NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-28-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Ukrainian President Volodymira Seninsky says this weekend's Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine show that Russia is not taking peace efforts seriously. This attack is, again, Russia's answer on our peace efforts, and it's really show that Putin doesn't want peace. Zelensky, speaking during a stopover in Halifax, where he met with Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. Zelensky is now in Florida, preparing for today's meeting with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The two are to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine. Major differences remain on crucial issues. Yesterday, Russia launched hundreds of missiles and drones targeting Kiev and

other parts of Ukraine, knocking out power and heat in the capital. A titan of French cinema has died. Brigitte Bardot was 91. Bordeaux was a worldwide icon in the 1950s and 60s. She announced her retirement before the age of 40 and would later court controversy with her comments on race and homosexuality. The BBC's Katie Russell looks back at her life. That I love you, love you, love you, jealise. In the stodgy 1950s, Brigitte Bardot brought a blast of continental sensuality to cinema screens. By the age of 15, she was one of France's top models and in love with film producer Roger Vadim.

In 1956, they made and... and God-created woman. In it, Bardot's character pursues her sexual desires without shame. Many cinema-goers were shocked. On turning 40, Bardot quit to campaign for animal rights. In later life, she was fined multiple times for inciting racial hatred and caused a fence when talking about homosexuality. Scars on the memory of an icon who put the bikini,

female desire and French cinema on the map. The BBC's Katie Russell reporting Bardo's Animal Rights Foundation and says she died at her home in southern France but did not provide a cause. Student loan borrowers have spent much of 2025 trying to keep up with massive changes to the federal student loan system. NPR's Corey Turner reports at 2026 will bring even more turmoil. Republicans have overhauled a lot from repayment plans to how much Americans can borrow in the first place. Earlier this month, the Trump administration unveiled a proposed agreement to shut down the Biden-era save repayment plan. Next year, the roughly 7 million borrowers in Save will likely have to move to a new plan.

Also, big changes passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will kick in, starting in July. Those include borrowing limits for grad students and for new borrowers, replacing all of the old repayment plans with just two new ones. borrowers are clearly feeling uncertain. The latest data show that 12 million Americans are either late on their payments or in default. Corey Turner, NPR News. This is NPR News. Another winter storm is threatening to further disrupt the holiday travel rush. Forecasters warning a strengthening storm could lead to blizzard conditions in the upper Midwest.

The flight tracking website Flight Aware says there are more than 2,000 delays and nearly 300 cancellations in the U.S. so far today. Southern California's I-5 freeway reopened to traffic last night following the rupture of a natural gas transmission line north of Los Angeles. residents say they heard loud booms in the area and that the smell of gas was noticed miles away. The cause of the rupture is being investigated. In 2025, generative AI came out of its novelty phase and fully entered the cultural mainstream. NPR's Chloe Feldman reports in one major shift, Entertainment Giants started to strike deals with AI companies. In one of the most prominent such deals, Universal Music Group settled its copyright infringement lawsuit

with the AI music creation platform UDio in October. and announced a partnership with its former adversary to launch a subscription service in 2026. Users will be able to customise, stream and share licensed music on UDEO's platform. And Disney announced earlier this month it would invest $1 billion in Open AI. The Mousehouse will license many of its characters, including from the Marvel and Pixar universes, for users to create videos with the AI company's technology. Despite the new collaborative spirit, dozens of ongoing lawsuits

in which artists and media corporations alleged tech companies use their works without permission or compensation to train their AI models are still working their way through the courts. Chloe Valtman, NPR News. And I'm Jail Snyder. This is NPR News.