US Vice President Joe Biden urged Turkey to withdraw from Iraq the military, whose presence is not agreed with Baghdad. According to Biden, the recent withdrawal of Turkish troops from the camp in northern Iraq should be continued, Associated Press reports. On December 16, the camp in Bashik, where the Turkish military trains local Kurdish formations, was attacked by militants of the Islamic State (the organization was recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia) .

The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund recognized Ukraine's three billion dollar debt to Russia as sovereign. The decision was made using a simplified procedure “due to the utmost clarity” of the issue, TASS reports. No one raised any objections to recognizing the loan as sovereign or proposals to organize an official discussion on this matter. TASS Russia provided Ukraine with $3 billion in late 2013 as the first tranche of a $15 billion loan.

A letter addressed to Oleg Dobrodeev, General Director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, appeared on the Svobodnaya Pressa website, regarding the cancellation of Nikita Mikhalkov's Besogon TV show on the Rossiya-24 channel.

The US Federal Reserve raised the base rate from 0-0.25% to 0.25-0.5%. This is the first increase since 2006. The Federal Open Market Committee explained the decision to raise the rate by improving the situation on the US labor market and the expected rise in inflation. "The US Federal Reserve Board voted unanimously to raise the rate to 0.5 percent effective December 17, 2015" US Federal Reserve The US Federal Reserve has kept rates at record lows for seven years since December 2008.

The US Federal Reserve raised its base rate from 0-0.25% to 0.25-0.5%. This means that US monetary authorities believe that the risk of high inflation is greater than the risk of a recession in the economy. As rates rise, loans in the United States will become more expensive and there will be less money in the economy. An increase in the base rate in the United States is an event that affects the entire global economy.

US Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz was suspected of leaking classified information during a debate. This was stated by the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee Richard Burr. In a recent debate among Republican candidates, Ted Cruz said that the Freedom Act passed in 2015 allows intelligence agencies to check almost 100 percent of phone numbers for links to terrorists. During the previous "Patriot Act" such numbers were 20-30 percent, said the senator.

The main prize of the festival of the author’s documentary “Artdokfest” awarded the painting “Crocodile Gennady” by the American director Steve Hoover. artdocfest "Crocodile Gennady" (trailer), competition program, artdoxfest 2015 The jury received a special prize of the “Salamanka” Alexandra Kulak and Ruslan Fedotov, the best full -length documentary was called the painting “Chechen” Beaty Bubenets.

The film investigation "Chaika" , prepared by the Foundation for Corruption of Alexei Navalny and telling about the business of the family of Russian General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika, received a special prize at the Artdox Festival Festival of Documentary Cinema. Navalny personally went out to receive a special prize during the closing ceremony of the festival, which takes place in the cinema "Formula Cinema Horizon".

A look at how the government has (mis)calculated its budget over the past 15 years Vladimir Putin has signed the federal budget for next year, which is based on oil being priced at $50 (it's less than $39 now), the dollar trading for 63.3 rubles (today it trades at more than 70), and inflation staying under 6.4 percent. While these seem to be dangerous miscalculations, it's not the first time Russian officials have adopted a budget with strange projections.

Shot: San Antonio Spurs / YouTube Before the start of the basketball match between the clubs of San Antonio Opers and Utah, Jazz Kiss-Kamer grabbed a separately sitting pair-a man and a girl. However, young people did not rush to kiss, as is usually the case in such situations. Instead, a strange dialogue arose between the kiss-camera and those who fell into its lens. If you understand English, it is better to see everything yourself: Well ...

The Court of Appeal in London upheld the decision of the High Court of London, according to which the head of the organization "Seated Rus'" Olga Romanova must pay former senator Vladimir Slutsker £110,000. According to Kommersant, the decision was made on December 14. It's not on the court's website. In July 2015, the London High Court ruled that several of Romanova's claims about Slutsker were untrue.

Photo: Rais Khalikov, from Yulia Myasina's archive Yulia and Stanislav Myasin want to sue the man they hired to photograph their wedding because they're unhappy with his work. The couple lives in the city of Sterlitamak, located about 900 miles east of Moscow, and got married earlier this year in June.

Over the past year, the Islamic State (an organization banned in Russia) has earned at least $900 million. At least two-thirds of this amount went to the armed forces - that is, to payments to militants. IS spends at least $20 million every month on payments to foreign fighters, who form the core of the organization's armed forces, according to an investigation by The Financial Times. Another 15 to 20 million goes to payments to local fighters and support services.

Reddit moderators have begun banning users who share what happened in the seventh episode of Star Wars. According to one of the moderators under the nickname TheGreatZiegfeld, dozens of people's accounts have been frozen for such an offense. The site posted a warning: “There are already people who specifically write spoilers about the new Star Wars in the comments. Be careful". However, as users note, some attackers write spoilers directly in private messages.

In early December, artist Banksy drew graffiti in a migrant camp in Calais, France, depicting Steve Jobs, “the son of a Syrian migrant.” Employees of the RT channel found that migrants living nearby began to charge for access to graffiti. When the TV channel's film crew began to approach the wall, the migrants hid the image with a blanket. Further, the following conversation ensued between them and RT employee Polly Boyko: We are protecting this area. Guys, this is not your property.