ICYMI: Close out 2025 with these great reads from AP

As 2025 wraps up, The Associated Press has curated a list of memorable stories and enjoyable reads published this year that you may have missed in the flurry of news and the busyness of living.

There are storybook endings and heartbreak. Some are stranger than fiction, and others take you behind the scenes. Even if you read them the first time around, the stories on this “in case you missed it” list are worth revisiting.

If you have ever felt that nagging sense of the unknown, you may be able to relate to Robert Friedrichs and his search for Miss Atomic Bomb — the Las Vegas showgirl in a 1957 promotional photograph for nuclear tourism. He couldn’t get her out of his head; it was a hole in the historical record. Friedrichs, a historian and a retired scientist who got his start during the Atomic Age, ultimately prevailed — but it took decades.

Miss Atomic Bomb: The woman, the mystery and the man who solved it

Khaled Kazziha, an assistant AP news director who has covered Africa since 1998, recounts the realities of raising his children in a part of Nairobi, Kenya, where lions roam free. This year, a lion killed a 14-year-old girl about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from their home. She was the same age as his daughter. Kazziha says what is missing from efforts to address the problem is greater awareness on how to behave around predators.

He lives alongside lions in Nairobi. The human-wildlife collision is dazzling — and dangerous

Go ahead, let down your hair. Or if you are like these Londoners, draw on a goatee and throw on your best bald cap and suit because you too can join in the Pitbull look-alike phenomenon. In this story, the Miami superstar explains what it is like to watch this dress-up trend explode across his fan base.

White shirts. Black ties. Bald caps. Pitbull’s fans party like clones worldwide

Giving up is not an option in this story. In Atlanta, an out-of-work film industry veteran, Sechita McNair, relentlessly pursues a better education for her child after an eviction. The story captures McNair as she navigates a seesaw of wins and setbacks. There is no fairy tale ending here, but there is real life — and resilience.

She wanted to keep her son in his school district. It was more challenging than it seemed

What is it like to report on a pope for his entire papacy? AP Vatican correspondent Nicole Winfield takes us inside her complex journalist-public figure relationship with Pope Francis, including their memorably tense exchange aboard the papal plane about the clergy sex abuse scandal in Chile. He later told her that it was a turning point in his understanding of the depths of the abuse scandal. Francis died in April.

Pope Francis bestowed a special nickname on AP’s Vatican reporter for her often-tough questions

Some stories come together easily, and then there is the AP investigation into U.S. Big Tech’s role in China’s digital surveillance state. The story became a reality because AP journalists spoke with more than 100 sources, scoured tens of thousands of documents, and obtained several major leaks of internal and classified material.

Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show

If you need a reminder that you are never too old to pursue your dreams, this story is for you. In it, you will meet Tom Cillo, who played in his first-ever college football game this year — at age 58. Go inside this life-changing ride in which Cillo enrolls in Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, survives NCAA Division III football tryouts and — finally — hits the field.

At 58, Tom Cillo is tackling his dream of playing college football

Yes, there are luxury private jets, a secret meeting at an airport hangar and high-stakes diplomacy. While it may read like a Cold War spy thriller, the events in this story actually happened. It details a scheme that speaks to the United States’ efforts to topple Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

US sought to lure Nicolás Maduro’s pilot into betraying the Venezuelan leader

FILE - Derrick McNair-White, left, yawns next to Sechita McNair as they ride the city bus to Atlanta on June 11, 2025, in Jonesboro, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

FILE - Lycoming College nose tackle Tom Cillo stands on the sidelines during an NCAA Division III junior varsity college football game against King's College in Williamsport, Pa., Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - Fans gather in front of the O2 Arena prior to a performance by Pitbull on Monday, June 9, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - A lioness rests on top of a sign inside Nairobi National Park, where lions are known to roam, on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, on Jan. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Laila Kazziha, File)

FILE - Robert Friedrichs poses for a photo at the Atomic Museum, on April 16, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will happen “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday, signaling progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added.

Zelenskyy's announcement came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump has unleashed a diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.

Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.

In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.

On the ground, one person was killed and three others wounded when a guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, while six people were wounded in a missile strike on the city of Uman, local officials said Friday.

Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday left part of the city without power. Energy and port infrastructure were damaged by drones in the city of Odesa on the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.

Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)