In Moscow, a human rights activist, head of the Moscow Helsinki group, Lyudmila Alekseeva died. She was 91 years old. Mikhail Metzel / TASS / Vida Press Alekseeva died in Moscow hospital No. 15. According to the head of the Council for Human Rights under President Mikhail Fedotov, she worked until the last and the day before she gave instructions to her assistant. “She remained the human rights activist until the last moments, she really put her life for her other.

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, commenting on the situation with the cancellation of concerts in Russia, said that "it is better to interfere less in cultural processes, especially in the youth environment." His words are quoted by the RIA Novosti agency. Medinsky also said that the situation reminded him of a joke, but did not explain what he meant. The minister did not say whether his department plans to somehow influence the situation with the persecution of musicians.

Jason Lee / Reuters / Scanpix / Leta in China was the final of the Miss World -2018 contest. The winner was the 26-year-old Mexican Vanessa Ponce de Leon. The representative of Russia Natalya Stroeva entered the top 30 of the competition.

Former US President Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified that in 2015 a Russian citizen offered to arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a document sent to the court on December 7 by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the “Russia investigation.” The Russian, who is not named in the document, allegedly claimed to be trusted in Russia and could offer the Trump campaign “political synergy” and “government-level synergy” with Russia.

Eric Feferberg / AFP / Scanpix / Leta in Paris since November , protests have been continuing, which were first directed against the growth of gasoline prices, and then grew up against the government and president of the country, Emmanuel Macron. On December 8, the authorities were forced to close the tower, metro stations, shops and museums in the city center for visits to Eiffel. The police applied tear gas to demonstrators.

Andy Hooper / Associated Newspapers / Rex / Vida Press Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich at the Chelsea match in London, May 10, 2009 The Telegraph reported that the British Prime Minister Teresa May approved a list of six Russian businessmen, whose rights in this country, according to the publication, are planned to be significantly limited.

The interplanetary station "Insight" recorded the fluctuations created by the Martian wind - and NASA published the resulting sounds. The records were made on December 1, when in the area where the Insight was located, the northwest wind blew at a speed of 16-24 kilometers per hour. The seismograph, which has not yet been rearranged to the surface of the planet and fixes the fluctuations of the station itself, recorded due to the wind of the fluctuations of the solar panels of the device.

Fragment of the graphic novel "Wilson" The Jellyfish Jam publishing house was released by the graphic novel Wilson, written and drawn by Daniel Close, the author of the comics “Ghostly World” and “Paishens”. The main character, whose name is a book, divorced (and very squabble) misanthrope. On each page of the comic book there is some event from the life of this character: a random meeting, a conversation in an airplane, even the death of a loved one.

Galina Yuzefovich - about how Brisben works, the most musical book of Evgeny Vodolazkin In Elena Shubina , Brisben , the fourth novel by Evgeny Vodolazkin, the author of Solovyov and Larionov, Lavra and Aviator , was published. The Literary critic of Medusa Galina Yuzefovich believes that, despite some plot roughnesses, the new book of Vodolazkin in style and tongue is close to perfection, and the writer again managed to create a novel, completely unlike all three previous ones.

In Paris, where another protest took place on December 8, the police took 272 people into custody by noon local time. In total, more than 500 people were stopped for checks, writes Le Monde. According to AFP, in the morning, the reason for the detention of 34 people was that they had “masks, hammers, slingshots and stones” with them. Clashes broke out in the city center. Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, according to BBC News.

A Donetsk resident told the FSB that one of the SBU officers detained during the Black Sea incident tortured him. This was stated by the head of the FSB Investigative Department, Mikhail Shishov, during a briefing on December 8. According to Shishov, a Donetsk resident accused a Ukrainian special services officer of torturing him in Berdyansk after his arrest. When exactly this happened and under what circumstances is not specified. Shishov did not name the SBU officer and the Donetsk resident.

US President Donald Trump tweeted that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was dumb and lazy. “[Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo is doing a great job and I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, did not have the necessary mental capacity. He was dumb and I couldn't get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell,” Trump wrote.

TV presenter Ivan Urgant asked singer Monetochka to sing, inhaling a special gas to lower her voice. This happened on December 7 on the air of "Evening Urgant" on Channel One. In a low voice, Monetochka sang fragments of the songs "Every Time" and "Russian Ark." Then, at Urgant's request, she sang the chorus of "90," raising her voice with the help of helium - although her timbre remained virtually unchanged. “What is changing?” Urgant asked the audience. Evening Urgant Evening Urgant.

Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters / Scanpix / Leta Annegret Kramp-Carrenbauer replaces Angel Merkel at the head of the CDU, Hamburg, December 7, 2018 The ruling party of Germany, the Christian Democratic Union (CDS), elected the new chairman. It was 56-year-old Annegret Kramp-Carrenbauer, which was supported by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led the party 18 years and resigned in November.

The former head of the Russian Authors' Society (RAO) Sergei Fedotov, who was convicted of fraud and released a year ago , was arrested on December 7 in connection with the theft of 730 million rubles. His mother Vera Fedotova and former member of the board of directors of RAO Svetlana Temeshova are also involved in the case. The court placed them under house arrest.