While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 26, 2026
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Feb 25.
PHOTO: REUTERS
After next trilateral talks, leaders should meet: Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb 25 that he and US President Donald Trump agreed that the next session of trilateral talks in March on a war settlement should lead to a meeting of the countries’ leaders.
Mr Zelensky, speaking after a phone conversation with Mr Trump, said the three-sided talks with Russia and the United States would take place early in March.
US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also took part in the phone call.
“We expect this meeting to create an opportunity to move talks to the leaders’ level. President Trump supports this sequence of steps,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X. “This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war.”
German MPs approve deal for military attack drones
PHOTO: REUTERS
German lawmakers on Feb 25 backed plans to outfit the military with attack drones for the first time, approving contracts with two German defence start-ups, AFP has learned.
The deals with the Munich-based Helsing and Berlin-based Stark Defence are worth a combined €536 million (S$800 million) for an unspecified number of drones, with options to expand the purchases into the billions of euros.
The German Parliament’s budget committee approved the deal on Feb 25 despite some criticism over the involvement of billionaire US investor Peter Thiel in Stark Defence.
US tariff rate to hit 15% or more for some nations: USTR
PHOTO: REUTERS
The US tariff rate for some countries will rise to 15 per cent or higher from the newly imposed 10 per cent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Feb 25, without naming any specific trading partners or giving further details.
Mr Greer told Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria programme that the Trump administration does not intend to raise tariffs on Chinese goods above current levels as President Donald Trump plans to travel to China in the coming weeks.
“Right now, we have the 10 per cent tariff. It’ll go up to 15 (per cent) for some and then it may go higher for others, and I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” Mr Greer said.
NASA astronaut evacuated from ISS ‘doing very well’
PHOTO: AFP
The astronaut who faced a health issue prompting the first-ever medical evacuation in International Space Station history is “doing very well,” he said in a statement issued by NASA on Feb 25.
Colonel Mike Fincke, 58, said he’s “doing very well and continuing standard post-flight reconditioning” at NASA’s centre in Houston.
NASA had previously declined to identify which astronaut experienced the “medical event”, the details of which they still did not disclose in their Feb 25 statement.
BBC orders probe into ‘serious mistake’ over BAFTA slur
PHOTO: REUTERS
The head of the BBC on Feb 25 ordered a “fast-tracked” internal investigation into the “serious mistake” that saw a racist slur aired during the BAFTA awards.
Tourette’s sufferer John Davidson, who inspired one of the winning films, has said he is “deeply mortified” after shouting the N-word at the London film and television awards ceremony, which he said was caused by an “involuntary tic”.
He was heard shouting as Sinners actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan, who are both black, presented an award for special visual effects in the movies at the ceremony.
