Former US President Donald Trump has declared that a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine is now "closer than ever before", following a high-stakes meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The talks, held at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, lasted for two hours but stopped short of a definitive breakthrough.
Progress Made, But Critical Hurdles Remain
Speaking after the summit, Trump indicated that a draft agreement was nearly "95% done". He stated that both Ukrainian and Russian sides were closer to a resolution, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he held a separate two-and-a-half-hour phone call, also wants to "see it happen".
However, the former president conceded that significant obstacles persist. He identified "one or two tough" issues, primarily concerning territory and the definitive end of hostilities, which could still cause negotiations to collapse. Specifically, Trump admitted that "thorny" questions over the future of the eastern Donbas region are yet to be resolved, leaving open the possibility that the conflict could drag on for years.
Broader US Policy and Domestic Developments
In related foreign policy commentary, Ohio congressman Mike Turner, a member of the House armed services committee, defended recent US military strikes in Nigeria and Syria. He asserted that the actions were consistent with longstanding American policy to combat Islamic State extremism, denying they represented a new, more aggressive approach in a potential second Trump term.
On the domestic front, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency had deployed extra resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes. He cited a major success: the dismantling of a $250m fraud targeting federal food aid for children during the Covid pandemic, which resulted in 78 indictments and 57 convictions.
Other Key Stories from 28 December
A significant winter storm, driven by an intense cyclone, began sweeping eastwards across the United States, threatening widespread disruption with snow, ice, and strong winds.
In public health, a national decline in overdose deaths since 2023 has puzzled experts, with West Virginia—the historic epicentre of the opioid crisis—notably among the states reducing fatalities.
Meanwhile, business and technology news saw Elon Musk warn manufacturers about the consequences of record-high silver prices, while Senator Bernie Sanders linked the ambitions of AI developers to economic insecurity and called for a potential moratorium on new data centres.
