US President Donald Trump said the clock was ticking on closing a Ukraine peace deal. Meanwhile, the US will reduce the number of troops based in Syria to fewer than 1,000 in the coming months. DW has the latest.
Here are the latest developments concerning the Trump administration on Saturday 19 April, 2025:
An Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Italy ahead of nuclear talks with the United States, Iran’s state television reported.
Araghchi was shown disembarking from an Islamic Republic airplane in Rome.
After the first round of indirect talks was described as productive, Araghchi is due to hold a second round later Saturday with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
The negotiations are being mediated by Oman.
The United States and Iran are to hold a new round of talks on Saturday in Rome about Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will negotiate indirectly through mediators from Oman.
These come after a first round of talks in Oman that both sides described as constructive.
US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his aim for Iran to halt production of highly enriched uranium, which many believe is aimed at building an atomic bomb.
“They can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said on Friday ahead of the talks. “I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
For more on how last week’s talks were viewed, watch this interview with Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics.
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The White House has unveiled a revamped COVID-19 website which promotes the contentious theory that the virus came from a Chinese laboratory.
The CIA said in January in an assessment of the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak that it was “more likely” to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals.
But the CIA said it had “low confidence” in its judgement, suggesting the evidence was deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
The new COVID-19 website contends that the pandemic’s “true origins” was a human-made pathogen that leaked from an infectious disease laboratory in Wuhan, China.
The World Health Organization remains open to all theories, including that the pandemic started with infected animals sold at a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan.
The failure of China to allow independent scientists access to Wuhan and various data sets means that the debate around the pandemic’s origins is likely to remain unresolved.
However, the lab leak theory has recently gained mainstream traction in the US.
The revamped website is critical of US government steps taken during the pandemic like social distancing, and mask mandates.
A multitude of studies have shown that wearing a mask indoors can help stop spread of COVID-19 infections.
It also singles out individual government officials for criticism.
The site previously focused on promoting vaccine and testing information.
More than 1 million people died of Covid-19 and related illnesses in the US.
The Trump administration’s policy of refusing to issue passports to transgender and nonbinary Americans that reflect their gender identities is likely unconstitutional, a judge ruled on Friday.
District Judge Julia Kobick temporarily blocked the enforcement of the new passport rule for six transgender people who sued to challenge it.
In January, Trump signed an executive order directing the government to recognize only two biologically distinct sexes, male and female.
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The State Department soon after changed its passport policy to only recognize a person’s biological sex at birth — that is, people can only use the sex that is on their birth certificates rather than the sex they identify as.
The policy also only allowed passport applicants to list as male or female.
This meant people could no longer self-select their sex on their passport or chose the neutral “X” sex marker, often used by nonbinary people.
Kobick said the executive order and the passport policy are based on irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans.
They therefore went against the constitution’s commitment to equal protection for all Americans.
Friday’s ruling only applies to six people. The ruling doesn’t bar the government for using the new policy for other passport applicants.
Transgender people in the US were first allowed to change their sex marker on their passports more than 30 years ago.
The United States will roughly halve the number of troops it has deployed in Syria in the coming months, the Pentagon confirmed on Friday.
The US has had troops in Syria for years as part of efforts against the so-called “Islamic State.”
A Pentagon spokesperson said less than 1,000 US forces would be left in Syria in the coming months, down from about 2,000 troops spread across a number of bases.
The US started withdrawing the first of its troops on Thursday, according to the New York Times.
The move is a reflection of the changed security situation in the Middle Eastern country.
In December, a rebel coalition ousted Bashar Assad, bringing an end to much of the fighting that had mired Syria in civil war for more than 14 years.
Despite IS having suffered major territorial losses and military defeats in Syria, analysts warn that the Islamic terrorist group still poses a “persistent danger.”
US Senator Chris Van Hollen said that he met Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, at a hotel.
The Democratic senator spoke to reporters just after landing back in the United States following his three-day trip to El Salvador to press for Abrego Garcia’s release.
Van Hollen said the case “is not only about one man,” but also about President Donald Trump’s disregard of the American judicial system.
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia was brought to his hotel after the senator attempted to visit the man, who has been imprisoned in El Salvador since he was sent there on March 16.
Van Hollen accused El Salvador of trying to stage the meeting and glorify its treatment of Albrego Garcia to “deceive people about what’s going on.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Van Hollen said government officials put cocktail glasses on the table to make it look like the two men had been drinking. He also criticized initial plans to set up the meeting by a hotel pool.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele posted a photo on X on Thursday, showing the US senator and Abrego Garcia sitting together.
Abrego Garcia is “sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” the post said.
According to Van Hollen, Abrego Garcia is “traumatized” by having been at CECOT, the notorious mega-prison designed to hold El Salvador’s most dangerous gang members.
The Trump administration has refused to adhere to a Supreme Court order to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Abrego Garcia told the senator that he had been moved from CECOT to a different prison with better conditions.
The number of Republicans who say Russia is an enemy of the United States has fallen significantly over the past year.
Republicans are also less likely to say the US has a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
That’s according to a newly released study by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank.
Only 40% of Republicans now see Russia as an enemy, a considerable fall from 58% in 2024.
Many more Democrats, some 62%, say Russia is an enemy.
Overall, half of Americans now call Russia an enemy, down from 61% in 2024.
Republicans and Democrats also differ widely in their view of the NATO defense alliance.
Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to rate NATO positively, with 77% having a favorable opinion of NATO.
Only 45% of Republicans see NATO favorably.
Though views on NATO have shifted little over the past year among both Republicans and Democrats, the study found.
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Russia said on Friday that contacts with the United States were rather complicated over Ukraine peace talks.
“Contacts are quite complicated, because, naturally, the topic is not an easy one,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He said that Russia had made “some progress,” referring to a temporary truce agreed by Russia and Ukraine against strikes on energy infrastructure. But the truce has ended, Peskov added.
Russia’s comment came after President Donald Trump said that the US would “pass” on helping bring an end to the war in Ukraine if no easy solution can be found.
Trump insisted on Friday that both sides had to make progress.
“Now, if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say: ‘You’re foolish. You’re fools. You’re horrible people’ — and we’re going to just take a pass,” Trump said.
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President Donald Trump said the United States will “take a pass” on trying for peace agreement betweenRussia and Ukraine if “parties make it difficult.”
Meanwhile, Russia responded, saying that contacts with the United States were rather complicated over Ukraine peace talks.
And the number of Republicans who see Russia as an enemy of the United States has fallen by nearly a third since last year.
More follows throughout the day.
US: Trump says will 'pass' on Ukraine talks if too difficult – dw.com
