President Donald Trump is ‘not interested’ in making peace with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the White House said Thursday, as tensions between Washington and Bogotá continue to escalate.

‘I don’t think we’re seeing de-escalation from the unhinged leader of Colombia right now,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a White House briefing when asked what Petro could do to reduce tensions.

‘I don’t think the president, frankly, is interested in that at this point,’ Leavitt added.

Relations between the two countries have sharply deteriorated after Petro accused the U.S. of killing innocent fishermen during strikes targeting narco-traffickers in the Caribbean.

Following Petro’s accusation, Trump announced plans to cut off all counter-narcotics aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs on the country.

Trump lashed out at his South American counterpart, calling him a ‘thug’ who is ‘making a lot of drugs.’

‘They’re doing very poorly, Colombia. They make cocaine. They have cocaine factories … and he better watch it or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country,’ Trump said. ‘What he has led his country into is a death trap.’

Petro fired back, threatening to sue Trump in U.S. court.

‘From the slanders that have been cast against me in the territory of the United States by high-ranking officials, I will defend myself judicially with American lawyers in the American justice system,’ Petro wrote on X. ‘I will always stand against genocides and murders by those in power in the Caribbean.’

‘When our help is required to fight against drug trafficking, American society will have it. We will fight against the drug traffickers with the states that want our help,’ he added.

Petro has sought closer ties with Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro while distancing Colombia — a major non-NATO ally — from the United States.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has conducted eight strikes on vessels believed to be transporting narcotics from Latin America. The world is now watching to see whether Trump will follow through on threats to strike Venezuelan soil — or even target Maduro himself, directly or indirectly.

Trump confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and also warned Colombia could face similar consequences.

‘Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social, ‘or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Colombian Embassy in Washington sought to ease tensions, saying the U.S. representative in Bogotá recently met with Petro and that ‘both sides agreed to continue dialogue in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect. The meeting reaffirmed the shared commitment towards efforts against illicit drug trafficking, grounded in accuracy, coordination, and security.’

Mayor Eric Adams formally endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to replace him as the next mayor of New York City on Thursday, less than one month after Adams suspended his re-election campaign.

The endorsement followed Wednesday night’s final mayoral debate, where Cuomo, who is running as an Independent, faced off against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. Rather than speak to reporters after the debate, Cuomo dashed off to Madison Square Garden to watch the end of the New York Knicks game courtside with Adams.

‘I’m fighting for the family of New York,’ Adams said. ‘That’s why I’m here today, to endorse Andrew Cuomo, to be part of this fight, and I’m going to give him my all these next few days to make sure that Black and Brown communities, specifically, who have believed there’s nothing at stake in this election for them. It is.’

‘Am I angry that I’m not the one taking down Zohran, the socialist and the communist?’ Adams said, eliciting President Donald Trump’s moniker for Mamdani. ‘You’re darn right I am. But, you know what, the city means more to me than anything, and it is time for us as a family to come together.’

‘Today confirms what we’ve long known: Andrew Cuomo is running for Eric Adams’ second term,’ Mamdani said in a statement Thursday. ‘It’s no surprise to see two men who share an affinity for corruption and Trump capitulation align themselves at the behest of the billionaire class and the president himself. We are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas that these two disgraced executives embody and build a city every New Yorker can afford.’

Mamdani reiterated his criticism of the endorsement during a campaign event in Manhattan on Thursday.

‘We also know that this is the art of the deal,’ Mamdani said before adding, ‘We know that in a moment when New Yorkers are looking for an answer to the authoritarianism that we’re seeing from Washington, D.C., they don’t want the continuation of making City Hall into an embassy of that same administration.’

Adams has aligned with Trump since he was elected in November, visiting both Mar-a-Lago and the White House. Trump’s Justice Department dropped bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy charges against Adams earlier this year. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., weighed removing Adams from office following a slew of City Hall resignations after Adams’ case was dropped. Hochul has since endorsed Mamdani’s campaign, although Mamdani has yet to endorse Hochul’s re-election campaign. 

Pressure had been mounting since Mamdani won the Democratic primary for Adams or Cuomo to drop out of the race to consolidate support against Mamdani.

‘The mayor put his own personal ambition and ego aside to make sure he’s doing everything he can to make sure that New York remains New York,’ Cuomo said Thursday.

Adams announced he was suspending his campaign in a video on Sunday, Sept. 28, prompting the leading mayoral candidates to sharpen their political jabs against each other.

Similar pressure from billionaires, including Red Apple Media CEO John Catsimatidis and hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman, has intensified this week for Sliwa to drop out of the race in order to clear a pathway to victory for Cuomo.

The Democratic nominee, who handily defeated Cuomo in the primary, elicited Adams’ own words against the former governor in the days after he suspended his re-election campaign.

‘Even hearing Eric Adams, the way that he described Andrew Cuomo as a snake and a liar, is something that I’ve heard from a number of New Yorkers in wanting to turn that page,’ Mamdani said.

While Adams and Cuomo have had their fair share of disagreements, the Democrats agreed on Thursday that Mamdani should not become the next mayor of New York City. Adams addressed his own criticism of Adams during the announcement Thursday. 

‘He called me names. But you know what? Now it’s time to fight for the family, and I’m going to fight for the family with Andrew Cuomo as the next mayor of the city of New York,’ Adams said. 

The latest Fox News survey, conducted Oct. 10-14, ahead of the first general election debate last week, revealed that Mamdani has a substantial lead in the race. According to the poll, Mamdani has a 21-point lead among New York City registered voters with 49% of voters backing Mamdani, while 28% go for Cuomo and 13% favor Sliwa.

Mamdani also rose above the 50% threshold among likely voters, garnering 52% support, while Cuomo picked up 28%, and Sliwa received just 14%.

But as Mamdani, ever the social media-savvy candidate, warned his followers on Wednesday, it was Cuomo who was the favorite to win the nomination just weeks before the Democratic primary.

By consolidating support with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and cross-endorsing each other to topple Cuomo through ranked-choice voting, Mamdani pulled off the political upset that has since landed him on the national stage.

President Donald Trump called off his meeting in Budapest, Hungary, with Russian President Vladimir Putin because he didn’t see enough progress toward peace — although a future summit hasn’t been ruled out, according to the White House. 

While Trump and Putin spoke over the phone Oct. 16, plans for the meeting were scrapped after Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Tuesday.

Trump ‘feels as though, unfortunately, from the Russian side as of late, he has not seen enough interest in enough action in terms of moving the ball forward toward peace,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday. ‘And so a meeting between these two leaders is not completely off the table. I think the president and the entire administration hopes that one day that can happen again, but we want to make sure that there’s a tangible positive outcome out of that meeting, and that it’s a good use of the president’s time.’ 

Trump also has signaled in recent days that his patience has worn thin with Russia, and his administration slapped stringent sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies Wednesday. 

Specifically, the sanctions freeze all U.S.-linked assets from the two companies and bar U.S. citizens from engaging in any business with them. 

In response, Putin called the sanctions an ‘unfriendly act,’ and warned that global oil prices could increase as a result. However, he also said that the sanctions would not majorly impact Moscow’s economy. 

While Trump routinely has said in recent months that he has pleasant conversations with Putin, he’s also voiced frustration at the lack of progress made as he’s sought to mediate an end to the conflict. Trump also said Tuesday that he didn’t want to have a ‘wasted meeting’ with Putin in Hungary. 

‘The president wants to see action, not just talk,’ Leavitt said. ‘And I think the president is extremely motivated by the success of his peace deal in the Middle East to get things done, and he wants this war to come to an end. He’s been saying it now for nine months, being in office, and he’s grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress from both sides of this war.’ 

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Friday, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte Wednesday to address ongoing negotiations to end the conflict. 

On Wednesday, Trump told reporters the meeting with Putin ‘didn’t feel right,’ and explained why he wasn’t interested in arming Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles like he’d previously suggested he might. 

‘There is a tremendous learning curve with the Tomahawk. It’s a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon,’ Trump said Wednesday. ‘And maybe that’s what makes it so complex. But it will take a year. It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it. And we’re not going to be teaching other people. It will be just too far out into the future.’

Meanwhile, Trump has voiced skepticism recently about whether Ukraine can win against Russia.

‘They could still win it. I don’t think they will, but they could still win it,’ Trump told reporters Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Two federal judges admitted that members of their staff used artificial intelligence to prepare court orders over the summer that contained errors.

The admissions, which came from U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals in New Jersey and U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate in Mississippi, came in response to an inquiry by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley described the recent court orders as ‘error-ridden.’

In letters released by Grassley’s office on Thursday, the judges said the rulings in the cases, which were not connected, did not go through their chambers’ usual review processes before they were released.

The judges both said they have since adopted measures to improve how rulings are reviewed before they are posted.

Neals said in his letter that a June 30 draft decision in a securities lawsuit ‘was released in error – human error – and withdrawn as soon as it was brought to the attention of my chambers.’

The judge said a law school intern used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to perform legal research without authorization or disclosure that he also said was contrary to the chamber’s policy and relevant law school policy.

‘My chamber’s policy prohibits the use of GenAI in the legal research for, or drafting of, opinions or orders,’ Neals wrote. ‘In the past, my policy was communicated verbally to chamber’s staff, including interns. That is no longer the case. I now have a written unequivocal policy that applies to all law clerks and interns.’

Wingate said in his letter that a law clerk used Perplexity ‘as a foundational drafting assistant to synthesize publicly available information on the docket,’ adding that releasing the July 20 draft decision ‘was a lapse in human oversight.’

‘This was a mistake. I have taken steps in my chambers to ensure this mistake will not happen again,’ the judge wrote.

Wingate had removed and replaced the original order in the civil rights lawsuit, declining at the time to give an explanation but saying it contained ‘clerical errors.’

Grassley had requested that the judges explain whether AI was used in the decisions after lawyers in the respective cases raised concerns about factual inaccuracies and other serious errors.

‘Honesty is always the best policy. I commend Judges Wingate and Neals for acknowledging their mistakes and I’m glad to hear they’re working to make sure this doesn’t happen again,’ Grassley said in a statement.

‘Each federal judge, and the judiciary as an institution, has an obligation to ensure the use of generative AI does not violate litigants’ rights or prevent fair treatment under the law,’ the senator continued. ‘The judicial branch needs to develop more decisive, meaningful and permanent AI policies and guidelines. We can’t allow laziness, apathy or overreliance on artificial assistance to upend the Judiciary’s commitment to integrity and factual accuracy. As always, my oversight will continue.’

Lawyers have also faced scrutiny from judges across the country over accusations of AI misuse in court filings. In response, judges have issued fines or other sanctions in several cases over the past few years.

Reuters contributed to this report.

A federal judge struck down a Biden-era rule that expanded federal anti-discrimination measures to transgender healthcare, writing that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ‘exceeded its authority by implementing regulations redefining sex discrimination and prohibiting gender identity discrimination.’

The ruling from Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi came after a coalition of 15 Republican-led states sued over the matter, according to The Hill.

‘When Biden-era bureaucrats tried to illegally rewrite our laws to force radical gender ideology into every corner of American healthcare, Tennessee stood strong and stopped them,’ Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement following the ruling. ‘Our fifteen-state coalition worked together to protect the right of healthcare providers across America to make decisions based on evidence, reason, and conscience.’

‘This decision restores not just common sense but also constitutional limits on federal overreach, and I am proud of the team of excellent attorneys who fought this through to the finish,’ he added.

Skrmetti’s office said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi held that HHS ‘exceeded its authority when it issued a rule in May 2024 redefining Title IX’s prohibition against discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ — which Congress incorporated into the ACA through Section 1557 — to include gender identity.’

‘HHS’s 2024 rule represented a disturbing federal intrusion into the States’ traditional authority to regulate healthcare and make decisions about their own Medicaid programs. Specifically, the rule would have prohibited healthcare facilities from maintaining sex-segregated spaces, required certain healthcare providers to administer unproven and risky procedures for gender dysphoria, and forced states to subsidize those experimental treatments through their Medicaid programs,’ it continued. ‘In vacating the rule, Judge Louis Guirola determined that when Congress passed Title IX in 1972, ‘sex’ meant biological sex and that federal agencies cannot unilaterally rewrite laws decades later to advance political agendas.’

The states involved in the lawsuit were Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The rule was first created under the administration of former President Barack Obama in 2016, before President Donald Trump reversed it in his first term and then former President Joe Biden reversed it again, The Hill reported. 

Guirola’s ruling said HHS ‘exceeded its authority by implementing regulations redefining sex discrimination and prohibiting gender identity discrimination.’ 

The judge vacated the rule universally, but the rule had already been prevented from going into effect. It has been stayed since July 2024, according to Bloomberg Law.