On the final Sunday of the year, two memorable events taking place in Florida today

News and views for thoughtful Floridians and other discerning Americans

Welcome to the last Sunday of 2025, a day notable here in the Sunshine State for at least two events taking place:

1. President Donald Trump will interrupt his extended golfing vacation in Palm Beach County to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, a confab to bring Ukraine and Russia another step toward a peace agreement.

2. After today, Florida’s black bears will be able to breathe more easily as the state’s first bear hunt in a decade comes to an end.

Regarding Ukraine …

Today’s visit to Florida will mark at least the fourth major trip Zelensky has made to the U.S. during the Ukraine war. Little has come of it so far, but over the past several weeks, negotiations have continued between the beleaguered nation and Trump’s envoys, modifying a plan that was initially proposed—and largely written by Russia—that would have easily ended the war.

All it required, in essence, was for Ukraine to surrender.

Surrender always works for ending wars, but, inconveniently for Trump and his buddy Vladimir Putin, Ukraine wasn’t swelled up about that proposal.

So, they’ve been fiddling with it.

CNN and other news sources say one prospect might be for Ukraine to hold a vote on whether to give up the territory in its eastern region being held by Moscow. The Ukrainian constitution requires a vote before doing something like that.

(Do we even have such a provision in our own Constitution?)

Also, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is in Ukraine, and it is currently occupied by the Russians. Who gets it and how it is run may be part of the deal. CNN reports one idea is that it would become a joint Ukraine-American operation.

Why we would have any business doing that and why the Russians would go along with something like that is a puzzle—at least to me—but we’ll see what comes out of today’s talks.

if nothing else, having a president who calls Florida home means we keep getting our name in the headlines whether we like it or not.

As for the bears…

Florida’s controversial bear hunt concludes today. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which oversees the “harvest,” determined that exactly 172 bears needed to become unalive for the sake of the state’s ecosystem.

I have wondered how, precisely, they came up with this number.

I’ve imagined a FWC minion, feet up on his gunmetal desk, with a dart in hand and a wall of sticky notes numbered 1 through 200. And he tosses the dart.

Unfortunately for the bears, the dart lands on the sticky note with 172 on it instead of 1. There was no zero.

That’s as good a guess as any on how FWC came up with that number, so I’m going with it until I hear otherwise.

How many bears have actually fallen to courageous Florida men and women stalking the wilds of our state in search of these furry woodland creatures? The number is unknown.

Hunters—excuse me, harvesters—are required to phone in when they’ve shot one. Taxidermists are already reporting they’ve had carcasses delivered to be turned into bear-skin rugs.

We’ll see how long it takes FWC to cough up a final count.

Although opponents of the hunt claimed to have entered the “bear tag” lottery and scored dozens of permits that they planned not to use, so the count could come in lower than the planned 172.

Which I’m sure would be frustrating for our dart-thrower.

We’ll see.

J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press, a journalist, and award-winning author. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida.

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