Dec. 26, 2025, 6:12 p.m. ETThe statement was signed by the Republican senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.Eric Lee for The New York TimesAs President Trump prepares for an expected meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Sunday, he is facing some pressure from within his party to take a tough approach to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Three Republican senators joined five of their Democratic colleagues in issuing a statement on Thursday that described Mr. Putin as a “ruthless murderer who has no interest in peace” and who “cannot be trusted.” It decried Russian attacks on Ukraine that continued over the Christmas holiday.The statement was signed by the Republican senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. It did not criticize Mr. Trump’s handling of the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and it was not joined by the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho and a close Trump ally, nor by most of the G.O.P. members on that committee. (Mr. Risch’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.) Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the committee, led the statement.Still, the statement took a harsher tone toward Mr. Putin than Mr. Trump has often used. Although Mr. Trump has at times berated Mr. Putin on social media, urging him to stop his military assault on Ukraine, he has also boasted about their positive relationship, saying he gets along well with the Russian leader. He has repeatedly threatened severe sanctions on the Russians to urge them to make peace, but he has followed through only occasionally.“It bears repeating that President Zelensky agreed to a Christmas truce, but Putin declined, yet he directs soldiers to continue to commit brutal crimes of aggression on one of Christianity’s holiest days,” said the statement, which was also signed by Senator Angus King, a Maine independent, and by Senators Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, all Democrats.Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said senators in the party had displayed “time and time again” that they were more skeptical of Mr. Putin than the president “might be inclined to be.” The statement appeared to be aimed at offering Mr. Zelensky bipartisan support at a crucial moment, Mr. Conant said.Dec. 26, 2025, 4:45 p.m. ETKaroline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, says she is expecting a baby girl in May. “My husband and I are thrilled to grow our family and can’t wait to watch our son become a big brother,” Leavitt, 28, wrote on Instagram, sharing an image of herself standing next to a Christmas tree. She is the mother of a 1-year-old boy with her husband, Nicholas Riccio.Dec. 26, 2025, 5:32 a.m. ETPresident Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has acknowledged major sticking points in talks on a peace plan for Ukraine.Credit...Tetiana Dzhafarova/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPresident Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Friday that he would meet this weekend with President Trump, as Ukraine and the United States try to maintain momentum in American-led efforts to end the war with Russia.There was no immediate confirmation from the White House. But in a post on social media announcing the meeting, Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine was busy pushing ahead with the peace talks, adding that “a lot can be decided before the New Year.”Speaking later with reporters, Mr. Zelensky cited a “broad agenda” for the meeting with Mr. Trump, which the Ukrainian leader said would take place in Florida, most likely on Sunday. Topics of discussion, he said, will include what he has called the two biggest sticking points between Washington and Kyiv in the peace negotiations: the fate of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and control of a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.Ukraine has been pushing for a meeting between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump for weeks, as the United States restarted its diplomatic efforts. Mr. Trump had said he would meet with Mr. Zelensky only once the two sides were close to reaching an agreement on a peace deal.This week, Mr. Zelensky unveiled a revised 20-point plan to end the war. The proposal, developed with the United States, covers a wide range of issues, including security guarantees that Ukraine wants to prevent future Russian aggression.While Mr. Zelensky has acknowledged the sticking points on territory and the power plant, an even bigger issue is whether Russia will agree to the draft at all. Analysts have said the Kremlin is unlikely to accept it.A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in negotiations with the United States.Moscow, though, has shown little indication that it is willing to end the war, continuing its bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities unabated. On Friday afternoon, Russian glide bombs hit a busy road in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The local Ukrainian authorities said at least two people were killed and several others injured in the attack, which set cars ablaze.Russian glide bombs hit a busy road in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, on Friday.Credit...Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/ReutersMr. Zelensky said on Friday that he could not spend time thinking about whether Russia would ultimately agree to the peace plan.“Why? Because Russia is constantly looking for reasons not to agree,” he said. “The answer is very simple: If Ukraine demonstrates its position and it is constructive, while Russia, for example, does not agree, then it means the pressure is insufficient. And this is also something I want to discuss with the president of the United States.”To draw a contrast with the unbending Russian position, Mr. Zelensky has been eager to show that he is fully behind Mr. Trump’s push for peace and is willing to make compromises, including on the territorial issues. The Ukrainian leader has said that Russia should face severe consequences, including new sanctions and increased Western military support for Kyiv, if it rebuffs the latest peace efforts.Talks between Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators have continued after Mr. Zelensky detailed the 20-point plan this week. He said it would be presented by the United States to the Kremlin.In his nightly address on Thursday, Mr. Zelensky said that diplomacy in the coming weeks could be “intensive.” He added that he had spoken for nearly an hour earlier that day with Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.“We went into many details; there are good ideas, which we discussed,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We have some new ideas in terms of formats, meetings, and, of course, timing on how to bring a real peace closer.”The 20-point plan is a result of the Trump administration’s latest flurry of diplomacy, which got underway in the fall. Mr. Trump initially set a deadline of Thanksgiving for Ukraine to agree to a peace deal with Russia.But even as Mr. Trump has claimed on several occasions this year that a settlement could be close, he has been frustrated by President Vladimir V. Putin’s refusal to give ground on his far-reaching demands. Those include Mr. Putin’s insistence that Russia be handed Ukrainian territory that Moscow’s forces have been unable to capture, and his demand that Ukraine agree to measures that would undermine its sovereignty.Earlier this week, Mr. Zelensky told reporters that he was willing to pull his troops back from areas of the Donbas region still under Kyiv’s control and turn those areas into a demilitarized zone as part of a possible peace deal. He would do so, he said, only on one condition: that Russia pull its forces from an equivalent area of land.Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.Dec. 25, 2025, 9:14 p.m. ETA message posted to social media by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday.Credit...X.comThe Trump administration celebrated Christmas on Thursday by posting a series of religious messages from official government accounts, using language that drew criticism from those who pointed to the country’s separation of church and state.While many lawmakers in both parties posted universal messages of love, joy and peace on the holiday, a number of cabinet members and agencies made references to Jesus and the religious meaning of Christmas.“Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote. “May His light bring peace, hope, and joy to you and your families.”Posts by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Homeland Security Department and the Labor Department followed in a similar vein.“The joyous message of Christmas is the hope of Eternal Life through Christ,” Mr. Rubio said.“Let Earth Receive Her King,” the Labor Department said.A Christian-themed message posted by the Labor Department.Credit...X.comGovernment officials have traditionally steered clear of such overtly religious language, as the Constitution bans an official state religion. The First Amendment’s establishment clause prohibits the government from establishing a religion or favoring one religion over another, while the free exercise clause protects the religious expression of all faiths.In response to a request for comment, a White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, issued a short statement, saying: “Who are the critics? You? And Merry Christmas!”One of the most extensive Christmas messages was posted by the Homeland Security Department on Christmas Eve. It read, “We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” and included a video that featured images including the American flag, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, President Trump and a Nativity scene, along with the words “Remember the miracle of Christ’s birth.”Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, condemned the message as “divisive and un-American” in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday.“Our Constitution’s promise of church-state separation has allowed religious diversity — including different denominations of Christianity — to flourish in America,” she said, adding that Americans “should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information.”The Homeland Security post also drew strong responses online. Alex Nowrasteh, senior vice president for policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said: “Americans don’t share a religion. Our state is secular.”Timothy Sandefur, the vice president for legal affairs at the conservative Goldwater Institute, said, “Whatever this department of the federal government may say, I appreciate and respect my Jewish fellow Americans.”Laura Kennedy, a former ambassador who worked in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, said: “I am a Christian. I am also a proud American because our laws were designed to prohibit a national religion.”Some conservative Christians and far-right activists celebrated the video. David Millard Haskell, a religion and culture professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, said, “The more Americans embrace this sentiment, the better they will be able to face any threat that comes against them.” Jack Posobiec, a Trump loyalist and friend of the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, responded to the video: “Yes.”About 62 percent of Americans identify as Christians, a decline of nine percentage points since 2014, according to the Pew Research Center.In the last year, Mr. Trump has expanded the power and influence of conservative Christians across the government, advancing their political and ideological priorities with a promise to “bring back Christianity.”President Trump made Christmas calls to children at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday.Credit...Eric Lee for The New York TimesIn February, Mr. Trump created a task force at the Justice Department to “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society” and “move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.” The executive order cited the convictions of anti-abortion demonstrators for blocking access to abortion clinics. In May, he established the Religious Liberty Commission in the Justice Department.Mr. Trump also created a White House Faith Office led by his longtime personal pastor, Paula White-Cain, and Jennifer Korn, who worked in the first Trump administration. Evangelical leaders say the office, where Ms. White-Cain takes communion every day and displays Bibles, has given them closer access to the president.On Thursday, the official social media accounts for the Republican Party also leaned into the religious aspects of Christmas, posting Bible verses and a painting of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary with a caption that said, “Today, we remember that Jesus Christ is the reason for the Christmas season.”Dec. 25, 2025, 6:28 p.m. ETImran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in Miami this year.Credit...Marta Lavandier/Associated PressA federal judge in New York on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from detaining a British researcher whom it accused of promoting the online censoring of American viewpoints.Imran Ahmed, the founder and chief executive of a nonprofit organization that works to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation, was among five Europeans barred by the State Department from the United States on Tuesday.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that the individuals, all of whom work to tackle disinformation and abuse on the internet, were barred from traveling to the United States because, he claimed, they “have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”The State Department said in a separate announcement that it had “taken steps to impose visa restrictions” on those individuals and that the administration was justified in moving to expel them from the country.European officials have called the U.S. barring of the five technology regulators and researchers an attempt to intimidate those seeking to call out disinformation on tech platforms.Elon Musk’s social media company had unsuccessfully sued Mr. Ahmed’s group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in 2023 after the group documented a rise in hate speech on the platform since Mr. Musk’s acquisition of the company, now called X. The case was dismissed, but an appeal is pending.Lawyers for Mr. Ahmed, who now lives in the United States and is a legal permanent resident, said they were concerned that the actions by the State Department pose an immediate threat to his status in the country.They filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, asking a judge to intervene because they said Mr. Ahmed faced “the immediate prospect of unconstitutional arrest, punitive detention and expulsion for exercising his basic First Amendment rights.”The judge, Vernon S. Broderick, issued a temporary restraining order shortly after midnight on Christmas Day, blocking the government from “arresting or detaining” Mr. Ahmed and scheduling a hearing on the case for Monday.Roberta A. Kaplan, a lawyer for Mr. Ahmed, said the speed of the judge’s response was telling. “The federal government can’t deport a green card holder like Imran Ahmed, with a wife and young child who are American, simply because it doesn’t like what he has to say,” Ms. Kaplan said.Mr. Ahmed, who was born in Britain and is of Afghan descent, said in a statement that he was proud to call the United States his home.“I will not be bullied away from my life’s work of fighting to keep children safe from social media’s harm and stopping antisemitism online,” he said.In a statement on Thursday, the State Department did not comment on the judge’s order, but said that “the Supreme Court and Congress have repeatedly made clear: The United States is under no obligation to allow foreign aliens to come to our country or reside here.”In their complaint, Mr. Ahmed’s lawyers likened his case to those of other foreign nationals who have been targeted, such as Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident whom the Trump administration has sought to deport over his pro-Palestinian comments and activism that the administration equated with “antisemitic hate.”For his part, Mr. Ahmed has said his organization was founded to look into the growth of antisemitism on the political left. He was among the activists who spoke about how to combat online antisemitism at a 2020 State Department conference during the first Trump administration.He and the other Europeans who were barred from travel to the United States have been scrutinizing hate speech and disinformation on social media platforms such as X.In the United States, free speech protections allow social media companies to set their own content policies. President Trump and others on the right have successfully pushed social media companies to roll back moderation rules that they view as silencing conservative voices.But the platforms have been contending with regulation in Europe. In 2022, the European Union passed a law called the Digital Services Act that requires social media companies to meet transparency standards and to remove certain racist, antisemitic and violent content if it violates national laws.The European Union recently fined X $140 million under that law for what it said was misleading use of verification check marks, opaque advertising practices and refusing to provide researchers with data access. In response, Mr. Musk lashed out, calling for the abolishment of the E.U. and comparing it to Nazi Germany.This week, Mr. Musk shared posts on X that cheered the State Department’s decision to bar Mr. Ahmed and the four other Europeans from the United States.“This is so great,” he wrote in one post. A representative for Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.Mr. Ahmed’s organization had compiled a 2021 report on anti-vaccination content on the internet that the State Department suggested was critical of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, who is a vaccine skeptic.Mr. Kennedy also celebrated the travel ban on social media, hailing the United States as “the mecca for freedom of speech!”Dec. 24, 2025, 4:27 p.m. ETEphrat LivniInternational breaking news reporterPresident Surangel Whipps Jr. of Palau at the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September. Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York TimesPalau, an archipelago of about 350 small islands in the Pacific Ocean, has signed a “memo of understanding” with the Trump administration to take up to 75 “third country nationals” who cannot be returned to their home nations, the office of Palau’s president said on Wednesday. In return, Palau will receive $7.5 million and other aid.The arrangement will allow for people who have never been charged with a crime to live and work in Palau, “helping address local labor shortages in needed occupations,” according to the statement from the office of Palau’s president, Surangel Whipps Jr.The Trump administration has been intensifying its efforts to deport people to countries where they have no connections, according to a recent analysis of public immigration court data. Last month, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security filed almost 5,000 motions to dismiss asylum cases and force applicants to seek protection elsewhere, according to the analysis, a staggering increase from this summer.Federal officials have been working out “safe third country” agreements with a few nations, including Honduras and Uganda.Palau’s leaders and the Council of Chiefs, a board of 16 traditional leaders who advise Mr. Whipps, had resisted entering an agreement to take migrants. Among other concerns, they had noted that Palau did not have a refugee policy or resettlement program, and faced significant domestic challenges that left it with few resources to spare.Palau’s minister of state, Gustav Aitaro, and the U.S. ambassador to Palau, Joel Ehrendreich, signed the agreement in a ceremony on Wednesday aimed at deepening cooperation between the two nations, which have long been closely linked.Palau, with a population of about 18,000, was administered by the United States after World War II and became independent in 1994. But the two countries have maintained tight ties through an agreement known as “free association,” which gives Palauans the right to work, live and study in the United States, while Washington funds the local government and has military access to the archipelago. That arrangement was renewed last year under the Biden administration with a pledge of about $900 million in aid to Palau over 20 years.The new agreement calls for the United States to provide $7.5 million to help Palau with “public service and infrastructure needs” related to the receipt of migrants and more funding and cooperation in other areas, including health care, security, pensions, disaster resilience and security, Mr. Whipps’s office said.The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the memo of understanding or whether the agreement ensured that those sent to Palau would not eventually make their way back as Palauans under the free association arrangement.Palau has the right to agree “on a case-by-case basis” who it will accept, the president’s office said, and prospective arrivals will be screened nationally. The statement said that the government would continue discussions with leaders and the public as the process unfolds. It was not immediately clear when the program would begin.Mr. Whipps’s office said that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had met with national leaders and traditional chiefs in September at Palau’s international airport, after which they formed a local working group “to assess the benefits, risks, and community impacts” of taking in third country nationals “and to “ensure Palau’s security, culture and long‑term development are protected.”The State Department said that Mr. Landau and Mr. Whipps had discussed the new understanding on Tuesday, in a conversation that “highlighted U.S. commitments to partner with Palau on strengthening the country’s health care infrastructure, increasing Palau’s capacity to combat transnational crime and drug trafficking, and bolstering Palau’s civil service pension system.”Mr. Whipps’s office said in its statement that the United States was committed to building a new national hospital and improving Palau’s capacity to prepare for and respond to natural disasters. The United States, Mr. Whipps’s office said, had pledged $6 million, in addition to a previously granted $20 million, to help Palau prevent the collapse of the civil service pension system. The United States will also fund new law enforcement initiatives in Palau at a cost of $2 million to address critical threats, according to Palau.The announcement on the presidential Facebook page drew mixed responses from Palauans. Some welcomed continued cooperation with the United States or seemed pleased the pension system would get a boost, while others expressed concern about letting in foreigners or protested that the United States was better equipped to deal with migration pressures than their country.Dec. 24, 2025, 3:21 p.m. ETAn undated image of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell released by the Justice Department.Credit...Department of JusticeThe Justice Department said on Wednesday that it had discovered over a million more documents potentially related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — increasing the amount previously known and lengthening the time it will take to release the material.To date, the department has released about 130,000 pages of information, some of it redacted, to comply with a law passed by Congress requiring the disclosure of most of the material about Mr. Epstein. Under the law, the administration may withhold records that identify victims or information that would “jeopardize an active federal investigation.”The law gave the Justice Department a deadline of last Friday to release the files, and a batch of about 100,000 pages was released that day. But over the weekend, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said that about a million pages of information were being reviewed, and that the full release would take a few more weeks.On Wednesday, the Justice Department said the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, which oversaw the investigations into Mr. Epstein and his longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, had informed the department “that they have uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.”Democratic lawmakers, who had criticized the Justice Department’s release of the material, immediately accused the Trump administration of violating the law mandating that the files be released by Dec. 19.“It’s outrageous that the D.O.J. has illegally withheld over one million documents from the public,” Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement.Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, accused the Trump administration of hiding something. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said in a social media post. “Release the files. Follow the law.”Since late November, the department has assigned nearly 200 lawyers from the national security division to review the documents and remove any information about victims, or anything that would compromise continuing investigations or national security.Earlier this week, department officials sent out an emergency request for reinforcements, asking for lawyers to volunteer over the holiday break to join the effort, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal workings of the department. It is unclear how many lawyers volunteered.“We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said on social media. It added that releasing all the material may now take “a few more weeks.”The department’s release of material related to Mr. Epstein has not gone smoothly. After the initial release last week, some photographs were removed from the online collection because of what the department described as concerns they might contain information about victims.One image showed a credenza with a number of photos on it, including one of President Trump. Mr. Blanche disputed that the image was removed to protect the president, and said concerns had been raised about whether that image contained any victims. The image was later restored to the collection.A subsequent release Monday of some 30,000 pages also got off to a rough start, as the pages were available for a few hours, then taken down, then put back online.