Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel from Thursday in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.
Mr Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide”.
He previously suspended weapons purchases from Israel and compared its actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.
“Diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be broken … for having a genocidal president,” Mr Petro said during an International Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital on Wednesday.
“If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly criticised Mr Petro’s comments on the platform X.
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burnt babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” Mr Katz said.
Weeks after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, Mr Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticised its response that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, local health authorities say.
Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Mr Petro was elected as the country's first leftist president in 2022.
Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machineguns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and both countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2020.
“Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm, and no anti-Semitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that,” Mr Katz wrote Tuesday.
“The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear.”
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
