Trump-Zelensky talks; D.C. pipe bomb suspect; your 2026 nudge word; and more
The 7
The Washington Post
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Monday, December 29. The seven stories you need to know today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | hurdles remain in talks to end Russia's war against Ukraine. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk |
| 0:09.3 | have reached a fragile truce, and a nudge word could help you set an intention for 2026. That's |
| 0:16.8 | some of what we'll get to on The 7 from The Washington Post. I'm Renni Svarnovsky in for Hannah-Jule. |
| 0:22.5 | It's Monday, December 29th. |
| 0:24.7 | Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. |
| 0:30.9 | Number one. |
| 0:32.4 | President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodomier Zelensky. |
| 0:36.6 | At a meeting yesterday at Trump's Mar-a-Lago |
| 0:39.0 | club in Florida, the two leaders discussed how to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They took |
| 0:45.5 | steps toward agreeing on a proposal, with Trump saying that he believes they're, quote, |
| 0:50.2 | far closer than ever before to a deal. I don't like to say percentages. I just think we're doing very well. |
| 0:56.0 | We're very, we could be very close. |
| 0:58.0 | There are one or two very thorny issues, very tough issues, |
| 1:01.0 | but I think we're doing very well. |
| 1:03.0 | We've made a lot of progress today, but really we've made it over the last month. |
| 1:06.0 | This is not a one-day process deal. |
| 1:09.0 | It's very complicated itself. |
| 1:16.6 | Difficult sticking points remain, and it's unclear if Russia would agree to their recommendations. |
| 1:25.4 | One unresolved problem appeared to be the future of the Donbos region of Ukraine, which is largely occupied by Russian forces. |
| 1:30.1 | Last month, Ukraine rejected Russia's demand to pull troops from parts of the region to create a demilitarized zone. Now Zelensky is proposing that both sides |
| 1:36.9 | withdraw from the area to create an economic free zone with international troops. Trump and |
| 1:42.9 | Zelensky said talks involving the three countries, |
... |
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