While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 4, 2026
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A photo released by the White House showing US President Donald Trump (right) and Colombian President Gustavo Petro talking in the Oval Office on Feb 3.
PHOTO: X/@WHITEHOUSE
‘You are great’: Trump makes up with Colombia’s Petro
US President Donald Trump appeared to bury the hatchet with his Colombian counterpart on Feb 3 after months of tensions, praising the leftist leader as he hosted him behind closed doors at the White House.
“You are great,” Mr Trump wrote to Gustavo Petro as he signed a copy of his 1987 book Art Of The Deal, according to a picture posted by the Colombian president after their first ever face-to-face meeting.
The two leaders had duelled online for months over drugs and immigration, while Mr Trump even threatened to topple Mr Petro in a Venezuela-style military operation just a few weeks ago.
But any expectations of televised fireworks like those when Mr Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2025 were quelled when reporters were shut out of the Oval Office meeting with Mr Petro.
NATO says ‘planning under way’ for new Arctic mission
PHOTO: REUTERS
NATO said on Feb 3 that military planning has started for a new mission to bolster security in the Arctic, after US President Donald Trump made protecting the region central to his demands for Greenland.
“Planning is under way for a NATO enhanced vigilance activity, named Arctic Sentry,” said Mr Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.
“The activity will even further strengthen NATO’s posture in the Arctic and High North,” he added, without providing further details.
Teens killed in Russian drone strike on Ukraine
A Russian drone strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed two teenagers and wounded at least 11 people, officials said on Feb 3.
Moscow has pummelled Ukraine with almost daily drone and missile attacks, mainly targeting its energy infrastructure, as the fourth anniversary of the invasion looms.
Russia on Feb 3 hit a residential area in Zaporizhzhia – capital of the Zaporizhzhia region where Russian troops have been advancing.
Four out of every 10 cancer cases are preventable: WHO
PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
Nearly four out of every 10 cancer cases could be prevented if people avoided a range of risk factors including smoking, drinking, air pollution and certain infections, the World Health Organisation said on Feb 3.
New research published on the eve of World Cancer Day estimated that 38 per cent of all new cancer cases globally in 2022 – 7.1 million – were linked to preventable causes.
The large team of researchers, which included the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, looked at 30 factors that increase the risk of getting cancer.
Lindsey Vonn ‘confident’ can compete at Games
US ski star Lindsey Vonn said Feb 3 that she thinks she can compete at the Winter Olympics despite rupturing a knee ligament while crashing out in her most recent World Cup race.
Vonn’s Olympic comeback, at the age of 41 and with a titanium implant in her right knee, is one of the storylines of the Milan-Cortina Games.
But she was nearly forced to drop out of the Games after losing her balance and crashing into the netting in the World Cup downhill in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Jan 30 and damaging her other knee.
