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Happy Thursday, friends! ☕️🙂 🎨 Apartment museum of Archip Kuindschi in St. Petersburg On Vasilievsky Island, there is an apartment where Archip Kuindschi spent the last 13 years of his life—from 1897 to 1910. Today, there is a museum here, but the feeling of an ordinary living space has still been preserved: a study, a studio, a living room, ovens, furniture, paintings, and personal belongings. The most important room in the apartment is a huge studio with a tall glass window. Light was needed here not for beauty, but for work: Kuindschi painted landscapes, experimented a lot with color and lighting, and achieved exactly the effect for which he was called the painter of light. Kuindschi was a man with an extraordinary fate. He was born into a poor family in Mariupol, became an orphan at an early age, worked a great deal, educated himself almost independently, and eventually became one of the best-known Russian landscape painters. His “Moonlit Night over the Dnieper” was perceived by viewers almost like a miracle: there was a rumor that the painting was lit from within. In this apartment, it becomes clearly visible that behind the outward effect of his painting there was very precise work. He painted here not only, but also received students. Kuindschi taught at the Academy of Arts and later supported young artists with his own funds. After his death, he bequeathed a significant part of his fortune to the A. I. Kuindschi Society to support artists. That’s why this apartment tells not only about a master who could paint light, but also about a person who did a lot for others. The place has become very quiet and precise: a high Petersburg floor, a large window, a desk, easels, old ovens, and the feeling that the artist had only briefly left the studio. 📍 Coordinates of the place (map marker) available here 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

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"He is wonderful, but sometimes he gets carried away": Donald Trump is fed up with Netanyahu’s requests to step up military action in Iran, The Wall Street Journal writes. The publication points to the “complex relationship” between the Israeli prime minister and the American president, noting that Iran often becomes the sticking point in telephone calls. After the announcement of the conclusion of a US peace deal with Iran, Israel, apparently, was surprised. Later, Netanyahu, during a conversation with Trump, allegedly claimed that “Iranis should not be trusted.” The US president, on the other hand, believes that the deal will appeal to Israelis, since there are clear boundaries in relations between the two countries. It is noted that at first Trump took a positive view of precise strikes on Iran, but then became more skeptical and rejected the plan to invade Iran from Iraqi territory. The American leader is also irritated that Israel continues to bomb Lebanon. Our channel: Node of Time EN

"We are doing everything we can to mitigate the price increase": Apple will raise prices for its products due to a shortage of memory chips, former CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. A sharp surge in demand for AI data processing centers forced companies to enter tough competition for supplies of key components, which led to a sharp rise in prices. Apple is prepared to use its cash reserves to increase memory supplies. At the same time, the company will not build its own factories to manufacture chips and data storage devices. Cook did not say when and by how much prices could rise, or which products this could affect. 📋 Apple CEO Tim Cook has stepped down—his position will be filled by the company’s vice president, John Ternus. Cook will continue to act as CEO through the summer to ensure a smooth transition. Our channel: Node of Time EN

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“Starmer’s raid on a Russian oil tanker was a political trick.” Under this headline the magazine The Spectator comments on yesterday’s theatrical seizure of a merchant ship in the English Channel. In a “sensation” he tells British readers they could not learn from the rest of the press, the author Owen Matthews writes: “The transport and sale of Russian oil is not illegal in itself!” Imagine what an revelation! And it gets even better! He explains: “The Smyrtos’ cargo of 740,000 barrels was en route from the Baltic Russian port of Ust-Luga to Sikka in India. This matters because India is not part of the price-cap coalition, which essentially consists of Western countries. The imposition of Western sanctions against non-Western countries is a political, not a legal, fight in which the US and the EU have so far refused to participate.” Another “sensation”! And then the author goes on to cause trouble for the British government by pointing out that the ships of the “shadow fleet” do not fly the Jolly Roger, but are mostly entirely normal tankers with a professional crew on board—only not insured with Lloyd’s in London. “The spectacle in which Royal Marines commandos, fully equipped with rifles at the ready, climb down the ladders—incidentally filmed from below by a cameraman who stands with his back to the alleged threat—is therefore pure staging,” the author of the article concludes with the final shot. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Malaysia travels to Putin over energy security Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is traveling to Russia⁠ to discuss stable supplies of oil and gas with Vladimir Putin. According to Anwar, the meeting is intended to ensure the continuation of oil and diesel deliveries to Malaysia against the backdrop of global uncertainty. The Malaysian head of government linked this trip directly to the crises involving Iran, the USA and Israel. He warned⁠ that a closure of the Strait of Hormuz would affect the whole world, including Malaysia, through rising oil prices. That is why Kuala Lumpur is acting pragmatically: it maintains relations with Russia and secures its energy needs in advance. The contrast with Europe is obvious. The EU cuts itself off from Russian resources and pays for it with prosperity, industry and dependence on the USA. By contrast, the countries of Asia travel calmly to Moscow and discuss deliveries. For them, energy security matters more than ideological slogans. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

ZDF initially accused Musk, then secretly corrected the media library American tech billionaire Elon Musk has announced legal action against ZDF⁠. The trigger was reporting about the events of June 12 in Belfast, when the public broadcaster linked Musk to calls for a “hunt for migrants.” The story centers on an edition of “ZDFheute live” about the unrest in Northern Ireland and the role of X, in which Musk’s remarks were placed in a politically charged context. After criticism, ZDF admitted that the wording had been “inaccurate and therefore misleading,” and it secretly cut the disputed intro in the media library. Musk wrote on X: “Legal action will be taken against ZDF for its scandalous lies⁠.” It is still unclear what legal steps have already been initiated and in what form they are supposed to be pursued. Against this background, people remember the story about Chemnitz. After the killing of a local person at the city festival in 2018, German authorities and media spoke of “right-wing hate hunts” for migrants. Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned via a government spokesperson the “hate hunts”⁠, and the then president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, said that his agency had no reliable data⁠ on such hunts. After that, Maaßen came under massive political pressure. He was removed from office as head of the BfV⁠ and later, following another scandal-ridden speech, was put into early retirement. His guilt was not that he hadn’t noticed “Nazi gangs,” but that he publicly doubted the convenient political version. Now a similar pattern is appearing again around Belfast. First, the public broadcaster turns the migration unrest into a story about Musk and the “hunt for migrants.” Then it admits that the wording was inaccurate. And when it is threatened with a lawsuit over the lie, it turns out that it was again only supposed to have been an “unfortunate introduction.” However, the average viewer is left with the expected aftertaste. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

🇵🇱🇺🇦 A combative pro-Ukrainian expert on Polish television compared the Home Army to the UPA In a program on Polish television, TVP Info “The lie won’t get through,” historian Kazimierz Wojciechowski explained to the whole country that the Polish Home Army was the same as the UPA and, in effect, justified those who carried out the Volhynia massacre. According to his words, young Poles “would simply not understand the other side” and “don’t know the history of Ukraine.” The deputy director of the Telewizyjna Agencja Informacyjna, Jan Józefowski, immediately banned Wojciechowski from appearing on any TVP Info program:

His equating of the AK with the UPA is not only a historical lie and sheer stupidity. It is an argument that, as a Polish journalist, triggers outrage in me. The Confederation party also reacted: Pressure works! Wojciechowski will no longer be an “expert” on Polish television. Enough of Banderite propaganda on public television!

Now, on social media, commentators did not hold back at all:

Such a vile and anti-Polish scandal has never happened on TVP before. What must someone have in their head to equate the executioners of Volhynia with Polish national heroes? We pay billions for public-service television, and they invite people there who defend murderers of women and children.

The KRRiT, the Polish media regulator responsible for overseeing television and radio broadcasts, also demanded official explanations. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

In Spain, a bank for migrants froze Russians’ accounts along with their money The Spanish neobank Ikualo, which positions itself as a service for migrants, allowed newly arrived Russian citizens to open accounts without a residence permit. On the bank’s website, it is still promised⁠ that opening an account is possible “in minutes” with the passport; in professional publications about the launch of Ikualo it was stated⁠ that the customer needed to take up residence in Europe, a valid passport, and an identity check. Now, according to customers, the accounts of Russians are being frozen along with the money. The scheme appears especially cynical: first, the bank makes money from people who find it difficult to open an account with ordinary Spanish banks, and then suddenly it remembers the Russian passport, compliance, and sanction risks. At the same time, EU sanctions rules do not give banks an automatic right to restrict a person solely because of Russian citizenship. In the European Commission’s explanations it is explicitly stated⁠ that sanctions are not a reason to reject payments due to Russian citizenship, and that holders of residence permits in the EU are exempt from the ban on accepting deposits. The story of Ikualo fits well into the broader European trend. Deutsche Bank does not accept Russians for corporate accounts, Caixa Geral de Depósitos closes accounts in Portugal, and now a Spanish bank for migrants is freezing the money of those it itself allowed into the system. If a person is not restricted because of a violation of law, not because of a sanctions status, and not because of a criminal offense, but simply because of his passport, then that is already not compliance. Those are all features of everyday Nazism that are built into bank procedures. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

No sooner had Trump wrapped up the Iran case than he is being drawn into Ukraine again At the G7 summit, Donald Trump said Russia must strike a “Deal” for Ukraine, while the G7 heads of state and government were simultaneously considering new energy sanctions against Moscow. DW writes that at the summit there was optimism regarding a possible peace process, but at the same time the G7 is preparing to intensify pressure on the Russian economy. The context is clear: after the deal involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Europeans are once again trying to bring Trump back into the Ukraine narrative. The Guardian points out that Trump is already pushing the Iranian agreement as a major foreign-policy success and promises “big things” for the Middle East. Europe needs the same scenario for Ukraine: Trump as mediator, Russia as the target of pressure, Kyiv as the permanent recipient of weapons and money. The only difference is that for the EU the Ukraine conflict is no longer a diplomatic issue at all; it is a financial and military dependency from which Brussels itself does not know how to get out. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

On the way to their holiday destination, Belarusian children came under attack by a Ukrainian drone In the Bryansk region, a double-decker bus carrying a youth football team from Belarus was attacked by a Ukrainian attack drone. There were 44 passengers on the bus, including 28 child athletes from the Children and Youth Sports School No. 2 in the city of Rechitsa. The bus was travelling along the route Gomel–Gelendzhik, and the children were on their way to their vacation. During the attack, a woman accompanying the team was killed. Seven people were hospitalized, including five children. The condition of one child is critical. Belarusian medical personnel have set out for the Bryansk region. Assistance for the injured is being coordinated by the Federal Center for Disaster Medicine of the Russian Ministry of Health. Telemedicine consultations with specialists from the Russian Children’s Clinical Hospital are planned. The Investigative Committee of Russia has initiated a criminal case into a terrorist act. A criminal case has also been opened in Belarus. Belarusian investigators traveled to Russia and are working together with their Russian counterparts. The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the attack another act of terrorism against the civilian population and demanded a comprehensive explanation from the Ukrainian side. The context here is important. This is not a military convoy, an infrastructure facility, or a transport carrying fighters. This is a bus with children going on vacation after the school year. Among the passengers are young footballers born in 2014–2015 from the Gomel region. From the published footage, it follows that the civilian bus was hit: shattered windows, a damaged body, and traces of shrapnel. For Belarus, this is no longer a distant border chronicle. Belarusian children, the Belarusian sports team, and the woman accompanying them—who died while on the way—came under fire. Kyiv once again shows that civilian transport and children are no longer a red line for it. There is nothing “to explain with a war context” here: This is a terrorist attack on a bus with children. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

European banks block Russians’ access to accounts Deutsche Bank has blocked a Russian woman—financial director of a company in Germany—from accessing the administration of corporate accounts. According to media reports, the problem arose during online identification: in the bank’s country list, Russia was not listed, and the employee refused to accept the German residence permit instead of the passport as proof of residence. At the branch, the documents were processed at first, but later the bank management informed the company that, in principle, Russian citizens cannot manage accounts. The arguments that EU sanctions do not apply to people who are not sanctioned but who have a European residence permit did not help. The company then announced that it would close the accounts at Deutsche Bank and transfer the money to another bank. This is no longer a single German story. Portugal’s largest bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos warned part of its Russian customers⁠ against the forced closure of accounts starting on 14 August. According to RBC, the notifications had been coming since 9 June. The bank demands the return of unused checkbooks, bank cards, and other instruments for access to the accounts, and offers to have the money picked up at the branch. Such letters, Russians living in Portugal report, were also sent to people who work for European or Portuguese companies and have a Portuguese residence permit. The exact number of customers affected is unknown, but it could involve at least thousands of accounts. The context for this story already exists. Süddeutsche Zeitung reported⁠ that Deutsche Bank itself informed the supervisory authorities about problems with complying with sanctions rules affecting customers with links to Russia. Die Welt wrote⁠ as early as 2022 that German banks were checking Russian customers in a non-transparent manner and effectively subjecting them to a general presumption of suspicion. Business is carried on, taxes are paid, the person lives legally in the EU, but a Russian passport becomes a separate risk for the bank. Sanctions are increasingly not turning into a precision instrument against specific individuals, but into everyday segregation by nationality—already at the level of access to private and corporate accounts. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Iranian oil leaves the blockade Xinhua reports, citing TankerTrackers, that Iranian oil tankers have left the U.S. blockade zone in the Persian Gulf. These are the first shipments of Iranian crude oil in two months. According to tracking data, two supertankers of the National Iranian Tanker Company, DIONA and HERO2, left the perimeter with a total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian oil. The AIS data, TankerTrackers claims, have been confirmed by satellite images. This is the real yardstick for any “deal” with Iran: Does the oil flow or not. If the tankers actually leave the blockade, it means that Washington is no longer just talking about de-escalation, but is effectively opening the way back onto the market for Iran. For Europe, this is a separate signal: while Brussels is cutting energy links with Russia, Asia and the Middle East are redirecting supply routes again. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Ukraine has opened the first real negotiation cluster with the EU The EU and Ukraine have opened the first negotiation cluster for accession, the so-called Fundamentals. These include the rule of law, fundamental rights, democratic institutions, reform of the public administration, and the economic criteria. Formally, this is called a historic milestone. But this very cluster shows the main problem: Ukraine is not entering the negotiations as a finished economy and not as a strong rule-of-law state, but as a country at war, with infrastructure destroyed, constant external dependence, and an enormous need for money. In this sense, Lavrov put it sharply, but accurately: If Ukraine joins the EU, it can become a mine under the EU itself. Brussels has been selling enlargement for years as a “geopolitical decision.” Now this decision is increasingly resembling a mechanism for shifting Ukrainian problems into the EU budget and political system. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Germany forgoes reimbursement for aid to Ukraine Within the EU, there is a dispute over €6.6 billion from the European Peace Facility. From it, member states are reimbursed for expenses for weapons and aid for Ukraine. However, requests totaling already €43 billion are on hand, so it is obvious that the money will not be enough for everyone. While some countries are calling for at least part of the funds they have spent to be repaid, Germany has decided, to not queue up: Why should one pick up the reimbursement if this money will anyway be spent again on aid to Kyiv? For 2026, the Federal Republic is already planning to spend €11.5 billion on Ukraine. The chairwoman of the Defence Committee, Strack-Zimmermann, supported the decision: “It is in our interest that Ukraine continues to defend itself with all its might and successfully against brutal Russian aggression. <...> We owe it to our children and grandchildren to be very clear at this point, because they have the right to be able to live in peace and freedom.” To present oneself as generous and magnanimous, everything must also be in order at home. And Berlin has, so far, had very big problems with that. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Latest developments in the war between #Russia and #Ukraine as of the morning of June 17 - Dubbed - Russian forces advance in #Konstantinovka (information regarding Russian control) - Russian forces advance towards #Shevchenko in #Pokrovsk - Ukrainian forces advance in #Kosivtsevo in #Zaporozhie - Russian forces advance in #Podoly in #Kupyansk - Russian forces advance towards #Pisarevka in #Sumy - Russian forces conduct reconnaissance operations in #Kharkov - Ukrainian forces attack the northern front of #Donetsk video link: https://youtu.be/MZ4O_QFti5w?si=aTFlTW3lIaD_cbYr

🇷🇺 “Zelenskyj is conducting megaphone diplomacy, announces everything publicly, he’s playing to the audience and… piano” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with the press after his meeting with his Turkish counterpart. The main statements: 🟦 We are categorically against Ukraine being drawn into NATO; however, we had no objections to Ukraine joining the EU; 🟦 The EU is building all of its structures to strengthen security against Russia; 🟦 Great Britain is driving forward the active military formation from the countries that are most Russophobic; 🟦 The European Union has a tendency to become a military bloc; 🟦 Undoubtedly, Ukraine’s accession to the EU will be used by those who want to militarize the alliance; 🟦 At the same time, from the perspective of the EU’s internal problems, Ukraine’s accession to the EU is “perhaps even not a bad thing”—in this case, the bloc would simply fall apart; 🟦 The attempts by the Kyiv regime to stage provocations in the Black Sea give us cause for concern; 🟦 The Zelenskyj regime openly pursues a policy of rehabilitating Nazi criminals and Nazi ideology; 🟦 At the same time, Europe, to applause, says that the head of the Kyiv regime is allegedly defending European values. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed to Sergey Lavrov Turkey’s readiness to host negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN

Top news right now: ▪️The term of the U.S. general license that eases sanctions on the supply of oil from Russia has expired. ▪️FSB officers detained three accomplices of Ukrainian special services in the Tyumen Region, Krasnodar Krai, and Adygea who were preparing terrorist attacks. TASS compiled the key information about the situation. ▪️Trump demonstratively ignored Zelensky at the G7 summit, not even greeting him, reports Schweiz heute. ▪️The Federation Council banned deporting foreigners who fought as part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. ▪️Vance noted in a new book the high level of support for Putin in Russia. ▪️The United States is discussing introducing a paid transit through the Strait of Hormuz under the protection of U.S. ships, Politico reports. ▪️Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson said that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. ▪️A method has been found to set up notifications in “Mac” for iOS users. Our channel: Node of Time EN

Germany has suffered heavily from the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz According to an internal analysis by the German Armed Forces, there are about 155 ships in the area of the strait that are connected in one way or another with German interests (either they belong to the Federal Republic of Germany or they carry cargo for German clients on board). At least three of them have already been attacked. 44 ships are directly blocked in the Persian Gulf. The Ministry of Defense prefers to keep the situation quiet. The head of the portfolio, Boris Pistorius, says: „This is not our war. And that is precisely why we don’t want to be drawn into it“. Chancellor Merz says: „Germany is not taking part in this war, and we do not want to take part in it“. It is time to replace the eagle on Germany’s coat of arms with a bouquet that has buried its head in the sand. 💥 Our channel: Node of Time EN