While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 16, 2025
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) welcoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Ankara on May 15.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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Peace breakthrough unlikely as Putin declines to meet Zelensky
Russia’s Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey on May 15, instead sending a second-tier delegation to planned peace talks, while Ukraine’s president said his defence minister would head up Kyiv’s team.
They will be the first direct talks between the sides since March 2022, but hopes of a major breakthrough were further dented by US President Donald Trump who said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and the Russian leader.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later echoed that view, telling reporters in the Turkish resort of Antalya that Washington “didn’t have high expectations” for the Ukraine talks in Istanbul.
The head of the Russian delegation, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, said he expected Ukraine’s representatives to turn up for the beginning of discussions on May 16 in Istanbul at 10am local time (3pm in Singapore).
Trump announces $260b in deals during UAE visit
NYT
President Donald Trump on May 15 pledged to strengthen US ties to the United Arab Emirates and announced deals with the Gulf state totalling over US$200 billion (S$260 billion), while the two countries also agreed to deepen cooperation in artificial intelligence.
Sources have said the agreements will give the Gulf country expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the US after previously facing restrictions over Washington’s concerns that China could access the technology.
Mr Trump began a visit to the UAE on the latest stage of a tour of wealthy Gulf states after hailing plans by Doha to invest US$10 billion in a US military facility during a trip to Qatar.
US would make Gaza a ‘freedom zone’, Trump says in Qatar
REUTERS
President Donald Trump on May 15 reiterated his desire to take over the Gaza Strip, telling a business roundtable in Qatar that the US would “make it a freedom zone” and arguing there was nothing left to save in the Palestinian territory.
Mr Trump first pitched his Gaza idea in February, saying the US would redevelop it and force Palestinians to go elsewhere. The plan drew global condemnation, with Palestinians, Arab nations and the UN saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is internally displaced as Israel presses a military assault that has killed nearly 53,000 Palestinians and ravaged much of the enclave. Israel began its assault after the October 2023 Hamas attack.
Top security team probing TikTok murder of beauty influencer
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mexico’s powerful security Cabinet is investigating the murder of a young beauty influencer killed as she livestreamed a video on TikTok, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on May 15.
Authorities say the death of Valeria Marquez, 23, is being probed as a possible femicide, the killing of women or girls for reasons of gender.
Marquez was killed on May 13 in the beauty salon where she worked in the city of Zapopan by a man who entered and shot her, the Jalisco state prosecutor said.
US R&B singer Chris Brown arrested in UK, reports say
AFP
American R&B singer Chris Brown, the former boyfriend of superstar Rihanna, was arrested on May 15 in the UK on suspicion of a serious 2023 assault at a London nightclub, reports said.
Police detained Brown, 36, in the early hours of May 15 at a hotel in the northwestern city of Manchester, The Daily Telegraph and The Sun reported.
London’s Metropolitan Police said a 36-year-old man was in custody on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, without naming him.
