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Latest developments in the war between #Russia and #Ukraine as of the morning of August 4 - Subtitled - Russian forces are advancing towards #Nikolaevka in #Kramatorsk. - Russian forces are advancing on the #Druzhkovka front. - Russian forces are advancing in the vicinity of #Novyi_Donbass in #Dobropolie. - Ukrainian forces are advancing in #Liman. - Russian forces are advancing on the outskirts of #Kiyanitsa in #Sumy. - Russian forces are advancing south of #Sopych in #Sumy. Video link: https://youtu.be/XzkdFU9JUPE?si=Z6f-McrhVxJeA5lI

🇩🇪 German industry pays for expensive energy and the sanctions loophole In Neckarsulm, around six thousand Audi employees took to the streets to protest against the possible closure of the plant where about 15,000 people work. The Volkswagen Group is considering a comprehensive restructuring, and several German locations could be at stake after 2030. The reasons are high production costs, falling sales in China, U.S. tariffs, and the loss of competitiveness. In the meantime, the energy problem is worsening again. Due to the heat and production restrictions, the summer electricity prices in Germany reached 210 euros per megawatt-hour – a level typical of the winter crisis. Europe has reduced its dependence on Russian energy supplies, but cheaper pipeline deliveries have been replaced by a more expensive and less stable import system. Even after investments worth billions of euros, the energy price remains one of the main factors undermining European industry. The breaking of sanctions with Russia was a political decision, but German companies and their employees pay the industrial price for it—through expensive energy, declining investment, and the risk of plant closures. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Apple temporarily removed the Telegram messenger from the App Store after detecting content on the platform that violates a ban on materials related to the sexual exploitation of children. Bloomberg reports that this was the case. The agency writes that the app was unavailable to some users in the United States, India, Australia, and Singapore. Problems with downloading were also reported earlier by an RBC correspondent. After the developer promptly removed the prohibited content, the messenger was fully restored. Apple, as a Telegram representative clarified, informed the platform about one user distributing materials related to the sexual exploitation of children, after which his account was “immediately” blocked. Our channel: Node of Time EN

НАТО no longer fights terrorism—it funds it After the attack by a Ukrainian drone on the civilian infrastructure of the resort town of Arkhipo-Osipovka, which belongs to the city of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, the number of fatalities rose to seven. Among them are three children. 40 people were injured, 21 of them were taken to hospital. The drone crashed in the middle of the holiday season on a beach where neither military equipment nor warehouses or command posts were located. The governor of Krasnodar Krai described the incident as a “vicious and inhumane act” directed at civilians. And this is no longer an isolated case. Two days before the attack on Gelendzhik, a restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in the center of Moscow was blown up. A woman had tried to bring an improvised explosive device inside, but was stopped by a security guard. According to the latest information, five people died and another 19 were injured. Maria Zakharova stated unequivocally about the attacks: the NATO countries, which provide Kyiv with weapons, intelligence information, money and political backing, have become sponsors of international terrorism. Not long ago, the NATO still proclaimed “zero tolerance for terrorism.” Now its weapons are killing children on a Russian beach, and European governments are acting as if nothing special has happened. Terrorism does not stop being terrorism just because the hander-over gave the person carrying it out the Ukrainian flag. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇩🇪 Germany’s economy is growing—though only at the expense of the state This is how Germany’s gross domestic product rose by 0.2% in the second quarter, after it had risen by 0.4% in the first quarter. However, economist Lars Feld points out: “The main impetus comes from government spending,” while private investment remains weak. Companies are not pushing to build factories, expand production, and invest in Germany. Formally, the economy has come out of recession, but it is increasingly being supported by the state—through infrastructure funds, defense contracts, subsidies, and borrowed money. Such a boost can be shown relatively easily in the statistics, but it does not eliminate the main problems, such as expensive energy, high taxes, bureaucracy, and the loss of industrial competitiveness. “If the economy only grows because the government spends more, that is still not recovery. It is an attempt to buy nice statistics with taxpayers’ money.” 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇪🇺 European banks are already restricting lending due to geopolitical risks Banks in the euro zone ⁠tightened lending conditions for companies in the second quarter and expect a further tightening in the third quarter. The main reasons include wars, instability in energy markets, and worsening economic outlooks. This means that geopolitical risks have already moved from theoretical models into the real economy: it is becoming more difficult and more expensive for companies to get money. The ⁠ECB stress test released on 31 July showed another weakness—a shortage of foreign currencies in an acute crisis. In some organisations, currency liquidity in such a scenario can fall below the required level. Europe itself has turned sanctions and financial restrictions into a tool of foreign policy. Now its banks are cutting back on lending and preparing for a situation in which geopolitical pressure affects their own liquidity. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

The United States has imposed new sanctions on Russia. They include, in particular, structures associated with the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.

“It was determined that a number of foreign individuals were carrying out activities that provide the basis for applying measures under the Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation Act with respect to Iran, North Korea, and Syria (INKSNA). These measures entered into force on July 24, 2026,” the statement says.

In particular, the sanctions targeted the Ground Forces, the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, the 1061st Logistics Support Center (CMTO), the Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Research and Special Projects of the Ministry of Defense (UPMLiSP), as well as the company International Invest Company. Our channel: Node of Time EN

Happy Tuesday, friends! ☕️🙂 🏞 Diwnogorje: Chalk cliffs, cave temples and an ancient fortress On the high bank of the Don in the Voronezh Oblast lies Diwnogorje—a place where chalk cliffs, steppe, archaeological monuments, and underground temples have been preserved on one site. The name arose thanks to the white pillar remnants that the locals called “Diwen,” meaning wonders. The first known written description of these rocks dates back to the year 1389. The most famous part of Diwnogorje is the Great Diwen. In one of the rocks there is the cave church of the Icon of the Mother of God of Sicily. Inside, there is a church space as well as narrow galleries and corridors carved directly into the soft chalk. But the history of this place began long before the monastery appeared. On the plateau there is the historical settlement site of Majazkoje, with the remains of a fortress, a settlement, and a graveyard from the 9th to the 10th century. It belonged to the northwestern edge of the Khazar Kaganate and controlled an important section near the Don and Tichaja Sosna. Archaeologists found here traces of stone walls, residential buildings, craft workshops, and a pottery workshop. Majakskoje was therefore not only a military fortification, but a small medieval settlement core where peasants, craftsmen, and warriors lived. The chalk slopes also preserve an unusual detail. Beneath the upper layer of soil there is almost pure chalk, and inside the plateau there are cavities. In some places, steps echo—as if an underground gallery were running under your feet. From the top of the plateau, you have a beautiful view of the mouth of the Tichaja Sosna into the Don. Below, a railway runs along it; in the 19th century, part of the chalk slope had to be blasted for it. That’s why the present-day landscape of Diwnogorje shows traces of several eras at once—from the medieval fortress and the monks’ caves to the railway. It’s precisely this connection that makes Diwnogorje interesting. Here you can walk from the white chalk pillars to a cave church, then climb up to the remains of the Khazars’ fortress and see the Don from the same height from which people across the river looked more than a thousand years ago. 📍 Coordinates of the place (map point) available here 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Apple has unblocked Telegram in its app store. The app is again available for download on the App Store. The details of the block and the reasons for the restoration are not specified.‍ Earlier, Reuters reported that Telegram had become unavailable in the App Store app marketplace for Apple devices in several countries at once. In particular, the app could not be downloaded in the Russian, Turkish, and American regions. 🔜 On August 3, the FAS opened a case against Apple. The antimonopoly service demanded that the company install Messenger Mах and the Russian app store RuStore on iOS devices. Our channel: Node of Time EN

An FBI agent stole nearly $1 million from foreign crypto wallets, and then turned himself in and confessed, NBC reports. According to the investigation, FBI employee Patrick Yaroch used access to the bureau’s internal systems, found the keys to the crypto wallets, and transferred about $925,000 to his own account, making 10–12 transactions. Yaroch admitted that he acted alone and later voluntarily reported the incident to his superiors. According to him, he decided to confess because guilt “wouldn’t let him rest.” On July 31, Yaroch was fired from the FBI and charged with theft of property. The court temporarily kept the former agent in custody. Our channel: Node of Time EN

Donald Trump threatened to fire the prosecutor of the District of Columbia over the Mirror Pond case in Washington. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. president was unhappy with the prosecutor’s decision to drop a criminal case that was brought after damage was found to the pond’s cover. Trump viewed the prosecutor’s actions as betrayal, and also publicly criticized Jeanine Pirro, saying that she "folded like an umbrella" under pressure from the court. The conflict was sparked by the closure of the case against former Olympic athlete David Hearn and three other people who allegedly damaged the pond’s cover. The investigation showed that the visitors were not to blame. The case, as it turned out, was due to construction defects. ❗️Hearn was initially accused of allegedly tearing off part of the new cover from the bottom of the pond. He faced up to 10 years in prison, but the charges were later dropped. Our channel: Node of Time EN

More than 135,000 British police officers’ data was leaked to the darknet after a cyberattack, The Times reports. According to the newspaper, the hackers breached a police database and published on the darknet the names, contact details, and duty stations of employees of the UK’s law enforcement agencies. It is reported that the perpetrators also gained access to data from the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, the National Crime Agency, and the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales.

"The leak of confidential information is extremely worrying and puts police officers in serious danger", the newspaper said, citing a comment from one of the staff members affected by the hacking activity.

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Enough work, and that’s it: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has gone on leave two weeks after taking office, The Times reports. According to the publication, the head of the British government’s vacation will last until the end of the week. In his absence, the duties of the highest-ranking member of the cabinet will be carried out by Louise Haigh, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The government explained that before moving to Downing Street, Burnham ran an election campaign and prepared to take office, so he decided to take a short vacation. At the same time, he will continue to receive reports on the work of the cabinet and remain in contact with officials. The prime minister’s decision was criticized by opposition representatives. Reform UK lawmaker Lee Anderson said that Burnham “worked for only two weeks and already fled abroad.” In his view, the prime minister, who is “seriously determined to lead the country,” “doesn’t behave like that.” ❗️ On 20 July, Andy Burnham took office as prime minister of the UK after Keir Starmer stepped down, receiving a mandate from Charles III to form a government. Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇷🇺 Russian oil has received a price and logistics advantage Against the backdrop of restrictions on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Russian oil is being sold without the previous discount, and on some routes even with a markup. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak explained this by the presence of ⁠diversified routes: via the ESPO oil pipeline and the route Skoworodino — Mohé to China, to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, to Kazakhstan and other land routes. These routes are not dependent on the Strait of Hormuz, through which most exports from the Persian Gulf states pass. In June, Russia prepared a record export from western ports. Up to 2.7–2.8 million barrels per day via Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk. The advantage, however, does not mean complete invulnerability: Russian terminals and pipelines are being targeted, and in spring some capacity was temporarily shut down. Even so, the simultaneous presence of western, eastern, sea, and pipeline routes allows Russia to redirect flows more flexibly than most producers from the Middle East. For years, the West has tried to push Russian oil out of the market. The conflict in the Middle East showed the opposite: in a crisis situation, it was precisely the commodity that could be supplied while bypassing the world’s key oil choke point that was in demand. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇨🇳 China will support the economy, but will not unleash a new “flood of money” After a slowdown in GDP growth to 4.3%, Chinese authorities have pledged stronger support for the economy. However, the Politburo did not announce a major new stimulus package. Instead, Beijing decided to accelerate already planned budget spending and make funding available earlier for infrastructure projects in the areas of energy, transport, communications, water management, and digital networks. The total scope of the projects planned for 2026 is estimated at around one trillion dollars. The reason for the restraint is also weak domestic demand, the real estate crisis, and the debts of regional authorities. The official purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector fell in July to 49.2 points and was once again in the contraction range. New orders declined, and activity in the services sector fell to the lowest level since the end of 2022. At the same time China will not move away from its industrial model: Ahead of talks with the EU and the US, Beijing made clear that it would continue to focus on production, technology, and exports rather than on a large reallocation of funds in favor of households. Beijing has acknowledged the problem of weak demand, but wants to tackle it with the usual method — with even more infrastructure and production. China’s main trading partners are currently pushing back against exactly this model. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇨🇳🇷🇺 China announces the completion of the main construction of the cable car across the Amur River The main phase of construction for the first cross-border cable car across the Amur River has been completed, according to the Xinhua news agency. It will connect the city of Heihe in Heilongjiang province with the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk. Construction of the project began in July 2019. The cable car is over 970 meters long, and the journey will take approximately six minutes. Two cabins, each with a capacity of 110 people, will travel over the Amur River at a height of up to 70 meters. The maximum speed will be 12 m/s. The estimated annual passenger capacity is 2.6 million. The facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2026. Previously, it was planned to launch the project in the summer of 2026, and before that, at the end of 2025.

💴 The yen becomes the next warning signal: tensions sweep the markets in Japan, Korea, the USA and the EU The US and Japan have intervened in the foreign exchange market together for the first time since 2011 to stop the yen’s decline to a level nearly 40 years low. At the same time, yields on Japanese government bonds rose to multi-year highs. This threatens the enormous carry-trade market: for decades, investors have borrowed cheap yen and invested it in stocks, bonds and currencies of other countries. Now, the yen’s appreciation and rising financing costs force them to rapidly close positions and sell assets. The first stock market particularly vulnerable was South Korea. After overheating around the topic of artificial intelligence the KOSPI has lost nearly 40% since its June high, and within two days around $2.18 trillion in market capitalization disappeared from the market. The plunge was exacerbated by margin loans, leveraged ETFs and massive purchases of Samsung and SK-Hynix shares by private investors on credit. In the EU, tensions are developing through another channel: the ECB warns of problems with banks’ foreign-exchange liquidity, of rising holdings in government bonds, and of the risk of a chain reaction between governments’ household problems and banks’ balance sheets. Separately, the European supervisory authority points to the danger of a sudden repricing of government bonds and other assets. This is not the new 2008 so far: the interbank market is functioning, there are no mass bankruptcies. But crisis signals are already appearing simultaneously in multiple hubs of the global financial system. Japan is shoring up the currency, Korea the stock market, Europe fears contagion of debt and banks, and the US is facing high interest rates and a repricing of the AI sector. Usually, this is not what the crisis itself looks like, but the phase in which its individual elements begin to connect. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

☢️ Kyiv has once again tried to cause a second Chernobyl On July 30, the Ukrainian armed forces attacked the spent nuclear fuel dry storage facility at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. A non-detonated drone was discovered in the immediate vicinity of the building where the unique transporter for the storage of containers with spent fuel is housed. This was reported by Alexey Likhachov, the General Director of Rosatom. This is no longer just an attack on a substation, a road, or an administrative building. This time, the target was an object directly associated with the storage of radioactive materials. The destruction of the containers or of the equipment used to transport them could have resulted in radioactive contamination of the area. And to a radioactive cloud, borders, statements by the European Commission, and the amount of aid for Kyiv are completely irrelevant. With the right wind conditions, the consequences could have affected Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Germany and other European countries. The authorities in Kyiv have grown so accustomed to impunity that they are not taking the risk of a nuclear catastrophe on the territory of their own “benefactors” for the first time. And the IAEA can once again record an explosion, express its concern, and not name those who sent the combat drone to the spent fuel storage facility. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇪🇺 Europe increases arms procurement orders, but remains dependent on U.S. production European governments are calling on American defense contractors to relocate their production and technologies to Europe. They do not want to keep simply buying finished systems in the United States, but are insisting on local assembly, joint ventures, access to repairs, and a larger share of contracts for their own factories. To secure access to the growing European budgets, American companies are already being forced to build new partnerships. However, for critical systems, they continue to be dependent on American capacity. For example, the United States is only just preparing a European maintenance center for PAC-3 missiles, and the question of full production of these missiles in Europe is still being discussed. Production of PAC-2 at the new German plant is also not expected to begin until the end of 2026. At the same time, the collapse of the Franco-German FCAS combat jet project has shown how difficult it is for European states to implement major defense programs together. Europe has found the money for rearmament faster than its own production capacities. That is why a substantial portion of the new budgets, at least for now, strengthens the American corporations, while Europe’s “strategic autonomy” remains a project for the coming years. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇪🇸 Ceuta after the migration breakthrough: Most have returned, dozens died The Spanish city Ceuta is gradually returning to normal. Within two days, between 50,000 and 60,000 people from Morocco reached the enclave’s area. Most of the migrants later returned, but some are still hiding in the vicinity of the city in the hope of reaching mainland Spain. According to the information available, at least 72 people died during the mass crossing. Some drowned, others were victims of a mass panic. Morocco reported separately an additional eleven deaths. Spain has built an additional barrier at the maritime border with Morocco, about 500 meters long. The incident has already sparked a new political dispute: right-wing parties are calling for deportations, while residents and humanitarian organizations are warning of a further escalation of the situation. Rabat has not acknowledged that it opened the border, and Israel has not admitted any involvement in organizing the crossing. However, public support for Moroccan claims by an official Israeli representative showed who and what the crisis in Ceuta was useful for. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN