Third-party developers had unauthorized access to the data of 52.5 million users of the Google+ social network due to a software flaw, Google said in a statement. In connection with the discovered leak, it was decided to speed up the closure of the social network for four months: it will stop working in April 2019. At the same time, Google emphasized that they did not find confirmation of the unfair use of compromised information. The closure of Google+ was announced in early October.

Instagram has added the ability to exchange voice messages. The corresponding function appeared in the Direct section. The maximum length of a voice message is one minute. Disappear from the history of correspondence, like "storis", messages will not.

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation amid weeks of protests by thousands. Macron acknowledged that the country's economy was actually in a "state of emergency." He promised to fulfill some of the demands of the protesters: the minimum wage will be increased by 100 euros from May 2019, overtime hours will not be taxed, and the poorest sections of the population will be entitled to tax deductions.

The court in St. Petersburg returned to the applicant, an employee of the headquarters of Alexei Navalny Lilia Chanysheva, the statement of claim against the social network VKontakte. The court explained its decision by the fact that the application did not meet the formal requirements that the procedural code imposes on such claims. In the past few months, stories about how criminal cases were initiated against users based on posts on VKontakte have received significant public outcry.

Time magazine has published the shortlist for the Person of the Year award. The list of political figures includes Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, as well as Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is investigating the ties between Trump's inner circle and Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry sent two Tu-160 strategic missile carriers, an An-124 heavy military transport aircraft and an Il-62 long-range aircraft to Venezuela. The department emphasized that the flight was carried out in accordance with international rules. At certain stages of the route, Russian aircraft were escorted by F-18 fighters of the Norwegian Air Force. In early December, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited Moscow.

Judge of the Tver Court of Moscow Dmitry Gordeev refused to suspend the administrative arrest of the 77-year-old lion Ponomarev so that he could visit the farewell ceremony and the funeral of human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva. Ponomarev is serving 16 days of arrest for the post with an appeal to the action “For our and your children” and asked him to let him go for up to seven days.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft has left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space. Voyager 2 is currently approximately 120 astronomical units from Earth. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977. The mission's original purpose was to explore the giant planets and was expected to operate for about five years. The first spacecraft in history to leave the heliosphere was Voyager 1 in 2013. It is now 145 astronomical units from Earth.

Justin Sullivan / Getty images / AFP / Scanpix / Leta Quote "On Facebook, posts with sexual subtext were banned" "Facebook was forbidden to talk about sex" "There is no sex on Facebook!" So Russian publications describe the new Facebook policy to counteract sexual exploitation. Facebook really forbade writing about sex? Yes, in a sense. In October, the social network added a new category of controversial content to its “ community norms ” - “ sexual harassment ”.

Apender Andy Serkis was spoiled by the Prime Minister of Great Britain Teresa May. Serkis recorded a new version of the monologue (or dialogue) of his most famous hero - Gollum from the film -trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. Only instead of the Ring of Emistence, we are talking about Brexita. The video was released on the eve of the planned voting to exit the UK from the European Union. May on the evening of December 10 transferred the vote for an indefinite period. Subscribe to our YouTube

Three new gloomy European films that should wait for the Russian box office Pöff Werewolf In early December, the 22nd Film Festival “Dark Nights” (Poff) ended in Tallinn-two weeks on it showed both the main festival hits of the year and very rare European paintings. The film critic Yegor Moskvitin specifically for Medusa chose three films from Denmark, Poland and Finland, which so far could only be seen in Estonia - but now it is worth waiting in the Russian box office.

Arrested in the United States, Russian woman Maria Butina sent a petition to the court with a request to schedule a hearing at which she could change her plea. The relevant documents were sent to the district court of the District of Columbia. Lawyers indicate that they would like to hold a meeting in the period from 11 to 13 December. Earlier, the defenders held negotiations to postpone the meeting on the Butina case and, if possible, close it.

In China, the court is considering a lawsuit from chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. Apple imposed a ban on the sale of several iPhone models. The ban applies to phones from iPhone 6S to iPhone X (excluding models with the latest version of the iOS 12 operating system). After Qualcomm announced the decision of the Chinese court, Apple shares on the stock exchange in New York lost 1.7% . Qualcomm, which develops and manufactures wireless chips, and Apple have been in legal battles for several years.

The Tverskoy Court of Moscow refused to let human rights activist Lev Ponomarev go to the funeral of Lyudmila Alekseeva. 77-year-old Lev Ponomarev was arrested on December 5 for 25 days for calling for an uncoordinated rally "For our and your children." After human rights activists in Russia and abroad interceded for Ponomarev, the arrest period was reduced to 16 days. Lyudmila Alekseeva died at the age of 92 on December 8.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she is indefinitely postponing the vote in Parliament on leaving the European Union. According to May, she decided to cancel the vote, as it is obvious that the previously agreed exit plan does not yet find support among the deputies. Voting was to take place on December 11th. Earlier on December 10, the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, ruled that the UK could unilaterally opt out of leaving the EU at any time.