Happy Thursday! Today’s will be the final TMD of the week, and as it turns out, of 2021! We hope you have an enjoyable and safe New Year’s Eve, and we’re so excited for all the ways The Dispatch—and this community—will continue to improve and grow in 2022. 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Another pro-democracy media outlet in Hong Kong, Stand News, is shutting down after national security police arrested seven people associated with the news site in a pre-dawn raid for “conspiracy to publish seditious content.”

• One day after Russia’s Supreme Court claimed Memorial International neglected to identify itself as a foreign agent and ordered the human rights organization to liquidate, a Moscow court ordered its sister organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center, to close as well.

• The National Security Council announced Wednesday President Joe Biden will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin today “at the request of the Russian side” to discuss upcoming diplomatic negotiations on Ukraine and NATO. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday and “reiterated the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s borders.”