US President Donald Trump and his wife visited Iraq on an unannounced visit. During the trip, which took place on December 26, the President met with the military personnel stationed there and congratulated them on Christmas. Talking to reporters, Trump stressed that he has no plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. According to him, American forces in Iraq can be used to conduct operations against the "Islamic State" in Syria.

The Ukrainian authorities have extended the ban on entry into the country for male Russian citizens aged 16 to 60 years. [A representative of the National Security and Defense Council] also said that “since the introduction of martial law, 1,616 citizens of the Russian Federation have not been allowed to enter the territory of Ukraine, including 866 in areas where martial law has been introduced. UNIAN The entry of men from Russia to Ukraine was restricted a month ago under martial law.

Employees of the Federal Tax Service, the FSB, Rosalkogolregulirovanie and OMON on December 26 conducted a series of searches at the Krasnoye & Beloe company. Searches were carried out in offices in Moscow and Chelyabinsk, as well as warehouses in Kazan, Voronezh, Samara, Ufa, and the Moscow region.

The head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, demanded that the central office of the department study the materials of all criminal cases in which the courts in Moscow delivered acquittals. The purpose of the audit is an objective assessment of the quality of the preliminary investigation carried out in these cases and the validity of the procedural decisions taken. Based on it, conclusions will be drawn about the professionalism of the investigators.

Santa Claus in a school bus As a child, Kertis Jenkins, a driver of a school bus from Dallas, gave ordinary socks for Christmas. Then he was happy even with them, because he went to school in torn clothes. Many years later, Jenkins decided that he himself could make the life of students who are driving to school every day, a little happier.

Roszdravnadzor discovered a number of “gross violations” of Russian law at the Best Clinic Moscow medical center, which offered to perform clitoral mutilation (“female circumcision”). The audit confirmed that the clinic offered the procedure, "which is a flagrant violation" of the law, the agency said. In addition, abortions and plastic surgeries were performed at the center without a license; plastic surgery was performed by an obstetrician-gynecologist without the necessary qualifications.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the country for the New Year a successful test of the Avangard missile system, which took place on December 26. Putin spoke Putin about this rocket with a hypersonic winged block, “invulnerable to today and promising air defense and pro”, Putin a few months ago in a message to the Federal Assembly. During the tests of the rocket, it was released from the territory of the Orenburg region and struck a conditional target in Kamchatka.

A state TV news anchor's confession, Navalny's latest bombshell, and a police torture investigation in Ingushetia Wednesday, December 26, 2018 This day in history. On December 26, 1825, Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest in St. Petersburg against Tsar Nicholas I's assumption of the throne in the so-called “Decembrist revolt.” The uprising failed, but it was celebrated during the Soviet period.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed to change the form of the passport of a Russian citizen, adding to it a reminder of the timing of the exchange of the document. The draft government decree has been put up for public discussion. On the last page of the passport they will write that the citizen has 30 days to exchange it after the 20th or 45th birthday or change of his personal data.

The Telegram channel “Protest MSU” published a story by a student of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music (RAM), who claims that security forces, in the presence of the vice-rector, threatened her with fines for participating in an “indefinite protest.” The girl claims that on December 25, RAM Vice-Rector for Administrative and Economic Work Viktor Kiselev called her and invited her to his office. There were two men sitting there, one of whom introduced himself as police officer Oleg Kuznetsov.

At the end of the year, Yandex published a selection of the strangest and funniest search queries made by users. It turned out that in 2018, many were looking for ways to make amends to offended cats, figuring out their own dreams (about dumplings!) and trying to figure out how to make a tooth out of snow. Meduza shows the best of these unusual queries. The authors' spelling and punctuation have been preserved.

The Russian government has approved amendments to legislation allowing the cultivation of drug-containing plants for medical purposes in Russia. As the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov explained, two enterprises can receive the right to grow such plants. Manturov noted that Russia currently purchases almost 100% of the substance for painkillers containing narcotics abroad.

On December 26, Vladimir Putin reported on the successful tests of the Avangard missile system, which should enter the troops in 2019. This complex is one of the six types of recent weapons , which the president spoke about in March during the message to the Federal Assembly. Photo in the announcement: “Russia” / AP / Scanpix / Leta

Ukrainian comedian and former KVN participant Volodymyr Zelensky gave a long interview to journalist Dmitry Gordon. In it, he admitted for the first time that he plans to run for president of Ukraine in March 2019. According to polls , Zelensky is second in popularity after Yulia Tymoshenko. Many consider Zelensky to be a person close to oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, on whose channel his programs are broadcast. Meduza briefly recounts the interview with the likely candidate for president of Ukraine.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that the National Security and Defense Council would impose sanctions against a "significant number" of deputies of the State Duma of Russia, "including from the United Russia factions, the Liberal Democratic Party." As follows from Poroshenko’s speech , measures against Russian deputies will be introduced as part of sanctions in response to the “illegal holding of elections” in separatist-controlled areas of Donbass and the conflict in the Kerch Strait