Zelenskyy's White House re-do
Zelenskyy back at the White House
Now, it's Ukraine's turn. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon is meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a potential peace deal with Russia, just days after Trump held an hourslong meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Before the Washington meetings, Trump railed at critics of his recent summit with Putin, where he shifted his position on a Ukraine ceasefire to align with that of the Russian president. He also put the onus on Zelenskyy to end Russia's assault on his country and ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine. Follow the latest updates from Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy.
Don't forget about Europe: Trump is also set to meet with European leaders, who are rallying behind Zelenskyy and hope to move Trump away from Putin's conditions for a peace deal. European leaders also participated Sunday in an emergency virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, the group of countries that have offered to provide security guarantees to Ukraine after the war. See which European leaders will meet with Trump.
Trump-Putin's meeting: The red carpets were rolled out. The two leaders shook hands. A roughly three-hour long meeting was had. And still, no peace deal. Trump and Putin held a roughly three hour long summit in Alaska, where the two did not come to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Key takeaways from the Trump-Putin summit.
Documents left behind: Watch where you print. Government documents with details about meeting schedules and seating charts, as well as an extravagant menu and reminder to pronounce Putin's name "POO-tihn," were accidentally left in a hotel printer in Alaska amid Trump's meeting with the Russian leader. The documents with State Department markings, reported by NPR, were discovered in the printer in an Anchorage hotel around 9 a.m., hours before Trump's summit with Putin at a nearby military base. See what the documents said.
A politics pit stop
No more mail-in voting?
Trump on Monday said he would sign an executive order to abolish mail-in voting, a move he said Putin supported. Mailing ballots is a popular option for voters to avoid waiting in line at polling places on Election Day. Election-security officials say voting has never been more secure and that the president has no role overseeing elections. But Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as vulnerable to fraud – despite election experts, including those in his first administration, who said mail-in voting is secure. What to know about Trump's plan.
Texas standoff over
Texas, we're heading home. Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives returned to Austin Monday morning after leaving the state two weeks ago in protest of a Republican plan to re-draw congressional maps to help the party gain seats in 2026. The protest temporarily blocked House Republicans from having a quorum to move the redistricting plan forward and drew national attention to Trump's effort to avoid losing the Republican majority in Congress next year. Republicans adjourned its first special session in the state House on Thursday. Democrats refused to return to the state until after that first special session. California's plans to redraw its state congressional maps also prompted Texas Democrats' return.
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