassy “in our back pocket” without first securing Lai’s release. “Time is running out for my father,” said Lai. “Surely a man who defended freedom deserves a bit of it himself.” It is understood Lai has been told that his father’s case was raised by Starmer during his visit, although he has not yet met the prime minister or foreign secretary since. There is no indication of when his father’s sentencing will take place, Sebastien said, adding it would be catastrophic for both government’s should his father pass away in prison. “It was a tragedy that the only thing that came out of this trip was Johnnie Walker not Jimmy Lai,” said the former governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten, referring to the reduction on whisky taxes agreed between the two nations during Starmer’s visit. “We were told that the PM raised Jimmy Lai’s case,” said Lord Patten. “What we don’t know is that the Chinese said in response … what was the extent of their discussion?” While a shift in urgency on the government’s behalf was noted by the head of Lai’s international legal team, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC – who has met Starmer and Cooper – she said the strategy remains to be seen. “We make no secret of the fact we think there’s been a strategic misstep in not putting conditionality,” said Gallagher. “It feels to us the UK hasn’t necessarily played the cards it has as well as it could have.”

French prosecutors ask appeal court to keep ban on Marine Le Pen running for office

French state prosecutors have asked appeal court judges to maintain a five-year election ban on the far-right leader Marine Le Pen for embezzlement of European parliament funds in a fake jobs scandal. If the judges decide to grant the request, Le Pen would probably not be able to run in France’s 2027 presidential election. The state prosecutors also recommended a four-year prison sentence against Le Pen, three of which would be suspended, and one served at home with an electronic bracelet. They also requested a €100,000 (£86,000) fine. “The seriousness of the charges means any other sanction would be inadequate,” Stéphane Madoz-Blanchet, one of the state prosecutors in the case, said on Tuesday. The final decision on sentencing will be made by a panel of appeal judges who will take several months to deliberate and return a verdict “before the summer”. Le Pen, 57, who leads the anti-immigration National Rally (RN), was considered to be one of the top contenders for next year’s French presidential election until she was barred from running for election for five years with immediate effect last March after being found guilty of an extensive and long-running fake jobs scam at the European parliament. Le Pen appealed against last year’s verdict and a fresh trial at Paris’s court of appeal is entering its final stages. Le Pen is seeking to overturn last year’s verdict and sentence in order to run for president in 2027. She told the court there was no “system” set up by her party to misuse European parliament funds. But state prosecutors summing up the case against Le Pen on Tuesday that she had been at the centre of a “thought-out”, “centralised” and almost “industrial” system to embezzle European parliament funds. They told the appeal court that taxpayer money allocated to members of the European parliament to pay their assistants based in Strasbourg or Brussels was siphoned off by the party from 2004 to 2016, to pay its own workers in France, in violation of the parliament’s rules. The staff in France had no connection to work undertaken at the European parliament, prosecutors said. The loss to European funds was estimated at €4.8m (£4.2m). The party, which was then called Front National, made substantial savings through the system, the prosecutors said. The system was well documented in email exchanges and party papers. One state prosecutor, Thierry Ramonatxo, criticised Le Pen for making public attacks on judges after last year’s verdict, when she said a “tyranny of judges” wanted to stop her running in a presidential race that she could otherwise win. Ramonatxo said that judges simply apply the law that has been voted for by the people’s representatives in parliament. He said Le Pen had “made a choice to attack judges on the political stage rather than to reflect upon what she had been reproached for”. He said: “Speaking of a ‘tyranny of judges’, of a ‘violation of the state of law’ or of ‘political assassination’ is not part of the judicial debate in a democratic society. It is not part of a debate of ideas but rather is aimed at discrediting all judicial actions in their entirety.” Ramonatxo said this was dangerous and judges had been exposed to death threats because of these attacks. He added: “Speaking of a conspiracy of judges is not an argument, it’s a withdrawal reflex each time the cause seems lost.” He noted Le Pen’s “change of tone” in the appeal court which had a calmer atmosphere, compared with her anti-judges press conference and media interviews last year. The state prosecutors did not request that a five-year ban from running for public office should take immediate effect. However, this detail – which would leave room for a final appeal to France’s highest court – is unlikely to change the fact that a five-year ban would effectively prevent Le Pen being able to stand for the presidency next spring. Le Pen, in the front row in court, sat taking notes and shaking her head as the state prosecutors outlined their case against her and 10 other party members who appealed against last year’s verdict – a further 13 who were convicted last year have not appealed. Outside court, before the state prosecutors’ summing up, Le Pen had told journalists: “I’m a believer, so I believe in miracles.” Defence lawyers will give closing speeches next week. If Le Pen is banned from running for office, she would be replaced by her protege and party president, Jordan Bardella, 30. Le Pen has recently begun speaking of Bardella as a clear alternative if she can no longer run for president, telling La Tribune Dimanche last month: “Jordan Bardella can win in my place.” She said whatever the outcome, her party would dominate and its “ideas will survive”.

Life expectancy of LGB+ people a year lower than that of heterosexuals, ONS finds

Life expectancy for people who identify as gay, bisexual or another sexual orientation in England and Wales was approximately a year lower than their heterosexual counterparts, according to the first analysis of its kind by the Office for National Statistics. The life expectancy for men who identified as LGB+ was 1.2 years lower than men who identified as straight, at 59.4 years and 60.7 years respectively. For women, the life expectancy for those identifying as LGB+ was 0.9 years lower, compared with women who identified as straight, at 63.0 and 64.0 years respectively. Broken down by sexuality, the life expectancy for men and women who identify as gay or lesbian was 59.3 years and 62.8 years respectively. For people identifying as bisexual, life expectancy was 59.6 years for men and 62.9 years for women. Greg Ceely, the head of population life events at the ONS, said: “People who identified as gay or lesbian had a slightly lower life expectancy than those identifying as straight or heterosexual. Life expectancy can be impacted by a range of factors, so we can’t tell from this analysis whether sexual orientation is the driver of the difference seen.” Laia Becares, professor of social science and health at King’s College London, said: “Sexual orientation itself is not a risk factor, but the way sexual minority people are treated in society is.” Last month, ONS analysis found that LGB+ people in England and Wales were more likely to die from suicide, alcohol-related disease and drug overdose than straight people. “Experiencing discrimination and exclusion is associated with increased stress, smoking and drug use, all of which sexual minority people have been found to be more likely to engage in,” Becares said. Using data from the 2021 census and death registrations, these findings are the first time the ONS has looked at how life expectancy differs by sexual orientation. The data is experimental, and life expectancy was estimated from age 20, since only individuals aged 16 or over were asked the sexual orientation question in the census. The ONS was unable to look at gender identity in this analysis, due to “uncertainty associated with the responses” to questions around gender identity in the 2021 census. • In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Zelenskyy accuses Russia of violating Trump-brokered truce amid cold snap

Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Tuesday of violating an agreement with Donald Trump to hold off from attacking Ukraine’s energy systems in the depths of a freezing winter, as its forces carried out large-scale airstrikes on Kyiv on the eve of three-way talks in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine’s president said Moscow carried out a massive and “deliberate” attack overnight as temperatures in Kyiv plunged to -20C. It involved a record number of 71 ballistic missiles as well as 450 drones, he said, sent to destroy energy infrastructure. More than 1,000 residential buildings in Kyiv were without heating on Tuesday. Zelenskyy said Russia had broken a promise that Trump had last week framed as a personal request to Vladimir Putin to stop hitting Kyiv and “various towns” for a week because of the exceptionally cold weather. “He agreed to do that. And I have to tell you it was very nice,” the US president said on Thursday. The Kremlin later announced the truce would last only until Sunday. According to Ukraine, the ceasefire should have continued until this Friday. Zelenskyy said Russia had used this brief pause in fighting to stockpile weapons. “Either Russia now believes that there are four incomplete days in a week instead of seven, or they are really betting only on war and waiting for the coldest days of this winter,” he said. “We believe this Russian strike clearly violates what the American side discussed, and there must be consequences.” Trump told reporters that Putin had made an agreement that expired on Sunday. “It was Sunday to Sunday, and it opened up and he hit them hard last night,” he said at the White House. “He kept his word on that … we’ll take anything, because it’s really, really cold over there. But it was on Sunday, and he went from Sunday to Sunday.“ Asked if he was disappointed, Trump replied: “I want him to end the war.” A second round of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US to end the war are due to take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Abu Dhabi. A first round last month failed to yield a breakthrough. Visiting Kyiv, the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, on Tuesday accused Moscow of trying to “create chaos for innocent civilians”. Zelenskyy was “absolutely ready to play ball” in talks this week, he said, questioning whether the Russians “are serious”. He called the overnight attack a “really bad signal”. Rutte praised Trump as the only person capable of brokering a peaceful solution, almost four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion. “Be assured that Nato stands with Ukraine and is ready to do so for years to come. Your security is our security. Your peace is our peace,” he told Zelenskyy. Kyiv residents reported loud explosions beginning at 1am on Tuesday in strikes that caused damage to five Kyiv districts and injured at least nine people. An air raid alert stayed in effect for more than five hours. “Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said. He called on western partners to step up the supply of missiles for air defence systems in order to protect “normal life”. “Without pressure on Russia, this war will not end. Now Moscow is choosing terror and escalation, and that’s why maximum pressure is needed,” he wrote on social media. Among the infrastructure hit overnight were facilities to heat water for distribution to Ukrainian homes. “Hundreds of thousands of families, including children, were deliberately left without heating during the harshest winter conditions, with temperatures dropping to -25C,” the Ukrainian energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, wrote on X. Kyiv resident Natalia Hlobenko, 35, described how she rushed to cover her 11-year-old son on Tuesday before an explosion sprayed her apartment with broken glass. “Where is this ceasefire?” said a teary Hlobenko, bundled up in her windowless apartment. Ukraine said the attack had damaged the Motherland monument, a Soviet-era second world war memorial. The 62-metre titanium statue of a woman holding a sword and a shield with a Ukrainian trident looms above the city and the Dnipro River, which has frozen over. “It is both symbolic and cynical: the aggressor state strikes at a place of remembrance of the struggle against aggression in the 20th century, repeating its crimes in the 21st century,” the culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna, wrote on Facebook. The Abu Dhabi talks take place amid reports that Ukraine has agreed a multi-tier plan with its allies for enforcing any ceasefire with Russia. The plan was discussed in December and January by Ukrainian, European and US officials. According to the Financial Times, citing sources involved in the negotiations, a Russian violation of the truce would trigger a response within 24 hours. This would initially involve a diplomatic warning followed, if necessary, by Ukrainian army action to restore a ceasefire. If hostilities continued after 72 hours, Ukraine and its allies would move to a second stage. It would involve a military response from the coalition of the willing, and include American forces. Tuesday’s attacks took place across Ukraine. In Kyiv, 1,170 buildings were without power. In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, the mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said energy infrastructure had been damaged. More than 800 buildings were without heat, as water was drained from radiator systems to stop them freezing in the bitter cold. “The goal is obvious: to cause maximum destruction and leave the city without heat in severe cold,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram. The deputy prime minister, Oleksii Kuleba, said 110,000 properties in Kharkiv had been left without heating after the attack. The public broadcaster Suspilne said Russian strikes had knocked out electricity in two towns in the Kharkiv region, Izium and Balakliia, and struck two apartment buildings in the northern city of Sumy. Russian propagandists have been celebrating the Kremlin’s deliberate destruction of Ukraine’s energy grid in recent weeks – a war crime. “We have driven Ukraine into the stone age. Terrifying cold is approaching. The energy system is extremely sensitive to imbalance,” the presenter Vladimir Solovyov told state TV. He predicted Kyiv would become “a giant cesspool”.

Ukraine ‘ready to play ball’ on peace deal but Russia ‘creating chaos’ with its attacks, says Nato chief – as it happened

We are closing this blog but will be restarting coverage again tomorrow amid trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US in Abu Dhabi. A first round last month failed to yield a breakthrough and there are few hopes this week will be any different amid the latest attacks. You can read our report here

French magistrate reportedly summons two French-Israelis over ‘complicity in genocide’

A French investigating magistrate has issued summonses to two French-Israeli nationals in relation to “complicity in genocide” over allegations they tried to block the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, French media have reported. The summonses, which reportedly mark the first time a country has considered the blocking of aid “complicity in genocide”, were issued for Nili Kupfer-Naouri and Rachel Touitou in July, Le Monde and Agence France-Presse reported. They require Touitou, whose Tsav 9 group obstructed and attacked aid convoys, and Kupfer-Naouri, of Israel is Forever, which supported the actions, to appear before a magistrate, but do not require their arrest. In 2024 the Biden administration described Tsav 9 as a “violent, extremist” group and imposed sanctions on it for “blocking, harassing and damaging” humanitarian convoys. The sanctions were lifted by the Trump administration. Israel restricted aid shipments into Gaza during the war, causing widespread hunger and tipping parts of the territory into a human-made famine last summer. Tsav 9 opposed even the limited shipments that entered. Kupfer-Naouri told the pro-Israel news site the News in an interview on 16 January that she had been summonsed, describing the French investigation as “antisemitic madness” and saying she would “no longer be able to set foot in France”. She said on social media on Tuesday: “In addition to the military fronts on which our IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers are fighting with bravery, an additional front has opened: that of truth and justice. I am proud to fight on this front! No one will silence me.” Touitou said the charges were political persecution, and claimed Tsav 9 demonstrations were a non-violent response to Hamas organising mass diversions of humanitarian aid during the war, allegations that are unsubstantiated. “I will always fight to defend the truth, my people and my country,” she said in a social media post, adding an Israeli flag at the end of her message. Summonses do not automatically lead to arrest, although people can potentially be detained after interview. They can be issued by investigating magistrates without approval from anti-terrorist prosecutors, who are responsible for genocide cases. Pro-Israeli French activists were also being investigated for “public incitement to genocide”, sources close to the investigation told Agence France-Presse, with summonses potentially being issued for 10 other people. The initial complaint was filed last year by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian rights groups Al-Haq and Al Mezan. Clémence Bectarte, a lawyer for the groups, said the investigation was the first of its kind. Other legal complaints have been filed in France for war crimes, over the deaths of Franco-Palestinian children in Gaza and against two Franco-Israeli soldiers. “These warrants mark the first judicial recognition that deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of humanitarian aid can constitute complicity in genocide,” Bectarte said. The French-Palestinian collective Nidal said the summonses showed “the strength of the Franco-Palestinian diaspora, which is building legal resistance in pursuit of the justice it deserves”. It said it was “very pleased” the French justice system had acted. Marion Lafouge and Damia Taharraoui, two lawyers representing the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP), told Le Monde the summonses “reflect the very serious and real nature of the alleged acts”. They added: “Complicity in genocide is not an abstract concept: these are concrete and specific actions that are being investigated by [France’s] central office for combating crimes against humanity and hate crimes.”