Dec. 27: Abraham Accords nations abstain as 21 Muslim-majority countries pan Somaliland recognition

21 mostly Muslim countries sign statement condemning Israel’s recognition of Somaliland; Abraham Accords nations abstain

A group of 21 mostly Muslim countries – including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran, as well as the Palestinian Authority – come together to reject in a joint statement Israel’s recognition of Somaliland on Friday.

Notably, the three countries that normalized ties with Israel in 2020 — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco — do not sign the statement, and neither do Lebanon and Syria.

The 21 countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation warn about “the serious repercussions of such unprecedented measure[s] on peace and security in the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea, and its serious effects on international peace and security as a whole, which also reflects Israel’s full and blatant disregard for international law.”

The statement also contends that “the recognition of parts of states constitutes a serious precedent and threatens international peace and security, and violates the cardinal principles of international law and the United Nations Charter.”

The countries also reject any attempts to expel Palestinians from Gaza.

Somaliland has been floated as a potential home for Gazans who emigrate from the war-torn Strip.

Man tries to storm stage at anti-government protest as speakers rail against Qatargate scandal

A man is pulled away by police officers during an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square after he tries twice to leap up onto the stage to disrupt the event.

He is pulled away by police, flailing and cursing, and is sat down at an adjacent bus stop.

A group of protesters follows after him, accusing the police of treating him too leniently.

“This is what it looks like when they try to silence us,” says the main stage speaker Merav Svirsky, whose parents Orit and Rafi were murdered in the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and whose brother Itay was killed in Hamas captivity.

The square is a sea of umbrellas as hundreds of people brave the rain to attend the weekly protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

The crowd blows whistles and horns as a short video about Netanyahu’s various alleged misdeeds plays on a large screen mounted on the stage. The featured issues include his refusal to establish a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 attack, and his aides’ alleged propagandizing for Hamas-backer Qatar during the war in Gaza, amid a recent series of damning reports about the so-called Qatargate scandal.

Svirsky accuses Netanyahu’s aides of treason.

“The price of the treason is that we have lost so much life,” she says, demanding that Netanyahu resign. “The money that flowed into his office was the same money that paid for the murder of my family.”

“The truth will not be silenced,” she says. “Maybe if we had kicked [the government] out on October 8, Itay would still be here. Maybe if we had kicked them out before that, my parents would still be here.”

Former police chief Roni Alsheich also speaks, alleging Netanyahu’s ties to Qatar go back to 2017, when, per Alsheich, the premier pulled the Gulf state out of diplomatic isolation and let it start sending millions of dollars in cash to Gaza on a monthly basis until the October 7 onslaught. Then, Alsheich alleges, Netanyahu made sure Qatar would become a mediator in the ensuing Gaza war.

“The government gave Qatar a short break to celebrate the massacre with Hamas, then tightened the embrace,” says Alsheich. “On the one hand, it promised to dismantle Hamas’s rule, and on the other hand, put its trust in the people who want Hamas to survive, and whose gambling chips were the tortured hostages.”

“Who made that decision?” Alsheich asks, giving as options the names of Netanyahu aides implicated in Qatargate, Eli Feldstein and Jonatan Urich. “No, my friends — it was the prime minister of Israel.”

UN Security Council members poised to blast Israeli recognition of Somaliland at emergency session

The UN Security Council will convene an emergency session to discuss Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, with members slated to lambast the move by Jerusalem.

Israel announced the move days before Somalia is slated to take over the presidency of the Security Council.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon says in a statement, “Israel will act responsibly and we will continue to cooperate with partners who contribute to regional stability.”

EU urges respect for Somalia’s sovereignty after Israel recognizes Somaliland

The European Union insists Somalia’s sovereignty should be respected after Israel formally recognized the breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent state.

EU foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni says in a statement the bloc “reaffirms the importance of respecting the unity, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia pursuant of its constitution, the Charters of the African Union and the United Nations.”

“This is key for the peace and stability of the entire Horn of Africa region,” the spokesman says in a statement.

“The EU encourages meaningful dialogue between Somaliland and the Federal Government of Somalia to resolve long-standing differences,” he adds.

Hadar Goldin’s father fears final slain hostage Ran Gvili will share the same fate as his son

Simcha Goldin says he fears that Ran Gvili, the last hostage whose remains are still in Gaza, will face the same fate as his son Hadar, a slain soldier whose remains were returned by Hamas last month, 11 years after he was killed fighting in the enclave.

“I don’t want Ran Gvili to be the next Hadar Goldin, that’s what’s important,” the bereaved father says in an interview with Channel 12 news.

He tells interviewers that he spoke to Gvili’s parents two weeks ago and advised them to ensure that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not travel to Washington to discuss the continuation of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan until the slain police officer’s body is returned to Israel.

“In the deal that was signed with Hamas, it was clear that they [the living and dead hostages] must all be here. Trump knows this, his associates know this and the mediators also know this. In my view, there is not enough pressure on the mediators to bring back Ran Gvili,” he says, referring to the Arab countries that mediated between Hamas and Israeli negotiators during ceasefire talks.

He says that before October 7, there “was no will” to bring back his son’s body for burial. He blames the Israeli public for not exerting enough pressure on the government, saying that they “decided knowingly to erase them, to make them disappear.”

“We went into this struggle with the clear understanding that we need to bring Hadar back, because he is a warrior who fought,” he says, adding that the government’s failure to secure his son’s return led to intrinsic decay in Israeli society that he was sure “would lead to a catastrophe.”

“From the moment the war started, [Israel] wised up,” Goldin says, saying that his family regained hope to bury Hadar during that period, because people began to “see and understand” what happened to their son. “We were sure that if there was a war, they would bring Hadar back — and that’s what happened,” he says.

Top police legal adviser to retire from the force in February after 30 years

Assistant Commissioner Elazar Kahana, the top legal adviser to the Israel Police, will retire from the force in February, police announce. He had served in the position for the past four and a half years.

A year ago, police chief Danny Levy sought to dismiss Kahana as legal adviser and put him in charge of the police’s prosecution division. He stopped short after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara wrote him a letter opposing the move, which she claimed was illegal.

Levy has accepted Kahana’s request to retire. The top officer “thanked him for 30 years of intensive and professional service and wished him success in the future,” police say in a statement.

Haredi MK says Likud showed ‘contempt’ for religious people by issuing official statement on Shabbat

United Torah Judaism chair MK Yitzhak Goldknopf accuses Likud of “crossing a red line” after it published a rare statement on Shabbat eve, in violation of traditional Jewish religious law.

“Publishing an official political statement in the middle of Shabbat constitutes crossing a red line and a serious violation of the sanctity of Shabbat and the status quo, which are fundamental values of the State of Israel as a Jewish state,” says the ultra-Orthodox lawmaker.

The decision to publish the statement, he fumes, is a sign of “contempt for the Shabbat-observing public.”

The statement published by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party had sought to downplay the premier’s ties to Eli Feldstein, after the ex-aide claimed that the premier was behind the leak of a stolen document containing classified intelligence.

Addressing the content of the statement, Goldknopf says that there is “no justification, neither political nor media-based, for violating Shabbat for the purpose of putting out denials and spin.”

IDF chief holds situational assessment after Friday’s deadly terror attack

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir is holding a situational assessment at the Menashe Regional Brigade headquarters in the northern West Bank following yesterday’s deadly terror attack, the military says.

According to the IDF, the assessment is being conducted with the head of Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division Brig. Gen. Kobi Heller, the brigade commander, and other security officials.

The discussion is focused on ongoing IDF operations in Qabatiya and the continuation of counterterrorism activity across the northern Samaria region.

Man shot, critically wounded, in central Arab city; police searching for suspects

A 53-year-old man has been shot and critically injured while driving in Qalansawe, an Arab city in central Israel.

In a photo taken immediately after the shooting, passersby are seen tending to the injured victim as he lays on the pavement, with a bullet wound in the side of his torso.

Magen David Adom paramedics perform CPR on him in an attempt to save his life while shuttling him to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.

Officers from the Taybeh police station are dispatched to the scene and are searching for suspects in the area.

Three Negev Bedouins arrested in connection with overnight arson in nearby Jewish town, police say

Police announce they have arrested three Bedouin citizens from the Negev village of Tarabin al-Sana on suspicion of setting fire to cars in a neighboring Jewish locale.

Last night, a pair of masked assailants was caught on security camera footage setting several cars alight in Giv’ot Bar, just north of Tarabin al-Sana. Residents in Mishmar Hanegev, another Jewish town in the region, reported having their car windows smashed overnight.

Law enforcement says the vandalism was “revenge” for a police raid on the Bedouin town that same night. Two others are suspected of partaking in the vandalism, police say, meaning they are still searching for the fourth suspect.

In the incident’s wake, police launched a large-scale operation in Tarabin al-Sana. They have arrested a total of six people as of Saturday evening.

The other three detainees were nabbed on suspicion of disturbing public order, involvement in violent activities, and using stolen army weapons, police say. Large forces are continuing to encircle the locale and raid criminal targets in the area.

Iran in midst of ‘total war’ with US, Israel and Europe, Pezeshkian says

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says that his country is in the midst of a “total war” against the United States, Israel and Europe.

“In my opinion, we are at total war with the United States, Israel and Europe. They want to bring our country to its knees,” Pezeshkian says in an interview published today in Iranian state media.

Security forces arrest 2 brothers of Beit She’an terrorist inside Israel, police say

Police announce that security forces have arrested the two brothers of the culprit in yesterday’s deadly terror attack, which left two dead in northern Israel.

The suspected assailant, Ahmad Abu al-Rub, was shot and injured by a passerby yesterday after ramming several people with his employer’s car, killing an elderly man, and fatally stabbing a young woman at a bus stop near the northern city of Beit She’an.

Rub hails from the northern West Bank city of Qabatiya, near Jenin, and lived and worked illegally in Israel for some time. Police now divulge that the apprehended terrorist had been living with his two younger brothers, aged 30 and 33, within the Green Line.

The pair was nabbed in a hiding place on agricultural lands near Arraba, an Arab town in the Galilee, by fighters in the police’s Yamam counter-terrorism unit and Shin Bet forces. They will be brought to the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court for a remand hearing later tonight.

Police add that in the hours following the attack, officers arrested Rub’s Israeli employer, whose pickup truck he used during the rampage.

The Nazareth Magistrate’s Court has issued a gag order barring the publication of details of the investigation. It is set to last until January 26, 2026.

IDF says gunfire reported by UNIFIL yesterday was routine activity, not directed at UN troops

The IDF says gunfire incidents reported yesterday by UNIFIL in southern Lebanon occurred during routine operational activity and were not directed at UN personnel.

The military says that IDF forces were carrying out standard operational activity in southern Lebanon, during which “standard gunfire” was conducted. According to the IDF, troops identified several UNIFIL soldiers patrolling in the area prior to the gunfire and did not fire toward them.

The military stresses that it does not operate against UN forces and says it continues to act in full and ongoing coordination with UN representatives.

The incident, it adds, is under review.

The response follows UNIFIL’s statement yesterday that Israeli machine gun fire was heard in two separate incidents near the Blue Line, injuring one peacekeeper’s hearing, which prompted the force to accuse Israel of violating UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

Terrorist who killed 2 Israelis yesterday released from hospital, taken for Shin Bet interrogation

The terrorist who killed two Israelis during a car-ramming and stabbing rampage in northern Israel yesterday has been released from the hospital and transferred to a security facility for interrogation by the Shin Bet, Hebrew media reports.

Ahmed al-Rub, 37, of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, was hospitalized with moderate injuries after he killed 68-year-old Shimshon Mordechai and 19-year-old Aviv Maor during a minutes-long terror attack on a highway near Beit Shean.

According to reports, Rub was treated for his wounds at HaEmek Medical Center in Afula and is now in Shin Bet custody for questioning.

A 16-year-old boy who was moderately wounded during the attack remains hospitalized, the Maariv daily reports.

Report: Hamas set to elect a new leader soon, with pro-Iranian candidate Hayya likely to win

Hamas is expected to elect a new leader within days or a few weeks, Saudi outlet Asharq reports, citing sources close to the group’s leadership.

However, the same sources also reportedly “ruled out holding general elections before the war comes to a complete end.”

The two main candidates are reportedly former Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal and current Gaza politburo chief Khalil al-Hayya.

Their main immediate policy difference relates to the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to the sources. Hayya, who is seen as close to Iran, is said to support the continuation of “armed conflict with Israel in the Gaza Strip until the war ends and the Israeli army withdraws from the Strip entirely,” while Mashaal, who is seen as closer to Qatar, is said to seek “negotiated compromises to end the occupation of Gaza.”

Mashaal also reportedly supports “trying to move Hamas away from Iran” and “closer to the moderate Arab states,” the sources tell Asharq.

The sources cited by Asharq say Hayya will likely win, as he enjoys the support of Hamas leaders in both Gaza and the West Bank, including West Bank politburo chief Zaher Jabarin.

According to Asharq, the electing body is Hamas’s general Shura council, which comprises some 50 members representing Hamas’s three regional politburos — Gaza, the West Bank and the Palestinian diaspora.

Hamas elects a new leader every four years, according to Asharq. The last elections took place in March 2021, and the current ones were scheduled to take place in early 2025, but were pushed off due to the war in Gaza.

The leader elected in 2021, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated by Israel in Tehran in July 2024. His successor, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli troops in Rafah in October that year.

Since then, according to Asharq, Hamas has been led by a provisional leadership council that is headed by the general Shura council chief Muhammad Ismail Darwish and also includes Hayya, Mashaal, Jabarin and Gaza politburo member Nizar Awadallah.

Asharq cites observers close to Hamas as saying its resolve to hold elections now is a result of both the ceasefire with Israel and disagreement within the provisional leadership council about issues including “the fate of the movement’s rule in Gaza and regional alliances.”

Under US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, Hamas is required to cede control of Gaza to international forces. However, Hamas leaders, including Hayya and Mashaal, have called for the international forces to serve only as a buffer between Israel and Gaza.

Somalia’s Al-Shabaab vows to fight any Israeli use of Somaliland after recognition

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked terror group Al-Shabaab vowed Saturday to fight any attempt by Israel “to claim or use parts of Somaliland” following its recognition of the breakaway territory.

“We will not accept it, and we will fight against it,” Al-Shabaab said in a statement.

It said Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state showed it “has decided to expand into parts of the Somali territories” to support “the apostate administration in the northwest regions.”

Ukraine anti-corruption agency says it tried to raid parliament, stopped by guards

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency says security services are preventing its officers from raiding the parliament, as the investigators say some MPs were implicated in a new organized crime probe.

“NABU and SAPO, following an undercover operation, exposed an organized criminal group that included current members of parliament,” the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) says.

“Employees of the State Security Department are resisting NABU officers during investigative actions in committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” it adds, referring to Ukraine’s parliament.

BREAKING: Anti-corruption agencies are currently conducting searches and arrests in Kyiv's government quarter!!!

An investigation into corruption within President Zelenskyy's inner circle is ongoing, targeting MPs from his party. pic.twitter.com/fRuETdhseV

— 🦋 Sweta🦋 (@Sweta10t) December 27, 2025

According to local reports, NABU officers are currently carrying out arrests inside Kyiv’s government district, though they have not yet gained access to the parliament building itself.

The attempted raid comes amid an ongoing corruption scandal at the heart of Ukraine’s government, which has forced the resignation of several top officials in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle, including his longtime chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who stepped down last month after being implicated in the ongoing investigation.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

IDF says forces continuing large-scale op in West Bank town after yesterday’s terror attack

Israeli security forces are continuing a large-scale counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya following a deadly ramming-stabbing attack in northern Israel yesterday, the military says.

According to the IDF, forces from the Duvdevan commando unit, the Paratroopers reconnaissance unit, the Border Police, and the Israel Prison Service’s Metzada unit are operating in the area. During the operation, troops arrested five terror suspects and questioned dozens of additional individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity.

The military says Paratroopers reconnaissance forces carried out mortar fire in the Qabatiya area overnight. Troops also raided and mapped the home of the assailant and cordoned off the immediate area.

A full curfew has been imposed on Qabatiya, with engineering forces carrying out blockades across the town. The IDF adds that aerial forces are providing fire support and reconnaissance over Qabatiya and the nearby Jenin area, while additional forces continue to reinforce the seam line, a swath of West Bank land on the Israeli side of the security barrier.

Police arrest 5 during raid in Negev Bedouin town after arson attack in nearby Jewish town

Police have arrested five people during a large-scale raid today on Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin town in the Negev, after two masked individuals set fire to cars in a neighboring Jewish town overnight.

Police claim the incident — in which the two suspects damaged dozens of vehicles — was a “revenge operation” for another police raid on the Bedouin village last night.

In security camera footage from the incident, the men are seen attempting to set fire to two cars parked on the street in Giv’ot Bar, just north of Tarabin al-Sana.

According to local outlets, the suspected attackers used a wire cutter to break through the town’s fence and then set cars on fire. Residents reportedly woke up to the sound of explosions.

Officers and Border Police are continuing to operate in Tarabin al-Sana. Of the five arrested today, several are suspected in last night’s arson, a police spokesman tells The Times of Israel.

Italy arrests seven for diverting $8 million in donations for Palestinians to fund Hamas

Italian police say that they have arrested seven people suspected of raising millions of euros for Hamas under the guise of fundraising for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Police also issue international arrests for two others outside the country.

Three associations, officially supporting Palestinian civilians but allegedly serving as a front for funding Hamas, are implicated in the investigation, a police statement says.

The nine individuals are accused of having financed approximately seven million euros ($8 million) to “associations based in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, or Israel, owned, controlled, or linked to Hamas.”

While the official objective of the three associations was to collect donations “for humanitarian purposes for the Palestinian people,” more than 71 percent was earmarked for the direct financing of Hamas” or entities affiliated with the Islamist terror group, according to police.

Some of the money went to “family members implicated in terrorist attacks,” the statement says.

Among those arrested was Mohammad Hannoun, president of the Palestinian Association in Italy, according to media reports.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi posts on X that the operation “lifted the veil on behavior and activities which, pretending to be initiatives in favor of the Palestinian population, concealed support for and participation in terrorist organizations.”

Ukraine: 1/3 of Kyiv without heat after attack; Zelensky: shows Russia doesn’t want to end war

A third of Kyiv has been left without heating after a vast overnight Russian attack, according to Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky says the major bombardment shows Moscow does “not want to end the war.”

“Russia’s only response to peace efforts is brutal attacks using hundreds of drones and missiles against Kyiv and other cities and regions,” foreign minister Andrii Sybiha writes on X, saying the attack left much of the capital city without power and heat. The temperature in Kyiv is around zero degrees Celsius (32°F) today.

The Russians “do not want to end the war and seek to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering and increase their pressure on others around the world,” Zelensky says after the Russian barrage pummeled the capital killing at least one person and injuring at least 11.

Zelensky issues the comments ahead of his departure for talks in the United States with President Donald Trump on a plan to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine.

IDF says shots fired near West Bank checkpoint came from hunters, not terror attack

The IDF says a shooting incident near the Hashmonaim checkpoint in the West Bank was carried out by hunters and was not an attempted terror attack.

There were no injuries in the incident, but the IDF deployed a large force to look for the shooter.

The IDF says searches will continue for the hunters in order to confiscate their weapons.

Trump urges release of any Epstein files naming Democrats

US President Donald Trump urges the Justice Department (DOJ) to “embarrass” any Democrats who worked with Jeffrey Epstein as its staff begins poring over millions of documents linked to the late sex offender.

The DOJ started releasing records last week from the investigation into Epstein, a wealthy financier who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls for sex.

The latest disclosures on Tuesday contain numerous references to Trump, including documents detailing flights he took on Epstein’s private jet.

Trump was once a friend of Epstein but distanced himself after his crimes came to light and has appeared reluctant to discuss the case despite strong support in the Republican party for fuller transparency about the deceased man’s associates.

“Now 1,000,000 more pages on Epstein are found. DOJ is being forced to spend all of its time on this Democrat inspired Hoax,” Trump says on his Truth Social platform.

“The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans. Release all of their names, embarrass them, and get back to helping our Country!” Trump says.

“The Radical Left doesn’t want people talking about TRUMP & REPUBLICAN SUCCESS, only a long ago dead Jeffrey Epstein – Just another Witch Hunt!!!”

Trump does not say which Democrats may be named in the files.

Russia attacks Kyiv with missiles and drones, wounding 11 ahead of Ukraine-US meeting

Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones early this morning, wounding at least 11 people a day before talks between Ukraine and the US are scheduled to begin, local authorities said.

Explosions boomed across the capital for hours as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city. The attack began in the early morning hours and was continuing as day broke.

The attack came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to meet with US President Donald Trump on Sunday for further talks in an effort to end the nearly four-year-old war. Zelenskyy said they plan to discuss issues including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Two children were among those injured in the attack, which affected seven locations across the city of Kyiv, says the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko in a statement on Telegram.

A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency crews rushed to the scene to contain the flames.

A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko says, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.

In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.

IDF says shots fired at West Bank checkpoint, no injuries

The Israel Defense Forces say that a gunman opened fire near the Hashmonaim checkpoint near the West Bank city of Modiin Ilit, without causing injury.

The IDF says the attacker fled and a large force is carrying out searches in the area.

The troops are cordoning off several villages in the area, the military says.

Thailand and Cambodia reach ‘immediate’ ceasefire deal to end clashes

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Thailand and Cambodia agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire on Saturday, the two countries say in a joint statement pledging to end weeks of deadly border clashes.

“Both sides agree to an immediate ceasefire after the time of signature of this Joint Statement with effect from 12:00 hours noon (local time) on 27 December 2025, involving all types of weapons, including attacks on civilians, civilian objects and infrastructures, and military objectives of either side, in all cases and all areas,” says the statement from the countries’ Special General Border Committee, issued by the Cambodian side.

Trump says he won’t join Israel’s recognition: ‘Does anyone know what Somaliland is?’

US President Donald Trump says he will not follow Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland, but will “study” the matter.

Asked by the New York Post if he would recognize Somaliland, Trump initially says, “No, comma, not at this…” before changing his answer to: “Just say, ‘No.'”

Trump asks: “Does anyone know what Somaliland is, really?”

Trump replies, “big deal,” when asked about the African breakaway country’s offer to host a US military port.

“Everything is under study,” he says. “We’ll study it. I study a lot of things and always make great decisions and they turn out to be correct.”

Zelensky seeks discussion on territorial issues with Trump during meeting on Sunday

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wants to discuss territorial issues, the main stumbling block in talks to end the war, with US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, as a 20-point peace framework and a security guarantee deal near completion.

Announcing the meeting, Zelenskiy says “a lot can be decided before the New Year,” as Washington drives efforts to end Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

A security guarantee agreement between Ukraine and the US is “almost read,y” and the 20-point plan draft was 90% complete, Zelensky tells reporters in a WhatsApp chat.

“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump told Politico in an interview published yesterday. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”

Zelenskiy told Axios that the US offered a 15-year deal on security guarantees that could be renewed, and Kyiv wanted a longer term.

Wary of failed guarantees from allies in the past, Ukraine is seeking robust and legally binding deals to prevent further Russian aggression.

Zelensky said his meeting with Trump aimed to “refine things” in the drafts and to discuss potential deals on Ukraine’s economy.

He added that he was not ready to say if any deal would be signed during his visit, but Ukraine was open to it.

Trump said he believed the meeting was going to go well, while he expected to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon, as much as I want.”

Rubio calls for ‘restraint’ amid escalating violence in Yemen

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges “restraint” as violence escalates in Yemen, while he avoided taking sides between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“We urge restraint and continued diplomacy, with a view to reaching a lasting solution,” Rubio says in a statement, adding Washington was “grateful for the diplomatic leadership” of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which support rival groups within Yemen’s internationally recognized government.