NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-28-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rom. Ukrainian present Vladimir Zelensky is to meet this afternoon with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida resort. The two men are to discuss the latest peace proposal to end Russia's war in Ukraine, now nearly four years old. On his way to Florida, Zelensky met in Halifax with Prime Minister Mark Carney. He noted that Russia had launched a drone and missile attack on Kiev yesterday. This attack is, again, Russia's answer on our peace efforts, and it's really a show that Putin doesn't want peace.

Zelensky said the key to peace is pressure on Russia and sufficient strong support for Ukraine. Carney pledged that Canada will provide $1.8 billion in economic aid. Diplomats from Thailand and Cambodia are meeting in China today to discuss their border dispute. They signed a new ceasefire yesterday after weeks of fighting. About half a million people have been displaced. Brigitte Bardot, the French cinema sex symbol in the 1950s and 60s, has died. The animal rights group she founded says she died at her home in southern France, but did not provide a cause. She was 91.

NPR's Elizabeth Blair has more. In the buttoned up 1950s, Brigitte Baudot was a revelation. blonde mane, lush lips, gorgeous figure, and sexually liberated. Oh, yes, I love. Bardo grew up in Paris and studied ballet. She worked with France's most famous directors, including Jean-Luc Godard. She married four times and had several lovers, including singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Bardot became an outspoken animal rights activist.

She was also accused of inciting racial hatred for her crime. comments about Islam. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Another winter storm is forecast to bring more freezing temperatures and snow to parts of the Midwest and Northeast. It may cause more travel headaches for travelers trying to return from the Christmas holiday. NPR's Matt Bloom has more on the story. Airlines have delayed or canceled more than a thousand flights due to weather this weekend in the busy post-Christmas travel rush, and more could be in store. The next winter system is set to bring strong winds and snow to the Great Lakes region and Upper Midwest starting tonight. Impacts could stretch farther south and bring severe thunderstorms to the Mississippi

and Ohio River valleys. The weather is expected to bring more ice and snow to parts of the Upper Northeast into Monday. Following the storm, a mass of cold air is expected to send temperatures falling in much of the eastern and southern U.S. ahead of the New Year's holiday. Matt Bloom, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News in Washington. Myanmar is holding its first election since the military seized power in 2021 and ousted the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung-Suchee. The voting is taking place under military rule and a military-backed party is expected to win.

Final results won't be known until after two more rounds of voting next month. Voters in the West African nation of Guinea are also casting ballots for the first time since a coup four years ago. Michael Koloki has more. Nine candidates are on the ballot, including Mamadi Dumbuya, head of the country's military junta, that seized power in a 2021 coup. His main challenger, Yerobaldi, served as education minister in the country's previous government. Two prominent opposition leaders were disqualified from. the elections. The vote takes place amid concerns about economic challenges facing the country, with the UN saying more than half of Guinea's population face record levels of poverty. Critics

of the country's military government have accused it of clamping down on political opposition and suppressing civil rights. For NPR News, I'm Michael Koloki in Nairobi. With the new year, more books, movies, and classic characters will enter the public domain. Under U.S. law, thousands of copyrights for creations from 1930 will expire. This year's class includes Animal Crackers, the Marks Brothers movie, the first four books starring Girl Detective Nancy Drew, and The Little Engine That Could. On January 1st, anyone can adapt these works without paying royalties.

There's already a Betty Boop horror movie in the works. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington.