Trump and Colombia's Petro Set Aside Insults for White House Meeting
Washington, D.C. - In a surprising turn of events, United States President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro held their first face-to-face meeting at the White House on Tuesday, February 3, putting aside months of hostile remarks to discuss tackling drug trafficking, according to Al Jazeera and The Guardian. The meeting came after a period of strained relations, marked by Trump's previous accusations against Petro, calling him a "sick man" and an "illegal drug leader," while Petro had referred to Trump as an "accomplice to genocide with a senile brain," according to The Guardian.
Despite the prior animosity, the meeting concluded with warm words from the US president and an agreement to collaborate on addressing drug trafficking, The Guardian reported. Details of the agreement were not immediately available.
The meeting signifies a potential shift in US-Colombia relations after a period of public discord. The two leaders had been trading insults for months, making the amicable nature of the meeting unexpected, according to reports.
The context of the meeting comes amid broader concerns about the state of international law and rising global instability. A recent study by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, covering 23 armed conflicts over the last 18 months, found that international law aimed at limiting the effects of war is at a breaking point. The study estimates that more than 100,000 civilians have been killed, with war crimes such as torture and rape occurring with near impunity, The Guardian reported.
In other news related to the Trump administration, a federal judge blocked the administration from stripping temporary protected status (TPS) from up to 350,000 Haitians, The Guardian reported. Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary stay preventing Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, from implementing her decision to remove the protected status, which allows Haitians to legally live and work in the United States amid turmoil in their homeland.
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