TODAY

Heavy flooding has forced more than 50,000 people to evacuate northern Morocco. Residents say the floods followed weeks of heavy rain after years of drought.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

This is a breaking news story.

Six British ‍pro-Palestinian activists ‍have been acquitted of aggravated burglary relating to a 2024 raid on ⁠a factory operated by ​Israeli defence firm Elbit, with ‍a jury unable to reach verdicts on charges of criminal damage.

Prosecutors ‍at ⁠London’s Woolwich Crown Court said on Wednesday the six defendants, whose trial began in November, were members of the now-banned group Palestine ​Action, which organised ‌the assault on the Elbit Systems United Kingdom facility in Bristol, southwest England, in ‌August last year.

The six – Charlotte Head, ‌29, Samuel Corner, ⁠23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and ‌Jordan Devlin, 31 – all denied charges of aggravated burglary, violent disorder ‍and criminal damage.

More to come …

Last week, a prominent Saudi Sheikh, Mohammed Al-Issa, visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation, which signalled the end of the Nazi Holocaust. Although dozens of Muslim scholars have visited the site, where about one million Jews were killed during World War Two, according to the Auschwitz Memorial Centre’s press office, Al-Issa is the most senior Muslim religious leader to do so.

Visiting Auschwitz is not a problem for a Muslim; Islam orders Muslims to reject unjustified killing of any human being, no matter what their faith is. Al-Issa is a senior ally of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), who apparently cares little for the sanctity of human life, though, and the visit to Auschwitz has very definite political connotations beyond any Islamic context.

By sending Al-Issa to the camp, Bin Salman wanted to show his support for Israel, which exploits the Holocaust for geopolitical colonial purposes. “The Israeli government decided that it alone was permitted to mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied liberation of Auschwitz [in modern day Poland] in 1945,” wrote journalist Richard Silverstein recently when he commented on the gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Holocaust event.

READ: Next up, a Saudi embassy in Jerusalem 

Bin Salman uses Al Issa for such purposes, as if to demonstrate his own Zionist credentials. For example, the head of the Makkah-based Muslim World League is leading rapprochement efforts with Evangelical Christians who are, in the US at least, firm Zionists in their backing for the state of Israel. Al-Issa has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem in what would, in effect, be a Zionist troika.

Zionism is not a religion, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists who desire or support the establishment of a Jewish state in occupied Palestine. The definition of Zionism does not mention the religion of its supporters, and Israeli writer Sheri Oz, is just one author who insists that non-Jews can be Zionists.

Mohammad Bin Salman and Netanyahu – Cartoon [Tasnimnews.com/Wikipedia]

We should not be shocked, therefore, to see a Zionist Muslim leader in these trying times. It is reasonable to say that Bin Salman’s grandfather and father were Zionists, as close friends of Zionist leaders. Logic suggests that Bin Salman comes from a Zionist dynasty.

This has been evident from his close relationship with Zionists and positive approaches to the Israeli occupation and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, calling it “[the Jews’] ancestral homeland”. This means that he has no issue with the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, during which thousands were killed and their homes demolished in order to establish the Zionist state of Israel.

“The ‘Jewish state’ claim is how Zionism has tried to mask its intrinsic Apartheid, under the veil of a supposed ‘self-determination of the Jewish people’,” wrote Israeli blogger Jonathan Ofir in Mondoweiss in 2018, “and for the Palestinians it has meant their dispossession.”

As the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Bin Salman has imprisoned dozens of Palestinians, including representatives of Hamas. In doing so he is serving Israel’s interests. Moreover, he has blamed the Palestinians for not making peace with the occupation state. Bin Salman “excoriated the Palestinians for missing key opportunities,” wrote Danial Benjamin in Moment magazine. He pointed out that the prince’s father, King Salman, has played the role of counterweight by saying that Saudi Arabia “permanently stands by Palestine and its people’s right to an independent state with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.”

UN expert: Saudi crown prince behind hack on Amazon CEO 

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid of Israel’s Channel 13 News reported Bin Salman as saying: “In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” This is reminiscent of the words of the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, one of the Zionist founders of Israel, that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Bin Salman’s Zionism is also very clear in his bold support for US President Donald Trump’s deal of the century, which achieves Zionist goals in Palestine at the expense of Palestinian rights. He participated in the Bahrain conference, the forum where the economic side of the US deal was announced, where he gave “cover to several other Arab countries to attend the event and infuriated the Palestinians.”

US President Donald Trump looks over at Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of Argentina G20 Leaders’ Summit 2018 at Costa Salguero on 30 November 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina [Daniel Jayo/Getty Images]

While discussing the issue of the current Saudi support for Israeli policies and practices in Palestine with a credible Palestinian official last week, he told me that the Palestinians had contacted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to ask him not to relocate his country’s embassy to Jerusalem. “The Saudis have been putting pressure on us in order to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem,” replied the Brazilian leader. What more evidence of Mohammad Bin Salman’s Zionism do we need?

The founder of Friends of Zion Museum is American Evangelical Christian Mike Evans. He said, after visiting a number of the Gulf States, that, “The leaders [there] are more pro-Israel than a lot of Jews.” This was a specific reference to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, and his counterpart in the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed.

“All versions of Zionism lead to the same reactionary end of unbridled expansionism and continued settler colonial genocide of [the] Palestinian people,” Israeli-American writer and photographer Yoav Litvin wrote for Al Jazeera. We may well see an Israeli Embassy opened in Riyadh in the near future, and a Saudi Embassy in Tel Aviv or, more likely, Jerusalem. Is Mohammad Bin Salman a Zionist? There’s no doubt about it.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

‘We won’t see anything on national territory that resembles what’s been seen in the US,’ Italy’s interior minister says.

Agents from the divisive United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will have no operational role in the Winter Olympics, Italy’s interior minister has said days before the Milan-Cortina Games open.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is a separate investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from the department carrying out the US immigration crackdown, will operate within US diplomatic missions only and “are not operational agents” and “have no executive function”, Matteo Piantedosi told the Italian Parliament on Wednesday.

He said the outrage over the HSI presence, including the Milan mayor’s warning that they were not welcome in the city during the February 6-22 Winter Games, was “completely unfounded”.

“ICE does not and will never be able to carry out operational police activities on our national territory,” Piantedosi said.

The minister aimed to clarify the news of the contentious deployment of ICE agents, which prompted protests in the Italian metropolis.

“Security and public order are ensured exclusively by our police forces,” he said.

“During the Milan-Cortina Games, the members of this agency will be engaged solely in analysis and information exchange with the Italian authorities,” he added.

“The presence of personnel linked to the ICE agency is certainly not a sudden and unilateral initiative to undermine our national sovereignty, as some have portrayed, but rather compliance with a legally binding international agreement entered into by Italy.”

Last week, the US agency said it will support the “Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations”.

Following the announcement, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said ICE would not be welcome in his city.

“This is a militia that kills … It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan. There’s no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to [US President Donald] Trump for once?” he said in an interview with RTL 102.5 radio.

ICE said its operations in Italy are separate from the immigration crackdown ordered by Trump in the US.

The Italian interior minister confirmed that the agency’s role would be limited.

“We will not see anything on national territory that resembles what has been seen in the media in the United States,” Piantedosi said.

“The concerns that have inspired the controversy of the last few days are therefore completely unfounded, and this information allows me to definitively dispel them.”

Snooker legend and BBC commentator John Virgo has died aged 79.

Virgo enjoyed an 18-year professional career, winning the 1979 UK Championship among four non-ranking titles.

He is perhaps best known for his post-playing career, co-presenting snooker TV programme Big Break from 1991 to 2002.

Following his retirement in 1994, Virgo took up a full-time commentary position with the BBC.

He was part of its coverage for last month’s Masters.

Seven months after the Washington peace accord between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, the implementation of its terms stands at 23.3 per cent. The accord was signed in June 2025 under the watch of the President Donald Trump administration.

In January 2026, the Barometer of Peace Agreements in Africa reported that, while diplomatic initiatives have advanced, essential security obligations remain unmet, making the core implementation of the peace deal unfulfilled. Released on Feb. 1, the BPAA report reveals that progress remains limited and unequal, and is losing its dynamism. 

The report highlights several positive developments observed between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, particularly in the institutional and diplomatic context. The African Union adopted a new mediation framework in Lome, and facilitators conducted tours in Kinshasa, Kigali, and Bujumbura. However, these efforts have not resulted in tangible progress. 

The Doha process, designed to complement Washington’s framework, has stalled since November 2025, leaving six protocols unresolved and further complicating coordination between parallel peace efforts, according to the BPAA.

Another key observation of the report is that the AU’s new mediation structure, though innovative, suffers from unclear coordination and lacks a standard methodology, raising concerns about its ability to harmonise Washington and Doha processes effectively.

Angolan President João Lourenço engaged Congolese authorities, opposition, and civil society in consultations to revive dialogue. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress held hearings on the state of the peace process, underscoring Washington’s sponsorship of the accord.

On the ground, however, the BPAA revealed that clashes between the Congolese army and the M23 rebels continued across North and South Kivu, undermining ceasefire commitments despite the group’s withdrawal from Uvira in line with international demands.

The think tank further observed that monitoring structures have weakened, with the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism and Joint Oversight Committee failing to meet in December and January, leaving violations and delays unaddressed.

Humanitarian access remains restricted, with displaced populations and civilians caught in escalating violence, underscoring the urgent need for both governments to prioritise civilian protection and relief.

“The global execution rates remain unchanged at 23.3% without evolution as compared to the level recorded in November and December 2025, and the intensification of fighting continues, exacerbating the already precarious conditions of the civilian population,” the report stated.

Despite the expedited Washington process, the situation on the ground remains troubling, with tensions between the two countries persisting. As the accord enters its eighth month, the gap between diplomatic promises and realities on the ground raises pressing questions about whether regional and international actors can salvage momentum before the agreement slips into irrelevance.

Video has emerged that is said to show a Russian-made Mi-28NE Havoc attack helicopter flying over the Iranian capital Tehran. Last week, pictures had also appeared online that looked to show at least one Mi-28NE in Iran. The arrival of Havocs in Iran might also point to the delivery of weapons and other materiel from Russia, or plans to do so soon, amid a new spike in geopolitical friction between the Middle Eastern country and the United States.

TWZ has not been able to independently confirm where and when the footage in question, seen in the social media post above, was taken. However, the pictures that began circulating online last week look to have taken at a hangar belonging to Iran’s Pars Aerospace Services Company (PASC). Situated at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, PASC is tied to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is subject to sanctions in the United States and other Western countries.

🇷🇺🇮🇷 It is believed that Iran has received the first batch of Mil Mi-28NE attack helicopters ordered in Russia.

Photos of a Mil Mi-28 helicopter in digital desert camo stationed in a hangar have emerged on social media.

The arrival of the first Havocs in Iran was also… pic.twitter.com/SgZxwy9ivP

— Status-6 (War & Military News) (@Archer83Able) January 28, 2026

Geo-Location of the warehouse where the recently delivered to Iran Mil-28 helicopter photo is taken.
Pars Aerospace Services Company in Tehran.
35.69899, 51.29459 pic.twitter.com/VV7ruGVPWj

— Mehdi H. (@mhmiranusa) January 28, 2026

In addition, on January 3, Iranian journalist Mohamad Taheri wrote “Inshallah you have a good military service,” according to a machine translation of a Persian-language post on X, which included a stock picture of an Mi-28 wearing a two-tone desert camouflage scheme. Taheri has been associated with Iran’s quasi-official Tasnim News Agency. Tasnim was among the first to report on a possible Iranian acquisition of Havocs, as well as Su-35 Flanker fighters and Yak-130 jet trainers, all the way back in 2023. The Yak-130s appeared in Iran that same year. There had been talk of a batch of Su-35s originally built for Egypt, but that were never delivered, being sent instead to the Iranians. However, at least some of those jets appeared instead in Algeria last year.

The two-seat Mi-28 traces back to before the fall of the Soviet Union, with the original variant making its first flight in the 1980s. The project was shelved in the 1990s and then subsequently revived. The first version to enter actual operational service was the Mi-28N in the late 2000s. Russia subsequently introduced an NE export version, different subvariants of which have been delivered to foreign customers in the past. A further upgraded NM variant for the Russian military was also developed in the 2010s, but has been slow to enter operational service. You can read more about the Mi-28 family in this past TWZ feature.

Mi-28s are armed with a 30mm automatic cannon in a turret under the nose and can carry various munitions, including anti-tank guided missiles and unguided rockets, on four pylons, two on each of a pair of stub wings on either side of the fuselage. The default sensor suite on the Mi-28N includes a mast radar and a turreted infrared video camera under the nose.

The exact configuration of any Mi-28s for Iran, and how many the country may have ordered in total, is unclear. The recently emerged video is too low quality to see any fine details, though it does appear to be fitted with a mast-mounted radar that has been lacking on certain other export versions of the Havoc. The still pictures show a partially disassembled helicopter, which also makes it very difficult to assess the overall configuration. The images do not offer a clear view of the nose, either, where various sensors, as well as the turreted main gun, are located.

Russian Helicopters, the main helicopter conglomerate in Russia today, also notably unveiled a further improved NE variation in 2018 that was said to incorporate lessons learned from the conflict in Syria. This included a directional infrared countermeasure system to provided add defense against incoming heat-seeking missiles, as well as other survivability improvements. It had new engine air filters, a particularly desirable feature for operations in desert environments, and a digital camouflage scheme, as well. The Mi-28 seen in the pictures that emerged last week looks to have the air filters, though they are covered by tarps, and has a digital paint job.

An image reportedly depicting an Mi-28NE attack helicopter recently delivered from Russia to Iran, featuring digital desert camouflage and lacking specialized screen-exhaust devices (SEDs), also known as infrared signature suppressors. https://t.co/e6AZK0g7OW pic.twitter.com/Etc5eo4RPo

— H. Memarian (@HEMemarian) January 28, 2026

New Mi-28s in any configuration would be a notable addition to the Iranian arsenal. The main attack helicopter in service in Iran today is the AH-1J International Cobra, which the country first acquired during the reign of the Shah. The Islamic Republic has made some upgrades to its AH-1 fleet since the 1970s, with the resulting helicopters variously referred to as Toufans or Panha 2091s. However, at their core, these are American-made helicopters that are increasingly difficult for the current regime in Tehran to sustain. The Havoc is more survivable overall and can carry a greater weapons load, as well.

IR Iran unveils Toufan 2 helicopter (upgraded Cobra)

If Iran’s Mi-28s feature the infrared sensor turret and the mast-mounted radar, the helicopters could offer an even greater boost in capability, even at night or in poor weather. That, in turn, could be valuable for responding to any kind of foreign ground incursion in the future, or to internal threats to the regime. At the same time, when an Iranian Havoc fleet might reach a level of real operational capability, and how well the country is able to sustain the helicopters going forward, remains to be seen. Moscow’s own demands in relation to the war in Ukraine have created additional challenges for foreign operators of Russian-made helicopters and other materiel.

As noted, the appearance of Mi-28s in Iran could also reflect larger deliveries of weapons and other materiel from Russia, or the potential for that to occur in the near future. In January, online flight tracking data showed at least five flights by Il-76 airlifters from Russia to Iran, which could have been carrying Havocs or other cargo. Those aircraft could also have been bringing cargo back to Russia from Iran, or carrying payloads both ways. Ties between Moscow and Tehran have grown, in general, in recent years, as Russia has found itself increasingly isolated globally over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. There has been much talk of Iran receiving exchanges in kind for its support to the Russian war effort.

Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 shows at least five Russian Il-76 cargo aircraft flying to Tehran in the past 48 hours, pointing to a spike in undeclared Russian deliveries to Iran. pic.twitter.com/jLP8bz45iA

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 1, 2026

In addition, since the end of the 12 Day War with Israel, Iran has been looking to bolster various ends of its depleted arsenal. There have been reports that Iran has also been seeking new air defense systems from China, another country the regime in Tehran has been working to expand its ties with. China reportedly continues to be an important source of materials to support Iranian missile programs, as well.

The Mi-28 imagery has come amid the backdrop of a new surge in geopolitical friction with the United States. Just today, American authorities announced that an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flying from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea shot down an Iranian drone that had “aggressively approached” the ship. U.S. officials also accused the IRGC of harassing a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

All of this follows a major build-up of U.S. military forces in the region for weeks now, together with a steady stream of reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering new strikes on Iran, at least in part in retaliation for that country’s violent crackdown on nationwide protests last month. Trump has also expressed interest in finding a negotiated arrangement of some kind with Tehran, with reports that American and Iranian officials could meet as early as Friday in Turkey.

Speaking earlier on Fox News, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirms the shoot down of an Iranian drone that was “acting aggressively” towards the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) today over the Arabian Sea, though states that President Trump remains committed to… pic.twitter.com/sVPzPjZIy8

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) February 3, 2026

When it comes to Mi-28s for Iran, evidence is growing that at least one of the helicopters has now been delivered, and more details may now continue to emerge.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Thousands of people marched through Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, demanding the release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, exactly one month since US forces abducted the couple in a bloody nighttime raid.

“Venezuela needs Nicolas!” the crowd chanted in Tuesday’s demonstration, titled “Gran Marcha” (The Great March).

Thousands carried signs in support of the abducted president, and many wore shirts calling for the couple’s return from detention in a US prison.

“The empire kidnapped them. We want them back,” declared one banner carried by marchers.

Nicolas Maduro Guerra, the detained president’s son and a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, addressed the crowds from a stage, stating that the US military’s abduction of his father on January 3 “will remain marked like a scar on our face, forever”.

“Our homeland’s soil was desecrated by a foreign army”, Maduro Guerra said of the night US forces abducted his father.

The march, called by the government and involving many public sector workers, stretched for several hundred metres, accompanied by trucks blaring music.

Local media outlet Venezuela News said the march was part of a “global day of action” to demand the couple’s release. Protesters showed their solidarity around the world, demonstrating under banners with slogans like “Bring them back” and “Hands off Venezuela”.

The international event united voices “from diverse ideological trends”, who agreed “that the detention of President Maduro and Cilia Flores represents a flagrant violation of international law and a dangerous precedent for the sovereignty of nations”, the news outlet said.

“We feel confused, sad, angry. There are a lot of emotions,” said Jose Perdomo, a 58-year-old municipal employee, who marched in Caracas.

“Sooner or later, they will have to free our president”, he said, adding that he also backed Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has been walking a thin line since taking over as acting president, trying to appease Maduro’s supporters in government and accommodating the demands being placed on Caracas by US President Donald Trump.

Trump has said he is willing to work with Rodriguez, as long as Caracas falls in line with his demands, particularly on the US taking control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Striking a conciliatory tone with Washington, and promising reform and reconciliation at home, Rodriguez has already freed hundreds of political prisoners and opened Venezuela’s nationalised hydrocarbons sector to private investment.

Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of university students and relatives of political prisoners also marched in the capital, calling for the quick approval of an amnesty law promised by Rodriguez that would free prisoners from the country’s jails.

Legislation on the amnesty has not yet come before parliament.

Survivors, including a seriously injured child, taken to hospital as state governor declares three days of mourning.

A bus returning from a religious festival in northeast Brazil has veered off the road on a curve and overturned, killing at least 16 people, including four children, officials said.

The bus had been carrying about 60 people when it tipped over in the rural interior of Alagoas state on Tuesday, ejecting some passengers while others were trapped beneath the wreckage.

The Alagoas regional government said in a statement that seven women, five men and four children were among those killed. The accident remains under investigation and was described as “highly complex”.

Brazilian media reported that the bus had been returning from celebrations for Our Lady of Candelaria, a religious festival in the state of Ceara that attracts thousands of devotees every February 2.

“The bus went off the road on a curve, overturned, and some people were thrown out,” said Colonel Andre Madeiro, director of the Alagoas Aviation Department, which took part in the rescue operation.

“Some were trapped under the vehicle. It was a very bad accident, even atypical,” he told a news conference.

Images posted on the X social media platform of the reported crash site featured a severely-mangled bus lying on its side as injured passengers sat nearby waiting for help.

Survivors of the crash, including a seriously injured child, were taken to hospital, where they remain under medical care.

“I express my solidarity with the families and friends at this time of such great pain,” Governor Paulo Dantas wrote on social media. Three days of mourning will be observed in the state, he said.

Deadly road accidents are common in Brazil.

In October, 17 people died in the northeastern state of Pernambuco when a driver lost control of a bus.

More than 10,000 people died in traffic accidents in Brazil in 2024, according to the Ministry of Transportation, including in December 2024, when at least 32 people were killed when a passenger bus and a truck collided on a highway in southeastern Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais.

Also in 2024, a bus carrying a football team flipped on a road, killing three people.

For months, United States President Donald Trump has called him a “sick man” and an “illegal drug leader”.

But on Tuesday, Trump welcomed his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to the White House for their first face-to-face meeting in Washington, DC.

Both leaders hailed the meeting as productive, while acknowledging the lingering tensions that divide them.

At a news conference after their meeting, Petro waved away questions about his rocky history with Trump, whom he has publicly accused of human rights violations.

Instead, he called the interaction “ a meeting between two equals who have different ways of thinking”.

“He didn’t change his way of his thinking. Neither did I. But how do you do an agreement, a pact? It’s not as between twin brothers. It’s between opponents,” Petro said.

Separately, Trump told reporters from the Oval Office that he felt good about the meeting. “I thought it was terrific,” he said.

On the agenda for the two leaders were issues including the fight against transnational drug trafficking and security in Latin America.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s meeting.

A White House charm offensive

Over the past year, Trump has invited the media to participate in his meetings with foreign leaders, often holding news conferences with the visiting dignitaries in the Oval Office.

Not this time, however. The meeting between Trump and Petro lasted nearly two hours, all of it behind closed doors.

But the two leaders emerged with largely positive things to say about one another.

In a post on social media, Petro revealed that Trump had gifted him several items, including a commemorative photograph of their meeting accompanied by a signed note.

“Gustavo – a great honor. I love Colombia,” it read, followed by Trump’s signature.

In another post, Petro showed off a signed copy of Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. On its title page, Trump had scrawled another note to Petro: “You are great.”

“Can someone tell me what Trump said in this dedication?” Petro wrote jokingly in Spanish on social media. “I don’t understand much English.”

A turning point in a tense relationship?

Petro’s joke appeared to be a cheeky nod to his notoriously rocky relationship with Trump.

It was only six days into Trump’s second term, on January 26, 2025, that he and Petro began their feud, trading threats on social media over the fate of two US deportation flights.

Petro objected to the reported human rights violations facing the deportees. Trump, meanwhile, took Petro’s initial refusal to accept the flights as a threat to US “national security”. Petro ultimately backed down after Trump threatened steep sanctions on imported Colombian goods.

They continued to trade barbs in the months since. Petro, for instance, has condemned the deadly US attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, comparing the strikes with murder.

He has also criticised Trump for carrying out a US military offensive in Venezuela to abduct then-President Nicolas Maduro. That attack, Petro said, was tantamount to “kidnapping”.

Trump, meanwhile, stripped Petro of his US visa following the Colombian leader’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, where he criticised the US and briefly joined a pro-Palestinian protest.

The Trump administration also sanctioned Petro in October, blaming the left-wing leader for allowing “drug cartels to flourish”.

After removing Maduro from power on January 3, Trump offered a warning to Petro: he had better “watch his a**”. The statement was widely interpreted to be a threat of military action against Colombia.

But Trump and Petro appeared to have reached a turning point last month. On January 7, the two leaders held their first call together. Tuesday’s in-person meeting marked another first in their relationship.

Agreeing to disagree

Despite the easing tensions, the two leaders used their public statements after the meeting to reaffirm their differences.

Trump was the first to speak, holding a news conference in the Oval Office as he signed legislation to end a government shutdown.

The US president, a member of the right-wing Republican Party, used the appearance to reflect on the political tensions the two leaders had in the lead-up to the meeting.

“He and I weren’t exactly the best of friends, but I wasn’t insulted, because I’d never met him,” Trump told reporters.

He added that Tuesday’s meeting was nevertheless pleasant. “I didn’t know him at all, and we got along very well.”

Petro, meanwhile, held a longer news conference at the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC, where he raised some points of divergence he had with Trump.

Among the topics he mentioned was Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which the US has supported, and sustainable energy initiatives designed to be carbon neutral. Trump, in the past, has called the so-called green energy programmes a “scam”.

Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing leader, also reflected on his region’s history with colonialism and foreign intervention. He told reporters it was important that Latin America make decisions for itself, free from any outside “coercion”.

“ We don’t operate under blackmail,” he said at one point, in an apparent reference to Trump’s pressure campaigns.

Differing approach to combating drug trafficking

One of the primary points of contention, however, was Petro’s approach to combating drug trafficking.

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, responsible for 68 percent of the global supply.

The Trump administration has used the fight against global drug trafficking as a justification for carrying out lethal military strikes in international waters and in Venezuela, despite experts condemning the attacks as illegal under international law.

It has also stripped Colombia of its certification as an ally in its global counter-narcotics operations.

Trump’s White House has said it will consider reversing that decision if Petro takes “more aggressive action to eradicate coca and reduce cocaine production and trafficking”.

But Petro has rejected any attempt to label him as soft on drug trafficking, instead touting the historic drug busts his government has overseen.

He made this argument yet again after Tuesday’s meeting, claiming that no other Colombian administration had done as much as his to fight cocaine trafficking.

Rather than take a militarised approach to destroying crops of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, Petro argued that he has had more success with voluntary eradication programmes.

This push, he said, succeeded in “getting thousands of peasant farmers to uproot the plant themselves”.

“These are two different methods, two different ways of understanding how to fight drug trafficking,” Petro said. “One that is brutal and self-interested, and what it ends up doing is promoting mafia powers and drug traffickers, and another approach, which is intelligent, which is effective.”

Petro maintained it was more strategic to go after top drug-ring leaders than to punish impoverished rural farmers by forcibly ripping up their crops.

“I told President Trump, if you want an ally in fighting drug trafficking, it’s going after the top kingpins,” he said.

A Trumpian note

Tuesday’s meeting ultimately marked yet another high-profile reversal for Trump, who has a history of shifting his relationships with world leaders.

Last year, for instance, he lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a public Oval Office clash, only to warm to the wartime leader several months later.

But Colombia is quickly approaching a pivotal presidential election in May, which will see Petro’s left-wing coalition, the Historic Pact, seek to defend the presidency against an ascendant far right.

Petro himself cannot run for consecutive terms under Colombian law. But there is speculation that Tuesday’s detente with Trump may help Petro’s coalition avoid US condemnation ahead of the vote.

Colombia, after all, was until recently the largest recipient of US aid in South America, and it has long harboured close ties with the North American superpower. Straining those ties could therefore be seen as an election liability.

While Petro acknowledged his differences with Trump during his remarks, at times he expressed certain views that overlapped with the US president’s.

Like Trump has in the past, Petro used part of his speech on Tuesday to question the role of the UN in maintaining global security.

“ Did it not show incapacity? Isn’t a reform needed?” Petro asked, wondering aloud if there was “something superior to the United Nations that would bring humanity together better in a better way”.

But when it came to donning Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, Petro drew a line – or rather, a squiggle.

On social media, he shared an adjustment he made to the cap’s slogan. A jagged, Sharpie-inked “S” amended the phrase to include the entire Western Hemisphere: “Make Americas Great Again.”

The ‘test’ of a new country

This longing is shared by Angelica Angel, a 24-year-old student activist in exile.

She had grown up with tear gas and police beatings in Venezuela. After all, she had started protesting at age 15.

“They’ve pointed their guns at me, beaten me and almost arrested me. That’s when you realise that these people have no limits: They target the elderly, women and even young girls,” Angel said.

But the increasing political repression ultimately made her life in Merida, a college town in western Venezuela, untenable.

After 2024’s disputed presidential election, Angel decided to voice her outrage on social media.

Maduro had claimed a third term in office, despite evidence that he had lost in a landslide. The opposition coalition obtained copies of more than 80 percent of the country’s voter tallies, showing that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had won the race.

Protests again broke out, and again, Maduro’s government responded with force.

Military and security officers detained nearly 2,000 people, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights lawyers.

When Angel denounced the arbitrary detentions on TikTok, she began receiving daily threats.

By day, anonymous phone calls warned her of her impending arrest. By night, she heard pro-government gangs on motorcycles circling her home.

Fearing detention, she fled to Colombia in August 2024, leaving her family and friends behind.

But living outside Venezuela gave her a new perspective. She came to realise that the threats, persecution and violence she had learned to live with were not normal in a democratic country.

“When you leave, you realise that it isn’t normal to be afraid of the police, of unknown phone calls,” said Angel, her voice trembling. “I’m afraid to go back to my country and to be in that reality again.”

For exiled Venezuelans to return safely, Angel believes certain benchmarks must be met. The interim government must end arbitrary detention and allow opposition members, many of whom fled Venezuela, to return.

Only then, she explained, will Venezuela have moved past Maduro’s legacy.

“Exiles being able to return is a real test of whether a new country is taking shape,” she said.

Greece’s coastguard says 26 other people have been rescued from Aegean Sea as search-and-rescue operations continue.

A boat carrying migrants and asylum seekers has collided with a Greek coastguard vessel in the Aegean Sea near the island of Chios, killing at least 14 people, the coastguard says.

The incident occurred around 9pm local time on Tuesday (19:00 GMT) off the coast of Chios’s Mersinidi area, Greece’s Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) reported.

The coastguard said 26 people were rescued and brought to a hospital in Chios, including 24 migrants and two coastguard officers.

It said it was not immediately clear how many others had been on the speedboat.

Seven children and a pregnant woman were among the injured, Greek media reported.

A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was under way in the area, AMNA said.

Footage shared by Greece’s Ta Nea newspaper appeared to show at least one person being brought from a boat docked next to a jetty into a vehicle with blue flashing lights.

An unnamed coastguard official told the Reuters news agency that the collision occurred after the migrant boat “manoeuvred toward” a coastguard vessel that had instructed it to turn back.

Greece has long been a key transit point for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa ‌and Asia trying to reach Europe.

In 2015 and 2016, Greece was on the front line of a migration crisis, with nearly one million people landing on its islands, including in Chios, from nearby Turkiye.

But arrivals have dropped in recent years as Greece ‌has toughened its asylum seeker and migrant policies, including by tightening border controls and sea ‌patrols.

The country has come under scrutiny for its ⁠treatment of migrants and asylum seekers approaching by sea, including after a shipwreck in 2023 in which hundreds of migrants and refugees died after what witnesses said was the coastguard’s attempt to tow their trawler.

The European Union’s border ‌agency said last year that it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece, including some allegations that people seeking asylum were pushed back from Greece’s ‍frontiers.

Greece has denied carrying out human rights violations or pushing asylum seekers from its shores.

Illegal US military strikes on January 3, 2026, against Venezuela have elicited a flood of resolutions from labor unions. Some of these have focused solely on the US aggression and solidarity with the Venezuelan people. Others have gone further to condemn the kidnapping and arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. In at least one case, a resolution by the Tucson chapter of the National Writers Union has called for systemic changes to how the AFL-CIO, the US’ largest labor confederation, and its Solidarity Center (formerly the American Center for International Labor Solidarity), conducts its international relations. In each case, union members are undertaking important steps towards peace and solidarity as well as opening up possibilities for the emergence of a truly independent US labor movement. 

These resolutions are the latest in a series of cases where labor has broken with US foreign policies, including military strikes and acts of war. Beginning with the AFL-CIO’s 2005 passage of the USLAW Resolution 53: “The War in Iraq”, the federation and both affiliated and unaffiliated unions have gone on to speak out against coups in Honduras and Bolivia, repressive immigration policies, neoliberal trade agreements, and other global wars and threats of war.

In contrast, the Solidarity Center, the AFL-CIO’s primary channel for international activities, has continued to collaborate with US policies of regime change. The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center is historically 90 to 96% funded by the US government, and its policies are set in consultation with the White House rather than with representatives from its member unions. The Solidarity Center is one of the core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), along with the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Center for International Private Enterprise (US Chamber of Commerce), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). The NED was created by the US Congress in 1983 in large part to “…do today [what] was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

The Solidarity Center has played support roles in coups and coup attempts as well as invasions and occupations in Haiti, Venezuela, and Iraq, to name a few examples. In Haiti, the Solidarity Center withheld support for the largest union during the IRI orchestrated coup and instead funded a small labor organization that refused to oppose the coup. In Iraq, the Solidarity Center ignored unions and workers organizations protesting the US occupation in order to support union organizing that would avoid such direct challenges. 

In Venezuela, the Solidarity Center funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to plotters of the failed coup of 2002. Since then, the Solidarity Center has provided a black box worth millions in funding for activities in Venezuela. However, it has provided no details about how those funds are being used or to whom they are being distributed. 

The recent freeze in funding for the NED and the Solidarity Center by the Trump Administration is being treated as a crisis. It has resulted in lawsuits by both institutions to recover funding. However, orphaned by the White House, there is another way forward for the AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center. The Tucson NWU resolution calls for the Solidarity Center to open its books on its activities and to wean itself off government funding. The recent experiences of unions declaring their solidarity with both Palestine and Venezuela have shown many the profound need for a new era of labor independence. 

Labor unionists in solidarity with Venezuela should study and learn from experiences regarding Palestine. Labor mobilizations against the genocide in Gaza represented a break not only with international US policies but, specifically, with the leadership of the AFL-CIO which has long supported Zionism and even to this day, acted to stifle solidarity with Palestine. In an article for Left Voice, Jason Koslowski informs us that, 

“By October 18, a little fewer than 2,000 were dead in Gaza. That’s when one of the AFL-CIO’s organs in Washington State — the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council, or TMLCLC — met and passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire. 

The TMLCLC’s resolution ‘opposes in principle any union involvement in the production or transportation of weapons destined for Israel.’ And it challenges the AFL-CIO leadership, too: 

‘[W]hile the TLMCLC agrees with the AFL-CIO’s statement calling for a ‘just and lasting peace,’ we would ask our parent federation to also publicly support an immediate ceasefire and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis.

The AFL-CIO leadership caught wind of this dissent. That’s when it stepped in. 

A representative of the AFL-CIO leaders contacted the labor council to declare the dissenting statement void. Under pressure, the Washington labor council deleted the statement from its Twitter account.”

Jeff Shurke is the author of the must-read book No Neutrals There: US Labor, Zionism, and the Struggle for Palestine. Shurke, in an article for Jacobin, adds that, 

“…an AFL-CIO senior field representative informed the council’s board members that their resolution was null and void because it did not conform to the national federation’s official policy…. About a week later, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler sent a memorandum to all local labor councils and state labor federations across the United States telling them that ‘the national AFL-CIO is the only body that can render an official public position or action on national or international issues.’ Without explicitly referencing the unfolding carnage in Gaza, she was all but telling the federation’s local and statewide bodies they were not allowed to stand in solidarity with Palestine.

Still, the AFL-CIO’s individual member unions — which, unlike central labor councils, operate as autonomous affiliates of the federation — were free to take their own positions. Beginning with the American Postal Workers Union and United Auto Workers (UAW), over the following weeks and months several of them formally joined the growing chorus of international voices demanding a ceasefire in Gaza… culminating in the establishment of a new union coalition dubbed the National Labor Network for Ceasefire.

The AFL-CIO itself eventually came out in favor of a “negotiated cease-fire” in early February 2024, after at least twenty-five thousand Palestinians had already been killed. Despite these positive developments, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions at the national level still failed to answer the explicit Palestinian call to refrain from building or shipping weapons for Israel.”

In the case of the Tucson NWU’s resolution, rather than going through labor federations, the resolution has been sent to the national NWU for passage and forwarding to the AFL-CIO for consideration in the next convention. Other unions are debating similar resolutions. There also is discussion of bringing resolutions before labor counsels and federations despite the AFL-CIO’s admonishments. 

Right now, three kinds of resolutions have emerged from labor in response to the January 3rd attack on Venezuela. They are all good. 

•  The first kind is to condemn the attacks without further elaboration. That is positive, but by leaving out reference to the kidnapping of President Maduro and Cilia Flores, the resolutions sidestep the issue of regime change itself. 
•  The second kind adds a demand for the release of Maduro and Flores. This is better and implicitly breaks with the AFL-CIO’s and the Solidarity Center’s support for regime change. 
•  The Tucson NWU resolution is an example of the third approach. It takes worker-to-worker solidarity to its logical conclusion, calling for systemic change so that the AFL-CIO will never again support US coups and invasions but, instead, plot an independent course. That is the most meaningful kind of change, one that lasts beyond just the current moment and conflict. 

The opportunity to achieve that kind of change is here. Abandoned by the White House, pressured by its own rank and file, the time has come for the AFL-CIO to choose a new path. What will be its response?

James Patrick Jordan is National Co-Coordinator for the Alliance for Global Justice and is responsible for its Colombia, labor, and ecological solidarity programs.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Orinoco Tribune

Tehran, Iran – Several of Iran’s former leaders, including some who are currently imprisoned or under house arrest, have released damning statements over the killing of thousands during nationwide protests, garnering threats from hardliners.

The Iranian government claims that 3,117 people were killed during the antiestablishment protests. The government has rejected claims by the United Nations and international human rights organisations that state forces were behind the killings, which were mostly carried out on the nights of January 8 and 9.

The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified 6,854 deaths and is investigating 11,280 other cases.

“After years of ever-escalating repression, this is a catastrophe that will be remembered for decades, if not for centuries,” wrote Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former reformist presidential candidate who has been under house arrest since the aftermath of the Green Movement of 2009.

“How many ways must people say that they do not want this system and do not believe your lies? Enough. The game is over.”

Mousavi told state forces to “put down your guns and step aside from power so that the nation itself can bring this land to freedom and prosperity”, and stressed that this must be done without foreign intervention amid the shadow of another war with the US and Israel.

He said that Iran is need of a constitutional referendum and a peaceful, democratic transition of power.

A group of 400 activists, including figures from inside and outside the country, backed Mousavi’s statement.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, a prominent jailed former reformist politician, said that he wants Iran to “move beyond the wretched conditions that the guardianship of Islamic jurists and the failed rule of the clergy have imposed on the Iranian nation”.

In a short statement from prison last week, he said this would be contingent upon the “resistance, wisdom, and responsible action of all citizens and political actors” and called for an independent fact-finding mission to uncover the true aspects of “atrocities” committed against protesters last month.

‘Major reforms’

Other former heavyweights have heavily criticised Iran’s current course, but have avoided calling for the effective removal of the Islamic Republic from power.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, who many believe is eyeing a potential future return to power, last week gathered his ex-ministers and insiders for a recorded speech, and called for “major reforms, not small reforms”.

He acknowledged that Iranians have been protesting for a variety of reasons over the past four decades, and insisted the state must listen to them if it wants to survive, but did not mention the internet blackout and killing of protesters during his tenure in November 2019.

Rouhani added that the establishment must hold public votes on major topics, including foreign policy and the ailing economy, in order to avoid further nationwide protests and prevent the population from looking to foreign powers for help.

Mohammad Khatami, the reformist cleric who was president from 1997 to 2005, adopted a softer tone and said violence derailed protests that could have helped “expand dialogue to improve the country’s affairs”.

He wrote in a statement that Iran must “return to a forgotten republicanism, and an Islamism that embraces republicanism in all its dimensions and requirements, placing development together with justice at the core of both foreign and domestic policy”.

Mehdi Karroubi, another senior reformist cleric who had his house arrest lifted less than a year ago after 15 years, called the protest killings “a crime whose dimensions language and pen are incapable of conveying” and said the establishment is responsible.

“The wretched state of Iran today is the direct result of Mr. Khamenei’s destructive domestic and international interventions and policies,” he wrote, in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in absolute power for nearly 37 years.

Karroubi noted one prominent example as the 86-year-old leader’s “insistence on the costly and futile nuclear project and the heavy consequences of sanctions over the past two decades for the country and its people”.

Political prisoners rearrested

Three prominent Iranian former political prisoners were arrested and taken to prison by security forces once again last week.

The Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said the reason for the arrests of Mehdi Mahmoudian, Abdollah Momeni, and Vida Rabbani was that they had sneaked out Mir Hossein Mousavi’s statement from his house arrest.

Mahmoudian is a journalist and activist, and co-writer of the Oscar-nominated political drama movie, It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Momeni and Rabani are also political activists who have previously been arrested by the Iranian establishment multiple times.

The three were among 17 human rights defenders, filmmakers and civil society activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and internationally recognised lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who co-signed a statement last week that put the blame for the protest killings on the supreme leader and the theocratic establishment.

“The mass killing of justice seekers who courageously protested this illegitimate system was an organised state crime against humanity,” they wrote, condemning the firing on civilians, the attacks on the wounded, and the denial of medical care as “acts against Iran’s security and betrayal of the homeland”.

The activists called for holding a referendum and constituent assembly to allow Iranians to democratically decide their political future.

Hardliners incensed

In hardline-dominated circles and among their affiliated media, the mood has been entirely different.

On Sunday, lawmakers in parliament donned the uniforms of the IRGC, which was last week designated a “terrorist” organisation by the European Union.

They chanted “Death to America” and promised they would seek out European military attaches working at embassies in Tehran to expel them as “terrorists”.

Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a cleric who represents northeast Mashhad in the parliament, told a public session of parliament on Sunday that former President Rouhani must be hanged for favouring engagement with the West, echoing a demand also made by other hardline peers in recent years.

“Today is the time for the ‘major reform’, which is arresting and executing you,” he said, addressing Rouhani.

Amirhossein Sabeti, another firebrand lawmaker, condemned the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian – but not Khamenei or the establishment – for proceeding with mediated talks with the US.

“Today, the people of Iran are waiting for a pre-emptive attack on Israel and US bases in the region, not talks from a position of weakness,” he claimed.

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son has pleaded not guilty to four rape charges as his trial opens in Oslo. Marius Borg Hoiby faces 38 counts, including assault and domestic violence, in a case that has shaken Norway’s royal family.

Cubans are cooking on charcoal and facing worsening power blackouts after the US cut the island off of Venezuelan oil exports. US President Donald Trump promised Cuba will “fail” soon and threatened tariffs on any nations doing business with the island. Can Cuba’s communist government survive the latest US push for regime change?

In this episode:

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Haleema Shah and Melanie Marich with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Chloe K. Li, Tuleen Barakat, Maya Hamadeh, and our host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Kylene Kiang. 

Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad, Vienna Maglio, and Munera AlDosari. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Police are looking into allegations Peter Mandelson may have passed sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein.

British politician Peter Mandelson is stepping down from the United Kingdom’s upper house of Parliament amid renewed scrutiny and the prospect of a criminal review into his ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The speaker of the House of Lords, Michael Forsyth, said on Tuesday that Mandelson, 72, had notified the chamber of his intention to resign. Forsyth said the move would come into effect on Wednesday.

Mandelson, a former UK ambassador to the United States and longtime senior figure in the country’s Labour Party, has come under intense pressure following the release of a new tranche of US government documents related to Epstein.

The material includes emails from Mandelson to Epstein sharing political insights, including market-sensitive information during the 2008 financial crisis that critics say may have broken the law.

British police have said they are assessing reports of possible misconduct “to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation”.

The files also include bank documents suggesting Epstein transferred tens of thousands of dollars to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. Mandelson has said he does not recall such transactions and will examine the documents.

Additional material includes emails suggesting a friendly relationship between the two men after Epstein’s 2008 convictions for sex offences, as well as an image showing Mandelson in his underwear beside a woman whose face was obscured by US authorities.

Mandelson told the BBC that he “cannot place the location or the woman, and I cannot think what the circumstances were”.

Starmer says he’s ‘appalled’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday told his cabinet he was “appalled by the information” regarding Mandelson and was concerned more details would come to light, according to a Downing Street readout of a cabinet meeting.

Starmer also said he has ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent” review of all of Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein while he was in government.

“The alleged passing on of emails of highly sensitive government business was disgraceful,” the prime minister said, adding he was not yet “reassured that the totality of information had yet emerged” regarding Mandelson’s links with Epstein.

Mandelson, who was sacked from his post as British ambassador to the US in September following earlier revelations about his Epstein ties, quit the Labour Party on Sunday to avoid what he called “further embarrassment”.

In an interview with The Times conducted late last month and published on Tuesday, Mandelson described Epstein as a “master manipulator,” adding: “I’ve had a lot of bad luck, no doubt some of it of my own making.”