WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 12-29-25 (1/3)

Episode Date: December 29, 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. President Trump hosted Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida on Sunday to continue peace talks. Trump praised Zelensky calling him brave and struck an optimistic tone about ending the war. He said peace in Ukraine is, quote, closer than ever, though he acknowledged that talks could still break down. Trump also said that he spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin before his meeting with Zelens. We have two willing parties. We have two willing countries. They want to see it at what the people of Ukraine wanted to end and the people of Russia wanted to end. The two leaders wanted to end. U.S. and Ukrainian diplomats have been working for weeks to hammer out the framework of a peace plan, and Zelensky said that in his view, that proposal is nearly ready for U.S. officials to begin talks with Moscow. Zelensky said Sunday that his talks with President Trump would focus on the sequence of steps outlined in that 20-point plan.

Our team's talk about strategy, how to make step by step and to bring this closer, and we will discuss this strategy. Security guarantees for Ukraine also a major topic. Zelensky is still drawing a hard line at seeding territory to Russia. Putin wants to keep the Russian-occupied Kremlin Peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine, Russia also now controls. Meanwhile, Trump is set to meet in Florida today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mediators are pushing to move the peace deal with Hamas into its next phase. That stage would involve Israeli forces pulling back from Gaza and removing Hamas from power to be replaced by a temporary governing authority.

But inside Israel, protests continue with demonstrators insisting the process cannot move ahead until the remains of the last deceased hostage are returned. Several provisions from President Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill are set to take effect on January 1st, and the White House says small businesses stand to gain the most. The head of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler says the changes give owners more certainty as they plan for the year ahead. A lot of it, thanks to the working family's tax cut, that small businesses finally have certainty about what their tax rates are going to be, that 20% pass-through deduction, now the 179 expensing. It means that higher limits on the ability to expense immediately for purchases they make and capital equipment.

Supporters say those tax breaks could free up cash for hiring, raising, and new equipment. But states that adopt the cuts may also face tighter budgets as the bill shifts more cost onto them for programs like Medicaid and SNAP. For World Radio, I'm Kent Covington. For more sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth, visit World Radio.com. Additional support comes from Medashear, where many families save $500 a month on their health care. Metashare.com slash world.