Donald Trump

Ukraine open to troop withdrawal if Russia agrees to demilitarised zone

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine could withdraw troops from eastern regions if Russia does the same and the area is turned into a demilitarised zone under international monitoring

Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura wins Honduras presidential election

Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras' presidential election, the country's electoral authorities said Wednesday afternoon, ending a weeks-long count that has whittled away at the credibility of the Central American nation's fragile electoral system. The election is continuing Latin America's swing to the right, coming just a week after Chile chose the far-right politician Jos Antonio Kast as its next president. Asfura, of the conservative National Party, received 40.27 per cent of the vote in the Nov 30 election, edging out four-time candidate Salvador Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party, who finished with 39.39 per cent of the vote. Asfura, the former mayor of Honduras' capital Tegucigalpa, won in his second bid for the presidency, after he and Nasralla were neck-and-neck during a weeks-long vote count that fueled international concern. On Tuesday night, a number of electoral officials and candidates were already fighting and contesting the results of the electi

Trump calls kids on Christmas, warns against infiltration by 'bad Santa'

President Donald Trump marked Christmas Eve by quizzing children calling in about what presents they were excited about receiving, while promising not to let a "bad Santa" infiltrate the country and even suggesting that a stocking full of coal may not be so bad. Vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the president and first lady Melania Trump, participated in the tradition of talking to youngsters dialling into the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which playfully tracks Santa's progress around the globe. "We want to make sure that Santa is being good. Santa's a very good person," Trump said while speaking to kids ages 4 and 10 in Oklahoma. "We want to make sure that he's not infiltrated, that we're not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa." He didn't elaborate. Trump has often marked Christmases past with criticisms of his political enemies, including in 2024, when he posted, "Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics." During his first term, Trump wrote

Open to creating demilitarised zone in eastern Ukraine, says Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia's war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces. The proposal offered another potential compromise on control of the Donbas region, which has been a major sticking point in peace negotiations. Zelenskyy said the US proposed the creation of a free economic zone," which he said should be demilitarised. But it was unclear what that idea would mean for governance or development of the region. A similar arrangement could be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, Zelenskyy said. He said any peace plan would need to be put to a referendum. Zelenskyy spoke to reporters Tuesday to describe an overarching 20-point plan that negotiators from Ukraine and the US hammered out in Florida in recent days, th

H-1B reset: Students and entry-level talent may be the hardest hit

The US has replaced random H-1B selection with a wage-weighted lottery and a new $100,000 fee for applications, raising uncertainty for students and junior hires, experts say

Clinging to the H-1B lottery has finally caught up with Indian ITeS

Indian ITeS should have moved away from the H-1B lottery

How 2025 turned global trade into a test of endurance, not just rules

The US is redefining global trade policy landscape

World@2025: Trump torrent and global tides drive an unpredictable year

The year unfolded unpredictably: Trade relations were upended, Trump's tariffs unsettled markets, GenZ took to the streets, Japan saw its first woman Prime Minister, and a museum was left poorer

Trump's backchannel to Putin runs through Belarus and a weight-loss drug

Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko has sought US sanctions relief and aircraft repairs, while Washington has secured mass prisoner releases and hopes Minsk can serve as a channel to Vladimir Putin

Trump's top adviser says children of immigrants a 'problem' for US

These comments come as the US administration is asking the Supreme Court to back Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship

Epstein letter referencing Trump was fake, says US Department of Justice

The US DOJ said the FBI verified the letter was fabricated after it was flagged by jail authorities, even as thousands of Epstein-related records were released in the interest of transparency

Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa application fee upheld by US federal judge

US District Judge Beryl Howell said in a ruling Tuesday that President Donald Trump's move to radically increase the cost of the popular visa is lawful

'60 Minutes' segment on Trump immigration policy accidentally airs online

A news segment about the Trump administration's immigration policy that was abruptly pulled from 60 Minutes was mistakenly aired on a TV app after the last-minute decision not to air it touched off a public debate about journalistic independence. The segment featured interviews with migrants who were sent to a notorious El Salvador prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, under President Donald Trump's aggressive crackdown on immigration. The story was pulled from Global Television Network, one of Canada's largest networks, but still ran on the network's app. Global Television Network swiftly corrected the error, but copies of it continued to float around the internet and pop up before being taken down. Paramount's content protection team is in the process of routine take down orders for the unaired and unauthorized segment, a CBS spokesperson said Tuesday via email. A representative of Global Television Network did not immediately respond to a request for ...

Vance lashes out at commentators for derogatory remarks against wife Usha

US Vice President J D Vance has lashed out at commentators for remarks against his Indian-origin wife Second Lady Usha Vance. Vance's remarks came in response to comments by right-wing podcaster Nick Fuentes, who used an ethnic slur to describe Usha and had referred to the Vice President as a "race traitor" on one of his livestreams. let me be clear: anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat shit. That's my official policy as vice president of the United States," Vance said. "And my attitude towards anybody, again, who is calling for judging people based on their ethnic heritage, whether they're Jewish or white or anything else, it's disgusting. We shouldn't be doing it, he said in an interview to UnHerd over the weekend. Antisemitism, and all forms of ethnic hatred, have no place in the conservative movement. Whether you are attacking somebody because they're white or because they are black or because they're Jewish, I think it's disgusti

SC keeps Trump's National Guard deployment blocked in Chicago, for now

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area to support its immigration crackdown, a significant defeat for the president's efforts to send troops to US cities. The justices declined the Republican administration's emergency request to overturn a ruling by US District Judge April Perry that had blocked the deployment of troops. An appeals court also had refused to step in. The Supreme Court took more than two months to act. Three justices, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, publicly dissented. The high court order is not a final ruling, but it could affect other lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump's attempts to deploy the military in other Democratic-led cities. At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois, the high court majority wrote. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he agreed with

Venezuela seeks to criminalise tanker seizures as Trump ramps up pressure

Venezuela's parliament on Tuesday approved a measure that criminalises a broad range of activities that can hinder navigation and commerce in the South American country, such as the seizure of oil tankers. The bill introduced, debated and approved within two days in the National Assembly follows this month's seizures by US forces of two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in international waters. The seizures are the latest strategy in US President Donald Trump's four-month pressure campaign on Venezuela's leader Nicols Maduro. The tankers are part of what the Trump administration has said is a fleet Venezuela uses to evade US economic sanctions. The unicameral assembly, which is controlled by Venezuela's ruling party, did not publish drafts on Tuesday nor the final version of the measure. But as read on the floor, the bill calls for fines and prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes, requests, supports, finances or participates in acts of piracy, blockades or other

Trump approves deployment of 350 National Guard members to New Orleans

The Trump administration is deploying 350 National Guard troops to New Orleans ahead of the New Year, launching another federal deployment in the city at the same time that an immigration crackdown led by Border Patrol is underway. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Tuesday that Guard members, as they have in other deployments in large cities, will be tasked with supporting federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Parnell added that the National Guard troops will be deployed through February. Louisiana Gov Jeff Landry, a Republican, praised President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for coordinating the deployment and predicted the Guard's presence would have a positive impact. It's going to help us further crack down on the violence here in the city of New Orleans and elsewhere around Louisiana, Landry said in an appearance on Fox News' The Will Cain Show. "And so a big shoutout to both of ...

US Justice Department releases new tranche of Jeffrey Epstein files

The latest material comes a few days after the Trump administration published a large cache of Epstein files in an attempt to comply with a new law forcing disclosure on the politically fraught topic

Caribbean crisis: US actions in Venezuela threaten India's economy

Mr Trump's claim that Mr Maduro is emptying his prisons and illegally flooding the US with criminal elements and that the country is a major source of drug trafficking lacks foundation

India-US to resume trade talks in January after year-end holiday pause

Talks are going on for the last nine months, with no outcome, despite over a half dozen rounds of in-person formal and informal negotiations