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.
- 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
- Freeze applies to 19 countries already under US travel restrictions.
- Lakanwal, ex-CIA-backed fighter, charged with first-degree murder.
- Officials blame weak Joe Biden-era airlift vetting for shooter’s entry.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday his administration intends to maintain a pause on asylum decisions for “a long time” after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members near the White House, killing one of them.
When asked to specify how long it would last, Trump said he had “no time limit” in mind for the measure, which the Department of Homeland Security says is linked to a list of 19 countries already facing US travel restrictions.
“We don’t want those people,” Trump continued. “You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
The Trump administration issued the pause in the aftermath of the shooting in Washington on November 26, which left 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom dead and another guard critically wounded.
A 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the incident.
Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Lakanwal had been granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, but officials have blamed what they called lax vetting by the government of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, for his admission to US soil during the Afghan airlift.
Trump wrote after the shooting that he planned to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.”
Asked which nationalities would be affected, the Department of Homeland Security pointed AFP to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — which since June have all faced travel restrictions to the United States.
Radicalised in US
Authorities believe the Lakanwal was not radicalised until after he came to the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Sunday.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week,” Noem said authorities think the alleged shooter was already living in Washington state when he became radicalised. Investigators are seeking more information from family members and others, Noem said.
Noem’s comments suggest Lakanwal, who was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan, may have embraced extremism after arriving in the United States.
“We believe he was radicalised since he’s been here in this country,” Noem told NBC News. “We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we’re going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members.”
Noem said officials have received “some participation” so far from people who knew Lakanwal and warned the US would pursue anyone connected to the shooting.
“Anyone who has the information on this needs to know that we will be coming after you, and we will bring you to justice,” Noem said.
After Wednesday’s attack, the Trump administration took steps to clamp down on some legal immigration, including a freeze on the processing of all asylum applications.
Noem said on Sunday, immigration officials would consider deporting people with active asylum cases if it was warranted.
“We are going to go through every single person that has a pending asylum claim,” she said.
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