Dec. 29, 2025, 11:01 p.m. ETThe University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Va.Credit...Kirsten Luce for The New York TimesThe Justice Department sued Virginia on Monday over its policy of granting unauthorized immigrants in-state financial aid at public colleges and universities, saying that the assistance violates federal law because it discriminates against U.S. citizens living in other states.The complaint came as Virginia’s term-limited Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, prepares to leave office next month. He will be succeeded by the state’s Democratic governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger. It is the latest in a series of lawsuits from the Trump administration aimed at blocking states from extending tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.In November, the administration sued California over a similar tuition policy, and in September it brought a case against Illinois over its financial aid program for unauthorized immigrants.In June, a federal judge blocked a Texas law that provided unauthorized immigrants in-state tuition.Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition to unauthorized students in 2001, according to the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group.The case in Virginia centers on a section of the state’s legal code that allows students who have lived in Virginia for at least two years to qualify for in-state tuition at public universities.In its complaint, the Justice Department argued that the provision illegally favors unauthorized immigrants living in Virginia over U.S. citizens who reside outside the state and would not be eligible for the reduced in-state tuition.“This is not only wrong but illegal,” the lawsuit said. “The challenged act’s discriminatory treatment in favor of illegal aliens over U.S. citizens is squarely prohibited and pre-empted by federal law.”Governor Youngkin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the office of the state’s attorney general, Jason Miyares, another Republican who is due to leave office next month. The Virginia Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.As of September, at least 14 states offered financial aid to students without regard to immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center, another advocacy group. But many states’ policies are shifting.In 2020, Ralph Northam, a Democrat and then the Virginia governor, signed legislation allowing unauthorized immigrants in Virginia to receive in-state tuition. At the time, Mr. Northam said the law underscored that the students were “Virginians, in every sense of the word, except for the immigration status,” according to WTOP-FM.State Senator Jennifer B. Boysko, a Democrat who cosponsored the legislation, said in an interview Monday night that she was unsurprised by the lawsuit, saying that she expected the Trump administration to move to penalize the state as Democratic leadership takes over.But she said the complaint left her “sad for the individuals who were doing everything that they were supposed to and are going to be penalized if this holds.”Mark Keam, a Democratic former member of the Virginia House of Delegates who was another cosponsor, said he was concerned that the Trump administration was moving toward challenging Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision that found children who are unauthorized immigrants have a constitutional right to free public education through high school. “By going after the in-state tuition for college students, they’re heading down that road,” Mr. Keam said.Dec. 29, 2025, 7:31 p.m. ETThe strike, conducted at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, had targeted a boat sailing along a “known narco-trafficking route” in the eastern Pacific.Credit...Eric Lee for The New York TimesA U.S. military strike on Monday killed two more people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics in the eastern Pacific, Pentagon officials said, bringing the death toll in the U.S. campaign to at least 107.In a post on social media, the U.S. Southern Command said that the strike, conducted at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, had targeted a boat sailing along a “known narco-trafficking route” in the eastern Pacific and killed two men. The New York Times could not independently verify the strike or the intelligence cited by the military.It was the 30th attack announced by the U.S. military since early September, coming days after President Trump said the United States had struck a coastal site in the region related to drugs and Venezuela. The United States’ boat attacks in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean have drawn the ire of legal experts and members of Congress, who contend that the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings and, potentially, war crimes.Monday’s strike was the latest U.S. show of force in the region, in a campaign focused on pressuring Venezuela. The United States has amassed more than 15,000 troops and a dozen warships in the Caribbean Sea. In recent days, it announced a partial blockade of oil tankers sailing to and from Venezuela, prompting the government of President Nicolás Maduro to order his navy to escort oil tankers coming from its ports.On Friday, Mr. Trump suggested the United States had also made an attack on a site in Venezuela, after months of threats by the president to escalate the military campaign to land strikes. He said that the United States had knocked out “a big facility” related to drug trafficking in the region days earlier.He offered few new details when asked about the assertion on Monday.“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Mr. Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”Mr. Trump declined to say how the attack had been carried out or by whom, where it occurred, and what role it played in drug trafficking, adding only that it was along a shoreline.Dec. 29, 2025, 7:02 p.m. ETTyler Pager and David M. HalbfingerTyler Pager reported from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla, and David M. Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem.VideoTrump and Netanyahu Present United Front During MeetingPresident Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel lavished each other with praise during their meeting on Monday. The two discussed Gaza’s reconstruction. Mr. Netanyahu also gave Mr. Trump the Israel Prize, the country’s highest cultural honor.CreditCredit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesPresident Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel presented a united front on Monday, papering over their differences on how to carry out the Gaza peace plan while heaping praise on each other.The two leaders, who met over a multicourse lunch inside the dining room of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, shared few details on the substance of their talks or how they planned to resolve the many outstanding issues between them.Nor did they shed light on how Mr. Trump’s Gaza plan is to advance into its next phase, in which Hamas is supposed to disarm, the Israelis are supposed to pull back their forces and other countries are supposed to commit troops to an “international stabilization force.”But Mr. Trump did make at least one commitment. He said that the United States would back Israeli strikes on Iran if Iran continued with its ballistic missile and nuclear weapon program. The president said he has heard Iran is “behaving badly” and looking to restart its nuclear program, but he declined to provide additional details.For Mr. Trump, the meeting was an opportunity to take another victory lap for orchestrating the Gaza cease-fire, however tenuous it may be — he repeatedly overstated it as “peace in the Middle East.” And Mr. Netanyahu departed with fresh footage of Mr. Trump lauding him as Israel’s savior, which will no doubt prove useful in the Israeli leader’s re-election campaign.“You needed a very special man to really carry through and really help Israel through this horrible jam,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Netanyahu.The tone was a shift from Mr. Trump’s recent posture, as he has shown more willingness in recent months to voice his frustrations with Mr. Netanyahu and the ways in which he has delayed or undercut Mr. Trump’s efforts to advance his plans for a post-conflict Gaza. On Monday, there was no sign of friction, though the president said at one point that Mr. Netanyahu could be difficult.“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel is doing,” Mr. Trump said.Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu mostly sidestepped questions about the next steps of the Gaza peace plan.On the West Bank, where Mr. Netanyahu faces pressure from his base to annex more territory and the United States has made clear it opposes that, Mr. Trump acknowledged the two leaders did not agree “100 percent” on the issue. But when asked about the nature of the disagreement, the president declined to elaborate. “Well, I don’t want to do that,” he said, before adding, “But he will do the right thing.”On the possibility that Turkey could play a role in a postwar Gaza, which Israel staunchly opposes, Mr. Trump praised the leaders of both countries, who have a bitter relationship.“I’m with him all the way,” he said of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. “I’m with Bibi all the way. Nothing’s going to happen.”Mr. Trump also praised the new leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, and said he was hopeful the new leadership would usher in a better relationship between Israel and Syria. But Israel’s military action in Syria has angered the White House, and some Israeli officials do not trust Mr. al-Shara. Mr. Netanyahu said only that he wanted to ensure the country’s border with Syria was safe.“In terms of public appearances, Netanyahu got what he wanted: a full public embrace from President Trump to show off to Israeli voters,” Ilan Goldenberg, the chief policy officer at J Street, the center-left lobbying group that promotes a two-state solution in the Middle East, said in a statement. “The substance of the meeting is less clear. Cracks are beginning to show in how they approach Turkey, Syria, the West Bank and even the next phase of the war in Gaza, but what was discussed behind closed doors remains unknown.”Mr. Netanyahu, in his fifth visit with Mr. Trump this year, seemed to struggle to find new ways to say the president was the best friend Israel had ever had in the White House, at one point going so far as to praise the meal the American leader had just served him.The Israeli government also bestowed another award on Mr. Trump, the latest in a trend of foreign leaders and organizations trying to win over the president with new honors. At the start of the bilateral meeting, Israel’s education minister, Yoav Kisch, called in to share that Mr. Trump would be awarded the Israel Prize, which is traditionally given to Israeli citizens in various categories of the arts and science.And Mr. Trump suggested that Mr. Netanyahu would soon win a prize of his own: a presidential pardon in his long-running corruption trial. Mr. Trump has urged Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to grant Mr. Netanyahu a pardon.“I spoke to the president and it’s — he tells me it’s on its way,” Mr. Trump said on Monday. “You can’t do better than that, right?”But Mr. Herzog’s office quickly denied that any decision had been made and said a decision was weeks away at minimum.Dec. 29, 2025, 6:51 p.m. ETTrump supporters heading toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The ensuing riot caused millions of dollars in damage, injured more than 140 police officers and interrupted the certification of the presidential election.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York TimesWhen they return to Washington next week, House Democrats plan to mark the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol with an informal hearing that will highlight Republicans’ efforts to rewrite the history of a riot by a pro-Trump mob.Because Democrats are in the minority, they cannot call an official congressional hearing. But throughout Mr. Trump’s second term, Democratic lawmakers have held informal events meant to draw public attention to their criticisms of the administration.In a letter sent Monday to the Democratic caucus, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, said the hearing, set for Tuesday of next week, would highlight Mr. Trump’s broad clemency to rioters seeking to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, some of whom have been rearrested on other charges. He also said that lawmakers would explore “ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by an out-of-control Trump administration.”But with Democrats preparing for midterm elections in which they seek to win control of the House, Mr. Jeffries made clear that the hearing was meant to counter Republicans’ efforts to sanitize the storming of the Capitol.“In the years since that disgraceful day, far-right Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attempted to rewrite history and whitewash the events of Jan. 6,” Mr. Jeffries wrote.The mob of Trump loyalists that attacked the Capitol that day caused millions of dollars in damage, injured more than 140 police officers and, for the first time in U.S. history, interrupted the certification of a presidential election.Next Tuesday’s hearing will be led by Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, who led the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the attack, held widely viewed hearings in 2022 and issued a report on Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss.But the coming hearing, held by a party with little power to conduct oversight or compel action, will likely demonstrate just how much the dynamics around Jan. 6 have shifted in the year since Mr. Trump returned to power.Though he once disavowed the rioters, Mr. Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign increasingly called them patriots and suggested they had been unfairly treated by the Justice Department.The president opened his second term by granting clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack, including those who had assaulted police officers as they tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.Earlier this year, Speaker Mike Johnson announced a new Republican-led subcommittee that would again investigate the attack and counter “false narratives” about it, part of a larger Republican project to recast the riot.That panel, led by Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, has yet to hold a hearing. But Mr. Loudermilk has said one of its targets would be the once-stalled investigation into the planting of pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters in Washington the night before the attack.Earlier this month, officials arrested a Virginia man in connection with the pipe bombs, which had been at the center of right-wing conspiracies.According to court documents released on Sunday, the man, Brian J. Cole Jr., told federal agents that he felt the need to “speak up” after he began to believe that the 2020 election had been tampered with.Dec. 29, 2025, 5:23 p.m. ETThe head of Doug Varone and Dancers called the decision to cancel two performances at the Kennedy Center “financially devastating but morally exhilarating.”Credit...Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump.The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled.The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice.”But the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the center’s name change had “evidently” played a role. He acknowledged that the group was concerned about possible reprisals.Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, also said on Monday that it was canceling two performances in April that had been intended to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Mr. Varone, the head of the company, said it would lose $40,000 by pulling out.“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” he said in an email.The Kennedy Center did not respond to requests for comment on Monday about the newly canceled performances.It has responded aggressively to some previous cancellations. Richard Grenell, the center’s chairman, threatened a $1 million lawsuit against Mr. Redd after he canceled the Christmas Eve concert.In a letter, Mr. Grenell said, “Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance.”An earlier set of withdrawals and resignations, including the Pulitzer winner Rhiannon Giddens, the soprano Renée Fleming and the singer-songwriter Ben Folds, took place in February after the president pushed out members of the board of directors and replaced them with his supporters.The artists who have protested in recent weeks include Kristy Lee, a folk singer from Alabama, who announced she was pulling out from a free concert on Jan. 14. “I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts,” she said in a social media post. “This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.”In the statement posted by the Cookers on Monday, the band alluded to disagreements in Washington.“Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment,” the statement said. “To everyone who is disappointed or upset, we understand and share your sadness. We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”Doug Varone and Dancers were scheduled to appear at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on April 24 and April 25. Mr. Varone said the group had agreed to appear to honor two of the center’s top dance administrators — Jane Raleigh and Alicia Adams — both of whom have since departed.“We can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution,” he said.Kitty Bennett and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.Dec. 29, 2025, 4:42 p.m. ETPresident Trump may still be waiting for his Nobel Prize but if it’s any consolation, Israel is granting him its most prestigious award, the Israel Prize, for his “exceptional contribution to the Jewish people.” Israel’s education minister, Yoav Kisch, who administers the prize, said he informed President Trump of the honor in a phone call at the opening of his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu.The Israel Prize is traditionally awarded to Israeli citizens in various categories of the arts and sciences. Kisch underscored the rareness of the occasion, announcing excitedly on social media, “For the first time in the history of the State of Israel: The Israel Prize will be awarded to President Trump!”VideoCreditCredit...Associated PressDec. 29, 2025, 4:38 p.m. ETBy my count, in their appearances Monday, Trump has received an Israel Prize, the country’s highest cultural honor, and made vague threats against Hamas and Iran. Netanyahu has received a highlight reel’s worth of video clips in which Trump praised him as “strong” “smart” and a “hero.”Dec. 29, 2025, 4:19 p.m. ETPresident Trump says that there are countries — not Israel — that are willing to go in and “wipe out” Hamas if it doesn’t fulfill its agreement to disarm. He didn’t name any of them, and it would be news if he did. Our reporting has shown that the countries the U.S. wants to participate in an International Stabilization Force in Gaza have balked at the possibility that they could be called upon to forcibly disarm Hamas.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesDec. 29, 2025, 4:06 p.m. ETA long and, for Israelis, no doubt disconcerting riff from President Trump on the idea that, without Netanyahu and without Trump, they might not have a country any longer. That’s one of several lines from Trump that one could easily see appearing in Netanyahu campaign ads in 2026.Not a lot of news out of this meeting so far, for all the mutual admiration being expressed.VideoCreditCredit...Associated PressDec. 29, 2025, 3:53 p.m. ETAfter meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel about Gaza and other topics, President Trump said “there’s very little difference in what we’re looking at and where we want to be.” Netanyahu lavished praise on Trump, saying their partnership was “second to none.”Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesDec. 29, 2025, 3:47 p.m. ETPresident Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to speak shortly about their meeting at Mar-a-Lago.Dec. 29, 2025, 2:32 p.m. ETPresident Trump briefly left his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak with the media on the patio of his club. He pointed out the family of Ran Gvili, the last remaining Israeli hostage in Gaza. Gvili was an Israeli police officer who was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.“They’re waiting for their son to come home,” Trump said.Dec. 29, 2025, 2:29 p.m. ETPresident Trump declined to say how the attack in Venezuela, which he disclosed a few days ago during a radio interview, was carried out.“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he said. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”Dec. 29, 2025, 2:28 p.m. ETSecretary of State Marco Rubio met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Florida to “discuss regional security, economic cooperation, and the fight against antisemitism,” Tommy Pigott, the deputy State Department spokesman, said in a statement. He added that “both leaders emphasized the importance of continued cooperation to promote peace and stability in the Middle East, in line with the vision of President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan.”Dec. 29, 2025, 2:26 p.m. ETTrump said President Vladimir Putin of Russia told him during their call Monday morning of the alleged attack on his residence.“I don’t like it,” he said. “It’s not good.”When asked whether U.S. intelligence services verified it occurred, Trump said it was “possible” that the attack did not take place.Dec. 29, 2025, 2:03 p.m. ETOne last note on the Netanyahu-Trump side-by-side: That was at least the second time now that I’ve seen Trump call the Israeli leader “difficult” to his face. Hard to know if it’s just an expression of respect — he called him “strong” in the same breath — or also a bit of a warning as they head into private talks.Dec. 29, 2025, 1:55 p.m. ETAfter taking questions outside, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are now seated across from one another in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago. Trump is joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Susie Wiles, his chief of staff; Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Stephen Miller; Steve Witkoff; Jared Kushner; and Dan Scavino.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesDec. 29, 2025, 1:54 p.m. ETPresident Trump was asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid for a pardon in his long-running corruption trial back in Israel. Trump said he believed Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, would grant the pardon: “How do you not? He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon?” Trump added: “I spoke to the president and it’s — he tells me it’s on its way. You can’t do better than that, right?”Herzog’s office quickly denied that any decision had been made and said a decision was weeks away, at a minimum.VideoCreditCredit...Associated PressDec. 29, 2025, 1:37 p.m. ETPresident Trump just said that no hostages were released from Gaza during the Biden administration. That’s not true. In the 2023 cease-fire, 105 hostages were released, including 81 Israelis, 23 Thais and one Filipino.Dec. 29, 2025, 1:34 p.m. ETPresident Trump said he had five major subjects to discuss with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including Gaza. Trump added that he thought the reconstruction of Gaza would begin “soon.”VideoCreditCredit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesDec. 29, 2025, 1:30 p.m. ETPresident Trump said he had “a very good talk” with President Vladimir Putin of Russia earlier Monday. “We have a few very thorny issues,” Trump said.Dec. 29, 2025, 1:26 p.m. ETPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has arrived at Mar-a-Lago for his meeting with President Trump. “Does anyone recognize this man?” Trump joked as he shook hands with Netanyahu.VideoCreditCredit...Associated PressDec. 29, 2025, 1:22 p.m. ETAs Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel prepares to meet President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the pressure on him is mounting from every direction. A criminal trial on charges of bribery and fraud is inexorably advancing. Trump’s peace plan for Gaza is inching toward a difficult new phase, and tensions are building with the White House over Israel’s actions in Syria and Lebanon. On top of all that, polls indicate that Netanyahu is headed to defeat in next year’s elections.Dec. 29, 2025, 12:27 p.m. ETPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Florida, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Netanyahu is slated to meet with President Trump later Monday afternoon at Mar-a-Lago. He met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier Monday.Dec. 29, 2025, 5:50 a.m. ETNews AnalysisA Ukrainian soldier monitoring the sky for Russian drones in the Donetsk region this past week. Russia has stuck firmly to its view that Ukraine must relinquish the entire region.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesA new round of peace talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump on Sunday seems to have produced little beyond a promise to meet again next month and a reminder of how distant a peace deal remains.Yet for Mr. Zelensky, even a stalemate in the discussions counts as a measure of success.Following setbacks in U.S. support for Ukraine this year, one of Mr. Zelensky’s main priorities when meeting Mr. Trump has been to prevent talks from derailing. After the meeting, Mr. Trump signaled that he would remain engaged in the negotiations — a win for Ukraine given his repeated threats to walk away. Mr. Trump also backed away from setting another deadline to reach a peace deal, after having previously floated Thanksgiving and Christmas as target dates.“I don’t have deadlines,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he greeted Mr. Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago in Florida for the talks. “You know what my deadline is? Getting the war ended.”Most important for Ukraine, Mr. Trump did not echo Russia’s maximalist demands to stop the fighting, a departure from earlier in his term when he often appeared to side with the Kremlin. The change was also notable because Mr. Trump had spoken with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia just before meeting Mr. Zelensky, the type of last-minute Russian intervention that has derailed Ukrainian hopes before.Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump spoke again early Monday, when the Russian leader said that Ukraine had fired a barrage of drones at his country residence — a claim that Ukraine said was fabricated to undermine peace talks. Speaking to reporters later, Mr. Trump appeared to accept the allegation at face value and said he was angry about it, but conceded that he had seen no evidence to back it up, and that it was “possible, too, I guess,” that the claim was false.Mr. Zelensky’s meeting with Mr. Trump may give the Ukrainian leader hope that Kyiv and Washington have become more closely aligned in the peace negotiations. Several European leaders also joined the talks by phone, and Mr. Zelensky said that the United States might host a new round of negotiations next month that could include them.“The fact that they’re talking is a victory in and of itself,” Harry Nedelcu, a senior director at Rasmussen Global, a research organization, said of the American and Ukrainian presidents.Still, Mr. Zelensky acknowledged some division between them on Monday, noting that while Mr. Trump has agreed to help secure Ukraine, he offered such guarantees for only 15 years, short of the several decades that Mr. Zelensky and Ukrainians seek.“The challenge for Zelensky is to demonstrate to Trump that he’s doing his best to deal with Trump’s version of the peace plan while making it digestible for the Ukrainian society,” Mr. Nedelcu said.At the heart of that challenge are key sticking points, chiefly the fate of Ukrainian-held territory in the eastern Donetsk region. Russia wants Ukraine to cede the land, something Mr. Trump has encouraged Kyiv to do, but opinion polls show that a majority of Ukrainians oppose territorial concessions.President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Sunday. Mr. Zelensky acknowledged that several sticking points remained in a draft peace deal.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesAfter the meeting, Mr. Zelensky struck a hopeful tone. “We had a really great discussion on all the topics, and we appreciate the progress that was made by American and Ukrainian teams in recent weeks,” Mr. Zelensky said. Still, he acknowledged that several proposals remained unresolved in a draft peace deal, including Donetsk and control of a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.As Mr. Zelensky arrived in Florida, some Ukrainians were concerned that he might walk into another meeting where Mr. Trump would pressure him to strike a quick peace deal on Moscow’s terms. The concern grew when Mr. Trump unexpectedly announced that he had held a “good and very productive telephone call” with Mr. Putin.In October, Mr. Trump held a similar unannounced call with Mr. Putin shortly before meeting with Mr. Zelensky to discuss supplying Kyiv with powerful U.S. cruise missiles. In that call, Mr. Putin appeared to have steered Mr. Trump away from selling the missiles. Mr. Trump later told Mr. Zelensky that Ukraine would not get the weapons during a meeting described as tense by European officials.Sunday’s call did not appear to have the same influence on Mr. Trump. After meeting Mr. Zelensky, the American president refrained from echoing the Kremlin’s demands and did not publicly pressure Ukraine to cede land and strike a deal quickly. “This is not a one-day-process deal,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “This is very complicated stuff.”On Monday, the Kremlin said it would harden its stance on ending the war, in light of the alleged drone attack on one of Mr. Putin’s residences. The Russian leader also ordered his generals to continue advancing to capture the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, in an apparent effort to increase pressure on Mr. Zelensky. A regional capital of about 700,000 people, Zaporizhzhia has been relatively far from the scene of the most-active fighting in Ukraine’s east, but Russian troops have recently made gains toward it.Mr. Putin issued the order while meeting Monday with senior commanders who delivered reports on the situation at the front lines. This was the third time in two weeks that Mr. Putin publicly discussed the state of fighting in Ukraine with his top brass, highlighting the Kremlin effort to project strength and demonstrate to Washington that it had a battlefield advantage.After meeting with Mr. Trump, Mr. Zelensky said that the peace plan was “90 percent” complete, the same progress he reported before flying to Florida. He added that Ukraine and its American and European allies were very close to agreement on the security guarantees Kyiv is seeking to prevent further Russian aggression.The current draft peace plan says the United States, NATO and Europe will provide Ukraine with so-called Article 5-like guarantees — a reference to NATO’s mutual defense clause requiring members of the military alliance to come to one another’s aid in the event of an attack.Mr. Zelensky said Mr. Trump had agreed to provide Ukraine with guarantees only for 15 years. “We would very much like the guarantees to be longer,” he told reporters. “And I told him that we would really like to consider the possibility of 30, 40 or 50 years.”A damaged neighborhood in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in Ukraine on Christmas Eve.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesMr. Nedelcu, the analyst, was more cautious regarding progress on security guarantees. He said European allies had yet to agree on what they could realistically provide Ukraine to deter another Russian attack, with discussions continuing on whether to deploy European troops to Ukraine — a red line for Moscow in any negotiations. An Article 5-like commitment to defend Ukraine might also prove too vague to be an effective deterrent.On the territorial issue, Ukraine has offered as a compromise the creation of a demilitarized zone from which both Ukrainian and Russian troops would pull back. Mr. Zelensky said Ukrainians should vote on the proposal through a referendum held before a peace deal is finalized — a step that would first require a cease-fire.Russia has rejected the idea of a cease-fire, and has shown no indication that it is willing to accept anything short of Ukraine relinquishing the Donetsk region, including areas that Ukraine still controls.Asked about progress in resolving the territorial issue, Mr. Trump said: “I would not say ‘agreed,’ but we’re getting closer to an agreement on that.”Perhaps the most promising development for Ukraine was Mr. Trump’s apparent willingness to hold another round of talks next month in the United States, potentially with European leaders at the table.In past negotiations, European leaders were brought in to salvage talks after disagreements between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. Their presence as full participants rather than belated troubleshooters could help Ukraine strengthen its position.On Monday, Mr. Zelensky outlined “a course of action” to keep the talks on track and bolster that alignment. He said he hoped that American, European and Ukrainian advisers would meet in the coming days, followed by a meeting of European and Ukrainian leaders. Then, another round of talks would take place with the United States, this time including Europe.“And after that, if everything proceeds step by step, there will then be a meeting in one format or another with the Russians,” Mr. Zelensky said.Ségolène Le Stradic and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.Dec. 28, 2025, 10:36 p.m. ETTyler Pager and Julian E. BarnesThe reporters have been covering the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuela.Such an attack would be the first on land since President Trump began his military campaign against Venezuela.Credit...Eric Lee for The New York TimesPresident Trump said in a radio interview that the United States had knocked out “a big facility” last week as part of his administration’s campaign against Venezuela, an apparent reference to an American attack on a drug trafficking site.American officials said that Mr. Trump was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela and that it was eliminated, but provided no details. Military officials said they had no information to share, and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment. The White House declined to comment.Mr. Trump made his statement on Friday during an interview with John Catsimatidis, the Republican billionaire and supporter of the president who owns the WABC radio station in New York. The two men were discussing the U.S. military campaign to disrupt drug trafficking from Latin America by striking boats suspected of carrying narcotics.“They have a big plant or a big facility where the ships come from,” Mr. Trump said, without saying where it was or explicitly identifying Venezuela as the target. “Two nights ago we knocked that out.”Asked about the incident on Monday, Mr. Trump declined to say how the attack had been carried out or by whom but said it was along a shoreline.“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”The attack appears to be the first known to have been carried out on land since he began his military campaign against Venezuela. U.S. officials declined to specify anything about the site the president said was hit, where it was located, how the attack was carried out or what role the facility played in drug trafficking. There has been no public report of an attack from the Venezuelan government or any other authorities in the region.While some officials called the facility struck a drug production site, it is not clear what role in narcotics trafficking the facility would have played. Venezuela is well known for its role in trafficking drugs, especially cocaine produced in Colombia, but has not been a major producer of narcotics.Mr. Trump has been promising strikes on land in Venezuela for weeks, part of an intensifying pressure campaign on Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian leader of Venezuela, who is under indictment in the United States for his role in the drug trade.Mr. Trump authorized the C.I.A. to begin planning covert operations inside Venezuela months ago.The United States has been conducting military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September. The administration maintains that the vessels are transporting cocaine. The operations have killed at least 105 people so far, and have been called extrajudicial killings by critics who say the U.S. military has no legal basis for lethal strikes against civilians. The administration has defended the attacks by asserting that the United States is in a conflict with what it calls narco-terrorists who can only be stopped with military force.Those boat strikes were originally developed as part of a two-phase operation. The second phase, which has yet to be officially announced, was to include strikes on drug facilities in Venezuela, people familiar with the planning have said.Since beginning the strikes, Mr. Trump has announced what he has called a blockade of Venezuela as the United States has begun trying to intercept oil tankers, cutting off a vital source of income for the Maduro government.Mr. Trump has publicly acknowledged he has authorized the C.I.A. to plan for operations inside Venezuela.Exactly what operations Mr. Trump had in mind for the C.I.A. were not clear, but they could include both sabotage operations and psychological operations meant to prod Mr. Maduro into making some mistake.Eric Schmitt, Edward Wong and Maria Abi-Habib contributed reporting.