February 20, 2025

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.

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, 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.