Delegations from Russia and the United States are expected to hold talks in Miami this coming weekend, December 20-21, on resolving the Russian-Ukrainian war. Politico reported this on December 17, citing sources. According to them, it is expected that the Russian delegation will include the special envoy of the Russian President Kirill Dmitriev, and the American delegation will include the special envoy of the US President Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Amazon MGM Studios has released the first trailer for Melania, which chronicles the life of Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump in the 20 days leading up to her husband's inauguration as US President in January 2025. Amazon MGM Studios MELANIA | Official Trailer The trailer opens with Melania Trump entering the rotunda of the US Capitol before Donald Trump's second inauguration.

Maxim Shipenkov / EPA / Scanpix / LETA The mother of slain fourth grader Kobiljon Aliev outside her son’s school gates in Gorki, December 16, 2025 The murder of fourth-grader Kobiljon Aliev outside Moscow is now an international incident. On Wednesday, the boy’s home country, Tajikistan, summoned Russia’s ambassador to discuss the killing. Aliev was stabbed to death at his school in the town of Gorki-2 by a 15-year-old ninth-grader identified as Timofey K.

Finnish authorities have seized the villa of Russian businessman Boris Rotenberg in the city of Hanko; it may be sold, Yle reports. According to the Finnish broadcaster, Rotenberg did not pay property taxes, the amount of which reached several thousand euros. Due to Western sanctions, the businessman cannot transfer money to accounts in Finnish banks. Earlier, Finnish authorities seized commercial real estate in Helsinki that belonged to Rotenberg’s company.

YouTube will broadcast the Oscars from 2029 to 2033, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on December 17. The Academy and YouTube have signed an agreement that will give the video service exclusive global rights to broadcast the Oscars, red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and the Governors Ball. The broadcast will be available for free worldwide on YouTube, as well as to YouTube TV subscribers in the US.

Mikhail Tereshchenko / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia The U.S. and Ukraine may have hailed progress in peace talks earlier this week, but Vladimir Putin maintains that Russia will “undoubtedly achieve” its goals in the war against Ukraine. Speaking at a meeting of senior defense ministry officials on Wednesday, Putin took a hard line against Kyiv and its allies, referring to European leaders as “piglets” and vowing that Moscow would conquer its “historic lands” in Ukraine.

Türkiye is seeking to return the S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems purchased from Russia in 2017, Bloomberg reported on December 17, citing sources. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan on December 12, the sources said. According to them, Russian and Turkish officials had previously discussed this topic.

On December 16, the State Duma Committee on Information Policy recommended adopting changes to the legislation that make it possible to confirm age through the Max messenger when purchasing goods with age restrictions. On December 17, Kommersant wrote that the Ministry of Digital Development is discussing the possibility of transferring SMS notifications from banks to the messenger. In recent months, authorities have been adding more features to Max (while restricting use of other platforms).

Russia’s federal budget spending “directly related to the special military operation ” is set to reach 5.1 percent of the country’s GDP in 2025, according to a presentation shown by Defense Minister Andrey Belousov at a ministry meeting on Wednesday. Based on the Economic Ministry’s forecast of 217.3 trillion rubles ($2.7 trillion) in GDP for 2025, Russia’s total war-related expenditures reached approximately 11.1 trillion rubles ($137.9 billion).

The Marshall Islands has introduced a nationwide unconditional basic income program - every resident of the country will receive $200 every quarter, The Guardian reports. The publication notes that, according to experts, this is the first state in the world to introduce such a program. Payments are due to each resident without any conditions. Residents of the Marshall Islands can receive them in traditional currency or as a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

The White House chief of staff explained how they implement Trump's policies Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images Donald Trump, Susan Wiles and US National Security Adviser Michael Walz (now US Ambassador to the UN) in the Oval Office, February 2025 The American magazine Vanity Fair published a large article ( part one , part two ) about the inner circle of US President Donald Trump - and how it formulates and implements his policies.

The Russian domain provider Reg.ru refused to serve the website of the Republic publication; it stopped working. The editors of the publication reported this. Republic noted that the provider did not warn them about anything before shutting down the site. “We are now solving the problem and will try to move to a new domain as soon as possible,” the publication reported. Later, the editors announced that they had moved the site to a new domain - republicmag.io.

Ullstein Bild / Getty Images A court in Yekaterinburg has found an anti-war protester guilty of using a poem by avant-garde poet Vladimir Mayakovsky to “discredit” the Russian military, the independent news outlet Sotavision reported on Tuesday. Dmitry Rykov, a resident of Kirovgrad (another town in the Sverdlovsk region), was fined for carrying out a solo picket in Yekaterinburg on December 7.

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The Swedish military spotted armed men in military uniforms on tankers, which they consider part of Russia's "shadow fleet", SVT reports, citing the head of the operations department of the Swedish Navy, Marko Petkovic.