Thursday Briefing: Trump and Zelensky feud over peace talks

February 20, 2025

	By Emmett Lindner

Good morning. We’re covering an escalating feud between President Trump and President Zelensky and Arab leaders making plans for Gaza.

Plus, Cambodia’s returned treasures.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Wednesday. Pool photo by Tetiana Dzhafarova

Trump and Zelensky traded blows in an escalating feud

President Trump yesterday called Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia. In a social media post littered with falsehoods, Trump didn’t mention President Vladimir Putin, or that Russia seized some Ukrainian territory in 2014 before its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Trump also suggested that the future security of Ukraine would not be an American problem.

“This War is far more important to Europe than it is to us,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation.”

The feud began after White House and Kremlin officials in Saudi Arabia began peace talks that excluded Ukraine. After that meeting on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Ukraine had started the war. Afterward, Zelensky said Trump had been “caught in a web of disinformation.”

E.U.: Leaders met yesterday for a second emergency meeting seeking to recalibrate relations with the U.S. as Trump moved closer to Russia.

Reactions: Russians are hoping that a return to normalcy is near now that Washington and Moscow are moving to reset their relationship. In Ukraine, many are becoming disillusioned with the Trump administration.

Trump’s claims: Here’s a breakdown of recent falsehoods he has made.

More on Trump

Nearly 100 of the migrants that the U.S. recently deported to Panama were moved to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle, several of the migrants said.
Here’s what we know about the migrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay.
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from opening up vast new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling.
A judge in New York is considering the Trump administration’s request that the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams be dropped. Here’s the latest.
Trump is angry that his new Air Force One jets have been delayed. He has empowered Elon Musk, one of his top advisers, to find drastic ways to prod Boeing to move faster.
Trump compared himself to a king on social media as he celebrated his administration’s move to kill New York City’s congestion pricing program.
Track Trump’s actions since he took office.

Three people walking down a hill with a destroyed city in the distance.

Destruction north of the Gaza Strip this month. Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Arab leaders are working on a proposal for Gaza’s future

Envoys from five Arab countries are set to meet in Saudi Arabia tomorrow to begin fleshing out a vision for Gaza. They’re expected to meet again at a bigger summit on March 4 in Cairo.

Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates hope that countries in the region will help fund and oversee Gaza’s reconstruction, while keeping its residents in place and preserving the possibility of a Palestinian state, according to diplomats and officials. But Israeli leaders oppose postwar plans that would pave the way to Palestinian sovereignty.

What’s next: Egypt will likely propose a committee of Palestinian technocrats and community leaders, all unaffiliated with Hamas, who could run Gaza after the war, according to two Arab diplomats and two Western officials.

Hostages: Israelis are waiting anxiously for the expected release tomorrow of the bodies of four captives held by Hamas.

Israel: A military prosecutor charged five reservist soldiers with abuse of a Palestinian detainee.

Jair Bolsonaro surrounded by people in a corridor.

Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, on Tuesday. Sergio Lima/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Trump Media sued a judge in Brazil

President Trump’s media company sued a Brazilian Supreme Court justice yesterday, accusing him of illegally censoring right-wing voices on social media. Hours earlier, the judge had received an indictment that would force him to decide whether to order the arrest of Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president.

Context: Bolsonaro was indicted on Tuesday on charges that he plotted a coup after losing the 2022 election, including by participating in plans to assassinate the justice. Bolsonaro had called on Trump to take action against the justice in an interview with The Times last month.

MORE TOP NEWS

A man speaks into a blue microphone while a line of people stand solemnly while holding up a large banner.

Defectors living in South Korea protested in 2019 against the deportation of two North Korean fishermen. Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press

South Korea: Four officials were found guilty of abusing their power when they sent back two North Koreans who murdered 16 compatriots before they sought asylum in 2019.
Germany: Meet Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, a party linked to neo-Nazis and plots to overthrow the state. The AfD is polling second ahead of this Sunday’s elections.
Africa: The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda both border the same lake. On the shores in Rwanda are jet skies and other water activities. In Congo, bodies wash up.
Business: Nikola, an electric vehicle start-up that had once hoped to become the Tesla of heavy trucks, filed for bankruptcy protection.
Southern California: A slow-moving landslide has sped up, buckling roads and collapsing homes. We’re tracking its movement with this map.
Space: The asteroid 2024 YR4 is now the most likely sizable space rock ever forecast to hit planet Earth, astronomers said. The danger is still low.

Tech: Apple unveiled the iPhone 16e, which will cost $599 and feature an artificial intelligence system it calls Apple Intelligence.

Sports

A billboard on a building with photographs of cricket players.

K.M Chaudary/Associated Press

Cricket: India refused to play its Champions Trophy matches in Pakistan, which is hosting its first major global tournament in almost 30 years.
Soccer: A strange, viral betting ploy used fake stories about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s sons to gain traction.
Formula 1: The 2025 Formula 1 season, the 75th edition, officially began with the star-studded F1 75 Live event. Was it worth the hype?

MORNING READ

People taking pictures of statues on pedestals in a museum.

The National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh in January. Thomas Cristofoletti for The New York Times

Cambodia’s national museum is facing a problem: About 300 stolen artifacts have been returned over the past six years, and space is getting a little cramped.

Expansion and renovations are challenges, but so is designing galleries for sacred objects. Some Cambodian visitors don’t see the pieces as cultural curiosities or works of art, but as divinities that hold their ancestors’ souls. For them, this is more of a temple than a museum.

Lives lived: Gil Won-ok, one of the last survivors of sexual slavery for Japan’s World War II troops, and who campaigned for justice, died at 96.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Small uninvited guests: Trillions of viruses live in your body. This A.I. project wants to find and study them.
Royally revamped: Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has announced that her cooking and lifestyle brand will now be called As Ever, leaning into the idyllic side of her life in California.
Five more minutes: Do women really need more sleep than men? We asked the experts.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

TECH

A .gif shows light passing over the surface of a Microsoft chip.

Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

Small tech, massive implications

Microsoft announced yesterday that it created a new state of matter in its quest to build a quantum computer — a machine that could accelerate the development of everything from batteries to medicines to A.I. It used the new matter to construct a tiny chip that could have exponentially more processing power than a superconductor.

The tech could leapfrog methods used by competitors like Google. The milestone, Microsoft says, pushes the company closer to the finish line in a technological race that could be even bigger than A.I. But some academics are skeptical. Read why here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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Linda Xiao for The New York Times

Cook: This speedy, verdant pasta dish is coated with a tangy feta-yogurt sauce.

Listen: Gossiping could help your love life? You didn’t hear it from us.

Watch: “Pedro Páramo” joins several of our critic’s favorite streaming gems.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Emmett

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