Alex Osola

would impose visa restrictions on five people it said were, quote, agents of the global censorship industrial complex.

One of those people is Thierry Breton, a French citizen who served as an EU commissioner until last year.

The other four people targeted work for organizations that focus on disinformation and hate speech.

The European Commission said it condemns the U.S.

decision and has requested clarifications.

Breton said the U.S.

was engaging in a quote, witch hunt.

And in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be willing to pull troops out of the eastern region of Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone as part of a potential peace deal, as long as Russia took similar steps to withdraw from areas it controls.

Zelensky said yesterday that there would be a referendum on the proposal and other parts of the peace plan, giving the Ukrainian people a vote on the deal.

And for Ukrainians, Christmas threatens to be dark as the country deals with its most severe energy crisis since 2022.

Moscow has been attacking the grid on a greater scale, leaving some parts of the country without power for days at a time.

Markets will close early today.

U.S.

stock markets will shut at 1 p.m.

Eastern time and bond markets an hour later.

Markets will be closed tomorrow for Christmas Day and they'll reopen for regular trading on Friday.

Coming up, the teens juggling high school with founding an AI company and what 2026 looks like for mergers and acquisitions.

Those stories and more after the break.

In deal news, British oil giant BP has agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol Lubricants business to investment firm Stonepeak.

The deal values the division at $8 billion.