Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 schoolchildren kidnapped from St. Mary's Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State. The Guardian writes about this, citing a source at the UN and local media. It is not specified whether the children were released as a result of negotiations or by force. Another 50 children managed to escape from their kidnappers earlier. The fate of another 165 people, including 12 school employees, remains unclear.

Employees of the European Institute of Underwater Archeology (IEASM) found a 35-meter ship dating from the first half of the 1st century off the coast of Alexandria, in the area of ​​the sunken port of Portus Magnus. It is a boat with a pavilion installed on it and was intended for walks and relaxation. The Guardian reports this. The publication quotes the ancient Greek historian Strabo, who visited Alexandria in 29–25.

Protesting Greek farmers on Monday blocked Crete's airport, roads and border crossings and threw stones at police. Protests are taking place throughout the country due to delays in payments from the EU and the state, writes Reuters. Demonstrators deployed thousands of trucks and tractors at at least 20 border crossings across the country. Police fired tear gas at a group of protesters who threw stones and broke into the Heraklion airport runway, halting air traffic.

The English Table Tennis Association will ban transgender women from competing in women's competitions from the start of the next season - in August 2026, writes The Telegraph. Football, cricket and netball already have such a ban in place. Sports organizations are changing the rules following an April decision by the UK Supreme Court, which ruled that the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act is based on biological sex rather than gender identity.

News The Insider December 8, 2025 Evgenia Khasis, convicted of complicity in the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, in an interview with Ksenia Sobchak for the first time admitted her guilt in the murder of Markelov in 2009, although she noted that, according to the court verdict, she was not guilty of Baburova’s death. At her trial in 2011, Khasis completely denied her involvement in the crime.

In her family, Aishat was subjected to violence since childhood, including sexualized violence - as a friend of the murdered woman said, she was raped by her father and grandfather. At the age of 17, the girl was married to shooting instructor Alsolt Teliev, who also trained Kadyrov’s military personnel. Baimuradova still has a child in Chechnya.

Investigations 8 December 2025 One of the central tasks of Russia’s Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) is to oversee the privatization of state assets. Unsurprisingly, The Insider has found that the agency’s current head, Vadim Yakovenko, has been acting in the interests of a private individual — billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who happens to be a longtime close friend of none other than Vladimir Putin.

Birch wood from Russia is being supplied to the European Union in circumvention of sanctions, according to an investigation by the German broadcaster SWR . The raw materials are routed through China, where they are relabeled. Of particular note, journalists found an offer to purchase Russian plywood from a Chinese subsidiary of the German-Swiss toy manufacturer Hape International.

At the 2026 FIFA World Cup “pride match” dedicated to the LGBT community, which will be held in Seattle on June 26, the teams of Iran and Egypt will meet - both countries have criminalized same-sex relationships, writes Bloomberg. The Seattle organizing committee planned to hold a celebration of the queer community at the Group G match at Lumen Field long before the championship schedule was formed - the official Pride weekend begins in the city on June 26.

Baymuradova had faced abuse since childhood, including sexual violence, according to a friend quoted in the report. He said she had been raped by her father and grandfather. At 17, she was married off to shooting instructor Alsolt Teliev, who was involved in training Kadyrov’s troops. Teliev also abused her, attempting to force her into submission and allegedly drugging her food, the friend said. During that period, she experienced hallucinations.

The management of the social network Twitter (X) closed the advertising account of the European Commission after the agency imposed a fine of €120 million on the platform for violating the European Digital Services Act (DSA). This is reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

One of the central tasks of Russia’s Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) is to oversee the privatization of state assets. Unsurprisingly, The Insider has found that the agency’s current head, Vadim Yakovenko, has been acting in the interests of a private individual — billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who happens to be a longtime close friend of none other than Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Central Bank will oblige banks to link customer accounts to their TIN (individual taxpayer number). As Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Olga Polyakova told RBC, this will help fight droppership . “If previously there was no mandatory requirement for banks to establish the client’s TIN as a mandatory account detail, then we will introduce such a requirement - both when opening a new account and for those accounts that were opened previously.

The French authorities, while supporting the idea of ​​providing Ukraine with a reparation loan, oppose the scheme involving the use of Russian assets stored in commercial banks. According to the Financial Times, Paris refuses to disclose the names of French banks that hold €18 billion owned by the Russian government. French officials insist that commercial banks have different contractual obligations than Euroclear's depository, the article says. “This is confidential information.

News The Insider December 8, 2025 #Military report In today's summary: In the Kharkov direction, the Russian military attacked the dam of the Pechenezh reservoir On the Seversky ledge, most of the urban development of Seversk moved into the “gray zone” In the Konstantinovsky direction, on the approaches to Konstantinovka, “chaos that cannot be mapped” has developed In the Pokrovsk direction, Russian troops reached the village of Rovnoye in the center of the Pokrovsk-Mirnograd agglomeration The