Politics
Key takeaways from White House’s unusually polite Ukraine truce talks
US President Donald Trump gathered European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a hastily arranged White House meeting on Monday to discuss a path to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Here are the takeaways from the talks:
Warm tone, little substance
Seven European leaders, the Ukrainian president, their motorcades, dozens of Trump administration staff and more than 100 journalists swarmed the White House campus on Monday in anticipation of the unusual meeting.
Would Trump and Zelensky agree on a path to peace? Or would their latest Oval Office session devolve into a bitter squabble as in February?
Neither scenario occurred. Zelensky, chided for his appearance and manner in February, adjusted both. Wearing more formal clothing and repeatedly expressing his gratitude to Trump, he was greeted by a far more complimentary US president than in the past.
But, despite Trump’s vow to assist in Ukraine’s security after a hypothetical peace deal, there was no immediate sign that any party had substantially changed position on land swaps, security guarantees or sanctions.
Instead, Trump ended with promises to host a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to address the many remaining issues.
Heaping praise
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” US Vice President JD Vance asked Zelensky in February, accusing him of failing to show sufficient gratitude for US support.
On Monday, Zelensky made sure that was not an issue. His opening remarks in the Oval Office included eight thank-yous, mostly for Trump.
“Thank you so much, Mr. President … thank you for your attention. Thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you,” Zelensky said.
He included the US first lady, who sent a letter to Putin about abducted children in Ukraine.
“Using this opportunity, my thanks to your wife,” the Ukrainian president said.
“And thanks to all our partners and that you supported this format. And after our meeting, we’re going to have leaders who are around us, the UK and France, Germany… all partners around Ukraine supporting us. Thanks (to) them. Thank you very much for your invitation.”
Unlike in February, Vance this time sat largely silent.
Combat formal
The stakes of the meeting could not have been higher. But one of the most-asked questions among diplomats in DC could not have been more frivolous: Would the Ukrainian president wear a suit?
The answer: kind of.
Zelensky showed up to the White House in what one European diplomat described as “almost a suit.” His black jacket had tiny lapels and jetted chest pockets. He did not wear a tie. His attire, which split the difference between the battlefield and the boardroom, could be described as combat formal.
Those sartorial details matter when it comes to dealing with the US president, who was upset that Zelensky did not wear a suit for their February meeting.
Zelensky passed the fashion test this time, however.
When one journalist in the Oval Office said Zelensky looked “fabulous,” Trump chimed in to agree.
“I said the same thing,” Trump told reporters.
Divide over the ceasefire
The assembled European leaders, Zelensky included, were careful to paper over policy disagreements with Trump, keeping their comments vague and showering the US president with compliments.
But one point of disagreement did bubble to the surface.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the assembled leaders and media that he wanted to see Putin agree to a ceasefire.
Trump had long pushed for a ceasefire in Ukraine. But he largely jettisoned that goal after meeting with Putin last week in Alaska, a shift that was widely seen as a diplomatic defeat for Ukraine. The US president now says he is fine with trying to move directly to a peace deal.
“To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire,” Merz said. “I can’t imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire, so let’s work on that.”
Trump pushed back, arguing he has solved many conflicts without first reaching a ceasefire.
Whose boots are on the ground?
One of the great mysteries that hung over the summit was what support the US would give to secure any Russia-Ukraine deal long term.
Trump hasn’t offered US troops “boots on the ground” to guarantee Ukraine’s security from Russia, reflecting American reticence to commit to military entanglements or a head-to-head confrontation with a nuclear power.
Instead, he has offered weapons sales and promised that Americans will do business in Ukraine, assurances that Ukrainians see as far less than a security guarantee. Europeans are preparing for a peacekeeping mission backed by their forces.
Yet, asked explicitly whether US security guarantees for Ukraine could include US troops in the country, Trump did not rule it out. Instead, he teased an announcement as soon as Monday on the topic.
“We’ll let you know that, maybe, later today,” Trump said. He said Europe was the “first line of defence” but that “we’ll be involved.”
What’s next
Trump said he would call Putin and set up a trilateral meeting with Ukraine at a time and place to be determined.
Despite some private misgivings, the assembled leaders agreed that such a meeting was a logical next step.
Still, the path forward is more complex than Trump and his allies are letting on.
For one, Russia has delayed and obstructed high-level meetings with Ukraine in the past, and it was not immediately clear that Putin would sit down with Zelensky, whom he frequently describes as an illegitimate leader.
Additionally, it is unclear how much a principal-level meeting would actually advance the cause of peace.
The gulf between the Russian and Ukrainian positions is vast.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is a non-starter, a stance that would be hard for Ukraine to swallow.
Russia is also calling for Ukraine to fork over significant chunks of territory that Kyiv controls, another proposal that Ukraine’s leaders are not entertaining.
- Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand witness large scale devastation.
- At least 176 people perish in Thailand and three in Malaysia.
- Indonesia’s death toll reaches 502 with 508 more still missing.
PALEMBAYAN: Rescue teams in western Indonesia were battling on Monday to clear roads cut off by cyclone-induced landslides and floods, as improved weather revealed more of the scale of a disaster that has killed close to 700 people in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have seen large scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait, fuelling torrential rains and wind gusts for a week that hampered efforts to reach people stranded by mudslides and high floodwaters.
At least 176 have been killed in Thailand and three in Malaysia, while the death toll climbed to 502 in Indonesia on Monday with 508 missing, according to official figures.
Under sunshine and clear blue skies in the town of Palembayan in Indonesia’s West Sumatra, hundreds of people were clearing mud, trees and wreckage from roads as some residents tried to salvage valuable items like documents and motorcycles from their damaged homes.
Men in camouflage outfits sifted through piles of mangled poles, concrete and sheet metal roofing as pickup trucks packed with people drove around looking for missing family members and handing out water to people, some trudging through knee-deep mud.
Months of adverse, deadly weather
The government’s recovery efforts include restoring roads, bridges and telecommunication services.
More than 28,000 homes have been damaged in Indonesia and 1.4 million people affected, according to the disaster agency.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto visited the three affected provinces on Monday and praised residents for their spirit in the face of what he called a catastrophe.
“There are roads that are still cut off, but we’re doing everything we can to overcome difficulties,” he said in North Sumatra.
“We face this disaster with resilience and solidarity. Our nation is strong right now, able to overcome this.”
The devastation in the three countries follows months of adverse and deadly weather in Southeast Asia, including typhoons that have lashed the Philippines and Vietnam and caused frequent and prolonged flooding elsewhere.
Scientists have warned that extreme weather events will become more frequent as a result of global warming.
Marooned for days
In Thailand, the death toll rose slightly to 176 on Monday from flooding in eight southern provinces that affected about three million people and led to a major mobilisation of its military to evacuate critical patients from hospitals and reach people marooned for days by floodwaters.
In the hardest-hit province of Songkhla, where 138 people were killed, the government said 85% of water services had been restored and would be fully operational by Wednesday.
Much of Thailand’s recovery effort is focused on the worst-affected city Hat Yai, a southern trading hub which on November 21 received 335 mm (13 inches) of rain, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, followed by days of unrelenting downpours.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has set a timeline of seven days for residents to return to their homes, a government spokesperson said on Monday.
In neighbouring Malaysia, 11,600 people were still in evacuation centres, according to the country’s disaster agency, which said it was still on alert for a second and third wave of flooding.
- Ex-Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, sister Rehana also sentenced.
- Case relates to illegal allocation of a plot of land: local media.
- Prosecutors highlight political influence, collusion abuse of power.
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court sentenced British parliamentarian and former minister Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail in a corruption case involving the alleged illegal allocation of a plot of land, local media reported.
The verdict was delivered in absentia as Siddiq, her aunt and former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana — all co-accused in the case — were not present in court.
Hasina was sentenced to five years in jail and Rehana to seven, the local media reports said.
Hasina, who fled to neighbouring India in August 2024 at the height of an uprising against her government, was sentenced to death last month over her government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators during the protests.
Last week, she was handed a combined 21-year prison sentence in other corruption cases.
Prosecutors said that the land was unlawfully allocated through political influence and collusion with senior officials, accusing the three powerful defendants of abusing their authority to secure the plot, measuring roughly 13,610 square feet, during Hasina’s tenure as prime minister.
Most of the 17 accused were absent when the judgement was pronounced.
Siddiq, who resigned in January as the UK’s minister responsible for financial services and anti-corruption efforts following scrutiny over her financial ties to Hasina, has previously dismissed the allegations as a “politically motivated smear”.
Britain does not currently have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said his partner, Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, is half-Indian and that one of their sons has the middle name “Sekhar” after Indian-American physicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
Speaking on Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath’s “WTF is?” podcast, Musk said: “I’m not sure if you know this, but my partner Shivon is half Indian,” adding: “One of my sons with her, his middle name is Sekhar after Chandrasekhar.”
Musk also spoke about Zilis’s background when asked where she grew up, saying she was given up for adoption as a baby and raised in Canada. “She grew up in Canada. She was given up for adoption when she was a baby. I think her father was like an exchange student at the university or something like that… I’m not sure the exact details,” he said.
Zilis joined Musk’s AI company, Neuralink, in 2017 and is currently the Director of Operations and Special Projects. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Philosophy from Yale University. Zilis has four children with Musk — twins Strider and Azure, daughter Arcadia and son Seldon Lycurgus.
Earlier this year, in March, it emerged that Musk had another child, his 14th, with Zilis.
“Discussed with Elon and, in light of beautiful Arcadia’s birthday, we felt it was better to also just share directly about our wonderful and incredible son Seldon Lycurgus,” Zilis said in a post on X, without saying when the child was born. Musk responded with a heart.
Her announcement came two weeks after conservative influencer Ashley St Clair said that she also recently had a child with Musk.
Appearing on the latest episode of Kamath’s podcast, Musk also said that America has “been an immense beneficiary of talent from India, but that seems to be changing now”.
His comments come at a time when the American dream for thousands of Indians is turning sour due to rising US visa restrictions and policy unpredictability.
— With additional input from Reuters
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