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Nov. 27, 2025, 9:56 AM EST / Updated Nov. 27, 2025, 10:27 AM ESTBy Yuliya TalmazanRussia is ready for “serious” peace talks, Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that the draft of a plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine could form the basis of a future deal to end the conflict.The Russian leader said he felt that Washington was taking his position into account, but that some things still needed to be discussed when a U.S. delegation visits Moscow early next week.Speaking to reporters during a visit to Kyrgyzstan, Putin was responding for the first time since Kyiv secured changes to the proposal, which was initially viewed as too favorable to the Kremlin. President Donald Trump has touted “tremendous progress,” but both the White House and Ukraine have indicated key points still needed to be hashed out.Trump had earmarked Thanksgiving as a date for more concrete announcements, and close observers of the Kremlin have raised doubts about its readiness to agree to a deal that would involve concessions. But Putin sounded positive about the course of talks, even as he maintained Russia would gladly keep fighting.Trump Envoy Witkoff Advises Russian Aide, Transcript Reveals02:16Ukraine and its European allies balked at the initial proposal, which would grant Moscow its hard-line demands, but sounded positive following talks in Geneva with the U.S. last weekend.“They decided among themselves that all 28 points should be divided into four separate components,” Putin said Thursday, adding that this new draft text was then handed to Russia.“In general, we agree that this can be the basis for future agreements,” Putin said.Russia is “absolutely ready for a serious discussion” of the plan, Putin said.Trump announced that his special envoy Steve Witkoff would be going to Russia next week for talks with Putin. The Russian leader said he did not know who exactly will be part of the American delegation but added: “We are waiting for them in the first half of next week.”Meanwhile, Kyiv signaled that it was continuing talks with the American side all this week. “It is important not to lose productivity and work quickly,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak on Thursday.Putin emphasized that there was no final agreement, but said he felt that the U.S. was generally taking Russia’s position into account “in some aspects.”But Putin warned that the proposal would need to be rewritten in “diplomatic language,” and that some points, like one that stipulates that Russia is not going to attack Europe, sounded “funny to us.”He insisted that Russia had the upper hand across the front lines, noting that fighting would stop when Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they hold. “If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” he said.The leader also addressed leaked phone calls between his foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Witkoff, saying they could be real or fake. The leaks added fuel to criticism that Witkoff, and the original peace plan itself, were too favorable to Russia. The Kremlin said Wednesday the leaks were intended to disrupt peace talks. Yuliya TalmazanYuliya Talmazan is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London.

- Latest News - November 27, 2025

Russia is ready for “serious” peace talks, Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that the draft of a plan discussed by the United States and Ukraine could form the basis of.

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Nov. 27, 2025, 10:09 AM ESTBy Harriet BaskasA record number of Americans will travel this weekend, packing up their bags and hitting the road to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family, friends and maybe some football.But travel this year will look different than it did 12 months ago, according to a bevy of early data, surveys and industry experts.The chief culprits behind the shifts? More travelers; deepening economic anxiety; tensions around geopolitics; and a six-week government shutdown that only ended a few weeks ago.Record travelers, but tighter beltsAAA projects that 81.8 million people will travel at least 50 miles over the long holiday weekend — 1.6 million more people than last Thanksgiving and a record level.Six million of those travelers are expected to take domestic flights, another increase over last year. But AAA warns that some air travelers might decide to switch to a train, bus, car or RV due to a bevy of recent flight cancellations.More than a third of Americans who have travel plans during the next six months said those plans had been affected by the six-week government shutdown, according to survey data from Longwoods International, a travel and tourism research firm.Meanwhile, some holiday travel has simply “evaporated,” said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods. He pointed to data from the survey that showed nearly 1 in 3 people whose holiday travel plans were affected by the shutdown had canceled them altogether.Scott Keyes, founder of the Going.com travel app, isn’t surprised by the losses.“Considering that over a million people went without paychecks during the shutdown, and the fact that many people wait to make plans in the final weeks before travel, it’s safe to assume that a significant chunk of travelers are skipping out on trips they otherwise might have taken,” he said in an email.It’s too early to predict how many people will opt to take commercial buses this weekend, said Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, the parent company of FlixBus and the Greyhound bus service.“Most bus bookings happen within 24 to 72 hours of departure,” he said via email. “But searches are trending up year over year, especially around peak days: Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Sunday return.”Melissa Ulrich, owner of the Austin, Texas-based travel company You Pack, We Plan, said the shutdown had merely compounded the impact of existing economic pressures on some of her clients.“We had clients choose a different level of trip,” she said. Some luxury travelers were scaling back from five-star to four-star lodgings, said Ulrich, and other clients were downgrading from four-star to 3.5-star accommodations.“It started this summer and continued with the shutdown,” she said.As the U.S. job market has slowed down, unemployment has crept up this year and inflation remains stubbornly elevated.Consulting giant Deloitte’s holiday travel survey found the same factors at work: more travelers overall, but significantly fewer dollars expected to be spent per person.Even before the government closed for six weeks, the Deloitte survey found that holiday travelers planned to spend around 18% less on average this year than they did in 2024.“Financial concerns could be casting a shadow over the season, as many travelers are expected to scale back on the number of trips, trip duration and their overall travel budgets,” said Eileen Crowley, who leads Deloitte’s U.S. transportation, hospitality and services practice.Still, the percentage of Americans who said they plan to travel between Thanksgiving and mid-January, 54%, was 5 points higher than in the same survey a year ago.But there’s a big catch: This overall growth in travelers is being driven chiefly by people who say they are going to be staying with friends and family — and who do not plan to pay for hotels, cruises and bed-and-breakfasts, Deloitte’s research found.That means more friends and relatives expected to crash on sofas and in spare bedrooms, and potentially less money going toward tip jars, restaurant bills and theater tickets.The Canadian questionFor the more than 8 million Americans who make their living directly from travel and tourism, there could be a double whammy coming: less money coming in from domestic travelers and a significant drop in the number of visitors from abroad.Data consistently shows that international travelers are opting out of visiting the U.S., and a range of factors is affecting their decisions.Among them: heightened fears of detention by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, longer visa wait times and higher fees and concerns about political rhetoric and reports of violence.Overall international travel to the United States this year is projected to be just 85% of its 2019 level, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a top industry group.The main reason for the big decline? A massive drop in tourism from Canada.In previous years, Canadian visitors accounted for slightly more than a quarter of all the foreign travelers to the United States, according to international travel data.But in October there were 30% fewer Canadian residents returning from the U.S. over the border by car than there were during the same month last year, according to newly released Canadian statistics.Likewise, by air, there were nearly a quarter fewer travelers returning to Canada from the U.S. in the same period.Setting aside the missing Canadian visitors, the volume of international travelers to the U.S. this year is expected to be flat or down slightly.But for many people who rely on travel for their livelihoods, it’s next year that could be make-or-break.The United States will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, an event that traditionally brings millions of spectators from around the world to the host country for games.In an apparent effort to encourage visitors, the Trump administration announced a new fast-track visa system for World Cup ticket holders, allowing them access to priority scheduling for visa interviews. But potential tournament attendees could still face a patchwork of travel bans applied to various countries.Harriet BaskasHarriet Baskas is an NBC News contributor who writes about travel and the arts.

- Latest News - November 27, 2025

Travelers this Thanksgiving are set to break records. But they’re more likely to stay with friends than last year. And fewer of them hail from Canada.

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Nov. 27, 2025, 6:45 AM ESTBy Claudio LavangaANKARA, Turkey — Pope Leo XIV touched down in the conflict-ridden Middle East on the first international trip of his papacy, urging peace and hoping to help the Catholic Church heal centuries-old divisions with other religions and denominations.As his fellow countrymen celebrate Thanksgiving, the first American pontiff’s plate will be full on a six-day tour of Turkey and Lebanon that will be closely scrutinized. He plans to meet with religious and political leaders, lead Mass in both countries and try to provide a boost to long-suffering Christian communities throughout the region.Ahead of his trip, Leo shared a Thanksgiving message with NBC News in which he encouraged all people “to say thank you to someone” and “to recognize that we have all received so many gifts, first and foremost the gift of life.”Gifts were shared on board his flight to Turkish capital Ankara, including a pecan pie handed to him by NBC News. Leo told journalists that along with other church leaders, he hoped “to announce, transmit, proclaim how important peace is throughout the World and to invite all people to come together to search for greater unity.” Some had speculated that the Chicago-born Leo might choose the U.S. for his first trip, or Peru, where he served for many years as a missionary and later as a bishop and archbishop, becoming a naturalized citizen in 2015. Pope Leo speaks with journalists en route to Ankara, Turkey on Thursday.Baris Seckin / Anadolu via Getty ImagesBut for Miles Pattenden, a Catholic Church historian at the U.K.’s University of Oxford, the choice of the Middle East was “not such a surprise,” and it was sending out a message that the region “is the heart of Christianity.” Turkey was the “obvious choice” because it was the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council, Pattenden told NBC News in a telephone interview.Convened by Emperor Constantine who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the meeting of bishops and church leaders “produced the Nicaean creed which is the standard statement of what Christians believe,” including the affirmation that Jesus was the son of God, Pattenden said. He added that it was “absolutely foundational” to what Christians, including Catholics, believe today. Leo will pray with the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the site of the 325 AD gathering which is known today as Iznik, before they sign a joint declaration in a sign of Christian unity.“We all understand that 1,000 years of division has inflicted a deep wound that cannot be healed easily,” Bartholomew told the respected Greek daily Kathimerini recently, according to The Associated Press.

- Latest News - November 27, 2025

Pope Leo XIV touched down in the conflict-ridden Middle East on the first international trip of his papacy.

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