Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the presidents of the United States and Colombia meeting in Washington, Russia resuming its assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and a crackdown on social media platforms in Europe.
White House Showdown
In a test of competing ideologies, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House on Tuesday. Tensions were high ahead of the closed-door meeting—already a rarity in Trump’s TV presidency—as experts wondered whether the two leaders would be able to stabilize their volatile relationship or revert back to months of diplomatic fighting and schoolyard insults.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the presidents of the United States and Colombia meeting in Washington, Russia resuming its assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and a crackdown on social media platforms in Europe.
White House Showdown
In a test of competing ideologies, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the White House on Tuesday. Tensions were high ahead of the closed-door meeting—already a rarity in Trump’s TV presidency—as experts wondered whether the two leaders would be able to stabilize their volatile relationship or revert back to months of diplomatic fighting and schoolyard insults.
Little information has emerged from the summit, with Petro expected to make a public announcement at 4 p.m. local time and Trump surprisingly silent on Truth Social.
According to one Colombian advisor, though, Petro was cautioned to avoid topics that could lead to a diplomatic blowup, like the one that occurred between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last year. Instead, Colombian officials reportedly planned to use Tuesday’s meeting to deliver a detailed presentation on their anti-drug achievements, including cocaine seizures, in a bid to appease the White House; Colombia is the world’s top producer of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine.
Petro is a leftist former guerrilla and a frequent, vocal critic of the Trump administration, especially Trump’s efforts to establish U.S. dominance in Latin America. The Colombian leader has said that the deadly U.S. strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the region amount to war crimes, described last month’s U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as “kidnapping,” and called the actions of U.S. immigration authorities “fascist.”
Trump, for his part, has not taken Petro’s criticism lying down. Just one week into the U.S. president’s second term, Trump threatened to impose a travel ban and sweeping tariffs on Bogotá after Petro refused to allow U.S. military planes carrying Colombian deportees to land in the country. In September, the U.S. State Department revoked Petro’s visa following a speech he made at a pro-Palestine rally in New York, during which he publicly urged U.S. soldiers to defy Trump’s orders. One month later, Trump announced that he would slash all U.S. aid to Colombia and impose tariffs on the nation, calling Petro an “illegal drug leader” and a “lunatic.” And the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Petro and several of his supporters for their alleged involvement in illicit drug production and proliferation.
Growing hostility appeared to come to a head in December, when Trump warned Petro that “he better wise up, or he’ll be next,” appearing to allude to U.S. actions against Maduro. But just a few days later, a private phone call between the two leaders seemed to calm things down somewhat, with Trump later telling reporters that “somehow, after the Venezuelan raid, [Petro] became very nice.”
It is unclear just how “nice” Petro was during Tuesday’s meeting, but initial statements appear optimistic. Petro posted a photo of himself and Trump on X on Tuesday alongside a note signed by Trump that says, “Gustavo—a great honor. I love Colombia.”
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Weaponizing winter. Russia resumed its brutal winter assault on Ukraine’s energy grid with drone and missile strikes on Tuesday, hitting power plants in multiple regions. Tuesday’s strikes came after Trump said that he had persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin to commit to a weeklong halt in attacks on Kyiv and other cities as Ukraine faced “extraordinary cold.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last Friday that the temporary energy cease-fire would only last until Sunday, but Trump recently suggested that the halt in attacks was ongoing.
The Tuesday strikes, which knocked the power out in parts of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, also come a day before peace talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States are set to take place in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. Zelensky said the assault was a sign that Moscow is not taking diplomacy seriously, excoriating Russia for hitting Ukraine during its “coldest days.”
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure throughout their nearly four-year war, but it has ramped up such attacks and been particularly ruthless this winter—leaving millions of Ukrainians without power and heat in the face of plunging temperatures as part of a strategy to increase suffering and break the country’s spirit.
The ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine is indicative of the uphill battle that Washington faces as it continues to push for a peace deal between the two countries, with fundamental disagreements over security guarantees for Kyiv and the fate of the Donbas among the biggest obstacles to overcome.—John Haltiwanger
Europe cracks down. Leading European states are continuing to push back on U.S. social media platforms accused of not doing enough to combat the spread of objectionable and illegal material on their systems. On Tuesday, French authorities with Paris’s cybercrime unit on searched the offices of X as part of an initial investigation into alleged complicity by the social media platform in the possession and dissemination of sexually explicit images of minors and other pornographic images produced using artificial intelligence. X has also been accused by French prosecutors of fraudulent use of a data system and denial of crimes against humanity.
Elon Musk, who owns X, has been ordered to submit to questioning. The platform has denied the accusations.
Meanwhile, Spain became the latest in a growing list of countries to propose or outright ban the use of social media platforms by minors. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday that the government was moving toward banning anyone under the age of 16 from having social media accounts and would be cooperating with five other European countries that he called the “coalition of the digitally willing” to enforce regulations across borders. Although he did not name the other countries, France and the United Kingdom are among the European states that are also developing age-based social media rules.—Rachel Oswald
Beijing’s influence on Latin America. Chinese President Xi Jinping signed several cooperation agreements on Tuesday with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi focused on trade, infrastructure, and technology investments, among others areas. Xi touted the deals as necessary to “advance an equal and orderly multipolar world and an inclusive, universally beneficial economic globalization.”
Xi’s comments, and the bolstering of bilateral ties, come despite pressure from the United States to keep Chinese influence out of Latin America. “[W]hat Washington wants from countries in the region is to stamp out migration, curb the drug trade, and fend off China,” Eduardo Porter writes in Foreign Policy. “But Trump’s ask will be a very hard sell in countries further south, which have been building close economic relations with China for the past three decades.”
Orsi has tried to walk a fine line between the two global superpowers. Orsi rejected the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela immediately following the U.S. capture of Maduro, but he later called it “good news, insofar as the authoritarian regime ceases to exist and democracy emerges.” Orsi is the first Latin American leader to visit China since Maduro’s ouster, and his 150-person delegation signals that Montevideo remains dedicated to fostering favorable trade relations with Beijing, regardless of what Washington wants.
Odds and Ends
Ensuring a return trip to Rome just got a bit more expensive. Legend has it that if you throw a coin into the city’s iconic Trevi Fountain, then you will find yourself back in the Italian capital. But beginning on Monday, Italy is requiring all tourists who want to do so to pay an additional 2 euros ($2.35) for access. The fee is aimed at limiting overtourism in the city and raising money for preservation efforts, and it follows a similar 5-euro (nearly $6) expense for non-Rome residents to visit some museums.
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