President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Sunday in Florida and indicated they are close to a potential peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
At a news conference after their meeting, Trump and Zelenskyy struck an optimistic tone while acknowledging that challenges remain.
“You can say 95%, but I don’t like to say percentages. I just think we’re doing very well,” Trump said. “There are one or two very thorny issues, very tough issues, but I think we’re doing very well. We made a lot of progress today.”
Zelenskyy echoed the sentiments.
“We had a really great discussion,” he told reporters. “We discussed all the aspects of the peace framework.”
He added that the deal as a whole was 90% agreed to, saying U.S., Europe and Ukraine security guarantees are “almost agreed.”
As for a timeline to finalize a potential deal, Trump said the best-case scenario is in “a few weeks.”
Hours before his meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump said on Truth Social that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday morning in what he characterized as a “good and very productive telephone call.”
Russia has been unrelenting in its offensive. The meeting comes just over a day after it launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, killing at least one person and injuring at least 20 other people, according to Kyiv’s mayor.
Brigitte Bardot, French actor and animal rights activist, dies at 91
Getty Images file
Screen siren Brigitte Bardot, whose portrayals of free-spirited ingenues made her an international sex symbol and the pride of France and who turned her back on movie stardom in 1973 to become an animal rights activist, has died, according to French media and The Associated Press.
She was 91.
Leading tributes, French President Emmanuel Macron said Bardot “embodied a life of freedom” and lived a “French existence.” Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally party, which Bardot publicly supported in her later years, referred to her as a “passionate patriot” who represented “an entire era of French history.”
Bardot’s foundation paid tribute to her legacy on animal rights, from traveling to Arctic ice floes to help baby seals to lobbying for animal welfare legislation and securing convictions for perpetrators of animal abuse.
Politics in brief
- Fighting for young men: Winning the hearts and minds of young men has been at the center of politics over the past year, and it is intensifying ahead of the 2026 midterms.
- Coming up: Hotly contested primaries next year will serve as early battlegrounds in the fight for the futures of both parties. Here are the key themes to watch.
- Senate’s fate: Democrats still face an uphill battle to take control of the Senate but see a path amid Trump’s poor ratings on the economy and concerns about health care. These are the 10 races that will determine the balance of power.
- Faith and politics: Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s next mayor has become something larger than a historic first for many Muslim New Yorkers — it marks a rare moment of visibility and unity across the city’s Muslim community.
2026 will be the year NASA astronauts fly around the moon again — if all goes to plan
The Artemis II astronauts pause during a demonstration test at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Dec. 20.Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images
If all goes according to NASA’s plans, 2026 will finally be the year that astronauts once again launch to the moon.
In a matter of months, four astronauts are poised to fly around the moon on a roughly 10-day mission — the closest humans will have gotten in more than half a century.
The flight, known as Artemis II, which could lift off as early as February, would be a long-awaited jump-start to America’s lagging return-to-the-moon program. The mission is designed to usher in a new era of space exploration, with the goal of eventually establishing bases for long-duration stays on the moon before astronauts someday venture on to Mars.
The Palisades Fire destroyed senior living communities, but many are determined to return
A Cal Fire firefighter pulls a hose toward a burning home as the Camp Fire moves through the area in Magalia, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2018.Justin Sullivan / Getty Images file
Pacific Palisades seemed like the perfect place to start over after Victoria Escalante lost everything she owned in the horrific 2018 Camp Fire in north central California. The quaint village was exactly what she wanted for her retirement: family, community and a sense of security.
Escalante never imagined that she would watch another neighborhood she called home turn to ash.
The Palisades Fire was one of two infernos that consumed vast swaths of Los Angeles County in January. Among the most affected places were assisted living facilities and retirement communities where older adults planned to spend their final years. Hundreds of patients and residents were separated from essential services.
Rebuilding has been slow across the Pacific Palisades burn scar. But nearly a year after the tragedy, senior communities say returning to their homes has given them a renewed sense of possibility.
“I believe it’s going to be good again,” Escalante said.
Notable quote
You cannot look at a creature that trusts you and eat in front of it without sharing.
Saeed Al-Aar, founder of the Sulala Animal Rescue
A humble shelter operating out of a tent remains the last beacon of hope for the injured and hungry animal population in war-ravaged Gaza, even as its workers and volunteers face their own impossible conditions. With veterinary supplies scarce during the conflict, the rescue project has relied on expired medicines, human drugs and its own food in a desperate measure to keep cats and dogs alive.
In case you missed it
- A whopping $400,000 shipment of lobster was stolen as it was headed for Costco stores, according to the lobster company’s president.
- The father of a teenage girl who deputies say was kidnapped on Christmas Day found her using his phone’s parental controls, according to authorities in Texas.
- An Oklahoma man has been charged with first-degree manslaughter, accused of shooting a woman a few blocks from his home while he was firing at a target in his backyard.
- The San Francisco 49ers and the Chicago Bears will battle for the NFC’s top seed on “Sunday Night Football.” We’re covering all the action.
- At least one person is dead and another is critically injured after two helicopters crashed in Hammonton, New Jersey.
- A powerful storm system continues to disrupt travel, placing 52 million people under winter weather alerts from the northern Plains to New England.
