NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-28-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is meeting at this hour with President Trump at Marolongo, Trump's private club in Florida, hoping to advance a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Just before they met, President Trump said they have the makings of a deal that is good for Ukraine, good for everyone. He said he had a good and very productive telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin today and plans to call him again later. We're going to have a very good meeting today, I think, and I'm also calling President Putin back after the meeting,

and we'll continue a negotiation. He said he thinks both presidents want to make a deal that too many people are dying. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to Florida to meet with President Trump and Marilago tomorrow. Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza is still in its first phase. Israel says it won't move to phase two,

until Hamas returns the body of the last Israeli hostage. Hamas says everyone who knew the location of the body has been killed. China applauded a ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, which took effect today. The top diplomats from all three countries are meeting today in China. NPR's Emily Fang reports. China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, said the ceasefire was, quote, an important step towards restoring peace. Wang Yi is also hosting both Thailand and Cambodia's top.

diplomats in China's province of Yunnan, which borders Southeast Asia. The on-and-off, again, border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand has flared several times since this summer. In Thailand, hit Cambodia with airstrikes, as recently as this Saturday, after weeks of deadly fighting, which killed more than 100 people on both sides. China enjoys close, political, and economic ties with Cambodia, and Thailand has been curing closer ties with China, after the country's king paid the first ever royal visit to Beijing this past November. Emily Fang and Peer News. New federal data shows that construction of artificial intelligence data centers

may soon surpass office building construction. It's the latest sign of what many analysts say is a data center bubble. NPR's Bobby Allen reports. While the AI data center boom has been a gold rush for the construction industry, it has many financial analysts worried. A recent note from Deutsche Bank analysts said, not for AI data center spending, the U.S. would be close to a recession. And big tech spenders like meta, Google, and Oracle, which the industry calls

hyperscalers, keep pouring money in. More than a trillion dollars is expected to be spent on this infrastructure for more computing power in the coming years, but the arrangements are raising red flags. For instance, more than $100 billion worth of data center deals are being done through special purpose vehicles, which keeps the spending off tech companies' balance sheets. The same mechanism was used in the lead-up to the data. the dot-com bubble. Bobby Allen, NPR News. This is NPR News. A powerful winter storm is sweeping east from the upper Midwest, bringing rain, ice, and heavy snow to some areas. More than a foot

of snow could fall across parts of the upper lakes. The storm is expected to intensify as it moves east. The flight tracking site, Flight Aware, reports more than 500 flights in or out of the U.S. have been canceled so far today. Shed hunting, the collection of shed antlers and horns, has become an extremely popular pastime. But many Western states restricted in the winter. Colorado Public Radio's Stina Sieg has more. Colorado banned shed hunting January through April to help keep wild animals from being stressed by humans. John Livingston, with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, says the number of shed hunters has exploded in recent years.

Things going from just a few people out there with their backpack. looking for sheds to folks even out there on ATVs and side-by-sides chasing animals around that haven't dropped their antlers yet, you know, hoping to stress them out and get them to drop those antlers. Deer, elk, and moose lose those antlers annually. They're used in decor, dog toys, even medicine. From NPR News, I'm Steenah, in Grand Junction, Colorado. In Florida, today is the last day for its black bear hunt.

Since December 6th, hunters were allowed to kill birds. black bears with a rifle or a crossbow, one bear each. The state issued 172 bear hunt permits by lottery. Some of the rented components who never intended to use them. The state has not provided information on how many bears have been killed. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News.