INTERNACIONAL
Trump meets with Zelenskyy; talks could unlock first Zelenskyy-Putin call in five years: source
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Sunday’s talks between President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could pave the way for the first call between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in more than five years, a source familiar with the discussions said.
And while the Mar-a-Lago meeting was framed as a step forward in the peace effort with Trump at the helm, the source also described how securing a direct Zelenskyy-Putin phone call would be a «diplomatic victory» for the president.
«If Putin had joined in a call Sunday, this would have been the greatest achievement in the preparation of the peace talks and the first real step in the peace process,» the source told Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity.
«This would be [a] diplomatic victory for President Trump.»
FINNISH PRESIDENT SAYS RUSSIA-UKRAINE PEACE DEAL CLOSER THAN ANY POINT DURING THE WAR
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a proclamation in the Oval Office at the White House on April 17, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
«Trump seems to be the most successful mediator because the two of them, Putin and Zelenskyy, perceive each other emotionally, and it is a challenge.»
Trump confirmed Sunday that he had spoken with Putin ahead of the Zelenskyy meeting, calling the conversation «good and very productive» in a Truth Social post.
«I do believe that we have the makings of a deal,» Trump also told reporters as he stood next to Zelenskyy after he arrived in Florida on Sunday, adding he believes the process can «move very rapidly.»
«I think we’re in the final stages of talking, and we’re going to see,» Trump said.
«Otherwise, it’s going to go on for a long time. It’ll either end, or it’s going to go on for a long time, and millions of additional people are going to be killed,» the president added.
The Florida meeting came days after Zelenskyy also said he had had a «good conversation» with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, both of whom were also present Sunday.
ZELENSKYY SAYS HE WILL MEET WITH TRUMP ‘BEFORE THE NEW YEAR’
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and European leaders pose for a photo during talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lisi Niesner/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
As Zelenskyy approached Sunday’s meeting, the source said the Ukrainian leader was likely feeling anxious.
«Zelenskyy is usually very nervous before such conversations with President Trump,» the source said. «He concentrates for a long time and studies the notes that the International Policy Department and the Foreign Ministry prepare for him.»
Sunday also marked the third in-person meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy since Trump returned to office.
At the center of discussions was a U.S.-backed, 20-point peace plan emerging from weeks of negotiations that would need compromise from Kyiv and Moscow to engage and perhaps speak directly with Zelenskyy, the source said.
TRUMP SUGGESTS HE’LL CALL FINAL SHOTS ON PEACE DEAL AHEAD OF ZELENSKYY MEETING: ‘WE’LL SEE WHAT HE’S GOT’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 19, 2025. ( Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
«The one difficulty they have is that Putin has refused to talk to Zelenskyy since July 2020, when they spoke over the Wagner scandal and the failed operation to detain Russian Wagner militants.»
«After that, Zelenskyy repeatedly tried to talk to Putin, but he refused.»
«There were windows of opportunity for a conversation in August and September 2024, but they disappeared again when Ukraine invaded the Kursk region,» the source said.
The last direct contact between the two leaders followed a botched Ukrainian operation targeting Russian Wagner mercenaries.
Ukrainian intelligence lured the mercenaries to Belarus and planned to intercept them on their way from Minsk to Istanbul, before the men were arrested, per The Kyiv Independent.
ZELENSKYY READY TO PRESENT NEW PEACE PROPOSALS TO US AND RUSSIA AFTER WORKING WITH EUROPEAN TALKS
Putin is testing the boundaries of NATO with aircraft incursions, allied states say. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool/Reuters )
«That last call between Zelenskyy and Putin came as Ukraine was trying to capture a group of Russian Wagner fighters,» the source said. «The operation failed.»
Even before communications broke down entirely, relations between the two leaders were strained, the source said.
«Before that point in 2020, calls between Zelenskyy and Putin were never friendly, and there was always tension between them. During talks, Putin was always taciturn, and Zelenskyy tried to establish a rapport.»
«Zelenskyy always acted subservient toward Putin and pretended to be in a good mood, almost as if he was playing a role on stage,» the source explained.
«He talked a lot and read from his notes, afraid of forgetting something. Sometimes he would stumble over his words or lose track of punctuation.»
PUTIN CALLS TRUMP’S PEACE PLAN A ‘STARTING POINT’ AS HE WARNS UKRAINE TO PULL BACK OR FACE ‘FORCE’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the 20-point plan, which U.S. officials say is about 90% complete, could include limited Ukrainian troop withdrawals from parts of eastern Ukraine. (Putin photo: Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via Reuters; Zelenskyy photo: Brian Snyder/Reuters)
«When Putin stayed silent, Zelenskyy would always ask politely, ‘What do you think, Vladimir Vladimirovich?’»
«Putin was just never talkative,» the source said.
The Florida talks came as Kyiv signaled a potential shift in its negotiating posture. Zelenskyy has said the 20-point plan, which U.S. officials say is about 90% complete, could include limited Ukrainian troop withdrawals from parts of eastern Ukraine without formally recognizing Russian control, along with the creation of demilitarized zones.
He also floated submitting the plan to a national referendum if Moscow agrees to a 60-day ceasefire.
Zelenskyy has drawn a firm line on security guarantees, insisting Ukraine needs legally binding assurances from the U.S. to deter future Russian aggression.
TRUMP TOUTS ‘PROGRESS’ ON UKRAINE-RUSSIA DEAL, ADMITS IT’S ‘ONE OF THE MORE DIFFICULT’ CONFLICTS TO SOLVE
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
«For us, it is very important that there is a signal that we want legally binding security guarantees,» Zelenskyy told Ukrainian journalists Saturday. «This primarily depends on President Trump,» he added.
«Ukraine is willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war,» Zelenskyy also wrote on X this weekend.
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«For us, priority number one — or the only priority — is ending the war. For us, the priority is peace. We need to be strong at the negotiating table. To be strong, we need the support of the world: Europe and the United States.»
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Kremlin and President Zelenskyy’s office for comment.
volodymyr zelenskyy,vladimir putin,ukraine,donald trump
INTERNACIONAL
Sanders-endorsed Senate candidate knocked for alleged flip-flop to ‘have it both ways’ on key issue
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A Democratic Senate candidate endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is being slammed for allegedly flip-flopping on one of his primary campaign issues.
Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate who previously ran an unsuccessful bid for Michigan governor, has made Medicare for All a hallmark of his Senate campaign.
However, as the Michigan Senate primary race heats up, El-Sayed’s Democratic opponent, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, is accusing him of backing down from a full Medicare for all stance and of «rewriting definitions to have it both ways.»
MEET THE NEW ‘SQUAD’: THE NEXT GENERATION OF TRUMP-ERA PROGRESSIVE CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
Left: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Right: Michigan Democratic candidate and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow. (Photos by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images; MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Roxie Richner, an El-Sayed campaign spokesperson, responded by telling Fox News Digital that «Dr. El-Sayed is and has always been for Medicare for All—guaranteed public health insurance for every American. Cradle to grave. No premiums, deductibles, or co-pays.»
«Dr. El-Sayed would be the first Democratic doctor elected to the U.S. Senate since 1969, and he looks forward to passing Medicare for All into law,» added Richner.
El-Sayed’s campaign website page on «A Healthier America» cites a book he co-authored in 2021 in which he wrote that limiting private alternatives to Medicare for All would be important to ensuring providers accepted the insurance. The book advocates for Medicare for All as a type of «monopsony» in healthcare, in which there is only a single buyer of medical services, the government.
«By insuring all Americans, M4A becomes a monopsony in healthcare. This is different from a monopoly, where there’s only one seller of a good; in a monopsony there’s only one buyer of a good. That gives the single buyer considerable negotiating leverage, which Medicare could use to rein in the cost of drugs, hospital stays, and physician services,» the book reads.
In a November post on X, El-Sayed explained that this monopsony «would instantaneously create a disciplining feature against rising prices,» because it «takes out the profit motive on the payer end of the transaction.»
The book further states that «because alternatives to M4A [Medicare for All] would be limited, participation of providers would be virtually guaranteed.»
«Instead of spending time and money dealing with the arcane requirements of hundreds of different health plans […] providers could use one streamlined system that would free up resources to focus on clinical care,» the books reads.
The latest version of the federal Medicare for All Act, introduced in the Senate by Sanders, includes language that would effectively ban most comprehensive private insurance plans and relegate private insurers to providing limited supplemental care.
The legislation would make it unlawful for «a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act; or (2) an employer to provide benefits for an employee, former employee, or the dependents of an employee or former employee that duplicate the benefits provided under this Act.»
MICHIGAN FAMILY SAYS COUNTY SEIZED HOME OVER TAX BILL THEY DIDN’T OWE — CASE NOW HEADS TO THE SUPREME COURT
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a coronavirus public health roundtable with Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (Erin Kirkland/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
El-Sayed testified before the Senate in support of the Medicare for All Act in 2022, calling it «the clearest pathway to universal, durable health care insurance, bar none» and saying that «cradle to grave coverage would do away with the premiums, co pays, deductibles that leave even privately insured Americans rationing their health care today.»
The year before, in an interview with NerdWallet, El-Sayed said that under a Medicare for All plan, the government would be «buying you out» of your private insurance plan but that «a few insurance companies that offered a sort of concierge-level service for folks who wanted to pay for that.»
In a 2024 episode of the «America Dissected» podcast, El-Sayed emphasized that «we don’t really need private health insurance in this country.»
He said that «private health insurance is a system by which you have a middleman in our healthcare system making a tremendous amount of money that is leading to a number of the biggest problems in American healthcare whether that’s the fact that our costs continue to spiral upward, whether that’s the fact that nearly ten million people in our country don’t get health insurance at all, or it’s the fact that we are consistently in this country, unable to guarantee, even people who are insurance access to the health care they need.»
In October, El-Sayed knocked McMorrow for advocating for allowing a public option under universal healthcare, writing on X, «a public option can’t deliver healthcare to every Michigander. Medicare for All can.» Politico, in December, reported El-Sayed slamming McMorrow’s call for universal health care with a public option as «incoherent.»
«Now a public option is exactly that; it’s just an option. There is no reason why it would actually address any of the foundational problems in our system. It wouldn’t bring down the rising costs. It wouldn’t guarantee people health care, and we don’t really know how much it would cost,» he said.
Yet, while speaking on the Brian Tyler Cohen Podcast in January, El-Sayed suggested that under Medicare for All, «if you like your insurance from your employer or from your union, that can still be there for you.»
PROGRESSIVES NOTCH ANOTHER WIN OVER DEMOCRATIC MODERATES AS SANDERS-AOC ALLY NEARS CONGRESS
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced the Medicare for All Act. (Getty Images)
Days later, speaking on radio channel WDET, he again said, «Medicare for All is government health insurance guaranteed for everyone, regardless of what circumstances you’re in. If you like your insurance through your employer or through your union, I hope that’ll be there for you. But if you lose your job, if your factory shuts down, you shouldn’t be destitute without the health care that you need and deserve.» He also said, «If you have a public option, what happens is, the private health insurance system will try to dump all of the most expensive patients onto that public option, vastly increasing the cost of that public option and making it unsustainable.»
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El-Sayed’s campaign website states that he «believes in expanding Medicare to cover every single American from cradle to grave while sustaining the option for workers to keep supplemental private insurance their unions or employers may provide.» Amid criticism from McMorrow, El-Sayed doubled down on his Medicare for All messaging in a January fundraising message, in which he wrote that «private insurance could supplement or duplicate Medicare.»
Meanwhile, McMorrow has accused him of not being honest on Medicare for All.
«On an issue as important as healthcare, you have to be honest about what you’re fighting for,» McMorrow wrote in a public reply to El-Sayed, adding, «The Medicare for All legislation that you’ve championed completely eliminates private health insurance as it exists today.»
Sanders’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
midterm elections,senate elections,democratic party,michigan
INTERNACIONAL
Peligro en Los Alpes italianos: dos muertos y múltiples avalanchas en menos de una semana
Una serie de avalanchas sacudió el norte de Italia este fin de semana, con un saldo de dos esquiadores muertos y al menos dos heridos en incidentes separados que se produjeron en condiciones de nieve excepcionalmente inestables a lo largo del arco alpino.
El episodio más grave ocurrió el domingo en el Couloir Vesses, una conocida ruta de esquí fuera de pista en la parte alta del Val Veny, en Courmayeur, localidad ubicada en el lado italiano del Mont Blanc, cerca de la frontera entre Francia y Suiza. La avalancha sepultó a varios integrantes de un grupo de esquiadores. Los rescatistas localizaron en un primer momento el cuerpo de una víctima y trasladaron de urgencia a dos heridos en estado crítico. Uno de ellos falleció poco después de llegar al hospital, mientras que el único superviviente fue derivado en condiciones muy graves al hospital Molinette de Turín.
Las labores de búsqueda y rescate, concluidas el mismo domingo, movilizaron a 15 rescatistas, tres unidades caninas, dos médicos, dos helicópteros y dos ambulancias. Medios locales estiman que el grupo original estaba integrado por entre tres y seis personas de nacionalidad francesa, aunque las autoridades no precisaron el número total de afectados.
El mismo domingo, en Trentino, también en el norte del país, una persona quedó parcialmente sepultada por otra avalancha en la zona de Tesino, pero fue rescatada por sus propios compañeros sin necesidad de asistencia médica.
Dos días después, el martes 17 de febrero, un testigo filmó en la misma zona de Val Veny, cerca del telesilla Zerotta en Courmayeur, cómo una enorme nube de nieve generada por una avalancha se extendió sobre una fila de esquiadores y snowboarders que esperaban para subir al remonte. Las imágenes muestran cómo la nube cubrió completamente el área, redujo la visibilidad a cero e impactó a quienes aguardaban en la fila. En ese caso no se registraron heridos.
Los expertos advierten que incluso las nubes de polvo generadas por avalanchas pueden derribar personas, crear condiciones de respiración peligrosas y causar pánico, aun cuando no arrastren escombros de nieve. En el momento del incidente del martes, el nivel de peligro de avalanchas en la zona estaba calificado en 4 sobre 5, considerado “alto” por los servicios de alerta alpinos.
Los fallecidos del domingo en Courmayeur se suman a un contexto de peligro extendido en toda la región. Según informó el Servicio de Rescate Alpino de Italia, un récord de 13 esquiadores de fondo, alpinistas y excursionistas murieron en las montañas italianas en los siete días previos al 8 de febrero, diez de ellos en avalanchas provocadas por un manto de nieve particularmente inestable.
Las nevadas recientes, combinadas con fuertes rachas de viento en cotas altas y la acumulación de nieve sobre capas débiles del manto nivoso, han creado condiciones especialmente peligrosas a lo largo de todo el arco alpino entre Italia, Francia, Suiza y Austria. Los servicios de alerta de los cuatro países han instado de forma reiterada a los esquiadores a consultar los boletines de avalanchas diariamente, respetar los cierres de pistas y evitar las zonas de terreno expuesto durante este período de alto riesgo. Los expertos advierten que, con los ciclos de tormentas que continúan afectando partes de los Alpes, el peligro elevado podría persistir en muchas regiones en el corto plazo.
Courmayeur, localidad de unos 2.900 habitantes, se encuentra a aproximadamente 200 kilómetros al noroeste de Milán, una de las sedes de los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno de Milán-Cortina.
Europe
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