Real-time News

Russian Ministry of Defense: Russian troops have occupied Svetlana in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

December 20 - The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on the 20th that the Ukrainian Defense Forces launched an attack on a Caspian oil and gas drilling platform belonging to Russia's Lukoil company on the evening of the 19th.

According to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as of the week ending December 9, crude oil speculators reduced their net short positions in WTI crude oil by 38,888 contracts to 12,038 contracts.

According to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in the week ending December 9, COMEX gold speculators increased their net long positions by 4,829 contracts to 124,637 contracts. COMEX silver speculators increased their net long positions by 6,724 contracts to 27,978 contracts.

December 20th - Mixue Ice Cream announced the official opening of its first US store, located at 6922 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.

On December 20th, at the Moore Threads 2025 MUSA Developer Conference, in addition to the new "Huagang" architecture and the Huashan chip, Moore Threads also unveiled its Lushan graphics chip. Lushan is a high-performance graphics rendering chip built on the Huagang architecture, promising a 15x improvement in AAA game rendering, a 50x improvement in ray tracing performance, an 8x improvement in atomic memory access performance, and a 4x improvement in video memory capacity. AI rendering performance is improved by 64x, geometry processing performance by 16x, and texture fill performance by 4x. Besides supporting gaming, it also supports rendering for all CAD, CAE, and other graphic design applications.

According to Business Insider, Google has warned some visa holders against leaving the United States, as their return home could face “significant” delays of up to a year.

On December 20th, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission answered reporters' questions regarding the "Rules on Pricing Behavior of Internet Platforms," outlining the next steps for ensuring its implementation: First, conduct policy dissemination. Focusing on regulating price competition in the platform economy and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and platform operators, conduct in-depth policy dissemination to remind operators to operate legally and compliantly. Second, promote industry self-regulation. Give full play to the role of industry associations and chambers of commerce, encouraging relevant operators to take the lead in complying with regulatory requirements and consciously regulate their pricing behavior. Third, strengthen monitoring and evaluation. Closely monitor price competition in the platform economy, track and evaluate the implementation of the "Rules on Pricing Behavior," and promptly identify any problems. Fourth, strengthen regulatory enforcement. Implement the regulatory measures proposed in the "Rules on Pricing Behavior," investigate and punish price violations according to law, and maintain a fair and competitive market environment.

On December 20th, the "Rules on Pricing Behavior of Internet Platforms" were issued. The rules stipulate that platform operators and operators within the platform shall indicate the promotional price or price promotion rules in a manner that is easy for consumers to understand, and comply with the following provisions: (1) Publicly display the promotional rules, activity period, scope of application, etc. in a prominent position on the page; (2) Accurately indicate the discount or price reduction basis; (3) If the price is offset by points, gift certificates, vouchers, coupons, prepayments, etc., the specific calculation method shall be clearly indicated.

On December 20th, the "Rules on Price Behavior of Internet Platforms" were issued. The rules stipulate that platform operators and operators within the platform shall not violate Article 14, Paragraph 3 of the "Price Law of the People's Republic of China" by using the following means to fabricate and disseminate information about price increases, drive up prices, and promote excessive price increases of commodities: (1) fabricating and disseminating information about supply shortages or a surge in market demand; (2) fabricating and disseminating information about other operators having already raised or preparing to raise prices; (3) disseminating information containing deceptive or misleading language to inflate price expectations; (4) failing to sell commodities to external parties in a timely manner without justifiable reasons, exceeding the normal storage quantity or storage period, hoarding large quantities of commodities with tight market supply or abnormal price fluctuations, and continuing to hoard after being warned; (5) forcing customers to purchase additional goods, thereby indirectly and significantly increasing commodity prices; (6) using other means to drive up prices and promote excessively rapid and excessive price increases of commodities.

Conflict Status: 1. Ukraine – ① Ukraine reportedly attacked the Lukoil oil field in the Caspian Sea overnight. ② Ukraine launched its first attack on a Russian "shadow fleet" oil tanker in the Mediterranean. 2. Russia – ① Putin: The Ukrainian attack on the tanker will not harm oil supplies. ② Putin: Russian troops have entered the town of Khuryabrsky in Ukraine. Peace Talks Status: 1. US – ① US Secretary of State Rubio: (Regarding the resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict) We have made progress, but there is still a way to go. 2. Ukraine – ① Ukrainian officials stated that negotiations with the US and Europe have concluded, and a "consensus" has been reached on further measures. 3. Russia – ① Putin: Ukrainians living in Russia should have the right to vote. ② Putin is willing to discuss ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but he ruled out modifications proposed by Kyiv and the European side to the peace plan jointly developed by the US and Russia. ③ Putin: If we receive security guarantees, we are ready to immediately stop the conflict in Ukraine. Other Status: 1. The EU approved a €90 billion interest-free loan for Ukraine in 2026-27. 2. Zakharova: The EU is still trying to find a "pseudo-legal" pretext for confiscating Russian assets. 3. Putin: Confiscating Russian assets in Europe is "robbery." 4. Zelensky: Ukraine will be in a very difficult situation without EU funding. 5. Putin said that if Kaliningrad Oblast is blocked, a major conflict could break out. 6. Turkey says a suspected Russian-made drone crashed in Kocaeli province in western Turkey.

Microsoft: The issue that caused message delays for some users in Teams has been resolved.

On December 20th, White House economic advisor Hassett stated in an interview with Fox Business Network that President Trump is correct in saying inflation is low, despite data, public opinion, and most economists disagreeing. Hassett said the common practice of assessing inflation based on year-over-year figures is flawed; it's better to look at the three-month moving average of price pressures. This means that price pressures are not significantly above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, but are actually below it. Hassett explained that based on the three-month average price pressures, the current inflation rate is approximately 1.6%. Core inflation in the US is "at or below target," giving the Federal Reserve "ample room" to cut interest rates.

US President Trump: We are launching a very strong offensive against the Islamic State in Syria, and the Syrian government fully supports us.

Russian sources say that Russian Presidential Envoy Dmitriev will travel to Miami to meet with US Envoys Witkov and Kushner, and that Ukraine has no plans to participate in the trilateral contact.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 183.04 points, or 0.38%, to close at 48,134.89 on Friday, December 19; the S&P 500 rose 59.82 points, or 0.88%, to close at 6,834.58; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 301.26 points, or 1.31%, to close at 23,307.62.

Starlink: Starlink internet service will soon be available across the entire Air France fleet.