Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. The White House says negotiators have made, quote,

tremendous progress on a rush Ukraine peace deal, but there's still more work to do this,

despite a Thursday deadline for Ukraine to accept it. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says there are a few

delicate but not insurmountable details that need to be sorted out. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll

has been meeting with Russian and Ukrainian delegation separately in the United Arab Emirates.

President Trump also says he's sending his special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, to meet with President

Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Trump's original 28-point plan calls for Ukraine to cede territory that Russia has annexed, but

not managed to win in nearly four years of war.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio negotiated some changes to the plan, and Trump says it has been, quote, fine-tuned.

Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department.

A highly watched economic report on retail spending shows that retail growth slowed down a bit in September, up two-tenths of a percent from August. The report from

the Commerce Department was delayed because of the government shutdown. NPR's Aleta Saluca has more.

The federal data on retail sales is behind by more than a month, and it's showing consumers

cooling off a bit in September as they continued to go out to shop and eat compared to

September of last year.

Spending at stores and restaurants grew 4.3% with people shopping more for clothes and electronics

in the tail end of the back-to-school season, and they went out to restaurants and bars.

All this lines up with a slew of positive sales reports from major retailers,

including Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, and Dick's

sporting goods. The industry is now predicting another record holiday season, counting on the fact

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