NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-28-2025 9PM EST

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

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Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky wrapped up a meeting at Mara Lago in Florida today on a 20-point ceasefire plan in Russia's nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine. Both sides say some progress was made. Zelensky wants Trump to ensure security guarantees to prevent further Russian aggression. And here's Luke Garrett has more. Security guarantees are top of the list. The peace plan would allow for Ukraine to maintain a peacetime army of around 800,000 troops. In this plan, the West would also help Ukraine with air defenses. And Zelensky said he hopes these

guarantees would resemble the protections given to NATO members. Russia has long held that Ukraine membership in NATO is their red line. And peers Luke Garrett, Zelensky says he plans to meet with Trump again in the new year to finish the revised police plan. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Trump at Mara Lago in Florida tomorrow. The focus of this meeting will be the next phase of the ceasefire with Hamas. Somalia has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting tomorrow after Israel decided to formally recognize the the breakaway region of Somaliland. And here's Michelle Kellerman reports,

the Israelis plan to exchange ambassadors with Somaliland soon. More than 20 Arab and African states have joined Somalia in condemning the move, calling Israel's recognition a blatant disregard to international law. There are fears in the region that the Israelis want to move Palestinians in Gaza to Somaliland, though authorities in Somaliland say Gaza was not part of the talks on establishing relations. Somaliland plans to join the Abraham Accords, the normalization deals with Israel that started during the first Trump administration. It's a topic that could come up in Trump's talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in Florida. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News,

Jerusalem. A pair of helicopters collided in New Jersey this morning, killing one pilot and leaving the other hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. And Pierce Frank Langford reports. The helicopters collided just before. 1130 a.m. near the Hamilton Municipal Airport between Philadelphia and Atlantic City. Visibility was good. Cell phone video showed one helicopter spinning as it fell into a wooded area bordering a field. Jeff Gazetti is a former aircraft accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB. It appears that helicopter was hit on its tail, because if you take out the tail rotor, the main rotor will cause the body of the helicopter to just turn

round and round and round like a corkscrew. Gazetti says collisions like this are exceedingly rare, and NTSB investigators will seek out eyewitnesses who can describe how the helicopters manage to hit one another. Frank Langford, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. New federal data shows the construction of AI data

centers may soon surpass office building construction. The construction industry has been happy about the boom, but financial analysts are worried. Deutsche Bank analysts say, if not for the spending, the U.S. would be close to a recession. More than $1 trillion is expected to be spent on data centers in the coming years, and more than $100 billion of that

is being done through special-purpose vehicles, which keeps it off the company's balance sheets. That's the same mechanism used in the lead-up to the dot-com bubble. In Colorado, a dry, warm winter has been hurting ski areas, especially the state's smallest. Colorado Public Radio's Dina Sigr reports several ski hills owned by cities have opened late this year or not at all.

In the small city of Durango, Chapman Hill is open, but only partially. We wouldn't be able to be open if we didn't make her own snow and just hit jumps or something for two or three hours. That would have been awesome. Manager Matt Nimitz says mild temperatures

have hindered snowmaking. And many city-owned ski hills can't make their own snow. That's hard on their main clientele, local kids. Nimitz says he wishes he'd had a little ski hill growing up where he could come after school. Municipal ski areas are far less expensive than neighboring large resorts or are even free. For NPR News, I'm Steena Sieg, in Grand Junction, Colorado. U.S. futures contracts are trading in mixed territory. Dow futures are up about 13 points. Nasdaq futures are down about 20 points. This is NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe.

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