The Russian government has imposed a complete ban on gasoline exports through the end of August, expanding restrictions that previously exempted major oil producers.

St. Petersburg has officially prohibited foreign nationals from working as taxi drivers through the end of 2025, according to the city administration. Governor Alexander Beglov implemented the new rules, which target most foreigners authorized to work in passenger taxi and rental car services, as first reported by the Telegram channel Rotonda. Companies have a three-month transition period to comply with the new rules, which take effect in 10 days.

A Russian court sentenced a 67-year-old retiree to pay 170,000 rubles (about $2,090) for liking multiple antiwar posts on the social network Odnoklassniki. A district court in the Amur region convicted Viktor Komlev of repeatedly “discrediting” the military — a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. His crime was clicking “like” on three posts critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that other users had shared on social media, according to OVD-Info.

WhatsApp was supposed to be blocked in Russia by July 1, but propagandist Anastasia Kashevarova claims the deadline was pushed back to August 1 due to “defenders and lobbyists” among Russian officials. Rumors that Russia will soon ban WhatsApp have added pressure to the Meta-owned platform following official warnings from lawmakers.

A court in Yekaterinburg sentenced a Russian woman to 24 years in prison for the torture and murder of six-year-old Daler Bobiev , concluding a horrific case that drew nationwide attention when the boy’s body was found hidden in a gym bag almost seven months after his death. The Sverdlovsk regional court convicted Veronika Naumova on multiple charges, including fraud, torture, and aggravated murder motivated by ethnic hatred (Daler was from a Tajik migrant family ).

Vladimir Putin’s July 28 meeting with Stavropol Governor Vladimir Vladimirov was unusually negative, with the latter warning that his region faces plummeting new construction rates and skyrocketing rent prices. Vladimirov also described an “acute shortage” of medical personnel. The governor’s frank assessment represented a departure from the typically upbeat reports delivered to the president in public meetings, journalists at Agentstvo noted.

Jake Sully and Neytiri's family encounters a new Navi clan - the Ash People 20th Century Studios has officially unveiled the first trailer for the third installment of the Avatar film franchise, titled Avatar: Fire and Ash. Even before the official release, the trailer was broadcast on a limited basis for several days before some screenings in American cinemas, and copies of it, filmed in cinema halls, began to be distributed on the Internet.

What a deadly passenger plane crash in Russia’s Far East reveals about the state of the country’s aviation industry Konstantin Andreev / TASS / ZUMA Press / Scanpix / LETA A memorial to the victims of the plane crash. Khabarovsk, Russia. July 25, 2025 Russia’s aviation authority says it has begun a “partial decoding” of the flight recorders from the Angara Airlines An-24 passenger plane that crashed in the country’s Far East on July 24.

At the end of July, information about the users themselves leaked online Tea At the end of July, the Tea application began to gain popularity in the United States, with the help of which women can anonymously publish reviews about men. This information, as the creators of the service suggest, will allow you to avoid dating deceivers or people with a criminal past. The day after four million women signed up for Tea, the app suffered a massive data breach.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he is no longer interested in speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore. […] We have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night, with a missile going into a town and hitting — recently, I guess, the nursing home, but they hit other things,” Trump said on Monday.

How a Texas man moved his family to Russia to escape ‘DEI’ — and ended up on the front lines in Ukraine Huffman Time In the last three years, the Kremlin has doubled down on portraying Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” — a narrative used to justify both the invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s continued rule . One component of this campaign is “shared values” visa , introduced in 2024 for residents of “unfriendly” countries who feel alienated by liberal policies at home.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned users that correspondence with the ChatGPT bot could be disclosed if required by a court. Altman responded that more and more people are using a chatbot as a therapist, but such conversations on personal or psychological topics are not protected by medical confidentiality.

US President Donald Trump said he is no longer interested in telephone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore. We had such pleasant conversations, such respectful and good conversations. And then the next night people die from missiles flying into cities,” the US President said. Earlier, Trump said he would shorten the deadline during which he expects a ceasefire from the Russian president.

He turned the monastery into a thriving business and popular tourist attraction Shi Yongxin in Beijing, 2016. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images The Chinese Buddhist Association has stripped the monastic status of one of the country's most influential spiritual leaders, the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery , Shi Yongxin . During his 26 years in this post, he turned Shaolin into a thriving business and a popular attraction similar to Disneyland.

One thousand two hundred and fifty-first day. Trump named a new deadline - Putin must cease fire in 10-12 days (recently it was 50) Ivan Antypenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters in our daily materials because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. How do you feel about the ongoing war? How is it affecting you personally right now?