Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.   

On today's podcast:   

1) Russia’s Vladimir Putin proposed a meeting with President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.Trump’s recent overtures to Putin, including a deal on diesel exports and a decision to waive a new sanctions law, have been widely criticized by Ukraine and its allies in Europe and Washington.   

2) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Donald Trump of trying to pressure Kyiv into surrendering to Russia, escalating a week-long row with the US president.In an interview with Bloomberg in Kyiv, Zelenskyy also offered a new proposal to accede to Trump’s request to stop targeting Russian refineries, which was aimed at combating high diesel prices, in exchange for deliveries of more Patriot air-defense missiles.   

3) The violence that rocked France this weekend as cost-of-living protests degenerated into looting and burning nationwide is raising alert levels across Europe, where elections will be held in at least half a dozen countries next year.While France has a long history of street demonstrations, the intensity of attacks on public buildings, shops and restaurants raised fears of repeat action during a campaign featuring both the far left and far right. President Emmanuel Macron promised a “hard line,” yet even as he made a televised address Sunday night, tensions were still flaring between rioters and police in Paris.