International News from Wednesday, December 31st, 2025

President Donald Trump's advisers held talks on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and national security advisers from the UK, France and Germany to discuss the next steps in ending Russia's war in Ukraine, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used his annual televised New Year's address to rally his troops fighting in Ukraine, saying he believed in them and in victory in a war that he has framed as part of an existential struggle with the West.

Russia's defence ministry released video footage on Wednesday of what it said was a downed drone at a briefing intended to show Ukraine tried this week to attack a presidential residence and challenge Kyiv's denials that such an attack took place.

As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the new year to come.

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region, damaging residential buildings and infrastructure and injuring four people, including three children, regional authorities said on Wednesday.

Mali and Burkina Faso have said they are imposing a travel ban on US citizens in response to an equivalent measure announced by the Trump administration earlier this month.

Train companies said services between Britain and continental Europe would resume on Wednesday but warned of further disruption after technical failures suspended travel the day before and left some passengers stuck on trains all night.

Thailand has released 18 Cambodian soldiers on Wednesday that it had detained since July under the renewed ceasefire the two countries agreed on the weekend to end a border conflict, Cambodian and Thai authorities said.

Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of the 35th US president, John F. Kennedy, has died on Tuesday at 35 years-old after revealing in a November essay that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.

A train driver has been killed and 40 more people injured on Tuesday after two trains collided head-on on the railway leading to the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, the Andean nation's top tourist site that draws well over 1 million visitors each year.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières expects to be barred from operating in Gaza once it misses Wednesday's deadline to comply with new registration rules for relief agencies that Israel says are meant to prevent Hamas from exploiting international aid.