New York’s incoming leftist mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Sunday he still believes US President Donald Trump is a fascist, even after the two had a warm meeting at the White House.

“That’s something that I’ve said in the past, I say it today,” the mayor-elect said on NBC news.

The self-described Democratic Socialist on Friday met the Republican leader, setting aside months of mutual recriminations and promising to cooperate on the city’s future.

Trump, who had previously suggested the Ugandan-born New Yorker should be deported, even came to his rescue as the two addressed reporters at the White House on Friday.

When a journalist asked Mamdani if he continued to view Trump as a fascist, the president stepped in.

“That’s OK. You can just say it. That’s easier,” Trump told Mamdani. “It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

In his NBC interview Sunday morning, Mamdani elaborated:

“I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement, about the politics that has brought us to this moment,” he said.

He added: “I found in the meeting that I had with the president a productive one and a meeting that came back again and again to the central themes of the campaign that we ran: the cost of housing, cost of child care, the cost of groceries, the cost of utilities.”

After threatening to cut federal funding to the United States’ biggest city and sending in the National Guard, Trump at the White House praised Mamdani’s historic election win, said he could do a “great job.”

“We’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true: having a strong and very safe New York,” Trump said.

• Bangladesh official did not elaborate on contents of letter.
• Former prime minister sentenced to death over deadly crackdown.
• It’s Delhi’s responsibility to facilitate her return: foreign ministry.
  

Bangladesh’s government said on Sunday it had asked India to extradite ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was sentenced earlier this week to be hanged over a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising.

Hasina, 78, has been in hiding in India since her autocratic rule was overthrown in August 2024. As prime minister, she had had New Delhi’s backing.

Touhid Hossain, who holds the foreign affairs portfolio in Bangladesh’s interim administration, told reporters that on Friday “we sent a letter seeking the extradition of Sheikh Hasina.”

He did not elaborate on the contents of the letter, which according to Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo was the third official extradition request since Hasina fled.

Following the court ruling on Monday, convicting Hasina of crimes against humanity and sentencing her to death, the foreign ministry in Dhaka said in a statement that Delhi had an “obligatory responsibility” under a bilateral treaty to facilitate the former leader’s return.

India’s foreign ministry said in response it had “noted” the verdict, without directly commenting on the extradition request.

It did not immediately respond to the latest letter from Dhaka.

Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since the end of Hasina’s rule, and violence has marred campaigning for elections expected in February 2026.

The United Nations said up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.

India’s past support for Hasina has frayed relations between the two neighbours since her overthrow.

But tensions appear to have eased slightly when Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman visited India this week for a regional security summit and met with his counterpart Ajit Doval.

Media reports in Bangladesh said Rahman has invited Doval for a visit.

A UN wildlife trade body decided on Sunday not to restrict India from importing endangered animals, after many countries supported reversing an earlier stringent recommendation that had embroiled the private zoo run by Asia’s richest family.

Vantara, a 3,500-acre zoo in Gujarat run by the philanthropic arm of the Reliance conglomerate led by Mukesh Ambani and his family, had faced allegations from non-profit and wildlife groups of improper imports of some animals, triggering higher scrutiny by Germany and the EU.

After visiting the facility in September, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) issued a report this month asking India to “not issue any further import permits” as discrepancies had been found between exporter and importer trade data, and there were insufficient checks on the origin of some animals.

At the meeting in Uzbekistan, live-streamed on Sunday, the recommendation was reversed after many countries, including India, the United States, Japan and Brazi,l said the measure was too premature, with some also saying there was no evidence of illegal imports into India.

“There doesn’t seem to be enough support for retaining (the) recommendation,” Naimah Aziz, Chair of the Cites Standing Committee, told the delegates, adding it could consider if further regulatory measures were needed.

Cites is a global treaty that regulates trade in endangered plants and animals.

India had earlier opposed the UN recommendation.

Vantara, which previously said it remains committed to transparency and legal compliance, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vantara zoo has animals from around the world

The Vantara zoo houses around 2,000 species, including exotic animals imported from South Africa, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo, such as snakes, tortoises, tigers, giraffes and spiny-tailed lizards.

While India’s delegate affirmed the country’s commitment to Cites compliance, Belgium and at least one conservation group, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, on Sunday pushed to suspend exports to India until concerns were addressed.

In September, an Indian Supreme Court-appointed investigation cleared Vantara of wrongdoing, while the facility said it complies with all laws.

European Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said in August that EU states “will pay particular attention to any export requests directed towards India and the facility in question”.