WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 12-25-25 (1/3)

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

The latest headlines in three minutes from WORLD updated three times throughout the day.Sign-up for the daily Sift email at thesift.org.Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.

With World Radio News, I'm Kent Covington. Crews in Bristol, Pennsylvania are digging through the wreckage of a nursing home after a powerful explosion killed two women and injured more than 20 others. Investigators are trying to determine whether a gas leak caused the blast, and fire chief Kevin DiPolito said as for the cause of the explosion. That is still under investigation. We have heavy machinery on site right now that's helping us excavate the area until we excavate that area and remove the walls and roofs that collapsed.

We won't have any idea what may have occurred in there. A utility crew had been checking a gas odor shortly before the explosion. The blast tore through a wing of the Bristol Health and Rehab Center Tuesday afternoon, collapsing walls and the roof of the kitchen and cafeteria. Police Chief Charles C.J. Winnick praised the firefighters who carried residents to safety, many of whom were wheelchair-bound. I've never seen such heroism. They were running into a building that I could, from 50 feet away,

and still smell gas and walls that looked like they were going to fall down. And they were still going into building to recover people. They couldn't walk. Some people couldn't talk. Police say 120 residents and staff were safely accounted for after a frantic evacuation. 19 people remained hospitalized Wednesday, including one, in critical condition. Ukrainian President Volodemir Zelenskyy shared a Christmas video message with his countrymen on Wednesday. Zolensky said we celebrate Christmas in a difficult time.

Sadly, not all of us are at home this evening, and not all of us still have a home. And he said, unfortunately, many Ukrainians are no longer with us, but he added that his words, Russia isn't capable of occupying or bombing, our faith and our unity. Zelensky also said this week that he is open to a new compromise as peace talks continue. World's Paul Butler has more. President Zelensky says he's open to pulling troops out of eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland. But that's only if Russia does the same. And the area becomes a demilitarized zone watched by international forces.

The proposal would cover parts of the Donbass region, one of the toughest issues in peace talks. Zelensky added that any final deal would be put to a war. a national vote in Ukraine. For World, I'm Paul Butler. France's divided parliament has approved an emergency spending bill to keep the government running and avoid a shutdown at the start of the new year. The stopgap measure allows taxes to be collected and money to flow to local governments, buying time after talks on a full 2026 budget collapsed. The bigger challenge now is still ahead, reaching a long-term budget deal. For World Radio, I'm Kent Covington. For more sound journalism, ground.

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